UPDATED 12/09/24
Welcome to the newly launched Chat Shit. Get Banged podcast!
This time round it's just me, myself and eye and over the next few weeks I'll be interviewing some interesting people, some of who whom you will know, such as Patrick Vernon,who runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities, as founder of Every Generation and the "100 Great Black Britons" campaign and ran a successful campaign for 22 June to be recognized annually as Windrush Day, a national day acknowledging the migrant contribution to UK society.
And Charmaine Simpson of Black Histroy Studies, a passionate Personal Finance Coach and Financial Educator.who created 'Black Gold: A Financial Literacy Programme for Young People' which aims to help young people develop and improve their knowledge of Black History and gain financial skills at the same time using examples from our past and present. And some you won't!
In 2018 myself and Ava Vidal, my former co-host on NDA Podcast interviewed war correspondent Assed Baig. His stories have gained international coverage and millions of views worldwide. He has worked in Syria, Central African Republic, Myanmar, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Libya. Listen here.
Investigative journalist Mark Watts and coordinator of the The FOIA Centre which uses open-access laws, including the Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection. Listen here.
And ethnographer of Whitney Houston and former editor in chief of Media Diversified, Marcus Daniel. Listen here.
I also interviewed Author, journalist, broadcaster, Matt Potter. Matt’s first book tracked post-Soviet pilots running arms, drugs and worse from Afghanistan to Somalia. His second Book is an alternate history of the world as it has been shaped by entropy and the force of quitting, was published in 2015, entitled ‘F**k You & Goodbye. Listen here.
We also interviewed Marc Thompson, strategic lead health improvement at the Terrence Higgins Trust, co-founder of Team Prepster and co-editor of Black Out UK. Listen here.
I interviewed Actor Stephan James on Barry Jenkins' radical empathy, James Baldwin, black love stories and British slang! On the back of his then newly released film If Beale Street Could. Listen here.
And others
For the newly launched Chat Shit. Get Banged podcast it seems only fitting that I am in the hot seat! So today I am being interviewed by Chris Akers who's 286 Project hosted on YouTube talks about art, politics and culture and sport plus anything else he can think of.
We talk about my history as a journalist and mine and other campaigners work on Imprisonment for Public Protection, Parole Board, the punitive ratchet of sentencing and answer the question, “What is Prison For?”
“Unless there is resentencing, this crime against humanity will continue. More deaths, more suicides, more self harm, that is what the IPP sentence does. And that is now on the shoulders of Shabana Mahmood and James Timpson as the leaders of the Ministry of Justice.”
-Samantha Asumadu
Chris’ show is hosted on YouTube, unfortunately the video on my end looked very very bad and some of the audio was dodgy, so he was kind enough to pass along the audio to me.
This interview was conducted in early July.
The music you can hear in the background is Madlib, Movie Finale, as I was excited to hear that he and Talib Kweli released a new album today - Liberation 2 Instrumentals. All I've ever wanted from Talib is music. Thus I'm glad he’s taken at least time off being a social media jihadist and is making beautiful albums with other genius musicians. Long may it last.
The outro song is Be (Intro) by Common.
Hope you enjoy or at least get something out of it. Please free to post comments and I will endeavour to reply.
As always I hope you will listen to Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal. The series has finished and there's 16 excellent episodes which the team worked VERY hard on for two years.
Read The Guilty Men
Read all my substack posts on Imprisonment for Public Protection here.
For more info about the Campaigns for Justice for IPPs prisoners go to: UNGRIPP website or Twitter @UNGRIPP and IPP Committee In Action or Twitter @ActionIPP
You can follow Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal on Twitter , Instagram, Facebook or Tik Tok @Trapped_Pod for updates.
P.S I know there is going to be some non-black women and/or middle class women who try to take my experiences and use them as their own. Trust me, I will hunt you down if you do and you will catch these hands
"What is Prison For?"