In the Margins is a podcast series that explores stories the way they’re meant to be explored. Part of the Stop Silencing Black Stories project, each episode moves beyond summary and literary analysis to ask: What is this story really trying to show us?

In this episode, we revisit Octavia Butler’s Kindred to examine the idea of generational curses—and challenge what we think we mean when we use that phrase. What if some of the things we call “generational curses” aren't curses at all? What if they are generational consequences? What happens when the systems created by one generation shape the lives of generations that never chose them? And what happens when we stop asking, “What's wrong with them?” and start asking, “What happened to them?”

Kindred forces us to confront the ways history can become inheritance—and how the choices we make with that inheritance can determine what gets passed on.

Because maybe the question isn't simply how do we break the chain? Maybe it's what are we willing to stop passing on?

Listen & Subscribe to Equity Matters Podcast: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

Sign Our Petition to Stop the Silencing of Our Black Stories

Follow us on Instagram

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on TikTok

Check out our Free Resources on Gumroad

Visit Dr. Bell’s Website