Karen Attiah Firing Explained + When Your Voice Can Cost You Your Job
Brown Ambition
iHeartPodcasts
4.9 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back for a special episode 10 years in the making. Today, Mandi unpacks the real cost of speaking out in a climate where your voice can cost you your job, especially if you’re a Black woman.
She celebrates 10 years of Brown Ambition (yes, 800+ episodes!), but the focus quickly shifts to the headlines: journalists, teachers, and professionals are losing their livelihoods for what they say online, with Karen Attiah (Washington Post) as just the latest in a chilling pattern.
SAVE THE DATE: sign up for Mandi’s free AI & Careers webinar (September 25, 8pm ET). This episode is a reminder: Your voice is power. Protect it, plan for it, and—when you can—use it.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:06.4 | I'm Marcus Grant. |
| 0:07.9 | And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. |
| 0:13.1 | Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? |
| 0:15.8 | Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. |
| 0:22.7 | Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. |
| 0:25.6 | We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. |
| 0:28.5 | Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:36.9 | Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. |
| 0:39.6 | Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. |
| 0:47.1 | Hey, BAFam, before we get in today's episode, |
| 0:50.1 | I've only done this one other time. |
| 0:53.2 | After the election of 2025, I got on here and I read, I just really didn't have any words. And sometimes when I don't have the words, I turn to poetry and other brilliant writers who have some words that I can, that I can share. And today, it really was on my heart, on my spirit to read this |
| 1:13.3 | poem for y'all. It's by Audra Lord. It's called a litany for survival. I'll try to read this |
| 1:19.3 | without crying, but here we are. For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant |
| 1:24.9 | edges of decision, crucial and alone. For those of us who cannot |
| 1:30.2 | indulge the passing dreams of choice, who live in doorways coming and going in the hours |
| 1:36.9 | between dawns, looking inward and outward, at once before and after, seeking a now that can |
| 1:44.0 | breed futures, like bread in our children's mouths, |
| 1:47.8 | so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours. For those of us who were imprinted with fear, |
| 1:55.0 | like a faint line in the center of our foreheads, learning to be afraid with our mother's milk, |
| 2:02.2 | for by this weapon, this illusion of, learning to be afraid with our mother's milk, for by this weapon, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.