Session 420: Play Theory
Therapy for Black Girls
iHeartPodcasts and Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D.
4.8 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we're joined by award-winning scholar, ethnomusicologist, and cultural anthropologist Dr. Kyra Gaunt to explore the powerful intersections of music, play, and identity in the lives of Black girls and women. Dr. Gaunt, author of The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop, offers a brilliant breakdown of how musical play, like hand games, cheers, and jump rope rhymes, does more than entertain. It becomes a form of cultural transmission, identity-building, and resistance for Black girls navigating their earliest social worlds.
About the Podcast
The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.
Resources & Announcements
We're building our TBGU Advisory Council and are looking for some amazing young women to join us! The Advisory Council will be made up of traditionally college-aged young Black women (18-23) who are passionate about shaping conversations around mental health and the experiences of this community. This group will be instrumental in helping to develop content for the TBGU podcast and social media channels. Please go here if you're interested in learning more or applying.
Did you know you can leave us a voice note with your questions for the podcast? If you have a question you'd like some feedback on, topics you'd like to hear covered, or want to suggest movies or books for us to review, drop us a message at memo.fm/therapyforblackgirls and let us know what’s on your mind. We just might share it on the podcast.
Grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals.
Where to Find Our Guest
Dr. Kyra Gaunt
Instagram - @kyracurates
Stay Connected
Join us in over on Patreon where we're building community through our chats, connecting at Sunday Night Check-Ins, and soaking in the wisdom from exclusive series like Ask Dr. Joy and So, My Therapist Said.
Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox.
If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out the directory at https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com/directory.
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Our Production Team
Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Maya Cole Howard
Director of Podcast & Digital Content: Ellice Ellis
Producers: Tyree Rush & Ndeye Thioubou
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. |
| 0:23.8 | I'm your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. |
| 0:30.0 | For more information or to find a therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for Blackgirls.com. While I hope you love listening to |
| 0:40.4 | and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed |
| 0:47.1 | mental health professional. Hey, y'all. |
| 0:56.8 | Thanks so much for joining me for session 420 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. |
| 1:01.5 | We'll get right into our conversation after a word from our sponsors. |
| 1:09.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 1:17.7 | Okay. This is an I-Heart podcast. In this insightful and soul-stirring episode, I'm joined by award-winning scholar, ethnomusicologists, and cultural anthropologist Dr. Kira Gaunt. Together, we explore the powerful |
| 1:30.0 | intersections of music, play, and identity in the lives of black girls and women. Dr. Gaunt, author of |
| 1:36.7 | the games Black Girls play, learning the roles from double dutch to hip-hop, offers a brilliant |
| 1:41.6 | breakdown of how musical play like hand games, cheers, and jump rope rhymes |
| 1:46.1 | does more than entertain. It becomes a form of cultural transmission, identity building, |
| 1:51.5 | and resistance for black girls navigating their earliest social worlds. If something resonates |
| 1:56.2 | with you while enjoying our conversation, please share with us on social media using the |
| 2:00.7 | hashtag TBG in session |
| 2:02.4 | or join us over in our Patreon community to talk more about the episode. You can join us at |
| 2:08.1 | community.com. Therapy for Blackgirls.com. Here's our conversation. Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Gunt. |
| 2:18.2 | Thank you. |
| 2:19.6 | Very excited to chat with you. |
| 2:21.2 | So I'd love for you to get us started by saying a little bit about who you are and your work as an ethnomusicologist. |
| 2:27.4 | I am a digital ethnomusicologist. |
... |
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