We open up about two family stories that changed how we understand mental health, culture, and the systems that claim to heal us.

Tamanda shares the story of her mother's diagnosis - and the painful reality of watching an indigenous African spiritual tradition be misread as delusion by a colonial medical model. Aiwan reflects on her own mother’s experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, when powerful nightly devotions were mistaken for pathology by an overstretched hospital system.

Together, we explore the thin, and often dangerous, line between faith and pathology.

We ask: When is a mental health issue truly an illness, and when is it a misunderstood expression of faith, culture, or trauma? What happens when healthcare systems don't recognise the spiritual and cultural realities of those they serve? And how does power shape diagnosis of Black people from the days of enslavement to the present?

Drawing from personal experience, community research, and historical context, we reflect on how our mothers’ stories reveal a larger truth about Black families, dignity, and survival. We discuss the legacy of colonial psychiatry, the deep cultural losses hidden inside clinical “treatments,” and why culturally sensitive care isn’t a luxury - it’s a necessity.

This episode is about systems, yes! …But it’s also about love, memory, spirit, and the everyday struggle to be fully seen.

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