PAST, PRESENT, PUSHBACK

S A U N A I E
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Hosted by XO, AZ, and CDA, Past, Present, Pushback is where Sports, Politics, and Family collide. From the NFL field to Capitol Hill, from community struggles to household victories, we break down the headlines and the hidden stories shaping our world. With XO bringing the millennial sports and culture lens, and AZ & CDA grounding the conversation in political insight and family wisdom, this isn’t just another podcast — it’s a space where Black voices push back against the noise and speak truth with honesty, humor, and heart. New episodes drop weekly — short, sharp, and straight to the point

  1. 2d ago

    Black Men Live 7 Years Less Than White Men. Black Women Die In Childbirth At 3x The Rate. Here's Why.

    Black men live on average 7 fewer years than white men. Black women die in childbirth at nearly three times the rate of white women — and that gap gets worse, not better, the more educated a Black woman is. Black Americans are 30% more likely to die from heart disease. They have the highest cancer death rate of any demographic. 51% of Black Americans believe the healthcare system was designed to hold them back. And the fear of police violence alone — not actual violence, just the anticipation of it — has been scientifically linked to worse physical health, worse mental health, and more sleep problems. This is not about individual choices. This is about a system. In this episode of Past Present Pushback, XO, AZ, and CDA go deep on all of it — the health statistics, the history of medical racism, the stress that living in a racist society puts on the body, the reality of police brutality and what it does biologically, the mental health crisis nobody talks about, and what Black men and women can actually do right now to fight back against a system that was never designed with their survival in mind. Keywords: why Black people die younger, Black life expectancy gap, Black men health statistics, Black women maternal mortality, medical racism history, weathering hypothesis, Tuskegee experiment medical mistrust, police brutality health effects, Black mental health 2025, Black heart disease statistics, how to improve Black health, Past Present Pushback podcast • Therapy for Black Men — therapyforblackmen.org • Therapy for Black Girls — therapyforblackgirls.com • Melanin & Mental Health — melaninandmentalhealth.com • National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) — nami.org | 1-800-950-6264 • Office of Minority Health — Heart Health resources — minorityhealth.hhs.gov • American Heart Association — heart.org (free blood pressure monitoring resources) • Black Women's Health Imperative — bwhi.org

    Black Men Live 7 Years Less Than White Men. Black Women Die In Childbirth At 3x The Rate. Here's Why.

  2. Jul 13

    Nolan Wells: 18 Years Old. Horn Island. July 4th. His Parents Say He Was Left Behind. We Need Answers.

    On July 4, 2026, 18-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells went to Horn Island, Mississippi with a group of friends to celebrate Independence Day. He never came home. His body was found two days later. But now — on July 10 — new details are coming out that are raising serious questions. His father Elmore Wonsley said on CBS Mornings: 'Yes. I believe he was left behind. That's not his character.' His mother Christine says Snapchat messages were deleted from his phone — and since it hadn't been 24 hours, they would have still been there. A young woman who was talking to Nolan on the island says he told her he was going back to get on his friends' boat. His friends say the opposite — that he told them he was staying. Ben Crump said it directly: 'They're not saying the same thing. One of them is telling the truth. One of them is not.' Tyler Perry has offered to pay for the funeral. The GoFundMe has raised over $380,000. And the autopsy results still haven't been released. Keywords: Nolan Wells case July 10 update, Nolan Wells parents CBS interview, Nolan Wells Snapchat deleted, Nolan Wells contradiction, Ben Crump Nolan Wells press conference, Tyler Perry Nolan Wells funeral, Nolan Wells GoFundMe, Horn Island Mississippi, Nolan Wells investigation update, Past Present Pushback podcast

    Nolan Wells: 18 Years Old. Horn Island. July 4th. His Parents Say He Was Left Behind. We Need Answers.

  3. Jul 8

    The 4th of July Was Never Really About Freedom For Everybody — The Real History They Didn't Teach You

    Every year on the 4th of July, America fires up the grills, lights the fireworks, and celebrates freedom. But most people don't know the real story behind the date — that the actual vote for independence was on July 2, not July 4. That most of the founders didn't sign the Declaration until August. That the man who wrote 'all men are created equal' owned 600 enslaved people over his lifetime. That a clause calling out the slave trade was removed from the Declaration before it was signed. And that on July 5, 1852 — seventy-six years after the Declaration was adopted — a man named Frederick Douglass stood up in front of a crowd and asked a question nobody wanted to answer. In this episode of Past Present Pushback, XO, AZ, and CDA sit in the man cave and tell the full story of the 4th of July — the facts most people never learned, the hypocrisy baked into the founding, and the question that still doesn't have a clean answer: what does this holiday mean for Black Americans today? Keywords: 4th of July real history, Independence Day facts, Declaration of Independence slavery, Thomas Jefferson enslaved people, Frederick Douglass 4th of July speech, what to the slave is the fourth of July, Black Americans 4th of July, July 4 origin, American independence history, Past Present Pushback podcast

    The 4th of July Was Never Really About Freedom For Everybody — The Real History They Didn't Teach You

  4. Jul 6

    Cannabis Was Legal, Medical & Sacred For 10,000 Years — One Racist Man Made It A Crime In 1937

    Cannabis has been used by human beings for over 10,000 years. It was medicine in ancient China. It was used in religious ceremonies across Central Asia, India, Egypt, and Africa for thousands of years before the United States existed. The American Medical Association was against making it illegal in 1937. And the man who pushed hardest to make it a crime — Harry Anslinger, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics — left a documented record of quotes that tell you exactly why he did it. In this episode, XO and CDA tell the full story of cannabis — where it came from, how it spread across the world, how one racist bureaucrat criminalized it and targeted Black and Latino communities, what Nixon's own aide admitted the drug war was really about, where we are with legalization today, and the uncomfortable truth about who is getting rich off legal weed while Black people still carry records for the same thing. Keywords: cannabis history origin, marijuana history, Harry Anslinger racism, war on drugs racist history, cannabis prohibition Black community, Marihuana Tax Act 1937, John Ehrlichman drug war admission, Black cannabis arrests statistics, cannabis legalization 2026, Black owned cannabis business, Past Present Pushback podcast

    Cannabis Was Legal, Medical & Sacred For 10,000 Years — One Racist Man Made It A Crime In 1937

  5. Jul 1

    June Recap: The Episodes That Hit Hardest & Everything Coming In Q3 & Q4

    June on Past Present Pushback was something different. We covered the origin of Memorial Day — and the freed Black people who actually started it. We went deep on the Black Panther Party, Provident Hospital, and Red Summer. We talked about Marvin Gaye the man, not just the music. We covered Juneteenth, Father's Day, and Mother's Day — the real histories behind holidays most people celebrate without knowing where they came from. We did a Weekend Special on Karmelo Anthony and Cyrus Carmack-Belton. We broke down America's debt crisis. And we did a two-part deep dive into the scientific origin of the human race. In this recap episode, XO sits down with AZ and CDA for an open conversation — what landed, what surprised them, which episode was their favorite and least favorite, what they're still thinking about, and what they want the audience to reflect on before we move into Q3 and Q4. Keywords: Past Present Pushback June recap, PPP monthly recap, Black history podcast recap, June 2026 podcast episodes, AZ CDA reaction, Past Present Pushback Q3 preview, Black podcast 2026, Past Present Pushback best episodes

    June Recap: The Episodes That Hit Hardest & Everything Coming In Q3 & Q4

  6. Jun 29

    Is America Going Bankrupt? $39 Trillion In Debt, $1 Trillion In Interest & What The Black Community Needs To Do Right Now

    As of June 2026, the United States is carrying $39.2 trillion in total national debt — growing by $8.19 billion every single day. The government is paying $1 trillion a year just in interest alone — more than it spends on Medicare, national defense, or Medicaid. And the Congressional Budget Office projects that interest payments alone will grow to $2.1 trillion a year by 2036. This is not a political conversation. It is a math problem. And it has real consequences for everyday Americans — especially the Black community, which is historically the first to feel the effects when the economy weakens. In this episode of Past Present Pushback, XO, AZ, and CDA sit in the man cave and have a real financial education conversation — how we got here, what it means, how it hits the Black community specifically, and what we can actually do about it. Not theory. Not politics. Real financial tools and real talk about how to protect yourself and your family while a government that spent beyond its means figures out what to do next. Keywords: America national debt 2026, is America going bankrupt, US debt 39 trillion, national debt Black community impact, Black wealth financial education, how to protect money recession, inflation Black Americans, financial tips Black community, past present pushback podcast RESOURCES — • TreasuryDirect.gov — buy I-Bonds directly from the US Treasury • USASpending.gov — see where your tax dollars actually go • GreenlineTheCommunity.com — find Black-owned banks and credit unions • NACA.com — mortgage assistance and homebuyer education • HUD.gov — down payment assistance programs by state • NerdWallet, Investopedia — free financial education resources • 'The Total Money Makeover' by Dave Ramsey — debt elimination framework • 'I Will Teach You To Be Rich' by Ramit Sethi — practical personal finance for young adults

    Is America Going Bankrupt? $39 Trillion In Debt, $1 Trillion In Interest & What The Black Community Needs To Do Right Now

  7. Jun 28

    Race Science Was Invented To Justify Slavery. Here's The Proof — And The Truth About Egypt (Part 2)

    In Part 1, XO, AZ, and CDA broke down the real science of where every human being on earth came from — Out of Africa, Mitochondrial Eve, and how skin color actually evolved. Now in Part 2, they go into the harder conversation. How did real science about human origins get twisted into 'race science' used to justify slavery, colonialism, and the Holocaust? What was eugenics, who pushed it, and how far did it actually go in this country? And the question that gets debated every single day online — were the ancient Egyptians Black? This episode answers it using the actual DNA evidence from the mummies themselves, not internet arguments. Fact-checked, sourced, and handled with the seriousness this topic deserves. Keywords: race science history, eugenics explained, scientific racism debunked, were ancient Egyptians Black, Egyptian mummy DNA study, Black Pharaohs Nubia, craniometry history, Bell Curve debunked, race social construct, Past Present Pushback podcast

    Race Science Was Invented To Justify Slavery. Here's The Proof — And The Truth About Egypt (Part 2)

  8. Jun 25

    Did Everyone Come From Black People? The Real Science Behind Human Origins (Part 1)

    You've heard it said — everyone came from Black people. It gets repeated online, in barbershops, in family group chats, and it's met with both pride and pushback. So in this episode, XO, & AZ decided to actually find out what the science says — not what a meme says, not what gets shouted in a comment section, but what geneticists, paleoanthropologists, and the global scientific community have actually documented through fossil records and DNA. This is Part 1 of a two-part deep dive. In this episode: the Out of Africa theory, Mitochondrial Eve, what the fossil record actually shows, how humans migrated across the planet, and how skin color evolved through a purely environmental and genetic process that has nothing to do with superiority and everything to do with survival. Keywords: origin of human race, did everyone come from Africa, Out of Africa theory explained, Mitochondrial Eve science, human migration history, evolution of skin color, race social construct science, human genetics explained, where did humans come from, Past Present Pushback podcast RESOURCES • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Human Origins Program — humanorigins.si.edu • National Academies of Sciences — 'Using Population Descriptors in Genetics and Genomics Research' (2023) • Nina Jablonski's research on the evolution of skin color — Penn State Department of Anthropology • 'Who We Are and How We Got Here' by David Reich — genetics and human history

    Did Everyone Come From Black People? The Real Science Behind Human Origins (Part 1)
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About

Hosted by XO, AZ, and CDA, Past, Present, Pushback is where Sports, Politics, and Family collide. From the NFL field to Capitol Hill, from community struggles to household victories, we break down the headlines and the hidden stories shaping our world. With XO bringing the millennial sports and culture lens, and AZ & CDA grounding the conversation in political insight and family wisdom, this isn’t just another podcast — it’s a space where Black voices push back against the noise and speak truth with honesty, humor, and heart. New episodes drop weekly — short, sharp, and straight to the point

Information

  • Creator
    S A U N A I E
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    81
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © S A U N A I E
  • Show Website
    PAST, PRESENT, PUSHBACK