Uncle Eshawn

Eshawn
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Uncle Eshawn is where real life meets real perspective. As a barber, business owner, and guardian, Eshawn brings unfiltered conversations on culture, responsibility, growth, and everything in between. It’s not about talking just to talk — it’s about saying something that actually means something. Like being in the chair… just recorded. Built on the idea of being more than one thing — a barber, and everything that comes with it.

  1. Oct 8

    A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skilled Sailor

    In Episode 9 of Uncle Eshawn, I reflect on the ability to pivot when life refuses to follow the plan we created. There’s a saying: “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” I’m beginning to understand that everything placed in our way is not necessarily there to defeat us. Some obstacles redirect us, strengthen us and teach us how to navigate circumstances we never expected to face. Sometimes protecting the vision means releasing the original plan and trusting what the journey is building within us. In Hot Topics, I examine the allegations surrounding the Cornell Seven, the wrongful convictions of the Exonerated Five and the unanswered questions surrounding Nolan Wells’ death. These cases lead to a larger conversation about evidence, accountability and why Black Americans often struggle to trust institutions with long histories of failing our communities. How do we demand transparency without allowing suspicion to become a verdict of its own? This episode is about learning to pivot, questioning the systems we are told to trust and recognizing that rough waters may be preparing us for something greater. One more episode remains as we prepare to close Season 2.

  2. Oct 1

    Beyond the chair w/ Jay Mahmood

    In this episode of Uncle Eshawn, I sit down with my teacher, Jay Mahmood, to meet the man behind the precision. Jay shares his journey from growing up in London and entering Vidal Sassoon at only 16 to becoming an internationally respected educator and building the Jay Mahmood Advanced Academy in the Bay Area. We discuss how he discovered his gift for teaching, why he chose to create a career beyond the traditional salon and what it took to make his knowledge—not a clientele—the foundation of his business. Our conversation also moves beyond hair. Jay and I reflect on fatherhood, revisiting our own childhoods and trying to become the parents we didn’t always have the luxury of experiencing ourselves. We talk about balancing ambition with presence, giving the next generation what we needed and creating a legacy that reaches further than our work. I also share how Jay’s three-day precision-cutting class challenged me to slow down, become a student again and approach every haircut with greater intention. This is a conversation about upbringing, discipline, reinvention, fatherhood and building a life beyond the chair.

  3. Sep 24

    The Weight of Being the Responsible One

    Coming back home after two weeks away gave me a little too much time to think. On this solo episode of Uncle Eshawn, I’m talking about the weight that comes with always being the responsible one—the person people depend on, the person expected to figure it out, and the person who doesn’t always get the luxury of falling apart. I get a few things off my chest, talk about getting back into my routine after traveling, and reflect on some of the perspective I brought home with me. I also get into creativity, wanting more out of life without necessarily wanting to work more, and what I’ve been learning from the books I’ve been reading lately—from Giovanni’s Room and Piranesi to starting The Bluest Eye. Sometimes getting away doesn’t help you escape your life. It helps you come back and see it differently.

  4. Sep 17

    Back in America Back to the B******t

    I’m back from Chicago and France, and we have a lot to catch up on. This episode begins with the full trip recap—from visiting the Obama Presidential Center and watching Ye perform in Chicago to experiencing Nice, Saint-Tropez and Paris for the first time. I’m talking about the food, fashion, luxury, culture and watching JAY-Z celebrate 30 years of music in a Paris stadium. More importantly, I’m reflecting on what the trip taught me about legacy, freedom and the kind of life I want to build. Then, after all that beauty, I return to America—and the b******t. In Hot Topics, we discuss universities cutting Black Studies programs, Demetrius Fleming being found hanging from a tree in North Carolina, and all the people failed by the institutions that were supposed to protect them. Welcome home, I guess. Content warning: This episode discusses racism, death, suspected lynching, sexual violence, transphobia and institutional neglect.

  5. Sep 3

    Be good with Emmanuel Blackwell III

    In this episode, I sit down with Emmanuel Blackwell III — photographer, film processor, entrepreneur, and founder of SWAP FILM. Blackwell’s story starts in San Francisco’s Mission District, where photography became part of his life through family. From inheriting his grandfather’s camera, to learning how to develop film from his uncle, to eventually building a Black-owned film lab and creative community, his journey has always been about more than just taking pictures. We talk about his love for black-and-white film, the old-school cars that have become part of what I think of as the classic “Blackwell shot,” the beginnings of SWAP FILM, and how developing his own rolls turned into creating space for an entire community of photographers. We also talk about grief, memory, the loss of his brother Michael , and how those experiences shaped the way he sees the world and his work. More recently, Blackwell stepped into a new chapter with his first solo exhibition, Be Good — a show rooted in sports, identity, memory, and the layers behind those two simple words. And because our paths have crossed for years through photography, mutual friends, and San Francisco’s creative scene, we also get into how we met, what influenced both of us, and the ways our stories are more connected than we realized. This is a conversation about photography, family, grief, community, preservation, and what it really means to be good.

  6. Aug 27

    Supreme Queen

    Their story starts at Terra Nova High School, where Rheema Calloway and Ronnishia Johnson-Hasan met as teenagers and staged their first sit-in after experiencing discrimination from a teacher. That moment would become the beginning of a friendship rooted in much more than just having fun together. They became best friends, danced together in the well-known Bay Area dance group Sick Wit It, and eventually left California for Texas Southern University, where they continued organizing while pursuing their degrees. During college, they both experienced unimaginable loss, losing their mothers and becoming each other’s support system through grief—while still managing to graduate with honors in four years. Then they came home. In this episode, we trace their journey from teenage organizers to Healing the Hood, unpack food apartheid in Bayview-Hunters Point, and talk about the ideas that eventually became Supreme Queen and Vegan Hood Chefs. But this conversation goes far beyond business. We talk friendship, grief, caregiving, inheriting homes and responsibility, entrepreneurship, family, boundaries, self-care, and what happens when you become the person everyone depends on. Now, after years of building and serving their community together, they’re closing one chapter of Vegan Hood Chefs and stepping into what’s next. This is the story of two friends who grew up together, grieved together, organized together, built together—and are now learning what it means to choose themselves. Supreme Queen.

  7. Aug 20

    The barber who broke the internet

    Before barber content became an industry, before tutorials filled our timelines, and before every barber had a camera pointed at the chair, there were people figuring out how to use the internet to teach the craft. For me, one of those people was Randy. Long before we ever met, I knew his work. His haircut tutorials were part of the videos I studied while learning how to cut hair—without me even realizing our paths would eventually cross. In this episode, I sit down with CAKENisRANDY to trace his journey from picking up the clippers, building an audience online, and becoming one of the first barbers I remember using the internet to educate a generation of barbers. But this conversation is personal too. We talk about eventually meeting at Chicago’s, becoming coworkers, creating content together, and the influence Randy had on me both before and after he knew who I was. I call him The Barber Who Broke the Internet—and this is the story behind why. 🎙️ Uncle Eshawn — Season 2, Episode 3

  8. Aug 13

    Barber/photographer

    Season 2 started with The Slash—the idea that none of us are defined by just one title. This week, I’m unpacking one of the earliest parts of mine: photography. It started with my friend Tristan. Before I ever owned a professional camera, we would take his dad’s camera and head out into San Francisco to shoot. Those days gave me my first real introduction to photography and helped spark something I didn’t yet know would become such a huge part of my life. Then came a gift I’ll never forget. A friend and photographer named Sherry surprised me with my first camera, lighting equipment and more gear than I knew what to do with—all with one request: that when the opportunity came, I pay it forward. From there, I trace the journey through the Academy of Art, my obsession with album artwork and graphic design, Blank Mag, discovering film photography through Rully, meeting photographers like Blackwell, and eventually bringing the camera into the barbershop. For years, I thought photography and barbering competed with each other. Eventually, I realized they were never separate paths. They were my slash. Barber / Photographer.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Uncle Eshawn is where real life meets real perspective. As a barber, business owner, and guardian, Eshawn brings unfiltered conversations on culture, responsibility, growth, and everything in between. It’s not about talking just to talk — it’s about saying something that actually means something. Like being in the chair… just recorded. Built on the idea of being more than one thing — a barber, and everything that comes with it.

Information

  • Creator
    Eshawn
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Eshawn
  • Show Website
    Uncle Eshawn