Episode 10: D. Watkins

BRNDD: Conversations with Creatives

The BRNDD podcast has reached double digits! To celebrate, they bring on one of their most successful guests to date. Two-time New York Times Best selling Author, Editor-At-Large for Salon.com, and contributor to a hosts of publications; from ESPN, to Rolling Stone, to the New York Times, D. Watkins.

Ron sparks off the conversation with asking D to speak on the moment he realized it was important for someone to speak on black culture from the inside, opposed to other outlets controlling the narrative(6:38). D. also speaks on how things like police brutality affected his writing experiences and how he didn't even think reading was for him growing up, being only exposed to white literature.

Later, D. Speaks on getting into Johns Hopkins for his Masters, being inspired to write and submitting his work to 500 agents before getting his first deal(20:55)! He also speaks on the process of getting his work out through essays such as Too Poor for Pop Culture, which had over one million hits in one day. This lead to a three hour wait for his first book deal(24:34). D. also speaks on planning his future projects, and how hard it is to release a book when he's working on writing for movies such as; Mike Brown's biopic, a possible Netflix series and Jada Pinkett-Smith's directorial Debut(50:45). He ends the podcast by being the first guest to ever give his BRNDD 10 playlist live(1:12:35)!

D. Watkin's

Website:

http://d-watkins.com/

Salon.com Articles

http://www.salon.com/writer/d_watkins/

Twitter:

@dwatkinsworld

Instagram:

@dwatkinsworld

BRNDD 10: Playlist

https://play.spotify.com/user/brnddpodcast/playlist/3vyfxlj7LBpQtudLMNx4jb

BRNDD Podcast:

E-Mail: [e-mail]

Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/brnddpodcast

Twitter:

@DebMaterial

Instagram:

@debonairmaterial

facebook:

www.facebook.com/DebonairMaterial/

Ronald James

Twitter and Instagram:

@whoisronjames

Donte Cotton

Twitter and Instagram:

@Cotteonsmooth