The Guardian's Token

The Colour of Power project has shown that just 3% of Britain’s most powerful people are non-white. What can be done to change this?

Leah and Freddy bring you a quick update on Token. Unfortunaly it’s going to have to be put on pause because, among other things, there’s a general election taking place in the UK and their day jobs need all the time they have. They’re just so great! But they should be back sooner rather than later

This week Leah Green and Freddy McConnell are joined by Gideon Goldberg, their colleague and token disabled person. They discuss ‘when to ask’, inspiration porn, and the awkwardness of disabled summer camps

Leah Green and Freddy McConnell are joined by Raoul Peck, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary I am Not Your Negro. They talk about the legacy of James Baldwin, white fragility and the irrelevance of #OscarsSoWhite I am Not Your Negro will be released in UK cinemas on 7th April

Freddy McConnell and Leah Green are joined by LA Times columnist and host of the Unorthodox podcast, Mark Oppenheimer

Freddy McConnell and Leah Green are joined by the Guardian’s political editor Anushka Asthana. She talks about her experience of being a child of immigrants but wanting to be as white as possible, her passions for gender equality and how she’s benefited from other people’s racism WARNING: Contains very strong language

Leah and Freddy are joined by sexpert Alix Fox to answer listeners’ sex and relationships questions. Their discussion spans novice polyamory, asexuality, ‘real lesbians’ and jelly butt plugs

It’s Freddy McConnell’s turn to be ignorant this week as Leah Green and guest Grace Shutti lament the ups and downs of being born with Afro hair. Topics include supporting your local auntie and the problem of getting your hair touched by Europeans. Also, can we talk about white people and braids?

Tinder now lets you state your gender in your own words, and provides a list of options in addition to ‘female’ and ‘male’. We thought the obvious response to this was to have an quiz. So, listen as Freddy McConnell (trans) and guest CJ (non binary), test Leah Green (cis) on her gender ID smarts. Plus, we chat about awkward pronoun confusion, social constructs and the London underground

Leah and Freddy talk about more things vulva related with Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi, who also produced and presented The Vagina Dispatches. This time, we get a bit tipsier and a lot more confessional, as we chat copper coils, loving one’s period, ‘orgasmic inevitability’ and ... pigeons. Listen to part one here

Leah and Freddy are joined by Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi to talk about all things vulva related, for a festive, slightly-tipsy, end-of-year double bill. Mona produced and presented the online video series The Vagina Dispatches, and she joins our hosts to delve deeper into everything she learned. Plus there’s free-wheeling chat about the perils of sex-ed, the joys of orgasm and the challenge of labelling body parts

Leah and Freddy are joined by film-festival organiser Jack Casey, to discuss the explicit racism sometimes found in the contemporary LGBTQ community

Leah Green and Freddy McConnell are joined by TV journalist Rebecca Nicholson for a chat about Transparent, the Amazon Prime show that had its third season debut in September

Freddy McConnell and Leah Green are joined by columnist Owen Jones to discuss the case of the ‘gay cake’

Comedian Tom Ballard joins Leah Green and Freddy McConnell to talk about strength in all its forms: women’s strength and Hillary Clinton; male strength and the pressures of the gym; and the potentially patronising ‘super-humans’ coming out of the Paralympics

This week we’re talking about allies: white allies, straight allies, male allies - all the allies

Women relate better to gay people. Black people are better dancers. Jewish mums love to feed people. Is there any truth in these seemingly complimentary generalisations? And is it ok to have that conversation? Freddy McConnell and Leah Green discuss the good, the bad and the dodgy ground of stereotyping

WARNING: This podcast will probably offend you! When curiosity oversteps the mark – hosts Leah and Freddy create an ‘offence-free’ zone to discuss what they feel are the most offensive questions they’ve been asked as a black Jew and a trans man

Hosts Leah Green and Freddy McConnell discuss the misogyny and homophobia that have hit the headlines, or rather have been the headlines, at Rio 2016. Should we be more forgiving and are these instances being dealt with properly?

Monica Tan and Michael Safi talk over recent unrest in Melbourne and why an anti-halal app has become a smash-hit with Muslim shoppers. Plus: what happened when a famous writer asked Monica if she was ‘from mainland China’?

Token co-host Monica Tan talks to Seattle-based writer Ijeoma Oluo about Beyoncé’s magnum opus, Lemonade. Ijeoma says the pop superstar is living proof ‘you cannot be rich enough to escape your blackness’ and that her recent displays of radical black consciousness are a product of the times: ‘These last couple of years, the pain, which was often silenced, has been brought to the forefront.’ Plus Monica chats to Token co-host Michael Safi about her unfortunate fetish for the most privileged group on the planet Ijeoma Oluo’s piece: Beyoncé’s Lemonade is about much more than infidelity and Jay Z

Podcast regulars Monica Tan and Michael Safi are joined this week by the Egyptian-born Australian musician Joseph Tawadros, one of the world’s top oud players. They talk racism, multiculturalism and morning television – and if you hang on to the end, you can hear Tawadros play

‘You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist,’ said Chris Rock as he opened the Oscars. He went on to describe an exclusive club of very nice people who just don’t hire many African Americans ... So will things change now? Today’s hosts – Monica Tan and Miles Martignoni – are joined by Lanre Bakare from the Guardian’s New York office. Plus: special mentions for all the people of colour you may have missed in those Oscar-winning movies ...

Did our producer use his ethnicity to secure a rental property? A recent survey found minorities can be at a disadvantage when house-hunting, but he may have found the exception. Monica also goes through her experiences after having an anti-Australia Day tweet spread through conservative circles. What did she do when confronted with hatred?

Tahir Bilgic, one of the creators of Channel Nine’s new show Here Come the Habibs, explains how a program written by a ‘vanilla milkshake writing team’ can be culturally sensitive and funny at the same time. And Monica Tan questions her own racial identity after realising she doesn’t fit the stereotype of an Australian-born Chinese person

Monica Tan and Michael Safi jump into the divide between racism and political correctness to assess the most interesting news of the week. Can actors and comedians play characters of different races or is it always offensive? Should we remove racist words from old artworks? And why might Michael look more like Jesus than many renaissance paintings?

In this special episode of Token, our race and cultural identity podcast, Stan Grant says Australian media fails to listen to, understand and empathise with the history and circumstances of the country’s Indigenous people

Why are university students in the US forming whites-only student unions and why do people in Australia feel the need to march in the streets to ‘reclaim’ their country?

A sneak peek at Token, our new podcast exploring race, culture and identity in the news