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Rooting For Everyone Black ( Oscar Wins and SXSW real conversations with Ciara)

·29 min·2 clips

Ciara shares that 50% of new HIV cases are Black women, but less than 2% use PrEP.

Lauren LaRosa opens by recapping the Oscars, noting Ryan Coogler's Best Original Screenplay win for Sinners alongside Michael B. Jordan's Best Actor, which Jordan frames as a validation of the work-over-awards philosophy his father instilled in him — do the work and let everything else figure itself out. The episode includes Michael B. Jordan's post-ceremony remarks acknowledging that if Coogler had won Best Director, he would have been the first Black man to win that category in 98 years. The second segment shifts to a SXSW panel convened by iHeart featuring Ciara, Lauren, and medical professionals to address the HIV prevention gap among Black women. Ciara explains she agreed to the partnership because her mother normalized HIV testing in their household from childhood. Dr. Martin presents the central statistic: Black women account for 50% of new HIV diagnoses in the US as of 2023 surveillance data, while fewer than 2% of PrEP users are Black women. The panel discusses common misconceptions about PrEP being exclusively for men, the taboo around discussing HIV status, and the difference between EKG and echocardiogram for cardiac screening. Ciara articulates her framework for using music as a vehicle for health messaging, describing music, money, and medicine as the three most powerful forces on earth, with media added as a fourth at SXSW. Panel participants argue that pop culture uniquely penetrates communities that health department messaging cannot reach, and that PrEP and HIV testing should be normalized as routine health maintenance alongside blood pressure and diabetes screening. The episode ends noting that 20 or more states are scaling back HIV care access, with the panel arguing that cultural platforms have an obligation to compensate for reduced government provision.

As heard by us

Oscars chatter gives way to a plainspoken case for music as a doorway.

The episode opens in Oscars chatter and then lands on a plainspoken case for music as a way into people. Its strongest line is the idea that songs, radio, and familiar voices can soften difficult conversations, especially when the subject turns to family care and the small push…

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Why you'd press play

Ciara, Dr. Moore, and Lauren turn a pop-culture conversation into something practical: how music can open people up and nudge them toward action.

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