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The Stoop · Hana Baba and Leila Day

Name on a Keychain

July 10, 2025·29 min·2 clips
Lovie Ajayi-Jones says children of immigrants 'have been taught to audition for our lives,' and calls joy and belonging a birthright, not something to earn.
A folktales project becomes the doorway. Leela tells Hanan she finally made the Sudanese folktales project they once talked about, except the book became a podcast for families. Of course, she is an audio girl. The joke opens into the real concern: what happens when kids never hear their names, foods, or home words in media. Leela talks about the project as a way for children to recognize themselves in stories, audio, screens, and the little details they hear at home. Then Lovie Ajayi-Jones joins the conversation. She is a Nigerian-American writer who also grew up without seeing herself in books, and that absence shaped her storytelling. The book excerpt hits close. Lovey is hurt when Tommy mocks her name, then gets something many kids do not get: a direct apology. The teacher apologizes too. The scene matters because it does not leave the child stuck with embarrassment while everyone moves on. Nobody waves it away as harmless. The story gives the kids room to make things right. Then comes the lunchbox. Jollof rice lands as one of those tiny cultural details that can make a listener laugh and get a little tender at the same time. The hosts feel that one. Suddenly representation is not a slogan. It is a familiar meal, a name said with care, and a piece of home finally sitting on the page. The close points listeners toward Lovie's book and Leela's Folk Tales from Sudan, with the focus still on kids seeing themselves before anyone asks them to explain.

As heard by us

A warm, specific conversation about representation that stays grounded in repair and small moments of recognition.

The Stoop centers a conversation with Lovie Ajayi-Jones on a plain but loaded idea: children should be able to find themselves in books, audio, and on screen, right down to their names, foods, and familiar words from home.

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Why you'd press play

You want a listen that treats representation as something kids can actually hear and recognize, not just talk about.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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