There are moments in life that split your story into before and after.

For Dr. Rasheed Abiola, that moment came with four words:

"Your father is dead."

His father wasn't just any father.

Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O.) Abiola was the man widely recognized as the winner of Nigeria's historic 1993 presidential election. Before he could take office, democracy was stripped away, his victory was denied, and his family was thrust into exile. Years later, Rasheed would learn that his father had died while imprisoned.

How do you carry a name the world recognizes while trying to discover who you are?

In this deeply personal episode of **Beauty in the Beast**, Dr. Rasheed Abiola shares the untold story behind the headlines. He opens up about grief, identity, family, resilience, and the quiet burden of living in the shadow of an extraordinary legacy.

Today, Rasheed is a nationally respected spine surgeon, husband, father, and leader. But long before the titles, there was a son trying to make sense of unimaginable loss.

Together we explore:

• Growing up as the son of M.K.O. Abiola

• Losing his father after Nigeria's democratic crisis

• Living with grief while building a life of purpose

• The responsibility of carrying a historic family name

• Becoming one of the nation's leading spine surgeons

• Why family became the center of everything he does

• The lessons every parent hopes to leave behind

This isn't a story about politics.

It's a story about a son.

A son who refused to let tragedy define him.

A son who transformed loss into purpose

And a reminder that while a legacy can be taken from you, your character never can.

Beauty in the Beast creates a space where Black men share the stories behind the strength. Through honest conversations about identity, healing, relationships, fatherhood, and resilience, we reveal the humanity that too often goes unseen.

If this conversation moved you, subscribe and join us as we continue breaking the myths surrounding Black men, one story at a time.

#BeautyInTheBeast #RasheedAbiola #Nigeria #BlackExcellence #OrthopedicSurgery #SpineSurgeon #FamilyLegacy #Leadership #Resilience #Purpose #Identity #BlackMenHealing #AfricanExcellence #Brotherhood #PersonalGrowth #nigeria #africa #history #viral #snowboarding #orthopedics

Everyone talks about finding themselves in their twenties.

Winston Warrior found himself in his fifties.

After decades of chasing achievement through corporate success, music, academia, and influence, life forced him to confront a painful question:

Who are you when the titles disappear?

The answer led him into one of the most unexpected chapters of his life.

As a member of the Silver Fox Squad, Winston has become part of a movement redefining what aging, masculinity, and confidence look like for Black men.

This isn't a story about getting older.

It's a story about finally becoming yourself.

CHAPTERS

00:00 "What Defines You When Success Disappears?"

03:41 The Childhood That Built Winston Warrior

08:15 The Pressure to Achieve

14:03 Chasing Success & Recognition

20:58 Becoming a Leader at the University of Miami

28:26 The Birth of The Dope Professor

34:55 When Everything Started Falling Apart

39:48 "People Stopped Returning My Calls"

43:15 The Fall From Grace

47:34 The Identity Crisis No One Saw

52:48 How the Silver Fox Squad Changed Everything

58:10 Why Most Men Get Aging Wrong

01:02:03 "My Best Years Didn't Happen at 35"

01:05:40 The Legacy Every Man Should Leave Behind

#BeautyInTheBeast #WinstonWarrior #SilverFoxSquad #BlackMenHealing #MensGrowth #BlackExcellence #PersonalDevelopment #PurposeDriven #MensMentalHealth #EmotionalIntelligence #Reinvention #AgingWithPurpose #Brotherhood #SelfMastery #Confidence #MasculinityRedefined #TheDopeProfessor #UniversityOfMiami #Leadership #LifeAfter50

"I already didn't feel wanted. I didn't feel the love, ...I was never accepted. Where was I getting the acceptance at? You know what I mean? Was everywhere outside of the house.” - Ron Rimko

Ron grew up as one of the only white kids in his school and neighborhood, feeling more comfortable in Black spaces than in his own home. In this episode of Beauty in the Beast, he opens up about being dropped off at his dad’s house for a “month-long vacation” that secretly became 13 years, the depression that followed, and what it meant to be the “piece of salt in a pepper shaker” in metro Atlanta.

Ron talks about growing up with a military father who didn’t talk about emotions, losing daily contact with his mother, and having to “mentally and emotionally raise” himself. He shares how he found warmth and protection in the homes of his Black friends and their single mothers, why he felt more accepted in those spaces than with his own family, and how he learned to wear a mask around white folks just to avoid being judged.

We get into his move to small-town Ohio, the shock of Oxy-infested neighborhoods, dealing weed to try to pay for college, catching charges, and the moment in jail when his grandmother’s disappointment and a sergeant’s blunt, “You don’t fit the mold here,” forced him to choose a different life. From there, Ron walks us through basketball as his escape, the barbershop as his sanctuary, and how cutting hair for Black men showed him the weight they carry every day.

Finally, we ask Ron directly: What do you think about Black men being seen as the beast in this world? His answer is honest, emotional, and unapologetically clear: it’s unfair, unbalanced, and Black men have it a lot harder than most people admit.

If you care about race, belonging, cross-cultural friendship, addiction, masculinity, abandonment, mother wounds, and barbershop truth, this conversation is for you.

#beautyinthebeast #blackmeninamerica #barbershoptalk #whiteskinblackspaces #motherwound #maskedmasculinity #oxycrisis #addictionrecovery #blackmenhealing #emotionalintelligenceformen

“You cannot control your emotions. You have to control the reaction to the emotion.”

– Kevin Bentley

Kevin Bentley returns to Beauty in the Beast for a deeper, more revealing conversation about masculinity, fatherhood, emotional suppression, and what growth actually requires of men.

In this episode, Kevin reflects on the pressure Black men carry to appear confident while quietly battling fear, self-doubt, and emotional restraint. He opens up about suppressing emotions, wearing masks to survive, questioning himself as a father, and the unexpected power of hearing affirmation from his own father. This conversation explores why men struggle to talk honestly, how ego becomes armor, and why professional coaching, counseling, and intentional support are not weaknesses but necessities.

As a returning guest, Kevin brings added clarity, self-awareness, and depth—showing how growth evolves when men are willing to confront what they’ve been avoiding. This episode is not about having it all figured out. It’s about learning how to stop hiding, stop retreating, and start choosing help.

If you’re navigating masculinity, fatherhood, emotional intelligence, therapy, confidence, or the pressure to always be “strong,” this episode will resonate deeply.

#KevinBentley #BeautyInTheBeastPodcast #BlackMenHealing #MensMentalHealth #EmotionalIntelligenceForMen #FatherhoodJourney #MasculinityRedefined #TherapyForMen #BlackMaleIdentity #VulnerabilityIsStrength #MenAndGrowth #ReturningGuest #football #nfl

Even through the turmoil, I want them to look back and say, Dad did everything he needed to do." Hershey

DJ Hershey joins Beauty in the Beast for one of the most honest and revealing conversations on identity, fatherhood, heartbreak, and healing. From growing up under strict structure, to being baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness at 13, to discovering his gift for DJing, Hershey walks us through the emotional path that shaped his manhood.

He opens up about the sacrifices he made for marriage, the career moment he still regrets, the pain of divorce, raising daughters as a young father, and what it means to switch between his public persona and his private truth. Hershey shares how he learned self-worth, how he rebuilt after loss, and why he now lives by the mantra: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — I’m not beholden.”

This episode speaks to men navigating identity, resilience, co-parenting, emotional armor, and the journey back to themselves. If you’re exploring masculinity, healing, or redefining your purpose, this one will hit home.

#BeautyInTheBeastPodcast #DJHershey #BlackMenHealing #MasculinityRedefined #FathersAndDaughters #EmotionalIntelligenceForMen #MenAndMentalHealth #HealingAfterDivorce #BlackMaleIdentity #ResilientMen #FatherhoodJourney #InnerHealing #PurposeAndIdentity #HonestConversations #VulnerabilityIsStrength #DJ

"I didn’t know what I needed. I would’ve made a story up… then cried in the dark."- Deider Landry

Landry’s story is the truth behind the mask many men wear. Raised without a father, trained by sports to bury emotion, pushed into adulthood by competition and survival — he became the provider, the protector, the strong one. But somewhere in the process, he lost himself.

In this powerful conversation, Landry opens up about learning to communicate, navigating marriage, unlearning emotional habits taught by coaches, and discovering that being a man isn’t about hiding your truth — it’s about facing it.

He talks openly about what drives him, what scares him, what broke him, and what he’s finally ready to rebuild.

If you've ever felt pressure to be strong, silent, or endlessly driven…

if you've ever wondered where you fit inside the life you created…

this conversation will hit harder than you expect.

This is a story about identity, fatherhood, emotional maturity, and the quiet work of becoming whole.

Listen to the full episode. It might change the way you see yourself.

#BeautyInTheBeastPodcast #Masculinity #BlackMenHealing #EmotionalIntelligence #Fatherhood #SelfAwareness #HealingJourney #MenAndFeelings #personalgrowth

I’m my primary caretaker.” - K.D. Bowe

There are moments in a man’s life when the mirror stops being glass and becomes a witness.

K.D. Bowe walked into this conversation carrying years of survival on his shoulders - the saint and the savage living in the same body, both of them shaped by a world that never asked whether he was ready.

He speaks about faith not as doctrine, but as a battlefield where the people we trust sometimes fail us in ways our souls cannot forget. He speaks about love not as romance, but as a life that died in his hands - and the burial he had to attend alone. Divorce, he says, is its own kind of funeral. And the man who walks away is never the man who walked in.

But the heart of this story is quieter. It is the moment he meets a boy he did not know he had abandoned. A small boy. Glowing. Starving. Waiting on the grown man who left him behind. When he asks, “Who wouldn’t feed you?” - the question is not for the child. It is for the man who finally sees him.

And in that moment, K.D. discovers what Baldwin always knew:

a man cannot become whole until he tells himself the truth.

From there, he rebuilds his understanding of strength - not as violence, not as bravado, but as discipline, timing, and the courage to refuse becoming the very beast the world expects him to be. “I can touch the beast,” he says, “but I’m not the beast.”

This episode is not an interview.

It is a reckoning.

A study in the soul of a man learning to love himself after the world - and his own choices - tried their best to unmake him.

Watch this with your whole chest. It might call something awake in you too.

#BeautyInTheBeastPodcast #KDBowe #BlackMenHealing #EmotionalIntelligence #InnerChildWork #MasculinityRedefined #SelfLoveJourney #SoulWork #HealingForMen #GrowthMindset #KDBowe #divorce #preaching #pastor #church

“He didn’t follow me… and that saved his life.”

That’s how Al Tariq Miller begins the story no parent is ever prepared to tell.

His youngest son - six years old - watched a cartoon on YouTube Kids.

A cartoon that taught him how to hang himself.

Minutes later, Al Tariq walked past his son’s room…

and the child who always ran after him didn’t move.

He checked on him anyway.

And found his son hanging from the bunk bed.

What happened next - the CPR, the coma, the recovery, the marriage nearly collapsing, the 988 calls, the rage at YouTube, the film he made to save other children - is the kind of pain that should break a man forever.

But somehow… it didn’t.

And now he’s here, telling the world what most men bury so deep they never come back from it.

This is not content.

This is not entertainment. - it's a lifeline. A warning every parent needs to hear. And a testament to resilience, fatherhood, and the unspoken weight many men carry.

This will change the way you look at your children, your marriage, your mental health, and the world you trust them in.

This is Beauty in the Beast.

And this episode may be the most important we’ve ever recorded.

#BeautyInTheBeastPodcast #AlTariqMiller #BlackMenHealing #YouTubeKidsSafety #HangmanChallenge #MentalHealthMatters #suicideprevention #menshealth #parenting