Behind The Story Show
Hosted by Jelani Gonzalez
About this Show
Welcome to Behind The Story Show, a long-form interview podcast hosted by Jelani Gonzalez that goes beyond the headlines to uncover the real journeys behind extraordinary people and powerful ideas.Each week, Jelani sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, creators, leaders, and change-makers to explore the defining moments, hard-earned lessons, personal challenges, and bold decisions that shaped their path. From business and creativity to leadership, culture, innovation, and reinvention, Behind The Story brings you candid conversations that reveal not just what people achieved, but what it took to get there.If you are building something, chasing a vision, navigating change, or looking for stories that educate, inspire, and challenge the way you think, this show is for you.Join us as we go behind the success, behind the struggle, and Behind The Story.
Latest Episodes
Understand Your Ballot: A Free AI Voter Guide for the Midterms
Staring at a seven-page ballot full of names you don't recognize? You're not alone. In this episode of Behind the Story, host Jelani Gonzalez sits down with a Los Angeles software engineer who was born in China, became a U.S. citizen, and set out to fix one of the biggest problems in Am...
What Americans Get Wrong About Iran: The Regime vs. the Iranian People
Zolal Habibi was seven years old when her father, a well-known human rights activist and writer, was killed in the summer of 1988, during the wave of executions of political prisoners in Iran. She found out months later, from a newspaper she wasn’t supposed to see.In this conversation, Jelani Gon...
What to Do After You Sell Your Business: Rebuilding Identity After an Exit
Why do so many founders feel lost after selling their business? Adam Roach exited three real estate brokerage franchises in 2019, hit the number he’d set for himself, and then faced what he calls the hangover: a loss of identity no exit plan had prepared him for.Adam, founder of I Love Coaching C...
Can They Strip Your Citizenship? Both Sides of the Omar Case
Federal agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home on Oct 12, and reporting says the investigation centers on her 2000 naturalization. No one has been charged. This episode steps back from the headlines to answer the bigger question: can the U.S. government take away a person’s citizenship, and what ...
What If 1% Could Fund the Entire Government?
What if you never filed a tax return again — no April 15th, no IRS — and a single 1% tax funded the entire government? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Gary Barnes, a retired tradesman turned author of Fixing America’s Broken Government, for a wide-ranging conve...
Cut the Boot or Lose the Foot: Reid Robinson's Story Behind the X Leg
Reid Robinson was a hardworking IT infrastructure architect and father of two in Calgary when an icy-road car crash changed everything. What followed was more than a dozen surgeries, years of crutches, and a recovery that tested his patience, his body, and his determination to stay present for hi...
Why Habits Change When Your Story Does
What does it take to change a habit that has outlasted every attempt to break it? Connie Kwan, author of Story Habits, says the answer starts with the story you tell yourself about who you are, not with more willpower.Connie grew up between Hong Kong and Canada, trained as a computer engineer, an...
What DEI Actually Is — and What It Isn't | Celeste Warren
The word "DEI" has been demonized — but what does it actually mean? In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with Celeste Warren, former Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Merck, decades-long HR leader, author, and founder of CRW Diversity, for the c...
The Final Ruling: Inside the Supreme Court's 7-2 Mail-Ballot Decision
On Monday, September 14, 2026, the Supreme Court closed the book — at least for this election — on a fight Behind the Story has tracked across five episodes. By a 7-2 vote, the justices refused to let the Trump administration enforce a new U.S. Postal Service rule on mail-in ballots for the 2026 ...
The Ali G Movie Firestorm: Banned Before Anyone Saw It
Twenty-six years ago, a comedian in a yellow tracksuit and orange shades sat across from real politicians, generals, and diplomats — and they answered him seriously. That was Ali G. This fall, Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing the character back in Ali G: Who Is I? — and tens of thousands of people a...
Arrested Over an $87 Check — Dr. Sheena Meade on Second Chances
In 2004, Sheena Meade was a young single mother earning about $18,000 a year when an $87.26 check bounced. Two months later, police arrested her in front of her four children. She paid the check back, completed the courses, and thought her sentence was over — but as she says in this conversation,...
Robert Kennedy III: The Introvert Who Speaks to Thousands for a Living
He was born in Jamaica, named Robert Kennedy III by a grandfather who said it "with such glee" — and he's spent his life turning that name into a conversation starter. In this episode of Behind the Story, Jelani Gonzalez sits down with communication coach, speaker, and self-describ...
Judge Rules Trump's Mail Ballot Order Unconstitutional — What Happens Next
Back where we started — except this time, it's different. The same judge who was forced to lift her block on Trump's mail-ballot rule put a new one right back up, days later — and for the first time in five months, a federal court actually ruled on whether the policy is constitutional. ...
Mail Ballot Fight Part 2: The Judge Says They Broke Her Order
We told you two days ago this story wasn't over — it moved even faster than expected. A federal judge has now ruled that the Trump administration violated her own court order restricting mail ballot rules... and then declined to do anything about it.In this follow-up, we break down Judge Tal...
Supreme Court Rules on Mail Ballots: Who Controls Your Vote?
The Supreme Court just ruled 6-3 on who controls your mail-in ballot — but by its own admission, the ruling doesn't decide if any of it is actually legal. "Time will tell," the Court wrote. So what did the justices actually decide today, and what did they deliberately leave unresol...