I interviewed Jeremiah Morancy and Roy Harvey of We Gotta Do Better Podcast. They provided great insight on how to grow as a person and a community and what their podcast and movement is all about.
We Gotta Do Better is a podcast and a movement that helps individuals strive to do better. The push behind it is this—when you do better for yourself, you’re then allowing a chance for change within others as well.
“We want to stop building neighborhoods and start building more communities. We need to start doing better. It starts within us, ourselves, because if I’m doing better then you’re doing better, we’re doing better as a whole,” Morancy said.
He notes it is a pro Black movement, however it does not exclude non-Blacks. We Gotta Do Better is a movement of self improvement to help better yourself and your neighbor. “Instead of trying to change the world, you change yourself and hopefully that’ll start a ripple effect,” Harvey said.
The Catalyst: What inspired you guys to start the podcast/movement?
Morancy: This was around the time when “I Can’t Breathe” and what happened to George Floyd, in the Black Lives Matter Movement continued to spark. People were not talking about it. We felt like if you’re not talking about it, silence is violence. We decided to make a video on Instagram as an IGTV, and posted about how we would like people to talk about it and raise awareness. We got feedback from the video and used it as a motivation to turn it into a podcast. Also, we are neighborhoods, not communities, we don’t own anything here. We need communities where we have ownership like other races.
The Catalyst: What topics will be addressed?
Harvey: We will be discussing topics that are poticital, social, economical, mental, and core values. Any problem under the sun that our communities we’re going to touch base on.
Morancy: Having difficult conversations people don’t want to have, improving ourselves and doing better as people and a community so we can grow.
The Catalyst: What in your upbringing or recent years shaped your drive and motivation?
Harvey: Being in the neighborhood, looking at everyone being so stagnated and wanting more for them and myself, not being caught in a rat race.
Morancy: Realizing that as a young black male, growing up fairly privileged but still growing up with people from the hood, I was able to see what goes on, and was able to gain perspective from both sides. I got the understanding that we can be better and used it as inspiration.
The Catalyst: What do you think will help communities the most? What do they need?
Morancy: Raising awareness and gaining knowledge. When you become aware, you have an understanding. Also having figures that are looking out for the youth, providing guidance, and establishing a community where everyone is helping each other.
Harvey: If we collectively get some hope. It starts with hope that change can happen. Because when you hope, that means you still keep fighting. Hopefully, the hope will turn into faith and faith is knowing change will come without seeing it. You have hope first then your actions will turn it into faith.
The Catalyst: Any takeaways or important messages for anyone?
Harvey: Help! We gotta do better. Tune into the episodes and watch us grow. We’re going to hit some important points and hopefully it’ll inspire you guys to take action and have discussions at home, with your family, friends and communities.
Morancy: Just try to be better than you were yesterday. It branches off to a lot of things, but to put it simply, do things that’ll make you better.
The Catalyst: Where can people find, listen and view your podcast?
Both: You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and YouTube as We Gotta Do Better Podcast. We’re also on Instagram and Twitter @Wegottadobetter, that’s where you can find the link to everything.
