Oakland, April 21, 2025
As conversations in this country continue about who gets to name what—monuments, military bases, entire histories—it’s also worth asking:
What happens when we take our names back?
When we tell the truth about where they came from?
This episode is about the quiet weight of inherited shame—
and the decision to release it.
About initials I didn’t choose.
And the story I finally chose to tell.
In Episode 1, I talked about names passed down through lineage and land.
This week, I’m talking about the names that are harder to carry—
and what it means to let them go.
I’ve always been fascinated by how names shape perception.
I once read that the city of Modesto, California, was almost named after a man—
but he was too modest to accept the honor.
So they named it Modesto instead.
That story stuck with me.
The idea that someone would reject recognition—
and how that one choice still echoes through the name of a whole city.
On the other end of the spectrum,
I’ve always admired Sigourney Weaver—not just as an actress,
but for her name.
She chose it for herself as a teenager,
pulling it from a minor character in The Great Gatsby.
The name Sigourney means conqueror.
It became her.
That has always stayed with me:
how a name can feel like destiny—
but only once you’ve claimed it.
Names have power.
And that’s what this episode is about:
recognizing the weight a name can carry—
and deciding whether or not to carry it forward.
I’m not sharing this just to tell my own story.
I’m sharing it to hold up a mirror—
to who we are,
to how we’re shaped,
and to what we’ve inherited, even when we don’t know it.
Shame can be passed down quietly.
Silence, too.
But by telling the truth, we start to loosen their grip.
And maybe—just maybe—
that’s how things begin to shift.
Little by little.
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Thank you for being part of this journey.
With love and presence,
Kadie
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