Archived Navigating Diversity Episodes
About Us
Navigating Diversity is a weekly program that began at KISU in 2018 as a ten-minute segment on Friday mornings. The original program, hosted and produced by Krystoff Kissoon, has since grown into a thirty-minute segment based on broadening listenership, and now airs on Tuesday nights at 7:30 pm on KISU.
The mission of Navigating Diversity is to explore how human beings differ yet can find ways relate to one another in an increasingly xenophobic sociopolitical climate.
The intention of Navigating Diversity is to have open, honest, and informed conversations that can help people navigate some of the most important issues of diversity we are facing globally today, but in a way that isn’t afraid to ask some of the big questions, the big sometimes heavy questions, that can bring some of the light and hope into the conversation and help give all our lives meaning.
Navigating Diversity has three core values. First, recognizing the duality in all things--holding space for both the light and the dark, our differences and our similarities, the things that scare us and the things that make us feel whole, for neither can exist without the other. Second, vulnerability--finding more conscious ways to stand in our truth and help others to stand in theirs, and to share our stories and the most authentic parts of ourselves with the rest of humanity as the only way to heal ourselves and heal the world. And third, perhaps our most important value, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable--it’s the only way for us to grow and to do better.
Navigating Diversity features a wide variety of guests including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and researchers, politicians, and business and civil society leaders. Navigating Diversity has covered a broad spectrum of social, economic, and political issues including intersectionality, racial equality, social justice, immigration, environmental sustainability, religion, and spirituality. Navigating Diversity has fostered a national and international listenership, with fans in U.S. cities such as Denver and Portland, and in countries such as Trinidad & Tobago and the Cayman Islands.
About Our Host
Krystoff Kissoon began his academic career at Idaho State University in Spring 2014. He is an international student from Trinidad & Tobago, a twin-island country in the Southern Caribbean. He graduated in May 2017 with a Bachelor’s in Political Science and International Studies, and is now pursuing a Doctor of Arts in Political Science at Idaho State. Throughout his time at ISU and in Pocatello, he has served in a number of leadership positions including President of the International Students Association (ISA), and Senator in the Associated Students of Idaho State University (ASISU) Student Government for three terms. He has worked in the Office of Marketing and Communications, the Office of Alumni Relations, and currently, in the Department of Political Science as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. His research interests include Identity Politics and Comparative Politics, looking particularly at the intersection of race and sexuality, and has presented research at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference. His hobbies include creative writing, taking walks in nature, listening to podcasts, cooking, and recording and producing Navigating Diversity. He was born to a Hindu father and a Muslim mother--descended from Indian Indentured Laborers who migrated to the Caribbean. He received most of his education in Trinidad & Tobago in Christian evangelical schools, and has four loving and supportive older siblings. He is a first-generation college student and a first-generation doctoral student.
Stay Connected
Send questions, feedback, and suggestions to navigatingdiversityradio@gmail.com
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Episodes
Season 2 - Audio (below)
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In this episode, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest Sam Castro to raise awareness about a discussion panel open to ISU students and faculty titled “The Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education” on April 1st, 2022 at 5 pm in the Sargent Family Boardroom/Snake River Room at ISU. -
In this episode, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest Reinalyn Echon to raise awareness about a discussion panel open to ISU students and faculty titled “The Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education” on April 1st, 2022 at 5 pm in the Sargent Family Boardroom/Snake River Room at ISU. -
In this 1 hour special, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest Aley Salas, “Pagan Witch” and 2020 Idaho State University Graduate with a Master’s in Counseling. -
In this episode, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest Rachel McGovern, former co-host of KISU’s Sustainable Idaho and the new Editorial Assistant of the Policy Studies Journal. -
In this fun and light-hearted conversation, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest, Ailie Maclean, ASISU Vice President-Elect for the 2021-2022 academic year and the newest co-host of KISU’s Sustainable Idaho. -
In this special two-part episode recorded and broadcasted in June in recognition of Pride Month, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest, Reverend Jenny Peek, Consulting Minister of Pocatello Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Krystoff and Jenny examine the meaning of Pride Month and highlight two categories which are often marginalized even within the LGBTQIA+ community: “ace” or asexuality and demisexuality. The conversation closes with Jenny’s advice for individuals struggling to reconcile their sexual orientation and gender identity with their faith, and how we can all be better allies to those who identify as asexual and demisexual. -
In this special two-part episode recorded and broadcasted in June in recognition of Pride Month , host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest, Reverend Jenny Peek, Consulting Minister of Pocatello Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Krystoff and Jenny navigate her story to becoming a minister and the current work of the Pocatello Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, as well as issues such as conscious parenting and antiracism.
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In this special 2 part episode, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest, Chris Stedman, writer, speaker, community organizer, and founding director of the Humanist Center of Minnesota. -
In this special 2 part episode, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest, Chris Stedman, writer, speaker, community organizer, and founding director of the Humanist Center of Minnesota.
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In this special two-part episode, host Krystoff Kissoon sits down with guest, Dr. Arunima Datta, Assistant Professor of History at Idaho State University and historian of South and Southeast Asia and the British Empire, to delve deep into the ancient wisdom tradition of Hinduism.
