Realistically speaking covid-19 is here and if we agree to tell ourselves the truth, it might be here for a while. But do our lives have to stop because of it? What alternatives do undergraduates have to learning now since we can't have our classroom lectures due to the lockdown? For undergraduates, do you know that some universities offer online distance learning courses to students? For those already enrolled in different universities, has any of your lecturers reached out to you or proposed a virtual class? Before the lockdown has it ever been the case? Join Host, Comfort Uwakhonye as she discusses learning alternatives for Nigerian Students in the wake of the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Young & Cerebral

Teaching Alternatives for Undergraduates

We are in a season of transition, people are going to transition out to businesses, people are going to transition into new businesses, there is a lot of transitioning going on. It is one thing for us at this time to have smartphones but are we smart ourselves using this tools for the workplace. On this episode Host Adewunmi Oshodi Tapa holds the discussion as Nigerians share their thoughts on the workplace during the COVID pandemic and Post-COVID.

Are you digitally ready for the workplace?

What has been helping you to beat the time? We know a lot of us are not used to being at home, not doing anything, or not moving about visiting friends or meeting people.What do you do when you wake up in the morning till in the evening when you sleep? On this episode with host Comfort Uwakhonye read as Nigerians share their coping mechanisms during this period and learn how you too can make the best of this time indoors.

Coping Mechanisms to Staying at home During the COVID-19 period.

What are those little things that you have done that has kept you going this period? Now that everyday is now everyday, we don’t have ‘Thank God its Friday’, we don’t complain about Mondays anymore and the time just keeps rolling and rolling. So what have you been able to do for yourself that has kept you? On this show with host Oshodi-Tapa we hear Nigerians talk to us about their own way of keeping body, mind and soul together amidst the COVID-19 Lockdown.

What has kept you going during this COVID-19 period?

Do you know that the kind of Content you write or use to market your business can either make your business or lead to poor sales if there's no strategy? Running a business in today's world is nearly impossible without some form of writing skills. The biggest and most successful brands understand this and make use of Storytelling content to market their services and product and connect with their target customers. Join us on this episode as we discuss "Creating Opportunities for your Brand through Writing" with Lindsay Eke.

Creating Opportunities for your Brand through Writing

Will your business survive this pandemic? Due to the Recent outbreak of the Corona Virus disease, a lot of businesses are facing massive declines in profits, markets are crashing, world wide, various Country's Economies are being affected and there seems to be a high level of uncertainty for many business owners. On this episode Onomiwo Genesis Co-Founder of Auto sparkle, will be sharing some practical survival tips for businesses in the light of Covid-19.

Survival Strategies for SMEs in the Light of COVID-19 with Genesis Onomiwo

On every last Saturday of the show, we shine the spotlight on two young individuals doing amazing things in their industries. Joining the host, Olamide on this episode we had Fadele Michael who is a UI/UX designer and Oyewale Mojolaoluwa, who is an entrepreneur. Listen as they share their experiences working and making ends meet in the Nigerian Market.

Conversations with Olamide: Going Places with Fadele Michael and Oyewale Mojolaoluwa

Looking back at the year so far, as we countdown to 2020 what are you grateful for. Listen in on the conversations as people share their thoughts and take you through what they are looking forward to in the coming year.

Conversations With Oshodi: 2019 so Far

In the spirit of Christmas, we are asking the audience about thoughtful gifts one could share with their friends and loved ones in the season of Christmas. It was an exciting and interesting time with people sharing their thoughts while reciting the 12 days of Christmas Song. 

Conversations with Comfort: Thoughtful Gifts For Christmas

Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi is 2019 TIME 100 NEXT honoree and the 2019 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year. As a gender equality advocate with over five(5) years' experience in sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response programming s well as sexual reproductive health and rights advocacy, Oluwaseun has worked with vulnerable groups and led several projects in IDP camps, schools, communities with the aim to find sustainable home-grown solutions to SGBV and facilitate system-level prevention and interventions. To further promote the well-being of survivors and vulnerable groups, Oluwaseun's organization, Stand to End Rape Initiative (STER) - provides pro bono medical, legal and psychosocial support to survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. Below is a summary of the interview Achieving Equality for All with Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi Seun is a gender equality advocate who as a child had always questioned the relevance of gender roles and the disparity in gender norms. Always asking questions she grew up to understand certain roles were expected from the different genders and why it was so. She finally got involved in 2013 when she had enough of the injustice against one gender. She reveals that the world has grown from a place where conversations about sexual violence and domestic violence could not be held and survivors coming out were seen as taboo and because of this she hopes to build knowledge and help people unlearn certain attitudes and practices that have become part of them. When asked as to the number of sexual violence cases that solved successfully, Seun revealed that not all gender-based violence cases come requiring legal action. She said that some victims would oftentimes ask that there be no legal action but, they are later counseled so they can see reasons why taking legal action was necessary. She also reveals that Mental health therapy is usually involved when integrating victims back into society. She stated that the survivor’s mental and medical health was very important in their processes as well as preventing STIs and removing any unwanted pregnancies. She revealed that in cases where victims are to meet with their abusers in court, they are prepared mentally and with minimal questioning so they wouldn’t get to relive the abuse in the process. Replying to a question about creating safe spaces for victims online she said that it required a change in attitudes, knowledge, and practices in the society so each party is held accountable for their actions. She maintained that some narratives and miscommunications needed to be dropped so that sexual violence cases do not continue as an endless cycle of violence. She revealed that they had cases where men would come forward saying they had been raped when they were younger. She was of the opinion that everybody had a role to play in ensuring that such crimes are stopped and the accused are brought to book. She gave credence to the fact that social media has helped in creating awareness around sexual violence and changing the narrative of individuals in the present generation. She also spoke about the need to protect oneself in the workplace notwithstanding the fear of losing one’s income. She spoke to the fact that the HR department in every company was responsible for protecting the human rights of their employees. She maintained that for one to be able to garner the interest of the majority on such cases they would need to strengthen policies, communities and support systems. Following the reaction of a caller into the show, she dismissed the saying that all ‘men are scum’ reiterating that men were not always to blame as there sometimes were cases of false rape accusations. She shared the optimism that equality was achievable even as the present generation was setting the pace with women getting into positions of power.

Achieving Equality for All with Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi

The conversation is around discussing the issues parents/wards face in paying their children school fees. Host, Adewunmi Oshodi Tapa throws the conversation open for listeners to be able to discuss how they are able to plan and save up for their children school fees when the need arises. It was an engaging conversation with parents/wards sharing varying experiences and ways through which they are able to sustain themselves when the bills begin to add up.

Conversations with Oshodi: Surviving The School fees Period

As the year 2019 draws to an end a new decade begins. The conversation borders around the past decade - 10 years in review. Host, Adewunmi Oshodi Tapa throws the conversation open to the listeners. In her words, "Where were you in 2010 and where are you now in 2019?".  It was an interesting conversation with people sharing their before and after moments more so with voices filled with gratitude.

Conversations with Oshodi: Radio Decade Challenge

A lot of discussions surfaced after Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate for African Action Congress in Nigeria's 2019 General Election was detained without bail after leading a revolution campaign which he tagged 'Revolution now'. This Conversation comes however after Nigeria's Department of State Service stormed the Federal High Court to stop the trial proceedings of Omoyele Sowore so as to rearrest him. This move attracted a lot of backlash from many including the international community, and questions arose around the independence of the Nigerian court of law as a hallowed seat of justice - the last hope for the common man. People called in to express their displeasure with some others pointing out the ripple effect the move will make for Nigeria's image.

Conversations with Oshodi: Is there Justice for the Common Man?

James Ogunjimi is a radical Nigerian who believes in the power of words to effect change. He writes poems, essays, shorts stories and political op-eds. In 2013, his poem: “Listen to the Whirlwind” was named “Poem of the Year” by the International Community of Poets (ICOP). In 2015, his poem, “Humanity’s Call” was second runner-up in the February edition of the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest. His short stories, opinion pieces, and poems have appeared in Sahara Reporters, Kalahari Review, Brittle Paper amongst many other publications. Below is a summary of the interview Content Writing For Social Media with James Ogunjimi James is a hype man and the lead noise maker responsible for making the public aware of what a business is offering on social media. He says a content creator is someone who creates or writes for brands or businesses. He creates the audience's needs in mind, he sells the product by appealing to the audience. You have to understand how to write from different perspectives and the different forms of writing. James has been writing for 6years and one of the challenges he encountered while writing is people disagreeing and challenging some of the content you come up with. He says to create a good write-up, there must be a good headline to grab the attention of the reader’s attention, humans have a very short attention span and if you can’t interest them within the first 5 seconds, they’d pass your post by. Writing for social media is different from writing for any other medium, there are certain mechanics and strategies that should be employed for it to be successfully done. To easily attract attention, you should have a very catchy first line and it should be structured for the target audience. James says the only way to make people interact with your content is by being consistent with the kind of content you put out. Your followers gravitate to you because they expect a certain kind of content from you, give this content in creative ways. Facebook as a platform supports longer captions, Instagram uses hashtags mostly, twitter is more limited and for career paths, LinkedIn works better. You just need to know how to utilize these different platforms to your benefit. He said when taking up a writing job some of the things to ask are, what they want to achieve, what medium would they prefer to use, would a website be necessary, and many more. The best way to caption content on the internet is by taking a more conversational route. He reveals that video content is gaining more traction than any other because it is easier to watch something with your own eyes than reading about it. James advises that when handling the social media accounts for a brand or business, you must have a content calendar to help you remember when and what to post. Even personal accounts can try this so they can consistently put out content and gain traction. A caller asked about how to get inspiration to put content out on a blog, James said your blog should be something you are passionate about because once you like doing something, you’d consistently be on it. If you find it hard to come up with ideas, he says you should search up the latest trends on whatever topic you’re writing about. You can also use google to search up topics that people are searching for. Search up keywords and create ideas around them, also use these keywords in your title so that whenever people search up the word, your post will be one of the first to pop up. Concluding, he says the major change he noticed in his field is the rise of video creation and he advises that people utilize this medium in their content creation. He ended saying originality is key and always write from different perspectives.

Content Writing For Social Media with James Ogunjimi

Dayo Adedayo is a trained photographer at the Westminster college and the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom. With over four million images in his archives on Nigeria, he is the author of Eleven books. His photographic works adorn the pages of the e-passport of Nigeria, the one hundred Naira note released to mark the centenary celebration of Nigeria, the walls of the Lagos and Abuja International Airports and several institutions and homes across Nigeria.  Below is a summary of the interview The Photographer's Journey with Dayo Adedayo On the show, Dayo, a renowned Nigerian photographer shared his journey into photography and why it mattered to him. He shared how his love for photography stemmed from his shyness, also how he used his camera as a shield. After studying agriculture, he traveled to the UK to study photography and that changed his life completely. Dayo revealed that common to the idea behind photography, it was not a job that gathers much income initially as it was a field that required passion. He added that photography was more of a legacy job as it was rooted in the creative arts like the works of writers and so on and would live on through many generations.  Responding to how his parents reacted to his career choice, Dayo revealed that he lost his father at a young age and because his mom was not literate, she had no problem with it, so he made the choice and followed his career path to success. When asked how he felt about how anyone in this generation could pick up a camera and pass for a photographer, he said they were wasting their time. He expanded that the field required technical knowledge, proper education, and certification to guarantee success in any form. He was of the opinion that technology has now allowed photographers an opportunity to be lax and uncreative compared to times when they would have to plan every shot due to limited resources. Dayo revealed that his choice of Nigeria as a career focus had stemmed from the fact that people often failed to see the country’s true potential as a land of untapped opportunities. He beckoned on citizens to look deeper than the surface and to make good use of the resources within the country. He later mentioned that the texts he had come across during his time overseas which talked about Nigeria were in a false light so he decided to take it up to rewrite the true Nigerian story. One of the callers a secondary school classmate to Dayo spoke to the testament of the guest’s work and legacy as he appealed to the government to make efforts to include Dayo’s story in the school curriculum.  This he said will ensure that new generations have an idea of our Nigerian history and culture. Dayo, when asked how he planned to preserve his legacy, he answered saying that he had published 11 books already with nine(9) sold out. He mentioned that he also made sure not to reprint his books so that it could garner the value and reception of people to his works. He also announced that he was planning an exhibition titled “There Is A Country” in the coming year. He recalled that during the period of traveling to record the Nigerian story he was not been sponsored. He had had to pay for the trips from his pocket coupled with assistance from family members. He mentioned that his wife had been the greatest support system in his dream and his best critic. In conclusion, he explained that so far in his experience he had come to realize that the federal government was not aware of the treasures and monuments in many areas in Nigeria. “Only the locals know what is in their local government”, he said. Following this, he urged the Nigerian people to begin to explore areas in Nigeria. He showed optimism about the Nigerian future while stating that it is only the black leaders, we who can and will change the perception of the world towards Africa. 

A Photographer's Journey with Dayo Adedayo

Young and Cerebral is a clan of curious and imaginative storytellers based in Lagos metropolis. We help enthusiastic 18-35 year-olds to triumph by providing inspiration, empowerment, and opportunities so that they can achieve personal fulfillment. We preach “Self Actualization”. We profile thought-leaders, inventors, influencers, founders, whose lives embody our message. Young and Cerebral Podcast is a library of our Radio program. If you missed the On-Air radio version, don’t worry, a recap of the program via podcast below. To listen, click the play button on the respective media to listen.

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