Richard Fowler: Education, Advocacy, and Media Career
Richard Fowler is a multifaceted individual with a diverse background in media, journalism, and political activism. His career reflects a commitment to storytelling, advocacy, and empowering future generations. He is a Contributor to Fox News Media and an Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Georgetown University.
Academic Foundation and Early Career
Richard Fowler's journey began with a strong foundation in political activism in his home state of Florida, where he volunteered on numerous statewide electoral campaigns. As a proud Jamaican American, with both parents hailing from the Caribbean nation, Fowler's work as a storyteller began earnestly through this involvement.
He has served as a Senior Media Fellow for the New Leader’s Council and as the Chairman of the Center for Black Equity. In both roles, Richard channeled his experience as a storyteller to train and equip millennials with the skills needed to advocate for their respective communities.
Media and Journalism Career
Since 2016, Richard Fowler has provided political and cultural analysis across Fox’s daytime and primetime programming as well the network’s Sunday morning public affairs line-up. This includes Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream and Media Buzz with Howard Kurtz. He also appears as a guest co-host on The Five (weekdays, 5-6 PM ET).
Fowler, former host of Fowler Show, a national syndicated radio program, is now known for his work as a contributing writer for Forbes and BET.com. His long-form storytelling has shed light on millennials' issues and topics that live at the intersection of culture, policymaking, and societal change.
Read also: An in-depth look at Richard Blumenthal
With more than a decade and a half of experience in media and journalism, Fowler’s work has made its way to millions of homes via radio, print and television. Foundations, nonprofits, corporate brands, elected leaders, and local governments have utilized Fowler’s storytelling experience to develop engagement strategies for their increasingly diverse audiences.
As a frequent guest on SiriusXM, Fowler’s work has also impacted titans of industry and policy.
Advocacy and Empowerment
Since then, he has worked upfront and behind the scenes as an advocate for social equality as it relates to young people, communities of color, and working families. His work has helped propel educators, frontline healthcare workers and elected officials at the forefront of the emerging electorate.
As a speaker, trainer and now professor, Fowler has taught, mentored, and trained more than 15,000 of his fellow Americans on the importance of messaging and media strategy to strengthen their roles as citizens and advocates.
A Voice of Inclusion
Richard Fowler regularly appears in front of television audiences to offer his perspective on the most important issues of the day. Yet while others build their careers by tearing others down, Richard’s stands out as a voice of inclusion, starting with those with those who disagree with him.
Read also: Honoring Lt. Collins: The Memorial Scholarship
Across this country, young and old alike are yearning for a different tenor to address the challenges of our time. Proudly progressive, Richard will help outline the important differences between the solutions proposed by progressives versus those proposed by conservatives for audiences. At the same time, Richard insists that while we may disagree about the best way forward, those of opposing political stripes love their country in equal measure.
Personal Reflections and Storytelling
Richard Fowler is an American storyteller, a contributing writer at Forbes, and a contributor at Fox News. And I think when you invite people in, you get to choose who you want to tell your story to. Oh, that’s a really good question. I am a brother. I am a son. I’m an advocate. I think most importantly, I’m a storyteller. I’ve been blessed with the ability to sort of see people for who they are. And I’ve been blessed with a platform that allows me to both amplify and tell really good stories.
I think it’s really important to celebrate coming out day. And I think it’s also really critical that as we sort of turn the page and begin to write the new chapter and celebrate our existence as LGBTQ+ individuals, we start to change the frame and we start to invite people into our stories. Because I think coming out is right and that we have to constantly retell our story over and over again. And I think when you invite people in, you get to choose who you want to tell your story to. And you get to choose how you want to tell that story. We’re in an era where we don’t have to do that anymore. I think now it’s about living our lives and living our lives and truth and leaning into our lived experiences and understanding that our lived experiences and our existence are okay. And as we begin to write this new chapter, it also requires work which is why, as a storyteller, it’s my job to be part of helping society understand and grapple with the realities of what it means to be a member of the LGBTQIA community and what it means to live in the intersections of being a black man, being a black gay man, and also being a black gay man who lives in the community and all the existences and all the adjectives that come with that. It’s nuanced. But in that nuance, there is beauty. There’s also beauty in living in that nuance. And I think for a very long time in our culture and our society, we’ve been forced into these black-and-white boxes. We’ve been forced to live in these very clean lines. And the truth of the matter is, what life teaches us is that there’s no such thing as clean lines. There’s no such thing as these beautifully drawn boxes. The truth of the matter is that some people’s lives are zigzags, and other people’s lives are circles and triangles.
So, I think for me, there were phases to it. The first person that I came out to was my older brother and a close cousin of mine. somebody I considered to be one of my sisters. And then from there, I sort of worked my way through the family and dealt with the agonizing after you tell somebody; this is who I am, waiting, and holding my breath for them to respond. I came out around the age of 24, or 25, and there were parts of my coming out story that was traumatic. I picked two people that I thought would have softer reactions to sort of prime myself for the harder reactions from some of the older folks in my family. So, I sort of knew that they were going to be more accepting. But once again, I go back to the same point that as a storyteller and as somebody who has sort of spent the past almost two decades of my life really honing on the craft of telling stories, I don’t think we should be in the business of telling stories to please the listener. And I often find that the coming out experience is just that. We try to nuance it especially, as you get older, you want to shape it in a way not to upset the listeners. So, you want to shape your coming out experience in a way that doesn’t upset mom or doesn’t upset dad. And in doing so, I think you take away the essence of who we are as people.
I’m an empath. So, I’m somebody that’s constantly picking up and feeling into energies. When I’m writing somebody’s story or interviewing a subject, I try to feel what they bring in. And sometimes without trying to feel into it, I feel it. And so I try to feel into their word choice and those dynamics. And so when I’m not writing, I try to tune out all of those energies. And oftentimes, if I’m writing a big story, I will log my interview and I’ll wait a couple of days. I tell people all the time that oftentimes, yes, there are stories that I have to write on deadline but in writing big featured stories, I try to either give myself a lot of time or I try not to be on a deadline so I can log the interview and spend like two days not focused on it. Then I can sit down, write my first draft, and then go away for a day and come back to it. And so, within the writing process and within the writing period, I’m taking sort of micro-breaks away from the story to give the story and to give the subject’s voice time to breathe. And in giving the voice of the subject time to breathe, I’m also finding new understanding. And so it’s part of recharging my batteries is taking these micro-breaks.
Read also: The Career of Richard Hendrix
Mastering the Art of Argument
Winning is everything. If it wasn’t they wouldn’t keep score. And those words could not be truer in the world of debate. Whether it is in the boardroom, the classroom, or at the dining table, Fowler will give you the tools and tricks to master any argument. Over the past six years, Fowler has engaged in over 400 televised debates and has prepped dozens of public leaders and trained over 2,000 young professionals in the art of the argument. During this talk, Richard’s audience will get indoctrinated in all the skills necessary to argue smart, not hard.
Building a Personal Brand
The Richard Fowler Show is one of the top progressive syndicated radio shows in the country, and you would be surprised to know that it is run on a shoestring budget. Building a brand is not easy and comes with its fair share of blood, sweat, and tears, but it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and leg. During this talk, audiences will learn how to turn their vision boards, dreams, and goals into a thriving personal brand.
Communicating with Millennials
Millennials are the largest generation on our planet. As the baby boomers taught us, the larger the generation, the greater the influence over norms, expectations, media behavior, and political messaging. And with 10,000 millennials turning 21 every day in the United States, now is time to figure out how they think and what that means for our nation and the globe.
Richard Fowler is one of the leading experts on communicating to millennials. Being one himself, Richard has helped political organizations, local governments, elected leaders, and corporations figure out their messaging around millennials, and now he wants to help you. During this talk, Richard gives insights from the media and some messaging tips that baby boomers and other generations need to know to improve millennial relations.
tags: #richard #fowler #education #history
