Social Media Pioneer, Writer, and Actor Tarek Ali On Five Things You Need to Create a Highly Successful Podcast

Photo Credit: Juan Veloz

…Where I’m from, I didn’t have access or resources to therapy, to mindful practices. You think people in the hood ain’t lactose intolerant and ain’t got allergies to gluten? Yeah, they do. It’s just that they don’t know. They just know they drink a lot of milk and their stomach hurts after, you know. But when you have access and resources, you know, “Oh, I have a gluten allergy. I can’t have this. I can’t have that.” We’re human. So everyone has different things like that. That’s how I feel about healing. I’m in these therapy sessions. I’m also using my experience in science and my experience of healing through my trauma to use different words, different metaphors, and different ways to help people who don’t usually hear this type of language but can understand it so that they can heal. That’s what I want to send out. And what I’m trying to do with Leap Into Healing is that you not only can accept your past, but you can love your past. And you can love your past to help you have a better today and to lead you to a brighter future. I want people to know that they can change who they are. We are all a result of our conditioning. And conditioning, if you know neuroscience and psychology, is just repeated patterns. And what your brain says is, “OK, this is normal.” So let’s stop that. And let’s make something else normal. And I want to help more people do that…

I had the pleasure of talking with Tarek Ali. Tarek, a figure synonymous with resilience and transformation, has carved a niche for himself as an influential content creator, writer, and actor. His journey from facing adversities such as homelessness, poverty, sexual assault, and bullying due to his race and queerness, to becoming a celebrated voice for activism, positivity, and healing, outlines a tale of remarkable courage and perseverance.

Ali’s entry into the digital world began in 2013, when he turned to YouTube to share his personal experiences, making him one of the early adopters of social media as a tool for advocacy. Over the years, his content has garnered more than 200 million views across platforms, a testament to his impact in normalizing conversations around growth, healing, and mental health. His weekly podcast, THAT CONVERSATION WITH TAREK ALI, stands as a testament to his reach and influence, having been nominated for a 2024 GLAAD Award and attracting over 6 million views in just a month. It’s noteworthy that Ali has achieved the distinction of being the only solo black and queer person to host a top 10 podcast in the USA in the health and fitness category.

Ali’s activism isn’t limited to his online presence. At just 16 years old, he founded an LGBTQ nonprofit that grew to include over a dozen chapters nationwide, an effort that earned recognition from the Obama administration. His academic and professional pursuits are equally impressive; holding a degree in Biology from Georgia State University, Ali has interned at prestigious institutions such as Howard University and Columbia University Dental Clinics, and conducted cancer cell regeneration research at the National Institutes of Health.

Despite his significant contributions to health and science, Ali’s passion for storytelling and acting led him to pivot towards the entertainment industry, where he aims to continue spreading messages of self-acceptance, growth, and healing. With several TV shows and books in the pipeline, Ali is on a trajectory to make even larger waves in Hollywood and beyond.

His activism extends to panels and discussions, notably participating in a discussion on the experiences of black content creators in the online economy at the Congressional Black Caucus in April 2021. Ali’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, earning him a place in the inaugural #YouTubeBlack Voices class of 2021 and a Streamy Award in 2019.

Tarek Ali’s story is one of triumph over adversity, using his platform to champion the causes of the marginalized while promoting a message of positivity and self-growth. His multifaceted career reflects his dedication to not just surviving, but thriving, and his work continues to inspire countless individuals across the globe.

Yitzi: Tarek, it’s a delight and an honor to meet you. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood and how you grew up?

Tarek: Yes, I was born in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I grew up in a house of 11 people — five boys, and six girls. When I was in sixth grade, my stepmom left us, leaving my dad struggling to pay the bills. We lost our home and had to move to a humbler neighborhood. From there, my siblings and I were split up — two of us went here, one went there. I was just juggled through homes, even experiencing homelessness.

Around 15, my aunt and uncle finally took me in. My aunt’s a pharmacist, and my uncle’s a business owner in Prince George’s County, Maryland — the most affluent Black county in America. Suddenly, I saw representation of people who looked like me — lawyers, doctors, teachers. We read Black literature. My aunt said, “We don’t just sit around during summer. We get internships.” I thought, “Internships?”

Working in healthcare, she had me intern at Howard University. I had to pick a profession, so I chose dentistry — not too boring like pharmacy but not as intense as neurology where a slip could kill someone. I’ve always loved school, been a nerd who loves learning with really good grades. I loved healthcare, but my whole life, I’d acted, written plays — been an art and theater kid.

When my aunt took me in, I did healthcare because I thought that’s what I had to do to keep up and have shelter, since everywhere I went when homeless, I had to provide something. Subconsciously, I felt I had to do this to be safe. But I made time for my creativity — it had to come out.

When I first started making content, it was on Vine, the first short video platform. I got really big there with 60 million loops. After Vine died, I transferred to YouTube while still doing internships — at the National Institutes of Health — and research. YouTube was the only way I could express my creativity.

In college at Georgia State University, I was a neuroscience major, then switched to biology for the dental route. I worked my butt off, spending more time in the library than my apartment until 4 AM every day. Saturdays were for YouTube — that was my creative outlet, and I stayed consistent.

After six years of not making money on YouTube, I blew up in 2019 when I came out to my dad on my channel — it went viral. I graduated with a biology degree and had to decide between healthcare or taking a leap for my dreams. After a lifetime showing up to expectations for safety and shelter, I wanted to bet on myself.

The pandemic just started in 2020, so I moved to LA before lockdown. That first year, I took time off to teach myself screenwriting, using my YouTube and college savings. After writing my first pilot, it got me signed by top manager Ellen Goldsmith-Vein. Since then, I’ve been writing constantly.

When I moved to LA, I started healing my childhood trauma from sexual assault to my parents’ past addictions and mental health challenges. Through that healing process, I saw how I could change myself and the world. I had to unlearn and question so much. I fell in love with healing — that’s why I now identify as a holistic healer, finding ways to heal people through different mediums like my podcast, acting, or the shows I write. That’s my story.

Yitzi: Not only is it a great story, you told it so well, you’re really a good storyteller. Amazing. So you already described so many fascinating things from all the parts of your career. You probably have so many interesting anecdotes and memories. Can you share with our readers one or two of the most memorable stories from your career, either as a writer or otherwise?

Tarek: Oh, I love that question. I’ll give you this story about screenwriting because it was really hard. You got to understand coming from a childhood where there were winters I went with no heat, and we didn’t have a lot of money. When my aunt took me in, they were upper middle class. Going out into the world and to college alone, finances scared me. I had poverty consciousness still operating as if I could only survive, not live.

So when I got to the point where I saved money to come to LA and took that year off to teach myself how to write, by that time, I’m broke. I don’t have any money left. Because of everything I went through, I always think I have to get through it on my own. I got to a point where I started needing to ask for help with my scripts because I had sent them to different places and wasn’t getting any yeses.

A friend, George M Johnson, the author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” connected me with Gotham Group. I sent that first script, and Ellen responded, “Oh my gosh, I love it.” I was like, “Okay, can I get a meeting?” Instead of just keeping pinging her, I kept writing. I wrote something else, sent it. “I love this so much.” But, “Damn, can we get on a call?”

So I made a deck for what I just wrote and sent it. She’s like, “Oh my gosh, I love this too.” After two months from the first time we connected, having sent more material, one day my writing assistant and I got up at 5 AM to write something because I planned to follow up consistently so she couldn’t forget me.

We finished around 8 AM so when the office opened, they’d get it. I remember us drinking coffee, and I pressed send. We high-fived, hoping this would work out after so many nos. Five minutes later, she emailed, “We were just talking about you. A manager is about to reach out.” She signed me after three months.

I tell that story because you just got to keep going. A lot of what I have is because I never accepted the no. A no doesn’t mean you’re not qualified or it’s not for you. The no just means not right now or not this door. So I keep going until I get that yes. If she loved it, I’m sending more stuff she’ll love.

It’s that tenacity and that good part of ego — not the harmful, defensive part, but the part that knows, “No, I’m good at this and deserve to be seen,” and just keeps applying yourself until you get the opportunity.

Yitzi: You have so much going on. You have so much impressive work. Can you share with our readers the exciting projects you’re working on now and what you hope to be working on in the near future?

Tarek: Yes, so many things. My podcast, it’s GLAAD nominated and we’re still in the first season. I was adamant this first season be very true to healing. So I didn’t take any sponsors. There’s no commercials. It’s just me. I’m a storyteller and writer, and I do that in my art. My podcast is a story itself. You can hop in on any episode, but when you start from the first episode and go through, you can hear me healing myself and then starting to heal others.

The podcast is expanding. I now have a subscriber edition called Leap into Healing where people can subscribe for $10 a month and get extra tools for their healing. Using my background in science and psychology, I’ve found different formulas and methods people can use to objectify their healing and emotions so they don’t feel attacked by them. There will also be daily affirmations and soon, live events.

That’s the podcast, but Leap Into Healing is a movement, an initiative I’ve embarked on with a mission to heal the world. I’m meeting with physicians, psychologists, therapists, healers, public figures, entertainers, filmmakers, writers, and more to discuss how we’ll work together to heal the world, whether through a movie, technology, or however.

I’m also working on my TV pilot that will be announced soon. I wrote it, created it, and will be starring in it. And I’m working on my debut book, a guide to healing using a psychoanalysis of one’s traumatic experiences. I’ll go over stories from my life and include psychoanalysis by me on what was happening mentally, so we can see how conditioning works. Then I’ll give people tools on how to heal themselves, because my goal isn’t for people to need me, but to help them learn to heal themselves, and in turn, heal the world so it can spread beyond me.

Those are the main exciting projects I’m really fired up about right now. There is so much more, but those are the highlights.

Yitzi: You sound so busy. I can’t imagine how you have time for this. I don’t know how you keep it all together. It’s pretty amazing.

Tarek: I don’t either, honestly. Mindful practices, slowing down. It’s so fast when you have a lot of things to do. It’s just important to slow down. I’m really big on meditation, hot yoga, journaling — things that slow you down, because life is fast.

Photo Credit: Juan Veloz

Yitzi: Yeah, amazing. So you’ve been blessed with a lot of success now. For those who are just starting or those who are considering, can you share the five things you need to create a highly successful podcast like yours?

Tarek:

1. Have a story. And that story, don’t try to write something you think people will read. You have to write a story that you could write about every single day. You don’t have to be a writer or good with words. What I mean is, if I came to you and asked questions about it every day, you could talk about it all day. That’s the essence of a podcast. It should be something you’re passionate about, insightful about, something you can talk all day about on a mic. That’s one.
2. Two, stay authentic to yourself. Podcasts are long-form. People will be listening to you in intimate spaces for long periods. They can tell when you’re not being yourself and trying to portray something rather than just showing up as you. So be authentic.
3. Three, find a way that makes your podcast or you different. There are lots of podcasts on any topic, but what is your unique voice and perspective that nobody else brings? Once you find that weird or unseen thing, amplify it. That’s what will make you special.
4. Four, remember to find a way for it to be fun. Even if you want success, if it’s not fun, then you’re not living — just clocking in and out. And if you’re doing something you’re passionate about but it’s not fulfilling, you’ll lose that passion working at it more than enjoying it.
5. Five, make sure it’s fulfilling. When I say have fun, I don’t mean get loose. Fun is fulfillment. If it’s only pouring out of you and not into you, you’ll be depleted by the end. Make sure it’s an exchange, not just you giving yourself away. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

Yitzi: You seem like you’re firing on all cylinders and you’re thriving. Can you share with our readers the self-care routines that you do to help your body, mind, and heart to thrive?

Tarek: Yes, it’s so important for me to separate those three — your body, mind, and soul or heart, whichever you believe in your belief system. It’s important to separate them because sometimes we’ll put one through something because the other isn’t okay. What I mean is, if you’re insecure in your head with thoughts that you don’t look good, then you put your body through crazy diets, overexercising, not sleeping — and that affects your health, which affects your spirit or heart, your emotions.

So it’s very important to separate the three and look at what’s happening. If you have a lot of anxiety, identify that, then you know how to treat it, just like in healthcare. If you know it’s anxiety, do things to help with anxiety.

For me, just like you brush your teeth habitually, you need habitual mindful practices. It doesn’t have to be a huge three-hour bubble bath. It can be two minutes of closing your eyes and breathing deeply. It’s important to have those mindful habits.

I have a dog, so I walk my dog for a mile around the neighborhood. During that walk, I check in with myself, asking “How do we feel about this?” A lot of times, responsibilities and tasks cloud our head along with thoughts about dates, bills, goals. You have to get out of your head, make space for your emotions and what you’re going through in those three elements — body, mind, heart.

When you hear yourself, you realize “I didn’t even know I felt like that,” and you know you need to take care of that feeling. Mindful practices are always making sure you’re expressing yourself somehow — through words, journaling, art, boxing, the gym. You need to let it out.

So I do my walks, hot yoga, and work out every day. What else? I journal — I love journaling. Those are my mindful practices to help my body, mind and heart thrive.

Yitzi: So this is our aspirational question. And you touched on it a little bit, but I guess you could elaborate. So you’re a person of enormous influence because of the platform that you’ve built and your great work. And people take your words very seriously. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

That seems like the perfect setup for Leap Into Healing. Because Leap Into Healing is literally the initiative that is what I asked myself this question. I was like, “Yeah, I’m great. I got people following me, but I care about healing beyond myself. I want this for everyone.”

The reason I’m so passionate is because where I’m from, I didn’t have access or resources to therapy, to mindful practices. You think people in the hood ain’t lactose intolerant and ain’t got allergies to gluten? Yeah, they do. It’s just that they don’t know. They just know they drink a lot of milk and their stomach hurts after, you know. But when you have access and resources, you know, “Oh, I have a gluten allergy. I can’t have this. I can’t have that.” We’re human. So everyone has different things like that.

That’s how I feel about healing. I’m in these therapy sessions. I’m also using my experience in science and my experience of healing through my trauma to use different words, different metaphors, and different ways to help people who don’t usually hear this type of language but can understand it so that they can heal.

That’s what I want to send out. And what I’m trying to do with Leap Into Healing is that you not only can accept your past, but you can love your past. And you can love your past to help you have a better today and to lead you to a brighter future. I want people to know that they can change who they are. We are all a result of our conditioning. And conditioning, if you know neuroscience and psychology, is just repeated patterns. And what your brain says is, “OK, this is normal.” So let’s stop that. And let’s make something else normal. And I want to help more people do that.

Yitzi: So how can our readers follow your work online? How can they get involved? How can they get involved in your paid social program? How can they support you in any possible way?

Yeah, I’m on all platforms, look me up as Tarek Ali. But for Leap Into Healing, if you really do need extra help and an extra boost, therapy can go far. It can go really high, like two hundred dollars for an hour. And with Leap Into Healing, I’m just trying to give people a glimpse of what that could feel like. And also tools that actually work so that I can get more people interested to go to therapy and remove the stigma. That’s why I wanted to keep it like ten dollars a month. I felt like that was feasible.

They can go to leapintohealing.com. They can also find my podcast, The Main Show, on all streaming platforms for podcasts. The Main Show episodes are where I give the most material upfront. And then usually people hear an episode and they’re like, “Oh wow, I need more help on this, like healing my body.” And Leap Into Healing is that extra tool for you to use to feel better about yourself, to feel better about your past, and to just find new ways to love yourself and to grow.

Yitzi: You know, it’s been a delight and an honor to meet you. You seem like an extremely talented and humble and authentic person. And I feel blessed to have met you and I wish you continued success and good health.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I work really hard and I’m really passionate about this work. I’ve been through a lot and I honestly didn’t think this level of peace and happiness and freedom and self was possible. So getting here, I’m just so passionate to help more people because I’ve been so low. And you saying that really means a lot because I’ve been doing this for 10 years now. So it feels good to be seen, to be heard, and to have someone interested in my story. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Yitzi: It’s a pleasure. You're going to be a superstar one day and I want to say “I knew you before”.

Yes, yes, you did one of my first interviews. Yeah, and it would be great if I could come back and talk to you again. I’ll request it.

Yitzi: I would love to do this again in the future. And if I could support you in any way, if I could amplify anything that you’re doing, please feel free to reach out.