Evolving Folks Project

I can’t believe it. Ten freaking years of the Evolving Folks Project, I’m humbled to say the least that we’ve been around this long. This endeavor was truly the brainchild of my lovely and smart wife, Berneta L. Haynes. A place where one Black man in the United States could share his perspective on a wide range of topics through the lens of social justice.

When we launched in 2016, I did not know we’d be a sane perspective in the era of the blossoming manosphere, which now dominates men’s topics on social media and in online discourse. Men like Andrew Tate, Fit & Fresh, Jordan Peterson, and Nick Fuentes peddle sexist, racist, and homophobic ideologies while, once every blue moon, dropping a small kernel of truth in their words. But as the old saying goes, “A broken clock is right twice a day.”

However, over the past few years, we’ve moved beyond the Evolving Man Project we initially started. Putting yourself out there doesn’t come without consequences. I’ve gotten hateful, racist, and snarky comments from haters. On the flip side, people in my personal life and those I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting have shown an outpouring of support for this side project that morphed in ways I never imagined. We’ve even had imitators and biters of what we’ve done on this site. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. So, thanks to the copycats out there.

I did not intend this blog to be a platform for self-promotion, nor to portray myself and my contributors as the highest exemplars of human values. No, it was to show that an evolved person is flawed and that they grow and learn from their mistakes. They know they might fall, but they know that someone will be there to help them back up. An evolved person wants not only to better themselves but also to better their community. And when they’re no longer around, they’ve made the world slightly better than it was before.

My posts from the Evolving Folks Project have appeared on The Extraordinary Negroes, The Blerd Library, The Chicago Sun-Times, LibraryThing, The Good Men Project, Medium, and the Post-Industrial over the years. It is an honor that my words have impacted the world, no matter how small or big. I hope people have found joy, hope, sorrow, and humor in my words.

When we first launched the Evolving Folks Project, I hoped to have a team of constant contributors writing about various topics and thoughts of the day. Most people are not enthusiastic about publicizing themselves online, as I have for the past decade, making it tough to recruit individuals you know to write. Starting with my first and most meaningful blog post about my journey through battling depression and finding self-worth.

I found a small but mighty team of contributors, though. And I’d like to thank them all. Shout-out to my friend and professor, Michael Thomas, for his always insightful and thought-provoking pieces throughout the years. My Question Culture podcast co-host and engineer Brian Greishaber, I can’t believe we’ve hosted over 100 episodes of a non-award-winning podcast, to my dear friend and fellow social worker, Jerrilyn Black, LCSW. Your words of encouragement and support over the years about this project have meant a lot to me. And last but definitely not least, my wife and bestie, Berneta L. Haynes. She serves as the editor-in-chief of this website, and it would not have been a decade without you, my love.

I can’t believe that i finally started that damn podcast in 2021! Question Culture, the podcast, came out when the manosphere reached its peak in terms of reach and fuckery. I know we’re not famous or provoking bullshit views designed to get clicks. However, I want to thank our wide variety of guests, including NASA scientists, labor organizers, legal scholars, therapists, war heroes, sex workers, and activists. We inadvertently became the anti-manosphere podcast. I recognize that there are countless dude-bro podcasts out there. People joke on social media that the male industrial podcast complex must end. I hope our podcast was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the toxic masculinity coming from the manosphere.

We appreciate those candid and frank conversations over the years. We went on hiatus in 2025. I hope we can host more episodes soon. It was a fun ride, and I have met a ton of cool folks over the years. I need to learn how to edit podcasts. I’m glad people tuned in because, like the Evolving Folks Project, I didn’t expect that we’d get any views or clicks. Hey, I am no celebrity, nor a world-renowned scholar, nor a famous comedian (I’m an amateur comedian, though). I’m just a dude with random ass thoughts. Hell, I even started a TikTok to promote the Question Culture podcast.

I want to say thank you to all the great people who’ve gotten us to a decade. I’m just a skinny kid from Chicago who saw this site grow to where it is now. It’s a good place to be. We’ve gotten thousands of views, likes, and comments over the decade. Thanks to all our subscribers. We promise we won’t put this content behind a paywall, or on Substack, since we’re not professional journalists. I didn’t know I’d reached people from all over the world. Our evolved person of the week profiles aim to show that, despite the challenges humanity faces in our current times, people making a difference can still inspire us. There are amazing people out there changing the world for the better, one good deed at a time.

I sincerely want to thank you, readers. Your support over the last decade has been heartwarming, to say the least. I hope to offer more surprises and big announcements soon. I hope to have many more years ahead of me. Once again, thank you so much for your support. Be sure to check out my debut sci-fi novels, Eve and the Faders and Aya and the Alphas. Be sure to share our post far and wide.

This site will continue to speak truth to power. I’ll use my bit of straight male hetero male privilege (I gotta use those fancy college words, because I didn’t get student loan debt for nothing) give a voice to the voiceless. So, in closing, fuck ICE, free Palestine, and Black Lives Matter!