# From Wakanda to Jamaica: Dr. Sheena Howard on Black Panther, Abduction at 19, Abuse, and Owning Your Creative Destiny

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-james-altucher-show-745332/from-wakanda-to-jamaica-dr-sheena-howard-on-black-panther-abduction-at-19-abuse-and-owning-your-creative-destiny
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-james-altucher-show-745332/from-wakanda-to-jamaica-dr-sheena-howard-on-black-panther-abduction-at-19-abuse-and-owning-your-creative-destiny.md
Podcast: [The James Altucher Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-james-altucher-show-745332)
Published: 2026-03-24T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://art19.com/shows/the-james-altucher-pod/episodes/ad3b986b-f7b2-4991-993b-7ee757248060
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/prfx.byspotify.com/e/claritaspod.com/measure/arttrk.com/p/PDPN1/pscrb.fm/rss/p/rss.art19.com/episodes/ad3b986b-f7b2-4991-993b-7ee757248060.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
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Duration seconds: 5426

## Resource

A Note from James: This is why I love doing podcasts—talking to people like Dr. Sheena Howard, author of Why Wakanda Matters . Wakanda is the country where Black Panther is from, and Sheena has written extensively about comics, including work on Black Panther itself. We talk about comics, race, and storytelling. I asked a question I was almost afraid to ask—whether the Black Panther movie was racist against other Black people—and she gave a surprising answer. We also talk about a time she was abducted in Jamaica, along with a lot of other topics. I loved this conversation. Please listen.  Episode Description: James sits down with Dr. Sheena Howard—scholar, comic book writer, and Eisner Award winner—for a conversation that moves between pop culture, publishing, and personal survival. They use Black Panther as a lens to examine how stories shape identity, how representation evolves, and why cultural narratives are often filtered through systems that weren’t built to support them. Sheena breaks down the tension between nationalism and isolationism in Wakanda, and why audiences interpret the same story in radically different ways. The conversation also goes deeper—into how gatekeeping works in publishing today, how creators can bypass it, and why building your own audience may be the most reliable path forward. And then there’s the story she didn’t tell for years: being abducted at 19. What happened, why she stayed silent, and what it reveals about psychology, fear, and resilience. This episode is about storytelling—but also about control: who has it, who doesn’t, and how to take it back. What You’ll Learn: Why “Black superheroes don’t sell” is a myth—and how the industry perpetuates it anyway The real gatekeeping mechanism in publishing today (and why audience owners…

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