How often have you heard masculinity described as “toxic”, “fragile”, or “in a crisis”? JJ Bola - writer, former youth worker, and UNHCR Ambassador - tries to go deeper in understanding how society is failing boys and men.

1 hour 2 minutes

Indira Naidoo with JJ Bola, a British writer with a Congolese background. His books often feature references to war, racial inequality and police brutality. His latest book is called the Selfless Act of Breathing and deals with one of the rising challenges of our times, mental health.

23 minutes

Johny Pitts talks to JJ Bola about his novel The Selfless Act of Breathing, a story of millennial angst told through the eyes of a young teacher.

28 minutes

In this episode Libreria welcomes established writer and poet JJ Bola ahead of the publication of his new novel, The Selfless Act of Breathing. In this wide-ranging and candid conversation, we jump off from JJ’s recent work to discuss masculinity, purpose, searching, discovery and failure.

55 minutes

With a focus on mental health and wellbeing, the premise of this series is to get people talking about situations, past, present and future, that so many people struggle with.

24 minutes

Writers Jeffrey Boakye & JJ Bola look at how language is used to define or constrain black male identity in a post-colonial world. If you're not a roadman or a baller, who are you?

28 minutes

Authors Ben Lerner, JJ Bola and Derek Owusu on how men now deal with ideas of masculinity. Laurence Scott presents.

44 minutes

Mostly Live is back again with the live show, this time at London Podcast Festival featuring a long time friend of the show, JJ Bola. Alex is away this week, so listen to Rai and JJ talk about everything books, culture and of course - expect laughs!

1 hour 25 minutes

Welcome to Dane Baptiste Questions Everything, a podcast where comedian Dane Baptiste, producer Howard Cohen and a special guest take turns posing questions that just need answering. This is episode 37, our special guest is writer and poet JJ Bola. We talked to JJ about masculinity, poetry and heartbreak.

56 minutes

For the twenty-first episode of The Literary Edit podcast, I was joined by poet, writer and author, JJ Bola. I absolutely adored my conversation with JJ, and of all the guests I’ve had on my podcast, speaking to him about not only his love of books – but the stories behind them - really reminded me of why I started my podcast in the first place.

1 hour

With colourful characters and seamless prose, 'No Place to Call Home' by Kinshasa born, London raised JJ Bola is a tale of belonging, identity and immigration, of hope and hopelessness, of loss — not by death, but by distance — and, by no means the least, of love.

1 hour 3 minutes

In his debut novel, JJ Bola explores life with a family from the Democratic of Congo and living in London. He highlights how Jean is able to grow and thrive despite his 'strange' name (it's pronounced John, not Jean), competition from his younger sister, and family pressure to do well in school. Laura Angela Bagnetto, the host of Radio France Internationale's Africa: Stories in the 55, a monthly African literature show, talks to Bola about how his novel "No Place to Call Home" came about.

9 minutes