Long before you knew who you were, rules were already written about who you were supposed to be.

In this episode, Anna Malaika Tubbs explores the quiet, powerful rules we inherit—about strength, care, emotion, worth, and belonging—rules we never consented to but learned in order to survive.

These rules weren’t designed to honor our full humanity. They were designed to keep a system running.

By learning to notice them, we begin to loosen their hold. And in that awareness, we reclaim choice, compassion, and the freedom to imagine something better than what we inherited.

We’re often told that “systems” only affect certain people. That some of us are trapped inside them, while others move through life untouched.

But that’s never been true.

In this episode, Anna Malaika Tubbs explores how the system we inherit shapes everyone—pressuring some people to shrink, others to harden, and all of us to live inside roles we never agreed to play. The harm may show up differently, but the architecture is shared.

When we see that clearly, something powerful happens:
we stop blaming ourselves, we stop turning against each other, and we begin asking better questions about what actually needs to change.

This conversation invites clarity over confusion, compassion over self-blame, and responsibility rooted in possibility—not guilt.

The truth is this: you were never meant to thrive inside the system you were born into—and the struggles you’ve carried your whole life were shaped long before you ever took your first breath.

In the first episode of The Revolution Resolution, Anna Malaika Tubbs, New York Times bestselling author of Erased and The Three Mothers, introduces a foundational truth: every one of us inherited a system we did not design.

In just five minutes, this episode invites you to step back and see the bigger picture—how long-standing choices, values, and hierarchies shaped the pressures you feel today, the expectations placed on you, and the stories you’ve been told about your worth. When we’re never taught that the system has a history, we turn its impact inward, blaming ourselves for exhaustion, confusion, shame, or overwhelm.

But the rules you’re living under were not written by you.

This episode isn’t about blame—it’s about clarity. It’s the beginning of a year-long journey to understand where these systems came from, how they’ve been maintained, and how seeing them clearly opens the door to healing, compassion, and transformation.

Because once you realize you inherited a story you never agreed to, you can begin rewriting it.