If you make time for one thing from us this week, let it be this episode. Mike sat down with Kelechi Okafor, and the result is the kind of conversation Common Sense was built for, two people who see the world very differently choosing to listen rather than score points.
They got into all of it. The monarchy, which she called archaic and depraved without flinching. Faith and doubt, including a line that has stuck with the team since we first watched the cut, where she says she believes more than she doesn’t. The weight of being the eldest daughter who tries to fix everyone and everything. The moment that gives the episode its spine is when she jokes about running for Mayor of London, then makes it plain she would rather put her energy into buying local kids their school uniforms. Underneath all of it sat one challenge she kept returning to: question me, don’t worship me.
That refusal to be put on a pedestal feels rare at the moment, and it is exactly why the conversation is worth your time, whether you nod along or argue with the screen the whole way through.
Watch and listen: Kelechi Okafor on Doubt, Identity and Refusing to Be Worshipped. Mike’s full conversation is live now on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the episode here.
What we’re watching
The story dominating Britain this week is the death of Henry Nowak. The 18-year-old student was stabbed in Southampton last December, and the case has erupted again after his killer was sentenced to life on Monday and police body-worn footage was released. The video shows officers handcuffing Henry as he told them he had been stabbed, apparently after his attacker falsely claimed to have been the victim of a racist assault. When officers realised how badly he was hurt they uncuffed him and began CPR, but he died, and the judge later rejected the claim that Henry had said anything racist.
Hampshire Police have apologised, protests have gathered outside Southampton station, and the case has been pulled in every political direction at once, from Reform drawing comparisons with George Floyd to ministers steering the conversation back to knife crime. The line worth holding onto came from Henry’s own father, who called the treatment of his son inhumane while pleading that his death not be used to create further division or hatred. That tension, between justified anger at a clear failure and the refusal to let grief be weaponised, is exactly the kind of conversation we want to have here without the heat.
Westminster, meanwhile, is having its loudest wobble in years. After Labour’s heavy losses in the May local and devolved elections, with Reform now leading several national polls, a large block of Labour MPs have called on Keir Starmer to go or to name a date for his departure, and he has flatly refused. The Makerfield by-election on 18 June, with Andy Burnham now in the running, will tell us how serious the threat to his leadership really is.
Further afield, keep an eye on Iran. American aircraft struck Iranian sites near the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, and within days the President was telling Fox News the United States should never have been there at all.
Open House this Friday
Here is the part where you stop reading and come and be in the room. This Friday we are opening up Common Sense Studios from 9 to 5.
If you are a founder building something, a creative working out your next move, or someone who just wants to think out loud around people who get it, the door is open. We have the space, the conversations, and depending on the day, people who can genuinely help. Mentorship, a second opinion, honest feedback, or simply good company. There is no ticket and no agenda, only an open studio in South East London and a reason to show up.
Spaces are limited by the size of the room, so let us know you are coming.
See you Friday.
Claudia Community Manager, Common Sense