'Rap Sh!t' Writer Chad Sanders' Latest Podcast 'Direct Deposit' Challenges How We Understand Money

Writer Chad Sanders is on the brink of wealth, whose world is changing fast around him. He goes from sleeping on a mattress on the floor of his Brooklyn, New York, apartment to Hollywood pitch meetings with his mentor, Spike Lee, to riding around Los Angeles with Kanye West. And then he lands a staff writing gig for Issa Rae’s new show, Rap Sh!t.

His phone is ringing nonstop, and he can feel his burgeoning success, but can't stop checking his bank account and obsessing over how he's going to make more money without losing himself. Now that he's getting some cash, Chad stays up at night wondering what's going to happen next.

That is the starting point for Sanders' latest podcast Direct Deposit. In the episodic podcast, Sanders brings us along on his dizzying ride to the top. He explores everything that happens to Black people who get rich through a series of illuminating, honest, funny, and moving conversations with Black Hollywood power players like Rae, Charles D. King, Soledad O'Brien, and Gabrielle Union, as well as Black entrepreneurial stars like Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole.

Episode topics range from trying to get money, working with white people, and mental health while being Black and entering a new tax bracket. Direct Deposit isn't the first time that Sanders has been a part of an important conversation, the Black Magic author has carved out his own lane in how our community engages with universal topics.

"Trying to get into the entertainment industry and into the world as a writer, something dawned on me within the last five or six years that the more that I write about that I care about it seems to reach people in a different way," Sanders said about his growing career. Through his honesty, he says that he has found new levels of success.

Like the entertainment industry, Sanders realized that the tech industry was also very white. Getting back to his creativity, a passion since he was a kid, Sanders made the transition from tech to commit to his craft.

Sanders says that to say he is on the brink of wealth is a bit exaggerated, but he acknowledges that he is a "writer that is now meaningfully earning in his profession." And while with Direct Deposit Sanders asks the question "what will money do to him?", the writer is still unafraid to spark the necessary conversations that help move the needle forward.

Check out our interview with Chad and find out more about how he defines success, how Spike Lee helped open doors for him and more. And be sure to check out Direct Deposit for free on Audible.