Episode 20: Back to the Water: Drowning Disparities, Water Safety & the Fight for Equity

Drowning is not random. It is patterned by history, access, and inequity.

In this powerful opening episode, we examine the racial and socioeconomic disparities that make drowning a persistent and preventable public-health crisis, particularly in Black communities.

Joined by Dr. Tiffany Monique Quash and Diamond Crystal, we explore how segregation, generational trauma, and exclusion from aquatic spaces shape today’s statistics, and how education, advocacy, and healing are changing the tide.

This episode blends data, history, and lived experience to reframe swimming as a human right, not a luxury, and introduces the transformational work of Diversity in Aquatics and Back2theWater.

Featured Guests

• Dr. Tiffany Monique Quash, aquatics scholar, TEDx speaker, and Co-Chair of the Research Council for Diversity in Aquatics
• Diamond Crystal, The Gallivanting Grandma™ and Founder of Back2theWater

Diversity In Aquatics (DIA) – www.diversityinaquatics.org 

Diversity in Aquatics is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting water safety, education, and inclusion in aquatic spaces, especially for historically underrepresented and underserved communities

Dr. Tiffany Monique Quash

Outside of her research and publications, Dr. Quash is the Co-Chair for the Research Council for Diversity in Aquatics. For more information, go to:
Website: www.tiffanymoniquequash.com
Tiffany’s TEDx talk: “Learning to Swim is a Human Right”

Diamond Crystal, Founder of Back2theWater 

Website: https://back2thewater.org/