If there's one question I've been asked over the years perhaps more than any other it's that one.

Usually, it's asked in a complimentary way.

The stories we'll be debating over the next two nights are, I think, as typical an example as any of how things come together.

A few weeks ago, I got together with Nicole Curling. I had only met Nicole a couple of times previously, once when we did a program about what politics does to family life. Her dad, Alvin, was the first black cabinet minister in Ontario history, and even though Nicole was very young when Alvin was in office, she did appear on The Agenda to share her memories of that time.

Now, she was asking me to get together to get my advice on a book she was trying to write. I told Nicole what I could, and then quite by accident, we started discussing the plight of young black women in our community.

"There's a huge focus on young black males," she said. "And they have wonderful role models in Pinball Clemons and The Raptors. But the issues of young black women get totally ignored."

I asked a few follow up questions and the more we talked about it, the more I realized there was an important debate to be had on the issue.

At our next editorial meeting at TVO, I "pitched" the idea, and it seemed to spark some discussion among our producers. If we're interested in discussing it, that's usually a good sign that our viewers might be interested as well.

I also thought, given the resurgent debate over whether to create black-only schools in Toronto, that we could do both topics over two days, and really focus on some issues that require more discussion.

Executive producer Dan Dunsky and I figured Sandra Gionas would be a natural choice to produce the black-only schools debate. She produced many segments on this topic when she worked on More 2 Life, an afternoon current affairs program that used to air on TVO.

And we both recall Stacey Dunseath having done a wonderful job producing a debate with nine participants on issues facing young black men last season. So she eagerly signed on to produce the program on the image of young black women.

Tonight, Sandra's program on black-only schools. Tomorrow, we follow up with Stacey's on the travails of black girls.

And it all started over lunch with Nicole Curling, whom I'm delighted to say, has agreed to join us on tomorrow's program.

And that's often how it all comes together.

Looking forward to hearing your views on these programs.