About this episode

In this episode of the Marquis Masters Podcast, Ryan Estes sits down with DW Duke. He’s a veteran attorney with decades of experience across professional liability, business litigation, and real estate, but his deepest focus is human rights and civil rights.

DW is also a lifelong martial artist. He’s a 5th-degree black belt in Taekwondo and a 6th-degree black belt in a fighting-focused Taekwondo branch, and he connects that discipline to something bigger: staying calm, staying precise, and building empathy before conflict escalates.

The conversation explores DW’s belief that empathy is not just moral, it is practical. He argues it is the shared core principle across major religions and something that can be taught systematically, starting in childhood.

Ryan and DW also walk through DW’s books and the true stories behind them, including projects spanning the Duke family legacy, Holocaust era resistance, historic racial injustice in the Jim Crow South, and a sweeping historical novel linking West African traditions to the Solomonic Empire. DW shares how his legal training shapes his writing through rigorous research, accuracy, and integrity, and he also spotlights two mission-driven organizations he supports focused on refugee children and interfaith understanding.

What You’ll Learn

• Why DW believes empathy is the missing operating system for modern society
• How martial arts training can build emotional control and reduce violence
• The real-world cases and historic events that inspired DW’s most controversial work
• Why DW writes biographical novels and how they translate to film and documentaries
• How social media amplifies identity conflict and what real compassion looks like in practice

Books Discussed

• The Duke Legacy
• Not Without a Fight
• Because I’m Black
• Golden Chalice
• The Last Prophecy (upcoming release discussed in the episode)

Organizations Mentioned

• 70 Nations of Jerusalem
• Institute for Children’s Aid

Links Mentioned

• DW Duke website: dwduke.com
• Marquis Who’s Who: marquiswhoswho.com

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more listeners discover stories from leaders shaping industries and improving lives.

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more listeners discover stories from leaders shaping industries and improving lives.