logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2021
8m 45s

In 'The Matter of Black Lives,' generati...

NPR
About this episode
Back in June 2020, during a summer of protests for racial justice, the New Yorker republished 'Letter from a Region in my Mind," a seminal James Baldwin essay calling out the ignorance of liberal white Americans. In the following months, writer Jelani Cobb put together a collection of essays from the magazine that fit a similar theme: Black writers, including Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote pieces for the New Yorker about race and racism that still ring true today. In this interview, Cobb reflects on the essays and what it took for those Black writers to break into the magazine.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy
Up next
Today
Mikhail Zygar says the Soviet Union’s collapse was only a temporary win for democracy
Wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East are reshaping global politics. In The Dark Side of the Earth, exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar traces the origins of these conflicts to the end of the Cold War. The book is a history of Russia as seen from Moscow during different mome ... Show More
8m 34s
Yesterday
In 'Yesteryear,' a tradwife influencer wakes up in the time period she’s fetishized
Natalie Heller Mills is a tradwife influencer with 5 million followers. She drinks raw milk, eats farm fresh eggs, and is “perfect at being alive.” But when she wakes up in 1855, the very time period she’s fetishized, she feels afraid – and paranoid that she’s being filmed. In to ... Show More
8m 1s
Apr 28
'Infinity Machine' is a biography of an Oppenheimer-like figure in AI
Demis Hassabis says when he set up an AI lab in 2010, “no one believed in it.” The Google DeepMind co-founder and Nobel Prize winner is the subject of Infinity Machine, a new biography by Sebastian Mallaby. The book is a portrait of Hassabis, who Mallaby characterizes as a rare c ... Show More
7m 42s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2018
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on “Friday Black”
<p>“Black people being murdered is unfortunately a constant in this country. Murdered with impunity. It’s something that’s constantly on my mind,” Adjei-Brenyah says. “So some of these stories respond to that very specifically.” Plus, Joseph Ellis discusses his new book, “America ... Show More
1h 5m
Sep 2020
#217 — The New Religion of Anti-Racism
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sam Harris speaks with John McWhorter about race, racism, and "anti-racism" in America. They discuss how conceptions of racism have changed, the ubiquitous threat of being branded a "racist," the contradictions within identity politics, recent e ... Show More
1h 11m
Apr 2023
Diane Abbott, antisemitism and a ‘hierarchy of racism’ in the UK
Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party after she wrote a letter to the Observer newspaper which said Traveller, Roma, Gypsy and Jewish people could not be the victims of racism. On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson speaks ... Show More
19m 2s