logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2023
29m 30s

A Word: Surviving “Driving While Black”

Slate Podcasts
About this episode
For many Americans, the “Green Book” is an Oscar-winning film. But for generations of Black Americans, it served as a literal map for traveling through an often hostile and hateful country, finding safety and businesses that would serve us. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by writer and financial educator Alvin Hall. He’s the author of D ... Show More
Up next
Dec 2025
ICYMI | Side-Eyeing at H Mart
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by comedian and writer Youngmi Mayer to talk about a controversy that’s divided TikTok: How should Asian people feel about white people in Asian grocery stores? That’s the question creator Madeline Qi didn’t even mean to ask when sh ... Show More
46m 58s
Dec 2025
Amicus | The Forgotten Lawsuits Targeting Trump’s Worst Abuses
In mid-March of 2025, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt and his colleagues started hearing that the Trump administration might attempt a flagrantly lawless publicity stunt, involving migrant men, secret flights to El Salvador, a notorious gulag, and a total disregard for due process. Des ... Show More
1h 3m
Dec 2025
What Next | Why Antisemitism Is Everywhere
It’s not that antisemitism ever went away, but it’s still jarring to watch people spread its oldest and most vile tropes on social media in a way that would’ve been unthinkable ten years ago. Guest: Isaac Saul, politics reporter in Bucks County, Penn., author of the Tangle newsle ... Show More
30m 19s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2020
How the ‘Green Book’ Shaped a Generation of Black Travelers
It was a different time in the summer of 2019 when Janée Woods Weber, an activist and social justice educator, joined BBC presenter Alvin Hall on a road trip tracing the legacy of the Green Book a travel guide published from 1937 to 1966 that shared safe road routes for Black tra ... Show More
31m 9s
Jul 2021
S1 Ep89: The Green Book: Traveling in the Jim Crow Era
Today on Past Gas-- what’s the story behind the “Green Book”? For black Americans, traveling by car has historically been an entirely different experience with its own set of challenges and dangers. How did African American trailblazers create their own car culture, compete with ... Show More
44m 54s
Jan 2019
How Did the 'Green Book' Change Life for Black Travelers?
Before the Civil Rights Act made racial discrimination illegal, black Americans faced even greater dangers while on the road. Learn how a Bronx mailman made travel safer and supported black entrepreneurs in this episode of BrainStuff. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://w ... Show More
4m 35s
Oct 2020
Blaxit
Why stay where you’re not wanted? Some Black Americans are thinking about moving abroad to escape centuries of racial oppression and marginalization. Historian Kevin Gaines shares the long history behind this phenomenon. Don also speaks with author Tiffanie Drayton about her move ... Show More
34m 59s
Oct 2020
Interview: Driving the Green Book
Tracy talked to Alvin Hall and Janée Woods Weber, host and producer of the podcast Driving the Green Book. Alvin and Janée share their thoughts on the show, the Green Book, and the road trip they took to make the show. You can find the Driving the Green Book podcast here: https:/ ... Show More
46m 5s
Feb 2024
Encore: How did Black Americans forge a cultural identity?
In honor of Black History Month, UnTextbooked is sharing a favorite episode from our archive. UnTextbooked producer Sydne Clarke thinks that African American history is often oversimplified or overlooked. Often that history is taught as things that happened to African Americans. ... Show More
19m 31s
Aug 2023
Coming of Age as a Black Teen in America
<p>The stakes are high when you’re a Black teenager in America – they can be life or death. Both books featured on this episode of Velshi Banned Book Club couple pulled-from-the-headlines urgency with the emotional depth of good fiction. “All American Boys”, co-authored by Jason ... Show More
25m 3s
Jun 2024
Alvin Hall's other America
Writer Alvin Hall returns to Wakulla County, Florida, the world he grew up in, to shed light on the political present and share a haunting portrait of a disappearing way of life. It has long been deeply rural, a place of unspoilt wilderness and incredible natural beauty. But it h ... Show More
49m 26s