logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2023
55m 5s

History of Ideas: Ta-Nehisi Coates

David Runciman
About this episode
In the penultimate episode in our series on the great essays, David talks about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘The Case for Reparations’, published in the Atlantic in 2014. Black American life has been marked by injustice from the beginning: this essay explores what can – and what can’t – be done to remedy it, from slavery to the housing market, from Mississippi to Chi ... Show More
Up next
May 10
Live Film Special: The Third Man w/Misha Glenny
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny about Carol Reed’s 1949 masterpiece The Third Man, written by Graham Greene and featuring a notorious film-stealing performance f ... Show More
56m 54s
May 6
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100 Part 2
Today it’s the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of the 1926 General Strike on its hundredth anniversary. How did the strike end and was its outcome a foregone conclusion? Why did the government’s political victory turn so quickl ... Show More
1h 1m
May 3
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100
In today’s episode David talks to historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of Britain’s one and (so far) only general strike on its hundredth anniversary. Was the strike a revolutionary event or an industrial dispute gone wrong? Who won and who lost the battle of ideas? Did it ... Show More
59m 49s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2021
Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Fight Over U.S. History
<p>You’ve heard plenty by now about the fights over teaching critical race theory and the 1619 Project. But behind those skirmishes is something deeper: A fight over the story we tell about America. Why that fight has so gripped our national discourse is the question of this podc ... Show More
1h 17m
Jan 2023
What Happens After You Uncover Buried History?
The 1619 Project was a New York Times Magazine endeavor that explored the ways the legacy of slavery still shapes American society. The story exploded into cultural consciousness in 2019, and has since become a book, a podcast, and now, a documentary series. For the project’s cre ... Show More
29m 9s
Aug 2019
The Economy That Slavery Built
The institution of slavery turned a poor, fledgling nation into a financial powerhouse, and the cotton plantation was America’s first big business. Behind the system, and built into it, was the whip. On today’s episode: Matthew Desmond, a contributing writer for The New York Time ... Show More
31m 55s
Nov 2021
How thinking critically about history shapes our future (with David Ikard)
Can you think of a time when you told a story and remembered it...wrong? Perhaps you forgot a small detail, like the color of someone’s shoes, or something much bigger, like where the event took place. In a personal context, that might not seem like a huge deal. But what happens ... Show More
28m 11s
Aug 2021
Affirmative Action: Truths and Lies
Originally Aired: 11/23/2020 “Reverse racism” has haunted the fight for job equity for generations. How’d this bizarre idea become such a bugbear? One Supreme Court case, 50 years ago helps explain.  This week, our reporter Marianne McCune tells the story of that case -- and its ... Show More
52m 5s
Jan 2024
How to think critically about history -- and why it matters (w/ David Ikard) (Re-release)
Have you ever recalled a story only to have someone point out "that's not how it went"? Well, what happens when what we misrepresent are our historical narratives? David Ikard is a Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. In this episode, he ta ... Show More
28m 24s
Nov 2021
Changing the Narrative, with Nikole Hannah-Jones
<p><i>The 1619 Project </i>was a career-defining moment for New York Times reporter <a href="https://nikolehannahjones.com/" target="_blank">Nikole Hannah-Jones</a>. Released as a standalone issue of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-americ ... Show More
30m 21s
Sep 2023
Histoire et mémoire, quelle différence ? - Entretien avec Virginie Tisserant
<p>Mes chers camarades, bien le bonjour ! </p><p>L’histoire est-elle neutre ? Dit-on ce qui est véritablement arrivé dans le passé quand on fait de l’histoire ? Est-ce la vérité absolue, ou essaie t-on simplement de s’en approcher un maximum à partir des différents indices dont o ... Show More
3m 24s
Feb 2024
Origins of the Civil War
<p>The war between the Union and the Confederacy is a major turning point in the history of the United States. But why did it happen?</p><br><p>From slavery and states' rights, to economic, legislative, moral, and political issues, in this episode, Don and Professor Adam Smith ex ... Show More
34m 54s