Podhero Picks: An Inexhaustive Primer for Racial Justice Edition
George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. Ahmaud Arbery. David McAtee. We say each of their names, loudly and in loving memory, as only five recent examples of the police brutality and white supremacy that have galvanized worldwide protests. And it is in honor of these victims that we put forth a small sample of podcasts that can help contribute to the education and healing that we all so urgently need to do the work of embedding antiracism in our psyches and institutions.
With over one million podcasts in the world, it’s impossible to make this list exhaustive. Moreover, there are countless books, articles, and exceptional educators who can and should supplement the following recommendations. But we know podcasts best. And so, we present to you a short list to get you started. We’ve also linked each of the names above to concrete action you can take to honor their memories and act on their behalf.
1619, The Economy That Slavery Built
The now-Pulitzer Prize winning 1619 Project is one we’ve referred to previously; today we hold up its second episode, “The Economy That Slavery Built” as a kind of survey of how Black labor contributed to the growth of the American economy. It’s incomplete to explore today’s systemic inequalities for Black people without exploring their origins, and so we start our list with them by way of this episode.
AFTER: Read the work of the two featured authors, Jesmyn Ward’s “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” and Matthew Desmond’s “Evicted”
Pod Save the People, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
Pod Save the People, Crooked Media’s podcast hosted by activist DeRay McKesson alongside fellow activists Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Dr. Clint Smith, regularly tackles issues of inequity and injustice. This episode is the latest to deal explicitly with the issue at hand, both through the lens of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing and the disproportionate number of social distancing arrests doled out to Black people.
AFTER: Read ProPublica’s “Early Data Shows Black People Are Being Disproportionally Arrested for Social Distancing Violations”
Code Switch, A Decade of Watching Black People Die
Code Switch has existed, first in a written form and now as a podcast, for long enough to have many episodes pertaining to the topic of police brutality and racial injustice. And in fact, this episode alludes to that fact by discussing the reality — and impact — of seeing this pattern repeat and echo over time.
AFTER: In recognition of the fact that this pattern has an impact on the individuals processing it, we spotlight Therapy for Black Girls’ podcast episode, “The Impact of Racial Trauma”; alternatively, we recommend The Cut’s “The Little Understood Mental-Health Effects of Racial Trauma.”
Throughline, “American Police”
As over a week of protests starts to provoke real conversations about the future of policing, Throughline offers a history of how its origins brought us to this point. In brief: the violent control of Black people that the country and the world is now rising up to protest, has always been the point. This episode outlines precisely how and why.
AFTER: Now that you have a sense of the foundation upon which modern policing was based, we recommend this Examiner piece into alternatives that have been proposed, including defunding and abolition.
Scene on Radio, “Seeing White: Danger”
It’s educational to listen to the language being ascribed to the protests that have erupted in the streets of cities all over the world: “chaos” and “anarchy” are frequent refrains, but “violent,” “dangerous,” and other words have underscored a key connection: the vision of Black people, and Black men in particular, as dangerous. No matter their size, age, or demeanor, that connection has proven so unshakeable that defenses of police violence have regularly leaned on it as justification. Scene on Radio’s “Seeing White” digs into this association at length in this episode.
AFTER: We recommend pairing this episode with an argument on the “benefit of the doubt” principle that allows this association with danger to turn into lethal violence, as detailed by The Undefeated.
This Is Uncomfortable, “It’s Expensive to Get Arrested”
As protests extend into their second full week (as of this writing), hundreds of demonstrators across the United States have been arrested for their roles. But once you’re arrested, how does the bail process work? Through the story of one Pittsburgh protester, the Marketplace money podcast discusses the nature of bail, bail funds, and how money plays a role in who stays in police custody — and who can get out. The answer to that last bit highlights the two-tiered nature of the justice system: those who can afford it, and those who stay in jail for purely economic reasons.
AFTER: To learn more about the power of communal bail funds, we invite you to check out The Ringer’s “How Bail Funds Across the Country Are Responding to Protests.” If you feel moved and are able to donate to the cause of these protesters, ActBlue has set up a communal bail fund to help them get released.
In the Thick, ITT Sound Off: We’re Not Okay
Both in solidarity with the Black community, and in recognition that the challenges of racial justice reach into the Latinx community, hosts Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela dedicate this episode to sharing their perspective on how many daily interactions are touched by race.
AFTER: Read Amanda Marcotte’s work for Salon on how coverage and handling of protests in Minneapolis and over a dozen other cities compare to the anti-lockdown protests of a few weeks prior.
The Daily, Why Is The Pandemic Killing So Many Black Americans?
Speaking of the pandemic, another sign of the racial inequality and injustice that is fueling the despair of the current moment is how COVID-19 has impacted Black Americans. These causes are connected, and The Daily took time to report on precisely how.
AFTER: Read the NYT piece on how bias in the medical system is worsening outcomes for Black COVID-19 patients.
black&, Becoming Right-Sized with White People for Black Lives
In a moment where Black people are understandably aggrieved and exhausted, active allyship and accomplicehood is needed to help advance the cause of racial justice. In this episode of black&, Johnathan and April Perkins speak to Liz Sutton of one such group of allies, White People for Black Lives.
AFTER: Learn more about White People for Black Lives, as well as the larger network through which they operate, Showing Up for Racial Justice.
The Secret Lives of Black Women, Confronting Grief with Keisha Wells
With over 104,000 deaths in the United States (and counting) from COVID-19 and over 350,000 worldwide, many people are being acquainted with grief on an unimaginable scale. But, as this podcast episode points out, there is a collective grief that comes with being Black...and our present moment in history is tying these two sources of grief together in inextricable ways. Their guest, licensed grief counselor Keisha Wells, digs into the legitimate pain and trauma that is tangled up in that grief, and helps offer grace to name and care for these feelings. The grief that she cites for much of the episode is personal, but the principles and recommendations for starting to cope and heal also apply to the collective grief that is wearing out countless Black people as these issues play out.
AFTER: Take a look at the exceptional HBR interview about the collective grief that COVID-19 has laid bare all over the world, “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief.” And if you have the means to give, The Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund was established to connect Black women to therapy resources and covers the cost of their treatment.
Good One, “Roy Wood Jr.’s Black Patriotism”
As these conversations swirl and add weight to our feelings, it might feel disrespectful or inappropriate to joke. If that feels odd, don’t think of it as a joke. Think of the roughly six minute excerpt that the comedian, also a Daily Show correspondent, and the host Jesse David Fox discuss, as a conversation about the complicated nature of being patriotic while also being in a country that doesn’t value you. Wood expresses this quandary through a fairly straightforward premise: there aren’t Black patriotic songs. The joke hits subsequent beats about what Black music does sound like, the closest thing you’ll get to a Black patriotic song, and the controversy about National Anthem protests that were going on at the time the joke was written. Like so many of Wood’s jokes, it takes a unique perspective on a profoundly difficult topic to laugh about. And even if you don’t want to laugh in light of what’s going on, you will learn…that has value too.
AFTER: To combat the impulse that comes with seeing recent protests as “why can’t they protest peacefully?”, we offer you Vox’s detailed breakdown of the NFL protests designed to do just that. And if you have the means to give, Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp has established a legal defense fund to help protect individuals arrested during protests.
The Diversity Gap, Unlearning Racism and Raising Race-Conscious Kids with Staci Lynch
A big question that circulates in tentative circles is, “how do I talk to my kids about race?” While many parents worry about the right way to go about this, research suggests that children are receptive to learning about these differences earlier; left unchecked, that bias can solidify in problematic ways. In this episode of The Diversity Gap, host Bethaney Wilkinson shares a conversation from a live event in Atlanta with Staci Lynch about instilling race-consciousness in young children, and the benefits of doing so in kids of all races.
Good Kids, How to Raise Anti-Racist Kids with Dr. Nzinga Harrison
The work of raising a generation that acknowledges the ongoing work of undoing racism is crucial for parents, and so we’re including a second podcast on the topic. Dr. Nzinga Harrison offers ten tips to incorporate into your parenting style and relationship with your kids. As she says in the episode, “Anti-racist kids are kids that don’t have to pretend to be free of racism, but kids who make the commitment to fight racism wherever they see it, including when they see it in themselves.” Hint: this can and should be true of their parents as well.
AFTER: The kids’ humor account Live from Snacktime is actively pulling together a collection of books to educate kids on diversity and racial justice. If you’re looking for age-appropriate ways to start these conversations with your children, their picks provide a great starting point.
As we mentioned, this is far from an exhaustive list. But it’s a start, and an important one to ensure that we all are doing the work to dismantle these unequal and unjust systems. We hope that this is the beginning of an answer to questions of “where do I start?” You’ve got your playlist. Now, get to work.
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