Some of My Best Friends Are

We have been told the Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But what the founders were most angry about in our country’s most famous document was Indian affairs. How did generations of Americans miss this? Hosted and reported by Indigenous author Rebecca Nagle and featuring leading Native historians, First America shares the true story of how the United States came to be, and how our current political moment was 250 years in the making.  Here's the first episode. Rebecca sits down with historian Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) to talk about how hunger for Indigenous land drove the Revolution. Find more episodes of First America wherever you get podcasts. Get episodes early and ad-free with a Pushkin+ subscription. Sign up on the First America show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben and Khalil are joined by their friend Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School and New Yorker staff writer, to talk about 50 years of hip hop. They discuss what the music meant to them growing up in Chicago and New York. They talk about the documentary Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World, and also about how the music’s legacy lives on. Additional links: Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World, Chuck D’s PBS documentary Hip Hop at 50: An Elegy by Jelani Cobb for The New YorkerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Khalil talks to Ben about a recent trip he took to South Africa and what America can learn from the country’s efforts to reckon with its racist past. Nearly 30 years after apartheid ended, reconciliation remains elusive and reparations are still unpaid.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Romance across race and religion has been the focus of a bunch of movies – some comedies, some dramas. Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill are taking a swing at it now, with their new movie, ‘You People.’ Ben and Khalil talk about its attempts to address the intricacies of a relationship between a Black, Muslim woman and a white, Jewish man. Is this a successful update to the 1967 classic ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s a special episode from a new Pushkin podcast, Started From the Bottom. Host Justin Richmond interviews successful people with humble origins who managed to scale the summit of success – people who grew up on the outside, people of color, people who weren’t part of the old boys’ network. Justin recently sat down with media firebrand Charlamagne Tha God – over his 25 year career, he’s clawed his way to the top of the radio industry. Justin asked the long-time host of The Breakfast Club what it took for him – a young man suffering from anxiety, constantly in and out of jail – to become an icon of modern media. Hear more from Started From the Bottom at apple.co/thebottom.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben and Khalil throw it back to the 1970s to talk about the TV shows they loved growing up – two of the greatest and most important sit-coms: Sanford & Son and The Jeffersons. They discuss how the shows handle race, class and comedy. And how the small screen and the world it reflects have changed since then. If you’d like to rewatch Sanford & Son or The Jeffersons, both are available on Amazon Prime Video. Further Reading: The Media Dramas of Norman Lear - Michael J. Arlen, The New Yorker Jake Austen’s zine Roctober on the vast comedic work of Redd FoxxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author and poet Clint Smith joins Ben and Khalil to talk about his new collection of poetry, “Above Ground.” They also discuss his previous book, “How the Word Is Passed,” a series of essays evaluating how America reckons with and memorializes slavery. To learn more about Clint Smith and order his books, go to his website: https://www.clintsmithiii.com/ Further reading: Tyre Nichols Wanted to Capture the Sunset - Clint Smith, The Atlantic Monuments to the Unthinkable - Clint Smith, The AtlanticSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis succeeded in stripping important ideas and essential people out of the new curriculum for the national Advanced Placement African American Studies course. Khalil and Ben discuss why people like DeSantis are working so hard to obscure parts of our history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.