TGS Live: John McWhorter on a Black Helen of Troy, the Voting Rights Act, and Teen Takeovers in Chicago

TGS Live: John McWhorter on a Black Helen of Troy, the Voting Rights Act, and Teen Takeovers in Chicago

From The Glenn Show by Glenn Loury

June 5, 2026 · 58 min

About this episode

Glenn Loury and John McWhorter discuss race, the Voting Rights Act, and recent events in Chicago.

Support The Glenn Show at https://glennloury.substack.com John McWhorter returns for another wide-ranging conversation, starting with his latest book-in-progress on American English dialects and his remarkable productivity as a writer. From there, Glenn and John tackle the social media controversy over Lupita Nyong'o's casting as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan's upcoming Odyssey adaptation, weighing in on race, casting norms, and where society should ideally be headed. They then take on the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais and its implications for the Voting Rights Act — a take sure to generate pushback. The conversation closes with the Memorial Day "teen takeover" chaos in Chicago and Glenn's pointed criticism of Mayor Brandon Johnson's response. The Glenn Show is almost entirely audience-supported , so to those of us who are already full subscribers, let me extend a heartfelt thank you. And if you’re not yet a full subscriber, please consider becoming one . The Glenn Show can only do what it does through the generosity of viewers and listeners. For a mere $6/month or $50/year , you’ll get access to weekly livestreams, monthly Q&A episodes with John…

People in this episode

Host: Glenn Loury

Guest: John McWhorter

Topics covered

  • American English dialects
  • race and casting norms
  • Voting Rights Act
  • teen takeovers
  • social media controversy

Keywords

  • John McWhorter
  • Voting Rights Act
  • Helen of Troy
  • teen takeovers
  • social media controversy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Supreme Court, Louisiana v. Callais, Brandon Johnson

Books & works: Helen of Troy, Odyssey

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