It’s hard believing it’s only been a little over two weeks that George Floyd brought America to its knees. The video clip of his May 25 arrest and murder ignited massive Black Lives Matter marches from Seattle, Washington to Perth, Australia.
Floyd’s unlawful death—along with the racially motivated killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor—became the tipping point of globally dismantling systemic racism. Conversations around race relations are at a fever pitch, from protest rallies to podcasts.
According to the weekly newsletter “Hot Pod,” it states that “podcasts about race, or featuring race as a primary theme, have bubbled up its ranks” on the charts of Apple Podcasts. One look at the chart today, the New York Times 1619 podcast from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, sits at number 1. The series, which is the digital component to the 1619 Project, is an extensive examination of how slavery has impacted America until today. (If you haven’t listened to the five-part series, do so immediately.)
Other podcast voices digging deep on racial injustice right now include Amanda Seales, Rebecca Carroll, Shereen Marisol Maraji and Gene Demby from NPR’s Code Switch and DeRay McKesson from Pod Save the People. Below are 10 episodes we’ve tuned into examining America’s 401-year-old problem with race. Take a listen.
1. NPR’s Code Switch episode — A Decade of Watching Black People Die
2. Jemele Hill Is Unbothered episode — John Legend, Polite Raunch
3. Small Doses with Amanda Seales episode — Uprising, A Small Doses Forum
4. What Matters episode — #SayHerName, a Conversation with Tamika Mallory and the Taylor Family Attorney Lonita Baker
5. The Nod episode — We’ve Been Here Before
6. The United States of Anxiety episode — ‘I Did Not Watch the Video’
7. Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air episode — Thoughts on George Floyd and the Virus of Racism in America
8. Truth Be Told episode — Protesting for the Soul of America: The New Civil Rights Movement
9. Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay episode — The Importance of Nationwide Protests Over George Floyd’s Death
10. Pod Save the People episode — Keep the Fight with Justine Barron and Amelia McDonell-Parry