Thank You For Being Some of Our Best Friends
In the final episode of the show, Khalil and Ben talk with Chicago poet laureate avery r. young. He’s the multitalented interdisciplinary artist behind the podcast’s theme song, ‘Lil Lillie.’…
Some of My Best Friends Are… is a podcast hosted by Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s. Today a Harvard professor and an award-winning journalist, Khalil and Ben still go to each other to talk about their experiences with the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. In Some of My Best Friends Are… with Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen, they invite listeners into their unfiltered conversations about growing up together in a deeply-divided country, and navigating that divide as it exists today.
Most Recent Episode
Thank You For Being Some of Our Best Friends
In the final episode of the show, Khalil and Ben talk with Chicago poet laureate avery r. young. He’s the multitalented interdisciplinary artist behind the podcast’s theme song, ‘Lil Lillie.’…
Samantha Irby is Quietly Hostile & Raucously Funny
Ben and Khalil get personal with author and TV writer Samantha Irby on this week's show. Her bestselling essay collections Wow, No Thank You and We Are Never Meeting in…
The End of Affirmative Action
The Supreme Court recently issued a decision banning race-conscious admission in higher education. In this episode, Ben and Khalil talk with Anurima Bhargava, who served in the Civil Rights Division…
Fantastic Future: Reimagining the American City
This week, Ben and Khalil are talking about the future of cities. Their guest, Toni Griffin, is an architect, urban planner, and artist. She teaches at the Harvard School of…
America’s Poverty is by Design
America is the richest country on earth, and yet we have the highest levels of poverty of any advanced democracy. Why is that? And what should we do about it?…
Ben and Khalil Go South
Ben and Khalil take a trip down South to Sewanee University, otherwise known as the University of the South. The school’s history is rooted in the Confederacy, and Ben and…
The FBI’s War on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. needs no introduction. The man changed the course of American history, and paid the ultimate price for his work. But in Jonathan Eig’s biography, King:…
Immigrants Aren’t the Problem
Immigration in America is a humanitarian crisis and a political disaster. It has been for years. In this episode, Khalil and Ben talk to immigration lawyer, artist and activist Carolina…
Are We in a Civil War?
Jeff Sharlet started reporting from Donald Trump’s rallies in 2015, when his presidential campaign stoked a resurgence of white nationalism and white supremacy. Since then, Jeff has traveled the country…
To the Hip Hop You Don’t Stop with Jelani Cobb
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…
Ending the Cycle of Police Violence with Keith Ellison
It’s been three years since George Floyd was murdered by the police. After a swell of action followed by inaction, an important question remains: What still needs to change to…
Truth and Reconciliation: A Lesson from South Africa
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…
Truth and Reconciliation: A Lesson from South Africa
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…
Why Can’t We Be Friends?
Friendships like Ben and Khalil's are rare in America, according to the numbers. In this episode, they talk about the social science on interracial friendships, and about the particular conditions…
What’s Wrong with ‘You People’?
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…
Taking a Knee with Malcolm Gladwell
Sports have always been political, despite what some fans might like to believe. So what role should athletes play in political movements? Malcolm Gladwell joins Ben and Khalil to discuss…
Can Multiracial Adoption End Racism?
Matthew Guterl is a historian of race and nation at Brown University, and also Khalil’s other white best friend. He joins the show to discuss his powerful new memoir, Skinfolk.…
The Jeffersons vs. Sanford & Son
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 &…
Why We Love and Hate Hollywood
Khalil and Ben go to the movies with the perfect partner: Jacqueline Stewart, the director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. They talk about how movies shape…
How to Write the Past & Future with Clint Smith
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,”…
Kamala Harris for President?
Jamal Simmons spent a year working as the communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris. In his first podcast interview since leaving the job, Jamal talks with Ben and Khalil…
Florida Man Attacks ‘Woke’ Curriculum
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…
Is a New Rainbow Coalition of Voters Possible?
Legendary Chicago Mayor Harold Washington is the subject of a new documentary called “Punch 9 for Harold Washington.” In this week’s episode, Ben and Khalil discuss the legacy of the…
We Know How to Solve Homelessness. We Just Need to Do It.
There are roughly 600,000 people experiencing homelessness -- “houselessness”-- in the United States. Ben and Khalil talk with Dr. Heidi Behforouz about how to address a problem that is immense but…
Eve L. Ewing Into the Multiverse
Eve L. Ewing is a renowned scholar, poet, teacher and cultural organizer. She also writes Marvel comic books, including Ironheart, which came to life on the big screen in the…
The New Jane Crow
Fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion. That is, until now. In this episode, Ben and Khalil talk with…
“White Youth Must Choose Sides Now”
Zayd Ayers Dohrn is a writer, professor, playwright who spent his early childhood on the run from the FBI. He joins Khalil and Ben to talk about being raised by…
Filmed On Location: What TV Tells Us About Who We Are
Actor, director, playwright, and screenwriter J. Nicole Brooks joins Khalil and Ben to talk about working on TV shows set in her hometown, such as South Side, The Chi, and…
Fighting For Voting Rights with Eric Holder
Was voter participation in the 2022 midterms a sign of more democracy or less? Khalil and Ben sit down with former United States Attorney General Eric Holder to answer this…
“F*** Him, But F*** Jail”: The Power of Restorative Justice
Danielle Sered is the founder and director of Common Justice, the first alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program in the United States. She’s also the author of Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass…
“Everything Dope Comes from Chicago”
Sherman “Dilla” Thomas has become the face of Chicago history on TikTok, TV and in tours. So Khalil and Ben go on a mission to find out how Dilla became…
How Textbooks Made America Not So Great
Khalil and Ben talk with Donald Yacovone about his book, Teaching White Supremacy. In the midst of new laws to ban books about race and the teaching of slavery, Yacovone…
Brown Enough: Embracing The Middle Space
Actor, podcast host and author Christopher Rivas attributes his own racial awakening to the moment he learned the “real” James Bond was Dominican. Rivas tells the story of Porfirio Rubirosa…
We Can’t Friend Our Way out of White Supremacy
Saladin Ambar is author of a new book, Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship from Jefferson to Obama. He’s also a political science professor at Rutgers and host…
The Boys Are Back in Town: Live from Chicago
Khalil and Ben revisit the city where their friendship began. They speak on stage at the 2022 Chicago Humanities Festival. Come for the tales of Ben’s first job delivering bagels…
Some of My Best Friends Are… Back!
Khalil and Ben return for more real talk about the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. Each week, they'll invite some of their new best friends, like former Attorney…
The Good, The Bad and The Funny
In the final episode of the season, Khalil and Ben delve into how the “some of my best friends are…” trope functions in the world of comedy, particularly when comics…
Being Jewish with Sascha Penn
Khalil has been dying to talk to Ben about his relationship with Judaism and whiteness all season. In this episode, Khalil and Ben invite Ben’s other best friend Sascha Penn,…
Crime, Fear and Alternatives to Policing
Reeling from a terrible string of crimes that happened recently in Ben’s neighborhood in Chicago, Khalil and Ben wrestle with the question of how to respond to violence so people…
Unpacking Our Identities with Jay Caspian Kang
Khalil and Ben talk with New York Times journalist and author Jay Caspian Kang about his new memoir, The Loneliest Americans, and his experience growing up Asian in America. In…
Fighting Inequities Through Art
Khalil and Ben talk with two Chicago artists they admire who are calling for justice through their work–in museums and on the streets. Tonika Johnson, an activist and photographer, takes…
Black Martha’s Vineyard
For nearly a decade, Khalil and Ben have vacationed together at the magical beach town of Oak Bluffs, MA — a historically Black enclave of predominantly-White Martha's Vineyard. In this…
How The Obamas Talk About Race
In the weeks after the groundbreaking of the Obama Presidential Library, Khalil and Ben revisit the Obama memoirs, Becoming and A Promised Land: Volume I, on how the Obamas talked…
Tennis Lessons
Still basking in the glow of the 2021 US Open, Ben and Khalil take a trip down memory lane to talk about what it was like growing up on South…
Critical Race Theory in the Classroom
Can you stop history from repeating itself? That’s a question Khalil and Ben ponder at the start of this school year amid conservative attacks and legislation across the country on…
Another Candyman Movie
To celebrate the release of the new Candyman reboot, Khalil and Ben revisit the original 1992 film and discuss its deep connections to time and place. They then dive into…
European Prisons vs. American Prisons
On the heels of the 50th anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising, Khalil and Ben discuss trips they took, separately, to visit prisons in Europe.How did the Nazi occupation influence…
Interracial Buddies, Interracial Films
Khalil and Ben reflect on the formative movies they saw in theaters growing up that portrayed white and Black men as friends–mainly the 1980s classics 48 Hrs. and Lethal Weapon. How…
Introducing: Some of My Best Friends Are
Coming September 9th, from Pushkin Industries.Some of My Best Friends Are… is a podcast hosted by Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on…
The Hosts
Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Khalil Gibran Muhammad is one of the nation’s leading experts on the history and present of race and racism, having led the oldest Black archive and teaching at Harvard’s leading policy school.…
Ben Austen
Ben Austen is a journalist and the author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing, which was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Nonfiction and named…
