The Staten Island Problem – Part 2: A New Map
After the Supreme Court takes a close look at New York City government, Staten Island comes out the loser. A local artist begins organizing for secession. We take a deep…
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Eddie Huang on The Cost of Personal Truth
Kamau sits down with the outspoken multihyphenate Eddie Huang to discuss his evolution as a chef and writer. Kamau gives Huang flowers for his moral clarity and refusal to let…
The Medic Who Gave Everything: Clarence Sasser’s Longest Night
In 1968, Clarence Sasser was a young combat medic thrust into a nightmare. During a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam, his company was ambushed in a rice paddy. Despite being shot…
Melissa Auf der Maur
Melissa Auf der Maur came of age in Montreal’s bohemian art scene in the ’80s and early ’90s, at the very moment that alternative rock was becoming the defining sound…
Decoding PMS and PMDD with Dr. Ruta Nonacs
What happens to a woman’s mental health when she experiences a major hormonal shift and what can she actually do about it? Dr. Ruta Nonacs is a reproductive psychiatrist at…
Military Might | Episode 4
After America won the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army was disbanded. After the abuses of British soldiers, the founding fathers didn’t want a big standing army. That small, disorganized military…
Forget Small Talk: Go Deep Instead
Most of us default to small talk. It’s polite, familiar, and feels like the safest way to start a conversation. But it may also be one of the biggest barriers…
Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation, The Fugees and Her Enduring Legacy
Lauryn Hill is a generational voice, a cultural lightning rod, and one of music’s biggest what-ifs. This time, we’re joined by NPR’s Code Switch host B.A. Parker to unpack the…
Attack of the Night People
If you tuned in to late-night WOR radio in 1950s New York, you’d enter the secret world of Jean Shepherd. Shepherd’s nonconformist style, off-beat humor and love of pranks gathered…
The Staten Island Problem – Part 1: The Mayor vs. the Borough President
A riot, a voyage at sea, and a movement to break up the greatest city in the country. The first Black mayor of New York City faces off with the…
How AI Could Reduce Inequality
David Autor is a labor economist at MIT. He has written about how the arrival of personal computers increased inequality among American workers. But when it comes to AI, David…
Misty Copeland on Reinventing Ballet and Herself
Kamau opens the episode recalling Misty Copeland’s surprise appearance at the Oscars shortly after her hip replacement, marveling at her return to elite performance so soon after surgery and the…
