the root podcast
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'We're Not Some New Anomaly': The Root Presents It's Lit Talks Purpose, Process and Pronouns With George M. Johnson
When The Root first spoke to George M. Johnson (one of our longtime contributors) just ahead of the release of their debut book, All Boy Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto, we had a feeling they were on the cusp of something groundbreaking. Borne from their own reflections on growing up without the language and representation…
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'We Could All Serve to Be Less Patient Black People': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Talks About Race With Ijeoma Oluo
Triumph amid tragedy is always bittersweet—a unique type of survivor’s guilt many of us have become all too familiar with in recent months, as we reconcile profound loss with the rare but very bright spots that have occurred during this incredibly devastating year. It’s a dichotomy bestselling author and 2017 and 2018 The Root 100…
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'We Can't Be Afraid to Challenge Our Own People': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Gets Crunk With Brittney Cooper
“There is no Black Freedom Project if you don’t care about Black women.” If there’s one belief upon which “crunk feminist,” author, scholar and educator Brittney Cooper has based her life’s work, it’s this core tenet of Black feminism, as previously maintained by brilliant minds from the Combahee River Collective to 19th-century pioneers like Maria…
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'Black People Are America's True Founding Fathers': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Launches With 1619 Project Creator Nikole Hannah-Jones
“I just want people to know the date 1619,” is what New York Times investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones told her editor when pitching the journalistic opus we now know as The 1619 Project. Launched in August 2019, the landmark issue compiled some of the greatest writers and thought leaders of our time to commemorate the…
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Read, Write, Revolt: The Root Launches the It's Lit! Podcast With Inaugural Guest Nikole Hannah-Jones
Autumn has only just begun, but 2020 has already been a study in contrasts: Some of us have taken to the streets, but even more of us spent an unprecedented amount of our time at home this year. Our discourse has unimaginably become even more divided, but we are holding our loved ones and ideals…
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Unique Views, Episode 46: Queen Sugar or Queen Cougar?
I’m not one to brag, but in my heyday, I was the Michael Jordan of charm. As I’ve gotten older, I’m not as sharp, and in truth, I’ve lost a step. My charm has never worked on my co-host, Danielle Young, aka Ms. Patti Patti LaDanielle, and as such, we hate each other. That’s not…
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Unique Views, Episode 45: High on Covfefe
Nothing else matters this week except covfefe. Thank you, President Donald Trump, for being good for something. We all laugh to keep from crying—which so happens to be the theme of this week’s episode. Guys, there’s so much misery in the world, and the worst of it is my co-host, The Root’s Senior Editor Stephen…
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Unique Views, Episode 44: White Slavery and America’s White Lies
White slavery. The phrase and even the idea of it sounds funny, but this episode of The Root’s podcast, Unique Views—soon to be called The Haters—is serious. A Handmaid’s Tale, on Hulu, looks at what would happen if, in a futuristic world, women, mostly white women, became indentured servants. Of course, my co-host, The Root’s…
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Unique Views, Episode 42: When Stuntin’ Goes Wrong
Adulting is hard. This week I complain to podcast co-host Stephen A. Crockett Jr. the third that I’m having a rough time trying to keep up with all the things life gives adults. He does something that surprises me: He listens and even offers me advice. Stephen then goes on to let me know that…
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Unique Views, Episode 41: Say It Ain’t So, Jesse Williams
Unique Views didn’t have a guest this week, so we decided that we would force our most committed listeners (read: our moms) to listen to everything we hate. Sure, we are rebranding the podcast and have seen ourselves in comic book form (and let me just say that I have the broadest shoulders and the…