Food writer Ahmed Ali Akbar joins us to discuss the backchannels of importing fruit, the lengths people will go to, and the customs bureaucracy that keeps foods from reaching American shores.
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Why we can’t stand humiliation
Essayist and author Vivian Gornick joins us to discuss why humiliation sticks with us long after the incident that brought it on.
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The search for a soul mate is a path to loneliness
Arthur C. Brooks joins us to discuss the realities of love at first sight, why that can be a recipe for unhappiness, and what to look for instead.
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What your vaccine decision says about your thinking
Wake Forest philosophy professor Adrian Bardon joins us to discuss why distrust of science is part of cultural identity, and why that’s a problem for furthering the goals of public health.
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A conversation with U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo
The member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation joins us to discuss how she reckons with the loss of ancestral homelands, her personal story, and the rituals that provide her with inspiration.
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Phoebe Robinson is one dope queen
We’ll talk with the co-creator and co-star of the hit podcast-turned-TV-show “2 Dope Queens” on HBO and the WNYC Studios podcast “Sooo Many White Guys.”
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How A Food Writer’s Dream Job Became A Nightmare
Essayist Wyatt Williams joins us to discuss his journey to Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, to join a community’s traditions of eating whale, and what it signifies for food culture for the rest of us.
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There’s No Such Thing As Foreign Food
G. Daniela Galarza is a staff writer for the Washington Post food section, and she joins us to discuss how food relates directly to culture, and why reframing one’s worldview helps move cuisine beyond old tropes and whitewashing.
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The Black Roots Of Beer Culture
James Bennett II joins us to talk about why beer is often conflated today with a rich, white world and why something as simple as the backyard BBQ is essential to understanding how America chooses to drink.
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When Kids Carry Their Identities In Their Lunchboxes
Jaya Saxena is a staff writer at Eater, and she joins us to talk about what it’s like to feel like an outsider simply because of what your well-meaning parents packed you for lunch.
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A Case For A Great Migration Back To The South
New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow joins us to talk about his ideas for how to create lasting social change, honor culture and memory, and fight back against systemic racism.
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How Black Artists Push Past Gatekeepers
This hour, host Krys Boyd talks about gatekeeping and Black expression with a prominent attorney who works with Black artists to sign fair contracts, a writer who mined her own experiences in the music industry for her latest Y.A. novel, and an English professor who studies gatekeeping during one of the most celebrated periods of Black expression – the Harlem Renaissance.
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