Listen: “Brittany’s Choice: An Oral History of ‘Knuck If You Buck,’” which reunites members of the Crime Mob to discuss their club anthem.
Witnessing comedian Akilah Hughes’s rise from a popular Youtuber to the host of her own daily news podcast has been thrilling. Alongside reporter Gideon Resnick, Hughes breaks down the biggest news stories of the day with precision and humor. The hosts of What a Day know that listeners are busy (or just have short attention spans), so they pack reportage, analysis, and often a healthy amount of jokes into 15-minute episodes.
Listen: “Racism Cont’d,” a serious episode that addresses the murder of George Floyd and the confrontation of Christian Cooper this week. It’s an urgent listen that should be followed with a read of Hughes’s accompanying Instagram post.
Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham—a critic-at-large for the New York Times and a culture writer for the New York Times Magazine, respectively—discuss all things culture, each episode providing a smart exploration of current trends and events. There’s a particular focus on television and film, which will please pop-culture fans who crave dedicated analyses of all their favorites: one episode compares the T.V. show Watchmen to the movie Parasite, while another examines the portrayal of masculinity as mental illness in Joker, Succession, and Fight Club.
Listen: “Does This Phone Make Me Look Human?” in which Morris and Wortham discuss the strangeness of communicating via Zoom, including a very funny discussion of Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday broadcast.
Jemele Hill, a former ESPN reporter and SportsCenter anchor, made waves in 2017 when she called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter and was subsequently suspended from her post at the sports network. She brings this same tenacity to her podcast, which is about to launch its second season. Unbothered was born out of Hill’s desire to “have interesting conversations with compelling people,” and the first season’s guests included notable figures such as Stacey Abrams, Soledad O’Brien, Lakeith Stanfield, Trina, Snoop Dogg, Cory Booker, and Larry Wilmore. Honest and unfiltered, Hill applies her interviewing expertise to the realms of news, pop culture, and politics.
Listen: “Dat Rona,” an episode that veers from Hill’s typical interviewing format to discuss the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
1619 (The New York Times)
We’ve featured 1619 in a previous roundup, but the importance of this podcast bears repeating. Nikole Hannah-Jones recently won a Pulitzer Prize for creating this ongoing initiative, which reexamines the legacy of slavery in the United States (the title refers to the year, 401 years ago, that the first enslaved Africans arrived in America). Rigorously researched, well-written, and artfully produced, the show lays bare the often overlooked history of black America.
Listen: “The Economy That Slavery Built,” which reveals how the institution of slavery turned America into a financial powerhouse.
Best-selling authors Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist) and Tressie McMillan Cottom (Thick) team up with executive producer Keisha Dutes to bring their incisive cultural commentary to audio, hosting guests who have included Nobel Peace Prize winners, comedians, journalists, politicians, and showrunners alike. The podcast also benefits from the fact that both hosts are college professors, meaning they are experts at facilitating conversations that are directed, yet still feel candid and off the cuff. Listeners should note that this podcast is only available through a subscription to Luminary—however, they can sign up for a seven-day free trial and peruse dozens more original shows on the site.
Listen: “America…is my problem, but it’s not my fault,” a conversation with author and poet Saeed Jones.
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