Podcasts about Democracy Matters

Watch the full conversation with Lev about men being KIDNAPPED off the streets of Ukraine: https://www.patreon.com/posts/1168448... Cornel West returns to talk about his presidential run, 2024, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and why "multicultural militarism" can't defeat "raw fascism." Then Ukrainian-American journalist Lev Golinkin talks about Washington Warmongers' smearing of Tulsi Gabbard and the Ukraine proxy war. Dr. Cornel West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and ran for president as an independent in 2024. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects -- including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. Dr. West is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. Lev Golinkin is the author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka, Amazon's Debut of the Month, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program selection, and winner of the Premio Salerno Libro d'Europa. A graduate of Boston College, Golinkin came to the U.S. as a child refugee from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov (now called Kharkiv) in 1990. His writing on the Ukraine crisis, Russia, the far right, and immigrant and refugee identity has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Boston Globe, Politico Europe, and Time.com, among others; he has been interviewed by MSNBC, NPR, ABC Radio, WSJ Live and HuffPost Live. **Please support The Katie Halper Show ** For bonus content, exclusive interviews, to support independent media & to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon - https://patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow Get your Katie Halper Show Merch here! https://katiehalper.myspreadshop.com/all Follow Katie on Twitter: @kthalps

SERIES 3 EPISODE 71: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has started down the path to purges of the military, political prosecutions and show trials. His fascists have actually leaked plans to court-martial and even seek treason charges against army leadership and even retired generals. NBC News reports: "“The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan. Officials working on the transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal… and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason… “They're taking it very seriously,” the person with knowledge of the plan said." Thus, President Biden has to proactively pardon ALL of them. In point of fact, President Biden must now assemble a list of thousands of people to pardon – in the military – in the Democratic party – in state and local governments – in election supervision - in the media – in the protest movements – in the climate movement – people in any of the fields this psychopath Trump thinks wronged him and against which he is not only plotting retribution but now actively PLANNING it. Hegseth, already facing an unlikely confirmation due to, you know, Crusader Tats, has now been revealed to have paid off a woman after a sexual assault allegation in 2017. Trump may throw him under a bus but he's reportedly doubled down on Matt Gaetz at DOJ: “Trump wants Gaetz confirmed ‘100%' a source told CNN. ‘He is not going to back off. He's all in'” This figures to turn on whether or not Trump and the majority of Republican Senators who will not vote for Gaetz meet in the middle - and the middle is a Recess Appointment (and a dictatorship). So, back to my earlier point about Pardons. B-Block (23:30) SPECIAL COMMENT 2: There IS much to do, no matter how January 20th and the days thereafter play out. You want some practical advice? A little spiritual inspiration? St. Hubbins Day if not St. Crispin's Day? Got half an hour? Cause I have half an hour of advice. C-Block (56:0) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Haven't done these in awhile but somebody was asking about our election night and special political coverage at MSNBC in 2004-06-08-10 and I flashed back to the continuing adventure that was Chris Matthews - particularly how he began ogling a prominent woman in the church at a presidential funeral and I was assigned to get him to stop.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Matters podcast.In this episode, we talk with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the tensions between expertise and democratic decision-making during the pandemic, and his advice for navigating apathy and misinformation during the next major public health crisis.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode atAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

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It feels like free speech has become the number one issue confronting higher education today. Campuses are now hotbeds of discontent. Students are sitting in, protesting questionable speakers on campus. State elected officials are dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programming. So what is being done to address the campus free speech woes? Stephanie King, senior director of strategic initiatives for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Dannise Brown and Adonis Ortiz, members of the Madison Debate Society at James Madison University provide us with some answers to campus free speech issues.Additional InformationThe Democracy Group listener surveyDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

March 6-10th is National Civics Education Week and on this episode of Democracy Matters, we're exploring youth civic education. We talk with Dr. Stacie Molnar-Main, research associate in civic education and deliberative pedagogy with the Kettering Foundation, and a school climate consultant for the Pennsylvania Department of Education about her research into elementary school's integrating deliberative democracy into the classrooms.Additional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

March 6-10th is National Civics Education Week and on this episode of Democracy Matters, we're exploring youth civic education. We talk with Dr. Stacie Molnar-Main, research associate in civic education and deliberative pedagogy with the Kettering Foundation, and a school climate consultant for the Pennsylvania Department of Education about her research into elementary school's integrating deliberative democracy into the classrooms.

In honor of Black history month, Cornel West and Robert George join the Gloria Purvis Podcast to talk about what Black joy and resistance mean to them. West and George are currently touring the country to speak at various universities about the centrality of truth-seeking to higher education. They are both prolific intellectual giants, who require very little introduction, but whose friendship is an inspiration. Dr. Cornel West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects at Union Theological Seminary. He has written 20 books and is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. Robert George is a professor of Jurisprudence and the Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, a program founded under his leadership in 2000. He has served as Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as well as a presidential appointee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the President's Council on Bioethics. In addition, Professor George has served as the U.S. member of UNESCO's World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. He was also a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, and the author of several books.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Primaries. . Voting Consequences and the Blame Game. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/margo-kelly18/support

In this episode, Madison Center for Civic Engagement Democracy Fellow Leia Surovell interviews the new interim Executive Director, Dr. David Kirkpatrick and the new interim Associate Director Dr. Kara Dillard about their vision for the Madison Center and their views for what campus Centers for Civic Engagement should do for higher education.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://www.jmu.edu/civic/podcast/index.shtmlAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

In this episode of Democracy Matters, we speak with Dr. Laura Edwards, who is a legal historian and professor at Princeton University to discuss how she became involved in her research focused on the 19th century United States, her contributions to civic engagement, what a historian's role is in presenting issues, and her constitution lecture here on campus September 22. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://history.princeton.edu/people/laura-f-edwards

Over the past two years, Rhode Island congressman David N. Cicilline has become an outspoken voice on some of the most critical issues facing the country and the Bay Area, including regulating and reining in big social media companies, reducing gun violence, and promoting economic development. As chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, Rep. Cicilline is leading efforts to promote equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Thrust into the national spotlight during the second impeachment of President Trump, Cicilline is increasingly concerned about America's democracy and the threats to it from within the country and on Capitol Hill itself. He believes in an extensive response that spans both citizen opposition and potent political reforms, including an end to the Senate filibuster, discarding the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court, and requiring that justices adhere to a code of ethics. He outlines some of these thoughts in his new book, House on Fire: Fighting for Democracy in the Age of Political Arson. In it, Cicilline spares no one from criticism as he argues for a politics that produces results and warns that without it, America could slip into being a country we no longer recognize.  Please join us to hear a rising force in Democratic politics on fighting for what matters. SPEAKERS Rep. David N. Cicilline (D–RI 1st District), Member, U.S. House of Representatives; Author, House on Fire: Fighting for Democracy in the Age of Political Arson; Twitter @RepCicilline In Conversation with Mark Follman National Affairs Editor, Mother Jones; Twitter @markfollman In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded Live on September 7th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael J. Abramowitz is president of Freedom House. Before joining Freedom House in February 2017, he was director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Levine Institute for Holocaust Education. He led the museum's genocide prevention efforts and later oversaw its public education programs.He was previously National Editor and then White House correspondent for the Washington Post. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former fellow at the German Marshall Fund and the Hoover Institution. A graduate of Harvard College, he is also a board member of the National Security Archive.On this episode of Outside In Michael talks with Jon about why democracy is important, avoiding complacency, the need for tech transparency and sober dialogue.

What role can and should investors play in strengthening democracy? Ian Simmons, Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative, discusses impact investing, universal voting, foreign money in U.S. politics, the so-called wealth tax and more.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2022/04-26-democracy-matters-episode-103.shtmlAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on April 22, 2022. Conservative commentator and American Enterprise Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow Danielle Pletka on how foriegn policy from free nations must be reshaped to defeat forces aligned against global security and liberty.

In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by thought leaders Jelani Cobb, Sherrilyn Ifill, and Cornel West, who share their perspectives on the threats to Black history and realization of Black freedom. The conversation is anchored in the question, "Was 2022 the last Black History Month?” and makes explicit why we must to fight to ensure it was not. Revisiting the crucial insights they raised as part of the MasterClass series, “Black History, Black Freedom, and Black Love,” each guest discusses what lessons we can learn from Black history in this renewed period of racial backlash. With anti-Critical Race Theory bills assaulting curricula in classrooms and gagging conversations about racism across the country, this conversation addresses the urgent need to push back against the reconfiguration of right wing organizing. Having endured the first Black history month commemorated under the vice grip of this anti-truth campaign, this episode invites us into a timely conversation about the past, present, and future of our collective struggle. With: JELANI COBB - Professor, Columbia School of Journalism; Staff writer, New Yorker; Author, "The Matter of Black Lives: Writing From The New Yorker" SHERRILYN IFILL - Former President & Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Author, "On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century" CORNEL WEST - Professor, Union Theological Seminary; Author, "Race Matters" and "Democracy Matters" Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) Produced and edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine Co-produced by Ashley Julien Supported provided by Destiny Spruill, Rebecca Scheckman, and the African American Policy Forum Music by Blue Dot Sessions Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Daniel Beers, Colleen Moore, John Hulsey and Bernie Kaussler join us to provide historical and political context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian and geopolitical consequences.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2022/01-news.shtmlAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Cornel West, Ph.D., is a prominent and provocative intellectual. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He's best known for his classics, "Race Matters and Democracy Matters," and for his memoir, "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." His most recent book, "Black Prophetic Fire," offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. As part of the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, director of Point Loma Nazarene University's journalism program Dean Nelson has an engaging and inspiring conversation with West about his lifelong work as a theologian, civil rights activist and author. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 37097]

Cornel West, Ph.D., is a prominent and provocative intellectual. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He's best known for his classics, "Race Matters and Democracy Matters," and for his memoir, "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." His most recent book, "Black Prophetic Fire," offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. As part of the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, director of Point Loma Nazarene University's journalism program Dean Nelson has an engaging and inspiring conversation with West about his lifelong work as a theologian, civil rights activist and author. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 37097]

Cornel West, Ph.D., is a prominent and provocative intellectual. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He's best known for his classics, "Race Matters and Democracy Matters," and for his memoir, "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." His most recent book, "Black Prophetic Fire," offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. As part of the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, director of Point Loma Nazarene University's journalism program Dean Nelson has an engaging and inspiring conversation with West about his lifelong work as a theologian, civil rights activist and author. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 37097]

Cornel West, Ph.D., is a prominent and provocative intellectual. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He's best known for his classics, "Race Matters and Democracy Matters," and for his memoir, "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." His most recent book, "Black Prophetic Fire," offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. As part of the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, director of Point Loma Nazarene University's journalism program Dean Nelson has an engaging and inspiring conversation with West about his lifelong work as a theologian, civil rights activist and author. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 37097]

Cornel West, Ph.D., is a prominent and provocative intellectual. He is Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and has written 20 books and edited 13. He's best known for his classics, "Race Matters and Democracy Matters," and for his memoir, "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." His most recent book, "Black Prophetic Fire," offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. As part of the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, director of Point Loma Nazarene University's journalism program Dean Nelson has an engaging and inspiring conversation with West about his lifelong work as a theologian, civil rights activist and author. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 37097]

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on March 25, 2022. "The End of Europe" author Jamie Kirchick on rising threats to freedom in democracies.

"If we start creating compassionate ways of understanding and connecting with one another, then we will have the permanent motivation to live up to our espoused and aspirational ideals as a democracy," says Dr. Gail Christopher, author of the new book RX Racial Healing. Dr. Christopher joins us to discuss how we can approach addressing the effects of racism and reimagine more just and equitable economies, societies and democracies.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2022/02-01-democracy-matters-episode-97.shtmlAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on February 24, 2022. Tactics for countering Russia and other authoritarian regimes from journalist Eli Lake.

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on February 8, 2022. Magnitsky Act champion Bill Browder on how Vladimir Putin must be confronted.

In this episode, we talk with Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, JMU Health Sciences '05, about his experiences fighting for democracy on January 6, 2021. "These people were minutes, seconds, feet away from hanging the Vice President. Just sit with that," says Officer Dunn. He is speaking out for justice and accountability because, "People are trying to rewrite history right in front of us...Terrorism is what they did that day. In my mind, they're coming back. We have to hold them accountable."Additional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

We continue our Best of 2021 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Matters podcast.For Constitution Day 2021 and to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, we talk with Carolyn Quilloin Coleman who started her activism work as a teenager protesting segregation in Savannah, Georgia. In April 1969, she organized the NAACP-sponsored Youth Mobilization conference in Washington, D.C. The gathering brought together 2,000 young people from 33 states to lobby Congress in support of youth voting rights.Additional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

The challenges facing democracy around the world are daunting, especially as global conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic have led to the erosion of civil liberties, the postponement of elections and the spread of disinformation campaigns. Despite global democratic erosion, Dr. Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary General of International IDEA, says “the explosion of civic activism globally in traditionally inhospitable places” is good news.Until recently, Dr. Casas-Zamora was a member of Costa Rica's Presidential Commission for State Reform and managing director at Analitica Consulting (Analitica Consultores). Previously, he was Costa Rica's Second Vice President and Minister of National Planning; Secretary for Political Affairs at the Organization of American States; Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and National Coordinator of the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report.Links in this episode:International IDEA is an intergovernmental organization based out of Stockholm that works to support and strengthen democratic institutions and processes around the world.Voter Turnout DatabaseINTER PARES Parliamentary responses during the COVID-19 Pandemic – Data TrackerAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on November 1, 2021. Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Kaveh Shahrooz on how a prison massacre was formative to his worldview and his career in pursuit of human rights, about the nefarious influence of Iran's regime in the free world, the downing of flight PS752, Oberlin College's employment of a former Iran regime official responsible for covering up rights abuses, and more.

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on October 28, 2021. Iran expert Alireza Nader on what democracies must do to hold the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accountable for its global terror and crimes against humanity.

Trigger Warning: This episode and associated images contain information regarding violence and hate aimed against Black Americans. In this episode, Stephen C. Poulson, Professor of Sociology at James Madison University, discusses his new book Racism on Campus: A Visual History of Prominent Virginia Colleges and Howard University (New York: Routledge Press, 2021). Racism on Campus provides a systemic exploration of yearbooks as means for capturing institutional norms and changes associated with race relations at universities. It also reveals the role that institutions of higher education play in ordering race relations and perpetuating racism not only on campus, but into wider society.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2021/09-29-democracy-matters-episode-87.shtmlAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Cornel’s academic career is long and storied, having taught religion, philosophy, and African-American studies at Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Union Theological Seminary, where he recently returned. He has written or contributed to more than 20 books, including "Race Matters" and "Democracy Matters" — but he recommends you start with Chekhov. I met Cornel decades ago, when I interviewed him at Union Theological Seminary for a TNR piece I was writing on divinity schools. He has long fascinated me, and "Race Matters" had a real impact on me decades ago. Erudite, passionate, and deeply humane, he is an unapologetically leftist Christian, who is also a champion of free speech, civility and the classics. In other words: a rare and beautiful man. Get full access to The Weekly Dish at andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

In this interview with Dr. Cornel West, originally a keynote event from our July 2021 Spiritual Citizenship Online Conference, co-host for the conference, Oneika Mays, explores the relationship between Cornel West's spiritual and religious commitments and his political activism. By highlighting the example of his many decades of work, through this conversation we arrive at a notion of what it means to be a spiritually-informed citizen. They explore what, from Dr. West's perspective, are the most important things we can do today to start living our spiritual practices in a politically engaged way. About Cornel West... Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. Dr. West is a frequent guest on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span and Democracy Now. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice. Dr. West is the co-host of the new podcast Cornel West & Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope along with his esteemed friend and colleague Professor Tricia Rose, the Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. In this episode, we discuss: Bearing witness and responding to spiritual decay. The necessity of community, of mutuality as part of citizenship. How to intervene with ourselves. Responding to hate with love, cultivating loving-kindness. Learning how to die to allow for growth. Wrestling with suffering. Transfiguring grief, hurt, and pain into joy.  The difference between hope and optimism. Coming to terms with what it means to be human. Finding ways to cultivate hope. Joy in service to others. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United states and explored the consequences of the U.S. response, the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement and JMU X-Labs have parterened to share and highlight the contributions of James Madison University alumni who commissioned through the ROTC and served in the Global War on Terror. In this episode, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Curran shares his experiences with the JMU ROTC program and the impact it has, what makes a patriot, as well as the betrayal of the Kurds.See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/civic/9-11-at-20.shtml#curranAdditional InformationDemocracy Matters PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

How did the attack on the U.S. Capitol happen on January 6th? There are lots of reasons, and many congressional committees and federal agencies are investigating. But there is one contributing factor that's easy to fix — update the Electoral Count Act (ECA), a law passed in 1887 that spells out Congress' role in counting the Electoral College votes every four years.But, despite having clear legislative intent at the time, the ECA is ambiguous, out of date, and contributed to the electoral chaos that we saw this year.In episode 31, Weston talks with two experts on the Electoral Count Act about how this arcane legislation came to be, how it gave rise to confusion and misinterpretation about Congress' role in the 2020 presidential election, and why Congress must update it now.Guests:Genevieve Nadeau, Counsel at Protect DemocracyMatthew Seligman, Special Counsel at Campaign Legal Center To learn more about Democracy Matters, another show in the Democracy Group podcast network, visit: https://www.democracygroup.org/shows/democracy-matters

Among the speakers at the August 6 NY Youth Climate Leaders (NY2CL) rally at the State Capitol were: Joan Mandle, Executive Director of Democracy Matters, about how climate and fighting voter suppression are related; and Eric Weltman of Food and Water Watch, who talks about their campaigns to stop fossil fuels and to invest in clean water. With Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Radio Network

A recording and transcripts of this event are available at democracygroup.org.HostJenna SpinelleFounder, The Democracy GroupGuestsLee DrutmanCo-Host, Politics in QuestionTuri MuntheHost, On OpinionCarah Ong WhaleyCo-Host, Democracy Matters

Can transparency, oversight, ethics and accountability save American democracy? What can Congress do to create lasting ethics reforms? How would the For the People Act change ethics rules for the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the U.S. government and are the changes enough? How can the Office of Government Ethics and Office of the Inspector General contribute to democratic accountability? How can Congress get a toe hold into reigning in presidential power?In this episode of the Democracy Matters podcast from the JMU Center for Civic Engagement, hosts Abe Goldberg, Carah Ong Whaley, and Angelina Clapp talk with Walter Shaub, who leads the Ethics and Accountability Initiative at the Project on Government Oversight about what elected and other government officials and the public can do to create and implement long-lasting reforms to shore up the barricades against authoritarianism.Additional InformationDemocracy Matters podcastProject on Government OversightWalter Shaub on TwitterJMU Civic 

Democracy expert Marcus Brand talks about his career building democracy from the Balkans to Ukraine to Myanmar, explains why SDG 16 is so critical, and describes the situation in Myanmar.

Join Cornel West, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., and Maya Marshall for an indispensable conversation about James Baldwin's America and its urgent lessons for our own. ames Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the civil rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. In our own moment, when that confrontation feels more urgently needed than ever, what can we learn from his struggle? We live, according to Eddie S. Glaude Jr., in a moment when the struggles of Black Lives Matter and the attempt to achieve a new America have been challenged by the election of Donald Trump, a president whose victory represents yet another failure of America to face the lies it tells itself about race. From Charlottesville to the policies of child separation at the border, his administration turned its back on the promise of Obama's presidency and refused to embrace a vision of the country shorn of the insidious belief that white people matter more than others. We have been here before: for James Baldwin, these after times came in the wake of the civil rights movement, when a similar attempt to compel a national confrontation with the truth was answered with the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In these years, spanning from the publication of The Fire Next Time in 1963 to that of No Name in the Street in 1972, Baldwin transformed into a more overtly political writer, a change that came at great professional and personal cost. But from that journey, Baldwin emerged with a sense of renewed purpose about the necessity of pushing forward in the face of disillusionment and despair. In the story of Baldwin's crucible, Glaude suggests, we can find hope and guidance through our own after times, this Trumpian era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Mixing biography—drawn partially from newly uncovered interviews—with history, memoir, and trenchant analysis of our current moment, Begin Again is Glaude's endeavor, following Baldwin, to bear witness to the difficult truth of race in America today. It is at once a searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a scholar who speaks to the black and blue in America. His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities and reveal complexities, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for hope. He is the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Cornel R. West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard Divinity School. He is best known for his classics Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. He is the host with Tricia Rose of a new podcast, The Tight Rope. —————————— To order Glaude's Begin Again from Labyrinth Books, please visit labyrinthbooks.com and enter the discount code Baldwin at checkout to receive free shipment on your order. Order a copy of Cornel West's memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Outloud: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781401921903 Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/RdHlORnIqT0 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

To some degree, all Americans realize we've become more polarized in recent times. Those at one extreme obsess about the other, while those in between wonder if that incessant tug of war will fray our social fabric to the breaking point. Fortunately, there are committed individuals and groups working hard to combat polarization. In Part Two of our season finale (“We're Polarized; Now What?”), we highlight this important work. First off, the anti-gerrymandering efforts of the Campaign Legal Center, founded by Trevor Potter (former Chair of the Federal Election Commission). Then John Opdycke, President of the non-profit Open Primaries, explains why the opening of closed primaries to independent voters is an important means of combating gerrymandering and polarizing primaries. And Scott Siebel of Fair Vote discusses why Ranked Choice Voting (now adopted in Maine and Alaska at the state level) is an important prescription for our political ills.   And what analysis of U.S. politics would be complete without discussion of money? In light of the new high of $14 billion spent on the 2020 election cycle, Joan Mandle, Executive Director of Democracy Matters, outlines some methods for reigning in the influence of money on elections and policy. Last but not least, we visit with Charles Wheelan, founder of Unite America and our first featured guest on Season One of the Purple Principle. He recounts the strategic shifts at Unite America toward electing moderates from both parties and the legislative progress that might then accrue.  If you think U.S. politics is broken, you might be right. But these and other democracy repair experts are hard at work. Tune in to restore some optimism on the path ahead, daunting as that may seem. And please stay tuned to Season Two of the Purple Principle, launching in March.  Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/were-polarized-now-what-the-hard-work-of-depolarization

We'll be back with a new episode of Democracy Works next week. In the meantime, we invite you to check out our partner podcasts in The Democracy Group podcast network. Here's a small sampling of what the network's shows have covered recently:Politics in Question examines the future of the Republican Party with the author of a new book on the Tea Party and insurgent factions in American policies.How Do We Fix It? explores free speech and big tech with former ACLU president Nadine Strossen.Future Hindsight discusses the link between Christianity and white supremacy in United States history. Another Way by Lawrence Lessig shines a light on what political reform lessons the United States can draw from Alaska.Democracy Matters from James Madison University explores the history of insurrection and section in the United States with a panel of faculty experts.70 Million explores the push for criminal justice reform in jails throughout the United StatesThe Science of Politics from the Niskanen Center explores the politics of homeschoolingOut of Order from the German Marshall Fund of the United States takes stock of Germany's Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which recently ended.Learn more about the network and subscribe to its newsletter for updates at democracygroup.org.

This is a sneak preview of The Chauncey DeVega Show which can be found at the link below: https://thechaunceydevegashow.libsyn.com/ep-317-dr-cornel-west-reflects-on-trumps-fascist-coup-assault-on-the-capitol-building-and-americas-long-catastrophe Dr. Cornel West is professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard and a professor emeritus at Princeton. He is the author of several bestselling books, including Democracy Matters, Race Matters and Black Prophetic Fire. Dr. West reflects on what Trump’s fascist white supremacist coup attempt and assault on the Capitol Building reveals (even more) about how America is a sick society experiencing many catastrophes at the same time. West also shares what it means to prepare oneself to survive and triumph in a time of chaos, tumult, sickness, and struggle for a real democracy and humane society. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow Please subscribe to and follow my new podcast The Truth Report https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-report-with-chauncey-devega/id1465522298 http://thetruthreportwithchaunceydevega.libsyn.com/ Music at the end of this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show is by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound. You can listen to some of their great music on Spotify.

In this episode of Democracy Matters, James Madison University History and Political Science faculty experts explain the ongoing insurrection, and help us understand the events of January 6, 2021, the complicity of the president of the United States, and efforts to undermine American elections, and democratic norms and institutions. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2020/01-13-democracy-matters-episode-51.shtml

I've recorded this episode in response to the despicable and unpatriotic acts of domestic terrorism on our nation's capital on June 6th, 2021. I hope that listeners can relate, learn, and understand from what I've said and move forward somehow from yesterday's horrific acts. So much love for you all

Americans today live shorter, sicker lives than people in other developed countries, and, across the nation, health varies by income, education, race and ethnicity, and geography. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Linda Plitt-Donaldson, Associate Dean of College of Health and Behavioral Studies and Director of the Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services at James Madison University, and with Dr. Laura Merrell, Assistant Professor in Health Sciences, about the social determinants of health and why everyone should care about health equity. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2020/11-14-democracy-matters-episode-44.shtml

In this episode of Democracy Matters, we talk with Dr. Mildred García, president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and with Jonathan Alger, president of James Madison University, about the role of higher education in advancing diversity and democracy, and higher education's special responsibility to contribute meaningfully to the communities in which they are situated. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2020/11-12-democracy-matters-episode-43.shtml

This episode is published on November 2, 2020, the day before an historic election in the United States. An election that comes amidst growing worries about the future of democratic governance, as well as explicit claims that democracy is intrinsically unfair, inefficient, or ill-suited to the modern world. What better time to take a step back and think about the foundations of democracy? Cornel West is a well-known philosopher and public intellectual who has written extensively about race and class in America. He is also deeply interested in democracy, both in theory and in practice. We talk about what makes democracy worth fighting for, the different traditions that inform it, and the kinds of engagement it demands of its citizens.Support Mindscape on Patreon.Cornel West received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University as well as Professor Emeritus at Princeton. He is the author of numerous books, including Race Matters and Democracy Matters. He is a frequent guest on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now, appeared in the Matrix trilogy, and has produced three spoken-word albums. He is the co-host, with Tricia Rose, of the Tight Rope podcast.Web siteHarvard web pageIndieBound author pageTalk on Race, Democracy, and the HumanitiesWikipediaTwitter

Podcast: Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas (LS 69 · TOP 0.05% what is this?)Episode: 121 | Cornel West on What Democracy Is and Should BePub date: 2020-11-02This episode is published on November 2, 2020, the day before an historic election in the United States. An election that comes amidst growing worries about the future of democratic governance, as well as explicit claims that democracy is intrinsically unfair, inefficient, or ill-suited to the modern world. What better time to take a step back and think about the foundations of democracy? Cornel West is a well-known philosopher and public intellectual who has written extensively about race and class in America. He is also deeply interested in democracy, both in theory and in practice. We talk about what makes democracy worth fighting for, the different traditions that inform it, and the kinds of engagement it demands of its citizens.Support Mindscape on Patreon.Cornel West received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University. He is currently Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University as well as Professor Emeritus at Princeton. He is the author of numerous books, including Race Matters and Democracy Matters. He is a frequent guest on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now, appeared in the Matrix trilogy, and has produced three spoken-word albums. He is the co-host, with Tricia Rose, of the Tight Rope podcast.Web siteHarvard web pageIndieBound author pageTalk on Race, Democracy, and the HumanitiesWikipediaTwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sean Carroll | Wondery, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Today, two days before the election, a discussion on the sustainability of a Democracy.  Joseph Robertson and Myra Jackson bring civic, scientific and cultural references to this sensitive and important dicussion.

Anchor wants me to do a fluff piece about democracy if it pleases the court. Nah homie don’t play that. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jasper-mcleod/message

On this episode of The Tight Rope, Oscar-award winning actor Mahershala Ali opens up powerfully to our hosts Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose about his life, his religion, his supporting role in Green Book, and his upcoming leading role in Blade. You won’t want to miss this fascinating, honest, and spiritual conversation with Mahershala. In Office Hours, Dr. West and Tricia remember Breonna Taylor and discuss the specific and collective loss felt about the decision to not charge the cops involved with her death on this episode of The Tight Rope. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Mahershala AliMahershala Ali is an awarding-winning actor, producer, and former rapper, known for his roles in House of Cards (2016), Moonlight (2016), Luke Cage (2016), True Detective (2019), and Ramy (2020). With a diverse range and incredible skill set, Ali has won numerous accolades, including the 2019 and 2017 Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Green Book and Moonlight, respectively. In 2019, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.  Insight from this episode:Behind-the-scenes look at Mahershala’s journey and conversion to Islam along with his experiences with his name in Hollywood and accepting his creator’s advice. Reasons why Mahershala is so serious.Honest reflections on why Mahershala said yes to his role in Green Book, how he prepared for that role, and his reflections and regrets after the fact. Discussion on Mahershala’s upcoming role in Blade and his connection to Wesley Snipes.Reflections on the power of the arts to empower people and to create imaginative spaces and new realities.  Quotes from the show:“I was constantly in these environments where I was the “other.” In doing so, you become hyper-aware of your Blackness… I don’t think I ever allowed myself off the hook to necessarily relax and go, “Alright, I can kind of play around a little bit.” I always felt a certain pressure to keep certain things together.”  –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“I’ve been very blessed in my life to have the right people at the right time filling in these spaces or at least giving me the information to fill my own voids, to be a co-creator in my own healing and my own growth.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19On Viola Davis and Aunjanue Ellis: “[They] got really good from turning water into wine. Those are the actors that make something out of nothing and get really good at it. So you actually give them some material, a little bit, you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“[Through actors, we can] expand our empathy as an audience and understand that every person is the star of their own story, and if you really get into the nooks and crannies of a life, there’s something dynamic there. I don’t care where they’re from. I don’t care what color or culture someone is from. Those actors consistently make the ordinary extraordinary.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19On changing his name: “I don’t want two more syllables to impact the type of career I have. I know who I am. I’d been fighting through this space for so long, feeling like I’m coming off the bench to come and put up shots, but I get pulled off no matter how well I play. For me, I felt like I had permission... Things popped into alignment, when I was clear about what it is I was doing, how I saw myself, what I was okay with, and also giving an audience an opportunity to learn your name.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“I’ve never not had-- up until [Green Book]-- not had to negotiate the things that I’m okay with or the things I gotta try to limit that aspect of it because that is your experience as a Black person in this industry, or probably any industry.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“I’m two decades into a career and haven’t been a lead yet. So you’re constantly looking at what can I do with this part? Because I have more to say, and I want to see, as a Black man, I always want to be a three-dimensional character. I actually want to not always be supporting someone else’s story and be leading the way. But you’re also looking at the crumbtrail you’ve had to follow to get to that point.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19On Breonna Taylor: “It’s not just that her black life matters. Her black life is profoundly precious and priceless.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #19“It’s like a ritual that’s being played out over and over again, where extensive discretion is being given to the police to enact what is state-sponsored violence and disregard of Black human beings over and over and over again. And then the use of a very narrow interpretation of the law, and the use of extra discretionary contexts for analysis, and the normalization of the idea of Black people as criminals work all together to continue to reproduce this kind of outcome. So it’s both about Breonna and her family and that specific location, and it’s about a collective experience.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #19On outrage to shooting of cops: “We want consistency on that tight rope.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #19 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Marhershala AliInstagram: @MahershalaAli The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Episode SummaryOn this episode of The Tight Rope, Professor Tricia Rose’s favorite MC of all time, Rakim, joins her and Dr. Cornel West for a conscious-raising conversation about the past, present, and future of hip hop and the “turning point” that this moment could be. Rakim lets us into his creative process and shows us that no one knows better than him the power of words, especially the words truth and humility. Dr. West and Tricia hold Office Hours to discuss the politics surrounding the whistleblower allegations of forced hysterectomies on ICE detainees on this episode of The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   RakimRakim is an American rapper and record producer. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, Rakim is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time. Their album Paid in Full was named the greatest hip hop album of all time by MTV in 2006. Eric B. & Rakim created four albums together, and Rakim produced three solo albums. In 2019, Rakim, hailed for his brilliant artistic style, adding layers, complexity, depth, musicality, and soul to rap, released his memoir Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius.  Insight from this episode:Reflections on the role that music and hip hop have played in Black traditions of survival and spiritual fortitude. Strategies for thinking and using words in an aspirational way to maintain hope and positivity.Details into Rakim’s musical influences, such as Coltrane, James Brown, and Frank Sinatra, and the direct impact they had on his hip hop. Rakim’s thoughts on the return on consciousness in music, “Hip hop 2021,” and how the hip hop scene can and should look like moving forward. Behind the scenes of the making of Paid in Full and writing the title track for Juice. Quotes from the show: “As Black folk, we should never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair. We have known every possible catastrophe, every possible calamity. We look unflinchingly at it, be honest and candid about it, try to preserve the integrity of our souls, and keep on moving.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18“When hip hop came out, I felt like it was there for me. It was the young music for the young generation, and I just felt like everything that I learned prepared me for that.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18On Islam: “It taught me how to communicate, it taught me how to express myself, it taught me how to not only translate my feelings, but what I felt the world was feeling. And that’s what I thought was more important, to see vicariously through the world’s eyes and speak.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“Knowing how deep he was, how creative he was, how mental he was, I said to myself, “What would Coltrane do?” If you’re trying to be innovative and take things to the next level, how could you do that? Well, Coltrane played two notes at the same time, so what could you do?” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“Listening to jazz when I was coming up, I didn’t know I was learning an important lesson for what I was doing, for what I would be doing. Jazz taught me how to manipulate space and time.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“I always used to call myself an instrument. When I hear music, I would say how can I join in? It’s like a jazz band, if they let me get a solo, what would I do? How would I play it?” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“We patterned hip hop off of James Brown, his music, his drums, even the screams and the grunts. Without saying words, he let you know how you felt about the music and it made the listener feel the same way.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“This is the best time to be conscious again with music. This is the best time to tell your story from the world’s point of view. We’re all impacted from what’s going on right now. I’m hoping it’s a good time for hip hop. Artists that may have never thought of saying anything conscious or positive are thinking that now. Even if they’re just explaining to us if they see what’s going on, it’s a change for hip hop. I’m hoping that things just going on wake hip hop up a little bit and it gets a little more conscious.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18On the golden age of hip hip: “It wasn’t about trying to tell people political messages. People like to say it was about political consciousness. No, it was about how to live and survive white supremacy with your spirit intact, with your family, and your people at the front of your mind, and your heart not completely closed to treating each other with dignity.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18On COVID-19 pandemic: “I don’t think nobody wants to hear about no strip clubs or how much money or how many cars you got. I think the climate is going to change real fast with hip hop because this is a rude awakening.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“When I was young, music was a teacher. We could listen to music and know exactly what’s going on in the world.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“I started to pattern my style, and I realized that if I could show me through my work, it would be easy. I figured that would be my advantage. Can’t no nobody be me, can’t no one think like I’m thinking. No one’s going to say exactly what I say if it comes from my heart.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“There’s a long tradition of eugenics in the United States, 31 states that had laws that allowed for reproductive violation and injustice, that allowed for sterilization. We know one of the greatest freedom fighters of the 21st century, Fanny Lou Hamer, underwent the same kind of operation without her consent. Same kind of violation without her consent.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18“If anybody has a question about why people of color don’t trust doctors or don’t trust medical professionals in general, here’s a very clear, recent case of that.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18“We have to be vigilant about it because we’re just being attacked and assaulted on every conceivable front.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18“Sexual violence and physical violence against women’s reproduction is a hard topic for people to rally around in the same way as other things are because it feels like such an intimate thing, and we’ve not been trained to see the deeply public, political nature of this kind of action.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  RakimWebsite: TheGodRakim.comTwitter: @RakimGodMCFacebook: RakimInstagram: @TheGodRakimYoutube: @RakimVEVOSpotify: Rakim The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryOn this episode of The Tight Rope, Professor Noam Chomsky shares with our hosts, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose, the wisdom that only comes with 91 years of experience. Linguist, social critic, and political activist, Professor Chomsky confronts issues of survival as he speaks on the impacts of the COVID pandemic and the decisions of the Trump administration locally and globally as well as the feasibility and necessity of a New Green Deal and the heroics of everyday, unknown people that truly make the difference. Join us for a reframing of what really matters during this time on this episode of The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Noam ChomskyConsidered the founder of modern linguistics, Professor Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential and critically engaged public intellectuals in the world. He has written more than 100 books, including Syntactic Structures, Language and Mind, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, and most recently Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal. He is Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Chomsky’s immense contributions go beyond linguistics into analytic philosophy and cognitive science. Insight from this episode:Strategies for sustaining our commitment to intellectual thought during this multilayer catastrophe. The two biggest questions that human beings are currently facing and why no one is talking about them. Critiques of the internal battles of the DNC and what we need to do if Biden is elected. Insights into how capitalistic logic worsened the pandemic.Connections between religion and justice along with Professor Chomsky’s thoughts on the “self-hating Jew,” “flatterers of the court,” and liberation theology.  Quotes from the show:“If you look at history, we’ve been through very hard times, but a lot has been accomplished. In many ways, it’s a much better country, much better world, than it was 60 years ago, a 100 years ago-- not in all respects, but in many respects. And many battles that were fought hard, and won, we can just take for granted and move on.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“We don’t have any choice. You can either say everything’s hopeless, I give up-- help ensure the worst will happen. Or you can grasp the opportunities that exist, and they do exist, and maybe you can make it a better world. It’s not much of a choice.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17On Trump: “If this malignancy is not removed, we may not survive another four years of this. We may get to irreversible tipping points.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“This decision [to eliminate regulations on polluting industries] is saying, “I want to kill you.” That’s what it says. “I don’t care about you. I’ll increase the pollution that’s killing you.” And doing it in the midst of a respiratory pandemic, which pollution radically increases the already sharply disparate race, class effect of the pandemic. Right in the middle of this, I’ll make it worse for you. Nobody comments on it.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“[Trump’s] carrying out a desperate effort to try to cover up the vicious crimes he’s committed against the American people.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“You can’t read the prophets and not be inspired by the eloquent calls for justice, for mercy, and the sharp critiques of the crimes of the powerful, the geopolitical critiques, moral critiques.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“The ones who bring the message of honesty, integrity, support for people who need it, preferential option for the poor, working for the suffering and the needy, changing our societies so that they are directed to people’s just rights and needs instead of for maximizing wealth and profit for a tiny sector, those are the people who are bitterly attacked.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“You get caught up trying to decide which one of those [political ideologies] is right, and you find out that every group has done both [right and wrong].” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #17“You wonder if all of this effort to keep us at each other’s throats is just to distract us from the fact that everything is being looted while the whole world ends.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #17“Greed wouldn’t be able to run amuck if they weren’t able to manipulate the racist sensibilities of folk to turn away from what really matters and to be preoccupied with these matters that allow the powerful to be the gangsters that too often they are.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #17“They’re promising to make America great again, while there’s not going to be any America left-- not that if was ever great in the first place.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #17 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Noam ChomskyWebsite: https://chomsky.info Facebook: Noam Chomsky The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

This episode features the audio from JMU Civic's virtual town hall with Libertarian Party presidential candidate Dr. Jo Jorgensen. We discuss a range of issues including the size and role of the federal government, military and national defense, healthcare, immigration, COVID-19 pandemic, criminal justice reform, the environment and more. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at https://j.mu/news/civic/2020/09-10-democracy-matters-episode-35.shtml

Episode SummaryBootsy Collins transforms The Tight Rope on this Special Funk Edition. Bootsy, Dr. Cornel West, and Professor Tricia Rose talk all things funk in the context of the perils of following trends, the process of self-acceptance and self-discovery, confronting fear, and the “manipulation of the funk.” Bootsy shares details about his upcoming album The Power of the One. Hear what funk means to Bootsy Collins and how we must be funky in our own lives on this episode of The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Boosty CollinsBootsy Collins, a great “Funkmaster,” has been making music since 1968. He played bass with the Pacesetters, James Brown, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. He also wrote songs and arranged rhythm. Black music “artistic nobility” from Cincinnati, Bootsy was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Bass Play magazine, and he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No one says it better than Dr. West when he describes Bootsy as an “exemplar of the greatest modern tradition in the world which is Black music wrestling with suffering and transfiguring and transforming it into such a way that the sonic effects on souls, soul to soul, [are] mediated with genius, mediated with talent, mediated with discipline, mediated with vision.” Check out Bootsy’s new album The Power of the One, which includes a collaboration with Dr. West. All proceeds from the streams and downloads of his new song, “Stars,” will go to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.  Insight from this episode:Secrets behind the key to the funk and how to make something out of nothing. Insights into the past, present, and future of funk music. The story behind the bassline of “Flash Light” and Bootsy’s artistic self-discovery.  Bootsy Collins’s take on Black Lives Matter and the current moment.Behind-the-scenes details on past and present collaborations between Boosty Collins and Dr. West.  Quotes from the show:“I don’t never want to lose that kid inside me because when I lose him, I lose a part of myself.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“One of the things about funk, and one of the great gifts that we Black people have brought to the world in terms of the depths of funk… is to acknowledge that in the world in which we find ourselves, which is white supremist America, they want to deodorize everything, they want to sanitize and sterilize everything, keep it on the surface. We say, no, we want to do some deep sea diving, and by going all the way deep into the funk, we’re going to get all the tears, blood, the sorrow, the sadness, and the pleasure, and the joy is there and then give it.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“The whole thing is, do you accept being funky? Are you alright with being called funky? Are you alright with being called Black? Are you alright with it? I’m cool with it! I’m always going to be cool with being funky. But a lot of people just can’t embrace the fact of being funky.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“The funk predates the book learning.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #14“The funk is making something out of nothing.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“We all become less afraid. We all become more willing to engage with the world. We all become less apologetic about whatever truths are inside us cause everyone got their distinctive voices and their distinctive truths. You can’t be funky by imitating someone else. You’re going to start faking the funk.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“That funk, funk vibe that you got, you got to trust it. It’s just like God. It’s God.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“African peoples have musically and sonically transformed all of the deodorized lies into certain truths of self-confidence and self-respect. We might not have no land or territory, might not have no rights or any kind of liberty, but we were still free enough in our language, in our music, to pass it on to the younger generation where they can get some kind of self-confidence, self-respect where the love can be found.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“Who really stands for the funk now? This is the time you have to stand for something. And we got something real. We’re talking about the funk.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“The funk is not about success but about process.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“We don’t want no brand. We want a cause. We want a cause we can die for. We don’t want a brand to superficially shine. We want the shining in the life that we live, in the funk we embody, in the smiles we produce, in the love that we generate.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14 Resources MentionedMusiCares Donation Website Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Bootsy CollinsWebsite: www.thebootcave.com/Bootsy Collins Foundation: www.bootsycollinsfoundation.org Twitter: @Bootsy_CollinsFacebook: @BootsyCollins The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Episode SummaryFormer police officer and F.B.I. agent Dr. Erroll Southers, director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California, reveals how to transform racist police departments from within, his motivations to join law enforcement, and the “ticking clock” which domestic white terrorists use to countdown to the year 2045, when America's population is expected to become majority P.O.C. Plus, in Office Hours, hosts Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose explore the structural limits and spiritual thresholds of America and ponder the existential question: Is America even capable of treating the masses of Black people with decency and dignity?   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Errol SouthersDr. Erroll Southers is an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism, public safety, infrastructure protection, and homeland security. He serves as Director of the Safe Communities Institute and of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California and Professor of the Practice in National & Homeland Security.  Insight from this episode:Explorations of the possibilities of the 2020 election in the context of the apparent helplessness of the current moment. Surprising statistics about America and its homegrown violent extremism. Strategies for activists looking to change law enforcement policy and create systems of accountability. Information on the power of police unions and other barriers to true accountability in law enforcement. Insights into the hope and patriotism that music and its boundarylessness produces. Quotes from the show:“Spirit [and] solidarity pushes back despair and despondency, so we have some sense of possibility.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13 Quoting his father on why he joined law enforcement: “You can’t change the castle from outside the moat.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“When you train people and dress people for war, they go into a neighborhood to do battle… They’re in a warrior culture, when they need to be in a guardian culture.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“Police unions and police officers are afforded more protections than the people they arrest. And I can tell you, having been an assistant chief, it almost takes an act of Congress to fire a police officer. And when you do, about a third of them come back with retroactive backpay.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13On community review boards: “Why is that such a horrible thing to say to a police department? Why can’t it be that the very people that you’re policing have some say in their reception of your services?” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #13“In the last ten years, we’ve had more domestic attacks here in this country by white supremacists and white nationalists than any other group. White nationalist groups, last year, increased for the second straight year 55% since 2017. The FBI finally had to label that threat a national threat priority. They were in denial.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“COVID has been the perfect environment for these extremist organizations to recruit and radicalize and share their message. They’re doing it under the guise of pushing back against the government overreach to make you wear a mask, make you stay at home.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“Start talking to the mayor. Start talking to the council. What’s the money being spent on? Are there any metrics that are being looked at with regards to how successful they are?” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“What do you do when everywhere you look up you run into a different pharaoh? Well, at that point, you just say to yourself, I refuse to be a spectator. I’m going to be a participant. Therefore, I’m going to learn how to love, fight, laugh more adequately, effectively to pass on a tradition to a younger generation.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13  “There’s potential for transforming what it means to treat Black people with dignity and decency if we can cultivate and somehow separate whiteness from the national consciousness.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #13“The problem is in order to reach that kind of policy we got to have multiracial coalitions, and if those racial coalitions are weak because of white supremacy and they associate dealing with poverty with dealing with Black people, then the racism makes it difficult to ever deal with their own poverty too. And that’s the catch-22 that we see over and over again in our society. And that’s the definition of insanity as well as a certain spiritual sickness.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13“I don’t mind being profoundly patriotic about Aretha Franklin.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13 Resources MentionedProsecuteKillerCops.org  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Erroll SouthersWebsite: errollsouthers.comTwitter: @esouthersHVELinkedIn: Erroll Southers  The Tight RopeWebsite: thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Episode SummaryJoin Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose on this episode of The Tight Rope in their compelling conversation with NFL superstar and author of Things That Make White People Uncomfortable Michael Bennett. From the strong women in his life and the path to embracing his intellect, to the exploitation of celebrity and “ownership” in the NFL, Bennett engages on all levels with our hosts. Office Hours focuses on “COVID in the Classroom,” both its impact on the learning environment and its economic realities. Hear about Bennet’s thoughts on discernment, retirement, and Colin Kaepernick on The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Michael BennettMichael Bennett is a recently retired 11-year NFL veteran with three Pro Bowl victories and a Super Bowl title. He was a pivotal defensive end for multiple teams including the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys. Bennett, an outspoken proponent for social justice and vocal anti-racist in the NFL, has a podcast called “Mouthpeace” with his wife Pele Bennett and a book titled Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, which he is developing into a scripted TV series. Bennett also works with Athletes for Impact, an organization focusing on athlete activism, and he and his wife established The Bennett Foundation with their three daughters.   Insight from this episode:Details on Bennett’s recent retirement from the NFL and his new path forward.  Secrets to having a spine and making it shine. Personal reflections from Bennett and his wife Pele on going “back to Africa” and his work with iamtheCODE in Senegal. Strategies on cultivating leadership not driven by ego. Words of encouragement from our hosts on fulfilling your purpose while also being sensitive to what is happening in the world.  Quotes from the show:“You don’t pity people who you are fundamentally tethered to.”  –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12“I worry that while we’re trying to survive COVID, somebody’s engineering a world after COVID that is not the world that we want.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12“You can’t segregate me from my Blackness, you can’t segregate me from my culture, you can’t segregate me from my community because I am that.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12“It’s important to be vulnerable because our children need to see us love. Our children need to see us cry. Our children need to see us say I love you. They need to see us love our women. They need to see all of it as being a full human being.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12“I’m an extension of someone who never gave up.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12On visiting Gorée Island, Senegal and his grandmother: “It was bigger than the Super Bowl to me. It was bigger than a lot of the things that I had accomplished because I had made it back to Africa. There’s a lot of people that accomplished a lot of things, but they never made it back to the motherland to rest their ancestors’ soul. And I felt at that moment a big release. I felt like she was back. She had made it back.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12On his role in the NFL: “We’re really playing the game of liberation.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12On Pema Chödrön: “There’s power within healing yourself and being able to be ready for the world. And also, when I read her books, it just makes my consciousness have a sense of peace and a sense of being happy in the moment.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12“What you do has got to be as essential to you as oxygen. It’s the skin on your body. It’s the love of your parents.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #12“The need is everywhere. We settled that. There ain’t no place where we don’t have a need. So you go where you need to go.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12On COVID in the classroom: “The main thing I’m worried about is the loss of the kind of human connection when ideas click in that way that it’s so interpersonal even in a big lecture hall. You can feel people thinking.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Michael BennetTwitter: @MosesBread72Instagram: @MosesBread72Podcast: Mouthpeace with Michael Bennett & Pele BennettThe Bennett Foundation Twitter: @TMBFoundation The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry 

Episode SummaryIn this episode, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose nail down issues of white allyship, undoing invisible racist ideologies, and the hallmarks of possessive investment in whiteness with their beloved guest Professor George Lipsitz. They provide commentary on the leadership of the Black freedom movement of the past and present as well as the “slow violence” of racism rooted in power, interest, and property. Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose hold office hours to offer their takes on the removal of racist monuments and its role in the larger work of dismantling systemic racism. This is an episode of The Tight Rope you will want to return to again and again.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   George LipsitzProfessor George Lipsitz is an American Studies scholar and Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D in History at the University of Wisconsin, and his current studies focus on social movements, urban culture, African American music, inequality, the politics of popular culture, and Whiteness Studies. Lipsitz has authored numerous books including The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How Racism Takes Place, Midnight at the Barrelhouse, Footsteps in the Dark, A Life in the Struggle, and Time Passages. Lipsitz also co-authored The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights and the Ethics of Co-Creation. He serves as a Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African American Policy Forum and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Lipsitz is an intellectual pioneer and respected figure of the Black freedom movement.  Insight from this episode:Questions we must ask ourselves about self definition as the Black freedom struggle and crisis of the current movement passes to another stage. A reframing of “white allyship” and “white fragility” in the context of George Lipsitz’s scholarship on the possessive investment in whiteness. Details on the coordinated crimes of the Pentagon, Wall Street, and the police, specifically the connection between violence abroad and violence “at home.”A call to move beyond symbolic victories when structural changes are needed. Reflections from George Lipsitz on teaching in the prisons and the deeply cynical but astute critics he met there. A behind-the-scenes look at the origins of both Dr. West’s Race Matters and Professor Rose’s Black Noise.  Quotes from the show:“There’s a lot of spinelessness that goes with the polarization and gangsterization of our society. We need people to stand up. Not because they can do it alone, but rather because by doing it, they can inspire others to do it. And so we get enough folk [...] to create countervailing structures, countervailing institutions, along with the countervailing voices and the countervailing examples of the kind of decay and decadence we’re dealing with in the U.S. environment.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #11“It’s important for us to make sure we develop the courage and the clarity and the conviction to move the struggle along. This is a hard time for lovers of freedom. This is a hard time for lovers of social justice. This is a hard time for lovers of decency and dignity of humans. But the table is shaking, and the boat is rocking. We have meaningful work to do.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11“It’s too easy to think about saving white souls or soothing white psyches and neglecting saving Black lives.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11“You can’t have decent relations when the structure in which you’re operating is already a rigged game, is already meant that one party to this relationship has the power of denying, condescension, pity, and sympathy and the other person is scrambling for rights, recognition, and resources. So first of all it has to be about power and not just about prejudice.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11On the leadership of the current Black freedom movement: “What we have today are people who are proud to be themselves. These queer, transgender, non-normative young people on the streets of Ferguson and elsewhere are resisting ruinous form of classification and insisting on an expansive and democratic notion of affection, sexuality, romance but also social membership. We have to applaud that. On the other hand, good intentions and spontaneity is not going to be enough in the face of a relentlessly oppressive and powerful, well financed, military, economic, and political system.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11 “Many will be seduced and bribed into thinking that if they’re visual their politics are viable.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11On institution building and making bridges for people: “This happens because people choose to take their time and put that kind of energy into each other.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #11“If we get too preoccupied with these symbolic gestures, they do become distractions. And the status quo says, you know what, you all change the monuments you want, but the class hierarchy, the gender-based hierarchy, the imperial hierarchy is just going to stay right in place.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #11“It’s hard to think of any human being who really deserves a monument.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #11“The monuments become monuments to ideas, and monuments to power relationships, to celebration of domination.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #11 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  George LipsitzUCSB Webpage: George LipsitzBooks on Amazon: George Lipsitz The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry. 

Joe Biden's selection of Kamala Harris to be his vice-presidential running mate is a reminder that the fall election season is about to start in earnest.In this episode, we discuss solutions for America's voting crisis. People of all political persuasions have expressed concerns about holding an election in the COVID pandemic. President Trump made unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud. Many have protested the barriers faced by voters who find it difficult or nearly impossible to have their say in elections. In Georgia this summer, some voters waited in line for 5 hours to make their voices heard, while New York election officials took many weeks to count absentee ballots and get the results from congressional primary elections.This podcast is produced with assistance from the Democracy Group podcast network. We feature groundbreaking interviews from "Democracy Works" podcast with elections expert, MIT political science professor, Charles Stewart, and former Obama speechwriter David Litt, who appeared recently on "Democracy Matters" podcast.David Litt is the author of the new book, “Democracy in One Book Or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think.”Charles Stewart has spoken with election officials across the country about election security, and how to successfully implement voting-by-mail, while ensuring that in-person voting during COVID is safe. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, our hosts are joined by Dr. Cornel West’s very own student at Harvard, award-winning actress, producer, and change agent Yara Shahidi of Grown-ish fame. Learn about Yara’s passion for storytelling, her new production company 7th Sun that she launched with her mother, as well as her Black Iranian heritage. Yara reads and discusses her favorite passage from James Baldwin. The episode ends with a fascinating Office Hours discussion on John Lewis, his life, legacy, and politics. Join the rich dialogue that brings together joy and justice with Yara Shahidi, Dr. Cornel West, and Professor Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Yara ShahidiYara Shahidi is a 20-year-old actress and producer, most known for her role as Zoey Johnson in Black-ish and Grown-ish. Among numerous nominations and awards, she was a 2020 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (Grown-ish) and 2019 Teen Choice Award nominee for Choice Summer Movie Actress (The Sun Is Also a Star). Yara is a vocal activist and champion for social justice. Her newly launched production company, 7th Sun, recently signed with ABC to “develop and produce scripted and alternative television projects for cable.” The aim of 7th Sun is to focus on stories from underrepresented communities and their histories, heritages, cultures, and joys. Yara is the youngest producer to work on network television, and she is also involved with Girls for Gender Equity and the Third Wave Fund.  Insight from this episode:Strategies on creating spaces of joy and sanity in the present moment of crises and pandemics. Behind-the-scenes look at Yara’s life as a student at Harvard and growing up in Hollywood in the context of Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement. Reflections on Yara’s connections to both Prince and the Obamas and their role in shaping her and her family. Selections and analysis of James Baldwin’s “The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity.”An honest look at Black freedom fighter and neoliberal politician John Lewis, and productive myth-making, Black violence, and the seduction of politics.  Quotes from the show:“We have to come to terms with catastrophe, such that we are not surprised by evil nor paralyzed by despair.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #10“In what ways, given the time that we were growing up, was the myth of utopia not even granted to us? We were born into a world in which we’ve seen corruption at heightened levels… In many ways, purpose has been two-pronged in that it has helped me, with an exceeding amount of clarity, move forward and say, okay, what are the moves I want to make in my world to try and make an impact?” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10On being entrenched in corporate America: “How do I balance the impact of what I’m doing on a personal level to the positive impact I make to this corporate world that I’m still trying to figure out how I want to deal with?” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10“I wouldn’t be where I am if people hadn’t handed the mic to me.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “How do I pay enough attention to the world around me to service it to the best of my ability?” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 On Prince: “I really do feel that he created the foundation for how we move through this industry.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “My last name, Shahidi, means witness or to bear witness. I hope that through art or whatever these other avenues are-- I’m considering law school, we’ll see-- that I’m able to do that [bear witness] to the best of my ability and to continue to open doors in every space.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “Many people that are frontlines in this movement are also creatives in the truest sense. It’s something I struggle with is seeing the level of vitriol sent their way in a movement that is so steeped in love. In hearing [James Baldwin’s] words of that cognitive dissonance that occurs when you see someone aware enough that it calls attention to your own state of sleep, that that is what [the vitriol] stems from really contextualizes this moment.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “My dear brother John Lewis was part of a rich tradition of Black people that put a primacy on morality and a centrality on spirituality. He was such a kind human being. He was so gentle. He was a sweet person. He had a soulfulness to him.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #10 “Is it a fair standard to hold him [John Lewis] to? Can a person be in Congress 33 years, 15 years, 5 years and not fundamentally have to wrestle with the contradictions that will in a sense require a less pure response? I just don’t see how you do it.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #10 “Don’t come talking to me about what my violence might look like when you’re constantly crushing my neck to death.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #10 “The arc of the force of their [Black freedom fighters] efforts is what we want to recall while we still the truth about all our human frailties.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #10  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Yara ShahidiWebsite: Yara ShahidiTwitter: @YaraShahidiFacebook: @yarashahidiInstagram: @yarashahidi The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Rita speaks with special guest Joan Mandle from DemocracyMatters in the third short form episode of Voting Equals Democracy. Hosted by Rita Shuster, Featuring Joan Mandle, Produced by Rita Shuster & Diego Andaluz. || Connect with us on instagram at @votingequalsdemocracy & email at votingequalsdemocracy@gmail.com || Find us at www.votingdemocracy.com || Created by Rita Shuster, An Andaluz Media Production.

Episode SummaryIn this episode, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose dance with their respected guest Jane Elliott on The Tight Rope. Known for her Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise and continued advocacy for anti-racist education and activism, Elliott debates with our hosts about the nature of racism and the language we use to discuss it. They wrestle with the inspiration of the present moment and the necessity to recognize the economic realities of the “lies” about race, along with the ever-importance of education. Join in the spirited conversation with “moral titan” Jane Elliott who emphasizes the possibility of change in our society on this episode of The Tight Rope. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Jane ElliottJane Elliott is an internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education. Many will know of Elliott from the now famous “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise” she devised for her third-grade class of all-white students in Riceville, Iowa in 1968. Implemented the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the exercise was created to help her young students understand structural racism on a personal level. Elliott has spent more than 50 years as an anti-racism activist, educating people about discrimination and unconscious biases.    Insight from this episode:Strategies on white allyship and what to ask instead of “What can we do? How can we get involved?”Details on Jane Elliott’s 52 years on the tight rope of fighting racial bias.Reflections on the repetition of history and the dangers of an educational system that is meant to indoctrinate racial bias and systemic racism. Details on the racism of our language and alternative vocabulary for conversations on race. Strategies on how to effect change after education has taken place and keep fighting in the face of entrenched interests and white privilege.  Quotes from the show:“If you’re committed to spiritual integrity, if you’re committed to moral courage, you’re going to fight every evil. And white supremacy is an evil.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #9“I jumped off the boat a number of years ago when I said to my students, would you like to know how it feels to be something other than white in this country? That was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. They all agreed that sounds fun because they had no idea what was going to happen.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9 “If you want to learn about what’s going on today, in the last three and a half years, don’t go to a history book in a high school or a college. Go some place and find out the truth about what happened in those days [her childhood]. You’ll find out that it looks exactly like what is happening right now.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“The answer to this whole problem is education. In schools in this country, we do not furnish education; we furnish indoctrination: here are the ways you must act to be a good American citizen.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“With that cultural infrastructure, with that resistive tradition, we [Black Americans] were able to make tremendous strides that really weren’t logical to make.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #9“We need to stop using the phrase “white supremacist” because white people are not supreme. They are pale faces who have learned to play the game that will keep them on top and other people on the bottom. And we do that at our own peril.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“You are not born a racist. You are not born a bigot. You have to be carefully taught… It hasn’t been like this forever, and it doesn’t have to be like this forever.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“The evil… is not rooted only in ignorance. It’s rooted in interest. It’s rooted in power. It’s rooted in structures of domination.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #9“America isn’t in crisis. The United States of America is having now to come up with the penalty for what we have done to people for the last 300 years in this country.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“We believe what we have learned. We have learned the wrong thing. We need to re-educate policemen, instead of re-training them.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9On the outcomes of Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercises: “I don’t know if I believe people who say that. How blind can you actually be? ...They say out loud, “I just never knew. It’s terrible.” What they mean is, “I don’t like when this is happening to me.” So they’re languaging it as empathy because that’s what you’re asking them to do. But I don’t necessarily trust it.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #9“The structure reinforces the ideology and the ideology reinforces the structure. You can’t break it on only one level.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #9 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Jane ElliottWebsite: www.janeelliott.com/Twitter: @BlibriJaneFacebook: Jane Elliott The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, award-winning hip hop artist Lecrae joins Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose for dialogue about posturing in the world of rap, the meaning of being a revolutionary Christian in today’s world, and the importance of having moral courage no matter what your ideology. They critique the policing of genres and stereotypes of Trap music. Lecrae also speaks vulnerably about his healing journey from depression after the “American dream” failed him and all of America. Be sure not to miss this powerful episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   LecraeLecrae is a celebrated, award-winning, multiple platinum artist. As a rapper, author, activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Christian, Lecrae has forged his own path combining his faith and hip hop talents. Houston-born Lecrae has earned two Grammys and a No. 1 album on the Billboard Gospel chart, a first for a hip-hop album. Lecrae’s seventh album Anomaly debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Gospel charts simultaneously in 2014, another first for any album. His 2016 memoir Unashamed inspired millions as a New York Times Bestseller, and this October, he will share more of his vulnerable honesty in his upcoming book I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith. Truly a revolutionary force in hip hop music and the Christian community, Lecrae remains true to himself standing for love, justice, and humanity. Lecrae’s newest album Restoration will be released in August 2020. Listen to his latest song “Deep End” now. Insight from this episode:Details on the sense of hope and connection to inner emotional worlds that people are looking for and are becoming more open to in hip hop music.Secrets to transforming personal suffering into creativity.Reflections from Lecrae and Dr. West on being artists, thinkers, and Christians, who speak truth, love people, and seek justice.  Details on Lecrae’s journey to form his musical and activist identities, along with his inspiration for his upcoming album Restoration.Secrets to handling backlash, standing true to yourself, and finding your path to spiritual, mental, and emotional healing. How to walk alongside people with differing views from you.  Quotes from the show:“[Hip hip] begins with this extraordinary intervention in the process of music making. It just dramatically changes what it means to make music. It brings the voices of marginal black and brown people right into the fore. It takes them from being completely spoken for in the 70s, for sure in the mainstream, to having a voice of their own. Just incredible storytelling that hip hop elevates… it’s individual, what my story is, but it’s also collective. It tells an experiential collective story.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8“People are much more open in hip hop to a kind of interrogation of interiority.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8  “There’s no such thing as a Christian hip hop artist. The hip hop artist just got to tell the truth, and the truth just also happens to connect to Jesus.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8  “What we’re seeing is young folk’s hunger for something real: spiritual, moral, political, economic, institutional, personal… inside all the wounds and bruises owing to the trauma they’ve been through but also connecting to the critiques of structures and institutions.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8  “Art is not democratic. Everybody can’t be Toni Morrison. Everybody can’t be Prince. Everybody can’t be James Brown. Everybody can’t be Aretha. We can all love her, but we can’t all be her… We got certain folk who are called out, who have tremendous responsibility and a burden but also great joy because it’s a joy to serve the people. It’s a joy to be a truth teller. It’s a joy to move people at the deepest level.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8  “Hip hop chose me. We’re talking about an art form that was created by disenfranchised black and brown kids in the Bronx. Black and brown kids all over the world who saw that felt like, man, we have a voice.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“I needed hip hop. I needed to talk about the things going on inside and what was going on in my community.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Many times people frown upon the South from the Northeast, and they said, “Oh they’re slow and they haven’t progressed and adjusted.” It wasn’t that there was a slowness, it was that there was a difference in how things were being seen and being approached. It’s like the blues and jazz. It’s not that one is better than the other. It’s that there are two different approaches in how they’re expressing themselves through music.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Hip hop initially started as a form of expression for a lot of young people. And then it was galvanized by suburban white folks, who kind of wanted to peer into this world that folks were talking about, but didn’t actually want to experience it. It’s like watching a Scarface movie-- you want to see all the gangsterism, but you don’t want to have to live through it.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Because there was money involved, now that muddied up the mixture because now you didn’t know how authentic you should be. Should I embellish these tales of trauma and terror because it sells more? I came up at the height of people embellishing these tales. So I wrestled internally.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8On his earlier music and his spiritual transformation: “I would kind of dumb it down because it wasn’t something that was exalted or highlighted in my community, being educated and knowing about what’s going on in the world. So I dumbed it down and talked about the usual, typical stuff-- the money, the cars. But I think after my spiritual transformation, I came to the resolve that if I have worth, if I have purpose, if I have dreams, then I was purposed for something and there must be a greater being that gave me purpose and I need to investigate not only who this being is but what I’ve been purposed to do. And then there became a conflict in my life, which made me say, okay, I’ve got to start using my voice for more than the normal party, get drunk, get high.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“When that kind of spirituality connects to your genius, brother [Lecrae], you can start soaring like an eagle. We ain’t talking about no peacock. A lot of these hip hop artists are just peacocks, look at me, look at me, look at my foliage. We ain’t interested in your foliage; we interested in your fruit. You shall know them by the fruit that you bear, not the foliage that you display.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8On white consumption of hip hop: “They want to define what it means to be Black by asking Black performers to perform a very narrow set of stereotypical ideas about what it means to be Black. It becomes another reinforcing mechanism, “Well, we’ll recognize you as Black, but not you as Black, because you’re telling me what I already know about what it means to be authentic.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8On merging hip hop and his spirituality: “It takes a instant to remove a person from slavery, but a lifetime to get the slavery out of a person. So for me it was a process.” –Lacrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Peacocks strut because they cannot fly. You got to be an eagle… We’re glad that you’re successful and you got money and you got wonderful artistry, now what you going to use it for? …Martin was broke as the 10 Commandments financially, but everyone remembers him. They don’t remember the most successful Negro in Atlanta in 1968. Malcolm only had $151 in his pocket when he was shot. We shall forever remember Malcolm. He didn’t have no cash. He didn’t have any success. He was in the world and not of it. –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8“[Vulnerability] always drew them closer. It made them more endearing to me, and in some ways it was helpful… I want to show off my scars, so they know their wounds can heal.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“The trap house is an articulation of systemic racism… Wall Street is part of the gutting of Black communities and banking fraud and destroying people’s opportunities to create even a poor stable neighborhood. So the trap house become a terrible articulation of what’s left. But trap lyrics that people normally attach to that is sort of a hedonistic acceptance of the very circumstances that trap has grown out of based on the conditions. [Lecrae] says this is a trap sound, this is a trap reality, and here’s an alternative reality to that trap circumstance.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8“We are very nuanced. But people hate nuance… They don’t want to wrestle with our nuances to see the beauty of who we are as a people and to see the trap for more than just where the drugs get sold and where the boarded up houses are.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“As a Christian, from my own community, I’ve got to navigate people to understand I’m not shucking and jiving because I’m a follower of Jesus. I’m not embracing white supremacy or a slave master’s philosophy or belief. I’m talking about something that predates slavery. It’s an Eastern religion if there ever was one… I’m following a brown Palestianian Jew.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“I continued to stand up and say something, and, man, I’ve never been met with so much visceral hate in my life. It was just constant and consistent. It drove me to one of the darkest places I’ve ever been.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Curtis Mayfiled not looking to the Grammys for his point of reference. He wants to know whether in fact those who came before-- what do you think about it, Jerry Butler? What do you think about it? The tradition becomes the lens through which he views himself. So it ain’t about these prizes. It ain’t about the establishment. We want to put a smile on grandmama's face. Grandmama never questioned your worth, ever. She love you to death. So if you put a smile on her face, it don’t make no difference what these white supremacists and neoliberals who act like they lovin’ white folk who got their own little programs and agendas, that’s not the point of reference. That’s how Black sanity and dignity is persevered.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8“Pessimism is the belief that based on the evidence, nothing’s going to change. Optimism is the belief is based on the evidence, things will change. But hope is the belief that with or without the evidence, God is faithful, I’m going to be consistent, I’m going to keep pushing.” –LecraeThe Tight Rope Episode #8“There’s a layer of restoration that is simply your mental and emotional health. You don’t have to embrace any of the spiritual health. If you do, awesome. But some people need it-- you’re just hungry. I’m just trying to make sure you’re getting fed today.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8On community: “That’s going to be the skin on your faith--  seeing actual people who love you, who walk with you, and who care for you.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“You can’t police Black genius and Black talent.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8On people with different views from him: “Disagree does not mean dislike... A rainbow is beautiful because of the multitude of colors within it, and not because it’s one color, one shade. It’s learning how to appreciate those nuances. We’re so quick to dismiss people because of these broad strokes that people get painted with.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Each human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, they have a dignity that is never reducible to their politics. They have a preciousness that is not reducible to their ideology. And they also have the capacity to choose and go another way.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  LecraeWebsite: www.lecrae.comTwitter: @lecraeFacebook: LecraeInstagram: @lecraeYoutube: LecraeApple Music: Lecrae The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this inaugural episode of The Tight Rope, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aka #AOC shares her whirlwind journey from New York City to the halls of Congress, pulls the curtain on power, and explores what it will take to heal our nation. Plus, hosts Cornel West and Tricia Rose reflect on the movement to #DefundThePolice in their Office Hours segment. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Alexandria Ocasio-CortezServing the 14th district of New York in the Bronx and Queens, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez touts a 100% People-Funded Democratic Socialism platform. She is an educator, organizer, service worker with a deep understanding of income inequality. As a third-generation Bronxite, AOC believes in combating systemic problems by fighting for systemic solutions, like Medicare for all, federal jobs guarantee, the end to mass incarceration, and the Green New Deal. She attended Boston University and previously worked as Educational Director with National Hispanic Institute where she helped Americans, DREAMers, and undocumented youth in community leadership and college readiness. AOC serves working-class people over corporate interests and advocates for social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.Insight from this episode:Strategies on not being “locked in” while on lockdown. How to respond and intervene in systems that are impoverished of empathy and compassion. Behind-the-scenes look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s meteoric rise in politics, including the impact of her education, time abroad in West Africa, and close relationship with her father. How to remain true to your morals, values, politics, and spirituality when faced with pressures to conform or be reduced down to a niche. Benefits of the discipline of non-attachment to work, money, social acceptance, and ego. Details on what “defunding the police” really means to Dr. West and Professor Rose. Quotes from the show:“I am one point that is a result of waves of generational inertia.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“You can’t let your identity be subsumed with this superficial political identity of red or blue or this tribe. [It’s] not what do you want to be but how do you want to be? ...People always try to analyze my actions in a strictly political context… I was already here. I didn’t know this was a political way of being. I just thought it was a moral way of being.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7On her time in Niger: “That level of enjoyment just does not exist in American life. [Enjoying tea with friends] is something people do on a Friday night, maybe once a week, if they aren’t exhausted by work. But this is a way of life in Niger… that interaction was the sun around which life revolved. It’s our fellowship and connection to one another.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7On switching majors from Pre-Med to Economics: “What you are treating and what you are healing is a result of systematic outcomes. And I knew that people would continue to be sick if our systems continued to be sick.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“The interesting thing about economics is that there may be an equation, but the real quest is discovering the story that has led to a number.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“In the tradition of my parents, I never was like, “I’m a Democrat with a capital D. If it’s got a blue sticker, I’m going to be for that.” I always grew up with this idea that you need to have an independent analysis of each and every individual and look at things in context.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“Politics ultimately is about the scaffolding of our relationships to each other. And the reason our politics are so broken right now is because our relationships to one another as a society are really deeply broken.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“I cannot be attached to keeping my seat as a member of Congress if I’m going to do my job because [my mission] is not to be the Congresswoman of New York’s 14th district. My mission is to advance principles of a better world and to advance a better world.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“How has AOC gotten inside of [the system]? People are so hungry and thirsty for something deeper than the legalized bribery and normalized corruption.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #7On being intentionally vulnerable on social media: “I needed to break the mythology of perfection in people who hold power.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“The police have already been thoroughly been defunded in terms of the police that are supposed to regulate Wall Street… they are as weak as pre-sweetened Kool-Aid.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #7“That hyper funding of police ended money for social workers and mental health facilities and drug treatment centers… a complete gutting of the safety nets that allowed people to have problems. And we’re interested in helping solve them. We’re not interested in making every response a punitive punishment, profitable response for others… to defund is to invest in communities.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #7  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Alexandria Ocasio-CortezWebsite: www.ocasiocortez.comGovernment Website: ocasio-cortez.house.gov/contactTwitter: @AOCFacebook: Alexandria Ocasio-CortezInstagram: @AOC and @RepAOC The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this episode, things get heavy on The Tight Rope as Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose, with their special guest Gina Belafonte, navigate the balance that artists must keep to be accessible and also stand resolutely for social justice. Spotlighting the importance of lyrical vision and imagining, they uncover paths to hope and sustenance in today’s music and its role in social movements. In the context of her father Harry Belafonte’s legacy, Gina Belafonte deepens the conversation on the necessity of intergenerational connections, personal commitment, and the arts in every arena of our lives. Don’t miss the next steps to evolution in this episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Gina BelafonteDaughter of Julie and Harry Belafonte, Gina Belafonte is an actress, director, award-winning producer, artivist, and cultural figure. She serves as the Executive Director of Sankofa.org, a social justice organization that educates, motivates, and activates artists and allies in service of grassroots movements and equitable change. A native New Yorker, Gina is Producer of internationally acclaimed documentary film Sing your Song (HBO), as well as The March (PBS) and Survivors Guide to Prison (Netflix). Also a member of Daughters of the Movement, she co-chaired the 2017 Women’s March Los Angeles and co-founded the non-profit organization, The Gathering For Justice, a multi-cultural, multi-generational organization that focuses on youth incarceration and the criminalization of poverty. Today, Gina lives in LA and New York and works with diverse artists, activists, and organizations worldwide to promote cultural and civic engagement in the 21st century.  Insight from this episode:Personal reflections from Gina Belafonte on honoring family legacy and forging her own path in the fight for Black freedom. Details on the life, struggles, and revelations of Harry Belafonte.Benefits of critical engagement within families.Strategies on overcoming fear and pressure in the face of radical decision making.Strategies on how progressive Black artists can move into a deeper imagining of our future and speak truth to power. Reasons why evolution, not just revolution, is needed during this time.  Quotes from the show:On the “upside” of COVID-19 lockdown: “People are listening in groups. Families are listening together and sharing things together in ways they might not have been as easily able to do before we were on collective social lockdown” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #4On Harry Belafonte and his music: “A crucial part of this longer tradition that goes back hundreds of years, and it’s the expression of deep humanity and creativity of a hated and haunted people still dishing out love and justice” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“[Gina Belafonte] comes from political and artistic royalty both in the Black tradition but also the American and really the human tradition. But she chose to be an artist and an actress who rendered her services to freedom and truth. She chose to be connected to organic organizations on the ground… she’s there because these are choices… Families provide the exposure, but the children have to follow through and decide for themselves which way they want to go –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“What breaks the back of being intimidated? It’s love, it’s compassion, it’s being tied to something bigger than you.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“As you grow and mature, lo and behold, you start to have relationships with the dad you never knew. You fall in love with Frederick Douglass, you fall in love with Harriet Tubman, you fall in love with Sojourner Truth.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“Fear does not often show up as fear... When you’re afraid to be devalued, to be marginalized, to be laughed at, to be shamed, to be accused of being irrelevant, then that shows up in very indirect ways in terms of a fear, but necessarily a fear that you recognize. It’s so important to remind young people that that fear shows up in so many different ways. And so does the courage we need.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #4“I’m not going to allow white supremist authorities, capitalist authorities, imperial authorities, patriarchic, homophobic, transphobic authorities to make me so fearful that I consent to their domination. So in that sense, the courage is something that never eliminates the fear. It allows us to work through the fear.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“All they can do is kill you though. That’s all they can do! ...The question is how are you going to use your death to the service of something bigger than you?”  –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“The best of our tradition reminds us that there are virtues higher than survival.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #4On Harry Belafonte’s rendition of “Oh Freedom”: “That song is so deep into the core of my marrow and really exemplifies so much of the struggle and the resiliency and proclamation that we make when we enter into social justice activism… It straightens my back up, and I feel like I’m ready to move forward and get busy.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4“The systems of our country, in particular our capitalist system, have really suppressed and put a tight control over the airwaves and what we’re able to hear and find as our cultural heartbeat. Right now, it’s a very interesting time how many musical artists in particular, who are looking to the legacy of my father and others like him, are using their platforms as a megaphone for social justice activism. And yet, I still am seeing a sort of trepidation in their lyrics. I’m not seeing them really full on saying “Let’s Get It On”... and having a deeper imagining of what our future should and could and will be and look like.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4“I find a lot of what we’re telling is our history, which we need to. We need to reclaim those stories for sure. But where are some of the inspirational love stories of Black people that are true and really ancient? ...showing love and celebration and resilience and how not only the way in which that world is but also how it could be.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4“You can describe what is and not get into much trouble. But if you start making claims about what that circumstance means and what you want instead of that circumstance, now you really do stand a chance of losing lots and lots of people.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #4“If all we do is provide some fascinating descriptions and don’t have enough courage to really radically project something different, then white supremacy still remains a point of reference even when we are resisting.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4On reformist versus revolutionary imagination: “People talk about revolution and they get all nervous… Revolution is going to make you insecure because it is something that is an alternative to a present that is unknown. So you have to re-equip and re-prepare yourself. It’s not going to be a matter of just trying to incrementally patch up a status quo that has shown to be so unjust and cruel. –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4“What we need is not only a revolution, but we need an evolution.  An evolution of our human existence, an evolution of our humanity, our moral values, an evolution of how we consider and view the opposition opposites of right and wrong.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4On Jay Richard Kennedy, an FBI informant and Harry Belafonte’s business manager: “For the rest of [my father’s] life, there was an underlying sense of paranoia, balancing who do I bring into the fold that I can trust, and how do I maintain my artistry and my cultural contribution?” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4On Harry Belafonte: “He never really wavered from his desire to elevate voices and the consciousness of his fans, he would never compromise his artistry for the status quo or the bottom line.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4“As Paul Robeson said, or as my father put into the mouth of Paul Robeson...  artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are the civilization’s radical voice. We have the opportunity and the poetry through dance, through music, through theater, through film, to transform perspective, to transmute ideas, to bring not only the past but the future together in one.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4“So art plays a huge role, which is why it’s always defunded first. This world would be so different if it was art-centric.” –Gina Belafonte The Tight Rope Episode #4“Artists are the vanguard of the species. Artists are the moral and spiritual antenna of the species. So we have to look to them because they’re the ones that tend to have the vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish… So artists in this sense become essential workers, in the most fundamental sense of who we are, not just as Americans, but as human beings.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4On Harry Belafonte’s legacy: “It’s the concrete loving and shaping he’s had on so many young brothers and sisters of all colors, including myself.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4On their friendship: “I could not walk out more fortified. What I got from Harry Belafonte fortified me for two or three lifetimes.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #4 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Gina BelafonteWebsite: Sankofa BiographyTwitter: @GinaBelafonteFacebook: Gina BelafonteInstagram: @peaceginaLinkedIn: Gina Belafonte IMDb: Gina Belafonte SankofaWebsite: Sankofa.orgTwitter: @SankofaFacebook: Sankofa Instagram: @sankofadotorg The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryDr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose unravel the Black pain of the present in the context of the tremendous legacy of African American creativity and music, in this special extended version of Office Hours. They connect Black musical tradition to the current political moment and pay special homage to Prince and his iconic “Purple Rain.” Discover how you can transform this current moment in this important episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget, featuring Prince. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Insight from this episode:Recollections of Dr. Cornel West’s first impressions of and ensuing friendship with Prince. Reasons why Black music is important and the role it plays in social activism. Strategies on generating a new sound for the current moment, extending and elaborating on the Black American musical tradition.How to leverage the current “tipping point” as a catalyst for lasting social movement. Details on the need for creative, interactive spaces for BIPOC.Strategies on utilizing technology to create impact and effective change. Quotes from the show:On the Black musical tradition and its relationship to historical trauma and suffering: “To look unflinchingly at all the hurt and the pain and yet still dish out the compassion and creativity, the style and smile-- that’s the great gift to America.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Any time you lyrically express a catastrophe, the catastrophe does not have the last word.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Music touches the hopeless, and it can heal, sustain, equip, fortify… Once you get oppressed folk fortified, woo, Lord, that’s like Sly Stone’s “Stand!”” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Part of the contemporary spiritual war against young folk, especially young Black folk, is to get them to consent to a capitalist economy that’s shot through with wealth inequality. You get them to consent to a militarized nation state that will contain them or incarcerate them if they step out of line. But also you get them to consent to a commodified culture so that they’re distracted into things that are superficial: status and spectacle.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“[C]apitalism and neoliberalism have destroyed local urban cultural spaces for people of color to create.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2“Every month should be African American music month. That should be in our curriculum.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2On Prince’s inspiration behind “Purple Rain”: “Purple rain is the blood in the sky. The red and the blue produce purple. And so that purple rain is rooted in the blood, sweat, tears, but you’re looking up. It’s visionary. It’s in some sense grounded in the most painful situation, but it’s visionary because it’s looking up… rooted in the most visceral responses to the most vicious kinds of treatment which is bloodstained, and yet it’s still looking up, like being in a dehumanized gutter, but one has one’s eyes always looking towards the sky.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2On Prince: “He knew it, as Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that “Every genius is a highly indebted person.” [Prince] knew his debts to James Brown, his debts to Little Richard, his debts to a whole host of folks who came before him. He was grounded in precisely this great Black musical tradition.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2On the boundarylessness of Black geniuses: “There’s no reason that we should be segregating genres along the lines of the spatial segregation that the country has constantly been invested in producing.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2On Prince’s gender fluidity and non-binary performance: “It was a neither/nor, a both/and. He was just able to elevate above the binaries, and the boundaries, and the questions of who belongs where on the ground.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2“The ways in which our bodies are fashioned and presented are integral to the way in which our sounds are both produced and received.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Conformity can get you a lot of company. You don’t want your goal to just have good company.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2On despair and despondency: “Use it in such a way that in the end it becomes a source of giving to other people.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2  Resources Mentioned:Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Professor Tricia Rose (1994) Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose engage in an honest and invigorating conversation with emcee Rapsody. Calling in from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Rapsody speaks about current and future projects and her role in today’s young generation and music industry. Together, they wrestle with how to protect one’s creative spirit in a fad-driven, consumerist market. Tune in to this vulnerable and unforgettable episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   RapsodyRapsody is Grammy nominated emcee, lyricist, rapper, and recording artist. This multi talented North Carolina native is celebrated for Laila’s Wisdom (2017), her breakthrough album that earned her two Grammy nominations including best rap album in league with Lamar, Jay-Z, Migo, and Tyler the Creator. One of the greatest female rappers of all time, Rapsody continues to share her awakened, bold voice and creative rhyme schemes in her 2019 album Eve, dubbed a “masterpiece of hip-hop feminism,” released by 9th Wonder’s Jamla and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. Each track of Eve is named for an influential Black woman, including “Michelle,” “Oprah,” and “Sojourner.” Rapsody works with the biggest artists in the industry, including Chance The Rapper, Erykah Badu, Raekwon, Anderson .Paak, Estelle, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes and Mac Miller, among others.   Insight from this episode:Strategies on supporting youth activists, empowering their voices, and harnessing improvisational creation.Benefits of intergenerational connections and opportunities in preserving musical traditions, sounds, and legacies. Details on Rapsody’s fight against the pressures of the commodification of the music industry.Behind-the-scenes reflections from Rhapsody on her inspiration for Laila’s Wisdom and Eve, including songs that did not make it onto the album. Details on Rapsody’s future projects.Secrets to defining your own path— true to your identity and goals— and forming habits to improve your life.   Quotes from the show:“Almost every emcee and producer I interviewed back in the 80s and early 90s talked about their parents’ record collection as an amazing archive of sound and experience that they were both being bequeathed and also being held away from. They said, “My daddy said don’t get in my record collection!” ...It was about really having a cultural archive that the generations wanted to relate to and connect to. That is probably [hip hop’s] most important intergenerational legacy.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“There’s so many connections to the Panthers, to the Civil Rights Movement, in hip hop... Through hip hop, [Rapsody’s] connecting Tupac to his mom but also to the legacy of the politics of respecting Black women and really just respecting ourselves and each other.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“You cannot box up black genius, black creativity, confined to any genre.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“What hip hop really did was try to make music in a context in which [its] tradition was being completely undermined…. the schools are not teaching the Black music tradition, and then they’re not getting access about it. So hip hop had to work with the shards of that legacy.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3On young leaders: “We appreciate you. We see you. We hear you. You should be celebrated for being fearless, for using your voice, for being young leaders. [And we want to] give them a space to learn how to be activists.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“There’s never been and there never will be a Black freedom struggle without Black music being at the center of it to keep us fortified, keep our souls determined, and also just keep a sense of humor and laughter along with the tears.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“Music is the soundtrack of the times” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3On the commodification of the music industry: “Artists like [Rapsody] who become the real conduits and caretakers of the best of our tradition, which is the best tradition in the modern world— the Black musical tradition— you have a heavier burden.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“The pressure that an artist who wants to be free, like [Deniece Williams’ “Free”] really expressed at its core is about how to be yourself, how to take the art form seriously, not cave into faddish sounds, not cave into basically white supremist thinking about black subjectivity. That is very hard to do.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“Improvisational creation is a way of putting to music and putting to words the experience and condition they’re facing. It’s in that act of creation that I think a lot of that market pressure can be pushed off… it’s in that place that you imagine new things. It’s when you’re not doing exactly what is being expected that you have your own political surprises, emotional surprises.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“A lot of times, the industry likes to narrow the scope of what we’re supposed to create, how we’re supposed to look creating it, and the voice that we have. Back in the days, we had so much ownership. We had mom and pop stores, we had our own radio stations, we had the Chitlin’ Circuit.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3On maintaining her creative spirit: “The greatest thing I had was 9th Wonder and Young Guru, who were my mentors. And the first thing they did before I put out any music was they sat me down and they said, you have to define your line right now. You have to define what you won’t do, what you will do, what you won’t compromise. Know what you want out of this business first, so you know how to maneuver and make the best decisions.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“We first knew it was going to be a marathon. Anything you want to last 20 years, you have to build a strong foundation of.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“I didn’t want to be a cookie cutter version of anyone… how I am is enough, I don’t have to change that. I don’t want to become this sexual rapper. That’s not my lane, that’s not honest to who I am.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“You have to be willing to fall on your face, and then see what your bounce back is like because creativity goes hand in hand with a certain vulnerability and invincibility.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3On inspiration for Laila’s Wisdom: “One quote [my grandmother Laila] would always say… “Oh you came to give me my flowers.” It made me think what flowers do I want to give to the world? What generation do I want to inspire? What seeds do I want to leave behind? …I took that and used that as part of the album. I want to give you these flowers. I want to give you the best of me that I can give you and hope that it inspires you to be the best in you.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“I know what Lauryn Hill meant to me, and what Queen Latifah meant to me, MC Lyte, without them I wouldn’t be the woman I am today. Without Phylicia Rashad, without Cicely Tyson, without Nikki Giovanni. So I had to show up as myself and be that person that they were for me but for the next generation. That’s why I can’t compromise my art, I can’t afford to for the culture.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3On compromise: “I have to go against the grain… even if I fall flat on my face and fail, I’m willing to take that risk because I have nieces, I have young girls that I know, that need to see what a woman in hip hop looks like, to see the rainbow and spectrum of what we can be. I know people want it. I just have to stick with it and knock down the door.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“Who cares what the Grammy’s think? The Grammy’s could have done left you [Rapsody] behind, and we’d still be behind you. That’s the point, to have our own standards.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3On reaching a younger audience: “[Parents can make sure their children] have a good palate and good beginning of what good music sounds like. When they grow up, of course, you’re able to like what you like in your generation, but you also know and are connected to the sound you grew up in… that’s one thing that you can always do, is expose them to a wide range of music, just to lay the foundation.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“The best habit for improving my life was figuring out how to keep the rage that white supremacy produces at bay, figuring out how to keep it at enough distance that it doesn’t circulate in my body literally. It’s a disposition that allows my habits to thrive.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“Cultivate at the highest level the capacity to listen, the capacity to serve, and the capacity to find joy in fighting for freedom.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“We haven’t done the best job of protecting our culture that is hip hop. We give it away too easy. And they use that against us. I’ve heard of plans to take control of our culture. And they’ve done it by taking control of the radio and the mediums, and allowing us to give our art away, and our ownership away, and our voice away, and our creativity away. And we have to find a way to get that back because it is sonic warfare at the end of the day.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3  Music from Rapsody:The Idea of Beautiful (2012)Laila’s Wisdom (2017)Eve (2019) Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  RapsodyWebsite: https://genesis320.com/Twitter: @rapsody Facebook: @rapsodymusic Instagram: @rapsody Youtube: Rapsody Apple Music: Rapsody  The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore joins Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose to shine light on the current state of crisis in America, white privilege, white fear, and citizen filmmakers. They emphatically connect the catastrophe of the criminal justice system to larger issues and discuss ways to move into a “new normal” that challenges bystander sensibility and police accountability taken out of the larger context of democratic accountability and multiracial solidarity. This is an episode of The Tight Rope that you do not want to miss. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums, including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (BA) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality, and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Michael MooreMichael Moore, one of America’s best-known documentary filmmakers and political provocateurs, has for over 30 years produced controversial and award-winning films and TV series that tackle critically important political and social issues in American society, including big business, corrupt governments and politicians, capitalism, and health care. Moore, from Flint, Michigan, won the Academy Award for best documentary for his 2002 Bowling for Columbine. He continues to produce successful and controversial films, most recently Planet of the Humans (2019), an eco-documentary and “full-frontal assault” of the failures of the environmental movement, directed by Jeff Gibbs. Moore examines and jokes about current issues on his own podcast Rumble with Michael Moore. Insight from this episode:Strategies on remaining hopeful in turbulent and violent times.Responses to the question “Now what?”Details on how to change the American police system and police accountability  to empower communities.Strategies on shattering a spectatorial stance and avoiding being a bystander citizen.Strategies on creating universal solidarity without downplaying individual suffering.A call to commitment and sacrifice in the struggle for freedom and equality. Quotes from the show:“In the time of Trump, in the time of pandemic, have we been turned into a nation of bystanders?” –Michael Moore (quoting Cornel West) The Tight Rope Episode #1“If you want to end crime, end poverty. If you want to end crime, empower women.” –Michael Moore The Tight Rope Episode #1“The very first thing in terms of saving Black lives is we have to defund the police departments across the country. We have to demilitarize the police departments. And I want a racism review board in every community.” –Michael Moore The Tight Rope Episode #1“No self-respecting, self-loving people can sit and see a policeman publicly lynch and kill somebody for nearly nine minutes.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #1On recent arrests of protesters: “[There’s] a marvelous new militancy around affirming the rich and precious humanity of Black folk.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #1“The focus on extreme cop violence actually normalizes the idea that police can be functional… The whole logic of the police are designed really to extract resources and contain the poor, and contain people of color, from segregated white spaces.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #1On white fear: “If we don’t examine it and expose it, we don’t stand much of a chance of deeply transforming the role of the police because what drives people’s investment in the police is to keep Black people away.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #1On systemic and structural racism: “The police are just one little cog in a whole set of systems.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #1“I want this woman [Darnella Frazier] on the stage of the Oscars next year, and I want to honor her and all the other young people who can be citizen filmmakers, and to always pull your camera out and start filming that which you see which is wrong because you then expose it to the rest of the world.” –Michael Moore The Tight Rope Episode #1On white fear: “If they [white people] have to actually share or maybe even give up some of that privilege, wow, that’s a bridge too far. And that’s what they’re afraid of.” –Michael Moore The Tight Rope Episode #1“The long-distance win is only going to happen if the short-distance survival takes place.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #1“Revenge is always blinding. We need people who have broad vision, so that people can see things that other people don’t see and feel more deeply with love that other people don’t feel and most importantly to act more courageously for people who are too conformist and complacent and cowardly.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #1 Documentaries from Michael Moore:Planet of the Humans (2019)Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)Trumpland (2016)Where to Invade Next (2015)Capitalism: A Love Story (2009; on Netflix)Sicko (2009; on Netflix) Slacker Uprising (2007; on Netflix)Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004; on Netflix)Bowling for Columbine (2002; on Netflix)The Big One (1997; on Netflix)Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint (1992) Roger & Me (1989; on Netflix) Stay Connected: Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Michael MooreWebsite: https://michaelmoore.com/Twitter: @MMFlintFacebook: Michael Moore Instagram: @MichaelFMooreYoutube: Michael MoorePodcast: https://rumble.media/  The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose extol the excellence and creativity of Black athletes, along with their special guest NBA legend Isiah Thomas. They discuss the role of education in and out of the home and how to bequeath to younger generations the tradition of having the courage to be the best. Thomas shares his experiences growing up in the 60s in the West Side of Chicago and the spirituality of taking care of people. Dr. West, Professor Rose, and Isiah Thomas take this episode of The Tight Rope back to the neighborhood with this “lane-crossing” conversation you won’t want to miss.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Isiah ThomasIsiah Thomas is a 12-time NBA All Star, 2-time NBA Champion, and NBA Hall of Fame point guard, who played his entire career with the Detroit Pistons. Born and raised on Chicago’s West Side, Thomas is not only known for his contributions to the NBA as player, coach, manager, executive, and analyst, but also for his successful business initiatives and philanthropic endeavors. Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, Thomas also earned a Master’s degree in African American Studies from Berkeley.  Insight from this episode:Reasons why we must not forget the importance of Black athletes, with their inspiring moral courage, in social justice movements.Explorations of the mind, time, and body connection athletes must harness in their pursuit of excellence. Secrets into the science and music of high-performance athletes.Personal reflections from Isiah Thomas on the “absence and presence” of growing up on the West Side of Chicago.Strategies on creating structures that provide more access to stories and critical historical frameworks. Strategies on “crossing lanes” in an effort to build up and fortify communities, individuals, and our oral histories.  Quotes from the show:“Black athletes and artists have been so important in coming out of the community and giving people a sense of hope and possibility, but they understand fully the struggles that Black communities face.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #6“I always try to situate our precious Black athletes, male and female, within the context of the Black freedom struggle, [which] tries to convince us to love truth, love goodness, love beauty, love excellence, and myself as a Christian, to love God. Now we think of the athletes, they love beauty, they love truth, they love excellence. And many of them who are religious, they love God, they love goodness.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #6“The status quo does not want to connect athletic excellence to moral courage, to spiritual engagement, to political activity.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #6 “The presentation looks so effortless that people think it’s just some natural talent. Part of that is one of the ways that these creative individuals and community members are not just discredited but devalued, even as they’re celebrated.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #6“It’s in athletic context that Black people for the first time in the history of America could be in a structure of fairness, given the fact that every other site in the society was a structure of unfairness… Black excellence could flower and flourish because finally we had a structure of fairness.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #6On growing up on the West Side of Chicago: “If you couldn’t find a meal, there were always people to give you some good advice and to always give you some good music.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6“The things that you weren’t learning in school, you were actually learning in music.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6“Most of the gangs, when you read their charters and you read what they were established for and brought into existence for, it was to protect against police brutality, which we’re still dealing with today, and it was also to educate and teach you about civics and constitutional rights. That’s why the gangs were formed, and they were community based organizations trying to move away from racism but trying to also build up our communities.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6  “When you talk about the love on the West Side, what I grew up in is a spirituality, and I really didn’t realize it, a spirituality of just people looking out for each other. In particular in the sports world... the athlete, he or she who happened to make it or be a champion, their responsibility was to speak for the voiceless.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6“We were taught to look within. When you look within, then you can rise above.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6“What they would describe as instinct, my father would always tell me, no, you just think faster than the average person.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6“As we've moved away from our base, in terms of our roots and our foundation, we’ve gotten singled out into one lane. We may just go strictly into the academy, we may just go strictly into sports, we may just go strictly into music. We do not have the well-nurtured or well-rounded embrace of all the lanes.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6On his decision to return to graduate school: “Knowing what my mom and dad and that generation before me and all of us had truly sacrificed… they would not pay the rent, so you could go to school. They would not eat food, so we could go to school. That’s how important education was to that generation.” –Isiah Thomas The Tight Rope Episode #6“When we think about the 60s, we think about just very visible leaders. We don’t think about this deep infrastructure of love, support, re-education, and commitment on the ground that really is the source of the survival.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #6  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Isiah ThomasWebsite: Isaiah International, LLCTwitter: @IsiahThomasFacebook: Isaiah Thomas The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry. 

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose connect with Tony award winning actor and rapper Daveed Diggs to dive into his career, upbringing, influences, and playing the “fool.” They wrangle with the nuances of hip hop past and present, colorblind ideologies in theater, and the healing power of Black creativity. Get ready for the twists and turns in this episode of The Tight Rope! Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Daveed DiggsDaveed Diggs, Oakland native, is a rapper, actor, singer, songwriter, and producer. He graduated from Brown University (B.A.), and after his Tony and Grammy Award winning performance as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s widely-acclaimed Broadway production of Hamilton (Best Featured Actor in a Musical (2016) and Best Musical Theater Album (2016)), Brown University conferred Daveed an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts. As a member of experimental hip hop group, clipping., Daveed has released multiple albums including their third full-length record, There Existed an Addiction to Blood (2019). He continues acting with roles in Black-ish (2016-2018), Wonder (2017), Velvet Buzzsaw (2019), and Snowpiercer (2020). Daveed wrote, produced, and starred in Blindspotting (2018), a performance that earned him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.  Insight from this episode:Strategies for collective healing to massive collective trauma. Details on Daveed’s recent and upcoming creative projects, including reflections on growing up in Oakland and filming Blindspotting. Behind-the-scenes look into how Daveed picks roles and his Black-Jewish heritage. Reflections on diversity in the theater and its audiences. Strategies on exposing children to new music to generate curiosity.  Quotes from the show: “How do you step into the unknown in such a way that you bring the best of the past with you? You bring all the love and all the joy and all the memories that’s gone into the shaping of who you are.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #5“The vicious legacy of white supremacy has been one in which it has tried to convince Black people that we are less moral, less beautiful, less intelligent, and ought therefore feel intimidated and never have anything really safe and never have a home. So we had to create home in our language, we had to create home in our music, we had to create home in our relationships that are always dynamic. It’s a way of being fortified that is dynamic.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #5“We’re going to have to get highly creative because Black folk without hugging… somehow we’re going to come up with creative, virtual, abstract ways. We got to have some way of affirming, enabling, and ennobling each other.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #5“I’ve been making art for as long as I’ve been alive… The work hasn’t changed that much honestly, which I’m grateful for. Just more people watch me do it now.” – Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5On Hamilton: “Its success is directly based on the fact that it was brown and black bodies portraying the founders of our country-- and also that the music was great... The buy in from America that I felt while I was working in Hamilton was a particularly hopeful version of it… It really is a product of the Obama era.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5On Hamilton’s “colorblind” casting: “If you don’t make sure to contextualize some of the things in it, there are some dangerous assumptions there. It is about the building of a financial system, [but] it doesn’t contextualize it as one that is fundamentally racist. The revolutionary act is having black and brown bodies portray that moment in history. And that makes a statement that we should and we deserve to be able to participate in it, and in fact, it was built on our bodies. But you gotta make sure to really put that at the front of it, in a way that honestly [Hamilton] was always scared to.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5On Hamilton’s delayed public support of Black Lives Matter: “So what does that say? That a show built on black and brown bodies about giving black and brown bodies a sense of ownership over a financial system that was built on black and brown bodies refused to publicly support black and brown bodies.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5On Hamilton’s delayed public support of Black Lives Matter: “That’s just a matter of moral courage versus cash making.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #5“You have to view art in the context of the moment you’re viewing it in, especially theater. Theater takes place in a time and a place. So if you’re going to revive a play, you should have a reason for reviving that play now. What are you saying now that either speaks to the original motive for it or that reframes it in a different way?” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“The thing that has always worried me about Hamilton [is] a colorblind ideology that drives people’s enthusiasm for what is going on. That is to say, on the one hand, everyone gets to be black and brown, but on the other hand, “I don’t see color! Thomas Jefferson can be black, or can be played for a black person because I don’t see color in the first place” But you’re celebrating it because you see color, because you know there’s a racial hierarchy and you know this illusion of colorblindness creates racial privilege. But then you’re going to tell me you don’t see it at the same time.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #5“For me, it’s not color blind; it’s color specific… Turning Thomas Jefferson into this comic, foppish, uber privileged character, there’s an element of cakewalk in there. This is like being able to imitate the slavemaster in front of the slavemaster.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“In a Broadway audience, there's like four Black people in the audience every night. We can see them. I can see who they are. And we are having a different experience than the rest of the audience is having all in the same space… The nuance of this conversation doesn’t come through on a large scale until you also diversify the audience in a better way than Broadway has managed to do… Are we really interested in Broadway anymore? Or do other spaces do this better?” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“I love playing a fool, but I like the fool to have context for their decisions. I like there to be a choice being made.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“When you’re less known, you choose things and you happen to become known for them. Then at a certain point, the fact that you are choosing something becomes an event. At that point, I feel like I have to be a lot more careful about what it says that I choose [a role].” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5On the cultural differences he experienced at Brown University: “I could not for the life of me understand why every Black person I saw wanted to shake my hand… because I had never categorized my Blackness as being part of an endangered species.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“The thing I appreciate most about Judaism is that analysis and argument are baked into the religion. Talmudic scholarship is really about just arguing about what the Torah is about.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5On his role as an actor: “I’m responsible for this character’s portion of the story. It’s all about the story. If the story doesn’t come across, every piece of it failed... We all have to work together to make sure that the story comes across in all its nuances and it can raise all the questions it’s trying to raise.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“August Wilson used to say, “When Black people perform, they authorize an alternative reality.” To be able to be in the water and not wet, to be on the mothership away from a white supremacist world that is putting you down but you’re still preserving your sanity by, not being stupid, but being foolish in the most profound sense of what it is to be a holy fool.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #5On the Hyphy Movement: “You’ve been calling me dumb for so long, I’m going to go out and show you how beautiful dumb is and show you what exactly dumb looks like. We’re going to act the fool in this incredibly profound way... We would all hop out of the car at a stoplight and just hold up traffic and party in the middle of the street. And it’s this performance of despite everything I have been through, that you have put me through, watch my joy. You have to stand on the sidelines cause you’re actually never going to feel it.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“Artists are interpreters of data… cultural data analysis is what we do. So we can see something out there and break that down and take a number or an observed behavior and break that down into something that can be felt.” –Daveed Diggs The Tight Rope Episode #5“When popular culture, to me, is really making its own generational mark, it’s in conversation-- it doesn’t have to be with elders-- but with other musical traditions in a way that respects something bigger than what’s going to be consumed in a short-term way.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #5  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Daveed DiggsWebsite: Deveed DiggsTwitter: @DaveedDiggsFacebook Fan Page: @daveeddiggs Instagram: @daveeddiggsPlaybill: Daveed DiggsIMDb: Daveed DiggsApple Music: Daveed Diggs clipping. Website: clppng.com Twitter: @clppngFacebook: @clppngYoutube: clppngSoundcloud: clipping.Bandcamp: clppng.bandcamp.comApple Music: clipping.  The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.