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To Jelani Cobb, reading, writing, and education are inherently acts of empowerment, and sometimes even ones of defiance. A staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015 and recently appointed the dean of Columbia Journalism School, where he has been on the faculty since 2016, Cobb has written on subjects ranging from the power of Dave Chappelle's comedy, to the vital lessons of Martin Luther King Jr., to Donald Trump as a rapper. Cobb is also the author of the books The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (2010) and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2007). Given the precarious moment we're in when it comes to truth and the future of not just journalism, but democracy itself, he is unquestionably one of the most essential writers, historians, and thinkers of our time. On this week's episode of Time Sensitive, Cobb talks about timing and flow in hip-hop, why being a “first Black” leader in any high-profile profession is like “doing a high-wire act without a net,” and his belief that the future of journalism will include greater transparency around how a story gets made.Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts.Show notes: [03:39] DJ Kool Herc[03:49] “Hip-Hop at Fifty: An Elegy”[03:56] To the Break of Dawn[08:05] August Wilson[09:13] Skip James[27:10] Run-D.M.C.[27:16] LL Cool J[27:24] Q-Tip[27:25] Phife Dawg[27:27] Salt-N-Pepa[27:41] Kool G Rap[27:45] Pharoahe Monch[37:17] Queens Public Library[39:27] Adell Patton[41:18] Elizabeth Clark-Lewis[43:06] David Carr[43:23] Ta-Nehisi Coates[49:58] The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays[53:21] “Trayvon Martin and the Parameters of Hope”[59:14] “Postscript: Rodney King, 1965-2012”[59:46] “Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, and the Pursuit of Low-Level Crimes”[01:02:21] Between the World and Me[01:03:51] Columbia Journalism School
Reporters were in Minneapolis covering the trial of Derek Chauvin when news broke about the police shooting of Daunte Wright. On this week's Kicker, Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress,” joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss his work in Minneapolis over the past week, the ways reporters can contextualize so many deaths, and how he will approach next week's expected verdict.
Let’s hope Barack Obama has an astrologer on speed dial and has warned Joe Biden about today’s Void of Course Moon!
Jelani Cobb, New Yorker writer and professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (re-issue) (Bloomsbury, 2020) talks about his new documentary called Whose Vote Counts, made in collaboration with Columbia Journalism School, Columbia Journalism Investigations and reporters from the USA Today Network, which investigates voter disenfranchisement, how allegations of voter fraud made it into the mainstream and more as voting for the 2020 election is well underway.
Black Americans are more likely to be infected from COVID-19, be incarcerated, live in poverty, and/or be killed by the police than white Americans. It took a pandemic and the killing of George Floyd to crystallize those facts. Historian and New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb looks at race, policing, and the difficulty of holding police departments accountable in Frontline's "Policing the Police 2020," a documentary that will air on CPTV on Tuesday, Sept. 15. It follows Cobb's 2016 Frontline, "Policing the Police." On another front: Trump administration officials have been interfering since (at least) August with the data that are included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports." These reports are used to help doctors and researchers understand how COVID-19 is spreading and who is at risk. Up to now, scientists wrote the reports without political interference. This is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to censor information intended to protect us. GUESTS: Jennifer Nuzzo is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; she is the lead epidemiologist for the Johns Hopkins Testing Insights Initiative (@JenniferNuzzo) Jelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a professor of journalism in Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism; his most recent book is The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (@jelani9) Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Howard University graduated, former director of the Africana Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut, staff writer for The New Yorker since 2015, teacher at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and award winning journalist is quite the resume.Jelani Cobb is a Queens native and has been writing and reporting on race, politics, history, and culture for more than three decades. He is the author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress as well as To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. His articles and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, The New Republic, Essence, Vibe, The Progressive, and TheRoot.com.Not only have I had the opportunity to read Jelani's work but I had the chance to work with him at a writers work shop. The workshop was based around his children's book, "A Kid's Book about Racism." I was very intrigued about the subject matter and what I learned in the workshop. Jelani's work doesn't just take place in newspapers and on college campuses. Jelani's adopted children come from different backgrounds and his house has become outset for many of his unique takes. In the end its all about developing empathy and trying to relate where others we may not normally connect with come from. I hope you enjoy this show and please take time to learn more about Jelani and his writing.Connect with JelaniInstagramTwitterDon't forget to subscribe to The Great Day PodcastYou can watch the full episode on YouTubeAnd be sure to follow my Instagram page and Facebook page to stay up to date on everything I'm working on.I'm Meir Kay and Have A Great Day! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this Thanksgiving Week edition of Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, brings you highlights from the annual Anne Braden Institute Research Meets Activism Breakfast, hosted at the Louisville Urban League on November 21, 2019. The event featured a panel discussion about the intersections of journalism and racial justice featuring: - Amber Duke, Communications Manager for the ACLU of Kentucky. Learn more at https://www.aclu-ky.org/en/staff/amber-duke - Michael L. Jones, a freelance journalist and author who has reported for Insider Louisville, LEO Weekly, Louisville Magazine, and others. Learn more at https://insiderlouisville.com/author/michael-l-jones/ - Dr. Kaila Story, UofL Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, with a joint appointment in the Department of Pan-African Studies. She holds the Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and co-hosts the podcast with Jaison Gardner called Strange Fruit: Musings on Politics, Pop Culture, and Black Gay Life. Learn more at https://louisville.edu/wgs/faculty/story - Dr. Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker, historian, and the Ira A. Lipton Professor of Journalism at Columbia Journalism School. His work focuses on race, politics, and culture while connecting the historical context of racism to current affairs. Dr. Cobb is the author of several titles including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, The Devil and Dave Chappell & Other Essays, and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. His recent work includes participating in Ava DuVernay’s landmark documentary “The 13th.” Learn more at http://louisville.edu/braden/programs/memorial-lecture/the-half-life-of-freedom-race-and-justice-in-america-today Learn more about UofL's Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at http://louisville.edu/braden As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! airs on FORward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at http://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is used by permission from the fantastic Louisville band, Appalatin. Explore their inspiring music at http://www.appalatin.com
A staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, Jelani Cobb writes with eloquence and urgency on topics of race, politics, history, and culture. He is a professor of journalism at Columbia University, and the author of several books including “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” On April 16, 2019, Jelani Cobb came to The Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco, to talk with New Yorker colleague Hilton Als.
Dr. Jelani Cobb is a New Yorker staff writer and the author of three books, including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress. He teaches journalism at Columbia University. “Ralph Wiley — the sports writer, late Ralph Wiley — told me something when I was 25 or so, and he was so right. He said I should never fall in love with anything I’ve written. … The second thing he told me was, ‘You won’t get there overnight, and believe me, you don’t want to.’ I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t get it when he told me that. I was like — why would I not want to get there overnight? Now I’m like: Thank God I didn’t get there overnight. Because there’s so much writing I would have to explain.” Thanks to MailChimp, Quip, and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode. @jelani9 Cobb on Longform [00:00] Stoner [01:30] Cobb’s Archive at The New Yorker [03:30] "The Life and Death of Jamaica High School" (New Yorker • Aug 2015) [07:45] Cobb’s Archive at Washington City Paper [09:40] Longform Podcast #7: Ta-Nehisi Coates [09:40] Longform Podcast #97: Ta-Nehisi Coates [09:40] Longform Podcast #168: Ta-Nehisi Coates [10:00] Joel Dias-Porter’s Archive at The Poetry Foundation [10:05] Kenneth Carroll’s Archive at The Poetry Foundation [10:10] Elvis Presley Is Alive and Well and Living in Harlem (Brian Gilmore • Third World Press • 1983) [11:30] Marion Barry archive at Washington City Paper [21:05] The Progressive [21:10] The Crisis [23:20] "My Daughter Once Removed" (Chicken Soup for the Soul • 2008) [23:40] The Devil & Dave Chappelle & Other Essays (Basic Books • 2007) [27:31] "Policing the Police" (Frontline • June 2016) [41:00] "The Ambivalent Legacy of Brown v. Board" (New Yorker • May 2014) [41:30] "The Matter of Black Lives" (New Yorker • Mar 2016) [41:30] "What I Saw in Ferguson" (New Yorker • Aug 2014) [44:40] The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (Walker Books • 2010) [48:50] Trump’s speech in Arizona (CNN • Aug 2017) [57:00] Birth of a Nation (Epoch Producing Co • 1915) [53:50] "Podcast #168: Jelani Cobb, The Half-Life of Freedom" (NYPL Podcast • June 2017)
Jelani Cobb is one of the sharpest, brightest, most poignant writers and observers of the moment that we’re in. Cobb is a staff writer for The New Yorker, where he writes about race, politics, history, and culture. He is also an author and professor of journalism at Columbia University. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Cobb is a graduate of Howard University and Rutgers University, where he received his doctorate in American history. In 2015, Cobb won the Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism for his columns on race, law enforcement, and racial injustice. He is author of the 2010 book, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress.
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. Historian and journalist Jelani Cobb is the author of Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress and other books, and one of our most powerful writers on the complexities of race in America. Jelani is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he’s given readers nuanced insight into gun culture, police brutality, the #blacklivesmatter movement, and much more, and a professor of Journalism at Columbia University. Although Jelani was hoping the surprise format might involve watching fun nature videos, the topics that came up included mathematical symmetry as a defining principle of the universe, whether and to what extent liberals should try to empathize with Trump supporters, and the ethics of human-animal and human-robot relations. Sorry, Jelani. Surprise conversation starter interview clips in this episode: Jim Gaffigan on Political Intolerance, Glenn Cohen on AI Ethics, and Frank Wilczek on Symmetry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hear notable subjects from Ava DuVernay's documentary 13TH continue the conversation on mass criminalization and inequality in America. The film was the Opening Night selection in the 54th New York Film Festival, which continues through October 16 here at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. For more information, head to filmlinc.org/nyff Panelists: Ashley Clark (The Guardian, BFI, Film Comment) Jelani Cobb (The New Yorker, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress) Malkia Cyril(Center for Media Justice) Kevin Gannon (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) Khalil Gibran Muhammad (former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) This podcast is brought to you by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Film Lives Here. Photo by Lindsey Seide www.filmlinc.org
Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal talks with William Jelani Cobb author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress and spoken-word poet Bassey Ikpi. Cobb is Professor of History and Africana Studies at Rutgers University and the author of To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic and The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays. The Nigerian born Ikpi, is a Washington, D.C. based mental health advocate and writer who blogs at Bassey World
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