Season 14

Episode 9 | Dr. Treva B. Lindsey on Violence, Black Women, And The Struggle For Justice

Why are Black women and girls the target of multiple forms of violence? Domestic violence in the home presents its own challenges, but what about the state-sanctioned violence that African American women have to contend with either in the form of militarized police brutality showing up on their doorsteps or the ongoing slow violence of […]

Episode 8 | Black Duke Students on the End of the Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship

Reginaldo “Reggie” Howard was the first African American President of the Associated Students of Duke University, which was essential to undergraduate student government He had a lot of big ideas for how to improve life on campus for students. Tragically, he was killed in an car accident when returning to Duke for a meeting from […]

Episode 7 | Dr. Thema Bryant on Black Church and Mental Health

Healing trauma in the African American community is often caught between either seeking professional mental health services or relying on faith leaders in the Black church Dr. Thema Bryant, the 2023 president of the American Psychological Association (APA), joins Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to dispel this binary of mental healthcare to demonstrate how they can […]

Episode 6 | Small Talk at FHI with Author Nabil Ayers

Author Nabil Ayers, born from the union between a white, Jewish, former ballerina and American funk, soul, and jazz musician Roy Ayers, joins the Webby Award-nominated podcast “Left of Black” for a special in-person event to discuss his new critically acclaimed memoir, “My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering My Family.” […]

Episode 5 | Gladys Mitchell-Walthour on the Growing Trope of the Afro-Brazilian “Welfare Queen”

Many political and economic comparisons are made between the U.S. and Brazil, citing them both as the largest democracies in the Western hemisphere.  Many political and economic comparisons are made between the U.S. and Brazil, citing them both as the largest democracies in the Western hemisphere. So, what does it mean when the U.S.-borne stereotype […]

Episode 4 | Black Maternal Health with Deirdre Cooper Owens

James Marion Sims, the “father” of gynecology, walked a horrific path towards medical innovation that involved inhumane and perverse experiments conducted on enslaved women in the 19th century His legacy, founded on the dehumanization of Black women and the dismissal of their pain, is now being reckoned with. Yet, oddly enough, some of those same […]

Episode 3 | Christopher Paul Harris on the Black Future and M4BL––The Movement for Black Lives

How can we build a world that centers on the humanity of Black people, using the tenets of Black resistance as a guide towards a new political imagining? Dr. Christopher Paul Harris, Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine, joins host Mark Anthony Neal to talk about his new […]

Episode 2 | Kris Marsh on Embracing Being Single in the Black Middle Class

Many will remember growing up with the classic 1997 Black independent romantic comedy, “Love Jones,” which starred Larenz Tate and Nia Long among a cast of prolific Black Hollywood talent. But when Dr. Kris Marsh, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, refers to the Love Jones cohort, she means to shed light […]

portrait of African American woman whose hair look like aquamarine and green brush strokes of paint

Episode 1 | Season 14 Premiere | Jasmine Nichole Cobb on the Art and Texture of Black Hair

What is the cultural significance of Black hair and how does it impact the way African Americans show up across all arenas of social life? And what are some art practices that have been built around that? In this Season 14 premiere, host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal welcomes fellow Duke colleague Prof. Jasmine Nichole Cobb […]