If you aren’t familiar with the name Ibram X. Kendi, you should be.
The 2020 The Root 100 honoree is the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, a contributor at The Atlantic, one of the foremost historians of race and discriminatory policy in America, and a New York Times bestselling author who’s blessed us with 2016's Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and 2019's How to Be an Antiracist.
And now, the Boston University professor will be joining forces with iHeartMedia and audio production company Pushkin Industries to produce a new thought-provoking podcast, Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi.
Building off of his extensive body of antiracist work, the 38-year-old’s latest endeavor will challenge listeners to play an active role in constructing an antiracist society while exploring what the end result could look like. But he won’t be alone on his mission; Kendi will be paired with an assortment of unrevealed guests who will join him in discussing the antiracist policies, platforms, and narratives human beings should uphold in order to help build a just and equitable world for all.
“After a year that laid bare the pervasive racial inequity that continues to plague our nation, we must continue the difficult but necessary conversations that will allow us to imagine and erect a truly antiracist society,” Kendi said in a statement to The Root. “I look forward to exploring these topics with guests whose work I deeply admire and digging deep with them and with listeners.”
“Over the past few years, Ibram X. Kendi has emerged as America’s most influential thinker on race, racism, and anti-racism,” Pushkin Industries CEO Jacob Weisberg said in a statement to The Root. “Pushkin is thrilled to help Dr. Kendi expand the conversation his books have ignited. We hope the show will empower listeners to effect change in their own communities and beyond.”
For those of you who can’t wait for Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi to debut on your podcast platform of choice on June 9, a little bird told me that if you download the iHeartRadio app, you might find a special treat in the form of the official trailer for the show.
But you ain’t hear that from me.