America is at a crossroads. It is a time of moral reckoning, an opportunity for the nation to choose whether it will become a genuinely multiracial democracy. That’s the view of Eddie Glaude, African American scholar and author of the New York Times bestseller, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons For Our Own. He believes that Baldwin, the great novelist and essayist who bore witness to American racial strife in the mid-20th century, is a man for our times and that we can look to him for guidance as we think about colonial history, slavery, race and identity.In March 2022 Glaude came to Intelligence Squared when, in conversation with historian Christienna Fryar, he shared the insight and inspiration he has drawn from Baldwin’s writing. He set out the urgent need to abolish the idea of white America and to confront the truth about the country’s past – slavery and Jim Crow segregation – not to posit the greatness of America, but to establish the ground upon which to imagine the country anew.
We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.
And while you’re listening, why not visit Intelligencesquared.com and sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear about some of our great upcoming events and deals.
If you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Anxious Generation: Jonathan Haidt on How Smartphones Rewired Childhood, Part Two
The Anxious Generation: Jonathan Haidt on How Smartphones Rewired Childhood, Part One
Being Human in an AI World, with Susie Alegre
How the Legacy of the British Empire Still Shapes Our World, with Sathnam Sanghera
Archive: Doughnut Economics, with Kate Raworth
The Circle of Life, with Joe Roman
The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences, Part Two
The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences, Part One
George the Poet on Combatting the War on Blackness
Searching for Another England, with Caroline Lucas and Grace Blakeley, Part Two
Searching for Another England, with Caroline Lucas and Grace Blakeley, Part One
Arash Azizi on Iran's Turbulent Past and its Uncertain Future
Getting Weird with Physics, with Harry Cliff
Istanbul: Crossroads of the World, with Alexander Christie-Miller
Keir Starmer, Will Hutton, Alastair Campbell and Sonia Sodha on How to Remake Britain, Part Two
Keir Starmer, Will Hutton, Alastair Campbell and Sonia Sodha on How to Remake Britain, Part One
The Great London Novel, with Andrew O'Hagan
The F Word: Re-evaluating Society's Approach to Body Image, with Kate Manne
Unlocking the Power of Memory, with Charan Ranganath
Going Nuclear: Could a Catastrophic Conflict Take Place? with Annie Jacobsen
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West