Rational Black Thought

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought, the podcast where we examine politics, religion, culture, and power without superstition, without respectability politics, and without pretending that polite lies become truth because they are repeated on television. I am your host, Neo Griot. This week's title is "A Lexus or Justice." That is the question in front of us, whether w...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I am your host, Neo Griot. This is Episode 289, released on July 4, 2026, and the title comes from “Kites” by N.E.R.D., Kendrick Lamar & M.I.A .: “Tuggin’ on a string that’s connected to a dream - Head-bussa, hittin’ nothing, even if I gotta bleed.” That lyric is about commitment. It is about holding onto a vision even when the struggle is ex...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought , the podcast where we examine politics, religion, culture, and power from a Black, secular, skeptical, and uncompromising perspective. I am your host, the Neo Griot. This week's episode is titled "Fear Not of Man," from Mos Def. The lyric is simple: "Fear not of men because men must die. Mind over matter and soul before flesh....

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Rational Black Thought, the podcast where we challenge the narratives, question the assumptions, and examine the evidence behind the stories shaping our lives. I am your host, Neo Griot. This is Episode 287 and our title is: "Revolutionary curse words. First come, first served. It ain't no lost love. Freedom cost blood." Those lyrics from dead prez c...

Send us Fan Mail I am your host, Neo Griot, and this is Rational Black Thought. This week’s title comes from YG’s “FTP,” and the message is simple: silence is no longer an option. Not when power lies openly. Not when democracy is treated like a technicality. Not when religion is used as cover for grift. Not when Black people are told to stay calm while the machinery of suppression keeps running. S...

Send us Fan Mail I am your host, Neo Griot, and this is Rational Black Thought, the podcast where faith gets cross-examined, power gets analyzed without apology, and foolishness gets dragged into the sunlight where it can no longer pretend to be wisdom. This week’s title comes from Kendrick Lamar’s “HiiiPoWeR,” and the line lands like a warning, not entertainment. “The sky is falling, the wind is...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought, the podcast where we examine politics, religion, culture, and society through the lens of critical thinking and Black consciousness. I am your host, Neo Griot. Our title today comes from Queen B’s Freedom, because, if I must, I will break chains all by myself, but I would rather have the assistance of likeminded people. This week's episode i...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought, the podcast where we examine politics, religion, culture, and society through the lens of critical thinking and Black consciousness. I am your host, Neo Griot. This week’s episode is inspired by Bob Marley’s anthem of resistance, “Get Up, Stand Up.”  Another stanza in the song is: Most people think great God will come from the sky Take away every...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I am your host, Neo Griot. This week's title is "Don't Believe the Hype" from Public Enemy — because this episode is about the stories power tells to hide what power is actually doing. The hype tells us redistricting is just a technical process carried out by people with maps, computers, and respectable job titles. The truth i...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I am your host, Neo Griot. This week’s title comes from Common’s “Be,” and it gives us the frame for this episode: the discipline of being present. Not present as in passive. Not present as in spiritually floating above reality while the world loses its mind in real time. I mean present as in awake, grounded, and clear-eyed. Present enough to see...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I am your host, Neo Griot. This week’s episode is titled comes from the lyrics from the song “They’ Schools” by dead prez, the full lyrics I want to quote are: Why haven't you learned anything? Man that school shit is a joke The same people who control the school system Control the prison system, And the whole social system Ever since slaver...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Episode 279 of the Rational Black the podcast where we confront ideology with reason, power with truth, and myth with evidence. This week’s title comes from Bob Marley’s War, and those lyrics still cut with brutal precision: “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.” M...

Send us Fan Mail This week’s title comes from Gil Scott-Heron’s cutting question: “Was all that money I made last year, for whitey on the moon?” It is the kind of line that survives because the contradiction it names never really dies. It forces us to ask a hard question about priorities, power, and progress. Who gets the glory? Who gets the investment? And who is still down here waiting for basic...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I’m your host, Neo Griot. This week’s title comes from the UK rapper Dave and his song "Black" and says something that needs to be said plainly because too many people still pretend not to understand it: Black is not divisive. Black truth is not divisive. Black memory is not divisive. Black resistance is not divisive. What is divisive i...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I’m your host, Neo Griot.  Public Enemy gave us the language for this week’s title before most people were willing to admit what they were seeing. Public Enemy said it plainly: “Make America great again the middle just love it, when he wanna talk, walk y’all straight to them ovens.”   That line is not just a warning about Trump. It is an indictme...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Rational Black Thought. I’m your host, Neo Griot.  This week’s title comes from Blackalicious’ Brain Washers, and it captures something essential about the moment we are living through. The song is not merely about lies. It is about the construction of consciousness itself. It is about the way power reaches beyond laws and beyond force to shape perception, to rewrite me...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #274 – March 21, 2026 – “…"Don't you know the powers that be  Are using people as pawns, devouring we”   | Hi and welcome to Episode 274 of the Rational Black Thought podcast . I am your host, Neo Griot. This week’s title comes from Blackalicious and their song “Shallow Days”: “Don’t you know the powers that be are using people as pawns, devouring we.” And that l...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Episode 273 of Rational Black Thought. This week’s title is “ You need to get up, get out, and get something.” From Outkast, and that title captures the central truth of this moment. We are living in a time of confusion, cowardice, spectacle, and organized deceit, and none of it will be corrected by passivity. Not in politics. Not in culture. Not in religion. Not in Bla...

Send us Fan Mail I am your host, Neo Griot, and this is Episode 272 of the Rational Black Thought Podcast.  This week’s title is “Living under my greatness / What don’t kill me is motivation.”  by Anderson Paak and the Vanguard. The full lyrics I want to reference are: “I spent years being called out my name-Living under my greatness-But what don’t kill me is motivation. My faith is buried somewhe...

Send us Fan Mail Episode #271 – February 28, 2026 – “Crawling through a systematic maze…And it pains to demise…Pain in our eyes…” -  D’Angelo and The Vanguard  I am your host, Neo Griot, and this is Episode 271 of the Rational Black Thought Podcast.  This week’s title comes from D’Angelo and The Vanguard’s Black Messiah and the song Charade: “Crawling through a systematic maze…And it pains to demi...

Send us Fan Mail I am your host, Neo Griot, and this is Episode 270 of the Rational Black Thought Podcast.   This week’s title comes from Dame D.O.L.L.A.’s song “Blacklist”:  “Our culture beautiful, battle-tested and tough, we had enough-So you either come with some change or it's gon' be rough-Period.”   That’s the report. And the report says: we’re out of time for talk.  It’s time for...

Send us Fan Mail  | I am your host, Neo Griot, and this is Episode 269 of the Rational Black Thought Podcast.  This week’s title is a line Kanye dropped that still cuts like a scalpel:  “Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack / And a white man get paid off of all of that.” From “All Falls Down” on College Dropout.  And I’m starting there because it’s not just a lyric. It’s a diagnosis.  It’s...

Send us Fan Mail  | I’m your host, Neo Griot, and welcome back to Rational Black Thought .   This week’s title is a lyric from a Song by Billy Paul, “Am I Black Enough for You” and it’s not for nostalgia. It’s a political forecast we need to take to heart. It’s the sound of a people deciding that survival is not enough, and that we are done negotiating for dignity one exception at a time.   When B...

Send us Fan Mail Hey, family. I’m Neo Griot—Afrocentric, Pan-African, secular humanist, atheist, skeptic. And this is Rational Black Thought—where we don’t do feel good pieces, we do the hardcore truth.   Episode 267 is titled: “ Y'all think it's bougie, I'm like, it's fine-But I'm tryin' to give you a million dollars worth of game for $9.99” which are lyrics from the...

Send us Fan Mail Peace, family. I’m Neo Griot—Afrocentric, Pan-African, secular humanist, atheist, skeptic. And this is Rational Black Thought —where we don’t do bedtime stories for adults.  Episode 266 is titled: “We are the winners if we unclose our eyes.” which are lyrics from the song Nostalgie Amoureuse by the group Zap Mama led by Marie Daulne.   I am not using this as a hashtag. It’s meant...