Uncommon Naledge

Ep 10 | Tuma Basa Tuma Basa is a visionary music executive and cultural curator with an indelible impact on the global music industry. As the former Head of Urban Music at YouTube and Spotify's former Director of Black Music and Culture, Basa has played a pivotal role in amplifying the voices of artists and driving cultural movements. His unparalleled expertise in music curation and promotion has...

Ep 9 | Dr. Jasmine Henry Dr. Jasmine Henry (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Pennsylvania and a sound engineer specializing in twentieth and twenty-first-century African American popular music. Her research interests include Black electronic dance music and club cultures, DIY and independent music production, Afrofuturism, and the historiography of African Amer...

Ep 8 | Dr. Rob Eschmann Dr. Rob Eschmann is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University. Dr. Eschmann writes on educational inequality, community violence, racism, social media, and youth wellbeing. His research seeks to uncover individual, group, and institutional-level barriers to racial and economic equity, and he pays special attention to the heroic efforts everyday people mak...

Ep 7 | Dr. Murray Forman Dr. Murray Forman is a Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University. He is the author of The ‘Hood Comes First: Race, Space and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop (Wesleyan University Press, 2002) and Co-editor (with Mark Anthony Neal) of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (Routledge, 1st edition 2004; 2nd edition, 2012). He is also author of One Night on...

Ep 6 | Saida Grundy Saida Grundy is a feminist sociologist of race & ethnicity and Associate Professor of Sociology, African American & Black Diaspora Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at Boston University. Her research to date has focused upon formations and ideologies of gender and racialization within the Black middle class–specifically men. Using in-depth interviews, her current...

Ep 5 | Janeé Bolden Janeé Bolden is the Senior Content Director of Pop Culture at iOne Digital and manages editorial strategy for Bossip and GlobalGrind. Janeé joined the BOSSIP team as a Senior Editor in 2009 and has been working with GlobalGrind since 2017. As a veteran journalist, Janeé has appeared on HLN, Revolt, Fox Soul, CBS "The Talk," and "BOSSIP on WeTV" as an expert...

Ep 4 | Dr. David Crockett Dr. David Crockett is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His primary research interest is in sociological aspects of consumer behavior, particularly the consequences of social inequality. He seeks to investigate the creation, manifestation, and resolution of class and racial inequality in the marketplace and explore public policy...

Ep. 3 | Dr. Myisha S. Eatmon Dr. Myisha S. Eatmon is an Assistant Professor in African and African American Studies and History at Harvard University. Dr. Eatmon was a research fellow and a tenure-track Assistant Professor in History at the University of South Carolina before she joined the faculty at Harvard in 2022. Professor Eatmon is a Chapel Hill, North Carolina native who received a B.A. in...

Ep. 2 | C. Brandon Ogbunu C. Brandon Ogbunu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His research takes place at the intersection of evolutionary biology, genetics, and epidemiology. He uses experimental evolution, mathematical modeling, and computational biology to better understand the underlying causes and consequences of disease, across scales: from the...

Ep. 1 | James Riley, Ph. D. Dr. James Riley is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches LEAD in the MBA required curriculum. Professor Riley is an economic sociologist. He conducts ethnographic research to produce qualitative studies on the role of status, norms, social valuations, and organizational culture within...

Ep 10 | Meredith D. Clark, Ph. D. Meredith D. Clark, Ph. D. (@MeredithDClark; she/her/hers), is an associate professor at Northeastern University in the School of Journalism and the Department of Communication Studies, and director of the Center for Communication, Media Innovation, and Social Change. Her first book, “We Tried to Tell Y’all: Black Twitter and Digital Counternarratives” is forthcomi...

Ep 9 | LaCharles Ward LaCharles Ward is an interdisciplinary scholar of black visual and cultural studies. He received his Ph. D. in Rhetoric and Public Culture from Northwestern University’s School of Communication, where he also had a graduate affiliation in the Department of African American Studies. His research spans the areas of Black visual culture as theory and method, art and aesthetic pr...

Ep 8 | Chris Molanphy Chris Molanphy is a chart analyst and pop critic who writes about the intersection of culture and commerce in popular music. For Slate, he hosts the Hit Parade podcast and writes their “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vulture, NPR Music’s The Record, The Village Voice, Billboard, and CMJ. Chris is also a frequent guest...

Ep 7 | Kyra Kyles Kyra Kyles is a multi-platform senior-level media executive, award-winning writer, and public speaker on issues of diversity and representation. In 2020, she was named CEO at YR Media (formerly Youth Radio), an award-winning national network of young multicultural creators who develop content—including music, investigative journalism, design/interactive, and documentaries— for th...

Ep 6 | Mireille Miller Young Mireille Miller-Young, Ph. D., is an Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The former UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow researches and teaches about race, gender, and sexuality in US history, popular and film cultures, and the sex industries. Her groundbreaking book, A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography...

Ep 5 | Enongo Lumumba Kasongo SAMMUS (Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo) is a rap artist and producer from Ithaca, NY with Congolese and Ivorian roots. She received her Ph. D. in science and technology studies from Cornell University in 2019. From 2019 to 2022 she received a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University, initially appointed as a Cogut Postdoctoral Fellow in International Humanities from 2019 t...

Ep 4 | Catherine Knight Steele Dr. Catherine Knight Steele is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she directs the Black Communication and Technology _(BCaT) _lab and the graduate program in Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities. Dr. Steele studies race and media, specifically focusing on the Black discourse, technology, the Black blogosph...

Ep 3 | David Arditi Dr. David Arditi is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington. He also serves as the director of the Center for Theory. As a gigging drummer, David became interested in the livelihoods of musicians. His research is at the intersection of music, culture, and technology. David’s newest book is Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms and the Une...

Ep 2 | Lakeyta Bonnette Bailey & Adolphus Belk Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Georgia State University. Adolphus G. Belk, Jr. is a Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Winthrop University.  During this episode, they talk with Dr. Evans about their new book, For The Culture.  For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight fo...

Ep 9 | AD Carson Dr.  A.D. Carson is an award-winning performance artist and educator from Decatur, Illinois. His work focuses on race, literature, history, rhetorics & performance. He received a Ph. D. in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design at Clemson University. His album, “I used to love to dream,” released with the University of Michigan Press is the first rap album peer-revie...

Ep 8 | Dr. James Peterson This week Jabari speaks with Dr. James Peterson, a scholar, writer, educational consultant, and content creator. dedicated to researching and developing the cultural and educational potential of hip hop, urban, and youth cultures. Dr. Peterson, Is The Author Of Several Books, Including The Hip Hop Underground And African American Culture, Prison Industrial Complex For Beg...

Ep 7 | Andre Brock This week, Jabari talked with Dr. Andre Brock, who is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Media & Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Dr. Brock is one of the preeminent scholars of Black Cyberculture. His work bridges Science and Technology Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, showing how the communicative affordances of online media al...

Ep 6 | Jamilah Lemieux This week Jabari speaks with Jamilah Lemieux, a renowned cultural critic and writer with a focus on issues of race, gender, and sexuality, Jamilah is a leading millennial feminist thinker and social influencer who has made a name for herself as a thought leader on social media.  Lemieux’s written work has been featured via a host of print and digital platforms, including_ th...

Ep 5 | Manie Robinson This week Jabari talked with author, storyteller, and fellow UofSC SJMC colleague Manie Robinson.  Manie joined UofSC's School of Journalism and Mass Communications in Spring 2020 as a Sports Media Instructor.  Over the previous 14 years, he served as a sports reporter, columnist, and video producer for The Greenville News and the USA Today Network.  Aside from landmark event...

Ep 4 | Jeff Lane This week, Jabari talks with Dr. Jeffrey Lane, Associate Professor of Communications at Rutgers University's College of Communication and Information. Jeff's research explores communication and technology as it relates to urban life, criminal justice, and social inequalities. He approaches these topics through ethnography in person and online. Lane is the author of The Digital Str...