We need to talk about whiteness podcast

Ep 48: Whiteness in Art - Adelaide Damoah is a British-Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist, who uses investigative practices spanning painting, performance, collage, image transfer and photographic processes, to interrogate colonialism, spirituality and intersectional feminism. Since her debut exhibition ‘Black Brits’ in 2006, she has exhibited in shows nationally and internationally from Lagos to C...

Ep 47: Whiteness and refugees - Hameed Amiri fled Aghfanistan as a child, seeking refuge in the UK. As an adult, he has dedicated much of his work to raising awareness around the plight of refugees. He is the author of the recently published autobiographical book “The Boy With Two Hearts”, which is partly a homage to his brother Hussein, but also to the NHS, which provided Hussein with vital treat...

Ep 47: Whiteness and Brick Lane - Dr. Fatima Rajina is a Legacy in Action Research Fellow at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University. She is a former Research Assistant at the Institute of Criminology, at the University of Cambridge looking at police and counter-terrorism and has taught at SOAS and Kingston University, London. She is a co-founder of the ‘radical’ Bangladeshi...

Ep 46: Whiteness and the 'Orient' - An award-winning broadcaster and journalist who anchors the UK's Channel 4 News, Fatima Manji is best known for breaking stories with a global impact. She's also recognised as one of the first UK news anchors to wear a headscarf. She’s the author of the recently released “Hidden Heritage: Rediscovering Britain’s lost love of the Orient” and joins me to talk whit...

Ep 45: Whiteness and hip hop – Prof Tricia Rose is often referred to as the world’s foremost academic on Hip hop. Her ground-breaking book on the emergence of hip hop culture, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America went on to define what is now an entire field of study. She joins me to discuss how whiteness reduces hip hop to entertainment, whether some music just isn’t f...

ep 44: Whiteness is a dangerous idea - Robert P. Baird is a freelance writer and editor, who has held editorial positions at The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Esquire, and Harper’s Magazine, and has a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago. His recent Guardian Long Read titled: “The invention of whiteness: the long history of a dangerous idea” delves into the history and more recent understandings...

*TRIGGER WARNING: Some of the language in this episode may be upsetting to some listeners. Ep 43: Whiteness and the police – Paul Wilson was one of the UK’s longest serving and most senior black police officers. From helping establish the Black Police Association, heavily influencing the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, discussing critical issues with a Home Secretary, a Prime Minister, and an American P...

Ep 42: Whiteness and schools - Do our schools teach whiteness? What exactly should be taught in "Black History Month"? And does our educational system have a white supremacy problem...? To discuss this and more is a man who bridges the academic and activist world. Dr Ornette D. Clennon is a Professor at the Federal University of Amazon (UFAM) whose research focuses on themes of decolonial communit...

Ep 41: Whiteness and fashion - What's the relationship between fast fashion and colonialism? What happens to my old clothes? And who is really paying the price for my fashion fix? Aja Barber is an American writer, personal stylist and style consultant whose recently published first book “Consumed: colonialism, climate change and consumerism” is an expose of the industry she was long a part of, and...

ep40: Whiteness and belonging - Born in Nairobi, raised in London and Norway, writer and presenter Nazneen Khan joins me to explore identity, belonging and why she decided to tell a new, different version of the history of London - the subject of her recent book - to pay homage to the many who despite making up the capital's life and soul, are so often erased from its story.

Ep 39: Whiteness and healthcare – What is the colonial legacy in healthcare? How does modern medicine replicate historically forged patterns of domination? And why are we all so “inflamed”? Rupa Marya is an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF and faculty director of the Do No Harm Coalition, an organization of over 450 health workers committed to structural change to address health problems. W...

Ep 38: Whiteness and mental health - Guilaine Kinouani is a French critical psychologist, feminist, therapist, equality consultant and award-nominated writer of the blog, RaceReflections.co.uk Her recent book “Living while black – The essential guide to overcoming racial trauma” draws on her over 15y of experience in psychotherapy and as an anti-racist educator in laying out therapeutic advice on...

Ep 37: A terrible secret - Alison Croggon is an award-winning novelist, poet, theatre writer, critic and editor living in Melbourne, Australia. Her latest book "Monsters" is a memoir exploring the impact of whiteness within a family when the uncovering of a colonialist heritage evokes anger and denial within an already fraught relationship. It's been described by the Guardian as "an unsparing cult...

Ep 36: Whiteness and psychiatry - Dr. Aruna Khilanani is a forensic psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, whose speech at Yale university, "The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind", gained global attention after this quote was made public and sensationalised: "I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as...

Ep 35: Whiteness and sport - Prof Ben Carrington is widely regarded as one the world’s leading scholars on the sociology of race and culture, with a focus on popular culture and sport. He joins me to discuss reactions to England's Euro final defeat, sports as a space to re-imagine identity, and who sets the standard for womanhood when it comes to elite athletes?

Ep 34: Climate Change is racist - Jeremy Williams is one of the UK’s leading environmental voices, a writer, activist and author of “Climate Change is Racist: Race, Privilege and the Struggle for Climate Justice”. He joins me to talk about climate change and white privilege, polluter elites, the link between the climate crisis and colonialism and slavery and what we can all learn about being a 'go...

Ep 33: Brown baby - In his latest book, writer and author Nikesh Shukla has shared his story of raising mixed ethnicity daughters in modern Britain - he joins me to talk about whiteness and parenting, 'authentic' asian characters in books, and the limits of representation politics.

Ep 32: Nice Racism - Her book ‘White Fragility’ kicked off heated debates on how we think about white responses to racism and sparked an international conversation on whiteness. Now she's back with a new book, already causing a stir, entitled “Nice racism”. For this episode, we welcome back anti-racism scholar, educator and NYT bestselling author, Dr Robin di-Angelo to talk about what she wants to...

Episode 31: Whiteness and identity politics - How should our identity shape our politics? What is the space for class in conversation on race? And does our ‘rights-based framework’ confuse emancipation and victimhood? Author of “Mistaken Identity” founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine Asad Haider weighs in.

Ep 30: Whiteness and Muslim women – Award-winning poet and writer Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan knows a thing or two about disrupting boundaries – we talk radical politics, whiteness and Islam and the securitisation of Muslims. Is secularity a facet of whiteness? Why is the media so obsessed with Muslim women skateboarding? And is there still hope for the decolonising movement?

Ep 29: Whiteness and teenage diaries - Tez Ilyas is one of the most celebrated stars in British comedy, you’ll have seen him Live at The Apollo , on the BBC’s Mock the Week or possibly on the hit BBC3 series Man Like Mobeen - comedian extraordinaire, talk show host and now author, of a wonderful new book titled “The secret diary of a British Muslim – aged 13 ¾” - so why do we need to hear the teen...

Ep 28: Whiteness and family - Georgina Lawton is a columnist, host, and the author of “Raceless”, a powerful memoir of growing up in a family with a deep secret which would lead to what she describes as “an erasure of her racial identity.” We discuss whiteness in the family, the pitfalls of ‘colour blind’ parenting, and how her own family secret mirrors the many secrets the UK isn’t quite ready to...

Ep 27: Whiteness and migrants – The UK depends on migrants for many of our key services, from food to transport, and of course the National Health Service. And yet, immigration is often rated as Britain’s ‘most important issue’ with almost half of Brits favouring less of it, a serious cleavage point since Brexit. Dr Suzanne Hall is Associate Professor in Sociology at the LSE and an interdisciplina...

Ep 26: Whiteness and LGBTQ+ communities. Dr Kevin Nadal is a professor of psychology, queer activist and one of the leading researchers on the impact of micro aggressions. He has published over 100 works in the fields of psychology and education and is the author of several books including Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice as well as “Queering Law...

Ep 25: Whiteness and coalition - Emma Dabiri is an Irish-Nigerian activist, broadcaster and academic - Her latest book “What white people can do next: from allyship to coalition” has been described as “as though it’s written by the love child of James Connolly and Audre Lorde”- she joins me to discuss anti-racism vs liberation, the invention of whiteness and why the revolution won’t be instagram-l...