We need to talk about whiteness podcast

Ep 24: Whiteness and anti-Asian hate - Christine Liwag Dixon is a Filipino American writer and musician, and the Content Director of Samahan, an online multimedia platform dedicated to connecting Filipinos across the globe. She’s a columnist at the Filipino Star News and the author of a poetry collection, titled “From These Islands I Rise.” She joins me to discuss rising anti-Asian racism, the hyp...

Ep 23: Whiteness and how to talk about it - Eugene Ellis is the founder and director of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network, the UK's largest independent organisation working therapeutically with Black, Africa, Caribbean and South Asian people. In this episode, we discuss his new book “The race conversation: an essential guide to creating life changing dialogue”, the challenges in talking...

Episode 22: Whiteness and motherhood - Prof Elizabeth McRae is an American historian and the author of award winning book “Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy” which explores - among other things – how motherhood has been wielded in the service of white supremacy. In this episode, we examine gender and racism - what role have women played in upholding rac...

Ep 21: Whiteness and culture wars – Prof Barnor Hesse is Associate Professor of African American Studies, Political Science, and Sociology at Northwestern University (USA) and a man who has found himself at the centre of the “culture wars” after a list of 8 white identities he’d devised became headline news, leading to a campaign of intimidation and hate, which has included threats against his lif...

Ep 20: Whiteness and denial - Dr Gauthier Marchais is a French Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, at the University of Sussex, where he works on social transformation in contexts of violent conflict. He is the author of ‘Le Deni Blanc: Penser autrement la question raciale’ aka White Denial: How to think differently about the question of race, published in January 2021 in Fren...

Ep 19: Whiteness and UK BLM - Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper is an organiser with UK BLM and a researcher in Applied Sociology at the University of Greenwich, whose research focuses on policing and anti-racism. In this episode, we explore the relationship between Britishness and whiteness, UK BLM and the campaign to defund the police.

Episode 18: Whiteness and publishing – Sudanese-Australian writer and award-winning social advocate, Yassmin Abdel-Magied is the author of 3 books, including her latest "Listen Layla" (2021). She was one of the 2020 LinkedIn Changemakers, and is a globally sought-after advisor on issues of social justice, focused on the intersections of race, gender and faith. In this episode, we unpick the whiten...

Episode 17: Whiteness and feminism – Ruby Hamad’s first book tackles the power of white tears – how have white women wielded their innocence against women of colour and how has that ‘innocence’ been used to buttress white supremacy? The Washington Post described it as “a stunning and thorough look at White womanhood that should be required reading for anyone.” WHITE TEARS/BROWN SCARS traces the ro...

ep16: Whiteness and the Decolonise Britain movement - Dr Foluke Ifejola Adebisi is a Senior Lecturer at the Law School, University of Bristol where her scholarship focuses on decolonial thought in legal education. In recognition of her work, in October 2018, Foluke was included in the Bristol BAME Powerlist 2018 - A list of Bristol's 100 most inspiring people from BAME backgrounds. She is also the...

ep15: Whiteness and France - Internationally acclaimed French journalist, writer, and award-winning filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo is a pioneer in French media. The author of multiple books including "Racism : a guide" (2011), À Nous la France (France is ours/2012), and How to Speak to Kids About Laïcité, her most recent books "France: Either You Love it or You Shut it" is a response to her experiences...

Episode 14: Whiteness and Critical Race Theory - He has been described as one of Britain's most influential race theorists, David Gillborn is Professor of Critical Race Studies and Founding Director of the Centre for Research in Race & Education (CRRE) at the University of Birmingham. Author of multiple award winning books, he is best known for championing the growth of Critical Race Theory intern...

Episode 13: Whiteness and the law - Nazir Afzal OBE, is the former Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and formerly Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners. During a 24 year career, has prosecuted some of the most high profile cases in the UK. In this episode, he joins Dr Myriam Francois to explore whiteness and the law - how does whiteness manifest in the British legal sys...

Episode 12: Whiteness and sex - Habeeb Akande is a writer, sex educator, and author of 'Kunyaza: The Secret to Female Pleasure.' In this episode, he joins Dr Myriam Francois to explore whiteness and sex - how has white normativity affected how we think about sex and pleasure? And what has it shielded many if us from understanding, about other cultures and belief systems approach intimacy and sensu...

Episode 11 - The Whiteness of Film - BAFTA award winning writer and director Amma Asante hasn't shied away from talking about race - from her recent contributions to the "My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid" festival, to her films which feature mixed race abolitionist aristocrat "Belle", to the story of afro-germans under the Nazis - but are mainstream films always produced for the...

Episode 10 - The whiteness of immigration - "I think of immigration as reperations" - Multi award winning New York-based writer Suketu Mehta is the author of the best selling “This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto" (2019) and "Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found" (2004), among others. In this episode, he joins Dr Myriam Francois to discuss the whiteness of our conversations about immigra...

Episode 9 - The whiteness of the corporate world - Nels Abbey is is the author of 'Think Like a White Man: A Satirical Guide to Conquering the World . . . While Black', a former BBC executive, and the co-founder of the Black British Writers' Guild . In this episode, he joins Dr Myriam Francois to discuss whiteness in the corporate world - including at the BBC...

Episode 8 - The whiteness of philosophy - Minna Salami is is the author of 'Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone', and the founder of award-winning blog 'Ms Afropolitan'. In this episode, she joins Dr Myriam Francois to discuss whiteness in philosophy.

Episode 7 - The whiteness of comedy - Dane Baptiste is a British stand-up comedian, writer and presenter. In this episode, he joins Dr Myriam Francois to discuss the whiteness of the comedy world and his thoughts on the BLM movement.

Episode 6 - White and Muslim - Dr Myriam Francois is joined by poet and writer Medina Tenour Whiteman, author of "The Invisible Muslim" to discuss race, whiteness and Islam. How do race and religion intersect and what does a Muslim subjectivity contribute to the conversation on whiteness?

Episode 5 - Should we talk about whiteness? - Ayishat Akanbi is a fashion stylist, writer, cultural commentator and artist based in London, UK. Aside from being a trend-setter who dresses the artist Koffee - amazing - Ayishat has amassed a different type of following through her always insightful, often provocative online presence, where she challenges many of the assumptions and dogmas of modern...

Episode 4 - White psychosis - British academic Prof Kehinde Andrews is professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, the director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the Black Studies Association. In this episode we discuss his recent narration of the film "The Psychosis of Whiteness", a study of society's perceptions...

Episode 3 - The Whiteness of History - You may know her from her legendary tweets and her powerful anti-racism stance - Dr Priyamvada Gopal is 'Reader in Anglophone and Related Literature' at the University of Cambridge - an academic and contributor to public debates over racial inequality and the legacy of empire, her latest book "Insurgent Empire" (Verso, 2019) presents how Britain’s enslaved an...

Episode 2 - The whiteness of science - In this episode, I'm joined by science journalist and author Angela Saini, to discuss the cultural pillars of whiteness, off the back of her most recent book "Superior: The Return of Race Science" in which she tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. Many of the myths around the bi...

Episode 1 - White fragility - She's an American academic, lecturer, and author working in the fields of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies - her book "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" has been a US bestseller and provoked an uncomfortable conversation in the USA on what it means to be white. And for Episode No1 of the "We need to talk about Wh...