We need to talk about whiteness podcast

Ep 73: What's in a name? Journalist, academic and ex-TV producer Sheela Banerjee's discusses names and what they signify to society - in her new book, she takes us from the fight against racism in Britain, from Jamaica in the 60s to pre-Revolutionary Russia, each time exploring how a name contains centuries of history and acts as a portal to other worlds. So what IS in a name...? and what do we lo...

Ep72: Whiteness and its making - Dr. Carmen Thompson is a historian and author, and a highly sought out expert on Race and Whiteness in America whose scholarship has been quoted in historic court judgements in the US. She joins me to discuss her new book "The Making of American Whiteness: The Formation of Race in Seventeenth- Century Virginia".

Ep 71: Whiteness and the whitelash - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and author of a new book “American Whitelash”, Wesley Lowery joins Myriam Francois to talk the whitelash, covering racist politics and what the history of white supremacy tells us about our current juncture.

Ep70: Whiteness and culture - author, broadcaster and educator Jeffrey Boakye spent 15y in the education sector. He now provides training for schools, universities and businesses on race, identity, masculinity and education. He joins me to talk about re-telling the story of Britain through musical history, how to talk about race better and the impact of enduring perceptions of black masculinity.

Ep69: Whiteness and art curation - Samenua Sesher is the Founder and Director of the Museum of Colour, the UK’s foremost arts and heritage digital enterprise. The Museum is focused on the creative journeys of British people of colour and has as its mission to present a continually evolving online repository of once-forgotten wisdom. She joins to talk omitted heritages, the 'slave Bible' and why de...

EP68: Whiteness and 'racial reckoning' - Eve Fairbanks is an award winning writer and the author of a new book “The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa's Racial Reckoning” which explores what happened when a white supremacist state is overturned by the previously dispossessed. She joins me to discuss whiteness in post-apartheid South Africa, naviguating away from the white supremacist...

Ep67: Whiteness and power - Suzanne Alleyne is a self coined 'cultural thinker' and founder of consultancy Alleyne&. Her groundbreaking research project 'Neurology of PowerTM', asks where power resides in the brain and body. She joins me to talk about empathy and privilege, power and the body, and the importance of recognising the physical as well as cultural impact of power on the very structure...

Ep66: The Stories of Whiteness - A third-generation Japanese-American essayist, poet and fiction writer, David Mura has written intimately about his life and the connections between race, culture and history. In this episode, he joins me to about his latest book, 'The Stories Whiteness tells itself', as we examine the embeddedness of white supremacy within American culture and the stories America...

Ep 65: Whiteness and maculinity - Yomi Sode is an award-winning Nigerian British writer. He was shortlisted for The Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2021 and his acclaimed one-man show COAT, recently toured nationally to sold-out audiences. His latest book "Manorism" explores the lives of Black British men and boys through poetry. He joins me to talk masculinity, pop culture and having yo...

ep 64: Whiteness and the racial code - Nichola Rollock is Professor of Social Policy and Race at King’s College London, a government adviser and a widely read contributor to publications including Guardian, the FT and Vogue. She is now also the author of a new book “The Racial Code: tales of resistance and survival.” She joins me to educational attainment gaps, race in the workplace and naviguatin...

Ep 63: Whiteness and white antiracism - In this episode, I'm joined by the authors of a new book which “invites White people to talk about race with one another in ways that are generative, sustaining, and lead to real change.” Starting from the words of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison that ‘racism is a White person problem’ the authors say it’s time for White people to see how it hurts them too—a...

Ep 62: Whiteness and the patriarchy - Award-winning columnist, international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues and global feminism based in Cairo and New York - feminist icon Mona Eltahawy joins me for this LIVE recording at the Bradford Literary Festival to talk whiteness and feminist resistance, how racism fuelled the US abortion ban and her commitment to F*** the patriarchy, in all its s...

Ep 61: Whiteness and Africa - Astrid and Chinny were sick of reductive depictions of Africa, where they both have roots - so they decided create ‘It’s a Continent’, a podcast, published as a book in July 2022, which takes each African nation and retells a key moment in the country’s history. In this episode, we explore whiteness and the African continent, why so many people refer to Africa as a 'c...

Ep 60: Whiteness and words - multiple award winning writer and author of the bestselling book 'Sprache und Sein' ('Speaking and Being' Kübra Gümüşay is founder of several award winning campaigns and organisations - she joins me to talk about how language shapes our world - and its limits, the cages created by words and how to break out of those boxes.

Ep59: Whiteness and terminology - The language we use and the unease many of us feel in finding the right words speaks, at least in part, to the difficulties in using the categories of meaning we intend to subvert for the act of subversion. To discuss this linguistic minefield, I’m joined by two women who’ve been working on the first ever “Blacktionary”. Maggie Semple OBE is a businesswoman and en...

Ep58: Whiteness in TV - Zarqa Nawaz is a canadian creator and producer for film and television, published author, public speaker, journalist, and former broadcaster. You might know her from her hit sit com “Little Mosque in the Prairie” which premiered to the highest ratings CBC had in over 20 years, and won multiple awards, or her most recent publication “Jameela Green ruins everything.” She join...

Ep 57: Whiteness and the Royals - Prof Trevor Burnard is Wilberforce Professor of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull and Director of the Wilberforce Institute. The author of several books including 'Jamaica in the Age of Revolution' and The Atlantic World, 1492-1830, he recently curated a special forum in the journal, Slavery and Abolition on Black Lives Matter and Slavery, and is...

Ep 56: The history of white people - New York Times bestselling author of “The history of white people” Prof Nell Irvin Painter is a leading American historian and visual artist. She is the author of several books including 'Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol and American Whiteness Since Trump', 2020. She joins me to talk about 'The history of white people’, the complexities of terminology and what...

Ep 55: Whiteness and identity - British Egyptian writer Sabrina Mahfouz is an author, editor, fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and TV writer (Netflix and Amazon Studios). Her debut non-fiction book, 'These Bodies of Water: Notes on the British Empire, the Middle East and Where We Meet' (May 2022)explores questions of identity and belonging - she joins me to talk about growing up in the 9/...

Ep54: Whiteness and equality - Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, and former Director of the Gender Institute, Prof Anne Phillips' latest book, Unconditional Equals, challenges the very philosophical foundations of Western notions of equality - she joins me to talk about how our framework of equality can undermine the quest for it, rethinking the struggle and whether...

Ep 53: Whiteness and healing - Amartey Golding is a multifaceted contemporary artist whose work centers on themes of humanity, healing and identity. His new touring Solo Show at the V&A 'Bring Me To Heal' looks to the restorative work undertaken by Rasta (and many other) communities dealing with intergenerational trauma and in a radical shift, applies these same techniques of context, accountabili...

Ep 52: Whiteness and Black Consciousness - Lewis R. Gordon is an Afro-Jewish philosopher, political thinker, educator, and musician, & Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at UCONN-Storrs in the United States. Author of several books, he joins me to talk about Black consciousness, whiteness as narcissism, radical love, and his latest book “Fear of Black Consciousness”.

Ep51: Whiteness and the curriculum - Ben Mearhart is a former joint- headteacher and the senior lead for Education Standards at The Black Curriculum, a social enterprise that aims to deliver black British history across the UK by providing a curriculum and free resources for schools to teach students about Black history. He joins me to talk about getting 'comfortable' talking about race, counterin...

Ep50 - Whiteness and air pollution: Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is a BreatheLife Ambassador and founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation, based in London. Rosamund became a clean air advocate after her 9-year-old daughter, Ella, died in 2013 from a rare and severe form of asthma. Rosamund spent several years campaigning for a second coroner's inquest into Ella's death to determine whether it w...

Ep49: Whiteness and colourism - Dr Dionne Taylor is a Senior lecturer at Birmingham City University where she teaches Sociology and Black studies and is the MA Black Studies Course leader. Dionne’s research looks at the lived experiences of young Black British women’s interpretation and engagement with representations of Black womanhood and she was recently in conversation with Little Mix’s Leigh-...