my personal favorites of 2019

Each week this August, we’re updating some of our most thought-provoking episodes. This week: writer Casey Gerald reflects on what we lose when we buy into the promise of the American dream. We first ...Show More

Blood quantum. The percentage of Native “blood” one possesses, the fraction listed on Certificates of Degree of Indian Blood, and a fraught concept that has its defenders and dissenters in our communi...Show More

“But you’re not gone yet, mommy.”Meet Julie.This series is a companion to Julie Yip-Williams’ posthumous memoir, The Unwinding of the Miracle, published by Random House.Artwork by Dadu Shin.If Julie’s...Show More

This week on Man Up, Aymann sits down for his first-ever therapy session with psychotherapist and host of the Hey Man podcast, Avi Klein. He learns something about how he copes, and about how some the...Show More

The tale of two yogurts and the fight to protect Goa’s fishing villages and waters, it’s all about preservation. It keeps us alive and teaches how to live.

Black music, forged in captivity, became the sound of complete artistic freedom. It also became the sound of America. On today’s episode: Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for The New York Times. “161...Show More

The host of Snap Judgment opens up about being agnostic and rethinking the role of belief after growing up in an apocalyptic cult. Plus, the parts of your spiritual upbringing that stick with you in u...Show More

Quote: “Nobody wants to destroy the image of San Francisco.” —James Baldwin About: Whereas Part One looks into the origin of San Francisco’s F-word, and Part Two looks at the buildup and fallout of ur...Show More

Unless we are parents ourselves, we rarely hear the voices of children, let alone spend the day with them. This is a look inside the challenge of being a working mother and the beauty that can emerge ...Show More

Sayre Quevedo grew up knowing just two members of his blood family, his mom and his brother. His father left before he was born and his mother lost touch with her family after leaving home as a teenag...Show More

All Gordon wants for his birthday is to travel to Washington, D.C., to visit museums and see the opera. He’s completely unaware that his companion on this trip has very different plans. His friend has...Show More

Every wedding has a at least a little bit of drama. For Mai Neng Moua and her mother, Yer Vu, their mother/daughter wedding drama was about who they were, and who they wanted to be. You can catch up ...Show More

We examine how HBO’s series “Watchmen” and Bong Joon Ho’s film “Parasite” bring to light the hidden histories that shape our modern lives. Discussed this week:“Parasite” (directed by Bong Joon Ho, 20...Show More

Every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker. That was the fate of Hawaiian, until a group of second-language learners put up a fight and declared, "E Ola Ka 'Olelo Hawai'i" (The Hawaiian Lan...Show More

Have you ever wondered what the East Bay was like before colonization? In this episode, Corrina Gould of Indian People Organizing for Change shares knowledge of how her ancestors, the Ohlone people, m...Show More

Chanel Miller, formerly known to the world as “Emily Doe,” steps out of the shadows after she was sexually assaulted on the Stanford University campus in 2015. In her memoir, Know My Name, Chanel shar...Show More

She has called Brain Pickings, her invention and labor of love, a “human-powered discovery engine for interestingness.” What Maria Popova really delivers, to hundreds of thousands of people each day, ...Show More

The poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine says every conversation about race doesn’t need to be about racism. But she says all of us — and especially white people — need to find a way to talk...Show More

Our first episode of Truth Be Told is finally here and we’re going in deep to take on one of the biggest questions of our time: How can I feel joy, when the world is burning? Families are being separa...Show More

Tom was a cop; Jason was a teenager in a gang. One night in 1997, they had a violent encounter that Tom describes as “inevitable.” In our season finale, Tom and Jason relate the story of that night, a...Show More

Matika and Adrienne discuss their “origin” stories as Indigenous women, bloggers, and storytellers— revealing the intimacies of their friendship, the inception and goals of the All My Relations Podcas...Show More

The writers on why the label covers a multitude of sins. Don't forget to subscribe to our weekly email newsletter! Every Wednesday we send out podcast listening recommendations, fascinating letters fr...Show More

In the final installment of our maternity leave lineup, bestselling author Tayari Jones sits down with artist Carrie Mae Weems to talk about independence, art, relationships, and one very fabulous whi...Show More