Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me. His new novel is The Water Dancer. Chris Jackson is Coates's editor, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of One World.

“I don’t think an essay works unless I can pin a story to it. You don’t want people to just say, ‘Oh that was a cool argument.’ You want people to say, ‘I could not stop thinking about this.’ You want them to nudge their wives and husbands and say, ‘You have to read this.’ You want them to be bothered by it.”

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Coates on Longform

Coates's first appearance on the Longform Podcast

[02:00] The Water Dancer: A Novel (One World • 2019)

[02:45] Coates’s Tour Schedule

[04:30] Jackson's Email

[06:45] The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (Spiegel & Grau • 2009)

[12:58] ”Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War”(The Atlantic • 2011)

[14:00] Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau • 2015)

[20:23] The Secret History (Donna Tartt • Alfred A Knopf • 1992)

[20:30] The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro • Faber and Faber • 1990)

[20:40] Billy Bathgate: A Novel (E.L. Doctorow • Random House • 1989)

[28:10] Underground Railroad (William Still • 1872)

[32:45] The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Ulysses Grant • 1885)

[35:20] ”The Case for Reparations”(The Atlantic • 2014)

[37:05] Coates's archive at The Atlantic

[37:10] We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy (One World • 2017)

[45:15] Captain in America Vol. 1: Winter in America (Marvel • 2019)

[54:00] Coates Testifies Before Congress (2019)

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