Donovan X. Ramsey is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. His work has appeared in GQ, WSJ Magazine, The Atlantic, and many other publications.“I actually got into writing about criminal justice ... because I was curious about Black life. But that meant the only way I was able to do that was I had to kind of do this really often depressing slice of Black life. And there’s so much more. And there’s so much beauty in the lived experiences of Black people. … There are so many stories that just never get told about Black life. One, I have a connection to being a Black person, but then being a Black person who has the benefit of a really good education, and I’ve been given some shots here and there… it feels like a duty. If I’m not going to tell these stories, then who?”

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Show notes:

@donovanxramsey

donovanxramsey.com

02:00 Exit Scam (Aaron Lammer and Lane Brown • Treats Media • 2021)

02:00 "Gossip Girls, Money Men, and 2 More Podcasts Worth Trying" (Nicholas Quah • Vulture • May 2021)

02:00 Nicholas Quah on Longform Podcast

03:00 70 Over 70 (Max Linsky • Pineapple Street Studios • 2021)

25:00 Ramsey's Atlantic archive

26:00 Ramsey's Ebony archive

26:00 "Motorcycle Club Honors, Assists Soldiers Offering Their Lives Overseas" (Black Enterprise • Nov 2012)

26:00 "Janelle Monáe: The ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’ Speaks [INTERVIEW]" (Ebony • Jul 2013)

29:00 She’s Every Woman: The Power of Black Women in Pop Music (Danyel Smith • Dey Street Books • 2017)

31:00 "Police Reform Is Impossible in America" (Gawker • Feb 2015)

32:00 Ramsey's Demos archive

35:00 Jason Parham on Longform Podcast

40:00 Ramsey's The Marshall Project archive

40:00 Ramsey's Complex archive

45:00 "A Triple Murder, a Broken Family, and the Long Tail of the Crack Era" (Vice • Aug 2016)

47:00 Black Futures (Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham • One World • 2020)

48:00 "Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact" (Roland G. Fryer • Apr 2006)

56:00 "Bryon Stevenson’s Moral Clarity" (WSJ Magazine • Nov 2019)

56:00 "The Political Education of Killer Mike" (GQ • Jul 2020)

62:00 "NASCAR’s Unlikely Activist" (GQ • Aug 2020)

63:00 Ramsey's Los Angeles Times archive

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