Last fall we launched our podcast, “In These Times” with an examination of COVID-19 and its far-reaching impacts. We spoke with students and faculty who shared their personal experiences with the epidemic, along with perspectives drawn from history, science, politics and beyond. 

A recurring theme of our first season was the crisis within the COVID crisis: how racial inequality was playing out in the context of the pandemic, revealing itself in unequal health outcomes and boiling over with the death of George Floyd. 

This season, we wanted to dive more deeply into this theme, to focus on Black Lives and the Call for Justice. We’ll explore the nation’s complex history with race and consider some challenging questions: Who controls the narrative about the U.S.? How far have we moved beyond our history of enslavement and Jim Crow? Are we at a moment of reckoning? 

We wanted to begin season 2 of In These Times with a focus on that explosive moment of last summer, when millions of Americans of all races and ethnicities, in cities across the nation, joined in the Black Lives Matter movement. Shortly before we began our interviews, the Capitol was attacked by supporters of the former president, who sought to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. 

In this episode, we’ll hear some reactions to this moment from faculty speakers who will be featured later in our season. We’ll also hear from two students who reflect on the events of the past year, and share a glimpse of their experiences, as young Black adults finding their path in a nation that has yet to come to terms with its legacy of racism and white supremacy. 

Featuring:

Heather Williams, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and a professor of Africana Studies

Camille Charles, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences

Herman Beavers, Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt President’s Distinguished Professor of English and Africana Studies

Jelani Williams, C'20

Breanna Moore, C’15, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History

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Produced by Loraine Terrell

Narrated by Alex Schein

Edited by Alex Schein and Loraine Terrell

Interviews by Loraine Terrell, Jane Carroll, and Lauren Rebecca Thacker 

Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C'18

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Illustration by Adriana Bellet

Logo by Drew Nealis

In These Times is a production of Penn Arts & Sciences. Visit our series website to learn more and listen to the first season of In These Times. 

Visit our editorial magazine, Omnia, for more content from Penn Arts & Sciences faculty, students, and alumni. 

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