Intersectionality Matters!

Honouring the life and legacy of Gloria Steinem, host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by scholars Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Salamishah Tillet for an intimate conversation about the ways Steinem touched their lives, and affected history.

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw and author Jamilah Lemieux reflect on how it feels to release their first memoirs.

On the heeels of the release of Backtalker: An American Memoir, author Kimberlé Crenshaw embarks on a series of conversations with fellow Backtalkers — those who speak truth to power and habitually challenge injustices that others deem unfixable. This is episode two. For the inaugural episode of the series, go back to episode 79 with Cheryl Harris.

In this episode, you'll hear abou the reclamation of “baby mama,” how popular culture and respectability politics shaped perceptions of Black families, and Lemieux’s shifting understanding of how we define family. The conversation traces the Moynihan Report’s lasting influence across Black political thought, and connects it to debates about Black solidarity across genders, accountability for harm to Black women, and policy priorities in inititiatives like My Brother’s Keeper. Lemieux also discusses what motivates her to keep Backtalking, despite backlash.

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America turns 250—the momentous milestone comes to us cloaked in surreality. Anniversaries usually ask us to remember. This one asks whether we are willing to remember everything.

This episode explores why, after two and a half centuries, our national narrative still clings to the anti-Blackness embedded in the nation’s founding, all while insisting that this bleak history no longer deserves our attention.

How do we commemorate a republic built by people whose lives, labor, knowledge, and testimony are continually erased from the stories we tell about America? 

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by Sarah Lewis, Clint Smith, Mark Rosenbaum, and Ibram X Kendi.

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw and celebrated legal professor Cheryl Harris discuss the creative process and anticipated release of Crenshaw's latest book, Backtalker: An American Memoir.

Crenshaw’s memoir traces the way her lived experience made her see things others didn’t. It chronicles the earliest moments she starts to talk back, and the journeys that backtalking has taken Crenshaw on throughout her life. 

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by award-winning radio host Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead and playwright and feminist activist V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of The Apology. Together they discuss the 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four game, where coach Geno Auriemma aggressively confronted Coach Don Staley after she led her team to victory against his.

They discuss the mysogynoir of this moment, the insufficient apologies that followed, and what genuine accountability requires.

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On Cesar Chavez Day and the close of Women's History Month, host Kimberlé Crenshaw and award-winning radio host Kaye Wise Whitehead unpack a painful reckoning: recent New York Times revelations of sexual abuse by labor icon Cesar Chavez, including allegations from movement co-founder Dolores Huerta, who broke her silence at age 95. Together they explore why survivors delay disclosure, how hero worship in liberation movements hurts women and girls, and the tension between honoring a movement's legacy while confronting its darkest truths.

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This episode is an act of recovery, uplifting the artistic careers that McCarthyism upended through an immersive blend of conversation and artivism performances. This is part two. Click here for part one.

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen; and former President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart.

Hear powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winning actor Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Purpose) and Tony-nominated actor Jon Michael Hill (Purpose, Elementary, Detroit 1-8-7, A Man in Full), directed by Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Oberlin College Justin Emeka.

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This episode explores the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson—from organizing alongside Martin Luther King Jr. to building the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and reshaping the American electorate through his historic presidential campaigns. Challenging the media’s narrow framing of Jackson's impact in the wake of his passing, the episode uplifts the ways that his strategy, diplomacy, and inclusive vision laid the groundwork for a stronger democracy — exploring nuances that are often overlooked.

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by former DNC Chair Donna Brazile, President and Founder of the Truth and Justice Coalition Barbara Arnine, and Professor of Political Science at Hunter College-CUNY Joseph Lowndes.

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This episode is an act of recovery, uplifting the artistic careers that McCarthyism upended through an immersive blend of conversation and artivism performances.

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen; and former President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart.

Hear powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winning actor Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Purpose) and Tony-nominated actor Jon Michael Hill (Purpose, Elementary, Detroit 1-8-7, A Man in Full), directed by Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Oberlin College Justin Emeka. 

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Music has long been central to the fight for freedom—the rhythmic heartbeat of the struggle for justice. From Beyoncé to Shaboozey to L’il Nas X and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Black artists have sparked a much-needed conversation about the rich legacy of Black artistic achievement in multiple genres of American music. This episode celebrates the Black roots of country, blues and folk music by bringing together a dynamic group of artists and scholars to reclaim this often ignored history.

Guests: Jake Blount (Musician and Historian), Amythyst Kiah (Banjo Player and Historian), Amanda Ewing (Luthier), Tim Wise ( Writer and Racial Justice Educator), Denitia Odigie (Musician).