#5: Jean Grae

Jean Grae is a rapper, comedian, producer, writer, and much more... and her genealogy is as wide-ranging as her career. But Jean doesn't know very much her family's past. So we help her out. We take Jean through South Africa’s complicated racial history, the birth of a political movement in Cape Town, and the pivotal role of carnivorous plants in science. And then, we’ll introduce her to a mystery relative.

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CREDITS:

Twice Removed is produced by Meg Driscoll, Ngofeen Mputubwele, Audrey Quinn, and Kimmie Regler. Our senior producer is Eric Mennel. Editing by Jorge Just and Alex Blumberg. Michelle Harris is our fact checker. Music and sound design by Haley Shaw with additional mixing by Martin Paralta.

Special thanks to Basil George, Colin Fox, Damien Samuels, the Archives on St Helena, CeCe Moore, Andy Kill, Tanja Hammel, Patricia McCracken, Dr. Sean Field, Mark Adams, Cherie Bush, Adam Brown, Eowyn Langholf, Brian Willan, and Andrew Lumby. Voice casting by NYC VO Coach Shelly Shenoy. Carol Muller is the author of Musical Echoes: South African Women Thinking in Jazz.

Extra thanks to Caitlin Kenney, Stevie Lane, Ale Lariu, Kevin Turner, Kelly Coonan, Katelyn Bogucki, and all of the lovely people around Gimlet who helped us get this show off the ground. Plus, Harrison Topp, Chris Wright, Rebecca Heymann, Jon Anderson and Terri Raymond. Bonnie Antosh and Jeremy Lloyd sing our jingles.

You can email us at [email protected]. We tweet @TwiceRemoved. We’re also on Facebook. Get in touch! Seriously. We’d love to hear from you.

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Twice Removed is a production of Gimlet Media. I’m AJ Jacobs. Thank you for listening, it's been wonderful to get to know you this season.

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