Making

Making episodes:

• 03.21.2024

  Making Toni Morrison

  Toni Morrison is widely considered one of America’s greatest writers. She published 11 novels and is the recipient of a Pulitzer, a Nobel and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Sula and Beloved...

  
• 02.29.2024

  Making Fred Hampton

  “I don’t believe I’m going to die slipping on a piece of ice. I don’t believe I’m going to die because I got a bad heart…I believe that I will be able to die as a revolutionary in the international...

  
• 01.18.2024

  Maya Angelou: Going from Strength to Strength

  In just 86 years Maya Angelou lived dozens of lives. Perhaps best known for her seminal autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou is one of the most celebrated literary minds in history, whose poetry and prose...

  
• 12.14.2023

  Making Derrick Rose

  “Why can’t I be MVP of the league?” Derrick Rose said. With unimpressive statistics and an unselfish playing style, sports media did not take the third-year point guard seriously. Eight months after those famous words, he became the youngest MVP in...

  
• 11.16.2023

  Rihanna: Mother and Mogul

  With 36 billion streams on Spotify, 14 No. 1 hits and 9 Grammys, Rihanna is regarded as one of the most well-known artists of the 21st Century. But she also spent the last decade changing the fashion world, launching brands...

  
• 10.19.2023

  Making Virgil Abloh

  Virgil Abloh changed fashion in the 21st century. His brand Off-White redefined streetwear and youth culture for a notoriously elite and inaccessible industry. And he broke barriers to become the first Black artistic director at a French luxury fashion house. “His...

  
• 10.02.2023

  BONUS: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma

  Hyphy Kids Got Trauma is an exploration of a transformative year in Bay Area music history, 2006, through the eyes and ears of Pendarvis Harshaw. A college student and burgeoning journalist at the time, Pendarvis navigates the shifting tides of...

  
• 09.21.2023

  Serena Williams: The Blueprint

  In early September, 19-year-old Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open. She is the first American teenager to win the tournament since 1999, when 17-year-old Serena Williams took the crown. Gauff has said Serena is the reason she plays tennis. She is...

  
• 08.10.2023

  Making Whoopi Goldberg

  Over the course of her climb to the Hollywood A-List, Whoopi Goldberg has worn many hats: stand-up comedian, Broadway star, screen actress, and daytime television host. But before her breakout role in a Steven Spielberg film, she was a young...

  
• 07.06.2023

  RuPaul: ‘Empress of Drag’

  Since November, dozens of states have introduced legislation that could criminalize drag performances, including Florida, Tennessee and North Carolina. This week on Making, we look at the life of an iconic Black TV creator whose art is at the center of...

  
• 06.01.2023

  Making Shonda

  Shonda Rhimes has been called TV’s greatest. With groundbreaking shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, she became one of the most powerful showrunners in Hollywood history. But, the battle to Hollywood’s highest echelons wasn’t...

  
• 05.18.2023

  Making Jordan Peele

  Jordan Peele is responsible for modern classics in the horror genre, including the films Us, Nope and the Oscar-winning Get Out. Before all that, he was a self-described nerd. He majored in puppetry in college before dropping out with his...

  
• 05.04.2023

  Unmaking Kanye

  Part 2: It all falls down. Ye becomes a mouthpiece for the more sinister parts of American society. In the second episode of our two-part podcast series, hear from friends, journalists, activists, fans (and former fans) on Ye’s second act,...

  
• 05.04.2023

  Making Kanye

  Part 1: Touch the sky. Before becoming a cultural lightning rod, Kanye West was a self-confident teenager, handing out mixtapes on the South and West sides of Chicago. In the first episode of our two-part podcast series, we track Kanye’s meteoric...

  
• 12.15.2022

  The life-changing moments that make an icon

  Robyn Rihanna Fenty was just a 15 year-old student in Barbados when she showed up late for her audition with record producer Evan Rogers. Fortunately, her tardiness didn’t matter. She crushed it. “I just heard something really unique and special in...

  
• 12.08.2022

  Making Ida B. Wells

  When Ida B. Wells was just 21 years old, authorities kicked her off a train for sitting in the all-white “ladies’ car.” She sued. She wrote about the experience in her local church newspaper. “I felt that one had better die...

  
• 12.01.2022

  Making Jesse Owens

  Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin is the stuff of legend. “A man who's a second class citizen at home, son of a sharecropper, grandson of slaves, going over to Hitler's Germany,” explained ESPN reporter Jeremy...

  
• 11.24.2022

  Making Frederick Douglass

  Frederick Douglass’ journey out of slavery and into the most powerful rooms in the country is a story of tenacity, luck and self-liberation. Hear the story of his improbable rise with Douglass’ great-great-great-grandson, Ken Morris; Douglass’ Pulitzer-prize-winning biographer, David Blight,...

  
• 11.17.2022

  Making RuPaul

  When RuPaul’s mother was pregnant, she went to a psychic who said RuPaul would be famous. That psychic was right. With Emmys, Tonys and 14 studio albums, RuPaul Andre Charles has become the world’s most famous drag queen. But before superstardom,...

  
• 11.10.2022

  Making Maya Angelou

  Perhaps best known for her seminal autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou is one of the most celebrated literary minds in history, whose poetry and prose has touched generations of readers. But before Caged Bird, Angelou...

  
• 11.03.2022

  Making Kobe

  Hear the story of how a legendary athlete climbed the NBA's mountaintop of greats. It's a story that takes asymmetrical turns before ending tragically and prematurely. On this episode of Making, we look at the whole picture of Kobe Bean Bryant....

  
• 10.27.2022

  Making Jesse Jackson

  Before there was Barack Obama on the ballot, there was Jesse Jackson. Preacher, civil rights soldier and activist, Jackson ran two memorable campaigns for the American presidency. “Our time has come,” Jackson declared during his famous ‘David and Goliath’ speech while...

  
• 10.20.2022

  Making Rihanna

  Robyn Rihanna Fenty was just 16 when she signed a record deal with Jay-Z. She was 19 when her smash hit “Umbrella” took the world by storm. Now at 34, she is not only known as a popstar but also...

  
• 10.13.2022

  Making Serena

  Serena Williams is a household name. The recently retired tennis legend has won 23 Grand Slam titles – more than any player in the Open era. But before becoming one of the most dominant athletes of all-time, Serena was a...

  
• 10.06.2022

  Trailer: WBEZ’s Making podcast is back

  From the creators of Making Oprah, Obama and Beyoncé, WBEZ brings you a new season of its hit bio-podcast series, Making. With new host Brandon Pope, each episode tells the origin story of a different iconic Black figure. Through inner circle...

  
• 05.14.2021

  Obama BONUS: Redefining Masculinity

  Former President Barack Obama recently spoke with Aarti Shahani, host of WBEZ's Art of Power podcast, about masculinity in the post-Donald Trump era. Obama said society has made progress in recognizing the most toxic elements of bad behavior by men....

  
• 03.06.2020

  Beyoncé BONUS: Fearlessly Herself

  In the lead up to Beyoncé's solo album debut, Dangerously in Love, a lot was at stake. She was hoping to break out not only as a solo artist, but as a star on multiple levels — music, endorsements and...

  
• 11.27.2019

  Beyoncé 3: Destiny Begins

  After Girls Tyme dissolves, Beyoncé and the other girls begin building their new group, Destiny’s Child. Finally, things start to click.

  
• 11.22.2019

  Beyoncé 2: Star Search

  After failing to secure a record deal, Beyoncé and the members of Girls Tyme try another avenue to success: a TV talent competition. The girls are poised and ready for the national spotlight, but tensions in the group are rising...

  
• 11.15.2019

  Beyoncé 1: Girls Tyme

  Before the Grammys, before the platinum records, before Destiny’s Child, there was just a shy girl growing up in Houston. We follow Beyoncé Knowles from the stages of local talent shows to her first crack at a record deal with...

  
• 11.01.2019

  Trailer: Making Beyoncé

  From the makers of Making Obama, WBEZ Chicago presents Making Beyoncé, a new three-part bio-podcast series that explores Beyoncé Knowles’ rise from local talent shows to global musical icon.  Find episodes of Making Beyoncé right here beginning Friday, Nov. 15, 2019.

  
• 01.11.2019

  Preview: Public Official A

  If you enjoyed listening to Making Obama, some folks here at WBEZ have another podcast for you. It’s also about politics, but this one is very different. Family drama, FBI wiretaps and -- ultimately -- a very long prison sentence...

  
• 08.31.2018

  Preview: 16 Shots

  Making Obama host Jenn White introduces a new podcast from WBEZ and The Chicago Tribune called 16 Shots. Almost four years ago, Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, was fatally shot by Jason Van Dyke, a white Chicago Police officer. Police...

  
• 04.10.2018

  Obama BONUS: The Decision

  Just two and a half years after his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, Barack Obama announced he was running for president.

  
• 03.15.2018

  Obama 6: Yes We Can!

  Barack Obama burst onto the national stage during his U.S. Senate run. Hear how ambition and luck propelled him to Washington. wbez.org/making

  
• 03.08.2018

  Obama 5: Up Or Out

  Former president Barack Obama has only lost one election in his life. It was in 2000, and that defeat set him on the course for his eventual U.S. Senate run. Making Obama is a production of listener-supported WBEZ Chicago. Support...

  
• 03.01.2018

  Obama 4: Wait Your Turn

  In 2000, Barack Obama ran for Congress against a Chicago political legend. It became a contest about race and identity.

  
• 02.22.2018

  Obama 3: You Don’t Say No To Barack

  Former President Barack Obama won his first political seat in 1996. Hear what he had to learn, and the conflicts he faced, to get there.  wbez.org/making

  
• 02.15.2018

  Obama 2: Chicago Politics Ain’t Beanbag

  When Barack Obama first came to Chicago, a political transformation was happening in the city. Hear how that change inspired him.

  
• 02.08.2018

  Obama 1: The Man In The Background

  Before he was the 44th President, Barack Obama worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. Hear how the city shaped his political ambitions.

  
• 01.19.2018

  Obama: Preview of Making Obama

  Former President Barack Obama — along with friends, mentors, and rivals — tells the story of his climb from Chicago to the national stage. Subscribe now and don’t miss the first episode on February 8.

  
• 12.30.2016

  Oprah BONUS: Making Donahue

  In our final bonus installment, the Making Oprah production team revisits an extended interview with daytime talk show legend Phil Donahue. His pioneering show, Donahue, aired from 1967 to 1996 and laid the groundwork for Oprah’s program. It tackled heady,...

  
• 12.23.2016

  Oprah BONUS: Oprah Gets Political

  For more than 10 years after the launch of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah deliberately avoided having politicians on her show, particularly during election seasons. In this bonus episode of Making Oprah, host Jenn White talks to Oprah about the...

  
• 12.16.2016

  Oprah BONUS: Let's Talk About Oprah's Hair

  If you look at any image from the Oprah Winfrey Show, you can pretty much figure out what decade it’s from by looking at Oprah’s hairstyle.  In this short bonus episode, host Jenn White talks to Oprah’s longtime stylist Andre...

  
• 11.22.2016

  Oprah 3: YOU GET A CAR!

  In the show’s final decade, Oprah and her team staged massive spectacles of increasing grandiosity, from the infamous car giveaway to a 21,000-person flash mob that shut down part of Chicago.  “It had become increasingly more difficult to top what...

  
• 11.17.2016

  Oprah 2: Skinheads And Scented Candles

  In the second episode of Making Oprah, we explore how The Oprah Winfrey Show elevated itself out of the heap of trash TV and into a show that intentionally embraced spirituality and positivity.  The early years of Oprah’s show often...

  
• 11.10.2016

  Oprah 1: No Strategy, No Plan, No Formula

  It was 30 years ago this fall that Oprah Winfrey first said “hellooooo” to a national audience. By the show’s finale in 2011, it was aired in 145 countries and watched by more than 40 million viewers a week in...

  
• 11.03.2016

  Oprah: Preview of Making Oprah

  Making Oprah: The Inside Story of a TV Revolution is a public radio podcast -- about a daytime talk show. This fall marks 30 years since the national debut of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Be the first to hear a...