This week we interview Rachel L. Swarns, a New York University Professor of Journalism and journalist who writes about race and race relations as a contributing author to The New York Times. Her latest book, The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the Catholic Church, was published by Random House in May 2023. She also authored American Tapestry: The Story of the Black and White and Multicultural Ancestors of Michelle Obama and co-authored Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archive. Swarns’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Leon Levy Center for Biography, Biographers International Organization, and other organizations. Swarns was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington.