In a live taping of Slate’s A Word podcast, Jason Johnson talks with Coates about the resonance between racism in America and the crisis in Gaza.

On his podcast A Word, veteran political commentator Jason Johnson invites leaders, journalists and other change-makers to have productive and provocative conversations about race in politics and society.  

As part of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in early May, Johnson sat down with bestselling author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates to discuss Coates’ perspectives on everything from the art of writing to the ongoing crisis in Israel and Palestine. 

In this episode of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast, Johnson and Coates discuss the impact of AI on creators and how lived experience defines the act of writing. Coates also reflects on a life-changing visit to Israel and Palestine, connecting the experience of being Black in America and the history of Jim Crow segregation to the segregation and oppression experienced by Palestinians. The two discuss America’s role in the Israel-Hamas war as well as in World War II, and what impact current events and historical forces have on American voters and the 2024 election.  

This conversation was recorded on May 4, 2024. 

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Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Isaac Kaplan-Woolner

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

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