Race Trader Podcast

After a long break, we're back! This time we don't discuss a movie, we just sit down and talk. We felt the need to hash out a few conversations we've been having behind the scenes for some time now. This episode was recorded on May 31st, 2022. Enjoy!

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Discussed: the context of this discussion; defining racism; racism v prejudice; institutional racism; white supremacy; the Daughters of the Confederacy; on racist intent; a fixed game; Lauren Boebert; white despondency; white supremacy; Thomas Sowell; Things Fall Apart; changing minds; camping; friendship; ripe for a con; scarcity mindsets; white privilege.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on January 25th, 2022. Enjoy!

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Discussed: how we got into the show; comedy first, drama second; inside black jokes; Insecure’s relatability; the soundtrack of Insecure; opportunities; Love Life; Boston’s take; Curb Your Enthusiasm; aspirational black shows; swag as an engine; Sex & The City for black women; Nathan; black masculinity; Nathan & Issa; Insecure and class; fatherhood; Lawrence & Condola; and fucking Derek.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to our White History Month episode! We are joined by our friends Marc and Chad from Scary Thoughts! This episode was recorded on February 26th, 2022. Enjoy!

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Shameless plugs:

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Discussed: microphone troubles; Marc Kate’s My Heart, An Inverted Flame show report; first impressions of Mulholland Drive; our introductions to David Lynch; Blue Velvet; black corporal punishment; the freedom to explore unknown worlds; Donald Glover’s Atlanta; what is Lynchian?; mysteries; the story behind Mulholland Drive’s creation; Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; the Hollywood machine; Harvey Weinstein; the audition scene; artifice; duplicity; David Lynch’s casting choices; the genetic code of America; DEI and work environments; Lynchian settings; darkness; Mulholland Drive’s sound design; Betty’s naïveté; Jordan Peterson; how actually scary the movie is; the sex scene; dream logic; doppelgängers; metaphor; plot vs. character headspace; a tangent on literary fiction; art and mental illness; meditation; the cowboy; the spiritual energy of objects; Club Silencio; David Lynch and race and gender; and more!

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Articles mentioned:

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on December 19th, 2021. Enjoy!

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Discussed: Why this movie?; our relationship with the Coen Bros; the Coen Bros. focus on characters; the Marge character appearing in other Coen Bros. movies; characters v. caricatures; the proto-Breaking Bad; Marge’s visit with Mike; Marge & Norm’s relationship; cultural contrast; “Minnesota nice”; good and evil; ordinary people; The Office; careerism; Se7en; relationships with violence.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on November 17th & 21st, 2021. Enjoy!

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Discussed: Why this movie?; Cari Fukunaga’s attention to detail; war movies; child soldiers; brown-brown; no clear enemy; the movies political context; the book by Uzodinma Iweala; Boston’s trip to Ghana; Agu’s family dynamic; “Good morning”; Fukunaga’s research; Liberia; Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow; Charles Taylor; the humanity in the film; trauma bonds; “It can always get worse.”; Idris’s performance as the Commandant; the Commandant v. Heath Ledger’s Joker; Abraham Attah’s performance as Agu; the parallel’s between child soldiers and American gangs; Non-white gangs v. the KKK & Neo-Nazis; Menace II Society v. Beasts of No Nation; J brings up The Wire again.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on October 15th, 2021. We are once again joined by Ralph. Enjoy!

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Discussed: the history informing both Candyman films; the Candyman film franchise; how each Candyman movie depicts violence; Philip Glass and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe’s scores; the realism behind the original Candyman; Candyman compared to other slasher movie boogie men; the development of the Candyman lore; urban legends; you reap what you sow; Billy Burke as John the Baptist; the history of Black America; Helen Lyle is subjected to the black experience; white savior trope subverted; Vampires; old criticisms; score placement; the Chicago Police; overstuffed with ideas; Easter eggs; Tony Todd; why horror movies; the complex black villain; and Leprechaun vs. Candyman.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on October 1st, 2021. Enjoy!

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Discussed: A little bit about Ron Chernow; the production value of Hamilton; the music of Hamilton; hip hop for white people; our relationship with musicals; other black musicals; a lack of originality with musicals; Jamaican Reggae covers; the time given to Hamilton’s upbringing; Sufjan Stevens’ proximity to musicals; the Animaniacs; duels; Hamilton’s insecurities; Hamilton’s false portrayal as an abolitionist; how they address slavery; Lin-Manuel Miranda’s possible intent; The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda by Ishmael Reed; the Obamas; J’s relationship with history; IKEA furnished slave quarters; Lin-Manuel Miranda and colorism; the trope of the proud black woman; taking the good with the bad; proximity; Christopher Columbus; The Underground Railroad by Barry Jenkins; and closing thoughts.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on August 31st, 2021. We are joined by Ralph and Taco. Enjoy!

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Discussed: initial takes; the title of the movie; metal/punk band names; missed opportunities; failure and shame; just go to New York; why the hell did they go to Vermont?; destiny stories; they were different; Lamb’s Blood; J’s ignorance with Rastafarianism; Boston’s ignorance with Reggae’s relationship to Punk; Lee Scratch Perry; Ska; Bad Brains; punk and the black community; inclusive show spaces; two sides of the same coin; Three 6 Mafia; connecting with anger; bravado v. catharsis; a rediscovery; neo-Nazis and black metal; persistence; risk; familial support; the Butthole Surfers; Ralph pens a white savior movie; contrarianism; Run the Jewels and music as identity.

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Shameless plugs:

Check out Ralph and Taco’s jazz/punk adjacent band Rube on Instagram here: @rubeband

Check out Taco’s stoner black metal band Keef Chamber on Instagram here: @keefchamber

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on July 30th, 2021. Enjoy!

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Discussed: [“Roaches Don’t Fly”] — the expansion of our podcast; how we approach music — [“Black Sunlight”] — why this album; conscious rap; Ice Cube’s Lethal Injection; OutKast; what Armand Hammer bring to the table; a darker Run the Jewels; white audience majority — [“Indian Summer”] — Boston hates it; NPR in thirty years; the rise and decline of rock and hip hop; underground rap in the 90s was like the minor leagues; catharsis — [“Wishing Bad”] — fuck a hook — [“Falling Out the Sky”] — a lyrics guy; concern for the audience; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; John Cage; cultural touch points — [“Chicharonnes”] — Quelle Chris’s verse; black on black criticism; impossible goals; Bamboozled; Boondocks; corporate involvement in radical movements; grad school rap — [“Robert Moses”] — 90’s R&B; harmony; Boyz II Men; idiosyncratic vocal performances; and more!

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.

This episode was recorded on June 29th, 2021. We are joined again by Drea. Enjoy!

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Discussed: why this movie?; initial takes; a slightly more sophisticated Tyler Perry; the music in the movie; a discussion on the history of R&B and Soul music; sexism in the movie; Whitney Houston & Denzel Washington; the passing on of music; J sings poorly; R&B and contemporary technology; ancillary benefits; youth culture; Lil Nas X; white people on an album cover; and then we entirely abandon ship on discussing the movie and enter into a discussion on cultural appropriation and us sounding old.

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Email us your thoughts, questions, and suggestions at [email protected]. Discuss the show with the #racetraderpodcast hashtag on Twitter and everywhere else. Please don’t forget to rate, review and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.