Slavery is not as deep in the past as some may think. That’s the premise of Clint Smith’s new book, How the Word is Passed, which was recently longlisted for a National Book Award.

Wednesday host Ali Muldrow spoke with Clint Smith earlier this summer to discuss the history of slavery and its echoes in present-day America. Today, we present a shortened version of this interview as part of our special pledge drive programming.

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent (Write Bloody Publishing, 2017) and the nonfiction book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America (Little, Brown and Company, 2021).

This interview originally aired on June 9, 2021 and was subsequently broadcast on September 22, 2021, during a station pledge drive. The audio presented here does not include on-air fundraising. We thank our listeners for their generous support.

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