In an exclusive sit down with Rooted, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley breaks down the Democratic Party’s 2024 election autopsy and what it reveals about shifting Black voter support, economic frustration, and messaging failures. She challenges the idea that identity politics is to blame, arguing that issues like reproductive rights and racial equity are fundamentally economic, while highlighting voter turnout gaps, misinformation, and growing distrust within the party’s base. The conversation also explores the political impact of the Gaza crisis, Supreme Court decisions, and calls for court reform and eliminating dark money—raising urgent questions about whether Democrats can reconnect with voters and deliver meaningful change.

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A lineage rooted in soil stretches from ancestral farmland to modern city plots, where Black women are reclaiming their role as stewards, healers, and innovators. Generations of knowledge—once carried in seeds and sustained through resilience—now face the weight of historic land loss and systemic barriers to access. Yet across communities, a new movement is taking hold, blending tradition with policy, grassroots action with economic ambition—from community gardens to land trusts, and from micro plots to broader reform.

GBH News Rooted’s Paris Alston talks to Leah Penniman, the co-director and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in New York, Nataka Crayton, co-creator of the Urban Farming Institute of Boston, and Savi Horne, executive director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, to explore the challenges and possibilities shaping this return to the land.

Rooted digs into the overlooked intersection of Black womanhood, disability, and sexual autonomy—spaces where desire is policed, consent is unevenly taught, and safety is too often denied. Through a candid conversation with disability and kink advocate Nyla Morton, the episode explores how Black disabled women navigate a world that misreads their bodies, and why some find more agency in kink communities than in mainstream dating culture. It’s a conversation about power, pleasure, and the systems that decide who gets to feel free.

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As Boston Public Schools moves to introduce AI literacy districtwide, Rooted examines what artificial intelligence education really means for Black and brown students whose futures are being reshaped by automation. Host Paris Austin speaks with a former Department of Labor innovation leader and a Harvard labor economist about whether AI literacy is becoming a baseline requirement for economic survival, how algorithmic bias and surveillance threaten equity, and why both white‑collar and blue‑collar jobs are being transformed at the task level. The conversation challenges schools to rethink assessments, creativity, and workforce preparation—asking whether AI education will simply help students survive inside existing systems, or give them the power to reshape and own the future economy.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound 

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As Black “blerd” culture pushes further into the mainstream, questions about who gets to belong and who gets left out are becoming impossible to ignore. From toxic gaming environments where harassment remains widespread to culture‑war backlash over diverse characters and stories, the fight for representation has collided with a broader debate over identity, power, and ownership in fandom spaces. At the same time, a new wave of Black creators, gamers, and fans are building their own ecosystems challenging industry gatekeeping, expanding what heroism looks like, and redefining nerd culture on their own terms. This episode explores the tension between visibility and resistance, asking whether true inclusion is happening or if the rules of the game are simply being rewritten.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound 

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Paris Alston sits down with longtime journalist Don Lemon for a candid conversation about truth‑telling in a political era that punishes it. Lemon opens up about his arrest during immigration‑crackdown coverage, his complicated evolution since Ferguson, and why his new partnership with comedian D.L. Hughley works despite — or because of — their disagreements. Together, they unpack what it means to be a Black journalist navigating bias, backlash, and a media landscape where credibility is constantly under attack.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound 

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Paris speaks with renowned historian and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr. about race, identity, and how history continues to shape American life. Gates challenges long‑held assumptions about Blackness, explaining why race is not a biological fact but a social construct rooted in power and history. Drawing on genetic ancestry research, he unpacks what DNA reveals about African American identity, including the lasting impact of slavery and racial hierarchy. The conversation also surfaces often‑erased stories of Black and Indigenous people in early American history, particularly during the Revolutionary War, and examines why these narratives remain contested today amid debates over education and memory.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound 

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Paris sits down with acclaimed astrophysicist and NOVA’s Particles of Thought host Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi for a wide‑ranging, thought‑provoking conversation that bridges cutting‑edge science, identity, and purpose. Drawing from his new book, Why Do We Exist?: The Nine Realms of Universe that Make You Possible, Dr. Oluseyi unpacks the hidden layers of the cosmos, from subatomic particles to the vast structure of space‑time and connects them to the very real question of who gets to participate in these discoveries. Together, Paris and Hakeem explore why making science accessible to Black communities matters, how representation in academic and scientific spaces can reshape what young people imagine as possible, and why seeing yourself reflected in the pursuit of knowledge is essential to expanding our collective understanding of the universe and our place within it.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound 

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Four months after the capture of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, debates over corruption and authoritarianism have dominated headlines. On Rooted, scholars Dr. Layla Brown, Dr. Tony Van Der Meer, and Yvette Modestin look deeper examining the Bolivarian Movement’s roots, its central relationship to Afro‑Venezuelan identity, and the long U.S. tradition of intervening when Black‑led movements reshape power across Latin America.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound 

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