The Nod

By Gimlet

What's The Nod about?

Luther Vandross ballads. Oil sheen spray. ‘Twice as good.’ What do these things have in common? They are each, in their own way, essential to some facet of the Black experience. In The Nod, a new podcast from Gimlet Media, co-hosts Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings gleefully explore all the beautiful, complicated dimensions of Black life. It is a fun, yet poignant examination of both the biggest moments and most underexplored corners of Black art, media, and culture.

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LAST EPISODE

We’ve Been Here Before

06.01.2020

Amid a still raging global pandemic, the nation has been reeling over the most recent spate of killings of Black people at the hands of police. Brittany and Eric sit down to process their feelings and memorialize the lives we ...

The Nod episodes:

06.01.2020 We’ve Been Here Before Amid a still raging global pandemic, the nation has been reeling over the most recent spate of killings of Black people at the hands of police. Brittany and Eric sit down to process their feelings and memorialize the lives we ...
01.27.2020 See You Soon! On this final episode of The Nod podcast, Brittany and Eric take some AMA questions from listeners and each other. As they prepare to embark on their newest journey (a daily video show on Quibi), the friends reflect on what ...
01.20.2020 A Nod to The Nod The Nod podcast is coming to an end, and this week we are looking back at some of the highlights from the last 2.5 years of the show! It’s just like the moment right before Will turns out the lights ...
01.06.2020 Borders Between Us Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. was born in Sierra Leone, and when he was eight years old, his mom brought him to live with her in the States. Then, when he was a teenager, his mom got sick and passed away. In ...
12.30.2019 Intentions for 2020 In this week's BONUS, Brittany and Eric discuss their intentions for the coming year.
12.16.2019 Brittany's Choice: An Oral History of Knuck If You Buck We reunite members of Crime Mob to get the inside story of Knuck If You Buck, the club anthem that defined the crunk era and took them from high school kids to rap legends. All tea, no shade—straight from the ...
12.10.2019 Lady Sings the Blues w/ Bassey Ikpi This week, Brittany gets personal as she sits down with author and poet Bassey Ikpi to talk about her new book, I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying. In the book Bassey re-examines her life through the lens of her ...
11.26.2019 Why We’re Watching Watchmen Watchmen, the new superhero drama from HBO, contains some of the sharpest and most deliberate commentary on race currently on television. This week, Eric sits down with Watchmen writer Cord Jefferson (The Good Place, Succession) to talk about how Jefferson ...
11.11.2019 Eric's Choice: I Am a White Woman The movie "White Chicks" may have made critics— and honestly, the world —cringe, but Brittany delivers her treatise on why the film deserves a second look.
11.05.2019 You Ain’t Got No Job, You Ain’t Got Shit to Do Friday, the 1995 comedy starring Ice Cube and the late, great, John Witherspoon, is one of Eric’s all-time favorite movies. But during a recent re-watch, he noticed some deeply unsettling themes that lay in stark contrast to the film’s cheery, ...
10.22.2019 Six Degrees: Mogul Edition The Gimlet podcast, Mogul, is back with a new host and a new season about Miami hip hop and the infamous 2 Live Crew. Brittany and Eric invite the new host of the show, Brandon "Jinx" Jenkins, into the studio ...
10.14.2019 Cha Cha Now Y'all Weddings, school dances, birthday parties for your great auntie—if you’re having a big function, the Cha Cha Slide is going to be on the playlist. But how did the Cha Cha slide become so ubiquitous? Brittany teams up with the ...
10.08.2019 Fearing the Black Body What if we told you that every fad diet, fashion editorial, and #fitspo post on social media could all be traced back to racist pseudoscience? In this episode, Brittany is joined by Sabrina Strings, sociologist and author of Fearing the ...
09.23.2019 Growing Up With Toni Morrison On August 5th, 2019, the world lost one of the best of us in Toni Morrison. For Brittany, just being able to grow up in a world where Toni Morrison existed felt like a gift. This week, a special episode ...
09.16.2019 Six Degrees: Listener Edition Brittany and Eric face off against listeners in their favorite game: Six Degrees of Black Separation. Thug tears are shed, hair is snatched and Black history is made. RELATED LINKS: -Twitter thread: Celebrities describing how good Rihanna smells -Additional music ...
09.10.2019 Elouise Goes to Washington Eric tells Brittany the story of Elouise Westbrook, a legendary housing rights activist in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco who never, ever took no for an answer.
09.02.2019 The Life and Times of Reggie Ossé Brittany and Eric share a new episode of Mogul that's a tribute to the life and career of Reggie Ossé. Reggie hosted the first season of Mogul and he had a personality and a presence that was truly larger than ...
08.26.2019 Back to School Two years ago Eric was faced with a dilemma. He hosts a podcast about Black culture. He went to an HBCU. But when it came to choosing a school for his daughter, he wasn’t sure if an Afrocentric education was ...
08.20.2019 Isn't It Romantic? feat. Jasmine Guillory Earlier this year, Brittany finally discovered the steamy, sensual world of romance novels that center Black women. A fire was lit, and she had to know more. So Brittany got schooled on the history of Black women in romance by ...
08.12.2019 Michael Twitty's Cooking Gene In our last conversation with Michael Twitty, the chef and culinary historian told us all about his “Southern Discomfort Tour.” The tour, which he wrote about in his book, “The Cooking Gene,” involved travelling the south and cooking on plantations ...
08.05.2019 You Don't Make Free People Each week this August, we’re updating some of our most thought-provoking episodes. This week: writer Casey Gerald reflects on what we lose when we buy into the promise of the American dream. We first talked to Casey about his book ...
07.30.2019 The Vindication of T-Pain Was T-Pain’s heavily autotuned music totally genius… or the death knell of hip-hop as we knew it? In this edition of Vindication Court, Brittany tries to convince Judge Eric that T-Pain’s use of autotune was not only artistically ambitious, but ...
07.22.2019 The Gamer Godfather You've Never Heard Of Video game consoles were super boring in the early days: you could only switch between a few basic, built-in games — no Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog or Legend of Zelda. But that all changed thanks to the contributions ...
07.16.2019 The Man Who Beat the NCAA Eric talks with Ed O’Bannon, a former professional basketball player whose landmark lawsuit forced a national conversation on whether the NCAA should pay college athletes. It’s a conversation with massive implications for the thousands of unpaid Black athletes whose work ...
07.02.2019 Conscious Rap: The Birth and the Backlash The turbulence and violence of the late 1980s pushed hip-hop away from its party music roots, giving birth to a new subgenre: conscious rap. Groups like and Public Enemy and artists like KRS-One became stars, creating music that emphasized pro-Black ...
06.25.2019 The Last Black Man in San Francisco Brittany talks to Jimmie Fails, star and co-creator of the award-winning film, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”, about about the meaning of home, starring in his first movie, and what it was like to grow up in “the ...
06.18.2019 How to Show Up Rachel Wilkerson Miller is a lifestyle writer who has made it her mission to help people find ways to take better care of themselves—whether through meal prep, DIY projects, or learning how to use a dot journal to track mental ...
06.04.2019 Six Degrees: Music Edition June is Black Music Month, so Brittany and Eric decided to celebrate with a music-themed edition of Six Degrees of Black Separation… with a twist: the loser has to write and perform a song on a topic of the winner’s ...
05.27.2019 The Vindication of Snap Music Vindication Court is where we decide whether to redeem people or things that are reviled and ridiculed by the culture. On today’s docket: snap music. Eric tries to prove that snap music was falsely accused of being a stain on ...
05.21.2019 Oprah’s Legends Ball: Endgame Following the release of the biggest superhero film to date, Avengers: Endgame, Brittany makes the case that Oprah has already made a superhero movie that puts ALL others to shame. The Nod goes deep into Oprah’s Legend’s Ball, which features ...
05.06.2019 The Rise and Fall of Black TV (feat. Erika Alexander) Erika Alexander, who found fame as Maxine Shaw on the classic sitcom Living Single, details what it was really like to rise to fame with the Cosby Show in the 80s, ride the crest of the Golden Era of Black ...
04.29.2019 How to Stay Southern Food writer Nicole A. Taylor introduces Eric to a simple yet fancy dessert that helps her stay connected with her Southern roots. And Brittany tells a story about a little known woman from history who had the freshest collection of ...
04.22.2019 Jordyn Woods vs. The Kardashians Good for the Blacks returns! This week, we take a fresh look at the latest Kardashian feud with Jordyn Woods, a trusted family friend accused of fooling around with Tristan Thompson, Khloe Kardashian’s boyfriend. The Kardashians tried to destroy Jordyn’s ...
04.09.2019 The Greatest Biopic That’s Never Been Made? Della Reese deserves a showstopping biopic for the ages, packed with drama and triumph-- and maybe a fistfight or two-- but one has never been made. This week, Eric gives Brittany three reasons why the real life story of everyone’s ...
04.02.2019 My Black Robot Friend A woman tries to befriend a robot, but when things don’t go as planned, she decides to take matters into her own hands.
03.26.2019 One-on-One Growing up, a young woman and her dad bonded over their love of basketball. But there was one game she knew they could never talk about. And for years she never asked. But when his health took a turn for ...
03.12.2019 Chidi and The Good Place This week Eric talks with Cord Jefferson, a writer for NBC’s The Good Place, about how Blackness is depicted in the afterlife (Eric’s Chidi Anagonye standom is also discussed). Later, Eric tells Brittany the legendary story of a little-known Black ...
03.05.2019 A Madea Homegoing We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of sister Mabel Madea Simmons. The iconic character, created and played by Tyler Perry, is being retired after 20 years of captivating and aggravating audiences on stage and screen. Join us ...
02.25.2019 Six Degrees: Black History Month Edition This Black History month has been whack, but The Nod is still ready to celebrate with an epic game of Six Degrees of Black Separation. Will Eric and Mack embarrass the ancestors or will they redeem BHM for us all?
02.12.2019 What’s Wrong with A Little Romance? (Feat. Jasmine Guillory) Romance novels usually conjure images of blonde Fabio wannabees and pale, busty princesses. But Brittany recently discovered a steamy, sensual world of romance novels that center Black women. What can these books offer Black women that other media can’t? Brittany ...
02.05.2019 Can MDMA Treat Racial Trauma? A new kind of treatment for PTSD, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, may be just a few years away from legalization. What could it do for Black patients struggling with trauma? Brittany speaks to one woman about her experience with MDMA in therapy.
01.29.2019 The Cult of Father Divine Eric walks us through the life of Father Divine, a Black man who believed he was God, amassed thousands of followers all over the world, and became the biggest cult religious leader you’ve likely never heard of.
01.14.2019 Brittany's Choice: Sister, Sister Producer Simone Polanen thought she knew her little sister well, until she discovered a major part of her sister’s identity that she knew nothing about. When Simone confronts her sister, the conversation gets heated. This month, we're sharing some of ...
01.07.2019 Eric's Choice: On That Lo Life $hit Eric's always had an affinity for Polo Ralph Lauren. But he discovers a group of boosters in Brooklyn that took their love for Polo to another level. This month, we're sharing some of Brittany and Eric's most memorable episodes of ...
12.31.2018 2019 Glow Up Every New Year, Brittany makes a list of intentions for how to live her life in the coming year. Last year, Eric was skeptical of the process. This year, he is a willing participant. In this week's BONUS, Brittany and ...
12.24.2018 How We Failed Brittany and Eric were recently guests on The Upgrade podcast's first ever live show, where the theme for the night was "How to Fail". In this week's BONUS, we are sharing an excerpt from that show, where they discuss each ...
12.18.2018 A Star Is Born On Beale Street "If Beale Street Could Talk" and "A Star Is Born" are two of the biggest films out this year, and they’re both dramatic romance epics. Eric and Brittany dig into a spoiler-free conversation about how these movies get viewers to ...
12.10.2018 Good For The Blacks: Cardi vs. Nicki The beef between rap titans Cardi B and Nicki Minaj consumed the news this year. Shoes have been thrown, emails leaked, political candidates endorsed, and Harriet Tubman’s queenhood questioned. We consult comedian Nore Davis and associate editor at Vulture Hunter ...
12.03.2018 The Fugitive A little-known story of how one woman stood up to one of the most powerful men in American history. Her story comes to us from Uncivil, a history podcast from Gimlet where they go back to the time our divisions ...
11.26.2018 Black in Fashion In this week's BONUS, we have a conversation with Lindsay Peoples Wagner, Teen Vogue's newest editor-in-chief. Last summer, Wagner wrote Everywhere and Nowhere: What its really like to be black and work in fashion, where she interviewed more than 100 ...

Older episodes

The Nod

What's The Nod about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Nod episodes:

We’ve Been Here Before

See You Soon!

A Nod to The Nod

Borders Between Us

Intentions for 2020

Brittany's Choice: An Oral History of Knuck If You Buck

Lady Sings the Blues w/ Bassey Ikpi

Why We’re Watching Watchmen

Eric's Choice: I Am a White Woman

You Ain’t Got No Job, You Ain’t Got Shit to Do

Six Degrees: Mogul Edition

Cha Cha Now Y'all

Fearing the Black Body

Growing Up With Toni Morrison

Six Degrees: Listener Edition

Elouise Goes to Washington

The Life and Times of Reggie Ossé

Back to School

Isn't It Romantic? feat. Jasmine Guillory

Michael Twitty's Cooking Gene

You Don't Make Free People

The Vindication of T-Pain

The Gamer Godfather You've Never Heard Of

The Man Who Beat the NCAA

Conscious Rap: The Birth and the Backlash

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

How to Show Up

Six Degrees: Music Edition

The Vindication of Snap Music

Oprah’s Legends Ball: Endgame

The Rise and Fall of Black TV (feat. Erika Alexander)

How to Stay Southern

Jordyn Woods vs. The Kardashians

The Greatest Biopic That’s Never Been Made?

My Black Robot Friend

One-on-One

Chidi and The Good Place

A Madea Homegoing

Six Degrees: Black History Month Edition

What’s Wrong with A Little Romance? (Feat. Jasmine Guillory)

Can MDMA Treat Racial Trauma?

The Cult of Father Divine

Brittany's Choice: Sister, Sister

Eric's Choice: On That Lo Life $hit

2019 Glow Up

How We Failed

A Star Is Born On Beale Street

Good For The Blacks: Cardi vs. Nicki

The Fugitive

Black in Fashion

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