The Tight Rope

Episode Summary

On this episode of The Tight Rope, Professor Noam Chomsky shares with our hosts, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose, the wisdom that only comes with 91 years of experience. Linguist, social critic, and political activist, Professor Chomsky confronts issues of survival as he speaks on the impacts of the COVID pandemic and the decisions of the Trump administration locally and globally as well as the feasibility and necessity of a New Green Deal and the heroics of everyday, unknown people that truly make the difference. Join us for a reframing of what really matters during this time on this episode of The Tight Rope.  

 

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast. 

 

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.  

 

Noam Chomsky

Considered the founder of modern linguistics, Professor Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential and critically engaged public intellectuals in the world. He has written more than 100 books, including Syntactic Structures, Language and Mind, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, and most recently Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal. He is Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Chomsky’s immense contributions go beyond linguistics into analytic philosophy and cognitive science.

 

Insight from this episode:

Strategies for sustaining our commitment to intellectual thought during this multilayer catastrophe. 

The two biggest questions that human beings are currently facing and why no one is talking about them. 

Critiques of the internal battles of the DNC and what we need to do if Biden is elected. 

Insights into how capitalistic logic worsened the pandemic.

Connections between religion and justice along with Professor Chomsky’s thoughts on the “self-hating Jew,” “flatterers of the court,” and liberation theology. 

 

Quotes from the show:

“If you look at history, we’ve been through very hard times, but a lot has been accomplished. In many ways, it’s a much better country, much better world, than it was 60 years ago, a 100 years ago-- not in all respects, but in many respects. And many battles that were fought hard, and won, we can just take for granted and move on.” –Noam C

Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize, shares her upbringing in Iowa, the influence of Ida B. Wells, and the roots and reaction to her seminal 1619 Project.

Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepodTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepodCreator/EP: Jeremy Berry EP/Host: Cornel West EP/Host: Tricia Rose Producer: Allie Hembrough Producer: James Artis Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records) #TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #1619 #Reparations

Episode Summary

Bootsy Collins transforms The Tight Rope on this Special Funk Edition. Bootsy, Dr. Cornel West, and Professor Tricia Rose talk all things funk in the context of the perils of following trends, the process of self-acceptance and self-discovery, confronting fear, and the “manipulation of the funk.” Bootsy shares details about his upcoming album The Power of the One. Hear what funk means to Bootsy Collins and how we must be funky in our own lives on this episode of The Tight Rope.  

 

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast. 

 

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.  

 

Boosty Collins

Bootsy Collins, a great “Funkmaster,” has been making music since 1968. He played bass with the Pacesetters, James Brown, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. He also wrote songs and arranged rhythm. Black music “artistic nobility” from Cincinnati, Bootsy was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Bass Play magazine, and he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No one says it better than Dr. West when he describes Bootsy as an “exemplar of the greatest modern tradition in the world which is Black music wrestling with suffering and transfiguring and transforming it into such a way that the sonic effects on souls, soul to soul, [are] mediated with genius, mediated with talent, mediated with discipline, mediated with vision.” Check out Bootsy’s new album The Power of the One, which includes a collaboration with Dr. West. All proceeds from the streams and downloads of his new song, “Stars,” will go to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. 

 

Insight from this episode:

Secrets behind the key to the funk and how to make something out of nothing. 

Insights into the past, present, and future of funk music. 

The story behind the bassline of “Flash Light” and Bootsy’s artistic self-discovery.  

Bootsy Collins’s take on Black Lives Matter and the current moment.

Behind-the-scenes details on past and present collaborations between Boosty Collins and Dr. West. 

 

Quotes from the show:

“I don’t never want to lose that kid inside me because when I lose him, I lose a part of myself.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14

“One of the things about funk, and one of the great gifts that we Black people have brought to the world in terms of the d

Jazz elder and survivor Sonny Rollins shares his incredible stories from the past nine decades as one of the preeminent tenor saxophone players. He also delivers some existential wisdom for these challenging times and tells us why “It’s all good.”

 

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/PCLOfeA7mX8

 

Check out “Rollins in Holland”, a brand new archival release from Resonance Records in partnership with the Nederlands Jazz Archief, coming out later this year. The deluxe 2-CD and limited-edition 180g 3-LP set is officially sanctioned by Rollins and features three previously unissued performances with bassist Ruud Jacobs and drummer Han Bennink in May of 1967 at Vara Studio in Hilversum, the Arnhem Academy of Visual Arts, and a televised performance at the Go-Go Club in Loosdrecht. The new box set also includes an extensive booklet with never-before-published photos from each venue; essays by Rollins biographer Aidan Levy and Dutch jazz journalist/producer Frank Jochemsen; and interviews with Rollins and Bennink. You can pre-order at https://resonancerecords.org/product/sonny-rollins-rollins-in-holland/.

Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod

Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry

EP/Host: Cornel West

EP/Host: Tricia Rose

Producer: Allie Hembrough

Producer: James Artis

Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)

#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #SonnyRollins #HarlemPride #Jazz

Episode Summary

Former police officer and F.B.I. agent Dr. Erroll Southers, director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California, reveals how to transform racist police departments from within, his motivations to join law enforcement, and the “ticking clock” which domestic white terrorists use to countdown to the year 2045, when America's population is expected to become majority P.O.C.

Plus, in Office Hours, hosts Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose explore the structural limits and spiritual thresholds of America and ponder the existential question: Is America even capable of treating the masses of Black people with decency and dignity?  

 

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast. 

 

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.  

 

Errol Southers

Dr. Erroll Southers is an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism, public safety, infrastructure protection, and homeland security. He serves as Director of the Safe Communities Institute and of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California and Professor of the Practice in National & Homeland Security. 

 

Insight from this episode:

Explorations of the possibilities of the 2020 election in the context of the apparent helplessness of the current moment. 

Surprising statistics about America and its homegrown violent extremism. 

Strategies for activists looking to change law enforcement policy and create systems of accountability. 

Information on the power of police unions and other barriers to true accountability in law enforcement. 

Insights into the hope and patriotism that music and its boundarylessness produces.

 

Quotes from the show:

“Spirit [and] solidarity pushes back despair and despondency, so we have some sense of possibility.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13 

Quoting his father on why he joined law enforcement: “You can’t change the castle from outside the moat.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13

“When you train people and dress people for war, they go into a neighborhood to do battle… They’re in a warrior culture, when they need to be in a guardian culture.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13

“Police unions and police officers are afforded more protections than the people they arrest. And I ca

Cornel West and Tricia Rose reflect on the good, bad, and ugly coming out of Wisconsin following the shooting of Jacob Blake and deadly attack on #BlackLivesMatter protesters by child soldier Kyle Rittenhouse.

"Thank God we've got this marvelous resistance taking place. Across the board. Beginning with the Milwaukee Bucks and with brother LeBron James. We salute them." -Cornel West

"Seeing so many Black men speak from sadness, fear. It was less about a anger and more about a smoldering sadness bordering on despair." -Tricia Rose

"We would be numb if we weren't wrestling with despair." -Cornel West

 

Learn more at thetightropepodcast.com

Facebook: facebook.com/thetightropepod

Instagram: instagram.com/thetightropepod

Twitter: twitter.com/thetightropepod

Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry

EP/Host: Cornel West

EP/Host: Tricia Rose

Producer: Allie Hembrough

Producer: James Artis

Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)

#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #BlackLivesMatter

Episode Summary

Join Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose on this episode of The Tight Rope in their compelling conversation with NFL superstar and author of Things That Make White People Uncomfortable Michael Bennett. From the strong women in his life and the path to embracing his intellect, to the exploitation of celebrity and “ownership” in the NFL, Bennett engages on all levels with our hosts. Office Hours focuses on “COVID in the Classroom,” both its impact on the learning environment and its economic realities. Hear about Bennet’s thoughts on discernment, retirement, and Colin Kaepernick on The Tight Rope.  

 

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast. 

 

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.  

 

Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett is a recently retired 11-year NFL veteran with three Pro Bowl victories and a Super Bowl title. He was a pivotal defensive end for multiple teams including the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys. Bennett, an outspoken proponent for social justice and vocal anti-racist in the NFL, has a podcast called “Mouthpeace” with his wife Pele Bennett and a book titled Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, which he is developing into a scripted TV series. Bennett also works with Athletes for Impact, an organization focusing on athlete activism, and he and his wife established The Bennett Foundation with their three daughters. 

 

 Insight from this episode:

Details on Bennett’s recent retirement from the NFL and his new path forward.  

Secrets to having a spine and making it shine. 

Personal reflections from Bennett and his wife Pele on going “back to Africa” and his work with iamtheCODE in Senegal. 

Strategies on cultivating leadership not driven by ego. 

Words of encouragement from our hosts on fulfilling your purpose while also being sensitive to what is happening in the world. 

 

Quotes from the show:

“You don’t pity people who you are fundamentally tethered to.”  –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12

“I worry that while we’re trying to survive COVID, somebody’s engineering a world after COVID that is not the world that we want.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12

“You can’t segregate me from my Blackness, you can’t segregate me from my culture, you can’t segregate me from my community because I am that.” –Michael

Cornel West and Tricia Rose bring you live coverage and commentary of the final night of the 2020 #DemConvention featuring Joe Biden's speech from Wilmington, Delaware and special guests Congressman Ro Khanna, Zephyr Teachout, Howie Hawkins, and Angela Walker.

https://www.thetightropepodcast.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod

Host: Cornel West

Host: Tricia Rose

Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry

EP: Seo McPolin

Coordinating Producer: Allie Hembrough

Producer: James Artis

Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)

#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose

Episode Summary

In this episode, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose nail down issues of white allyship, undoing invisible racist ideologies, and the hallmarks of possessive investment in whiteness with their beloved guest Professor George Lipsitz. They provide commentary on the leadership of the Black freedom movement of the past and present as well as the “slow violence” of racism rooted in power, interest, and property. Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose hold office hours to offer their takes on the removal of racist monuments and its role in the larger work of dismantling systemic racism. This is an episode of The Tight Rope you will want to return to again and again.  

 

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast. 

 

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.  

 

George Lipsitz

Professor George Lipsitz is an American Studies scholar and Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D in History at the University of Wisconsin, and his current studies focus on social movements, urban culture, African American music, inequality, the politics of popular culture, and Whiteness Studies. Lipsitz has authored numerous books including The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How Racism Takes Place, Midnight at the Barrelhouse, Footsteps in the Dark, A Life in the Struggle, and Time Passages. Lipsitz also co-authored The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights and the Ethics of Co-Creation. He serves as a Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African American Policy Forum and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Lipsitz is an intellectual pioneer and respected figure of the Black freedom movement. 

 

Insight from this episode:

Questions we must ask ourselves about self definition as the Black freedom struggle and crisis of the current movement passes to another stage. 

A reframing of “white allyship” and “white fragility” in the context of George Lipsitz’s scholarship on the possessive investment in whiteness. 

Details on the coordinated crimes of the Pentagon, Wall Street, and the police, specifically the connection between violence abroad and violence “at home.”

A call to move beyond symbolic victories when structural changes are needed.

Day one of The Tight Rope @DemConvention watch party. Cornel West and Tricia Rose are joined by guest commentator Connie Rice from the Advancement Project. They unpack the keynote speeches of Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama as well as speeches by Jim Clyburn, Doug Jones, and Amy Klobuchar. Watch our #DemConvention watch party live between 9-11pm ET during Joe Biden’s speech Thursday August 20 and Donald Trump’s speech Thursday August 27. Click here to receive reminders about our live watch parties on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VcNiCjNwSHs.