Reckon Interview

If you scroll through the news or turn on the TV, you see endless stories of book bans, teachers on strike, school shootings, legislative wars over curriculum, and, of course, the insane rumors about school children using litter boxes to go to the bathroom. Some of these stories are just copypasta Facebook nonsense, but there’s also a real fight at play here. There's a fight over the future of public education and it’s been going on for decades. On this episode, we hear from Cara Fitzpatrick, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and editor with the national education outlet, Chalkbeat, and the author of "The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America.” That’s a provocative title and we unpack that, but Cara helps us understand the origins of education reform movements like school choice vouchers, charter schools and more. We also examine what may be on the horizon in the fight over public schools. And we also discuss why it’s so hard to get everyone on the same page about what role schools should be playing in our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will the state of Alabama execute a man for a crime he didn’t commit? That’s a question that’s been raised far too many times in the last decade, but right now it’s being raised for Toforest Johnson. And, shockingly, it’s a question being raised by the former attorney who prosecuted Johnson and put him on death row. Birmingham’s current district attorney, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, and a former Attorney General of Alabama have all called Johnson’s conviction into question. Three jurors from the original trial have also now said they feel duped. So what happened? In 1995, William Hardy, a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy was killed while working off duty as a security guard at a hotel in Birmingham. There were no witnesses to the murder. Meanwhile ten witnesses can confirm Toforest Johnson was at a club four miles away in downtown Birmingham. How did he become accused and then convicted of the murder of Hardy? That’s the story that Beth Shelburne unravels in her hit podcast Earwitness. She brings to life the stories of investigators and prosecutors desperate to close the case, the witnesses whose testimony seems to change by the minute, the judicial system that may have covered up a $5,000 payment to a witness, and the stories of the people working to get Johnson free. It's an important story and one that's now grabbed the attention of high profile celebrities like Kim Kardashian. But it hasn't yet persuaded Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. Shelburne also examines why the state of Alabama continues to be marching toward Johnson’s execution despite the evidence of his innocence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may think you know the story of the Tulsa race massacre. Maybe you’ve picked it up in pieces from HBO’s Watchmen or Lovecraft Country. Maybe you saw the documentaries that dropped a couple of years ago to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that horrific moment in 1921 when white Tulsans killed hundreds of people and destroyed the neighborhood known as Black Wall Street. But no one has ever documented the story in such vivid, heartbreaking detail as Victor Luckerson in his 2023 book “Built from the Fire.” Victor, a journalist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Ringer, New York Times, Wired and New York Magazine, painstakingly details what – and who – was lost in the fire that day. He charts the migration of people like the Goodwin family from places like Mississippi and Alabama, heading north and west to Tulsa, searching for a better life. He writes about how Tulsa became a mecca for Black businesses and Black culture. And he captures, through deeply researched storytelling, how it was all destroyed. But, importantly, he also tells us about what was rebuilt. And then he describes the second “slow burning” of Greenwood that was carried out through decades of government policies that hollowed out America’s Black communities over the course of the 20th century. Buy the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/625438/built-from-the-fire-by-victor-luckerson/ Subscribe to Victor's newsletter here: https://runitback.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frederick Joseph joins the Reckon Interview to discuss his new bestseller “Patriarchy Blues: Reflections on Manhood.” You may know Frederick as the force behind the Black Panther project, the effort that raised over one million dollars to help young Black children see Black Panther in theaters. He led a similar effort for young girls to see Captain Marvel. He raised funds to help people pay their rent during the early days of the pandemic shutdown. He’s poured a lot into the community. His first book The Black Friend has become one of those books about race that’s getting banned in school districts across the country. Frederick’s not afraid to confront big issues. And he’s not afraid to confront his own demons either. Patriarchy Blues is filled with essays that breakdown his ideas on what it means to be a man in America. The false binaries that we choose to accept between masculine and feminine traits. And the ways in which we’re all liberated if embrace womanist philosophies to move past some of these tropes. We’re all human beings who should get to experience the full depths of our humanity including chances to cry, laugh, get angry, get hurt, show love, show pain, sing and dance. There’s something in this conversation for everyone. So I hope you’ll give it a listen and then pick up a copy of Patriarchy Blues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neema Avashia was born and raised in the bedroom suburban community of Cross Lanes, West Virginia. She’s an Appalachian through and through. She can sing Take Me Home Country Roads by heart. She knows the state’s mountains and waterways by heart. In her new collection of essays, “Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place,” she describes feeling more hillbilly than hindu. She wrestles with big questions about identity in her book. Could she really call herself Appalachian if her family didn’t go back several generations like her neighbors? What are the ways in which the ethics of community and kinship interact with an ethics of survival and assimilation? What does it mean to grow up in a business environment like chemicals or coal that extracts so much from its places and people? And what does it mean to see the people you love posting vile, hateful things about immigrants and people of color on Facebook? Neema now lives in Boston as a teacher and advocate for her students and school. On this episode of the Reckon Interview, she describes her Appalachian upbringing and how it feels to love and support a place from afar – even on days when it doesn’t feel like it gives you the love you deserve in return. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his book, “All the White Friends I Could Not Keep,” Andre Henry describes what it’s like to live through an apocalypse. And he’s going back to the original roots of that word. A time of revelation. For Andre, the last few years in America have laid deep truths bare. He grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He had close white friends. People he even considered like a second family. He had a white church community. But as more and more Black people were killed by police. As Donald Trump encouraged more and more racism in the public square, Andre started to realize that he was spending so much of his time trying to convince people he thought were his friends to just see his humanity. It was draining him of his time and his art. Instead, he threw himself into activism, art and study. He studied global activist movements at the Harvard Kennedy School. He organized protests in Los Angeles. He wrote award-winning music. He started a podcast. And he wrote this book. Andre grew up in Georgia but can trace his activists roots back to his family’s history in Jamaica. You’ll hear a little bit about that on today’s episode of the Reckon Interview. You’ll hear about how to best use your time when fighting for change. And you’ll, hopefully, find a little hope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They call Delbert McClinton the Godfather of Americana for a reason. Across the span of a 60 year career, he’s played with everyone. Little Richard and Jimmy Reed. Muddy Waters. Willy Nelson. Tom Petty. Mavis Staples. BB King. ​​He's written songs performed by Emmylou Harris, Etta James, Vince Gill, George Strait, Martina McBride. He even taught a young John Lennon the finer points of the harmonica. His blend of country, soul and blues is a sound that has endured for 60 years. He’s somehow found himself at the center of the Texas music scene, the California music scene, the Nashville music scene, even the Muscle Shoals music scene. He’s a musician’s musician, releasing more than 30 albums and winning four Grammys and the Americana Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. He’s witnessed entire genres of music come and go and he’s seen America change in the process. He’s, quite simply, a legend. And now he’s released his latest album, "Outdated Emotion," which is a tribute to the artists that first inspired him. Across 16 tracks, he’s recorded songs by Hank Williams, Jimmy Reed, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Lloyd Price and others. These are some of the songs and artists from which all of modern American music sprang. They’re songs that endure and ones that Delbert still loves. Today on the Reckon Interview, Delbert McClinton joins us to discuss what these songs meant to him, stories from six decades on the road, how the music industry has changed and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you want to know the truth about Appalachia, you won't find it in a certain elegy. You'll find it from people like Chuck Corra and Appodlachia, a podcast committed to examining the region in all its complexity. Corra joins the Reckon Interview to discuss JD Vance, Sen. Joe Manchin, and all the people that have been putting in work to make Appalachia a better place for generations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of you may not know his story but David J. Dennis Sr. was a titan of the civil rights movement. Born in Louisiana, he joined the movement while at Dillard University in New Orleans. Like many people, he got pulled into the movement reluctantly at first. But by the time he was in his early 20s he was the field director for the Congress of Racial Equality in Louisiana and Mississippi. He was working with Bob Moses to organize voter registration and turnout. And he was risking his life as a Freedom Rider. David Dennis Sr. helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer. He challenged the Democratic Party at virtually every level to become more integrated. He put his life on the line time and time and time again. And he lost friends. Friends like Medgar Evers who was gunned down outside of his home. Friends like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner who were abducted and murdered because of their work in Mississippi. David survived but he lived with the guilt of that. For years, he couldn’t talk about the movement until one day Bob Moses brought him back into the fold. And David found a new purpose leading the Southern Initiative Algebra Project in Mississippi. And traveling across the country talking about the movement. David Dennis Jr. grew up in that. And he’s become a titan in his own right, an award winning journalist that has chronicled the ongoing freedom struggle embodied through the work of Black Lives Matter. He won the 2021 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for his incredible coverage of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Now, the father and son duo have a new book out chronicling the way that the movement shaped their lives. Today on the Reckon Interview, David Dennis Jr. joins discusses that book, “The Movement Made Us” and what it was like growing up in a civil rights household. He also discusses the ways in which movements are shaped by people in their twenties and the ongoing trauma of surviving a fight that never ends. As David Jr. asks can you call something post traumatic stress disorder if the trauma is ongoing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the horses take their place in the upcoming Kentucky Derby, thousands of people around the country will join in singing “Our Old Kentucky Home,” the state song of Kentucky and one that also has its roots in minstrel shows. The song was written by Stephen Foster a couple of decades before the Civil War. Foster is sometimes called the father of American popular music. And this song along with others that he wrote became a global sensation. Today it’s usually associated with the Derby, America’s longest running sporting event. On this episode of the Reckon Interview, we hear from Emily Bingham who grew up just a few miles from the iconic Churchill Downs. In her new book, “My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song,” she charts a surprising and fascinating history. This song has evolved and adapted over the course of nearly 200 years, changing to better fit the culture mores of the time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of making her newest record, Michaela Anne’s life went through a series of life altering changes. She became pregnant with and gave birth to her first child and her mother experienced a major hemorrhagic stroke. She spent the second half of her pregnancy, sitting by her mom’s bedside in Michigan, playing these new songs for her. They became a source of comfort, introspection and healing during a moment fraught with anxiety and unknowing. As fate would have it, Michaela Anne’s new album, “Oh To Be That Free,” is filled with songs that examine the things that make us human. The flaws that we learn to love in ourselves, the ways that we must learn to love others the way that they need to be loved. As she watched her mom recover and her daughter’s first months in the world, Michaela had written the album she needed to hear. This week on the Reckon Interview, I sit down with the Nashville-based singer-songwriter to talk about her upcoming album. And we’ll hear a sneak peek of an upcoming single, “Does It Ever Break Your Heart.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new collection of poetry “The Gleaming of the Blade,” Christian J. Collier examines his world through a cinematic lens. In one poem, he takes on the perspective of one of Jason’s victims in Friday the 13th VIII. In another, he writes from the voice of The Candyman. They’re engaging, subversive poems. But he’s also revealing a deeper truth, the way that American society can turn Black men into villains. Into monsters. Throughout this collection, the Chattanooga-based poet examines the fine line between intimacy and violence, between love and hate, divisions wrought by skin color. This week on the Reckon Interview, we hear a few poems from Christian, learn about his life in Chattanooga and the artistic community he’s helping to build there, and we discuss the deeper truths that he’s unveiling in his work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are seeing wave after wave after wave of legislation in this country that targets LGBT youth and adults. Especially the trans community. In Texas, an order issued by the governor would allow the state to take children away from their homes if their parents are trans affirming. In Florida and Alabama, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law could penalize teachers that displayed family photos with their same sex partners. Other laws and bills would require teachers to out gay students to their parents. Some politicians have tried to mask their intent with these bills as a way to “protect women’s sports,” though as the governor of Utah pointed out when he vetoed one anti-trans bill, the number of trans athletes competing is an incredibly small number. It’s a cynical effort to target a marginalized population in order to gain political power. It’s an approach to governing that has real consequences for real people. This week on the Reckon Interview, we’re talking with Sydney Duncan, an attorney with the Magic City Legal Center in Birmingham, Ala. She offers pro bono services to queer and trans youth in Alabama. Students that know exactly who they are and are forced to deal with a society that is going out of its way to attack them. Sydney is a trans woman herself, and she walks us through a lot of the myths and hysteria that politicians use to misinform a public that knows very little about trans people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danté Stewart is the author of “Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle.” Danté grew up in a Black Pentecostal community in South Carolina, but when he walked on to play football at Clemson University, he suddenly found himself in a very different faith environment. He kept getting drawn into white megachurch communities. The people he met were always nice and welcoming. They made him feel special. They assured him that Jesus didn’t see Black and white, that it was just one big Christian family. But after a few years of immersing himself in his new faith, Danté had an awakening. While he was dealing with the emotional pain of seeing young Black men killed by police on TV and across his social media, his new church family were doing their best to ignore it altogether. Talking about his lived reality as a Black man made white congregants uneasy. He may have felt welcomed there, but they were the ones who always belonged. And so Danté threw himself into Black liberation theology, reading an entirely different interpretation of scripture. One that connected him to a long line of leaders like Martin Luther King and, his main source of inspiration, James Baldwin. This week on the Reckon Interview, Danté Stewart discusses his experiences moving among faiths, whether Black Southerners and white Southerners worship the same God, advice for people who are struggling with their faith, and a lot more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where does the South end and the rest of America begin? Is the South being Americanized or are we watching Southern influence spread to the rest of the country? That’s a topic tackled by Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker in their new book: The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in Balance. Frye Gaillard is an Emmy award winning journalist and was the longtime Southern editor for the Charlotte Observer. He’s a keen observer of Southern culture and history and has written more than 30 books on the subject. For this book, he was joined by Cynthia Tucker, a Pulitzer Prize winner as a columnist and editorial page editor for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. On this episode, we discuss the origins of Southern influence on American politics, the ways that politicians from other parts of the country have inflamed some of the worst impulses in southern voters, why we keep having the same fights on topics like education and history and how some Southerners offer a path of hope for the country while others offer a warning. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After his father died, Joe Garner found an old suit of his in the attic. His dad, Charlie had played bass at the Grand Ole Opry for decades and when Joe found the suit… he was struck with inspiration. He hadn’t grown up wanting to play country music but when he picked up the suit, he knew there was unfinished business with his dad and that maybe he could figure it out through music. And thus, The Kernal was born. On his albums, he plays with conventions and standards and updates them with modern themes, like break up ballads that involve scrolling through Instagram. Listen to the Blood is the third album in a trilogy written in response to his father’s passing. This week, on the Reckon Interview, we discuss that journey, which has carried him from a small town in East Tennessee all over the country. We chat about where he finds his inspiration. And we talk about whether this is the end of that red polyester suit. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her new book of poetry, "White Bull," Elizabeth Hughey turns to an unlikely source: the language of notorious Birmingham police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. Words are just building blocks. Tools. The same common language was used by Martin Luther King Jr. to liberate people as was used by Connor to enforce segregation and inspire violence. For a decade, Hughey sifted through his speeches, his private letters, even his receipts, to create a database of text from which she built something radically different. Turning the words of hatred into a language of poetry. This week on the Reckon Interview, she discusses what inspired her to take on this project and what she hopes readers gain from it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aunjanue Ellis is nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the 2021 biopic King Richard. She’s a two time Emmy nominee for her work in When They See Us and Lovecraft Country. Christine Swanson is a two time nominee for the NAACP Image Awards for her films For the Love of Ruth and The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, which also starred Ellis. They recently made a short film called Fannie as a proof of concept in an effort to get a full biopic made about Fannie Lou Hamer. On the Reckon Interview, they discuss Hamer’s story and legacy, the hurdles for getting films like this made, and the relationship between art and advocacy. And of course we talk about Mississippi. Watch the short film, "Fannie" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cco0wR2UU See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her new book, “South to America,” Imani Perry dives into the heart of the “changing same” of the American South. Her work fits into a long tradition like W.J. Cash’s The Mind of the South, Albert Murray’s South to a Very Old Place, VO Key’s Southern Politics in State and Nation and WEB Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America, as books that unlock a deeper understanding of America through an expansive analysis of the South. Perry's South is a big South – a place filled with multiple Souths – that stretches from West Virginia to the Bahamas and beyond. Something in this conversation and i this book, will change the way you think about Southern identity and culture. Buy a copy of the book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/south-to-america-imani-perry See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cassidy Freeman stars as Amber Gemstone on the hit HBO comedy "The Righteous Gemstones." She joins the Reckon Interview to discuss the sources of inspiration for her character, how recent events reshaped the direction of the series, life on set in Charleston, her thoughts on the South and how she's carved a space for herself on such a crowded set. The Righteous Gemstones is now streaming on HBO and HBOMax. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices