Ta-Nehisi Coates on ‘Between the World and Me’

Guest: Ta-Nehisi Coates

[From the Radio Times archive] 2015 was a good year for TA-NEHISI COATES. He was awarded a Macarthur “genius” grant, and his latest book, Between the World and Me, earned him a National Book Award in the nonfiction category. Today on Radio Times, we’ll hear from him about his book, which is written in the form of a letter to his teenage son. He explores the reality of what it is to be a black man in a racially-unjust America and encourages his son to keep asking questions and continue the struggle. Marty also speaks with him about some of the pieces he’s penned over the past year and a half – on reparations, mass incarceration and the black family, and the death of David Carr. We’ll also hear from him on how growing up in west Baltimore shaped him and on the state of American politics and culture. He joined us last fall.

Photo: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy