Boston University Center for the Humanities Podcast

In this inaugural episode, Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of Boston University’s School of Public Health, interviews Nigerian-American writer and activist Bassey Ikpi on her memoir “I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying” about living with bipolar II and anxiety and advocating for mental health.

Professor Patricia Williams of Northeastern University interviews Professor Orlando Patterson of Harvard University on his book The Confounding Island: Jamaica and the Postcolonial Predicament.  The wide-ranging interview covers a variety of topics including slavery, social death, colonialism, post-colonialism, gender, and Afro-pessimism in both Jamaica and the United States.

Caryl Phillips, Professor of English at Yale, interviews Louis Chude-Sokei, Professor of English and Director of The African American Studies Program at Boston University about his 2021 book, Floating in a Most Peculiar Way: A Memoir

Excavating experiences of hollowed-out public amenities, crushing carcerality, uncaring government bureaucracy, and the complexities of being both Black and Latinx, the conversation traverses the challenges of growing up in New York City’s Dominican diaspora

In a country that both embraces and type-casts them, especially recently when animus against immigrants has been a prominent feature of public discourse, the discussion explicates the ambiguities of newly arrived refugees in the United States.