Ta-Nehisi Coates Has a Message to Deliver. Can We Hear It?

Listen to this episode from Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso on Spotify. Few writers have examined the tension between history and morality more urgently than Ta-Nehisi Coates.   Last fall, on the heels of his new book The Message, Coates joined Sam for a conversation live in Los Angeles. At the top, they discuss how his Atlantic piece The Case for Reparations guided these three new essays (6:10), Coates’ early education growing up in West Baltimore (14:57), and his powerful dispatches from South Carolina (22:00) and the Middle East (29:30).   On the back-half, Coates unpacks why he believes the mainstream media prioritizes “factual complexity over self-evident morality” (37:47), his advocacy for Palestinian journalists (39:20), and his reflections about the U.S. election (47:28). To close, a formative passage from James Baldwin's The Lost Generation (52:38) and a story about love and writing (57:45).   Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.