michele norris

If you’re white and middle class, you were probably raised thinking that discussing race was impolite. Color blindness was seen as a virtue. But in truth, color blindness is an insidious form of racial oppression, says Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. In this episode, Walker and Jeff Raikes, former CEO of the Gates Foundation, speak with Michele Norris, director of The Bridge at the Aspen Institute, about how color blindness affects social policy.

Find the Aspen Insight episode, "What Would MLK Say About Today's America" by clicking here. Discover more about the Aspen Institute program The Bridge. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to aspenideastogo@gmail.com.

aspenideas.org

How do we have difficult conversations about race in America today? In our debut episode, Clarence B. Jones, a close advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., discusses what it was like to work with King in the 1960s and why Americans continue to grapple with talking about race. Then, we listen in as three Institute Fellows explore what the US can learn from countries like South Africa when it comes to confronting the darker parts of our history. Finally, we introduce you to a first-generation American who’s defying the odds and achieving her goals through a college education.

Follow the show on Twitter @aspeninstitute and Facebook at facebook.com/aspeninstitute.

In our final podcast takeover episode, award-winning journalist Michele Norris discusses the legacy of slavery with a US mayor and the necessity of solitude with a best-selling author. In a conversation with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Norris asks about Landrieu’s recent decision to remove four Confederate statues. Separately, Norris, who leads a program on race and cultural identity at the Aspen Institute, discusses the writing process with Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief and writer for The New Yorker. Both conversations are held at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where all of our guests are presenting.

aspenideas.org

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures, says “It’s one thing to tell your own story, it’s another thing to take responsibility to tell someone else’s life.” Her book about a group of black women mathematicians who helped catapult the US space program to success became a blockbuster film. In this episode, she tells Michele Norris, former NPR host and director of an Aspen Institute program, that she grew up among the women she wrote about. Later in the show, another award-winning author who writes about race and identity, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, discusses her book Americanah.

aspenideas.org