1619
The investigative journalist and civil-rights historian Nikole Hannah-Jones launched the 1619 podcast to mark the arrival of the first people from Africa in what would become the United States. (Hannah-Jones also notably produced two stellar This American Life episodes about segregation.) This new series shakes up the traditional structure of an audio narrative, using a format that is more collage-like than linear. Hannah-Jones and her producers identify a few significant individual stories to help weave an intimate yet expansive tapestry of African American life. The first episode is set in the present time, at the exact location in Virginia where the slave ship White Lion landed in 1619. Another uses yacht rock as a lesson in ethnomusicology, showing how many of the songs we listen to are, predominantly, African American in origin. The last tale centers on a family of black sugarcane farmers who pursue the American dream—their own land, their own way to earn a living—only to have their labor and bodies exploited for profit. Of course, this last story takes place today, right now, not four decades or four centuries ago, encapsulating the long legacy of one of America’s original sins.
Storyline
The investigative journalist and civil-rights historian Nikole Hannah-Jones launched the 1619 podcast to mark the arrival of the first people from Africa in what would become the United States. (Hannah-Jones also notably produced two stellar This American Life episodes about segregation.) This new series shakes up the traditional structure of an audio narrative, using a format that is more collage-like than linear. Hannah-Jones and her producers identify a few significant individual stories to help weave an intimate yet expansive tapestry of African American life. The first episode is set in the present time, at the exact location in Virginia where the slave ship White Lion landed in 1619. Another uses yacht rock as a lesson in ethnomusicology, showing how many of the songs we listen to are, predominantly, African American in origin. The last tale centers on a family of black sugarcane farmers who pursue the American dream—their own land, their own way to earn a living—only to have their labor and bodies exploited for profit. Of course, this last story takes place today, right now, not four decades or four centuries ago, encapsulating the long legacy of one of America’s original sins.
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