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Martin Luther King, Jr., reverend, husband, father, leader of the civil rights movement, anti-war activist, and supporter for workers’ rights, was assassinated in 1968 – but despite his undeniable impact on American life and politics, it took his family nearly 20 years of lobbying to get a national holiday declared in his honor. But finally, in 1986, MLK Day became official. Since then, people honor the great man’s life with speeches, marches, and acts of service – it’s meant to be “a day on, not a day off,” a chance to build on the foundation he left behind. These four podcasts are a great way to honor him not only today, but throughout your year, too; each one continues his mission to create a more just and equitable society with more engaged citizens. Listen, learn, and be a part of the legacy of Dr. King.
After MLK was assassinated, a manhunt was launched to find the shooter responsible. After two months, James Earl Ray was convicted and sent to prison for life. But some of the details in the case simply didn’t add up. Finally, an attorney named William Pepper, who had been a personal friend of Dr. King’s, started to dig into the available evidence. What he found was chilling. In The MLK Tapes, he and author Bill Klaber lay out their case to prove a much more disturbing theory: A coordinated government conspiracy to silence America’s conscience for good.
Many of us probably think of “citizen” as a noun – something you are, rather than something you do. But this show aims to help us convert it “into a verb big enough to invite us all to participate in determining our society, how it works, and for whom.” Comedian, writer, and cultural critic Baratunde Thurston sits down with special guests as well as listeners to discuss various issues, from public safety to voter turnout to worker rights and even food inequality, so we can discover not only the root of these problems, but the solutions we can take part in right now. MLK spent his life organizing within his community to literally change the world – and all of us have that power. Learn how to wield it with How To Citizen.
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s book How To Be an Antiracist got added to a lot of reading lists in the past couple of years as more and more Americans started to realize that racism and prejudice aren’t things that can be simply legislated away – they’re deeply personal biases that each of us has to recognize and tackle on our own as well. Fortunately, Dr. Kendi continues the conversation with his action podcast Be Antiracist, where he sits down with notable guests to discuss policing, immigration, economic systems, policy and legislation, and so much more.
Reparations has been a big policy proposal for years, but how would it really shake out? Does it make sense? Is it really fair to white people, this far removed from slavery? Equally, is it fair not to do it, when generations of Black Americans have been robbed of the chance to build wealth even after slavery was abolished? On Reparations: The Big Payback, Black actress and activist Erika Alexander (Living Single, Get Out) and white documentary filmmaker Whitney Dow (Two Towns of Jasper, Whiteness Project) sit down with guests of all races to hear the whole argument both for and against reparations. Eye-opening and thought-provoking, this podcast promises revelations about how reparations are viewed in the Black community, how it might look in practice, how it would be argued in Congress, and more.
If you want to be sure you're listening to the podcasts everyone else is checking out, iHeartRadio has you covered. Every Monday, iHeartRadio releases a chart showing the most popular podcasts of the week. Stay up to date on what's trending by checking out the chart here. There's even a chart just for radio podcasts here, featuring all your favorite iHeartRadio personalities like Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, Steve Harvey and dozens of others.