Episode 488
with Ijeoma Oluo, Jill Lepore, and The Bengsons
Host Luke Burbank and Elena Passarello make some small wishes for the future; Jill Lepore, historian and staffer at The New Yorker, tells us about the first American company to predict voter behavior through the use of computers; writer Ijeoma Oluo envisions a future free from racism and sexism in her book Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America; and indie-folk duo The Bengsons spread a little hope with their viral hit "The Keep Going Song."
Ijeoma Oluo
Writer
Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work on race has been featured in The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 TIME 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington. Website • Twitter
Jill Lepore
Historian/ Writer
Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper Professor of American History at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker, and host of the history podcast, The Last Archive. As a wide-ranging and prolific essayist, Lepore writes about American history, law, literature, and politics. She is the author of many award-winning books, including the international bestseller, These Truths: A History of the United States. Her latest book, IF THEN: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future explores how an obscure Cold War-era tech company set the stage for an algorithmic, data-driven 21st century. It was longlisted for the National Book Award Info
The Bengsons
Musical Duo
Abigail and Shaun Bengson, aka The Bengsons, are a married composing and performing folk duo. Their theater work includes Hundred Days (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Know Theater, Z Space, US Tour), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (ATL’s Humana Festival), and more. The pair recently released, My Joy is Heavy! a home-produced musical commissioned by Arena Stage. The piece is suffused with personal narrative and original music, capturing an episode of pain, loss, and surprising, unbridled joy—the epitome of the pair’s heartfelt lyrics and wistful sound. Website • Listen
