Ta-Nehisi Coates

There may be no writer closer to the center of our national conversation about race, equality, justice, and how racism divides and disorders our society than Ta-Nehisi Coates.  His 2015 book Between the World and Me, an anatomy of the ongoing power of racism in America in the form of a letter to his teenage son, brought him global acclaim, a National Book Award for Nonfiction, and a Macarthur fellowship.  In this episode of the podcast, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks with Bill Tipper about his new book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy.  Knitting together some of the most vital essays the author has published over the past decade —  including a profile of President Barack Obama,  a searing indictment of destruction of the black family via the justice system, and Coates's landmark "The Case for Reparations,” We Were Eight Years in Power takes readers along with Coates into a deep consideration of nothing less urgent than the fate of the nation.