Welcome to the Not Old Better Show. I'm your host Paul Vogel-Zeng and this is episode number 314.

As part of our Smithsonian Associates Art of Living series, our guest today is Brandon Terry. and and African-American Studies and Social Studies at Harvard University.

Dr. Terry recently won the Best Paper Award

from the Foundations of Political Theory

Section of the American Political Science Association and the Alex Willingham Best Political Theory

Paper Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Today on the Not Old Better Show, we'll be talking with Dr Brandon Terry about Dr Martin

Luther King's political legacy.

We know Martin Luther King Jr. for his call to action, his passion and rhetoric, and as an almost

mythic figure of consensus and conciliation. But has this popular interpretation

overshadowed some of his most mature thoughts on other topics such as

Dr King's ethical and political thought and Dr King's embrace of radical challenges

facing America even today.

When threats are mortal, retreat and accommodation are avenues to self-destruction.

As we scour for exemplars of struggle, we must not write off the United States most peculiar

radical and his enduring intellectual and political challenge.

King calls on us to think and argue publicly about the crises of our present and collectively

determine the broadest range of nonviolent coercive powers at our disposal.

Our very survival, King wrote in his where do we go from here, depends

on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant, and to face the challenge of change. The spirit of King is

most alive when we embrace these challenges and endeavor with courage, humility,

and a sense of the great sacrifices ahead to shape a new world out of

...