When the actress Uzo Aduba was in college, she realized she'd lost some of her facility with Ebo.

It was the language she'd grown up speaking at home, but as in a lot of immigrant families,

over time,

more English crept into those family conversations until Adupa realized she needed to use it or

lose it. So she decided she'd call her mom every single day for a bit of language practice.

The habit lasted many years, and the lessons went far beyond grammar and vocabulary.

From KERA in Dallas,

this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. Little by little, Aduba's mother shared her life story with her curious daughter, who would go on to win Emmy Awards for her roles as Suzanne Crazy Eyes Warren

in Orange is the New Black and Shirley Chisholm in Mrs. America.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Aduba believes the foundation of good acting is good listening.

And while her memoir covers her career, it's clear that her development as an artist can't be separated from her development as a proud Nigerian American daughter who spent a lifetime

paying attention to those around her in service of both code switching and creativity.

Uzo Aduba is Heifer International's ambassador to Africa and an ambassador for stand-up to cancer.

Her book is called The Road is Good, How a Mother's Strength became a daughter's purpose.

Uza, welcome to think.

Thank you so much for having me, Chris.

You write that, like many black women in America, you came into your power, and I love that

phrase, in a world of white male gatekeepers. This was something your mother couldn't protect

you from, but she could prepare you for it.

She was a fearless resistor of the ways that you and your siblings were mistreated based on the color of your skin.

Absolutely.

She, you know, my mother grew up in Nigeria and did not know that the degree, frankly, of how black people were treated here in America.

...