Best Of: The life and legacy of Fela Kuti / Michael Pollan on consciousness
Fresh Air
NPR
4.3 • 36.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Nigerian musician Fela Kuti used his music in the ‘70s as a weapon against colonial values and his country’s brutal dictatorship. The danceable music and political lyrics inspired a youth movement. Award-winning podcaster Jad Abumrad talks with Terry about his podcast series, ‘Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.’
Also, we hear from best-selling science journalist Michael Pollan. His new book ‘A World Appears’ asks how technology is changing our consciousness. “Consciousness is under siege,” he says. “I think that it’s the last frontier for these companies that want to sell our time and, of course, our time is our mind time.” Pollan also questions whether A.I. is capable of achieving consciousness.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From W.HYYWR in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Sam Brigger. |
| 0:07.6 | Today, the Nigerian, Falakuti, used his music in the 70s as a weapon against colonial values |
| 0:13.9 | and his country's brutal dictatorship. The danceable music and political lyrics inspired a youth movement. |
| 0:20.3 | He's singing about all the injustices of post-colonial Africa. |
| 0:24.3 | He's calling out dictators by name. |
| 0:26.6 | He's giving sort of broad history lessons. |
| 0:29.8 | That's today's guest, Jad Abhamrod, whose new podcast series is about Fela. |
| 0:34.5 | Also, we'll hear from Michael Pollan. |
| 0:36.4 | His new book, A World Appears, asks how |
| 0:39.1 | technology is changing our consciousness. Consciousness is under siege. I think that it's the last |
| 0:45.6 | frontier for some of these companies that want to sell our time. And of course, our time is our |
| 0:51.2 | mind time. Pollan also questions whether AI is capable of achieving that consciousness. |
| 0:57.5 | That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. |
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