My name is Mark Shields. I live in Washington DC right now, but I'm actually a native of Chicago.

So I listen to WAMU, but WBEZ is my home NPR affiliate.

Mark Shields listens to a ton of NPR shows, including this one, but Mark's developed a routine

with one show in particular. I have been known to spend and evening,

sitting on a bottle of red wine and doing a Terry Gross interview in my bathtub.

Terabar and I like to work some things out. Billy Mark loves NPR, but there's one thing about

public media that he hates. Oh my god, we are not listening. Seven straight to...

Bill, let's be honest, 10 straight days. It's called Pledge Week. I am owed a week and I get 10 days

of like guilt. I'm Irish Catholic from Chicago. Like I understand guilt in a deep way.

Mark admits you can only complain about Pledge drives on NPR stations if you're actually a donor.

If you're not giving then you're just a crank, but if you're an actual donor,

your complaining means more. And that is democracy.

Thrustmark, give to your local station and then complain all you want.

You know NPR's work and our work on this show right here, it relies on listener support.

Listener support of member stations and communities all over the country.

Support those stations and this show go to donate.npr.org slash sand.

Go donate right now and if you use that link they'll know that I sent you there.

Okay, go ahead and listen to this episode now without any guilt.

Listeners, this episode contains very frank discussions about race and that conversation

includes some racial slurs. So perhaps not the best for kids. All right, enjoy.

So a little earlier this year I interviewed comedian and Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang.

And Bowen and I talked a lot about race and representation. And in that chat Bowen mentioned

...