Episode 541: Donovan X. Ramsey

Longform

Education, Arts, Books, News

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donovan X. Ramsey is a journalist and author of the new book When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era. “I've only ever wanted to write about Black people—and that includes the elements of our lives that are difficult. I’ve always prided myself on being able to metabolize that information and not really be harmed by it. And this book really taught me that writing and processing is not just something that you do in your head. That the information does go through you as you're trying to make sense of it. And it's not happening to you, right? It's not like a direct form of PTSD that you have, but you do experience some trauma when you open up your imagination in that way.” Show notes: @donovanxramsey donovanxramsey.com Ramsey on Longform Podcast When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era (One World • 2023) 02:00 Ramsey's Los Angeles Times archive 05:00 The Warmth of Other Suns (Isabel Wilkerson • Vintage • 2011) 35:00 "America’s ‘crack’ plague has roots in Nicaragua war" (Gary Webb • San Jose Mercury News • Aug 1996) 35:00 "Shadowy origins of ‘crack’ epidemic" (Gary Webb • San Jose Mercury News • Aug 1996) 35:00 "War on drugs has unequal impact on black Americans" (Gary Webb • San Jose Mercury News • Aug 1996) 45:00 The 1619 Project (Nikole Hannah-Jones et al. • New York Times • 2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the long-form podcast.
0:12.6	I am your co-host Evan Ratliffe, my other co-hosts are Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky.
0:18.9	Hey guys.
0:19.9	Hey.
0:20.9	Hey guys, Evan.
0:21.9	Who is on the, uh, who's on the old show this week?
0:24.2	This week, Donovan X Ramsey returns to the show.
0:27.9	He was on a couple of years ago, I really enjoyed talking to Donovan then about his career
0:33.8	and now he's got a book out called When Crack Was King.
0:39.1	It's a look back at the crack epidemic partly told his history partly as the story through
0:45.0	the eyes of four different people who experienced it in different ways, uh, really remarkable
0:50.8	book.
0:51.8	It was kind enough to speak to me while he was in Paris and so you may hear a little
0:54.9	bit of lovely Parisian street sounds in the, uh, in the background.
0:59.2	Baguettes here.
1:00.2	Get your baguettes here.
1:01.9	That's it.
1:02.9	That is the sound of Paris.
1:11.9	I do, I do fully work also for anyone, uh, looking, well, I look forward to this episode.
1:18.2	I would like to borrow that book from you.
1:20.2	It sounds, uh, excellent, uh, been very much enjoying, uh, read, reading, treating the long
1:24.7	form podcast, not my episodes like a book club and just sort of, uh, following along, just
	...

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