Fela Kuti: Enter the Shrine

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

History, Science, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our original host Jad Abumrad returns to share a new podcast series he’s just released. It’s all about Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician who created a genre, then a movement, then tried to use his hypnotic beats to topple a military dictatorship. Jad tells us about the series and why he made it, and we play the episode that, for us at least, gets to the heart of the matter: How exactly does his music work? What actually happens to the people who hear it and how does it move them to action?You can find Jad’s entire nine-part series, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, on Apple or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Jad AbumradRadiolab portions produced by - Sindhu Gnanasambandan Sign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:02.1	Okay.
0:03.4	All right.
0:04.6	Okay.
0:06.0	All right.
0:07.4	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:10.4	Radio Lab.
0:10.9	From W. N. Y.
0:12.9	C.
0:13.8	See?
0:14.1	Yep.
0:18.2	Is Radio Lab?
0:19.9	I'm Latif Nasser.
0:21.9	And I'm Lulu Miller.
0:27.4	And I am Chad Abumrad here to hang out with Lulu and Latif.
0:28.4	Woo-hoo.
0:31.0	Welcome back, old man.
0:32.7	Thanks, youngster.
0:34.2	Happy to be here.
0:35.7	Yeah.
0:39.0	Where have you been this whole time?
0:47.4	I've just been here in Brooklyn, just, you know, being a dad making stuff.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.