Fela Kuti: Enter the Shrine

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

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

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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 [email protected]. 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

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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.
	...

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