Hanif Abdurraqib on what it means to “make it”
This Is Uncomfortable
Marketplace
4.8 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For our season premiere, we’re sharing a conversation with one of our favorite writers, Hanif Abdurraqib. He joins Reema for a wide-ranging conversation about the moral judgments we’re quick to make about people’s financial circumstances, notions of success and legacy, and what it means to be “good” versus “bad” in an unequal world. Hanif also reveals one of the most challenging financial moments of his life and the reasons behind his commitment to giving away so much of his income.
Hanif is an award-winning poet, cultural critic and author from Columbus, Ohio. He’s written six books, several of which are bestsellers, including his most recent, “There’s Always This Year.” His work spans sports, pop culture and politics, often focusing on issues of race and class, while also delving into themes of grief, beauty and love. He’s been the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and a finalist for the National Book Award, among other accolades.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone. Here at Marketplace, we know the value of understanding money, but that |
| 0:06.4 | knowledge is especially valuable when you're young and planning for the future. |
| 0:11.1 | The new season of Financially inclined,ined hosted by Yannelli Espinal is here to help. Teens and young |
| 0:16.9 | adults will gain priceless financial knowledge on topics ranging from |
| 0:20.7 | building credit to how to outsmart impulsive buying. |
| 0:24.0 | Financially inclined is presented in partnership with Green Light, the debit card and money |
| 0:28.9 | app for teens. Green Light helps teens learn to earn, save, spend wisely, and invest. |
| 0:35.0 | Tune into financially inclined wherever you find your podcasts. You know, there is a real difference between being broke and being poor. |
| 0:50.7 | For me to say I'm broke me, you know, I had a couple bad days of the diner, I don't really got it right now, but I'm working on Saturday and I'm certainly going to make something, you know. |
| 0:58.0 | And to be poor, for me when I was like unhoused and it was like I genuinely do not know I can |
| 1:05.7 | maybe get a little bit of a meal today but I don't know if I can get one tomorrow. |
| 1:08.9 | That is a prolonged experience you know what I mean? That's writer Hanif Abdurikip. |
| 1:14.0 | Around the time he was 23, he lost his job and got evicted from his apartment in Columbus, Ohio. |
| 1:20.0 | He didn't have anywhere to go, so he had to get creative. |
| 1:23.0 | When I was evicted, I had enough money to get a storage unit for like three months. |
| 1:30.0 | And I didn't have much, you know, it was only what I could carry, really, you know. |
| 1:35.0 | So I took like a nightstand and I dragged the mattress over and a lamp |
| 1:40.0 | in a box of clothes. |
| 1:42.0 | And that was what I had that was all I had and of course you're not |
| 1:46.6 | supposed to sleep in the storage units I think it's illegal or it's illegal in a |
| 1:50.8 | sense that it puts the storage facility in a position of liability. |
| 1:56.0 | Yeah, which is understandable, you know what I mean? |
... |
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