Introducing Fela Kuti: Fear No Man

IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson

Higher Ground

Relationships, Society & Culture, Education, Self-improvement

4.4 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hey IMO listeners! We want to share an episode of a new podcast from Higher Ground and Audible that we think you will love. In Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Jad Abumrad—creator of Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton's America—tells the story of one of the great political awakenings in music: how a classically trained 'colonial boy' traveled to America, in search of Africa, only to return to Nigeria and transform his sound into a battering ram against the state—creating a new musical language of resistance called Afrobeat. In a world that’s on fire, what is the role of art? What can music actually…do? Can a song save a life? Change a law? Topple a president? Get you killed?

Listen here and subscribe to Fela Kuti: Fear No Man wherever you get your podcasts!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, Higher Ground listeners, I'm Chad Abumrad. You may know me from Radio Lab or Dolly Parton's
0:05.1	America. I'm here to tell you about my new show, Higher Ground's latest music podcast, called
0:11.0	Felakutti Fear No Man. Fela is basically, you could think of him as the Nigerian James Brown,
0:16.8	but with some Muhammad Ali thrown in and some Nelson Mandela, I think he's one of the most important musicians of the 20th century.
0:23.4	And in the 1960s and 70s, he created an entirely new genre of music called Afroby,
0:29.1	and then he turned that music into a weapon against the state.
0:33.2	Like if you have ever wondered, what is the point of art?
0:37.8	Like what can art do in this crazy moment we're living in?
0:41.2	His life is a case study.
0:43.7	I've been working on this project for three years, talk to so many interesting people.
0:46.9	Fellas family, Madei, Cheyun, Femi, Kuti, Yenikuti, historians, activists, luminaries like
0:52.9	Ayo Adebari, Brian Ino, David Byrne,
0:55.5	Santi Gold, and yes, President Barack Obama. All right, so I would love to share an episode with
1:00.5	you right now. It's all about Fela, how he became the musician he is, created Afrobeat,
1:06.7	this musical language of resistance. I hope you like it. And if you do, you can find the
1:10.8	rest of the episodes on Audible
1:12.1	or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:14.3	Thank you for checking it out.
1:29.7	How do you describe Thelah to someone who doesn't know?
1:34.6	I've played around. I've done it a million times. I don't know if any time has worked.
1:35.3	Like, I'll go.
1:41.9	Fela is like Bob Marley and Mandela combined.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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