Living at Odds | 3. Making Amends for Ancestors

Slate Daily Feed

Slate Podcasts

News, Business, Society & Culture

4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the third installment of our series Living at Odds, How To!’s Courtney Martin examines what it’s like being in conflict with your family history. She talks with ancestors of the famous names in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decision that affirmed racial segregation in the U.S. as “separate but equal.” Later, researcher Kellie Farrish explains how reparative genealogy can unlock family history that’s been lost or erased—and bring together descendants of enslaved people and their enslavers into conversations about the past, present, and future. If you’re enjoying Living at Odds, check out this How To! episode: How To ‘Do the Work’ of Racial Justice. Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. This episode was produced by Maura Currie and Rosie Belson. Our technical director is Merritt Jacob, who composed original music for this series. Our supervising producer is Joel Meyer. Thank you to Dahlia Lithwick of Amicus and Sophie Summergrad for their help with this episode. Special thanks to The Hearthland Foundation, which provided funding for Living at Odds. Want more How To!? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the How To! show page. Or, visit slate.com/howtoplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Here's the truth about AI. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. Service Now puts AI to work for people across your business, removing friction and frustration for your employees, supercharging productivity for your developers, providing intelligent tools for your service agents to make customers happier. All built into a single platform you can use right now.
0:23.4	That's why the world works with ServiceNow.
0:26.6	Visit ServiceNow.com slash UK slash AI for people.
0:30.9	Last year, Amazon was the world's largest corporate fire of renewable energy.
0:44.3	Feeling full and more of our energy comes from wind farms like this one. Guys, what happened to recording that the solar bombs?
0:48.3	To learn more, visit about amazon.com.
0:54.7	That UK forward slash sustainability.
1:01.3	If you're a white person in America and your family's been here for a long enough time,
1:07.2	the odds that your family owns slaves are pretty good.
1:10.7	A 2023 project found that among the living
1:13.4	members of Congress, presidents, Supreme Court justices, and governors in this country, one in five
1:21.3	are direct descendants of slaveholders. The PBS series, Finding Your Roots, does this kind of genealogical review pretty often.
1:30.3	Here's CNN's Anderson Cooper finding out how his fourth great-grandfather, an enslaver, met his end.
1:37.3	This clip starts with the host, Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.
1:40.3	Boykin was murdered by a rebellious slave. Wow. Your ancestor was beaten to death with a farm home.
1:49.5	Oh my God. That's amazing. This is incredible. I'm blown away. You think he deserved it?
1:59.1	Yeah. I have no doubt. It's a deserved it? Yeah. You do?
2:01.6	I have no doubt.
2:03.5	It's a horrible way to die, Anderson.
2:05.1	He had 12 slaves.
2:05.9	I don't feel bad for it.
2:06.5	Okay.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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