Welcome to Karen Hunter is awesome.

I am Karen Hunter, and today we will be talking with Edward E. Baptist, the author of The Half, has never been told.

Now, have you been listening to this podcast,

I've been breaking down that book, which was to me, it is to me, the best breakdown of the

institution of enslavement, looking at it through the economic lens, what he did with that

book in terms of the body parts of the enslaved and how it directly impacted,

not just society, but the economies of the United States and the world was just so powerful that a light bulb went off.

And I couldn't talk about it enough.

I dog-eared the hell out of that book.

But then I got a chance to sit with him.

In 2015, I sat with Dr. Edward Baptist and to just

talk to him about what motivated him. This man didn't grow up as a black man or descended of

enslaved people, but he felt it important enough to tell this story. So up next is my interview

with Dr. Edward E. Baptist. I hope you enjoy. He's a professor at Cornell and he wrote a book that,

you know, I read a lot. I actually try to do about 20 books for fun a year, you know, various different

kinds of books. You know, I have, I read novels. I read everything. But I came across this book and I

haven't been able to put it down and I've been reading it so

slowly and I have so many markers in it and highlights because to me this is the quintessential

if like if you don't read anything else about slavery you must read this book this will change

your perspective on what you think you know so I had to invite him in I had tried to get him

in August but I'm like,

I need to finish this book first because usually you read through a book and then you invite somebody on and you have them fill in the blanks. But I'm like, I want to really understand and digest so we can have a conversation. And I think it might have backfire because it's like I know too much now. But I want to welcome in, Professor Dr. Edward Baptist. Welcome to the Karen Hunter Show.

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