Presenting: "Some of My Best Friends Are" from Pushkin

Floodlines

The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC

Politics, News, Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Here's a sneak peek of a Pushkin podcast called Some of My Best Friends Are. As in, "I'm not a racist, some of my best friends are..." The show is hosted by Khalil Muhammad and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in '80s. Khalil is Black; Ben is white. They met as teenagers bagging groceries for $3.25 an hour. Now Khalil is a Harvard historian and Ben is an award winning journalist. Khalil and Ben invite listeners into their conversations about the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. Mixing anecdotes, entertaining storytelling, and thoughtful debate, Some of My Best Friends Are... helps listeners make sense of our deeply divided country. In the preview, Khalil and Ben are reeling from a terrible string of crimes that happened recently in their Chicago neighborhood. They wrestle with the question of how to respond to violence so people can feel safe, without over-policing communities. You can hear more, by searching for Some of My Best Friends Are wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Kevin Townsend. I'm one of the producers who worked on floodlines. We wanted
0:05.6	to share an episode of another podcast. It's called Some of My Best Friends Are. It's
0:10.2	from Pushkin Industries, not from the Atlantic, but we thought it would interest floodlines listeners.
0:15.1	This episode is about policing alternatives to policing and how the narratives around
0:19.4	crime-shaped communities take a listen.
0:23.4	Your mom left the South Side of Chicago. She lives with you now in New Jersey.
0:26.8	But more specifically, she didn't just leave. She purchased a handgun a couple of years
0:34.6	ago because she wasn't feeling safe.
0:38.2	And that's someone who should not be, she's got a shaky hand. I know. She should not
0:42.4	be wielding a gun.
0:44.1	So when she told me this, I was like, Mom, you have to move here. If it's come to that,
0:49.0	Chicago needs another handgun on the street. So if it comes to that, then it's time for
0:53.5	you to come be with us.
1:00.2	I'm Khalil Jibrad-Mahamit. And I'm Ben Austin. We're two best friends. One black, one white.
1:06.7	I'm a historian, and I'm a journalist. And this is some of my best friends are.
1:12.1	In this show, we wrestle with the challenges and the absurdities of a deeply divided and
1:17.8	unequal country.
1:19.6	In today's episode, we talk about violence and it's personal. We're talking about our
1:24.2	hometown. We're talking about our neighborhood. We're talking about the most spectacular
1:28.4	instances of gun violence. We're worried. We're worried about overcorrecting or going back
1:33.3	to business as usual that somehow policing is going to solve this all on its own.
1:38.2	And ultimately, we have solutions. You know, we've talked to someone who has solutions.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

Generated transcripts are the property of The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.