The Atlantic Interview: Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Atlantic Interview

The Atlantic Monthly Group, LLC

Society & Culture, Politics, News

4.4 • 977 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2018

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The growing prominence of The Atlantic's national correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates means that he's often asked to comment on matters on which he lacks expertise, but he demurs. In a conversation with The Atlantic's editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, recorded in front of an audience at South by Southwest in Austin, Coates explains why he isn't interested in interviewing Donald Trump, why he cannot use Twitter ever again, and how his complicated feelings about America inflect his writing for Captain America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify
0:05.0	is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes
0:10.8	that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping
0:15.5	solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go. Shopify is made for
0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:32.1	Welcome to the Atlantic interview. I'm Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.
0:36.9	Over the weekend, I spent
0:38.7	some time with Tanaasi Coates on stage in front of a couple of thousand of our best friends at the
0:42.9	South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. I feel like the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
0:49.4	There's no people walking over to their cell phones. It's all right. Are you part of this?
0:53.6	Tanahasi, of course, is a national correspondent for the Atlantic and one of America's
0:57.8	preeminent writers on matters of race and equality and justice.
1:02.6	We spent quite a bit of time at our session at South by Southwest talking about these issues,
1:07.2	but we started our conversation, which you'll hear in a moment, talking about his
1:11.1	latest project as the writer of the Captain America comic.
1:15.0	You know, I grew up in West Baltimore in the 80s in this household where, you know,
1:20.1	I tell people all the time, Malcolm X.
1:22.2	We didn't have Jesus, but Malcolm X was like Jesus.
1:25.5	And it would not be very likely at that point in my life that I would read a comic book called Captain America.
1:32.5	Because he's called Captain America, you think he's sort of this nationalistic flag waiver.
1:38.7	But in fact, I want to say something, but I don't want to say it.
1:45.0	It's just us.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous 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.