[Unedited] Arnold Rampersad with Krista Tippett

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Sociology, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Arts, Culture, On Being, Society, Society & Culture, Science, Social Sciences

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A prolific writer on sociology, history, economics, and politics, W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most extraordinary minds of American and global history. His life traced an incredible arc; he was born three years after the end of the Civil War and died on the eve of the March on Washington. In 1903, he penned the famous line that “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.” Du Bois was a formative voice for many of the people who gave us the Civil Rights Movement and for all of us navigating the still-unfolding, unfinished business of civil rights now. We bring his life and ideas into relief through three conversations with people who were inspired by him. Arnold Rampersad is emeritus professor of English at Stanford University and author of “The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. Du Bois.” He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2010. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander, and Arnold Rampersad — W.E.B. Du Bois and the American Soul.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for On Being with Christa Tippett comes from the Fetzer Institute, helping build the
0:04.4	spiritual foundation for a loving world. Fetzer envisions a world that embraces love as a guiding
0:10.2	principle and animating force for our lives, a powerful love that helps us live in sacred
0:15.2	relationship with ourselves, others, and the natural world. Learn more by visiting Fetzer.org.
0:23.2	I'm Christa Tippett and this is On Being's Unheard Cuts. Up next, my unedited conversation
0:29.2	with biographer Arnold Rampersad. There is a shorter produced version of this wherever you get your
0:35.2	podcasts. Hello. Hi, this is Christa Tippett. Hi, this is Arnold Rampersad. Hello, thank you so much
0:43.6	for doing this. My pleasure. Just tell you a little bit before we get going, just I think Lily
0:52.8	may have already explained this, but we have had this funding from the National Endowment for the
0:58.4	Humanities and we've done a series of shows over the last few years. The idea is to take
1:05.6	historical figures and not do a biographical treatment, but to bring their memory into the present
1:14.4	to explore what their legacy and ideas might mean and how they might resonate in lives today.
1:23.6	So that's the spirit in which I want to conduct this conversation with you. I really love
1:28.5	your book about Du Bois. It's wonderful. Thank you. So,
1:40.2	yes. Would you say your name for me again? I just want to make sure that I sit correctly when we,
1:44.6	how do you say that? Rampersad. Okay. So, sorry, Chris, what were you asking? Just, oh, tell me
1:51.8	something mundane like what you had for breakfast? Breakfast oatmeal, cup of tea, and that was about
2:00.6	it, nothing special, little eggs and nothing like that. Okay. Is that Chris, are you good? Okay.
2:07.8	Well, why don't we just plunge in? Do you have any questions from me before we start?
2:14.9	No, I'm a little bit vague about where the interview is going to take me. I thought it was going to
2:22.8	emphasize spirituality, but it's fine. I think I can follow as much as I can.
2:33.6	Yeah, no. I want to get into that in so far as I think that's an important piece of who he was.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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