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Prologue

Host Ira Glass talks to a direct descendent of Thomas Jefferson about treating Monticello as his personal playground and about whether monuments to Jefferson should come down.

Act One

In just one year, everything in one ordinary public middle school changed. It went from an incoming class of thirty sixth graders—most of them Black, Latino, and Middle Eastern—to a class of 103 sixth graders.

Act Two

As the school year moved forward, the fundraising committee planned a gala at the French Embassy. And the PTA planned a separate, Spring Carnival.

Act Two: Before Sunrise

Producers Diane Wu and Lina Misitzis spend the night at a corner grocery store in Brooklyn, New York and talk to some of the people that pass by. (25 minutes)

Act One: Metropolis Now

Producer Neil Drumming spends a couple days exploring Detroit, first with a quirky mayoral candidate running an Afrofuturist campaign, and then with a couple of locals.

Act Two: Past Imperfect

Comedian and actor Azie Dungey recounts her time playing a slave for visiting tourists at George Washington’s estate in Mount Vernon.

Act Three: The Black Sea

This American Life commissioned an original song, “The Deep,” from the hip-hop group clppng., featuring actor and Hamilton performer Daveed Diggs. The song is based on the underwater mythology of the 90s Detroit electro band Drexciya.

Act Four: Childhood’s End

Producer Neil Drumming looks into two videos he found on YouTube—one that takes place in Atlantic City, another in Brooklyn—that deal with the trouble kids face walking home from school.

Act One: Black in the USSR

Yelena Khanga grew up in Russia knowing almost no other Black people. Emanuele Berry asks Yelena what that was like.

Prologue

Ira Glass and Kelefa Sanneh talk about Starbucks’ racial bias training program, which Kalefa recently discussed with Howard Schultz.

Act Two: History is Not a Toy

There’s a museum in Baltimore that was created to memorialize the Black experience in America. It’s called The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum.

Prologue

Last month, after white nationalists and members of the alt-right and offshoot groups descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, and marched with torches, the staff of our show realized something: The guy who organized the rally was a member of a right wing men's group that our producer Zoe Chace had been following for months, long before the rally was planned. And she’d learned that the group had an unlikely spiritual advisor: a liberal, black relationship consultant and comedian named Dante Nero.