On The Champs Podcast We Talk Eric Garner, Implicit Bias, And Comedy

Left: Moshe Kasher. Right: Neal Brennan. Center: Some technology. 

Wednesday was a long and hard day. The shock of no indictment from the Staten Island grand jury in the homicide of Eric Garner was weighing heavily on me. Having spent all day immersed in the story for discussion on TakePart Live that night, I was exhausted. So when Moshe Kasher reached out to invite me onto The Champs, I initially wasn't sure I'd have the energy to add 90 minutes of podcast talking at the end of the day.

I was wrong, and I'm so glad I joined. Moshe, Neal, and I went in. It was real and rough and somehow funny. One of my friends heard it on Facebook and said, "It's funny how The Champs is far and away the most important and interesting black podcast in the game right now."

This episode is definitely my most interesting and important podcast moment of 2014. Take a listen. Revel in the discomfort. Be relieved by the jokes. And then do something. 

Why I prefer to be on the giving end of unrequited love. via Ask Roulette

Photo via Flickr, by WhatDaveSees

Last year I took part in a live stage show and podcast called Ask Roulette. It was my second time appearing, and I got hit by host Jody Avirgan with an unexpectedly deep question

“In unrequited love, would you rather be the person who is in love with someone, and it’s unrequited, or would you rather know that someone is madly in love with you and just not be in love with them?”

I'm not going to do be Internet-annoying and bury the answer so deep in embedded media that you have to hunt for it. You can hear the audio starting around minute 22 in the player below or on this page. Ask Roulette just posted a supercut highlighting exchanges from several shows, and my response made the cut (or supercut). If you prefer ingesting words with your eyes, just keep reading. Here's a near-exact transcript of my response:

“To be on the receiving end of love that you don’t want is its own form of awkwardness at a minimum, and you have to make certain/different types of choices about how to behave and how open to be and how much you trust and how much you share. Whereas you being on the giving side of that love, whether it’s requited or not, you’re giving. And you’re not choosing whether to return. It’s still a difficult choice, but it’s not really a choice. You just feel compelled. So, I would choose compulsion over active denial in the area of love. ”

@baratunde @askroulette lovely write-up - but you should have also transcribed @elibolin's "Fuck. Yes." response!

— Jody Avirgan (@jodyavirgan) January 14, 2014

Ask Roulette is a conversation series in which strangers ask each other questions on stage. This is a super-cut of our favorite moments from the second year of the show. More information about Ask Roulette, including future events: www.askroulette.net Thanks to Digg.com and Digg Reader for their support of Ask Roulette.

The full version of the original show where my answer first appeared is here. 

Join WTF And Marc Maron's Prying Into My Soul

It's kind of a dream come true to be invited to talk with Marc Maron on his podcast. On April 9, I made a special trip to Los Angeles to spend several hours on the messy garage/studio where Maron interrogates his subjects. We talked and talked about all sorts of things. Twas much fun, and I got a free mug!!  Listen to the full interview. Learn new things!

This is what #SXSW sounds like

BaratundeCast: Living an exemplary black life

Reporting on my conversation with a Ghanaian bodega manager in Brooklyn who suggests that one way we move forward on race relations in America is for black Americans to consciously set an exemplary example and not to assume the worst from others.

Subscribe to the BaratundeCast via iTunes or SoundCloud. I drop these a few times a week