Rooted

As Black “blerd” culture pushes further into the mainstream, questions about who gets to belong and who gets left out are becoming impossible to ignore. From toxic gaming environme…

Paris Alston sits down with longtime journalist Don Lemon for a candid conversation about truth‑telling in a political era that punishes it. Lemon opens up about his arrest during…

Paris speaks with renowned historian and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr. about race, identity, and how history continues to shape American life. Gates challenges long‑hel…

Paris sits down with acclaimed astrophysicist and NOVA’s Particles of Thought host Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi for a wide‑ranging, thought‑provoking conversation that bridges cutting‑edge s…

Four months after the capture of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, debates over corruption and authoritarianism have dominated headlines. On Rooted, scholars Dr. Layla Brown, D…

In this episode of Rooted, we ask what it really means to make jazz now. From Boston jazz clubs and basement jam sessions to TikTok lives and global stages, Grammy-nominated saxoph…

Rooted digs into reality TV accountability, revisiting America’s Next Top Model through a critical lens that centers Black women and power. Our panel unpacks the now‑iconic “We wer…

Just days before she was fired by President Trump, Carla Hayden - the first woman and the first African American to serve as the librarian of Congress - warned about the risk of lo…

Callie Crossley guest hosts Rooted in leading a panel that breaks down the biggest surprises of the 2026 Oscars, from Michael B. Jordan’s groundbreaking win and Ruth E. Carter’s hi…

On Rooted, we’re unpacking the “Bluey‑to‑Baddies” pipeline—and why tween media feels impossible to find in a world drowning in YouTube algorithms and AI‑generated slop. Paris taps…

The federal government just slashed how much future nurses, counselors, educators, and social workers can borrow — a move that hits women, Black students, and entire communities li…

In this episode, we mark 100 years since Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week by asking what Black History Month truly means today—and whether it still matters. We hit the…

Graduate student workers are the engine of American universities—teaching classes, grading papers, running labs—and many are doing it while earning less than a barista’s paycheck.…

A raw, cultural breakdown of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl takeover — from the unity message and Latino representation debate to the nostalgia‑heavy ads that fell flat. Our roundtable fea…

Black families love to joke that “we’re losing recipes,” but what we’re really losing—and sometimes finally confronting—are the unspoken histories baked into every pan of mac and c…

The 2026 Grammys rolled out 3,800 new voters, diverse nominees, and a whole lot of “we promise we’ve changed” energy — but in a world where careers are built on TikTok loops and vi…

Black folks have always had a complicated relationship with water—from West African aquatic cultures to the terror of the Middle Passage, from segregated pools to Flint and Jackson…

Tech giants are cashing in on our data while Black communities face the environmental fallout of data centers and the job‑shifting wave of AI. Paris Alston talks digital sharecropp…

Kendrick Lamar has taken aim at his rival Drake’s biracial identity. President Trump did the same against his rival former Vice President Kamala Harris. Bridging identities and cul…

Braids are a way to get 'hang time' but there's new evidence that synthetic hair often contains chemicals - including lead and benzene - associated with cancer. Zina Thompson of Z…