TED Talks Daily
Sunday Pick: A Black Utopia In North Carolina | Far Flung artwork

Sunday Pick: A Black Utopia In North Carolina | Far Flung

TED Talks Daily
54:15
Play episode

Show notes

Each Sunday, TED shares an episode of another podcast we think you'll love, handpicked for you… by us. Today we're sharing an episode of Far Flung. "I thought I'd come to paradise,” said Jane Ball Groom upon arriving in Soul City, North Carolina. It wasn’t amenities or location that made Soul City paradise, but the promise of what it could be: a city built by Black people, for Black people. Our guests take us back to 1969 when the city was founded and built from (below) the ground up — and while the city itself was short-lived, we’ll see how the seeds it sowed laid roots for spaces that celebrate and center Black culture today. For photos from the episode and more on the history of Soul City, head to the Souvenir Book of Soul City in the North Carolina digital collections. Special thanks to Shirlette Ammons who we could not do this story without, and our guests Charmaine McKissick-Melton, Jane Ball-Groom, Lianndra Davis, Lou Myers, Tobias Rose, and Derrick Beasley. Extra special thank you to Alan Thompson, who recorded the saxophone music you heard in this episode from Parish Street on Durham’s Black Wall Street. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from this show

More
  1. How to make AI companies pay your energy bill | Ari Matusiak

    Climate expert Ari Matusiak spends his days working to rewire America's energy system, and he has an idea: instead of tech companies building new power plants for their AI data cen…

    15:10
  2. How to use tech to outsmart dictators | Leopoldo López

    In seven years as a political prisoner in Venezuela, activist Leopoldo López kept asking one question: Who holds the keys to freedom? Now the leader of an alliance of dissidents an…

    21:42
  3. Campaigns spend millions to influence voters. This works better | Katie Paris

    Katie Paris quit her career in Washington, DC, to figure out how to make politics feel less like strangers shouting at each other and more like friends looking out for each other.…

    13:22
  4. The wiggly wonder of music | Jacob Collier

    Grammy-winning musician Jacob Collier has a name for the feeling that moves through a great piece of music: the wiggle. Watch him break down the idea into its three parts — melody,…

    12:39
  5. How AI unleashed (not replaced) my creativity | Kelly A. Boesch

    After working for years in film, fashion and graphic design, visual artist Kelly A. Boesch found a new collaborator to work with: AI. She walks through how she uses the technology…

    08:50
  6. How to turn setbacks into success | Amy Shoenthal

    Success rarely happens in a straight line, with setbacks all but guaranteed along the way. What's the best way to recover? Leadership coach Amy Shoenthal lays out the four phases o…

    20:02
Now Playing