Today on Boston Public Radio:
We kicked things off by opening our phone lines, talking with listeners about honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy with acts of public service.
Imari Paris Jeffries talked about his organization’s forthcoming memorial to King and other civil rights leaders on Boston Common and why he’s hopeful about the city's capacity to evolve into an anti-racist beacon for the rest of the nation. Paris Jeffries is the executive director of King Boston.
Joan Donovan discussed the impact that social media companies de-platforming President Donald Trump has had on online discourse and offered her thoughts on the future of far-right ideologies after the president leaves office. Donovan is the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. She leads the field in examining internet and technology studies, online extremism, media manipulation and disinformation campaigns.
Bob Thompson reviewed Netflix’s “Pretend It’s A City,” “WandaVision" on Disney Plus and NBC’s “Mr. Mayor.” He also talked about the NFL’s Nickelodeon broadcast and the documentary “MLK/FBI,” about former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s investigations into King. Thompson is the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a professor of television and popular culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
The Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett Price talked about their special Martin Luther King Day episode of All Rev’d Up, titled “This Is Who We Are,” about the racism and white supremacy baked into the American identity. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist, the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at the Boston University School of Theology. Price is an executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Together, they host GBH’s All Rev'd Up podcast.
Next, we opened the phone lines to talk with listeners about pandemic-induced brain fog and whether they're struggling to stay focused 10 months into quarantine.
Richard Blanco talked about 23 year-old poet Amanda Gorman, who’s set to become President-elect Joe Biden’s inaugural poet, and reflected on his own experience writing the poem “One Today” for Barack Obama's second presidential inauguration. Blanco is the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history. His new book, "How To Love A Country," deals with various socio-political issues that shadow America.
