Rinku Sen observes the passing of Nelson Mandela, the distortion of his legacy, and the lessons for racial justice activists. If you’d prefer good news, Rinku Sen comes through for you again in this video which compiles 10 wins for racial justice in 2013.
Crosscut talks to Dr. Charles Johnson and his daughter Elisheba Johnson about their collaboration on Emery Jones: Boy Science Wonder. “We don’t have images of black geniuses in our literature or in the popular imagination. Most people are not even aware that blacks are all over the sciences, so in this book I mention many black scientists.”
Genetic testing determines susceptibility to concussions? Tying in with her recent science book about football, Dr. Ainissa Ramirez explains at the Huffington Post why “at the heart of football’s future lies a debate about science.”
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer talks with Kathleen Hanna about having such a personal movie made about her life, and about the commercialization of music. Red Eye Chicago asks her about Miley Cyrus and the feminist police, and she opens up to Self-Titled Mag about her inner dialogue during the nadir of her sickness.
At the Falling Walls conference in Berlin, Robert Kirshner covers 14 billion years of cosmic history in 14 minutes!
NPR critic and John Lennon biographer Tim Riley hosted a video event on shindig on the 33rd anniversary of Lennon’s assassination.
Citing Richard Rodriguez’ voice as “rare” and “empathetic,” NPR in Boston is effusive in its praise for the work of the Mexican American essayist, talking with him about identity, immigration, spirituality, and his new book Darling.
Buzzfeed covers Wade Davis and the High Five Initiative from the You Can Play Project. Aiming to bring NFL players together with LGBT youth, the project’s leadership spends a day at Manhattan’s Hetrick-Martin Institute, which cares for (mostly homeless) LGBT youth.
“[R]eputation-based exchanges are how most human commerce was done pre-financially, and it’s still the primary way value gets moved in a huge chunk of the global economy. We mostly call that the Black Market, but it’s the second largest economy in the world, and is going to be the biggest market in the world within the next 15-20 years,” says Josh Klein in an interview with the Huffington Post on Reputation Economics. The interviewer turns Klein’s own TEDx question back on him, viz. What is Your Mother Worth?
A “Beluga Grad” interviews Raffi on a Boston radio station about his new book.