Baldwin & Co. Ideas Explored

Ben Crump is one of America’s most prominent civil rights attorneys, known for representing the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others in landmark cases seeking accountability and justice.Gary Chambers is a Louisiana activist and political organizer recognized nationally for his unapologetic advocacy for voting rights, criminal justice reform, and economic justice.The conversation between civil rights attorney Ben Crump and activist Gary Chambers is a political strategy session for the unfinished work of American democracy. Crump opens with a blunt reminder: legality and morality are not the same thing—a truth that echoes from slavery and segregation to modern courtrooms where justice is still negotiated rather than guaranteed. From there, the dialogue widens into a sweeping reflection on power, economics, and political courage. Both men argue that the struggle for civil rights has always been tied to economic independence, noting that every time Black Americans have accumulated wealth—from land ownership after Reconstruction to Black Wall Street in Tulsa—the rules of the game were rewritten or the prosperity violently destroyed. The law, they suggest, can be a path to liberation, but only if communities are willing to fight relentlessly to ensure it is interpreted fairly.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#BenCrump #GaryChambers #CivilRightsAttorney #JusticeForAll #BlackLivesMatter #FightForJustice #CivilRightsMovement #AccountabilityNow #JusticeNotJustLegal #BlackJustice #SpeakTruthToPower #ProtectBlackLives #UnapologeticallyBlack #EconomicJustice #BlackPower #CommunityJustice #BreakingNews #USPolitics #CivilRights #JusticeSystem #EconomicJustice #VotingRights #EducationMatters #JusticeInAmerica #LawAndPower #HistoryInTheMaking #PoliticalCourage #PowerAndJustice #FightForFreedom #DemocracyInAction #TruthToPower

Tia Williams: Tia Williams is the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June and a veteran beauty editor who has spent decades centering Black joy and modern glamour in her storytelling.Farrah Rochon: Farrah Rochon is a USA Today bestselling author celebrated for her hit series The Boyfriend Projectand her ability to weave ambitious, relatable Black women into the heart of contemporary romance.Author of Seven Days in June, Tia Williams and author Farrah Rochon traced the long, winding road behind Williams’s success—one paved with magazine deadlines, rejected manuscripts, stubborn conviction, and a refusal to flatten Black women into symbols of struggle. Williams spoke openly about building a career by straddling two worlds—glossy fashion media by day, fiction by night—until a toxic relationship, burnout, and a self-imposed exile to Spain cracked her open creatively and gave birth to her first novel. What followed was a sharp, often funny meditation on what it means to write romance without apology: insisting that Black women can exist in stories simply to love, desire, and dream; pushing back against an industry that doubted her credibility; and embracing risk, whether that meant indie publishing, watching her work transformed by Hollywood, or folding Harlem Renaissance history and Louisiana ancestry into contemporary love stories. Along the way, Williams dismantled myths about “Black excellence,” admitted the physical toll of writing with chronic migraines, and revealed how intuition—not permission—has guided every pivot in her career. The result was a reminder that literary success is rarely linear, never polite, and often born from refusing to make yourself smaller for anyone watching. This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#BlackAuthors #BlackRomance #WritingCommunity #BookTalk #AuthorConversation #LiteraryCulture #PublishingTruths #CreativeProcess #BlackWomenWriters #RomanceReaders #BookLovers #BookYouTube #WriterLife #BehindTheBook #LiteraryDiscussion #CulturalConversation #BaldwinAndCo #IndependentBookstore #ReadBlackAuthors

Dr. Uché Blackstock is a renowned emergency medicine physician and the founder of Advancing Health Equity, whose memoir Legacy tackles the deep-seated racial disparities within the U.S. healthcare system.Jarvis DeBerry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and celebrated columnist known for his sharp, soulful insights into social justice and the Black experience in America.In a powerful and deeply personal conversation at Baldwin & Co., Dr. Uché Blackstock and journalist Jarvis DeBerry tear the veil off America’s broken healthcare system—exposing not just systemic racism, but the emotional and physical toll it exacts on Black patients and Black health professionals alike. From being misdiagnosed with appendicitis as a Harvard med student, to watching her mother practice medicine with soul and cultural accountability, Dr. Blackstock shares how her journey to healing became an act of resistance. Together, they challenge the myth of “trust in the system,” flipping the script to ask: can a system built on exploitation ever be trusted at all? This isn’t just a talk—it’s a reckoning. And it’s a call for Black professionals to choose joy, rest, and self-preservation over martyrdom.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.

Dr. Alexandra Jones is a seasoned archaeologist and educator dedicated to empowering communities through the preservation and excavation of African American history.Tara Roberts is a National Geographic Explorer and storyteller whose work uncovers the lost stories of the transatlantic slave trade through the lens of maritime archaeology.National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts and archeologist Dr. Alexandra Jones dove into an electrifying conversation that spanned the deep metaphor of water, the power of the divine feminine, and the urgency of community action. Using Roberts’ new memoir Written in the Waters as a launchpad, the two women explored the spiritual and political dimensions of environmental justice, Black history, and intergenerational resilience. They unpacked how water serves as both a symbol and a survival tool—a metaphor for Black femininity, flexibility, and force. With searing clarity, they challenged capitalist frameworks that destroy ecosystems and disconnect people from ancestry and collective care. What emerged was more than dialogue—it was a call to arms for radical education, systems change, and generational healing through cooperation, not heroism.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#TaraRoberts #AlexandraJones #WrittenInTheWaters #BlackHistoryMatters #EnvironmentalJustice #WaterIsMemory #DivineFemininePower #RadicalCooperation #BaldwinAndCo #ArcheologyOfTheDiaspora #BlackWomenLead #OceanAsArchive #RestorativeJustice #ReclaimTheNarrative #AncestralKnowledge #SacredWaters #DiggingUpTruth #ClimateJusticeNow #WeAreTheFuture #BlackExplorers #LiberationThroughLearning #BlackEnvironmentalists #HealingThroughHistory #CommunityOverCapitalism #SpiritualReclamation

Kellie Carter Jackson is a historian and writer (author of 'We Refuse') whose work centers Black resistance, abolition, and the political meaning of freedom in American history.Shennette Garrett-Scott is a historian and author whose scholarship explores Black women’s economic power, labor, and political life beyond traditional civil rights narratives.What unfolded on that stage was not a polite author talk—it was a bracing reminder that history has teeth. Writing We Refuse in the heat of 2020, Kellie Carter Jackson rejects what she calls the “trauma porn” of American racial storytelling and replaces it with something far more unsettling: proof that Black resistance has always been deliberate, strategic, and ordinary. Again and again, she dismantles the comforting myth that Black people merely endured injustice quietly, arguing instead that refusal—through protection, flight, revolution, community care, and even joy—has been constant, if deliberately obscured. The most arresting moments arrive when scholarship meets memory: a great-grandmother who chose a child’s life with a limp over lifelong bondage; a grandmother whose loaded pistol complicates sentimental ideas of Southern gentility; siblings lost, whose names anchor grief as a form of resistance. Kellie Carter Jackson’s point is devastatingly clear: white supremacy is not only mobs and violence, but erasure, coercion, and “niceness” masquerading as morality. And yet, the conversation never collapses into despair. It insists that liberation is collective, that joy is a discipline, and that the most radical threat to injustice has always been an educated, cared-for, and politically conscious people. The result is less a lecture than a reckoning—one that refuses easy answers and demands a wider imagination of what freedom has always required.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#WeRefuse #BlackResistance #RadicalHistory #BlackHistoryToldRight #FreedomIsCollective #JusticeNotRevenge #WhiteSupremacyExposed #LiberationThinking #AbolitionNow #HistoryWithTeeth #IntellectualResistance #BlackJoyAsResistance #CommunityCare #PoliticalEducation #StoriesTheyErased #TruthOverComfort #BooksThatChallengePower #BaldwinAndCoPodcast #IdeasInConversation #ReadToResist #CulturalReckoning #BookBans #AttacksOnBlackHistory #EnvironmentalJustice #VoterSuppression #MassIncarceration #DemocracyInCrisis #FreeSpeechMatters #EducationUnderFire #WhoseHistory #PowerAndNarrative

Sean Goode is a writer and cultural thinker whose work interrogates Black identity, power, and the political meaning embedded in popular culture.Kehinde Andrews is a scholar of Black studies and author whose work challenges liberal myths of progress and exposes the structural realities of racism and capitalism.What unfolds in this conversation is not a debate so much as a reckoning. Kehinde Andrews and Sean Goode circle Malcolm X not as a frozen icon, but as a living diagnostic tool—one that exposes how narrowly Blackness has been defined, weaponized, and sold back to Black people themselves. The discussion moves between autobiography and political theory, between gangsta rap and Garveyism, between capitalism’s seductive promises and its blood-soaked balance sheet. At its core is a shared unease: that America—and the West more broadly—is not failing to live up to its ideals, but rather succeeding at exactly what it was designed to do. Malcolm’s enduring relevance, they argue, lies in his refusal to confuse proximity to power with freedom, or survival with liberation. Whether through hip-hop’s unacknowledged intellectual labor, the false comfort of “house negro” mentalities, or the illusion that capitalism can be redeemed through intention alone, the conversation insists on a harder truth: freedom requires collective political imagination, not better branding. The tension remains unresolved—and that is precisely the point. Malcolm’s gift was never closure, but clarity.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#KehindaAndrews #SeanGoode #MalcolmX #BlackThought #BlackLiberation #RevolutionNotReform #PoliticalBlackness #BlackIdentity #CapitalismCritique #FreedomStruggle #BlackIntellectualTradition #HipHopAsTheory #RadicalImagination #DecolonizeTheMind #GlobalBlackness #PowerAndResistance #BlackHistoryMatters #UncomfortableTruths #CollectiveFreedom #LiberationPolitics #RaceAndPower #AbolitionThinking #BlackVoices #CounterNarratives #RevolutionaryIdeas #CriticalConversations

Phyllis R. Dixon is the author of Something in the Water, a gripping novel that blends political intrigue, environmental justice, and deeply human stakes.Cecilia Guillen is today’s conversation partner, bringing a sharp, community-centered lens to stories that sit at the crossroads of culture, power, and lived experience.Phyllis R. Dixon tells a story about contaminated water, political corruption, and the quiet violence of being ignored—themes that echo loudly in today’s headlines as communities across the country continue to face environmental neglect and unequal access to safety and accountability. Joined by Cecilia Guillen, this discussion moves beyond the page, connecting the novel’s characters and conflicts to real-world struggles over infrastructure, public trust, and who pays the price when systems fail. Together, Phyllis and Cecilia explore how fiction can illuminate truths that policy reports and news cycles often can’t—and why stories like this matter now more than ever.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#BaldwinAndCoPodcast #SomethingInTheWater #PhyllisRDixon #CeciliaGuillen #EnvironmentalJustice #WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalRacism #PoliticalCorruption #SocialJustice #LiteratureAsResistance #FictionThatMatters #StoriesThatShapeUs #TruthInStorytelling #CommunityVoices #CultureAndPower #BooksAndJustice #IdeasInConversation

In this wide-ranging but sharply focused conversation, Nathan J. Robinson and Jamelle Bouie argue that the central danger facing American democracy is not mass apathy or popular authoritarianism, but a crisis of elite legitimacy and institutional misalignment with a public that has already changed more than its leaders realize. They contend that reactions to Trumpism—especially resistance to state repression, overt racism, and the abandonment of democratic norms—reflect decades-long cultural shifts toward greater inclusion, historical awareness, and moral commitment to equality, rather than a sudden outbreak of “woke excess.” Jamelle Bouie frames this moment as a failure of elite social reproduction: institutions that once shaped public values are now unable to pass their worldview intact to the next generation, while reactionary movements misread both public opinion and history. Together, they caution that although extremist ideologies lack broad popular support, they can still capture power through undemocratic structures, institutional cowardice, and strategic minority rule. Drawing on American history—not as prophecy but as case study—they conclude that durable political projects require flexibility, legitimacy, and long time horizons, qualities notably absent from today’s authoritarian experiments, making the present moment less a story of democratic collapse than of a system struggling to catch up to the people it claims to represent.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#BaldwinDialogues #JamelleBouie #NathanJRobinson #CurrentAffairs #PoliticalAnalysis #AmericanDemocracy #Authoritarianism #TrumpEra #DemocracyInCrisis #ElitePower #CivicEngagement #PublicDiscourse #PoliticalCulture #HistoricalContext #DemocraticValues #InstitutionalFailure #MediaAndPolitics #IdeasMatter #LongFormConversation #IntellectualHistory

Dr. Daniel Black and Michael Harriot delivered a spiritually charged, intellectually fierce, and soul-deep conversation that cracked open the Black experience in America. What started as a discussion on land, lineage, and education quickly evolved into a firestorm of revelations—about ancestral wisdom, the double-tongued language of survival, and the misunderstood power of the Black church. They dissected the myth of white-washed religion, honored the Black rural roots of storytelling, and lit up the room with tales of healing, ritual, and resistance. Together, they offered a profound thesis: Black knowledge is not just for advancement—it is a weapon, a ritual, a form of rebellion. This wasn’t just a talk. It was a reckoning. And if you think you understand Black history, faith, or family—watch this, and think again.Michael Harriot is an award-winning journalist, cultural critic, and author whose razor-sharp writing exposes the lies America tells itself about race, power, and history.Dr. Daniel Black is a novelist, scholar, and master storyteller whose work excavates Black rural life, ancestral memory, and the sacred dimensions of survival with lyrical force.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#DanielBlack #MichaelHarriot #BlackonBlack #BlackAFHistory #BaldwinAndCo #BlackLiberationMatters #EducationAsResistance #BlackChurchTruth #ReclaimTheNarrative #AncestralWisdom #SpiritualRebellion #BreakTheChains #BlackKnowledgeIsPower #StorytellingIsSurvival #BlackGenius #UnapologeticallyBlack #DegreesForLiberation #BlackHistoryUncensored #FaithAndFreedom #RadicalBlackThought #BlackSpiritualityUnleashed #RitualAndResistance #TeachTheTruth #WeAreTheCurriculum #BooksAsWeapons #BlackFaithIsPower #EducationNotAssimilation

In a discussion held in New Orleans on February 3, 2026, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and Tulane law professor Carla Laroche explored the haunting parallels between the Reconstruction era and today's political climate. Carla framed Reconstruction as a period of profound promises—codified in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments—that were ultimately betrayed by the rise of white supremacy and Jim Crow. Jamelle argued that the era remains vital because we are currently grappling with the same existential questions it raised: Who counts as an American, and what is the nature of our freedom?Jamelle drew a sharp distinction between "freedom as domination"—the master’s freedom to control others—and "freedom as liberation," which centers on self-determination. He noted that modern political efforts to undermine birthright citizenship and equal protection are echoes of a centuries-old struggle to repudiate expansive, egalitarian ideals. Highlighting Louisiana as a historical "crucible" for these conflicts, the speakers discussed how landmark legal failures and massacres in the state paved the way for the "afterlife of slavery".Ultimately, the conversation served as a stark reminder that institutions and the Constitution are merely "words on paper". Without the political will of ordinary citizens to wield power and demand accountability—a project Jamelle summarized with the post-war mantra "punish treason, reward loyalty"—the promises of democracy remain fragile and unfinishedJamelle Bouie: A Charlottesville-based columnist for The New York Times and UVA graduate, Jamelle covers politics and history while co-hosting the Unclear and Present Danger podcast.Carla Laroche: An associate professor of law at Tulane University and the Murphy Institute, Carla's work focuses on access to justice for systemically excluded communities at the intersections of criminal law and civil rights.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#Reconstruction #AmericanDemocracy #CivilRights #SocialJustice #JamelleBouie #CarlaLaroche #ConstitutionalLaw #14thAmendment #HistoryMatters #USPolitics #RacialEquity #PoliticalAccountability #HumanRights #JusticeSystem #LegalHistory #NewOrleansEvents #DemocraticValues #EqualityForAll #TheUnfinishedRevolution #AmericanHistory #VotingRights #EqualProtection #FreedomAndLiberation #PublicDiscourse #MediaLandscape

Dr. Uché Blackstock and journalist Jarvis DeBerry engaged in a piercing, personal, and deeply emotional conversation about race, medicine, education, and the invisible weight of Black excellence. Centered around Blackstock’s acclaimed book Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, the discussion revealed how systemic bias infiltrates everything—from classroom desks to hospital beds. They spoke candidly about the burden of overperformance, the quiet trauma of being “the only one,” and the emotional toll of raising Black children in a world that often denies their worth. With reflections on family, identity, and institutional mistrust, this dialogue offered more than critique—it was a call for love, protection, and truth-telling in spaces that too often demand silence.Order Dr. Uche´ Blackstock Books Here: https://bookshop.org/a/20190/9780593491294Order Jarvis DeBerry Book Here: https://bookshop.org/a/20190/9781608011858Order Baldwin & Co. Merch Here: https://shop.baldwinandcobooks.comLearn more about Baldwin & Co. Foundation: https://bcofoundation.orgThis episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#BlackExcellence #DrUcheBlackstock #BlackHealthMatters #Burnout #TwiceAsHard #HealthEquity #MentalHealthAwareness #BlackWellness #SystemicRacism #WorkCulture #RestIsResistance #MedicalApartheid #LegacyBuilding #SelfCare #EquityInAction #GenerationalHealth #BlackJoy #OvercomingBurnout #RacialDisparities #HealthcareHeroes #SocialJustice #WellnessJourney #WorkLifeBalance #BlackCommunity #AuthenticSelf

Shaka Senghor is a leading voice on criminal justice reform, a tech investor, and the author of Writing My Wrongs and Letters to the Sons of Society.Is society addicted to rage and victimhood? In this powerful conversation, New York Times bestselling author Shaka Senghor (Writing My Wrongs) joins Jerid Woods to dismantle the modern narratives around resilience, race, and personal agency.They dive deep into the uncomfortable truths about monetizing pain, the "addiction" to being offended, and why true freedom comes from refusing to give up your power to external circumstances. Shaka opens up about his journey from prison to best-selling author, revealing how he cultivated a mindset of success by focusing on "wins" rather than losses.If you are looking to break free from the "autopilot" of life and manifest your own vision of freedom, this conversation is a must-watch.#shakasenghor #howtrobefree #shaka #senghor #jeridwoods #ablackmanreading This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.

Kellie Carter Jackson is a historian, author, and professor whose work explores Black resistance, abolition, and the intellectual history of Black political thought in America.Shennette Garrett-Scott is a historian and author specializing in Black women’s economic history, examining how Black women used business, finance, and mutual aid to build power and autonomy in the United States.This conversation is an exploration of how Black women use literature, history, and storytelling as tools of survival, resistance, and meaning-making. Moving fluidly between personal memory and scholarly insight, Kellie Carter Jackson & Shennette Garrett-Scott argue that literature—especially Black women’s literature—does more than represent the past; it cultivates empathy, restores interior lives erased by violent archives, and teaches readers how to live.The discussion reframes historical method itself. Rather than striving for a detached objectivity, Kellie Carter Jackson & Shennette Garrett-Scott insist that bringing one’s whole self—emotion, ancestry, memory—into the archive produces better questions and truer histories. Empathy is not a weakness of scholarship but one of its most powerful instruments, especially when the historical record is fragmentary, brutal, or designed to dehumanize.At the center of the conversation is the concept of “refusal”: refusal to accept unjust terms, refusal to surrender dignity, refusal to allow trauma to define the totality of a life. Through intergenerational stories—of mothers, grandmothers, and children—Kellie Carter Jackson & Shennette Garrett-Scott show how refusal is passed down as a form of spiritual DNA. Injury may leave a mark, but it does not dictate the shape of a life.Crucially, the conversation resists the trap of defining Black history solely through suffering. Joy emerges as a political and communal practice, not escapism but fortification. Laughter, art, music, books, and gathering are framed as collective defenses against despair and erasure.The dialogue also expands history beyond classrooms and books, emphasizing bookstores, podcasts, public talks, and community spaces as essential sites of intellectual life. History, they argue, matters most when people recognize themselves inside it—and when it helps them imagine how to act, protect, refuse, and build in the present.Ultimately, this is a conversation about how knowledge becomes lived wisdom—how stories shape not only what we know, but how we love, resist, raise children, and remain human in difficult times.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#kelliecarterjackson #ShennetteGarrett-Scott #werefuse #resistance 

We are living through what Dr. Imani Perry calls a "season of destruction," a deliberate era where the legacy of the freedom movement is being erased. In this riveting dialogue, Glaude and Dr. Imani Perry do not just lament the state of the nation; they dissect the very soul of American democracy.The conversation centers on a powerful dialectic: "freedom snatching" versus "freedom seeking". Dr. Imani Perry argues that we must look beyond the mid-20th-century Civil Rights movement—which we often view as the norm—and instead study the "plague years" following Reconstruction to understand our current crisis. It is in those moments of profound betrayal, such as the era of the Fugitive Slave Law, where we find the blueprint for how to build in the face of catastrophe.Perhaps the most provocative thread is their critique of modern success. Imani Perry poses a haunting question: What is freedom? Is it merely the ability to live like middle-class white people?. The scholars warn against a "Black neoliberalism" that equates freedom with material access while ignoring the erosion of the very institutions—the "barrier islands"—that once protected Black communities from the storm.This is not a conversation about despair; it is a call to reconstruction. As Eddie Glaude Jr. notes, the work of building isn't just about political victories; it is a "fortification," a space for self-creation and love in a society where white supremacy remains the baseline condition.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.Order Eddie Glaude Jr Books Here: https://bookshop.org/a/20190/9780674737600Order Imani Perry Books Here: https://bookshop.org/a/20190/9780062977373Order Baldwin & Co. Merch Here: https://shop.baldwinandcobooks.comLearn more about Baldwin & Co. Foundation: https://bcofoundation.org#EddieGlaude #ImaniPerry #SocialJustice #AmericanHistory #Politics #BlackFreedom #Democracy #Reconstruction

In a candid, laughter-laced conversation, Tarriona "Tank" Ball pulls back the curtain on vulnerability as both artistic method and emotional necessity. Discussing her poetry collection The Thing About Falling, Ball distinguishes this work from her earlier book Vulnerable by one crucial shift: this time, the poems were not written for anyone else—not an ex, not an audience—but for herself. What emerges is an unguarded meditation on love after heartbreak, the danger of rushing healing, and the quiet education that happens in the “in-between” relationships. Falling, she explains, is never intentional, but survival depends on whether someone—or something—can catch you when it happens. Moving fluidly between humor, romance, self-reckoning, and performance, the conversation affirms writing as one of the most exposed art forms there is: just words, memory, and nerve. In Ball’s telling, poetry does not resolve longing or confusion—it names them, dignifies them, and reminds the listener they are not alone in feeling exactly this way. Order Tarriona "Tank" Ball Books Here: https://bookshop.org/a/20190/9798881600211Order Baldwin & Co. Merch Here: https://shop.baldwinandcobooks.comLearn more about Baldwin & Co. Foundation: https://bcofoundation.orgThis episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#TankAndTheBangas #TankBall #SpokenWordPoetry #PoetryReading #PoetryTalk #Vulnerability #TheThingAboutFalling #BlackWomenPoets #LoveAndHealing #HeartbreakToHealing #WritingAsTherapy #ArtAndEmotion #PoetryCommunity #NewOrleansArtists #CreativeProcess #EmotionalHonesty #WomenInArt #PoetryIsPower

Bernice L. McFadden is an award-winning American novelist and memoirist whose work explores Black womanhood, ancestry, trauma, and survival through lyrical, historically grounded storytelling.In a conversation that moves with the force of lived history, Bernice L. McFadden refuses the comfort of distance. Interviewed by Dr. Ebony Perro, Professor of Practice at Tulane University. Bernice's memoir, Firstborn Girls, emerges not as a private act of recollection but as a public reckoning—one that insists family stories and American history are inseparable. Written during the pandemic and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests, McFadden frames her life as an “auto-ethnography,” tracing cycles of violence, survival, rage, and resilience across generations of Black women. History, she reminds us, does not simply repeat; it rhymes. And in those rhymes—lynchings, domestic terror, state violence—she recognizes patterns that echo from her ancestors’ lives into the present moment.Selected Popular Books by Bernice L. McFaddenFirstborn Girls: A MemoirSugarGloriousGathering of Waters (New York Times Editors’ Choice)The Warmest DecemberPraise Song for the ButterfliesNowhere Is a PlaceWhat gives the conversation its gravity is McFadden’s refusal to sentimentalize. Motherhood is described as loving but brutal work. Rage is not pathology but fuel—necessary, clarifying, and dangerous only when it calcifies into bitterness. Her stories of formidable women, particularly Aunt Anna, unfold with dark humor and terrifying resolve, revealing how protection sometimes required ferocity. Writing becomes both purge and preservation: a way to honor the dead, confront the living, and free oneself from silence. By naming family members plainly, McFadden creates distance enough to tell the truth, even when that truth fractures family myths.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#BerniceMcFadden #FirstbornGirls #BlackWomenWriters #LiteraryConversation #Memoir #BlackLiterature #AncestralMemory #GenerationalTrauma #BlackWomanhood #AmericanHistory #RageAndResilience #StorytellingAsResistance #AutoEthnography #LiteraryGenealogy #WritingTheTruth #BlackFeministThought #BooksThatMatter #AuthorsInConversation #LiteraryCulture #HistoryThatRhymes

What happens when four of the most influential forces in entrepreneurship, media, and culture sit down for a raw, unfiltered conversation at one of the country’s most disruptive Black-owned bookstore? You get a conversation that flips the script on success, reveals the ugly truths behind wealth-building, and shows you how to break generational curses in real-time. In this explosive dialogue moderated by David Shands at Baldwin & Co., Earn Your Leisure co-founders Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal sit alongside hospitality mogul Larry Morrow to break down how they went from kitchen tables and iPhones to multi-million-dollar brands—and why belief in self had to come before the checks ever did. They talk imposter syndrome, the lies we tell ourselves about “failure,” and how cultural capital can become financial power if you’re willing to bet on your own genius. If you've ever doubted your purpose or felt like you're building alone—this conversation will make you feel seen, charged up, and ready to pivot like a boss.Larry Morrow is a New Orleans–based hospitality mogul, entrepreneur, and community builder known for creating some of the city’s most successful restaurants and nightlife experiences.Rashad Bilal is the co-founder of Earn Your Leisure and a financial educator whose work breaks down wealth-building for everyday people.Troy Millings is the co-founder of Earn Your Leisure and a former educator turned media entrepreneur dedicated to making financial literacy accessible and culturally relevant.David Shands is an entrepreneur, author, and host of the Social Proof Podcast, known for spotlighting real stories of business success and practical lessons from top creators and founders.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#EarnYourLeisure #LarryMorrow #DavidShands #BaldwinAndCo #BlackEntrepreneurs #BlackWealth #CulturalCapital #BuildYourOwn #EntrepreneurMindset #OwnershipMentality #GenerationalWealth #BusinessCulture #CreativeEconomy #FromTheGroundUp #SelfBelief #FinancialLiteracy #BlackOwnedBusinesses #PurposeDriven #SocialProof #HustleWithIntent

Grammy-nominated vocalist Tonya Boyd-Cannon and celebrated visual artist Charly Palmer engage in a riveting, soul-baring conversation that moves between art, ancestry, mental health, and creative purpose. With disarming honesty, they explore how grief, trauma, and generational memory shape their work—and why Black artists must create from spirit, not ego. From Palmer’s reflections on using flowers as both beauty and protection, to Boyd-Cannon’s revelation of how roses became emotional triggers, the two uncover how creation becomes a sacred act of survival and healing. The conversation crescendos into a powerful meditation on legacy, water as a spiritual medium, the sacredness of altars, and Blackness as a universal, unshakable force. What emerges is a profound testimony: art is not decoration—its declaration, remembrance, and resistance.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#CharlyPalmer #TonyaBoydCannon  #BlackArtMatters #ArtAsResistance #CreateFromSpirit #BlackCreatives #HealingThroughArt #GriefAndCreation #SacredNotSafe #BaldwinAndCo #BlackArtistsUnite #ArtAndAncestry #VisualHealing #EmotionalArtistry #AncestralLegacy #CanvasOfTruth #WaterAsWisdom #AltarsInArt #TriggeredByBeauty #ArtForThePeople #BlackStorytellers #CulturalMemory #ExpressionWithoutPermission #VoiceAndVision #SpiritLedArt #kwamealexander #howsweetthesound

In a wide-ranging, unguarded conversation, Malcolm Gladwell and former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu use the city itself as a lens to examine America’s deeper fractures. What begins as a meditation on why New Orleans remains stubbornly, almost defiantly distinctive—resisting the cultural flattening seen in cities like Austin and Nashville—quickly expands into a larger argument: culture, not capital, is what holds societies together. Music, food, sport, and place are not luxuries, they argue, but the glue that sustains democracy when institutions falter. In New Orleans, joy and pain live side by side, producing a civic soul that cannot be replicated or scaled without losing its truth. From there, the conversation turns darker and more urgent. Landrieu warns that the United States is living through one of the most dangerous moments in its history—not because of disagreement, but because of a growing comfort with autocracy and a collapsing ability to talk across difference. Gladwell probes whether America’s aging population, economic anxiety, and nostalgia for an imagined past are fueling fear rather than curiosity about the future. Together, they trace how trauma—from Katrina to 9/11 to economic precarity—has eroded trust, and why art, culture, and local community may be the last remaining pathways back to common ground. The message is unsettling but clear: democracies do not collapse all at once; they wither when people stop listening to one another, and when culture is treated as expendable rather than essential.This episode is part of the ongoing conversations hosted by Baldwin & Co., a Black-owned bookstore, café, and cultural institution based in New Orleans. Baldwin & Co. exists at the intersection of literature, ideas, and community—creating space for rigorous dialogue, storytelling, and intellectual exchange.Through author talks, podcasts, live events, and community programming, Baldwin & Co. amplifies voices shaping how we understand culture, history, politics, faith, and the future.Stay connected with Baldwin & Co. across platforms:Instagram: @baldwinandcoX (Twitter): @baldwinandcoFacebook: Baldwin & Co.YouTube: Baldwin & Co.Website: www.baldwinandcobooks.comVisit us in New Orleans or online to support independent bookselling, discover powerful literature, and engage in conversations that matter.#MalcolmGladwell #MitchLandrieu #AmericasDangerousMoment #DemocracyInCrisis #CultureMatters #TheSoulOfAmerica #NewOrleans #CivicLife #ArtAndDemocracy #CulturalResilience #PoliticalDialogue #ListeningAcrossDifference #AmericanDemocracy #PublicIntellectuals #IdeasThatMatter #HardConversations #DemocracyAndCulture #AmericanFuture #CulturalIdentity #ThinkingOutLoud 

Dr. Daniel Black and Avery Young" "This conversation is a masterclass in Black language, music, spirituality, and survival. Dr. Daniel Black and Avery Young explore how Black people have always communicated with more than words—through rhythm, silence, gesture, melody, and the body itself. From church songs and blues traditions to humming, repetition, and coded speech, they break down how Black expression became a form of protection, resistance, and joy when speech alone wasn’t safe. Moving between personal stories, theology, music, and history, they reveal how gospel and blues are really the same language spoken in different places, and how Black idiomatic expression carries memory, meaning, and power that English alone can’t hold. At its core, the conversation is about survival and freedom—the idea that the real assignment in life is to walk fully as yourself, bring your whole body into the room, and trust that collective rhythm can carry you across even the deepest waters.Dr. Daniel Black is an award-winning novelist and professor whose work excavates Black memory, masculinity, spirituality, and survival with surgical honesty and poetic force. Some of his most notable books are, Perfect Peace, Don't Cry For Me, Isaac's Song, The Coming, Black on Black and The Sacred Place. Avery Young is a poet, the first Chicago poet laureate, he is a composer, and cultural worker whose artistry fuses music, movement, and ancestral knowledge to reveal how Black expression has always carried meaning beyond words.#DanielBlack #AveryYoung #BlackArt #BlackLiterature #BlackPoetry #CreativeDialogue #CulturalMemory #HealingThroughArt #StorytellingAsResistance #BlackIntellectualTradition #ArtAndLiberation #BlackThought #SpokenWord #LiteraryConversations #CulturalWorkers #BaldwinAndCo #BlackCreativity #RadicalImagination