Five podcasts to learn about anti-racist history in the UK(and a bonus recommendation)
I love podcasts. Not a day goes by when I don’t listen to a snippet of a podcast, either while on my way to pick up my daughter from nursery (even on the way back if she is happily sitting in the pushchair having some down time), or while cleaning or shopping. If I have ten minutes to do something by myself, I will surely put on a podcast.
Podcasts are also a great research tool. I used them when researching for The Shoulders We Stand On: How Black and Brown people fought for change in the United Kingdom to listen to interviews with people and generally learn more about anti-racist history in the UK, and beyond. I have already mentioned specific episodes of some podcasts in my ‘Find Out More’ series, like The Working Class History Podcast to learn more about the Grunwick Strike and the Asian Youth Movements and the trial of the Bradford 12, but there are more phenomenal podcasts I recommend you subscribe to and enjoy their extensive back catalogue. Find five recommendations to learn more about anti-racist history below.
The History Hotline
This podcast is my number one recommendation for a good reason. That reason is that it is BANGING. The History Hotline explores Black history in the UK and the Caribbean that is not in the mainstream, often with very interesting guests. Created and hosted by Deanna Lyncook, a PhD candidate at Queen Mary University, it is obvious how passionate and knowledgeable Lyncook is, and she created the podcast to make these stories accessible for everyone and not just stuck within academia, which I love as that is something I wanted to do with my book too.
I recommend starting with the episodes on the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation of the Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD). There are also episodes on the Bristol Bus Boycott, the British Black Panthers, and the 1981 uprisings.
2. Surviving Society
Another accessible (albeit a little more academic) podcast discussing anti-racism in the UK, Surviving Society talks politics and sociology and pressing issues of the day, all with fascinating guests and an anti-racist lens. They also regularly have special series. I especially liked the series in collaboration with the Institute of Race Relations using content from their 50 year conference called ‘New Circuits of Anti-Racism.
Their extensive back catalogue has nearly 200 episodes to listen to, with new episodes released weekly. For a place to start, have a listen to the interview with anti-racist activist Leila Hassan Howe who was part of the epic Race Today Collective I discuss in The Shoulders We Stand On, or this episode with Adam Elliott-Cooper about the police.
3. Tell A Friend…
I devoured episodes of the Tell A Friend… podcast when I was in the proposal and early research stages of The Shoulders We Stand On. The format is simple: interviews with interesting and formidable people, created and hosted by journalist Bryan Knight (whose interview with the elusive Altheia Jones-Lecointe for The Guardian is also worth a read). There are over forty episodes in the bag for you to enjoy. A phenomenal contribution to learning about anti-racist history in the UK. Knight also interviews pop culture folk for some levity among the hard hitting history.
For anti-racism history, start with this interview with Anwar Ditta, and the episode Tales from the Struggle with Dr Beverly Bryan who was part of the British Black Panthers. If you prefer watching over just listening, Knight also has videos of all the podcasts on his YouTube channel.
4. Witness History: Black History
Of all the podcasts on the list, this one has the biggest name behind it, the BBC World Service. There are over 3,000 episodes and counting of the Witness History podcast, but they have also helpfully grouped Black history episodes together. They cover a range of topics, from deep dives into a Peruvian music star to a funk and soul club in Manchester. I was of course interested in the anti-racist content, of which there is plenty. I especially like that they have the US and UK history alongside one another, which really brings home the fact that a lot of these movements were happening around the same time.
Check out the episode on Diane Abbott, the first Black female MP, and the 1981 uprising in Liverpool in particular (which is where tear gas was used for the first time on the mainland UK).
5. Radicals in Conversation
The monthly podcast Radicals in Conversation is from Pluto Press, a radical publisher, and they bring together a range of people to discuss topics in depth, like anti-racism, Black history, decolonisation and abolition. As well as the classic studio episodes, there are some recorded live at the Bookhaus bookshop in Bristol (identified by the label ‘RIC in-haus’), and a series recorded in collaboration with the Stuart Hall Foundation called ‘Locating Legacies’, which is a particularly relevant series for The Shoulders We Stand On as it looks at how history reverberates to current day politics and society. You should know that given this is a publisher’s podcast, they talk mostly to authors of Pluto Press books.
Don’t know where to start? I recommended listening to After Grenfell which explores what happened in the preventable fire, and what happened next in the search for justice, and an RIC in-haus episode called Reclaiming Antiracism with the authors of the great book Race to the Bottom which unfortunately came out too late to help with research for The Shoulders We Stand On but is a great read and place to find out more about that era.
BONUS: Mattan
As a bonus, I wanted to share this impactful podcast which tells the heartbreaking story of Mahmood Hussein Mattan, who was the last hanged man in Wales. Mattan was wrongfully charged with murder and killed, and Mattan: Injustice of a Hanged Man explores not only the injustices surrounding his death but the devastating impact his killing had on the generations that followed. It was fascinating as an insight into the workings of racism in the UK through the decades, and also a sober reminder of the intergenerational trauma that is caused.
If you want to learn more about anti-racism in the UK and the movements discussed in The Shoulders We Stand On, do check out the ‘Find out more’ series. And if you don’t know what book I’m on about, then check that out first.
Happy listening!