The national and international protests over the death of George Floyd have generated larger and more widespread conversations about systemic racism in the United States. We hope to use our platform to help provide context and understanding around our shared moment in history, to show how our past creates our present, and to help illuminate how anti-Black racism has been passed on through our culture and politics, changing with each generation but also very much staying the same.

Here are some books by Black authors that helped create this episode that we strongly recommend for further reading:The New Jim Crow by Michelle AlexanderStamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. KendiHow to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. KendiChoke Hold by Paul ButlerCatalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross GayThis episode was put together by Chelsey Weber-Smith, Riley Smith, Rod Rodriguez, and Miranda Zickler.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices