The first time I encountered Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei was as a podcast listener. Steve and I were on a long stretch of Ohio turnpike, en route from Wisconsin to Vermont when we pulled up an episode of Throughline, the history podcast they produce and host for NPR. Fifty minutes later we stopped for gas, turned to each other and said “wow.” The episode we found so riveting – The Real Black Panthers – was rich and deep, full of archival audio and gorgeous sound design. But what we really loved, and the reason we immediately cued up another episode – is that it was a story about ideas. About the serious radical philosophy that shaped the Panthers’ political actions and that was so inimical to people like J. Edgar Hoover.
Rund and Ramtin have given us many wonderful hours – their Peabody Award-winning series, Afghanistan: The Center of the World is a must-listen. We got together in person recently when they were in Madison for a public history event. Because producers love seeing each other’s studios, we ordered takeout and camped out in ours. There was a certain amount of shoptalk – their team, like ours, is still working remotely (yes, you can mix and design sound over Zoom) - but mostly we talked about storytelling and history. About why revisionist public history projects are so contentious right now, and what journalists, audio producers and other non-historians can do to help shape new, more inclusive national narratives. We also shared our sources of historical inspiration – for Rund, James Baldwin is a touchstone and reminder of how to stay optimistic in the midst of struggle; Ramtin finds a sense of connection across time in accounts of everyday life in 12th century Baghdad, and I return again and again to the courageous stories of Londoners during the Blitz. You can hear our conversation in this week’s show "How Should We Tell Our History" – I hope you enjoy it!
– Anne