July 4th: A.J. Jacobs & Originalism; Systemic Racism; NYC's 'Endangered' Languages; Michele Norris; Middle Names

The Brian Lehrer Show

For the Fourth of July:

• A. J. Jacobs, NPR contributor, essayist, and the author of The Year of Living Biblically, The Know-It-All, It's All Relative and his latest, The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning (Crown, 2024), offers his take on "originalism" by living like a "founding father" - tricorn hat and all.
• Tricia Rose, chancellor's professor of Africana Studies, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown and author of Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives―and How We Break Free (Hachette, 2024), explains the interlocking and mutually reinforcing individual policies that disadvantage Black Americans and how to cut through.
• Ross Perlin, co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA) and the author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York (Grove, 2024), talks about the many languages spoken in New York that are at risk of disappearing.
• Michele Norris, Washington Post columnist, host of the podcast "Your Mama's Kitchen," former cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered and the author of Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think about Race and Identity (Simon & Schuster, 2024), talks about her book that builds on the over half a million submissions to Race Card Project which invited people to submit six words that summed up their story about race.
• Michael Waters, writer, author of The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports (June 2024), explores the history of middle names, and what they say about our lives and our values.

These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here:

A.J. Jacobs Lives Originalism (May 8, 2024)

Systemic Racism Explained (Mar 11, 2024)

A Tour of New York City's Endangered Languages (Mar 21, 2024)

What Americans Want to Say About Race and Identity (Jan 16, 2024)

What's In a Middle Name? (Apr 3, 2024)