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WNYC Studios Presents “Come Through with Rebecca Carroll”

15 Essential Conversations about Race

Podcast series ​launches TODAY with two episodes on COVID-19, race, and faith, featuring epidemiologist DR. CAMARA JONES and BISHOP T.D. JAKES

Additional guests include This Is Us producer and writer KAY OYEGUN, Pod Save the People co-host BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM, and White Fragility author ROBIN DIANGELO

(New York, NY – April 7, 2020) – In a pivotal election year, race is at the center of every issue— healthcare, jobs, education, the media—and in an era of enlightened “wokeness,” many Americans say they want to talk about it. But how often do they stay in the discomfort and persevere through these difficult conversations? 

Today, WNYC Studios launches Come Through with Rebecca Carroll, a new podcast series that creates the space to stay in those raw, sometimes uncomfortable moments and find new insights.

Hosted by Rebecca Carroll, WNYC’s Cultural Critic, and edited by Anna Holmes, award-winning writer, editor, and founder of Jezebel, Come Through features conversations with people from a wide range of backgrounds who are willing to really “go there.”  Assumptions are challenged, emotions are provoked, and revelations are captured in real time. 

The series debuts with two episodes thataddress this moment’s most urgent matter—the COVID-19 pandemic—through the lens of race. What are the specific impacts for black communities, and where can refuge be found?  

  • Dr. Camara Jones, an epidemiologist who studies how racism impacts the health of communities, discusses the ways that historic inequities in healthcare are affecting access to information and how to support elders during the pandemic. 
  • Bishop T.D. Jakes, one of the world’s most influential religious leaders, responds to the question: is faith enough to work through the damage done by the overt racism and sexism that seem to drive our nation’s leaders?  Jakes offers words of wisdom, hope, and faith during this unprecedented time.

Upcoming guests include:

  • Brittany Packnett Cunningham: Activist, educator, and co-host of Pod Save the People, explains how we can lift up our neighbors while taking care of ourselves during this tumultuous time. 
  • Bassey Ikpi: Author of the New York Times best-selling book I’m Lying But I’m Telling the Truth, which describes Ikpi’s experience living with bipolar disorder, discusses what’s at stake for black women struggling with mental health, and what needs to change. 
  • Robin DiAngelo: The White Fragility author discusses the defensiveness of white people around race, how it impacts black people, and how it could play out in this year’s election.   
  • Kay Oyegun: Staff writer and producer for the hit TV show This Is Us, discusses how she’s telling stories about black lives with black characters as a black woman in 2020 America, and how she manages to get the range of black experience so right. 

“Times of crisis and change can force us to openly and vulnerably talk about what’s around us, even if it’s hard,” said Rebecca Carroll. “As a black woman raised by white adoptive parents with little access to black culture early on, I’ve spent my life and career finding and building black community one relationship and one conversation at a time. Come Through invites listeners to join me and my guests as we have the tough conversations in a candid and open way that we all can learn and hopefully grow from.” 

Come Through with Rebecca Carroll is available at wnycstudios.org and all other platforms where podcasts are available. New episodes drop every Tuesday. 

ABOUT REBECCA CARROLL
Rebecca Carroll is WNYC’s Cultural Critic and a writer, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine and The Atlantic. She is also the author of several books, including Surviving the White Gaze: A Coming of Age Memoir, due out from Simon & Schuster in February 2021.

ABOUT WNYC STUDIOS
WNYC Studios is the premier producer of on-demand and broadcast audio, home to some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and popular podcasts, including Radiolab, On The Media, Trump, Inc., The New Yorker Radio Hour, Death, Sex & Money, The United States of Anxiety, Snap Judgment, Nancy, and Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin. WNYC Studios is leading the new golden age in audio with podcasts and national radio programs that inform, inspire, and delight millions of intellectually curious and highly engaged listeners across digital, mobile, and broadcast platforms. Programs include personal narratives, deep journalism, revealing interviews, and smart entertainment as varied and intimate as the human voice itself. For more information, visit wnycstudios.org.

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