Introducing: Some of My Best Friends Are

dot dot. And in this show, we're going to wrestle with the challenges and absurdities of a deeply divided and unequal country because we know, after nearly thirty five years of relationship, that being a black guy and a white guy hanging out together is not gonna get us to the Promised Land. So we grew up on the South Side of Chicago together. We've known each other since we were thirteen and fourteen, back when we were backing groceries and making three twenty five an hour and playing pickup

games of sixteen in softball. And here we are look all grown up. I mean, look at you. Ben. You are this incredible writer and journalist. You've written for The New York Times, Wired magazine, GQ. You have written about housing and one of the most iconic public housing complexes in Chicago. You continue to work on criminal justice issues, really proud of you, man, and you keep doing your thing. Well,

let me let me sing your praises. Okay, you've somehow made it to Harvard, you know, from from Kenwood to Harvard. Now you're teaching there. You're one of pre eminent scholars on race and racism and American history. Before Harvard, you ran an amazing research library in Harlem called the Shaun Berg Center. Yeah, that's just an incredible place. But you know what, all of those accomplishments would mean nothing if I hadn't been your boss at fourteen. That prepared me

for the leadership, that's right. And you know, we went to a public high school here, a predominantly African American high school. You had the gold chain, you were winning the Jabbo jeans, and I was killing it. I was killing it. I was listening to Phil Collins and Madonna. Yeah, and so so like what you're kind of saying on the spectrum is that I was cool and you weren't. I just want to put that out there. That's really right, It's definitely true. So we're basically going to talk about

the things we've been talking about for like thirty five years. Yeah, like the serious stuff because because after all. I mean, we've made careers as people who try to make sense of the world we live in, right you. As a journalist, I write about the past and try to help people figure out why the past matters to the present. So here we are. We're going to talk about these issues of politics and history, and we're gonna talk about pop culture. Yep.

So let's do that. Let's start talking. All right, it's complicated, but we're gonna do it together. Listen as some of my best friends are. On September ninth, Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.