The UnMute Podcast: Philosophy Outside Academia

The following blog post is an excerpt from the introduction chapter of UnMuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice (OUP, 2019).

The idea for the UnMute podcast started in the summer of 2014. I met a friend at a cafe in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. There we shared lifestyle podcasts that we had recently fallen in love with and could not live without. Soon after this geeky exchange, I told him, “I think I want to start a philosophy podcast. And I want it to appeal to my former students.”

The students I was referring to were not my university students but rather were a group of formerly incarcerated young people that were part of a philosophy institute that I had organized at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2013. These students were not philosophy majors but were interested in what philosophy had to say and the ways they could engage with it. After a year, I wanted to create a way for them to stay engaged with philosophy. I knew that in order for this to happen, I needed to find some way of making philosophy accessible in addition to being relevant. That is to say, the format and content had to be something that would grab and keep the attention of these brilliant black and brown twenty-somethings––the majority of whom had never gone to college.

Now living in Chicago, I thought a podcast would be an ideal medium to keep in touch with these students in New York City. In that cafe, my friend Mike gave me the initial support I needed to begin planning for the first episode that would be released six months later in 2015.

When I returned to Chicago, I created a list of twelve contemporary philosophers whose work addresses topics in social and political philosophy and also excites me (there is nothing wrong with being selfish as long as it benefits others). This list consisted of people like Rachel Ann McKinney, Jason Stanley, Amir Jaima, Joel Michael Reynolds, Rachel McKinnon, and others. I sent each of them an email inviting them to record interviews. The first line read as follows: “I am embarking on a new project in 2015 that I think will aid in the revolution.” An ambitious opener, I know, but it continued with more realistic aims:

Recently, I’ve been getting the itch to do a podcast focused on giving an ear to voices and/or topics that are not given much attention in mainstream philosophy and to also have informal and accessible conversations about philosophy for non-philosophers. The name of the podcast is UnMute. It will be a place where philosophy and real-world issues collide. It will begin as a monthly podcast and will alternate with diverse voices each month.

It was important that the guests be diverse. I wanted my future audience (my students) to know that people who looked like them also did philosophy. I wanted them to know that there are black and brown philosophers; women philosophers; philosophers with disabilities; gay, lesbian, and trans philosophers; and young philosophers. They needed to know that philosophy was not only an old white man’s enterprise. I was surprised that every email response I received read, “Yes, I will participate.” I do not know how I gained their trust, but I am grateful for it and thank all of my participants.

The structure of the podcast was just as important as the participants. When someone pressed play, I wanted it to sound like they had just turned on an urban radio station. So I hired an announcer and commissioned music. I also knew that it was important for the listeners to know how the philosophers got into philosophy as well as who the philosophers were behind and beyond the work. This was important in making the philosophers not only relatable but human. Through the podcast I discovered that Elizabeth Barnes is a gamer, Rachel McKinnon is an athlete, Denise James is a painter, and Luvell Anderson is a musician. If he could have any basketball player’s game and attitude, Tommie Shelby would choose Kobe Bryant over LeBron James because of his work ethic (this was personally hard to hear as a LeBron fan). And Jason Stanley thinks that rapper and actor Ice Cube is a political philosopher. So the podcast questions started out and remain focused on the philosophers’ journeys, their philosophical work, and their identities beyond philosophy.

After the release of the first episode, I quickly realized that the podcast was not only for my students. I was surprised to learn that there are UnMute listeners within the activist community and the podcast community who are not necessarily interested in philosophy per se but are interested in the podcast’s content. There are also professional philosophers and students of philosophy across the world who listen each month. I am grateful to those who incorporate UnMute in their courses. I am also grateful to the interviewees who continue to say, “Yes, I will participate” in sharing ideas with me as I assume the role of questioner, interlocutor, and student during our forty-minute conversations. I still do believe UnMute aids in the revolution––even if the revolution is only a revolution of ideas.

However, while many people have found the UnMute podcast interesting and helpful, an audio podcast is not accessible to the hearing impaired. Also, not everyone listens to podcasts or retains information in this way. If I want the podcast to really be accessible, I needed to provide additional ways to make the conversations available.

UnMuted: Conversations of Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice is that idea. The UnMute book consists of thirty-one interview transcripts from diverse philosophers talking about the social and political issues of our day. They have different perspectives and take different approaches to responding to these issues. Some take an analytic, continental, feminist, historical, or critical-theoretic approach–naturally, these are not mutually exclusive. The topics covered in this book focus on six areas: politics and society; language, knowledge, and power; social groups and activism; race and economics; gender, sex, and love; and emotions and art in public life. The interviews in the book comprise the first three seasons of the UnMute podcast, which were recorded during my four years of graduate school. I felt that the interviews were a perfect supplement to my educational journey and they still are today. I’m happy to share that rewarding experience with everyone.

Myisha Cherry

Myisha Cherry is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. She teaches and writes about race, gender, attitudes, and emotions.  Cherry's work has appeared in such scholarly journals as Hypatia and Critical Philosophy of Race. She has also written for the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Salon.com, and New Philosopher Magazine. Her books include The Moral Psychology of Anger (co-edited with Owen Flanagan) and UnMuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice (Oxford, 2019).