Hi everyone, it's Sophia and welcome back to Work in Progress.

Today's guest is a towering figure in racial justice and the struggle for equality.

His name has been invoked in Senate hearings across news networks and on the floor of the Supreme Court.

His book, How to Be an Anti-Racist, spent nearly 50 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine.

Today, we are sitting down with Professor, author, and activist, Dr. Ebrom X. Kendi.

Dr. Kendi was born in Queens, New York, but finished his secondary education in Manassas, Virginia,

after his family relocated there in 1997. Dr. Kendi continued his education in African-American

studies, eventually earning a PhD in the field from Temple University. Dr. Kendi went on to

continue the examination of race relations and racism in the United States as a professor,

essayist, historian, columnist, author, and most recently as the host of a podcast through

I Heart Radio. The podcast, Be Anti-Racist with Ebrom X. Kendi, is a weekly interview show that

discusses what it would mean and what it would take to build an anti-racist society.

There is a lot I want to talk to Dr. Kendi about and even more I have to learn from him,

so let's get started.

Before we dive into your work and books and the new podcast and all of the projects that you're

working on, I actually love to start in reverse with my guests. You know, who were you before

you were the doctor, you know, turning heads and giving TED Talks? Who was Ebrom as a young man?

What were you inspired by as a child? Were you were you always intellectually curious or were you

completely different than the man who sits across from me now when you were 10 years old?

So it's interesting. I feel like when I was 10 years old, I was almost at the height of my

academic career. I think it was fourth grade. We're 10, we're around fourth grade. I remember in

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