41 Shots
America’s mythology.
March 29, 2021“Skin is destiny.” -Bruce Springsteen
Renegades: Born in the USA
This is a not-to-miss podcast with President Barack Obama and The Boss. I wanted to try and point you to one particular episode, friends, but I can’t. Truly, all eight segments are golden, and deeply wise.
-dayle
Here’s a clip.
President Barack Obama asks in the introduction of the first episode of the podcast: “How did we get here? How could we find our way back to a more unifying American story?”
Bruce explains: “That topic came to dominate so many of my conversations last year—with Michelle, with my daughters and with friends. And one of the friends just happened to be Mr. Bruce Springsteen. On the surface, Bruce and I don’t have a lot in common. But over the years, what we’ve found is that we’ve got a shared sensibility. About work, about family and about America. In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys trying to understand this country that’s given us both so much. Trying to chronicle the stories of its people. Looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth and community with the larger story of America.”
Need to post this after listening to one of the most poignant episodes for me.
American Skin.
Recorded after a police shooting 20 years ago. Still, tragically, as prevalent today.
And this. The one song President Obama said can still make him cry.
Trial by Media
May 16, 2020Netflix docuseries.
Executive producers:
- George Clooney
- Court TV creator Steven Brill
- CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin
The Guardian:
“We wanted a mix of cases that were famous and recognizable, and cases that were … just bizarre and fascinating on their own terms,” Toobin, a New Yorker staff writer, told the Guardian. “It’s really more about media manipulation from a broader perspective. I think in each of these stories, you see that the one-sentence media summary is almost invariably misleading if not outright wrong” compared with the trial.”
Episode #3:
The death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed west African immigrant who was shot at, in what became an incendiary headline, 41 times by New York police in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment” while reaching for his wallet. He was unarmed. The four NYPD white police officers were acquitted after the trial was moved from the Bronx to Albany.
“The one thing you can say with certainty is that courtrooms are not hermetically sealed from what’s going on in the world,” said Toobin. “That tension between wanting a verdict entirely on the evidence in the individual case and recognizing that politics and social conditions are always going to affect the outcome – that is I think part of the tension that’s always going to be present in courtrooms.”
“You can get killed just for living in your American skin.”
Because. It’s Bruce.
September 5, 2016One of his most powerful contributions to social commentary.