Erika and Whitney return! In this special bonus episode, the co-directors discuss their latest adventures, including the PBS premiere of their reparations documentary, The Big Payback. And, with a little help from NAACP President Derrick Johnson, they dissect the shaky state of reparations. Can a flood of burgeoning local reparations movements supercharge the perpetually landlocked HR40 initiative in congress? Or will a new strategy, and an executive order from The White House, finally right the rocky ship of reparations?

Make sure to check out The Big Payback film on the PBS Video app. Streaming free until April 15th.

Film: pbs.org/bigpaybackfilm

#BigPaybackFilmPBS

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If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, how many miles will it take for reparations for America's enslaved descendants to find a home? Backed by Analog Players Society and Masta Ace's debut hit, Home In America, Erika and Whitney do a deep dive into their first season's journey and uncover shades of gray and pain in their unusual black and white partnership. But first, a Lord Of The Rings, epic-remix, monologue tells the story of the long, harrowing journey begun by reparations pioneers long ago. Then a new playlist is created to entice their favorite reparations warriors, and opponents, to reappear and bear witness to their reparations journey today. While the pair revisit their best hits, the duo is encouraged to make an all-out sprint toward their season's final destination, slavery's home, The Whitney Plantation in southern Louisiana. And, like the haunted place inspired by Toni Morrison's mythological "Sweet Home," this plantation tells the story from the slave's point of view. Finally, the pair retrace their steps, only to find themselves at the beginning of the end, in the mother of all lands, the great continent of Africa. Now in the belly of the beast, at the Cape Coast slave dungeons, they ask the ultimate question, can America go through the door of no return and come out the other side, whole? Or will America's impractical arrangement and immoral history destroy its own home from the inside out?

“Home in America” is by Analog Players Society and Masta Ace, produced by Ben Rubin. The single will be released on all platforms on June 18 by Ropeadope Records." "'Home in America" features NYC jazz greats: tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin (David Bowie/Blackstar), pianist Orrin Evans (the Bad Plus), bassist Dezron Douglas (Ravi Coltrane), and drummer Eric McPherson (Fred Hersch Trio).

https://www.analogplayerssociety.com/

https://benrubin.com/

https://www.mastaace.com/

https://ropeadope.lnk.to/HomeinAmerica

For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's groundhog day in America. As Erika and Whitney mourn the brutal death of Andrew Brown Jr, another unarmed Black man shot and killed by police, they ask themselves; Does America have the willpower to make reparations to the descendants of slaves? To find answers they travel across the ocean to Poland to hear the story of 77-year-old Mr. Waldemar Ogrodniczak. His Polish parents were forced laborers in WWII, taken from Poland to Germany to build the Third Reich and now as an adult, Waldemar continues his decades-long search for redress and reparations from the German government. Meanwhile, Erika grabs the comedy mic and serves up a spicy monologue to demonstrate the perils of the begrudged debtor who avoids being confronted by the aggrieved creditor. "Stop triggering me, man!" Finally, natural-born genius Killer Mike, helps them to face the ugly truth, that America's biggest business is the business of race, and that business may be too big to fail.

For more info about this episode, please visit https://reparationsbigpayback.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.