S7 Ep. 11: The Free and the Freed: Tracy K. Smith on Liberty

fiction/non/fiction

Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Tracy K. Smith joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss the difference between being “free” and being “freed.” She suggests that citizens of the United States fall into one category or the other. The first appear to have descended from those who were always free. The second descend from those who were acted upon by those in the first category. Smith talks about the research she’s done to understand the roles her forefathers played in this country’s armed conflicts and the connections between the military and our historical understanding of freedom. She reads from her new collection of essays, To Free the Captives.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Tracy K. Smith

• To Free the Captives
• Life on Mars
• Such Color
• Ordinary Light
• Wade in the Water
• My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree
• There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love
• The Body’s Question
• Duende
• American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Times (Ed.)

Others:

• Fiction/Non/Fiction, Season 4 Episode 9: “Tracy K. Smith and Kawai Strong Washburn on Biden’s Debts to His Base (Especially Black Women)”
• The 1619 Project
• Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture
• W.E.B. Du Bois
• “The Glaring Contradiction of Republicans’ Rhetoric of Freedom” by Ronald Brownstein |The Atlantic, July 8, 2022
• “Trump’s Second-Term Plans: Anti-‘Woke’ University, ‘Freedom Cities’” by Andrew Restuccia | The Wall Street Journal

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