Best Of: A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Forgotten Teachings
The Ezra Klein Show4 Heinä 2023

Best Of: A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Forgotten Teachings

It’s hard to think of a more celebrated figure of the 20th century than Martin Luther King Jr.

He has a national memorial in Washington, D.C. His birthday is one of just 11 federal holidays. His words and legacy are routinely evoked by politicians of both major parties. I would go as far as to say he should be considered one of America’s founding fathers, which is one reason why I wanted to revisit this episode on Independence Day.

But the paradox of King’s legacy is that while many revere him, very few actually read him. Most of us can cite a handful of his most famous quotes, but King’s actual teachings span five books, countless speeches and sermons, and years of detailed correspondence.

There’s perhaps no scholar working today who studies Dr. King’s political philosophy as deeply as Brandon Terry. Terry is the John L. Loeb associate professor of social sciences at Harvard, where he specializes in Black political thought. He is the co-editor of “To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr.,” the editor of “Fifty Years Since MLK,” and the author of numerous popular and academic articles on King’s political thought. His work is committed to rescuing the nuances of Dr. King’s philosophies and forcing a confrontation with what King actually said and believed, rather than what he’s come to represent.

In this conversation, taped in January, we follow the commitment that animates much of Terry’s work: to take King seriously as a philosopher, rather than as purely a political actor. And it turns out that King understood a lot about politics that we’ve lost sight of today.

We’re taping an “Ask Me Anything” episode soon. If you have a question for Ezra, send it to ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com with the subject line, “AMA.”

Mentioned:

Imagining the nonviolent state” by Ezra Klein

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” by Martin Luther King Jr.

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime by Elizabeth Hinton

Rethinking the Problem of Alliance: Organized Labor and Black Political Life” by Brandon M. Terry and Jason Lee

The Truly Disadvantaged by William Julius Wilson

Book recommendations:

Where Do We Go From Here by Martin Luther King Jr.

The Trumpet of Conscience by Martin Luther King Jr.

The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph

A More Beautiful and Terrible History by Jeanne Theoharis

Dark Ghettos by Tommie Shelby

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.

This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Rogé Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker and Rollin Hu. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Jeff Geld. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jaksot(490)

A Radical Proposal for True Democracy

A Radical Proposal for True Democracy

One thing I want to do on this show is give space to truly radical ideas, to expand the boundaries of our political and moral imaginations. And Hélène Landemore, a political scientist at Yale, has one...

23 Helmi 202144min

What It Means to be Kind in a Cruel World

What It Means to be Kind in a Cruel World

George Saunders is one of America’s greatest living writers. He’s the author of dozens of critically acclaimed short stories, including his 2013 collection, “Tenth of December”; his debut novel, “Linc...

19 Helmi 20211h 15min

What ‘Drained-Pool’ Politics Costs America

What ‘Drained-Pool’ Politics Costs America

“The American landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold thousands of swimmers at a time,” writes Heather McGhee in her new book, “The Sum of Us: What Ra...

16 Helmi 20211h 8min

The Senate Is Making a Mockery of Itself

The Senate Is Making a Mockery of Itself

The Senate is where Joe Biden’s agenda will live or die. More specifically, the intricacies of archaic Senate rules — the budget reconciliation process, the filibuster, the majority leader’s ability t...

12 Helmi 20211h 9min

Should We Dim the Sun? Will We Even Have a Choice?

Should We Dim the Sun? Will We Even Have a Choice?

“We are as gods and might as well get good at it,” Stewart Brand famously wrote in “The Whole Earth Catalogue.” Human beings act upon nature at fantastic scale, altering whole ecosystems, terraforming...

9 Helmi 202156min

An Appalled Republican Considers the Future of the G.O.P.

An Appalled Republican Considers the Future of the G.O.P.

"I don’t think conservatism can do its job in a free society in opposition to the institutions of that society,” Yuval Levin told me. “I think it can only function in defense of them.”Levin is the dir...

5 Helmi 20211h 25min

To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems

To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems

As my colleague Ben Smith wrote in an August profile, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci has “made a habit of being right on the big things.” She saw the threat of the coronavirus early and clearly. She saw t...

2 Helmi 20211h 9min

What’s Happening to Our Economy Is Like a Natural Disaster

What’s Happening to Our Economy Is Like a Natural Disaster

The Biden administration’s first legislative priority is a $1.9 trillion economic rescue package. It’s the kind of mega-package where the individual policies contained inside it — a $15 minimum wage, ...

29 Tammi 20211h 8min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
politiikan-puskaradio
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
tervo-halme
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-podme-livebox
rss-asiastudio
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
otetaan-yhdet
viisupodi
the-ulkopolitist
rikosmyytit
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
aihe
radio-antro
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel
rss-merja-mahkan-rahat
rss-kaikki-uusiksi