Gabrielle ThompsonAre you wanting to learn more about racial justice? Well you’ve come to the right place. This is a curated list of the best racial justice podcasts of 2021.
We have selected these podcasts for a variety of reasons, but they are all well worth a listen. We tried to select a variety of podcasts across the spectrum from hosts with a wide breadth of experience.
We are always keen to hear your feedback, if we have missed a podcast, Twitter us Pretty Progressive (Twitter) and we will check it out!
Best Racial Justice Podcasts 2021
With thanks to ListenNotes, Crunchbase, SemRush and Ahrefs for providing the data to create and rank these podcasts.
Hope & Hard Pills
- Publisher: Andre Henry, Alicia T. Crosby
- Total Episodes: 28
Exploring practical insight on racial justice and social change.
Be the Bridge Podcast with Latasha Morrison
- Publisher: That Sounds Fun Network
- Total Episodes: 29
LATASHA MORRISON is a best-selling and award winning author, bridge-builder, reconciler, and a compelling voice in the fight for racial justice. In 2016, she founded Be the Bridge, a non-profit organization equipping more than 1,000 sub-groups across five countries to serve as ambassadors of racial reconciliation. This podcast is another step is cultivating conversations that will hopefully lead to real change.
The Soul of the Nation with Jim Wallis
- Publisher: District Productive
- Total Episodes: 129
The Jim Wallis Show informs and inspires grass roots, influentials, and political leaders to examine our priorities in meeting the Biblical call for social justice and from that examination take action to promote racial and social justice, life and peace, and environmental stewardship.
The View
- Publisher: ABC News
- Total Episodes: 229
Tackling the day’s important conversations on politics, the pandemic, the movement for racial justice, and more — with up-to-the-minute Hot Topics. “The View” is the place to be heard. A must-stop destination for political guests. Watch “The View” live each weekday 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET on ABC, or catch up right here with the podcast! Moderated by Whoopi Goldberg with co-hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, Meghan McCain and Ana Navarro.
Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature | Bioneers Radio Series
- Publisher: Bioneers
- Total Episodes: 265
The Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature is an award-winning series featuring breakthrough solutions for people and planet.The greatest social and scientific innovators of our time celebrate the genius of nature and human ingenuity. The kaleidoscopic scope covers biomimicry, ecological design, social and racial justice, women’s leadership, ecological medicine, indigenous knowledge, spirituality and psychology. It’s leading-edge, hopeful, charismatic, provocative, timely and timeless – like nothing you’ve heard before.
History Shows Us
- Publisher: Lettie Shumate
- Total Episodes: 56
Join historian Lettie Shumate as she examines what history shows us and makes critical connections between the past and present. Lettie’s passion for history and educating about the truth can be heard and felt through her engaging discussions about racism, current events, racial justice, and politics in a time when historical background needs to meet current realities. Her perspective and delivery are unique, direct, and just what you need to hear.
Criminal (In)justice
- Publisher: David Harris
- Total Episodes: 150
Sometimes challenging, often disturbing, occasionally absurd, always timely: Criminal Injustice explores the most complex and urgent issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system in conversation with the field's most knowledgeable experts. Professor David Harris and guests take on everything from racial bias to use of force… from surveillance technology to mass incarceration… and from police abuse and misconduct to the astonishing, frequently hilarious misdeeds of "Lawyers Behaving Badly." It's not a lecture hall, and you don't need a law degree to keep up. But you'll walk away from each episode with a deeper, richer understanding of what's wrong with the criminal justice system – and how to fix it.
Beltway Banthas: Star Wars, Politics & More
- Publisher: Stephen Kent
- Total Episodes: 143
Beltway Banthas is a monthly Star Wars podcast about the intersection of Star Wars and politics. Host, Stephen Kent, draws from politics IRL and connects the big problems we face to lessons in the Star Wars universe. Whether it be discourse about redemption, empathy, humility or hot button topics ranging from racial justice to cancel culture, Beltway Banthas takes it all on.
Anti-Racist Educator Reads
- Publisher: Colinda Clyne
- Total Episodes: 30
A broadcast for educators who understand that we need to be talking about race and racism in schools now. We will learn, and unlearn through a great book on racial justice. Each week, your host Colinda Clyne invites educational leaders to be in conversation about sections of selected texts, discussing historical contexts and connections to education.
The Other Side of the Water: Immigration and the Promise of Racial Justice
- Publisher: RES Media
- Total Episodes: 7
The Other Side of the Water: Immigration and the Promise of Racial Justice is a six-episode series discussing the intersection of immigration and racial justice. The series centers the 1985 US Supreme Court case Jean v. Nelson, a case about the racial discrimination experienced by Haitian asylum seekers in the 1980s. Episodes feature acclaimed authors, attorneys, activists, and academics who discuss the relevant context in Haiti, the history of anti-Black racism in immigration policy, and the social movements that continue to strive for immigrant and racial justice today.
Champions of Change: The RISE Podcast
- Publisher: Champions of Change: The RISE Podcast
- Total Episodes: 92
With new episodes every other Tuesday, Champions of Change: The RISE Podcast gives athletes and leaders in sports a platform to tell their stories and share their perspectives on issues of race, social justice and diversity, equity & inclusion in sports. Hosted by Ian Cutler, our podcast features interviews on how athletes are making a difference in their communities, and the power of sports to bring people together, improve race relations and advance racial equity and social justice.
Flame Bearers – The Women Athletes Carrying Tokyo’s Torch
- Publisher: Jamie Mittelman
- Total Episodes: 20
Flame Bearers: The Women Athletes Carrying Tokyo’s Torch celebrates the journeys of Tokyo’s unsung women Olympians & Paralympians and provides action-oriented analysis of the issues closest to their hearts. We share their rarely heard stories and are a microphone for women who are true masters of resiliency. Through storytelling, we use sport as a vehicle for issues such as racial justice, disability bias and pay equity. This podcast is made possible by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program.
#TellBlackStories
- Publisher: Color Of Change
- Total Episodes: 42
The #TellBlackStories podcast is an extension of Color Of Change’s work to change the rules in Hollywood, and entire media landscape, to ensure accurate, diverse, empathetic and human portrayals of Black people. It is an unfiltered, unapologetic, dose of quick witted commentary on the most relevant social, political and cultural issues impacting the Black community. #TellBlackStories elevates the voices, stories and work of change makers, content creators, activists, and leaders driving a movement for accurate portrayals of Black people. #TellBlackStories is presented by Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. To learn more visit tellblackstories.org/podcast.
COVID NoiseFilter – Doctors Explain the Latest on COVID-19
- Publisher: NoiseFilter
- Total Episodes: 267
Ten minutes a day, five days a week – only the COVID updates you need, as explained by Infectious Disease and Community Health specialists. We’ll sort through the news, medical journals, and latest studies, distilling the important information and delivering it in clear, bite sized chunks. Where else can you get COVID-19 updates, from doctors, with a social, economic, and racial justice lens? Nowhere. Subscribe now.
Voices With Jawan Strader
- Publisher: NBC 6 South Florida
- Total Episodes: 75
Stories on racial justice and other issues that affect South Florida’s Black community
From Woke to Work: The Anti-Racist Journey
- Publisher: Kamala Avila-Salmon X StudioPod Media
- Total Episodes: 18
This is From Woke to Work: The Anti-Racist Journey. Hosted by Kamala Avila-Salmon, she talks about what it means to go from a self-proclaimed ally to an effective anti-racist. Whether you’re an ally that’s ready to take action or a Black person looking for a place to direct all those ally questions, this is the podcast you’ll want to keep close at hand. There’s something missing about the way that we’re talking about allyship. Kamala felt it more acutely than ever in the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. In this moment, the biggest global awakening on racism and racial injustice in a generation, more and more white and non-black people started showing up declaring themselves “Anti-Racist”. What were they doing? What were they actually doing besides messages of concern to their black friends and turning your profile pictures Black? What actions were they taking? Kamala started to get mad, but then she got curious. Did these newly “woke” allies know they needed to do things to bring about racial justice and equity? Did they know what to do? She put pen to paper and sketched out an anti-racism journey modeled after the traditional marketing funnel of how we get consumers from unaware to adopters of our product. Over the series of this podcast, Kamala will talk about that journey; how you can go from being woke (i.e. aware of racial inequity and injustice) to actually doing the work and eradicating it.
The Future We Want
- Publisher: BBMG
- Total Episodes: 9
A podcast for rebellious brand leaders ready to get to work, do the work and create the future we want. Hosted by Raphael Bemporad, founding partner of the branding and social impact agency BBMG, the podcast takes on topics like human connection, racial justice, capitalism, climate change and the truth and big tech with perspectives that are borne from lived experience and lessons that can guide our way forward.
Think 100%: The Coolest Show
- Publisher: Hip Hop Caucus
- Total Episodes: 91
The Coolest Show presented by Hip Hop Caucus’ Think 100% comes out every Friday. Subscribe today! Season 2 of The Coolest Show features discussions with some of the most inspiring people on the planet. Host Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. brings his charismatic and loving self to each conversation, and creates a space where guests speak from their souls. While full of expertise on climate justice, racial justice, and politics, the heart of The Coolest Show is getting to know people who are changing the world, in their own voices. Season 1 is a live radio format, with current events and guest interviews. Antonique Smith and Mustafa Santiago Ali join Rev Yearwood as co-hosts on many episodes. Hip Hop Caucus’ Think 100% is an award-winning climate justice communications and activism platform. Learn more, take action, and donate to its non-profit mission at Think100Climate.com. Follow and share on social media at @think100climate, @hiphopcaucus, and @revyearwood on Twitter, Facebook, and IG.
To See Each Other
- Publisher: People’s Action
- Total Episodes: 8
Where we explore how people are reshaping small town America and how writing it off as Trump country hurts us all.Hosted by George Goehl, To See Each Other complicates the narrative about rural Americans in our most misunderstood, and often abandoned, communities. George travels to Michigan, Iowa, New Jersey, North Carolina and Indiana to reveal how small town folks are working together in fights for everything from clean water and racial justice to immigration rights and climate change. Our belief: That when we see each other, we’ll understand that we can never give up on each other.
White Savior Complex
- Publisher: Steve Discourse
- Total Episodes: 14
Reflections on becoming an effective ally in the fight for racial justice. — White Savior Complex examines anti-racism with the understanding that ending racism is the responsibility of white people. Through discussions of current events, historical contexts, interviews with black voices and white allies, WSC unpacks the complexities and pitfalls of combating racism as a white person.
