Episode 09: Talking About Race

I rarely talk about race because the language around race is usually sloppy and politically charged. It means that when we should be focused on solving problems that affect our communities, we wind up focusing on how to prop up our ego. Conversations about race tend to devolve into polar opposites—we feel like we need to pick sides. I hate picking sides because I am usually uncomfortable with shutting down either side of an argument. I’m not talking about extremists—on either side—who advocate for violence or total separation. I’m talking about people who express the depth of their lived experiences and are struggling to know how to live their best life. Somehow, my friend Adrian got me to open up more about race. Adrian and I started graduate school together and wound up getting our Ph.D. on the same day. Check out Adrian’s website and his engaging conversations with people from all over the world.

Om Podcasten

Alexs Thompson is an internationally recognized scholar of Islam who spent over a decade living and working in the Middle East with self-described fundamentalists in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, and numerous countries in Central and East Africa. Much of that time was spent in support of U.S. forces and international policy. Alexs received a Ph.D. from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago where he wrote his dissertation on medieval Islamic history. He also received a Master's degree in geochemistry from the University of Illinois (Chicago) where he wrote about the age and sustainability of groundwater in Egypt. Dr. Thompson has been published in Joint Force Quarterly--the leading military journal directed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Small Wars Journal, and been a guest speaker at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy as well as the Association of the United States Army. In his travels, he worked with Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal and participated in numerous pivotal combat zones in the War on Terror. https://www.thisherolife.com