Isabel Wilkerson — This History is Long; This History Is Deep

<p>Go to the doctor and they won’t begin to treat you without taking your history — and not just yours, but that of your parents and grandparents before you. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson points this out as she reflects on her epic work of narrative nonfiction, <i>The Warmth of Other Suns</i>. She’s immersed herself in the stories of the Great Migration, the movement of six million African Americans to northern U.S. cities in the 20th century. The book is a carrier of histories and truths that help make sense of human and social challenges at the heart of our life together now.</p><p>Isabel Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago bureau chief of <i>The New York Times</i> and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2016 “for championing the stories of an unsung history.” Her book<i> The Warmth of Other Suns</i> won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Her new book, <i>Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents</i>, comes out in August 2020.</p><p>Find the transcript for this show at <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/isabel-wilkerson-this-history-is-long-this-history-is-deep">onbeing.org</a></p><p>This show originally aired in November, 2016.</p>