This summer, people around the world took to the streets to protest police brutality in America. There were thousands for whom this was their first time protesting or being a part of the movement. Yet for Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. and countless other young Black people in America, this reaction was tiresome and even disingenuous. The poet and producer behind Gimlet’s Mogul and Uncivil podcasts had reckoned with this reality before—every day of his life.
When he mentioned this self-described nihilistic point of view to his coworkers Kimmie Regler and Sarah McVeigh, the two fellow producers jumped on the idea. They decided to create a show that captured Saidu’s “I’m over this” feeling and pair it with “I’m not going to take this lying down.” The result is Resistance, a Spotify Original Podcast, from Gimlet, a Spotify Studio.
At its core, Resistance is a show about refusing to accept things as they are. It consists of stories from the front lines of the movement for Black lives told by Black and brown individuals in a generation fighting for change. For the Record sat down with Saidu to learn more about the podcast, debuting October 14.
There’s so many different stories you’re telling with this podcast, from someone running for city council in New York to another person explaining what it’s like to be a Black man in Nebraska. What do you hope that listeners will walk away with after hearing these very personal experiences?
All the people that I’ve talked to have hope about the future, but they all have different ways of tackling how they want to make that hope a reality. Some of them think it’s through politics, some of them think it’s through the day-to-day, very small acts of resistance that they put up in their lives. And some of them want very immediate change while others are strapped in for the long term.
I’m hoping that people will hear these stories and feel like they have a little extra motivation not to be complacent. I want people to examine what resistance looks like in their own lives, or think about what resistance could look like in their own lives. I don’t really know what that means for every individual person. I’ve been on the side where I’m super engaged with politics and going to protests. And then I’ve been on the side where I’m not doing anything at all. And I understand there’s a value in both things.
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