Vanity Fair recognizes Black history podcast featuring a University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor

Vanity Fair has identified eight podcasts to deepen a person’s knowledge of Black history, and one contains a voice familiar to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The podcast, “Blackbelt Voices,” hosted by Adena White, Kara Wilkins, and Katrina Dupins, is one of the featured podcasts. White is a graduate of UA Little Rock with a master’s degree in applied communication studies.

The episode Vanity Fair recommends people listen to is “Rioting in American History,” which reviews the country’s history of racial violence with Dr. Brian Mitchell, professor of history at UA Little Rock. Mitchell provides a historical perspective on the George Floyd protests and what he thinks will happen next.

The Blackbelt Voices podcast propagates the richness of Black Southern culture by telling the stories of Black folks down South. Through first-person narratives and in-depth conversations, hosts Adena J. White, Kara Wilkins, and Katrina Dupins share the experiences of Black Southerners living in, loving, and reconciling with the region we call home.

“These eight podcasts illuminate stories from Black history with the same urgency, care, and impact as 1619, and more often than not, bring a deeply personal perspective to national history,” Justine Goode wrote in Vanity Fair. “We’ve also chosen to highlight episodes that discuss the histories of protests, civil disobedience, uprising, and people fighting to make change, all of which help to further contextualize our current moment in American history. Thanks to these storytellers, historians, and journalists, learning about Black history has never been more accessible or dynamic.