Episode 13: The life and thoughts of Dr Cornel West | UNAPOLOGETIC

UNAPOLOGETIC

“That’s part of an empire that has grown rich and grown powerful but refuses to grow up” - Cornel West.

In an impassioned and lengthy conversation, Dr Cornel West unapologetically shares moments from his life that shaped him and his ideas and inspired his decision to run as a US presidential candidate.

He reflects on his upbringing in the West household, the influence that his parents had on him, how his grandmother was left to bleed to death on the stairs of a whites-only hospital at the age of 31 and how his uncle was lynched.

Dr West also speaks about the influence that Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King had on him, his years studying and teaching at Harvard, Princeton and Yale, and how the civil rights movement has evolved throughout his life. He addresses his “critical” support for and eventual disillusionment with Barack Obama, as well as the reasons behind his current presidential run, Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and the “hypocrisy”, “mendacity” and “criminality” of the US political system.

Chapter

1. Intro and welcome (00:00:00)

2. Growing up in the West household (00:01:29)

3. On Malcolm X and MLK and the impact they had Prof. West. (00:11:04)

4. Student life at Ivy league schools in the 70s (00:14:32)

5. Harvard and the civil rights movement (00:19:50)

6. The USA's philosophical problem (00:26:34)

7. On becoming a globalist and getting arrested (00:30:14)

8. Conflict with Lawrence Summers (00:35:47)

9. Overcoming cancer and Barack Obama (00:46:21)

10. Reviewing Obama, drone wars, Nafta (00:57:07)

11. Bernie, Trump and riots in the capital (01:01:20)

12. Why Cornel West is running for president (01:04:45)

13. What is real joy (01:11:55)

14. A year of campaigning (01:19:17)