Colson Whitehead, "The Underground Railroad"
October 7, 2016
27,751
318
14
1.20%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Politics and Prose Episodes Around October 7, 2016
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
53:10Now PlayingColson Whitehead, "The Underground Railroad"
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelIn his sixth novel—the latest Oprah’s Book Club pick—Whitehead recreates the brutal antebellum south, following Cora as she escapes from slavery on a Georgia cotton plantation, killing a young white man in the process, and heads for freedom somewhere up north. In this mesmerizing reimagining by the award-winning author of The Intuitionist and John Henry Days, however, the Underground Railroad is exactly that: a network of tracks and tunnels built below the ground. While parts of it seem like a true refuge, other places are rife with slave-catchers and other, more insidious threats. Part adventure, part history, and part meditation on the meaning of “freedom,” Whitehead’s novel is very much a portrait of today’s America.
Whitehead will be in conversation with WAMU reporter Jonathan Wilson.
Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics & Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics & Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at
Produced by Michael A. Kowaleski
Links & Promotions
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.