Site • RSSDescription (podcaster-provided):
A Pod Called Quest is a podcast taking on everything that people concerned about injustice care about from the wealth gap to voting rights, to police brutality, to reparations, to health and well-being, to climate change, to state repression and much more. Sage and Science want listeners to think with them about problems of injustice, just futures, and evidence-based solutions. Derrick Darby (aka Sage) is a philosopher. Christian Davenport (aka Science) is a political scientist and sociologist. Join our quest to impose logic as well as data on the struggle for justice in America and globally. Give us your time, we give you power, wealth, and culture.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Social justice and systemic racism • US elections, democracy, political violence • Reparations and wealth gap/economic violence • Policing and state repression • Youth and student activism • Hip hop/culture in politics • Imperialism, migration, racism in Britain/USThis podcast examines contemporary and historical struggles over justice in the United States and beyond, using philosophy and social science to frame problems and weigh evidence-based responses. Across the episodes, the hosts focus on how political power, public policy, and culture shape inequality, with recurring attention to race, democracy, and the distribution of wealth and opportunity.
A central theme is the health of American democracy in moments of crisis. The discussions address contested elections, governance transitions, and the conditions under which democratic institutions are strained by disinformation, polarization, and threats of political violence. Alongside overt violence, the podcast also highlights less visible forms of harm—especially “economic violence”—linking issues like slavery’s legacy, concentrated wealth, and persistent racialized inequality to present-day debates about reform.
The show frequently returns to questions of racial equity and reparations: what reparations proposals mean, who they would cover, how they might be designed, and how they interact with broader efforts aimed at poor and working-class communities. It also explores coalition-building and the challenges of organizing across ideological and identity-based divides while still confronting racism, class inequality, and state power.
Culture and political mobilization are treated as substantive forces rather than side topics. The podcast looks at how hip hop and celebrity activism intersect with electoral politics and social movements, and it considers the limits of cultural influence absent sustained organizing and accountability.
Another throughline is movement strategy and civic participation, including the roles of young people and student activism across generations. The hosts use historical texts and figures—especially W. E. B. Du Bois and the tradition of Black radical critique—to connect past analyses of empire, labor, and racism to current debates. International perspectives also appear, particularly through discussions of British imperial history, migration, and racial hierarchy, drawing parallels to U.S. politics and border crises.