Скачать или смотреть Tupac Shakur's life and political legacy with Dean Van Nguyen

Politics is a battle over elections and policies, but underneath it’s really a battle over stories, the cultural myths that shape our sense of identity, power, and possibility. And few stories loom larger in the American imagination than the saga of Tupac Shakur, the rapper and actor whose influence continues to resonate across the globe nearly 30 years after his death.

It’s easy to see why. The problems of poverty, racism, capitalism, and inequality are as present today as they were when Tupac and other early hip-hop musicians began telling stories that no one else would.

Talking about all of this with me today is Dean Van Nguyen. He’s the author of a new biography of Tupac Shakur called “Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur” that highlights the political legacy that was lost when the emcee was gunned down in the streets of Las Vegas in 1996. But despite the fact that today’s rap has largely been silenced by the capitalism its founders opposed, the spirit of revolution Tupac and others desired still echoes today.

And speaking of modern-day echoes, we also get into a very strange and bizarre phenomenon of how Donald Trump has been trying to turn himself a sort of Tupac inheritor; and that more than a few rappers have co-signed. It’s a conversation about symbolism, masculinity, memory, and resistance.

Full transcript: https://plus.flux.community/p/ae487e9...

Book link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1399615440/...

Dean Van Nguyen on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/deanvannguye...

TIMECODES
00:00 -- Introduction
06:08 -- Tupac's continued global resonance
09:52 -- The origins of hiphop and its commercialization
12:19 -- Tupac's socialist principles
16:41 -- Tupac's contradictions and legacy
19:52 -- The Black Panthers' influence on Tupac's mother
25:10 -- Masculinity and gender within hiphop
30:42 -- Gender and sexuality in the Black Panther Party
37:47 -- Obama and Trump in hip hop culture
41:15 -- Former Panthers still have hope for the future despite Trump
43:42 -- Trump's 2024 campaign reached out heavily to hiphop performers
48:48 -- 'Coolness' as a non-political voter persuasion method
53:00 -- How Van Nguyen brought oral history into books
01:01:15 -- Eazy-E, a fellow political West Coast emcee
01:05:04 -- The meaning of 'thug life'


MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
This is a free episode of Theory of Change, but in order to keep the show sustainable, the full audio, video, and transcript for some episodes are available to subscribers only. The deep conversations we bring you about politics, religion, technology, and media take great time and care to produce. Your subscriptions make Theory of Change possible and we’re very grateful for your help.

Please join today to get full access!

Substack:
https://theoryofchange.show/

Patreon:
  / discoverflux  

If you would like to support the show but don’t want to subscribe, you can also send one-time donations via PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/theor...

If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. Doing this helps other people find Theory of Change and our great guests.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...


ABOUT THE SHOW
Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux Community, a new content network of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.

Get access to all the Flux podcasts visit: https://linktr.ee/discoverflux

Theory of Change on Twitter:   / theorychange  

Theory of Change on YouTube:    / @theoryofchangepodcast  

Matthew Sheffield on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield

Matthew Sheffield on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthew.flux...

Matthew Sheffield on Twitter:   / mattsheffield