This article has been published to coincide with an episode of Mashable's new podcast,video lucah atikah suhaime History Becomes Her.Listen here.
Podcasting has a representation problem. There are more podcasts than ever before, but women and people of colour are still sorely underrepresented as hosts, especially when it comes to daily news.
Akilah Hughes is a writer, comedian, YouTuber, and podcaster. Hughes is the co-host of Crooked Media's What A Daypodcast and one of the few black women hosting a daily news podcast.
You May Also Like
This week's episode is hosted by Jess Joho, Mashable's LA-based staff writer. In this episode, Hughes discusses representation in podcasting, her book Obviously: Stories from My Timeline, and how she practices self-care as someone reporting on daily news.
You can listen to the episode onApple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Akilah Hughes, host of What A Day. Credit: Nick Rasmussen This episode was recorded in Feb. 2020, during Black History Month in the U.S. when the Democratic Primaries were in full swing.
In the episode, Hughes shares her admiration for Constance Baker Motley, an African-American civil rights activist and the first African-American woman to become a federal judge. Motley was the assistant attorney to Thurgood Marshall arguing the case Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
"I think that she's someone we're celebrating that we never hear about," says Hughes.
Rev. Martin Luther king and attorneys Constance Motley and William Kunstler in July 1962. Credit: Bettmann Archive Motley was the first black woman to serve in the New York State Senate and the first woman to be Manhattan Borough President.
Motley was a lead trial attorney for a number of significant civil rights cases, and represented Martin Luther King, Jr., the Freedom Riders, and the Birmingham Children Marchers. She was widely regardedas the leading courtroom strategist of the civil rights movement.
Constance Baker Motley of the NAACP legal fund at her office in Columbus Circle, February 20, 1961. Credit: Arthur Pomerantz/New York Post Archives /(c) NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images As the host of What A Day, Akilah Hughes brings a refreshing approach to political discourse you'll be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
"As a black woman — not to speak for all of us — but I think historically, we have shown up for every group of people. And because of that, I think that I read the news differently. And my take on the news is different."
Subscribe to History Becomes Her onApple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Topics Activism Social Good