Formerly known as BcCo’s Blacking It Up, TWiB! Prime is the flagship show of The Official This Week in Blackness Network, an independent media podcast network. TWiB! Prime is the closest that listeners will get to the original podcast. I started listening to this show because it was originally based in New York City, my hometown, and fed my nostalgia needs while quenching my thirst for a more complex and nuanced approach to current events not currently offered by network tv or mainstream publications. The hosts deliver a progressive voice with a conservative background so even though many people may call it a liberal show, TWiB! Prime reflects many of the complexities of my life as someone who was extremely conservative who began to recognize the contradictions in the current incarnation of the Republican party: values versus actual agenda. I also enjoyed the inherent humor, the doses of popular culture and the assumption that a black audience wanted more than BET had to offer. Since its humble beginnings, the TWiB network has moved its main office to the West Coast while maintaining its East Coast roots. Elon James White, the podcast’s founder, expanded his repertoire from one podcast to a full-fledged podcast empire. The network features numerous shows under the TWiB label, but Elon James White isn’t only the founder of this podcast network, but the host, along with Aaron Rand Freeman, who is also the show’s resident engineer. There is usually a third host, but the third host has changed frequently through the years: Bassey Ikpi, a poet who had to leave to focus on her writing, L. Joy Williams, who is a political strategist and currently has her own show in the TWiB family, Dacia Williams, a PhD candidate who will hopefully return after she finishes her doctorate, and now a rotation of media interns who have their own accomplishments and styles. My only warning: there can be profanity, and if you are easily offended by challenges to your privilege, whatever that privilege may be, then this podcast is not for you. The hosts constantly question their own assumptions and play devil’s advocate so may anger some conservatives AND liberals who are unwilling to explore all sides of an argument. If you are interested in finding a new staple to your daily routine and want to listen to something that makes you realize that you are not the only person who wants to laugh, be reasonable and informed, then TWiB Prime is for you.
TWiB! Prime
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