Democracy In Color

In this episode, we sit down with one of the brightest rising stars at the New York Times—political reporter Astead Herndon—for sharp conversation and analysis about the nature of the moment we’re in. Astead, 29, shares why he sees election reporting as culture reporting, how he helped make the reparations debate a litmus test for Democratic Presidential candidates back in early 2020, and why representation alone doesn’t chin the bar for younger voters of color. We also discuss American journalism’s current gut check moment through the lens of Nikole Hannah-Jones’ recent denial of tenure at the University of North Carolina and how Astead shows up authentically at the Times (including getting paid to sing Beyoncé songs). REFERENCES: Sign up for our newsletter here: https://democracyincolor.com/join-us Astead W. Herndon, New York Times, National Politics Reporter – @AsteadWesley New York Times - Outtake from “The Daily” https://nytimes.com/audio/2019/11/22/podcasts/22daily-newsletter-audio.html Nikole Han