The Podcaster's Dilemma

2 Interrogation and Critique

“Hey, yeah we the same brothas from a long time agoWe was talkin’ about television and doin’ it on the radio What we did was to help our generation realize They got to get busy,’cause it wasn’t gonna be televised We got respect for young rappers and the way they’re freewayin’ But if you’re gonna be teaching’ folks things, make sure you know what you’re sayin’”

Gil Scott-Heron, “Message to the Messengers”

In his examination of the decolonizing impact of The Voice Of Fighting Algeria, Frantz Fanon writes: “We shall have occasion to show throughout this book that the challenging of the very principle of foreign domination brings about essential mutations in the consciousness of the colonized.”¹ Building on the analogy between podcasts and revolutionary radio, with its ability to challenge “the very principle of foreign domination,” this chapter focuses on how decolonial podcasters “challenge,” interrogate, and critique dominant ideologies and structures of power in America.

Our analysis is framed by the processes of listening, interrogating, critiquing, and interpreting – processes that Algerian listeners participated in as they engaged with the Voice of Fighting Algeria. Fanon eloquently narrates the story of an Algerian “operator” or listener pressing his ear against the radio to catch from “the Voice” news of battles on the revolutionary front, then translates it to the Algerians in the room; and they in turn, as a community, question that interpretation ...