The Equator Podcast

"Should we cancel 'The Gods Must Be Crazy?' I don't know"

This week, Equator's Nesrine Malik talks to the writer Carey Baraka about a piece that isn't out yet – but will be soon, in the first print issue of Equator next month. To receive it, make sure you're subscribed to our Insider or Patron tier [http://www.equator.org/join] of membership. For both Nesrine and Carey, the film The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) is a significant childhood memory, even if they now view it very differently. The movie was an instant global hit that led to a series of sequels and million-dollar paydays for its creators. But as Carey rewatched the film decades later, the nostalgia he held collided with a far more uncomfortable truth, and he explains how deeply the film relied on racist tropes and inaccurate portrayals of African people. In writing his forthcoming essay for Equator – part reconsideration, part travelogue, part film criticism – Carey shares what he uncovered: a director who mythologised the production and embellished stories about how he “discovered” the cast; how he portrayed them as naïve and untouched by modernity; and how these narratives weren’t just misleading but instrumental in shaping how audiences perceived both the film and the people in it. What do the creation of this film and its legacy say about how stories about Africa are told, even down to the present day? Who gets to decide which stories are told, and how? This episode is an exploration of how the media shapes perception, how myths get constructed around creative work, and what it means to revisit the stories that shaped us with clearer eyes. If you haven't already, sign up today [http://www.equator.org/join] to get Equator's first print issue, which includes Carey's gripping piece on The Gods Must Be Crazy. This is the last episode of Season 1 of the Equator podcast. Stay tuned for Season 2!

"The American Jewish identity has been weaponised as a cover for genocide"

Equator's Nesrine Malik talks to the writer Benjamin Moser, whose personal story and political analysis reveal the entanglement between American Judaism and the project of American power. Drawing on his upbringing in a Jewish-American community, Benjamin reflects on the values he was raised with and how they intersected with a broader narrative of American exceptionalism. He narrates how the alignment between liberal Zionism and US global dominance has shaped both political discourse and moral frameworks, leading to profound contradictions -- and tragic consequences in Gaza. It's sad, he says, "that Judaism and [the] Jewish identity could be weaponised to the extent that it could be used as a cover for genocide." The conversation delves into Benjamin's argument that a sense of moral authority, rooted in both historical trauma and national identity, has influenced how many in the American Jewish community have understood their place in the world. The Jews in the US, he says, "became so much a part of [the] white power structure that they, or I should say we, forgot about it." But younger generations are increasingly questioning these inherited narratives, rethinking longstanding assumptions about Israel, Palestine and diaspora identity. What does it mean to speak out today? And what should we expect when we do it? Read Benjamin's essay for Equator, We Have Talked Enough About Ourselves [https://www.equator.org/articles/we-have-talked-enough-about-ourselves].

"The American university is simply a corporate institution"

The American university today, the writer Siddhartha Deb tells Equator's Pankaj Mishra, is "a money-making, MBA- and lawyer-run hedge fund and real estate operation with a minor sideline in education." It's hard, he says, to tell the difference between "Columbia University and the New School on the one hand and X and Elon Musk on the other." Siddhartha, an Indian writer and novelist, came to academia in the US in the belief that it was a citadel of free thought and open minds. But as he wrote in his Equator essay From Calcutta to Columbia [https://www.equator.org/articles/from-calcutta-to-columbia], disenchantment set in quickly. He saw how students were loaded with debt, how his university was voraciously expanding across its pocket of Manhattan, and how the jargon of theory "allowed people to cultivate a moral distance from capital and empire". Journalism has suffered in parallel as well, both in the US and India. Siddhartha, a former journalist, tells Pankaj that newspapers as much as universities have cravenly surrendered to the Trump administration and but also to previous presidents. "I grew up with this idea of writing being a noble vocation," says Pankaj. "One of the great disillusioning experiences really of the last two or three decades has been that very few people seem to think of it that way. Most people think of it  as a pathway to the most hideously conventional forms of success." Read Siddhartha's essay for Equator, From Calcutta to Columbia [https://www.equator.org/articles/from-calcutta-to-columbia].

"Americans are finally aware that their internet isn't free and open"

Beneath the headlines and half-truths, what is the Chinese internet really like? Equator's Samanth Subramanian speaks to Yi-Ling Liu, author of The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet, who reveals how life online in China actually operates – from the subtle, ever-shifting cycles of state oversight to the surprising spaces where creativity and subcultures thrive. Increasingly, Yi-Ling is asked by people she meets in America: how should they deal with the constraints and diminishing freedoms of their own internet? The internet began as a utopian promise of a free, open and fair space, but for most of the world, it is now distorted by a handful of American tech giants, the tyranny of algorithms, and AI engines that spew out slop. China's internet has faced different kinds of restrictions, imposed by the government. But it, too, was once more open, allowing new kinds of connections and identities to be forged online. The Wall Dancers profiles several people who blossomed online – including Kafe Hu, a hip-hop artist whose genre blossomed in China thanks to the internet – but who also then saw their lives curtailed by fresh censorship. Still, Yi-Ling says, the internet in China remains playful, vibrant and inventive, as people find ways to collaborate and bypass the state's restrictions.  As governments and platforms reshape the boundaries of digital expression, what might the future of the internet look like? And who gets to decide? This episode invites you to rethink what you know about life online - both in China and beyond. Read Have Money Daddy [https://www.equator.org/articles/have-money-daddy], an excerpt from Yi-Ling's book published exclusive in Equator.

"Climate change is a class-based disaster"

This week, Equator's Mohsin Hamid talks to the award-winning writer Amitav Ghosh about how Western NGOs and climate experts have focused their apocalyptic thinking on Bangladesh -- often to the detriment of the Bangladeshis themselves. Two-thirds of Bangladesh is less than 15 feet above sea level, making it highly exposed to the rise of oceans, coastal flooding, tropical cyclones and the salination of the soil, all of which threaten homes and food security. Over the centuries, Western development experts have brought their own experiences of Europe and America to bear on the environment of Bangladesh. But as Amitav wrote in an essay [https://www.equator.org/articles/beyond-the-apocalypse] for Equator, they have routinely failed to heed local knowledge or local patterns of living and sustenance. If their solutions are destined to fail, it is because of the presumptive and high-handed methodologies behind them.  Mohsin and Amitav also discuss how these NGOs and aid organisations prize the Western notion of individualism over collaboration and collectivism. That notion can end up clouding our vision for the future, preventing us from finding innovative solutions to climate change and other pressing issues. Read Amitav’s essay, Beyond the Apocalypse [https://www.equator.org/articles/beyond-the-apocalypse].