One white, one Black, they grew up in Chicago as best friends and didn’t realize how rare that was. ‘Some of My Best Friends Are ...’ is their popular podcast about race
CHICAGO — This is a story about a podcast in which two old friends rarely disagree, always get along, and though they are discussing race and social justice and the sorry state of the world, voices remain low, tones remain civil and conversation always seems thoughtful.
Basically, Man Bites Dog these days.
In fact, they stay so reasoned, casual and frank — so relaxed on issues that fill heated city council meetings and TikTok posts in 2022 — you can imagine their podcast driving certain listeners nuts. It’s called “Some of My Best Friends Are ...,” and that title itself is a provocation, a play on the hoariest of racial bona fides, the sort of shallow social assumptions that tend to characterize the way we tiptoe around race. It’s a clever title. They are best friends. Exactly the sorts to never fall back on, “Some of my friends are ...”
Khalil Gibran Muhammad is best known as a Harvard-based authority on race and inequality; Ben Austen made his name writing about the legacy of race and discrimination in Chicago. Their reputations precede them. Last September, after a year of development by Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries production company, “Some of My Best Friends Are ...” launched, and on just the fourth episode, Muhammad played a recording that was left on his voicemail about a TV appearance he had recently made. The listener had a proposition: He suggested that Muhammad fly to a midway point in the United States, and once there, Muhammad could call the man a racist to his face.
The man was a stranger.
He just felt, I suppose, implicated.
The thing is, and maybe this is naive, if they had flown across the country and met? I bet that guy would have been charmed. I bet he would recognize their common ground.
deeply into making money, playing tennis with best friend Ben Austen when he wasn’t working as the teenage
