Jenifer Lewis: Mother, Activist, Hurricane

Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen

Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter of the best New Yorker podcasts.

Jenifer Lewis is known as the “Mother of Black Hollywood” for good reason; her screen progeny have included Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, and Tupac Shakur. In her latest turn, she’s playing the alpha boss of a home-shopping network on the Showtime series “I Love That for You.” It’s no surprise that Lewis keeps getting cast as formidable ladies—the roles come naturally to her, as you’ll hear in her conversation with the New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman. Lewis’s new memoir is called “Walking in My Joy: In These Streets.” Plus, the political scientist Barbara F. Walter explains why we can’t afford to ignore the warning signs of a violent conflict on U.S. soil.

The Actor Jenifer Lewis: Mother, Activist, Hurricane

Download a transcript.

Wherever Lewis performs, she tends to steal the show. Now she’s written a new book and plays a multimillionaire boss on Showtime’s “I Love That for You.”

A New Civil War in America?

Download a transcript.

Barbara F. Walter has studied political violence for the C.I.A., and sees troubling signs that a violent insurrection could happen here.

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.