Around New England

Deval Patrick’s Next Step: Starting A Podcast

October 9, 2020

Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick was running for president earlier this year. Now, he is a podcaster.

The Democrat, who dropped out of the 2020 presidential race after a lackluster primary showing in New Hampshire, started a podcast about “what it means to be an American,” as NBC Boston reports. The  podcast is called Being American.

Patrick, whose podcast could launch as early as this Friday, will speak with actors, artists, activists, and celebrities, among others. He reportedly says that he wants to put politics aside on the podcast.

“In these discordant and divisive times, a lot of us feel like we don’t recognize America anymore,” Patrick said in a statement on Google Podcasts. “We come from every place on Earth and every station in life, and yet we openly demean each other if we live or think differently. It isn’t clear what unites us, what makes us American.”

“Being American is a series of conversations with people of uncommon wisdom, some you already know and some you don’t know yet, about what it means or ought to mean today to be American,” he continued. “People are dealing with serious challenges that need specific solutions, but I also sense we need a clearer understanding of who we are, a shared set of values and objectives, if we want those solutions to last. In many ways I have been on this journey for years and I am discovering others are as well.”

Although Patrick says he doesn’t want it to be political, the topics of the podcast include:  “community building, overcoming the current hostile political environment, social and economic justice, climate change and more,” according to NBC Boston.

Some of the expected guests for the first season of the podcast include rapper Ice Cube, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor, Kentucky Democratic state representative Charles Booker, Pulse Night Club shooting survivor Brandon Wolf, and University of California Irvine law professor Mehrsa Baradaran.