The Sum of Us Podcast
The Sum of Us is now a podcast series produced by Higher Ground, the production company founded by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
In each episode, Heather McGhee travels across the country on a mission to share stories of communities working together to right some of the wrongs happening around them. Along the way, she unearths stories of American solidarity and hope in a time of great division and peril for our democracy.
The Sum of Us, written by McGhee, is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint an irrefutable story of racism’s costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy’s collateral victims: white people themselves.
Join McGhee as she travels from rural Maine to the California coast and everywhere in between, meeting extraordinary Americans who are crossing demographic, cultural, and political lines to build a better future for all of us.
According to President Obama, “These stories reminded me that we’re not as divided as we might think, that there are folks all over this country who are looking past our divisions to build a better future for all of us.”
With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than zero-sum.
Listen to the show at open.spotify.com/show/19VMtc487rqmrb6GC8eRvd.
Heather McGhee is an expert in economic and social policy. The former president of the inequality-focused think tank Demos, McGhee has drafted legislation, testified before Congress and contributed regularly to news shows including NBC’s Meet the Press. She now chairs the board of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. McGhee holds a BA in American studies from Yale University and a JD from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
