Black Panther and Wakanda Forever with Walter Greason

So here it  is. The very first Historians At The Movies Podcast. If you're new to #HATM, we're (allegedly) the longest running watch party on the internet. Every week for over four and a half years, scholars and lovers of movies and history have joined together every Sunday night to watch and livetweet a movie together. It's been an amazing experience and one that has built a community around the globe.

This podcast is the next evolutionary step in Historians At The Movies. Each week we'll bring you top scholars to talk about the films that interest them and the work that they do. Sure, there's some myth busting and maybe a few times where we'll be poking holes in a film for accuracy, but it is more than that.

The HATM podcast uses a larger love of  film to talk about history and the ways in which our perceptions of the past are shaped by popular culture and how we in turn are shaped by those perceptions. It's a new way of thinking about both film and history, and I hope you'll dig it.

Our first guest isn't by accident. Walter Greason is a longtime supporter of Historians At The Movies and a guy who I consider a trusted friend. I've learned a ton from him over the last few years and when I thought about who should be on the podcast first, he was the only choice there was.

Walter  is among the most prominent historians, educators, and urbanists in the United States. He has spent the past 30 years speaking to audiences in dozens of states, on over 100 college and high school campuses, at dozens of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the country. His work is available every day on Twitter, @walterdgreason.

He has also lectured internationally, in the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, and has trained corporate, government, entertainment, media, law enforcement, military, and medical industry professionals on strategies for dismantling racism in their institutions. Dr. Greason has provided anti-racism training to educators and administrators nationwide. Dr. Greason is the author of six books, including his two latest, Industrial Segregation and Cities Imagined: The African Diaspora in Media and History (both Kendall-Hunt Publishers).

Walter's digital humanities projects, “The Wakanda Syllabus” and “The Racial Violence Syllabus”, produced global responses in the last three years. In the wake of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, “The Racial Violence Syllabus” attracted over 4 million individual uses, was translated into seven languages, and inspired projects like the Oscar-winning film “BlackKklansman.” The 2016 “Wakanda Syllabus” defined Afrofuturism as one of the core themes of media convergence and was a crucial element in the public acclaim that supported Marvel Studios’ Oscar-winning feature film, “Black Panther.”

So that's it! Check it out. This podcast will grow and change as we move along, but I hope you dig it. Like it, subscribe to it, and please do give us your feedback.