The very first episode of Studio B: Unscripted sees award-winning author and activist Fatima Bhutto in conversation with celebrated host, academic and writer Marc Lamont Hill as they compare notes on the various ways injustice and oppression work across the world.
Bhutto and Lamont Hill explore everything from the politics of activism to the impact that the military industrial complex has had on pop culture – from films like Zero Dark Thirty to World Wrestling Entertainment.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Tunisia sentences lawyer and Saied critic to five years in prison
- list 2 of 4Israel returns 30 bodies of slain Palestinians as new strikes hit Gaza
- list 3 of 4Lawsuit alleges ‘horrific’ conditions at US immigration facility in Chicago
- list 4 of 4‘Bring him home’: Sami Hamdi’s wife urges US to release UK journalist
With six best-selling books under her name, Fatima comes from the Bhutto political dynasty in Pakistan, she is the niece of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and her father was brutally killed although those responsible have not yet faced justice.
Lamont Hill is a professor at Temple University in the US, a writer and media personality. During the show, they surprise each other with the similarities between the African American experience of police brutality and oppression in the United States, and Pakistan’s own record of political violence.
Bhutto’s latest book, The New Kings of the World, is an inside look at how Bollywood, Turkish soap operas and K-Pop are challenging the cultural dominance of the US around the world. Lamont Hill is also one of the presenters of digital talk series, Black Coffee.
Combining insight, emotion and a bit of humour, our guests go on to discuss why speaking up for the Palestinians – or indeed any repressed people – could cost you dearly, as experienced by Lamont Hill, the way feminism can be usurped by power or racism, and the hidden messages in pop culture.
The views expressed in this programme are the guests’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Studio B, Unscripted is a free flow conversation between two guests and a small audience, with no mediation, no MC, no TV presenter … focusing on what brings us all together and how we can tackle and discuss some of the big issues of our time.
Editor’s note: This programme was recorded before the latest news about Colin Kaepernick.