Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.



In our first segment, comic artist Ben Passmore takes us on a time-bending, darkly funny journey through more than a century of Black resistance in his graphic history Black Arms to Hold You Up. It’s a story of struggle, rebellion, and what liberation really means when the fight never ends.




“We’re in a life-or-death struggle, and I think we need to accept that.” — Ben Passmore




Then, science journalist David Baron joins us to talk about The Martians — the true story of how turn-of-the-(last)-century America fell in love with the idea of life on Mars. From telescopes to tabloid headlines, Baron shows how our dreams of other worlds reveal who we really are.




“It was a time of great unrest… and so the idea that maybe Earth was clearly turning out not to be a very perfect place — and that maybe there was a better civilization on the planet next door — really captured the public’s imagination.” — David Baron




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Key Words: Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon, Ben Passmore, David Baron, Black Arms to Hold You Up, The Martians, graphic novels, civil rights, alien craze, Black resistance, Mars, Percival Lowell, H.G. Wells, podcast author interview,



You Might Also Like: Tamara Payne on Les Payne’s THE DEAD ARE ARISING, Aaron Robertson, THE BLACK UTOPIANS.



Read The Transcript







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Segment One: Ben Passmore



In his groundbreaking graphic history Black Arms to Hold You Up, Ben Passmore reimagines the past century of Black liberation struggles through his distinctive art and narrative voice.



From the tragedy of Philando Castile to the heroism and contradictions of figures like Robert F. Williams and Assata Shakur, Passmore explores how movements evolve — and how humor, art, and honesty sustain resistance across generations.



Key Topics:




* Black resistance from 1900 to 2020



* The tension between nonviolence and armed self-defense



* COINTELPRO, internal contradictions, and misleadership



* Preserving Black history amid state erasure



* Hope, exhaustion, and the spiritual dimensions of liberation




Read An Excerpt










Segment Two: David Baron



Segment Summary:In The Martians, journalist David Baron revisits the early 1900s, when Americans — including scientists, inventors, and the press — became convinced that life on Mars had been discovered....