Unabridged Interview: Michele Norris

Lee C. Camp (0:02)

Hello, friends. Lee C. Camp here. You're listening to No Small Endeavor. This is our unabridged episode with Michele Norris. Many of you will recognize Michele's name. She was a long time host on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. So I'll listen to Michele a lot through the years. She's also done some amazing work in a Peabody award-winning initiative called The Race Card Project, where she left postcards various places that she would go speaking on her book tours.

These postcards read simply, race, your story, six words, please send. It's turned into this remarkable, poignant, moving, sometimes confrontational project that's just remarkable. The conversation that we had about it is really fascinating, and I suspect that you will find it, if you're a regular listener to No Small Endeavor, will find it fascinating as well. So here's Michele Norris.

SPEAKER_2 (0:59)

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Lee C. Camp (3:01)

Michele Norris is one of the most respected voices in American journalism. She's a former longtime host of All Things Considered on NPR and is now the host of the podcast Your Mamma's Kitchen and a senior contributing editor to MSNBC.

Her latest book, Our Hidden Conversations, explores America's evolving dialogue on race and identity. She's also the founder of The Race Card Project, a Peabody award-winning initiative that sparks honest conversations about identity in just six words. And her legacy of outstanding journalism has been honored with Emmy, Peabody and DuPont Awards. Welcome Michele.

Michele Norris (3:38)

So good to be with you, Lee. Thank you for having me.

Lee C. Camp (3:40)

Yeah, honored to get to have you with us. And of course, I, along with many other people in the nation, have heard you many, many hours of learning important things to learn on All Things Considered. And so grateful.

Michele Norris (3:52)

Sounds like you might have a long commute and listen in the kitchen or something.

Lee C. Camp (3:56)

I'm grateful to be with you. I would like to start with your autobiography that you published in 2010 called The Grace of Silence. Kind of set up for us what led to that memoir writing.

Michele Norris (4:09)

Well, it's a family memoir. And it's kind of the two books that I wrote are kind of circular because the original assignment that I gave myself was to go out and listen to Americans talk about race at a moment where we were allegedly post-racial because this was right after Barack Obama had been elected and we were having this conversation about entering an allegedly post-racial space.