What Was It Like to Have a Great Uncle?

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When you were in the hospital, ncruma walked past your hospital bed. And i was kind of upset that he didn't say hello to me. He had been a very close friend of my parentshe was going to be the best man at their wedding when he became a leader of government business in gana. So even though he was my father's imprisonera, I think i remember feeling that he should have not tapped his foot and looked at the ceiling - which is basically what he did.

Born to a Ghanaian father and British mother, Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up splitting time between both countries — and lecturing in many more — before eventually settling in America, where he now teaches philosophy at New York University. This, along with a family scattered across half-a-dozen countries, establishes him as a true cosmopolitan, a label Appiah readily accepts. Yet he insists it is nonetheless possible to be a cosmopolitan patriot, rooted in a place, while having obligations and interests that transcend one’s national identity.

He joins Tyler to discuss this worldly perspective and more, including whether Africa will secularize, Ghanian fallibilism, teaching Jodie Foster, whether museums should repatriate collections, Karl Popper, Lee Kuan Yew, which country has the best jollof rice, the value of writing an ethical advice column, E.T. Mensah, Paul Simon, the experience of reading 173 novels to judge the Man Booker prize, and what he’s learned farming sheep in New Jersey.

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Recorded June 12th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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