
Some of My Best Friends Are
Some of My Best Friends Are… is a podcast hosted by Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s. Today a Harvard professor and an award-winning journalist, Khalil and Ben still go to each other to talk about their experiences with the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. In Some of My Best Friends Are..., they invite listeners into their unfiltered conversations about growing up together in a deeply-divided country, and navigating that divide as it exists today.
Latest episodes

Jun 23, 2025 • 42min
How Good Manners Made Me Happier (with Etiquette Expert William Hanson) from The Happiness Lab
You might think etiquette is outdated. Who really needs a dinner with nice napkins and four different forks? Etiquette expert William Hanson disagrees. By observing good manners we show others we respect and care about them - deepening our bonds. William (author of Just Good Manners and host of the podcast Help I Sexted My Boss) explains the origins of many formal behaviours and how they can make us happier. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 16, 2025 • 35min
How Dogs Changed my Life (with The Dogist) from The Happiness Lab
We all have our own ways of coping - especially when things get tough. So for the next few shows we're going to talking to people with interesting coping strategies. And we start with Elias Weiss Friedman, aka The Dogist. Throughout his life, Elias has found comfort in dogs. And when he got fired from his job, dogs came to the rescue again - they helped him forge a new career as a photographer and a social media star. Elias discusses his journey and what he thinks dogs can teach us about being our best selves. And for more stories, check out his new book This Dog Will Change Your Life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 16, 2023 • 54min
Thank You For Being Some of Our Best Friends
Chicago poet laureate avery r. young discusses the story behind the podcast's theme song 'Lil Lillie' and how racial justice influences his work. The hosts reflect on their time working on the show and reminisce about their long-standing friendship. They also discuss the impact of music, powerful visual and performance art, the power and legacy of Emmett Till, and Avery's role as poet laureate of Chicago.

Aug 9, 2023 • 43min
Samantha Irby is Quietly Hostile & Raucously Funny
Author and TV writer Samantha Irby joins Ben and Khalil to discuss her latest book Quietly Hostile and how she uses comedy as therapy. They also touch on her work on the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That... and explore the challenges of inclusion and racism in TV shows.

Aug 2, 2023 • 44min
The End of Affirmative Action
The Supreme Court recently issued a decision banning race-conscious admission in higher education. In this episode, Ben and Khalil talk with Anurima Bhargava, who served in the Civil Rights Division of Obama’s Department of Justice focusing on education. Anurima also went to high school with Ben and Khalil at Kenwood Academy in Chicago. They talk about what’s great about going to a diverse school, as well as how the conservative movement plotted to get rid of affirmative action and what is lost as a result. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 26, 2023 • 50min
Fantastic Future: Reimagining the American City
This week, Ben and Khalil are talking about the future of cities. Their guest, Toni Griffin, is an architect, urban planner, and artist. She teaches at the Harvard School of Design, where she leads the Just City Lab, a team focused on community revitalization in city planning. Toni joins Ben and Khalil to talk about centering people in urban design, and her new show at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale that imagines "fantastic futures.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 19, 2023 • 50min
From The Last Archive: Acting Out
Here’s a special episode from another Pushkin show we love -- The Last Archive. In the 1930s, at a women's reformatory in upstate New York, an upstart social scientist made a study that launched the field of social network analysis. It was revolutionary, but missed something happening at the same time at the same school, something we know now in part from the story of the school's most famous inmate: Ella Fitzgerald. To hear the rest of the season, visit The Last Archive show page on Apple Podcasts, at pushkin.fm, or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 12, 2023 • 48min
America’s Poverty is by Design
America is the richest country on earth, and yet we have the highest levels of poverty of any advanced democracy. Why is that? And what should we do about it? Matthew Desmond joins Ben and Khalil to discuss the rousing arguments of his new book Poverty, By America: we are all culpable for this problem, and it’s on us to fix it. Additional links: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond Correction: Parole, Prison and the Possibility of Change by Ben AustenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 5, 2023 • 37min
Ben and Khalil Go South
Ben and Khalil take a trip down South to Sewanee University, otherwise known as the University of the South. The school’s history is rooted in the Confederacy, and Ben and Khalil look at how that history belongs to all of America. Through various conversations and excursions, they explore what it means to be Southern, whether that identity can be made more expansive, and why the region defines every American. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 28, 2023 • 51min
The FBI’s War on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. needs no introduction. The man changed the course of American history, and paid the ultimate price for his work. But in Jonathan Eig’s biography, King: A Life, we learn more about his personal life and struggle to overcome his own doubts about the Civil Rights movement. Eig joins Khalil and Ben to discuss his book and the new stories he uncovered from FBI documents about the life of Dr. King. Additional links:King, A Life by Jonathan EigSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.