Episode
Claudia Rankine on the Friendships That Unsettle and Sustain Us
- Podcast
- KQED's Forum
- Published
- Sep 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3289
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/claudia-rankine-on-the-friendships-that-unsettle-and-sustain-us/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/claudia-rankine-on-the-friendships-that-unsettle-and-sustain-us.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Acclaimed poet and essayist Claudia Rankine’s new book, “Triage,” follows the turbulent, decades long friendship between a Black woman and a nonbinary Palestinian who meet in college and invent a ritual of collapsing to the ground whenever they see each other. Over time, that act of collapse comes to hold new meaning as they reckon with wounded histories, political violence and the strain of loving someone who can also unsettle you. Blending memoir, criticism, essay and visual art, “Triage” is Rankine’s first book after her celebrated American trilogy and some of her most personal writing yet. Rankine joins us to talk about friendship, grieving, and what it means to keep acting – and relating – in a time of relentless personal and global loss. Guests: Claudia Rankine, poet, playwright and author, her new book is "Triage", professor of Creative Writing at NYU; a MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices