Rebel Spirit
Rebel Spirit
Playlist by Rebel SpiritIn Season Two of Rebel Spirit, Akilah Hughes picks up where her battle to change her high school’s Confederate mascot left off and quickly realizes the problem was never just a mascot. Shifting from h…Follow the podcast:
24 clip(s) in playlist
Episode 6: Killing Dead Confederates
Historian and retired Brigadier General Ty Seidule speaks with Akilah about his experience as vice chair of the Congressional Naming Commission which was tasked with redesignating Department of Defense assets that honor Confederates. And how he continues with his efforts to shout down the Confedera…
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Episode 5: Oh, Shenandoah
This week, Akilah takes a close look at Shenandoah County, Virginia, where one of the more public fights over Confederate iconography has been playing out over the past few years. In 2020, two schools in Shenandoah County named after Confederate generals were changed to Mountain View High School an…
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Episode 4: Erasing History
Akilah welcomes Clint Smith, a writer who extensively covers race in America and has been cataloguing the dismantling of Confederate monuments and memorials since 2017. He and Akilah discuss the work required to help this country become the version of itself that was promised. Rebel Spirit is a p…
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Episode 3: Making Monuments
After deciding on a replacement monument she wants to advocate for, Akilah dives deep into what it takes to actually get a new monument in place. Through conversations with monument makers and preservationists, she starts to build her plan. Rebel Spirit is a production of Ninth Planet Audio in a…
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Episode 2: The Rotunda
Akilah narrows her aim at an empty corner of the Kentucky State House where a Jefferson Davis monument once stood. She tries to chase down Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear who advocated for the removal of the Jefferson Davis monument and comes up with what might be the perfect option to replace it. …
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Episode 1: Back To Work
In our Season Two premiere, Akilah catches up on the latest from her hometown of Florence, Kentucky as she begins to explore how the same Confederate legacy she challenged locally is resurging across America. Through conversations with a couple familiar voices from Season One, she lays out how masc…
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Coming Soon... Rebel Spirit Season 2
This season, Akilah takes her fight to the Kentucky State House in an attempt to replace a recently removed Confederate statue with a monument everyone can be proud of. Grounded in her own lived experiences, Season Two explores how monuments aren’t just markers of history -- they’re battlegrounds f…
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Episode 12: Erasures
It's the last episode of the season, and Akilah is thinking about her home, Florence, Kentucky. Over the course of our reporting, we've been told how much the town and county are changing, how much more diverse they're getting. What does the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and diver…
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Episode 11: Open Records
Since our last episode, we've heard rumors coming out of Boone County: there WILL be a new mascot; there definitely will NOT be a new mascot; the new superintendent wants to know what's going on; there are meetings happening. We've tried hard to get anyone at the school district or the high school …
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New Year Update
Akilah sits down with her producers, Dan and Elizabeth, for a check in on where the journey has taken them since airing the initial episodes. Though there hasn't been much movement from Boone County High School, they have heard some updates from local supporters. Additionally, the team shares an ov…
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