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Podcast: Vox Conversations
Episode:

The contradictions of wokeness
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:53:20
Publish Date: 2026-04-13 08:00:00
Description:

What does it mean to be “woke”? It's become a catch-all term to smear or dismiss anything that has any vague association with progressive politics. So anytime you venture into an argument about “wokeness,” it becomes hopelessly entangled in a broader cultural battle.

Today’s guest, journalist and professor Musa al-Gharbi, helps us untangle “wokeness” from its fraught political context. The author of the book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, al-Gharbi discusses what effects the movement is and isn’t having on our society.

This episode originally aired in November 2024.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling) 

Guest: Musa al-Gharbi (@Musa_alGharbi)

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And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. New episodes drop every Monday and Friday.

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