
This week actor Behzad Dabu (How to Get Away with Murder, The Chi) joins us again to discuss Teju Cole’s novel, Open City. The book is a meditation on borders, terror, and belonging set against the back drop of a post 9/11 New York City, and centers a Nigerian immigrant as our guide. This week we discuss the book in detail, there are spoilers, however this book is less about plot and more about big ideas. Listen at your own discretion.
Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. The Stacks participates in affiliate programs, and shopping through the links below (mostly Amazon) helps support the show, at no cost to you.
- Open City by Teju Cole
- The Stacks 2018 Battle of the Books – Prediction Bracket
- The Stacks Instagram
- About the 2018 Battle of the Books
- Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee
- Small Fry by Lisa Brennan Jobs
- Hear Traci on the What Should I Read Next Podcast
- How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)
- Soft Power (Center Theatre Group)
- Teju Cole’s Books

- Teju Cole Instagram
- The Art Spirit by Robert Henri
- Open City
- Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
- “Louis C.K. Slithers Back, Whether We’re Ready or Not” (Amanda Hess, The New York Times)
- Kevin Hart
- Eddie Murphy: Raw and Delirious
- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
- Key and Peele
- Steve Martin
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Tiffany Haddish
- “Self-professed neo-Nazi James A. Fields Jr. convicted of first-degree murder in car-ramming that killed one, injured dozens” (Joe Heim and Kristine Phillips, The Washington Post)
- The Simpsons (FOX)
- The Problem with Apu (truTV)
- Frantz Fanon
- “CNN Fired Marc Lamont Hill to Comfort Conservative Snowflakes” (Eric Levitz, New York Magazine)
- “The Trouble with Corey Lewandowski on CNN” (Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker)
- Chris Cillizza
- Donald Glover
- Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Daniel Kaluuya
- Chadwick Boseman
- Yara Shahidi
Connect with Behzad: Behzad’s Website|Behzad’s Instagram|Behzad’s Twitter|Behzad’s Facebook
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram|The Stacks Website|Facebook|Twitter|Subscribe|Patreon|Goodreads|Traci’s Instagram
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The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. Shopping through these links helps support the show, but does not effect opinions on books and products. For more information click here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:30 — 82.6MB)
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