The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy

About The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy

In collaboration with the Center for African and African American Studies/The CAAAS at the University of Colorado Boulder, The Cause is more than a podcast, it's a call to action. Guided by Dr. Reiland Rabaka, this inspiring series invites you to explore the transformative power of music, the wisdom of history, and the promise of democracy in the pursuit of racial justice. Through courageous conversations, insightful reflections, and powerful storytelling, The Cause amplifies voices and stories too often unheard. Together, we'll challenge injustices, break down societal misconceptions, and inspire each other to build a world where equality is not just an ideal, but a shared reality. Join us in this movement. Listen to The Cause, and become part of the collective journey to create a more just, inclusive, and vibrant future for all.

Publisher

Dr. Reiland Rabaka

Category

education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Feb 2025

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

46 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   Dub: The Golden Age of Dub Reggae, 1973-1983

   "Dub's heavy use of reverb [serves] as a sonic metaphor for the condition of diaspora." —Michael Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae "Dub: The Golden Age of Dub Reggae, 1973–1983" enters the studio at the moment the studio became an instrument. Across Kingston's mixing boards, sound systems, record shops, yards, and streets, producers assembled the riddim, musicians built its foundation, engineers deconstructed and reconstructed the recording, and selectors returned that transformed sound to the people. Dub turned bass into memory, echo into history, silence into testimony, and technology into a tool of Black radical imagination. This episode traces the revolutionary work of King Tubby, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Errol Thompson, Prince Jammy, Scientist, Augustus Pablo, the Revolutionaries, the Roots Radics, Sly and Robbie, and other architects of dub's golden age. It asks: What happens when oppressed people seize the machinery they inherited from colonial empire and make it speak freedom in their distinct decolonial language? Can breaking a song open teach us how to break open a society? Can the studio become a rehearsal room for radical democracy? Woven through the episode, the original poem "Scattered Sound Refuses Silence" hears dub as a metaphor for the African diaspora—dispersed but connected, wounded but creating, carrying Africa beneath the concrete jungle. A chronological thirty-six track companion playlist extends the journey through landmark recordings and essential rarities, revealing dub's astonishing range across ten years of spiritual searching, sonic rebellion, and Black musical avant-gardism. Enter the echo chamber, follow the bassline, and hear scattered sound refuse silence. See full show notes and the Dub playlist visit our website https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-45-dub-golden-age-dub-reggae-1973-1983

2. 

   1 Oct 2026

   Reggae: The Golden Age of a Spiritual Revolution and Musical Rebellion, 1970-1980

   In "Reggae: The Golden Age of a Spiritual Revolution and Musical Rebellion, 1970–1980," Dr. Reiland Rabaka enters the decade when Jamaica transformed bass, drum, scripture, street knowledge, and Rastafari consciousness into a global language of liberation. Moving from the Wailers' Soul Rebels to Bob Marley and the Wailers' Uprising, the episode explores how roots reggae challenged colonial power, racial hierarchy, economic inequality, political violence, and the unfinished promises of Jamaican independence. What does freedom sound like when a nation has gained a flag, but its people are still fighting for dignity? How can music awaken historical memory, nourish Black consciousness, defend tenderness, and move listeners from spiritual reflection toward democratic action? Through the music of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Culture, the Mighty Diamonds, the Congos, Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt, Althea and Donna, Janet Kay, and other essential voices, the episode hears reggae as the people's newspaper, portable sanctuary, and Pan-African protest. Interludes from the original poem "Wake the Town and Tell the People" weave Nyabinghi drumming, dub poetry cadence, and Rastafari mysticism through the story. A chronological 36-song companion playlist, featuring ten classic recordings by women reggae artists, extends the journey from Jamaica into Britain, Africa, rap, and the twenty-first century. Turn the music up, wake the town, and hear why reggae's struggle for spiritual freedom, social justice, and radical democracy still moves the world. See all show notes and the Reggae playlist on our website https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-44-reggae-golden-age-spiritual-revolution-and-musical-rebellion-1970-1980

3. 

   17 Sept 2026

   The Freedom Songs of the Civil Rights Movement

   What happens when a movement for freedom finds its voice—and a people turn song into courage? In this episode of The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy, Dr. Reiland Rabaka explores the freedom songs of the Civil Rights Movement as far more than a soundtrack to struggle. Rooted in African American spirituals, gospel traditions, Black sacred practices, labor organizing, and generations of communal music-making, freedom songs transformed churches, mass meetings, marches, buses, streets, and jail cells into spaces of resistance and possibility. The episode journeys through Montgomery, Nashville, Albany, Mississippi, and Selma while examining how singing helped movement members confront segregation, racial violence, fear, grief, and the unfinished promises of American democracy. At its center is a profound question: What happens when people denied full democratic voice begin singing freedom together? The original poem "What We Sang Before Freedom Came" explores song as memory, medicine, community, courage, and collective Black testimony. A 25-song thematic playlist carries listeners deeper into the movement through Fannie Lou Hamer, Bernice Johnson Reagon, the SNCC Freedom Singers, mass-meeting congregations, and Freedom Marchers whose voices made history audible. These songs did not simply describe freedom. They helped people practice it. Tune in—and hear what happened when democracy learned to sing. See all show notes and the Freedom Songs playlist on our website https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-43-freedom-songs-civil-rights-movement

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

11 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 32 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

43

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51