Rand Abdel-Fattah

They were painted as extremist and dangerous by much of the mainstream media.

I'm sorry.

No, don't apologize.

I mean,

There's something in that emotion that you're expressing, just the literal feelings that are bubbling up that come through in so many of Baldwin's writings, right?

He had so much emotion packed into what he was saying because of the things he was seeing, right?

And he was angry.

And I wonder what you make of that anger and anger

how it related to the country's anger.

I mean, was he channeling it?

What James Baldwin can teach us about dealing with our loneliness when we come back.

Throughout his life, James Baldwin felt the solitude of being an outsider.

He was a nomad, spending many years living abroad in France and other parts of Europe.

And whether it was because of the color of his skin, his sexuality, or his fiercely independent thinking, he could never escape being alone.

And the more successful he became as a writer, the more the loneliness followed him.

You know what I love about the way that you're

that you're talking about James Baldwin is, or Jimmy, you've referred to him as Jimmy a few times.

Is this sense of intimacy I feel listening to you talk about him, that you almost know him?

I mean, do you feel that?

I mean, his words resonate so much today as you're repeating them back to us.