On May 25th 2020, in Minneapolis, a black man named George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin who put his knee on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, thus asphyxiating him. That tragic event had an immediate global impact, sparking off demonstrations and riots, not just in the US but across the world.

But who was George Floyd? Where did he come from? What was he like? What was his life?

These questions are all addressed in the book co-authored by my guest today, Robert Samuels, and Tolu Olorunnipa called “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life & Struggle for Racial Justice” which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non Fiction this year. It’s a superbly researched book which provides a look at George Floyd’s ancestry and how the trauma of slavery & discrimination is typically passed down in Black families in America.

In today’s interview, I ask Robert Samuels what the research was like given the raw emotions that must have been omnipresent. This is obviously a difficult subject, but one that must be discussed and this book certainly helps to open our eyes and instigate these important conversations. 

Books mentioned in the episode:

Favourite book I’ve never heard of: “Nowhere Man” by Aleksandar Hemon (2002)


Favourite book of the last 12 months: “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak & Other Stories” by Jamil Kochai (2022)


The book that he would take to a desert island: “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck


The book that changed his mind: “Locking Up Our Own” by James Forman Jr. (2017)


Buy Robert Samuels book: https://amzn.eu/d/jeix2UR

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