Preview: Fela Kuti: Fear No Man

Subscribe to Fela Kuti: Fear No Man. In a world that’s on fire,
what is the role of art? What can music actually…do? Can a song
save a life? Change a law? Topple a president? Get you killed? In
Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Jad Abumrad—creator of Radiolab, More
Perfect, and Dolly Parton’s America—tells the story of one of the
great political awakenings in music: how a classically trained
'colonial boy’ traveled to America, in search of Africa, only to
return to Nigeria and transform his sound into a battering ram
against the state—creating a new musical language of resistance
called Afrobeat. For years, the world’s biggest stars made
pilgrimages to Nigeria to experience Fela’s Shrine, the epicenter
of his musical revolution. But when the mix of art and activism got
too hot, the state pulled out its guns, and literally opened fire.
Fela Kuti: Fear No Man is an uncategorizable mix of oral history,
musicology, deep dive journalism, and cutting edge sound design
that takes listeners deep inside Fela’s life, music, and legacy.
Drawing from over 200 interviews with Fela Kuti’s family, friends,
as well as scholars, activists, and luminaries like Burna Boy, Paul
McCartney, Questlove, Santigold, and former President Barack Obama
(just to name a few), Fela Kuti: Fear No Man journeys deep into the
soul of Afrobeat to explore the transformative power of art and the
role artists can play in this current moment of global unrest. An
Audible Original presented by Audible and Higher Ground. Produced
by Western Sound and Talkhouse. 2025 Higher Ground, LLC (P)2025
Audible Originals, LLC.