Our Long Walk – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Our Long Walk

Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots

Science

Frequency: 1 episode/24d. Total Eps: 27

A podcast series about South Africa’s past, present, and future. Economic historian Johan Fourie and historical sociologist Jonathan Schoots interview social science scholars investigating fascinating questions about our country and continent and distil those lessons into practical policy suggestions today.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
14/08/2026
#89
🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
13/08/2026
#72
🇬🇧 Great Britain - socialSciences
11/08/2026
#43

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 38%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Why didn't slavery wither away? with historian Warren Whatley

Wednesday, May 6, 2026 • Duration 52:14

If an enslaved person would pay above market price for their own freedom, why didn't the market produce abolition? How did a European trade good become a continent-wide arms race? Did Africa's underdevelopment and Europe's rise have the same cause?

In this episode of Our Long Walk, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots speak with Warren Whatley, a Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Michigan and a leading scholar of the economic history of Africa and African Americans. His new book, Slavery, Freedom and Development: How Africa Became the Mirror Image of Europe (Cambridge University Press), examines why the two sides of the Atlantic moved in opposite directions over six centuries.

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance. For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan's newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com.

Read moreCollapse

Can A.I. speak Igbo? with computer scientist Chinasa T. Okolo

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 • Duration 57:44

Imagine you're a Nigerian law student studying for the bar. You open ChatGPT. It can tell you, confidently, the capital of Arizona. It cannot tell you how a Lagos magistrate is likely to rule. About 52 per cent of the open internet is in English. Four or five other languages split most of the rest. Igbo is not on that list. Neither is Yoruba, Swahili, Amharic, or Ewe.

So whose questions does the model know how to answer, and whose does it fumble? Who decided what "general" intelligence means, and why does it keep speaking English?

In this episode of Our Long Walk, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots speak with Chinasa T. Okolo, founder of TechnoCultura, an AI and emerging technologies policy specialist at the United Nations, and a contributor to the World Bank's forthcoming World Development Report. She finished her PhD in computer science at Cornell, studying how non-expert users actually engage with AI. Her attention sits where the frontier labs do not look: the global majority.

Find Chinasa’s writing here.

Read moreCollapse

What can Africa teach us about God? with economist Paul Seabright

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 • Duration 56:14

What is the difference between magic and religion – and why does it matter for economics?

In this episode of the Our Long Walk podcast, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots speak with Paul Seabright, Professor of Economics at the Toulouse School of Economics and one of the most original voices on how humans cooperate. For nearly two centuries economists forgot that religious organisations were businesses as much as anything else, but in his new book, The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power and People, Seabright invites us to look beyond doctrine, at the activities and exchanges that keep the show on the road.This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance. For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan’s newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com.

Read moreCollapse

Africa, who are you? with philosopher Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Season 2 · Episode 1

Wednesday, August 27, 2025 • Duration 54:43

What does a serious defence of modernity look like? In this episode of the Our Long Walk podcast, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots speak with Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, philosopher of African political thought at Cornell University, about Táíwò argument that modernity is not a cultural label, nor a Western badge to be worn or discarded, but a set of commitments that any society can domesticate and make its own: individual dignity, the centrality of reason, and an open horizon of progress. Some of Femi’s mentioned work:Africa Must Be Modern: https://iupress.org/9780253012753/africa-must-be-modern/Against Decolonisation. Taking African Agency Seriously: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/against-decolonisation/How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa: https://iupress.org/9780253221308/how-colonialism-preempted-modernity-in-africa/This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance. For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan’s newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com. The podcast is also available on: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4VEH9dz... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast...

Read moreCollapse

Is imperial history overdue a comeback? with historian Tony Hopkins

Wednesday, August 6, 2025 • Duration 48:34

In a rapidly changing world marked by trade wars, shifting alliances, and resurgent nationalism, what can history teach us about the future of globalisation? Is America’s retreat from global leadership inevitable, and what might Britain’s past decline reveal about the potential paths ahead?

In the first episode of Season 2 of Our Long Walk, Jonathan Schoots and Johan Fourie talk to Tony Hopkins, Emeritus Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at Cambridge University, about gentlemanly capitalism, globalisation, and the rise and fall of empires, among other topics.

Some of Tony’s work:

The Land Where Nothing Works: How Britain Lost the Plot (2024)

Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851–1931 (2024)

American Empire: A Global History (2018)

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance.

For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan’s newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com.

Read moreCollapse

Where did the rain begin to beat us? with co-hosts Johan and Jonathan

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 • Duration 36:07

There’s an Igbo saying, quoted by Chinua Achebe, that goes like this: ‘A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot say where he dried his body.’ It’s a fitting way to end Season 1 of the Our Long Walk podcast, a season shaped by the question: what can Africa’s history teach us about its present, and its possible futures?

In the final episode of this season, hosts Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots take a moment to reflect on the season. They talk about long arcs and short turns. About the origins of states, of elite contestation, of trade, urbanisation, industrialisation. About the weight of colonial legacies and the promise of post-colonial reinvention. From 100,000 years of human prehistory to today’s aid policies and trade wars, this season’s guests have shown us how deeply the past shapes the terrain on which African societies move.

The Our Long Walk podcast will be back in August with Season 2: new guests, new questions, same stubborn curiosity. But we would love your help shaping it. Send your suggestions, ideas, or complaints to johan@ourlongwalk.com.

Subscribe to Johan's newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance.

Read moreCollapse

What did Mandela leave behind? with historian Jacob Dlamini

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 • Duration 46:37

What if history is not only what we are told, but also what we choose to remember? What if the stories of apartheid are not just tales of villainy and victimhood, but of complexity, contradiction and human agency? And what if loving a country – its landscapes, its memories – requires that we also confront its darkest truths?

In this final interview of the first season of Our Long Walk, Jonathan Schoots and Johan Fourie sit down with Jacob Dlamini, Associate Professor of History at Princeton University, field guide, journalist, and one of South Africa’s most original historical thinkers

Dlamini’s idea of critical love runs through the episode. Loving the Kruger, loving South Africa, while refusing to romanticise or forget. To hold on to splendour without letting go of truth. To honour beauty without denying complicity. That is the work of history.

Some of Jacob’s mentioned work:

Can war be creative? with historian Richard Reid

Wednesday, April 2, 2025 • Duration 48:20

How should we understand the era before Africa’s colonisation? Was it a period of stagnation or one of profound innovation and change? Why has the ‘Scramble for Africa’ dominated historical narratives, often overshadowing Africa’s own dynamic histories? Can warfare be understood not only as destructive but also as a creative and even culturally significant force?

In this episode of the Our Long Walk podcast, Jonathan Schoots and Johan Fourie explore these critical questions with Richard Reid, Professor of African History at Oxford University and author of the recently published book, The African Revolution: A History of the Long Nineteenth Century.

Some of Richard’s mentioned work:

Inaugural SOAS lecture

Warfare in African History

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance.

For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan’s newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com.

What if borders were never meant to last? with economist Elias Papaioannou

Wednesday, March 12, 2025 • Duration 55:28

What determines opportunity in Africa? Does religion shape upward mobility? How do artificial borders, landmines, and weak states constrain economic development? And why has Africa largely resisted the global rise of populism?

In this episode of the Our Long Walk podcast, Jonathan Schoots and Johan Fourie sit down with Elias Papaioannou, academic director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development and professor of economics at the London Business School. Elias is a leading researcher in international finance, political economy and economic history – especially of Africa. His work blends rich historical datasets with cutting-edge econometrics to reveal how institutions, geography, and social structures shape long-run development.

Some of Elias’s mentioned work:

Religion and educational mobility in Africa

The political economy of populism

The long-run effects of the scramble for Africa

Landmines and spatial development

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance.

For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan’s newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com.

Why did we stop roaming? with economist Ola Olsson

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 • Duration 50:22

How far back should economic history go?

Most textbooks start with agriculture, trade, and the emergence of states. But what if we looked further – beyond written records, beyond cities, beyond even the first farms? What if the deepest economic lessons come not from the past few thousand years, but from the hundreds of thousands before them? For most of history, when things got bad, people ran. But with farming came rulers, taxation, and the first states – and suddenly, leaving wasn’t so easy. As Ola Olsson puts it, understanding why we stopped roaming is key to making sense of the world today.

In this episode of the Our Long Walk podcast, Johan Fourie and Jonathan Schoots interview Ola Olsson, professor of economics at the University of Gothenburg and author of Paleoeconomics: Climate Change and Economic Development in Prehistory.

Ola’s mentioned work:

Floods, droughts, and environmental circumscription in early state development: the case of ancient Egypt

Fiscal capacity in “post”-conflict states: Evidence from trade on Congo river

This podcast is produced with the help of Voice Note Productions. Our producer is Vasti Calitz with editing done by Andri Burnett. Kelsey Lemon provided helpful research assistance.

For more information about the episode and to subscribe to Johan’s newsletter, visit ourlongwalk.com. The full playlist of all Our Long Walk podcast songs is available here.

Our Long Walk – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Our Long Walk – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other53

Amazon7

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other53

Amazon7

ncbi.nlm.nih1