This interview was originally broadcast on May 8, 2012. For more
than 30 years, Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been an influential
public intellectual with a distinct style, who makes complex
academic concepts accessible to a wider audience. Gates — known
widely as "Skip" — may be best known for his research tracing
the family and genetic history of famous African-Americans.
"There are just so many stories that are buried on family
trees," Gates tells host Neal Conan. "My goal is to get
everybody in America to do their family tree." With a number of
PBS programs and books, he has traced the roots of prominent
Americans — including Oprah Winfrey, Yo-Yo Ma and Stephen
Colbert — and uncovered surprises about many families, including
his own. He says his goal in this work is twofold: "First, to
show that we're all immigrants, and secondly, that we're all
mixed — that we all have been intermarrying, or interrelated
sexually from the dawn of human history." His most influential
writings on race, politics and culture app