S4 Ep. 267 Legacy Is A Bridge We Build With Words
Jan 14, 2026 • S04 E267 • 00:50:06
A fading generation holds memories of colonial rule, civil war, and the early years of Nigeria’s nationhood—yet too many of those stories are slipping away unrecorded. We sit down with writer and editor Timmy Yeseibo, who calls herself a conduit of legacy, to explore how a modern griot preserves memory through books, audio, and digital archives. From living-room interviews to community repositories and presidential libraries, we trace practical ways to capture voices before they go silent, and why a society that values remembrance makes better choices in the present.
Our conversation moves from the roots of the West African griot tradition to the realities of preserving history in a digital age. Timmy shares how to start small—record a parent’s timeline, scan photos, gather place names—and how to scale up through institutions that can protect and share those narratives. We also dig into the reading life that fuels her work. With a fifty-books-a-year habit, Timmy makes the case for deep reading as a counterweight to the loud, shallow churn of social media, showing how long-form attention builds judgment and curiosity.
We take a clear-eyed look at the material underbelly of “clean” technologies, drawing insights from Ed Conway’s Material World to unpack the hidden costs of batteries, semiconductors, cobalt, and sand. The thread running through it all is nuance: real understanding demands context, multiple sources, and the willingness to pause, research, and return. We close on legacy through memoir, including what a well-written but guarded political autobiography can—and cannot—do for public memory, and why every version recorded still sharpens the collective archive.
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