Last month, Professor Mark Katz was a guest on the podcast Sound Expertise, hosted by alumnus Will Robin, Ph.D. 2016, in an episode titled “Hip-Hop and Friendship on Death Row with Alim Braxton and Mark Katz.”
Katz and Braxton discussed their friendship which developed after Braxton wrote to Katz in 2019 and they began corresponding via letters. The two are now writing a book together. As Robin outlines in the episode’s introduction, their discussion is about “making hip-hop in prison, the ethics of collaboration, and … about what friendship means.”
“It was such a pleasure to be on Will Robin’s podcast Sound Expertise. It’s an excellent podcast, and over the course of its three seasons, Will has had many fascinating conversations with a wide range of music scholars,” Katz noted. “It’s an excellent example of the power of public musicology. But I also have a personal connection, because I was Will’s dissertation advisor—I’m delighted to see how he has flourished since his time at Carolina.”
Will Robin is an Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Maryland who studies 21st-century American classical music and has been a frequent contributor to the New York Times. Sound Expertise is hosted by Will Robin and produced by composer Dr. Edward Davis. It is, simply put, “a podcast that talks to scholars about music.” It is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Listen to the full episode with Professor Katz: