XTRACTS FROM U2 X-RADIO​  

It's live… the debut episode of 'Xtracts', ninety minutes of U2 on the airwaves, capturing conversation and music from the opening weeks of U2 X-Radio. 

Cait O'Riordan, who presents the station's weekly 'Rocky O'Riordan Show', is our host as David Byrne tells Edge about his Broadway stage-show American Utopia, Matthew McConaughey and Phoebe Robinson spin their favourite U2 tracks and Chris Rock addresses Seven Questions - and three interjections - from Bono.

One of the key topics of conversation in Episode 1 of Xtracts is racial injustice and the Black Lives Matters Movement. Writer and comedian Phoebe Robinson explains how 'Pride (In The Name of Love)'  'changed my life' and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and AudioSlave talks with Edge about this 'historic moment'.  'This country is born of racism and has never reckoned with that…'

But something is changing believes comedian and filmmaker Chris Rock who says this year's worldwide #BLM protests have 'given me some optimism about institutional racism.'
'When I see the mix of people out on the street… this dedication… every day out there…  I'm more optimistic about white people in general… especially the young ones…'

Maybe that's because 'the real action' as Bono puts it, reading his fan letter to Patti Smith, 'lies in the hearts and minds of the people.'

What kind of people should we be interviewing, is the question asked by broadcaster and writer John Kelly, presenter of the channel's Sunday show Elevation, which celebrates the worlds of science, medicine, faith and the arts. People, says Edge, like campaigning civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson.

'I'm just persuaded that there is something better waiting for us,' explains Bryan,  'Something that feels more like freedom and equality and justice... that is still waiting for us if we have the hope and conviction. But we can't do that without the struggle…'
 
The struggle usually finds a song, and in the civil rights movement the C18th hymn Amazing Grace became one of those songs. Judy Collins tells John how she realised the power of the song when she campaigned with voting and women's rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. 'A song that drew many people together...'

Hope you enjoy this first highlights show from U2 X-Radio - here's more about the channel's 24 /7 U2 programming. Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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