Episode No. 25 – In Conversation with Elijah Anderson: Studying the Culture of Philly Streets, Part 1

Over the past 50 years, the streets of Philadelphia have been a living laboratory for ethnographer Elijah Anderson. He’s been on the ground here since 1975 studying the people and the culture of our city. He’s published his findings in a series of groundbreaking books that have brought the lessons he’s learned in Philly to the rest of the world.

Over two episodes, we’ll learn how Professor Anderson became an ethnographer, what drew him to the streets of Philadelphia, and what he learned there.

Elijah Anderson is currently the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. He’s the author of A Place on the Corner (1978), Streetwise (1990), Code of the Street (1999), the Cosmopolitan Canopy (2011), and Black in White Space (2021).

Code of the Streets is being re-released by W.W. Norton in Spring 2025 with a new introduction by Professor Anderson.