Imbolo Mbue

“I live in a space between,” Imbolo Mbue says in this talk. “It is the immigrant’s burden to live with the body in one place, and the heart in another.”

In this episode, recorded on June 7, 2019, at Town Hall Seattle, Imbolo Mbue describes how her in-between began in Cameroon, where she was born, and continued in New York, where she traveled to attend college. She stayed, attended Business School, got a job in New York City and then in 2008, she lost her job in the Great Recession. She saw during this time the great economic stratification of New York and the seed for her book, Behold The Dreamers, was born. The book went on to be a New York Times bestseller and an Oprah book club pick.

The book asks the questions we all inherently struggle with. What is happiness? And what makes a good life? Why would we be willing to do or to give up for ourselves, for family, for love, and for dreams?

Read a transcript of the podcast here.