After everything, after the anti-colonial anthems, the political hip-hop, the communist critique, the vast world that borders can't contain, BVA plays a Muppet. It is the most radical programming decision on the show. Hope that survives irony is the only kind worth having.

Transmission 03: The Valley Finds Its Voice

November 23, 2023

After 22 tracks of resistance, Killer Mike naming the prison-industrial complex, The Coup sharpening the guillotine, Bob Marley driving the slave ship, the Operator plays Kermit the Frog singing about hope. And means it entirely.

"The lovers, the dreamers, and me."

The rainbow connection is the thing that ties together everyone who believes in something better, even when, especially when, the evidence is stacked against them. BVA is, in its way, a rainbow connection: a signal transmitted in the hope that someone, somewhere, is listening. That the song comes from a Muppet makes it more true, not less.