Each week, Mark Anthony Neal, chair of Duke’s Department of African & African American Studies sits down with artists, political figures and academics for conversations about studying the African-American experience in the long-running “Left of Black” interview series.

“It’s really a deep dig into what’s going on in black studies, particularly around issues of culture, gender, sexuality and the arts,” Neal said.

The series is produced by Catherine Angst of the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship, where Neal is the founding director. In a departure from traditional audio-only podcasts, the series is presented as videos that can be viewed on YouTube. Early episodes are available on iTunes.

“I call it a video podcast,” Neal said. “It’s something that has to be watched. You get archival photographs and information that goes along with the conversation. For us, it was important to do something visual in addition to what you are hearing.”