Historian Elizabeth Pryor discusses studying the N-word and her father Richard Pryor’s legacy in new book

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, a historian and professor at Smith College, says she has devoted much of her career to studying the history and meaning of the N-word, including how a single racial epithet operates in American life. In a July 7 episode of PBS NewsHour’s “Settle In,” Pryor sat down with Geoff Bennett to discuss her work and her new book, “Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me.”

The conversation centers on a central tension in Pryor’s subject matter: her father, Richard Pryor, made the word a recurring feature of his comedy and public persona, then later renounced it. Pryor described her interest in tracing how that word was used, how it was understood by audiences, and what it meant for the family relationship around it, according to the podcast discussion.

Pryor’s new book blends scholarship with personal history, approaching the slur as both a historical artifact and a lived element of identity. Reporting and reviews summarized by outlets including The New York Times characterize “Something We Said” as a memoir and a history of the slur’s power, while NPR describes Pryor’s multi-year research into the word and notes that she explores the link between her scholarship and her father’s role in it.

Beyond the word itself, the episode frames Pryor’s work as an effort to examine the boundaries of speech, including the ways comedy can shape public language even when later disavowal occurs. The PBS discussion highlights that Pryor did not arrive at her focus instantly, but has sought to understand why the word is so charged, and what changes when it is uttered by famous figures.

In additional coverage tied to the book release, CNN and NPR have described the project in the context of Pryor’s attempt to reconcile her relationship to her father with the fact that he used the epithet while building his career. NPR also reports that Pryor’s research included years of investigation into the word’s history before she made the connection to her father’s identity part of the public narrative.

The book’s framing also reaches beyond mainstream entertainment because Pryor teaches and writes as a scholar of language and culture. Smith College faculty work and the university setting inform the profile of Pryor in the PBS episode, which presents the author as both a researcher and a parent grappling with how family experience can complicate academic distance.

The PBS NewsHour episode is now part of a wider media rollout for “Something We Said,” with multiple outlets describing the book’s dual structure and its focus on the slur’s meaning in the United States. Pryor’s next steps, in terms of public engagement, are not detailed in the reporting summarized for this story, but the podcast interview indicates the conversation will remain centered on language, legacy, and how histories of race get transmitted through popular culture.

keyFacts are grounded in the PBS podcast description and external reporting summaries: Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is a historian and Smith College professor. She has focused much of her career on the history of the N-word. Her new book is titled “Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me.” The PBS episode discusses how Pryor’s father Richard Pryor made the word central to his work before renouncing it. Multiple outlets have described the book as combining memoir elements with historical analysis of the slur’s it matters, in a timing-focused sense, is that Pryor’s interview arrives as the book is circulating in major national media outlets, increasing public access to a conversation that blends academic language study with a famous family legacy. The discussion also highlights how disavowal does not necessarily erase language’s impact in public memory, raising questions for educators and institutions about how they contextualize difficult material. For audiences, the episode offers a concrete way to understand how scholarship can intersect with personal experience, rather than treating either as separate domains.