Notes and Links to Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor’s Work
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor is a professor of history at Smith College where she teaches courses on race, slavery and her father, comedic legend Richard Pryor. She is the award-winning author of the article “The Etymology of [N-Word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North” and a 2016 book Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War. Her viral TED talk on why it's hard to talk about the n-word has been viewed over two million times.
Something We Said, Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me is Professor Pryor’s latest book (37 Ink an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2026). The book is a braided narrative that seamlessly integrates the history of the n-word with her own story of growing up half Black, half Jewish and all Pryor. It peels back the curtain on the life of the iconic comedian and interrogates the most perplexing word in the American lexicon, a word he helped popularize.
Elizabeth lives in Massachusetts with her husband Jerry Stordeur and loves to go hiking and watch movies with their two grown kids, Lilli and Henry.
Buy Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor's Wikipedia Page
People Magazine Article about Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor and Her Father’s Identity
At about 1:40, Elizabeth talks about edifying feedback she’s gotten since publishing of Something We Said…
At about 3:25, Elizabeth recounts a special gift received from her father, comedic legend Richard Pryor
At about 5:25, Pete shouts out Traci Thomas’ analysis of Shakespeare and he and Eliaabth
At about 6:45, Elizabeth reflects on her early reading life and highlights Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on My Eyeball
At about 8:30, Pete and Elizabeth get a laugh out of an awkward father-daughter movie date
At about 10:40, Elizabeth cites books and writers that she read that were more “connected to [her] experience” as she got into high school and college
At about 11:40, the two talk about literature connected to Elizabeth’s high school and San Fernando Valley upbringing
At about 13:40, Elizabeth talks about the opening up of perspectives and ideas in learning about much of Black history through her mature high school and college reading
At about 15:30, Elizabeth talks about reading works that spoke to her and about sometimes “translating” texts
At about 17:15, Elizabeth traces the seeds for the book-an event from 2010 in a college classroom involving Richard Pryor’s Blazing Saddles
At about 19:40, Elizabeth traces the ways in which she has taught and said and written about the racial slur that informs much of the memoir
At about 21:50, The two reflect on and share stories about discussion in the classroom
At about 23:05, The two discuss Elizabeth’s connecting of her father’s standup to his unusual funeral
At about 24:55, Pete charts the book’s structure, including Interludes that trace the ugly history of the racial slur
At about 25:45, Elizabeth tells the story of the first time meeting her father
At about 28:15, Elizabeth talks about a famous “epiphany” in 1967 for her father, and his evolving subject matter for his comedy
At about 32:00, The two discuss a history and present of racism and segregation in Peoria, Illinois, Richard Pryor’s hometown
At about 33:20, Elizabeth reflects on a pivotal incident and advice from her father after she was a victim of racist taunts-she refers to the "generational pain” she felt at that young age
At about 34:50, Elizabeth responds to Pete asking about family parallels and tough conversations about racism in the Pryor family and beyond
At about 38:00, Pete asks Elizabeth about her father’s private and public personas
At about 39:40, Elizabeth refers to a “revelation hangover” in further explaining her father’s private and professional lives
At about 40:15, Elizabeth talks her father “turning into a robot” when he was “resigned” to following his mother’s orders
At about 41:50, Elizabeth talks about her dad as an “artist” with “intentional[ity]” and a top-notch work ethic
At about 44:40, Elizabeth details conversation with Cecil Brown and others and Richard Pryor as he “curated” his work and thought critically about fame and art and creativity
At about 46:05, The two discuss Elizabeth’s vulnerability in the book, and Elizabeth responds to Pete’s question about the experience in bearing her soul
At about 48:50, Elizabeth and Pete reflect on the younger generations and their views and actions regarding race and racism
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Please tune in for Episode 364 with Hannah Lillith Assadi, whose debut novel Sonora (Soho 2017) received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize. Her second novel The Stars Are Not Yet Bells (Riverhead 2022) was named a New Yorker and NPR best book of 2022. She is also the co-editor of an anthology of the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, which will be published by Everyman’s Library/ Knopf in November 2026. She teaches fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts and the Pratt Institute. In 2018, she was named a '5 under 35' honoree by the National Book Foundation. Her latest novel-and this is a modern classic-is Paradiso 17, inspired by the life of her late Palestinian father, and currently shortlisted for the National Book Awards fiction category.
The episode airs on October 20.
Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.
You can also donate at chuffed.org, World Central Kitchen, and so many more, and/or you can contact writer friend Ursula Villarreal-Moura directly or through Pete, as she has direct links with friends in Gaza.
