“I realized that maybe I could be the one”:
Anna Malaika Tubbs on her career as a writer and TED speaker
November 25, 2025
Rik Wouters, “Landschap, Boitsfort, met bloeiende fruitbomen” (c. 1900)
You can listen to the introduction to this interview on Substack, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Editor’s note
Anna Malaika’s latest book, Erased, showcases her characteristic ability to make complex ideas accessible at every level.
Building on both her acclaimed first book and viral TED Talk, it examines the far-reaching impacts of patriarchal systems and how our world continues to be structured around them. The book has earned her a second New York Times bestseller designation — along with a host of other accolades — further solidifying her status as one of today’s most influential writers.
I’m grateful, with this interview, to have learned more about the experiences that have shaped her career.
Jana M. Perkins, PhD
Founder, Women of Letters
Anna Malaika Tubbs is a 2x New York Times bestselling author and multidisciplinary expert on current and historical understandings of race, gender, and equity. With a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medical Anthropology from Stanford University, Anna translates her academic knowledge into stories that are clear and engaging. Her articles have been published by TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, CNN, The Guardian, and others. Her first book The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation came out in 2021; her second book Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us came out in May of this year. Anna’s storytelling also takes form in her talks, including her TED Talk that has been viewed 2 million times, as well as the scripted and unscripted screen projects she has in development. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three kids.
How did your childhood shape your ideas about what work looked like and what was possible for you?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I was raised by two lawyers who prioritized travel and seeing new places as much as possible, and they wanted my siblings and I to be able to see as much of the world as possible. I say that because, one, work looked like it could be flexible at times, and it also looked like it could be very adventurous.
Especially for my mom — for me to see that she could be such a present mom while also having a very cool and inspiring career, where she advocated for women’s rights in the US as well as abroad, really shaped my understanding of what I could possibly do for work. Both my parents often spoke about how long it took them to get their degrees, and they always had a lot of law books around and a lot of books around us generally, so I think I also always associated it with reading and research.
Fast-forward to today. How did the path to what you’re doing now unfold?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I have always been a storyteller since I was little. I liked just telling stories and entertaining people with stories, and I think I knew I wanted to do that as a profession, but I wasn’t quite sure how that could happen. I thought, you know, maybe I’ll get degrees as well — like my parents have — and pursue as much knowledge as possible, and then I can write and be seen as a trusted voice. So I wanted to do my PhD.
I was also always aware that I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just writing for other academics, but that I could communicate with as many people as possible. As I got through my undergraduate work, I realized that being a public intellectual was a thing that people could do, and that that was the title for the thing I was looking for. So I decided that I would continue to pursue the degrees, but I would also publish op-eds and blogs and make sure that if I wrote books, they would be trade books — and that I would make them accessible and do whatever I could to bring more people together through my writing.
Now that storytelling is expanding into continuing my books, but also writing movies and exploring TV and even social media storytelling and children’s books. That storyteller identity is only continuing to grow, and I’m very grateful for that.
Did you have any mentors along the way?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: Yes, absolutely — I have so many mentors. To be honest, if I meet anybody who I’m inspired by, I immediately give them the title of ‘mentor.’ Even if it’s not that they’re mentoring me directly, in writing, I think there’s a lot of other ways in which people can mentor.
My mentors have often been very strong, incredible women who have been willing to connect me to others and have uplifted me and invited me to events so I can meet even more people and just get my work out there. That has made all the difference, just having them include me in so much of their own lives: introducing me to their network and showing me what it looks like to work hard and accomplish your dreams while also making sure you’re always opening doors for other people.
I try to return that favour to others, because I’ve been helped so much along the way. I have such gratitude for them, for each of these mentors; I’m fully aware that it would have taken a lot longer to get to some of the goals I’ve accomplished if I didn’t have them to help me and to open doors.
Tell us about some of the projects, ideas, or questions you’re currently working on.
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I am really excited because I wrote a script based off of my first book — The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation — and we now have a producer attached. Our next step is to look for a director, and then from there we’ll look for the actresses who will play these beautiful roles and honour these women with us.
I am so, so, so excited, because I have wanted to turn The Three Mothers into a film for a long time. It came out in 2021, and I think I was really looking for a different writer to help me do it — I didn’t know that I could do it — and then a couple of months ago, maybe half a year ago now, I realized that maybe I could be the one who wrote the script. And I did. My team feels really good about it, and I’m just excited for this next stage of my career.
I’m also working on a novel that I’m super excited about, but I’m not quite sharing the idea yet. I hope it will be very exciting and I hope it will sell.
What do you wish you’d started doing sooner?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I wish I had started keeping track of all the steps I was taking to achieve my goals on social media a little bit better.
I’ve done so many incredible things, and I’ve been so fortunate to have amazing opportunities, but I didn’t always take pictures or post about it — post, you know, behind the scenes and all of that. I think, in this day and age, so many opportunities come from what following you have, and people are looking at that as if it’s your resume, if not more important than a resume. While I’m being more intentional about it now, had I started earlier it would be an easier lift now.
I think I can make up for the time — I just wish that I had started sooner and really been less nervous about making reels and getting the thoughts that I was putting into my books and into my talks and interviews all the time, in this way, and in this form, where more people could connect with it and share it online and build my name up even more. So, I’m working on that now.
What book have you most often gifted to others?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: As an author, it’s definitely my own — The Three Mothers, and now Erased — but The Three Mothers has been out for longer, so I gift that a lot.
Other than my own book, I have gifted the Children of Blood and Bone series to friends, because it’s just a really inspiring and incredible trilogy. I think it’s also an easy read, so it feels very— I want to say ‘relaxing,’ but it’s also a very action-packed book. It’s such accessible language and it’s also so brilliantly written; I have loved reading it myself, so I’ve gifted that to several of my friends.
When you think of women who have inspired or influenced you, who comes to mind?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I would say Assata Shakur, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Melissa Harris-Perry, Stacey Abrams. There’s a lot, but those are some of the first ones who come to mind.
Outside of your work, what’s something you feel you’ve thought about more deeply than most other people?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: Oh, what a great question. I am always thinking about kind of the spirituality of my life and what the — I mean, I think a lot of people think about this, but — the purpose of our time here, and how so many of us, I think, are missing the point of it.
We’re kind of rushing through moments in life, and often rushing through the most important moments in life. I think about this a lot with parenting, because it’s really easy to want to rush your kids off to school, or rush them through bed time so you can watch TV. You’re rushing through the things that have so much more meaning to get to things that really are just so much less important in life, and I just think a lot of people don’t realize that until far too late. So, I think about it a lot: the moments we’re rushing through and not realizing what exactly it is we’re rushing towards.
Tell us about a time when you had to take a big risk in order to move forward. What did that experience teach you about how to navigate difficult circumstances?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I was invited to give a TED Talk, and I was pregnant at the time. I knew that I would have to deliver the TED Talk when my baby was only three months old— 12 weeks old.
I say this was a big risk because this was my second baby, so I was aware that, postpartum, and especially in that fourth trimester, it’s not always easy to think of things other than what you need to do to make sure your baby is healthy and thriving and happy. Having to deliver a memorized speech where there are no teleprompters, and you really, truly are just there in front of hundreds of people delivering the speech— I knew that was a big risk to take. But I also knew that it was something that I was really excited to do, an opportunity that I’d wanted for a long time.
I just had to really trust that I could pull it off, and so I prepared for it with my baby in my carrier. I was practicing my talk into her ears all the time, and just making sure I really took care of myself leading up to that moment so that I could remember everything that I had to say that day. It taught me that you can take the big risks — you just have to prepare yourself for them and remember that those are moments you’ve been asking for. Sometimes, you just have to step into them with faith.
Where do you feel the most scarcity in your life? Where do you feel the most abundance?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: I think I always feel a scarcity of time. The days go by so fast, and there’s so much I want to do: I want to be with my babies, and I also want to write my next books, and I just feel like every day I barely make it through all the checklist items.
But I’m really grateful because, at the same time, the place where I feel the most abundance is that I feel like my life is very full with love. I’m just really grateful — I’m grateful for my husband, I’m grateful for my kids, I’m grateful for my friends, I’m grateful for my career. I’m grateful for all the opportunities that are opening up, and things I can’t even see happening yet, and I’m grateful for all the ideas and inspiration that I get.
My abundance comes from all those things, but, because I want to do all those things, time is what I have the least of. So, we’ll see how much I get through.
What keeps you going?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: Oh, life in general — it’s a wonderful experience that, again, I have a lot of gratitude for. And I would also say carrying my mom’s legacy and knowing that I’m making her proud.
I lost my mom almost four years ago, and I feel like she’s always cheering me on. As well as two of my close friends — we became close in college, and they both passed away shortly after we all graduated. I feel their presence very strongly, especially with opportunities that seem to just kind of pop up sometimes. I work very hard, yes, and there’s other things that I’ve just been really blessed with, and people who come into my life, and I often feel like it’s those who I have lost and who I miss who are maybe helping to make it all happen.
And of course my kids, and trying to make everything a little bit easier and better for them, and leaving hopefully a mark in my time here on this earth that helps people. I think all of us are supposed to do something that helps people, so I hope my books and my storytelling and that form of activism, as I see it, will make a difference.
Is there a project, initiative, or cause you’d like to highlight?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us, my most recent book, came out in May, so it’d be awesome if we can continue to get people to read it.
It’s done really well, and I see the first year of a book, the launch of a book, being the whole first year of the book. So I’m having as many conversations as possible, and putting it in front of as many people as possible, to give it its best life after that. I see it as creating different ripple effects and waves as they continue to grow in that very first year, so that you can start to see it play out on its own after that.
Where can our readers find you?
Anna Malaika Tubbs: You can go to annamalaikatubbs.com or @annamalaikatubbs on Instagram to find me.