Notes from America with Kai Wright

Some believe that the religious right’s roots begin with Roe v. Wade. But there was an earlier court decision about the rights of segregated schools that first mobilized them. The recent surge in anti-trans legislation nationwide sparked a conversation on our show, about how the religious right has worked to deny the rights and existence of LGBT people for decades. This movement dates back to the early 1970s; to trace its history, producer Jessica Miller visits Mississippi and follows the bitter fight against a religious freedom bill passed in 2017 called HB 1523. The bill states that people who don’t believe in LGBT rights can’t be forced to abide by new civil rights protections. A group of civil rights advocates sued the state in response, and the ensuing debate revealed the real history behind all of the religious right's arguments today.  This episode was originally published as ‘In Jesus' Name... We Legislate’ on June 13, 2017. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening for this episode:  Church, State and the Soul of Our Nation (10/10/2022) Christian nationalism – the push to have laws, policies and social norms reflect Christian values –  is a growing movement in the U.S. As its rise continues to influence contemporary politics, how should we consider and prepare for its impact on our government?   “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

State lawmakers across the country are introducing new waves of legislation targeting the transgender community. What’s behind this movement?  To answer this question, we first turn to history. Host Kai Wright speaks with Imara Jones, founder of TransLash Media and host of the podcast The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality. Jones shares the national picture of this surge in anti-trans legislation and centers this political moment in religious history. Then, Henry Seaton, the transgender justice advocate for the ACLU of Tennessee shares stories from those impacted by the state’s new law banning gender-affirming care for minors and drag performances in certain public places. Companion listening for this episode:  Roe Is Gone. What Now? (6/27/2022) Host Kai Wright and listeners react to the recent SCOTUS decisions, including the fall of Roe v. Wade. Plus, a reflection on the significance of LGBT Pride in a scary political time for the community.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Why do millions of people from around the world flock to Philadelphia, PA, to visit a statue….of a fictional character? We ask Paul Farber, host of the WHYY podcast The Statue. Many who have been to Philadelphia have visited the iconic plaza outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art that houses the Rocky statue. But what does a statue celebrating a fictional boxer tell us about how and why we create monuments? Paul Farber is a Philly native, director of The Monument Lab, and host of the podcast The Stature. He joins host Kai Wright and executive producer André Robert Lee to discuss the complicated facts surrounding the famous site– and what he decided to do about it. You can hear more about how Paul explored this peculiarity on WHYY Digital Studio’s The Statue.  Companion listening for this episode: American Political Myths Have Consequences For Us All (2/9/2023) From the “Southern Strategy” to the civil rights movement, we’re surfacing what is true about our nation’s past and what is propaganda masquerading as history. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Artist Michelle Browder lives in a city that is increasingly being altered by monumental works…including one she created herself. More than 30 years ago, as an 18-year-old art student in Atlanta, Michelle Browder came across a work of art that haunted her. The picture was meant as a tribute to Dr. J. Marion Sims, a 19th century doctor long known as the 'Father of Gynecology.’ His discoveries, only made possible by his experimentation on enslaved women, endowed his legacy in U.S. history, yet erased the victims of this research. Armed with this knowledge, she set out to create a monument in Montgomery, Alabama, where a statue of Sims still stands in front of the state capitol building.  Browder joins host Kai Wright to share the story behind her creation called “The Mothers of Gynecology,” in tribute to Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey, three of Dr. Sims’ victims. Companion listening for this episode: The Battle Over Black Studies (2/21/2023) Black studies is not about inclusion. It’s about disruption – which is why some fear it. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Our national story comprises all of us. We hear stories from listeners and The HistoryMakers founder Julieanna Richardson that capture the living history that often goes unmentioned. How can we craft a new version of our national history that includes people who have been written out of it? Julieanna Richardson is someone who is also asking this question. She’s doing the work through The HistoryMakers, a digital archive she founded that captures the oral histories of more than 3,400 African Americans. She joins host Kai Wright to discuss the significance of oral history as a medium and some of the stories featured in the archive. Then, we create our own oral history project with stories from live callers.  Companion listening for this episode: "The Battle Over Black Studies"  (11/24/2022) Black studies is under partisan attack, not only in Florida but around the country. With the effort to eliminate the field of study comes the erasure of scholarship and activism. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

We continue our Black History Is Now series with Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of the hit films “The Woman King” and “Love & Basketball,” among others that center Black voices.  “The Woman King” has received widespread acclaim and has inspired representation for women on the big screen. For Gina Prince-Bythewood, the film’s director, this movie is the latest in what has been a long career of promoting representation and excellent cinema. She joins host Kai Wright to talk about her experience in Hollywood and making space for women of color in front of and behind the camera. Companion listening for this episode: “Actor Omar Epps Imagines Life After The Climate Crisis”  (11/24/2022) The leading man from beloved films like “Love and Basketball” and “Higher Learning” has entered the world of Young Adult fiction to inspire today’s youth and their fight against climate change. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Terrance McKnight, evening host on WQXR, unearths the hidden voices that shape our musical traditions in the new podcast "Every Voice with Terrance McKnight.” McKnight has spent decades interrogating the classical world, raising questions about race relations in the genre and therefore introducing his listeners to often overlooked or forgotten music and voices. Kai Wright joins McKnight live from The Greene Space stage to celebrate the launch of McKnight’s new WQXR podcast “Every Voice.” We’re bringing you a portion of this event that also features Sharon J. Willis, founder of Americolor Opera Alliance, and musical performances from singers Asha Lindsey and Ian George. Watch the full event here.   Companion listening for this episode:  How Singer Marian Anderson Dominated the Global Stage (12/22/2022) At a time when the dominant art form was anti-Black minstrelsy, famed contralto Marian Anderson made a name for herself performing classical music. Host Kai Wright is joined by WQXR’s Terrance McKnight to discuss Anderson’s legacy, and her journey to global music stardom. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

We mark the end of Black History Month with a conversation about the people who are too often left out when we celebrate the past. What do we learn when we study the history of those considered wayward and existing outside of the norms of the day? Cultural historian and MacArthur fellow Saidiya Hartman introduces host Kai Wright to the young women whose radical lives were obscured by respectability politics. Hartman is the author of "Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals," which offers an intimate look into some of the Black lives that have been seemingly erased from the history books. Through a series of readings, they explore the complicated role of Black intellectuals like W.E.B DuBois, the Black family and how a damaging moralism continues to inform the policing of marginalized communities, public space and American cultural politics today. This episode was originally published as “The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History” on February 8, 2021. Listen to more episodes here. Companion listening for this episode:  Faith Ringgold Creates Space for Black Americans (1/5/2023) Faith Ringgold’s art is an intimate dialogue and debate between generations of Black women, stretching from the formerly enslaved to today. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Continuing our Black History Month series, ballet sensation Misty Copeland shares her journey to believing she was special. As the first African American woman to be a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater in 2015, Misty Copeland made history. Now, she continues to shape the future by inspiring young dancers and sharing not just her story, but also her inspiration in her memoir “The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor, Raven Wilkinson.” Copeland joins host Kai Wright to talk about her upbringing, mentorship that shaped her and the future she envisions for Black ballerinas. Companion listening for this episode: Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art (12/19/2022) What does a next-level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Black studies is not about inclusion. It’s about disruption – which is why some fear it.  Black studies is under partisan attack, not only in Florida but around the country. With the effort to eliminate the field of study comes the erasure of scholarship and activism. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, African American studies professor at Northwestern University and author of the book “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership,” has faced this firsthand. Taylor has been removed from the College Board’s A.P. African American studies course, and continues to be threatened. She joins host Kai Wright to discuss the real ideas behind Black studies and her new magazine Hammer & Hope, which centers Black politics and culture. Companion listening for this episode: American Political Myths Have Consequences For Us All (2/9/2023) From the “Southern Strategy” to the civil rights movement, we’re surfacing what is true about our nation’s past, and what is propaganda masquerading as history.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Down in the Mississippi Delta, the Lester Family made a space for themselves and claimed their land–and they didn’t need “40 Acres and a mule” to do it.  In February 2023, Pearline Lester passed away peacefully. We’re revisiting this story about her family’s legacy in her honor. Her husband, Elbert Lester has lived his full life in Quitman County, Mississippi, on land their family owns. That’s exceptional for Black people in this area today, but at one time, Black farmers owned the majority of this land. What happened to change that? Host Kai Wright goes on a search for the truth. With help from historians John Willis and Eric Foner, he uncovers a story about an old and fundamental question in American politics – Who are the rightful owners of this country’s staggering wealth? This episode was originally published as ‘40 Acres in Mississippi’ on January 30, 2020. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening from our archives: A Secret Meeting in South Bend (2/27/2020) Who Owns the Deed to the American Dream (9/29/2016) “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Boy meets girl, boy’s an immigrant, they go on a first date. The date does not go well. 17 years later, the boy discovers that being an immigrant played a role, on both sides. What happened? Senior Digital Producer Kousha Navidar guest hosts a conversation about coming of age as an immigrant in the U.S. He shares the story of his failed first date, a rare second chance and what the experience revealed about what it means to be an immigrant. Then, Sabaa Tahir, author of the National Book Award-winning novel "All My Rage," joins to talk about her immigrant experience and the role it plays in her writing, and callers share how the significance of being an immigrant can change over time for themselves. Companion listening for this episode: YA Literature Chose Jason Reynolds (12/26/2022) For author Jason Reynolds, the key to writing compelling young adult literature is reconnecting with the formative childhood experiences that made him. He has become a rockstar among kids and young adults for books like As Brave As You and Ghost that tell honest stories about Black childhood. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

From the “Southern Strategy” to the civil rights movement, we’re surfacing what is true about our nation’s past, and what is propaganda masquerading as history. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made headlines again after striking down the College Board’s Advance Placement course on African American Studies in the state. Simultaneously, the College Board was making changes to the curriculum that some critics claim, omits key details from the history. Schools are common sites of cultural provocation and a key component of the ongoing history wars. To help explain the myths of our nation’s past and who is telling them, host Kai Wright speaks with Kevin M. Kruse, professor of history at Princeton University and co-author of the book "Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past." They discuss how political misunderstandings both old and new, influence American democracy. The True Story of Critical Race Theory (10/11/2021) Is racism a permanent fixture of society? Host Kai Wright is joined by Jelani Cobb, staff writer for The New Yorker, to unravel the history of Derrick Bell’s quest to answer that question and how it led to our present debate over critical race theory.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

In the spirit of the Grammys, Emil Wilbekin, a founding editor of VIBE, offers a first-person history of Black popular music, from Soul Train to Beyoncé. On Notes from America we focus on Black history regularly, but to celebrate this year’s Black History Month, we’re thinking about it in the present tense. In our series Black History Is Now, we’ll bring you conversations with people who consider their work to be a continuum of Black history, all month. Emil Wilbekin, culture journalist and a founding editor of VIBE Magazine, is one of those people. While at VIBE, Wilbekin chronicled some of Black music’s biggest moments. In time for commercial music’s biggest awards night, he joins host Kai Wright to discuss his musical inspirations, major moments in Black music history and his community organization Native Son.  Companion listening for this episode: Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art (12/19/2022) What does a next-level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

When it comes to police reform, a retired NYPD detective argues that policing as a profession must evolve or go away completely.  The problem of police violence, and the excessive use of force in Black and Brown communities in particular, has spanned centuries and retired NYPD detective Marq Claxton says that the force’s stubborn, insular culture was built to last. Claxton, co-founder of the organization 100 Blacks In Law Enforcement Who Care and member of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance, joins host Kai Wright to offer insights on police culture from his two decades in the field. They speak about the psyche of police officers and Claxton’s experience as a Black person in law enforcement. This episode was originally published as ‘Why Cops Don’t Change’ on April 19, 2021. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening for this episode: David Dinkins vs. the NYPD (6/14/2021) How NYC’s first Black mayor tried to balance concerns about public safety with demands for a more accountable police force -- and the violent resistance he faced from the police union.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

The release of brutal footage of the killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols by police officers in Memphis furthers an all-too-familiar conversation about accountability and police violence. The Black community in Memphis and nationwide is processing the details of Tyre Nichols’ killing at the hands of law enforcement - from the race of the police officers to the footage of the beating and why this is a persistent problem in America. To help unpack the story, host Kai Wright speaks with Karanja Ajanaku, Executive Editor of The New Tri-State Defender, a news organization that serves the greater Memphis African-American community. They discuss how a traffic stop turned deadly for Nichols, and how officers’ egregious use of force and media coverage of the incident is shaping civic life in Memphis. Companion listening for this episode: Crime, Panic and The Case Of The Exonerated Five (12/5/2022) It’s been twenty years since five men who were convicted as kids in the “Central Park jogger case” were exonerated. Their story has resonance in today’s crime-panicked United States. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

A mass shooting in Monterey Park, California – on the eve of Lunar New Year – sent shockwaves through the predominantly Asian American ethnoburb and the Asian American community nationwide. The toll of mass shootings this year in the U.S. is already in the dozens in just the first month of 2023. In Monterey Park, California, a majority Asian American community shaken by loss of lives at the hands of an armed gunman, emotions are high given the circumstances. The victims were at a celebration for Lunar New Year in a city known as America’s first suburban Chinatown. To learn more about Monterey Park and its history, host Kai Wright speaks with James Zarsadiaz, a professor of history at the University of San Francisco and the author of “Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia and LA”. They discuss the town’s significance for the greater Asian American community and how people are processing this tragedy amid persisting fears of anti-Asian hate. Companion listening for this episode: The Dangerous Cycle of Fear (4/11/2022) Asian American New Yorkers explain how Covid-era bigotry and violence changed their lives, and what’s at stake for everybody when we fear each other.   “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Estrangement isn’t linear. For those who have severed ties or been cut off, it can be necessary, empowering, devastating and confounding—all at once.  A recent series from WNYC’s Death, Sex & Money podcast explores the complexities of estrangement, which they define as an experience of feeling cut off from a relationship or a community that once felt like home. Death, Sex & Money host Anna Sale teams up with Kai Wright to expand on the topic in a listener-driven episode. Together with Rebecca Martinez Fitzgerald, a therapist based in Durham, North Carolina, they respond to callers wrestling with relationships and differences in values. Hear more about this topic on Death, Sex & Money. Companion listening for this episode: Church, State and the Soul of Our Nation (10/10/2022) Christian nationalism – the push to have laws, policies and social norms reflect Christian values –  is a growing movement in the U.S. As its rise continues to influence contemporary politics, how should we consider and prepare for its impact on our government? “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

What made Louis Armstrong’s music so groundbreaking? And after he broke that ground, why were later generations of Black people reluctant to embrace him?  From his renditions of “On The Sunny Side Of The Street” to “What A Wonderful World,” trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong is cemented in history as a jazz icon. But for many Black people – especially those in the mid-twentieth century – his presentation was degrading and received as minstrelsy for white audiences. Filmmaker Sacha Jenkins traces Amstrong’s complicated history as a Black artist in his most recent project and documentary, “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.” He joins host Kai Wright to discuss Armstrong’s relationship with music and the fans that struggled to embrace him. Companion listening for this episode: What Does Black Ambition Sound Like? (12/27/2021) James Reese Europe was already famous when he enlisted to fight in World War I. But the band he took to the frontlines – as part of the famous 369th Infantry Regiment – thrust him and Black American music onto the global stage. Jazz pianist Jason Moran sits down at the piano to show Kai how Europe’s band changed music, and how jazz carries the resilient sound of Black history and ambition in America.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

How does Martin Luther King Jr.’s generation of young, gifted, and Black people inspire today’s changemakers and their ideas for how to achieve racial justice? The Apollo has a decades-long tradition of serving as a convener for local community residents as well as people from across New York City and the world. That tradition continues as The Apollo partners with WNYC for the annual celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his enduring legacy on the culture. The 17th annual Apollo Uptown Hall MLK celebration focuses on Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's as the template for modern social and civil justice movements. Notes from America opened the celebration with a live, in-person conversation acknowledging the young leaders of today impacting society through activism, engagement and a commitment to justice. Host Kai Wright is joined by historian and National Book Award winner Imani Perry and Chelsea Miller, activist and the co-founder of Freedom March NYC. They discuss King’s legacy in the context of the Nina Simone song, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” with special performances from The Collective, brought to you by Dream Launchers, led by director Jonathan Ball. This episode was recorded live at the World Famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York on January 15, 2023 and broadcast nationwide on January 16, 2023. Watch a livestream of the event here.  Companion listening for this episode: YA Literature Chose Jason Reynolds (12/26/2022) For author Jason Reynolds, the key to writing compelling young adult literature is reconnecting with the formative childhood experiences that made him “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

From near-fisticuffs on the House floor to Kevin McCarthy’s concessions to win the gavel, the chaotic start for the 118th Congress has finally settled – with consequences for us all.  In his bid for speakership, newly elected House speaker Kevin McCarthy made a host of promises to some of the Republican Party’s most extremist members – including Qanon conspiracists and election deniers. The future of the new Congress and what led to its formation serve as a lesson for where we stand in national politics. Theodore Johnson, senior advisor for the public policy think tank New America and writer for The Bulwark, joins host Kai Wright to unpack it all in this special episode for podcast listeners.  Companion listening for this episode: The Conservative ‘Swing’ Vote: Explained (11/7/2022) Trump-to-Biden voters may decide the upcoming midterms. So, who are they? And what do they want from candidates now?  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

The Great Resignation. Quiet quitting. These concepts allegedly defined the way we worked last year. Will anything change in 2023? Journalist Anne Helen Petersen, co-author of Out of the Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home and host of the Crooked Media podcast Work Appropriate, has made a name for herself examining Americans’ relationships to work. She joins host Kai Wright to discuss these relationships and how they are shaping our culture, economy and politics. They also take questions from callers about balancing work and life. Companion listening for this episode: Idina Menzel Talks Broadway, Balance and Her Dream Gig (12/12/2022) From Broadway to Frozen, Idina Menzel has captivated young and old audiences alike. A new documentary about her journey as a performer reveals how she worked to land her dream gig.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Faith Ringgold’s art is an intimate dialogue and debate between generations of Black women, stretching from the formerly enslaved to today. Producer Rahima Nasa takes host Kai Wright to an exhibit displaying artist Faith Ringgold’s work. We learn about Ringgold’s story and the political beliefs that shaped her art, plus we hear about the impact of Ringgold’s work from her daughter, art historian and feminist scholar Michele Wallace.  This episode was was originally published as ‘Why We Can't (and Shouldn't) Move On From Jan. 6’ on June 13, 2022. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening for this episode: The Art of Remembrance (9/14/2022) The story of one local NYC artist who uses digital technology to honor our city’s past. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Afrofuturism is an old idea that’s reaching new people. Hollywood production designer Hannah Beachler walks us through some fantastical, imagined paths to Black liberation. There is a cosmic vision of Black freedom seen across universes from Seneca Village to Wakanda, exemplified across artistry from Sun Ra to Lil Nas X. Among the culture makers propelling the Afrofuturism movement is Hannah Beachler, an Academy Award-winning production designer and lead curator of the exhibit Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Beachler – who’s worked on box office films like “Black Panther,” “Moonlight” and  Creed,” as well as Beyonce’s “Lemonade” visuals – joins host Kai Wright to share how Afrofuturism calls on our history to reimagine the next steps in our journey.  This episode was was originally published as ‘Black People Are From Outer Space’ on February 14, 2022. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening for this episode: Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art (12/19/2022) What does a next level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Folashade Olatunde, a WNYC Radio Rookie, shares a series of open and honest audio diaries, inviting listeners on her journey to rebuild a relationship with her dad.Her dad went to prison when she was two years old. She used to go visit him all the time with her mom. Until her parents got divorced. Now, it’s been more than a decade since she saw her father. In this extended version of an installment of Radio Rookies, Olatunde shares a series of open and honest audio diaries and invites listeners on her journey to rebuild her relationship with her dad. This episode was was originally published as ‘Half of My Parents, All of Me’ on August 31, 2022. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening for this episode: The Prison of Manhood Can’t Hold Shaka Senghor (8/29/2022) He went to prison at age 19. When released, he had to learn how to be a father to two Black sons with very different life experiences. His letters to them have lessons for us all. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

For author Jason Reynolds, the key to writing compelling young adult literature is reconnecting with the formative childhood experiences that made him. He has become a rockstar among kids and young adults for books like As Brave As You and Ghost that tell honest stories about Black childhood. The author joins host Kai Wright to discuss his storytelling philosophy, successes, fears and relationship with his mother. Hear more from Jason Reynolds in Radiotopia Presents: My Mother Made Me.  This episode was was originally published as ‘Jason Reynolds Needs to Be Useful’ on July 18, 2022. Listen to more episodes here.  Companion listening for this episode: Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022) Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Throughout her career, American contralto Marian Anderson performed a repertoire well ahead of her time. At a time when the dominant art form was anti-Black minstrelsy, famed contralto Marian Anderson made a name for herself performing classical music. Host Kai Wright is joined by WQXR’s Terrance McKnight to discuss Anderson’s legacy, and her journey to global music stardom. Companion listening for this episode: Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art (12/19/2022) What does a next level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

What does a next level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self. Actor and singer Billy Porter has spent decades bringing his full Black and queer self to his art. From Kinky Boots on Broadway to FX’s Pose, the actor credits his success to one huge victory–finding meaningful spaces for himself. But these spaces didn’t come until later in his life. Host Kai Wright speaks with Porter about his journey to healing, mental health and claiming spaces for himself. Read more in Unprotected: A Memoir by Billy Porter, now available on paperback. Check out our holiday playlist here! We’ll keep compiling your suggestions, so keep them coming all season long. Companion listening for this episode: Actor Omar Epps Imagines Life After The Climate Crisis (11/24/2022) Epps captivated a generation as a leading man in films like “Love and Basketball.” Now he hopes to inspire today’s youth and their fight against climate change as an author. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

The soundtrack to our winter holidays is dominated by standards. But among the songs most of us know by heart are bold new tunes by artists who hope to capture our hearts with lyrics and melodies that evoke both nostalgia and new traditions. Lindsay Kimball, Program Director for Minnesota Public Radio’s renowned music station The Current, joins host Kai Wright to talk about what she considers when curating music for the station’s holiday stream. Together, they make a live holiday playlist with the help of listeners…and some impromptu live performances.  Check out the playlist here! We’ll keep compiling your suggestions, so keep them coming all season long. Companion listening for this episode: Face the Darkness, Welcome the Light (12/20/2021) Do you need a revival? On the longest night of the year, join us to celebrate Yalda, a poetic Persian tradition. Then, a conversation about those we’ve lost with artist Gregory Porter. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

From Broadway to Frozen, Idina Menzel has captivated young and old audiences alike. A new documentary about her journey as a performer reveals how she worked to land her dream gig. Actor and singer Idina Menzel has played a series of roles that inspire empowerment and a quest for identity. Her critically acclaimed turns on Broadway in Rent and Wicked and her voice work as Elsa in Disney’s Frozen have made her an intergenerational star.  Now, a new Disney Plus documentary called “Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage” unveils the person behind such iconic characters and shares her devotion to entertaining audiences. Ahead of the film’s release, Host Kai Wright spoke with Menzel about balancing work and life, and realizing her dream of performing at Madison Square Garden.  Companion listening for this episode: David Byrne on Musical Democracy (2/10/2022) The former Talking Heads frontman explores the challenges – and beauties – of human connection while breaking down his hit Broadway show, American Utopia.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

More than a million users have reportedly left the Twitter app since owner Elon Musk took over, but for some the decision to log off for good isn’t easy. Love it or hate it, Twitter has been a major stage for political unrest, pop culture pinnacles, social justice movements, and community engagement. Now, users who’ve found a home on the app are debating what’s next. Many have decided to leave in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform, but that’s not an easy decision for everyone. Host Kai Wright talks with George M. Johnson, best-selling author of the novel "All Boys Aren’t Blue," who’s made a revolutionary space for themself on Twitter. Plus, Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah joins to tell us why she’s not ready to deactivate her account just yet. Read more of Karen’s thoughts in her opinion piece, Why I’m not leaving Twitter. Companion listening for this episode: Digital Life Is A Moral Mess (8/11/2022) A listener voicemail sends the show’s Senior Digital Producer Kousha Navidar on a search for moral clarity with philosopher, Dr. Christopher Robichaud. Plus, Shirin Ghaffary, senior reporter at Recode and co-host of the podcast Land of The Giants, shares the story of Facebook, and why it has been so hard for them to respond to the damage their technology has created.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

It’s been twenty years since five men who were convicted as kids in the “Central Park jogger case” were exonerated. Their story has resonance in today’s crime-panicked United States. In 1989, amid a national and local panic about crime, five Black and Latino teenage boys were accused of a raping a woman in New York’s Central Park. Despite inconsistencies in their coerced, false confessions and other evidence, they were convicted. Their images were held up in national media as representative of urban chaos, in which wild Black and Brown youth threatened white America. It wasn’t until December 2002 that DNA evidence finally established their innocence. They are now known as the Exonerated 5 and advocates for justice reform. Host Kai Wright speaks with two of the five, Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana, about their story and how anxieties about crime still affect today’s politics.  Companion listening for this episode:  People Feel Unsafe–and It’s More Than Crime (5/14/2022) The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going as far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear? Scholar James Forman Jr., author of the book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, helps break down what’s real, vs perception, about the rise in violent crime.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

You could say all 50 states are in something of a long-distance relationship, and it’s long past the honeymoon phase. But if we’re so divided, should we just break up already? Whether it’s political disarray, an ever-changing spectrum of state laws or social unrest, some may feel like the United States is more divided than ever. But, history shows that our country’s actually been divided from the start. Host Kai Wright talks with author Richard Kreitner about his book, Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. They discuss the history of American secession movements and what’s still keeping us together.  Companion listening for this episode: Can America Be Redeemed? (7/05/2021) Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of “post-traumatic growth.” This episode was was originally published as “The Myth of A ‘United’ States” on November 22, 2021. Listen to more episodes here. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

We’ve received a lot of messages from listeners in response to our recent episodes, especially our coverage of the recent midterm elections and our stories about dealing with life online. Host Kai Wright is joined by producer Kousha Navidar to open the listener mailbag and unpack some recent voicemails.   Companion listening for this episode: What Keeps You Voting? (10/31/2022) Even amid a broken democracy we’re still told to “go vote!” But what do you do when voting doesn’t feel like enough? “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

The leading man from beloved films like “Love and Basketball” and “Higher Learning” has entered the world of Young Adult fiction to inspire today’s youth and their fight against climate change. Since his breakout role in 1992 as Q in “Juice,” actor and producer Omar Epps has become known for portraying the scope of Black life on the big screen. He joins host Kai Wright to talk about his new co-authored novel, "Nubia: The Awakening", which imagines a New York City ravaged by climate disaster, and a group of teens who hope to save it. They talk about Epps’s inspiration for the book, his pivot from actor to author, and reflect on his career. Companion listening for this episode: The Climate Crisis Needs a New Gospel (11/21/2022) Meet Dr. Katharine Hayhoe – a climate scientist who happens to be an evangelical Christian. The climate crisis was on the minds of many Americans as they voted in the midterms, and Hayhoe offers insight about what productive action looks like in the critical years to come. She says we need to spend less time wringing our hands, and more time connecting the climate to each others’ values.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

The climate crisis was on the minds of many Americans as they voted in the midterms, and Hayhoe offers insight about what productive action looks like in the critical years to come. She says we need to spend less time wringing our hands, and more time connecting the climate to each others’ values. As part of that conversation, producer Regina de Heer is joined by members of the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions to hear how these ideals are put into practice on a local level. Find more in Professor Hayhoe’s bestselling book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World and her Global Weirding series on Youtube. The Global Weirding segment mentioned in this episode can be found here.  Companion listening for this episode: Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate (9/20/2021) New science finds we’ve got less than a decade to avoid catastrophe. Activist and author Bill McKibben says the only solutions that can beat that deadline are collective. 'How to Start Saving the World' was originally published on August 1, 2022. Listen to more episodes here.  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

During the 2022 midterms, election-denying and pro-Trump candidates ran on a platform of  falsehoods about voter fraud in 2020. But there's a much more present source introducing this narrative into American homes: the country's largest Christian conservative multimedia company. We learn how the far-right came to dominate Christian talk radio and we meet Salem Media Group – perhaps the most influential media company you’ve never heard of.   The Divided Dial is a new series from our colleagues at On The Media about how one side of the political spectrum came to dominate talk radio – and how one company is using the airwaves to launch a right wing media empire. You can listen to future episodes here.   The Divided Dial is hosted by journalist and Fulbright Fellow Katie Thornton. You can follow her work on Instagram or on her website. The Divided Dial was edited by On the Media's executive producer, Katya Rogers. With production support from Max Balton and fact-checking by Tom Colligan, Sona Avakian, and Graham Hacia. Music and sound design by Jared Paul. Jennifer Munson is technical director. Art by Michael Brennan. With support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.   Companion listening for this episode: Church, State, and the Soul of our Nation (10/10/2022) Christian nationalism – the push to have laws, policies and social norms reflect Christian values –  is a growing movement in the U.S. As its rise continues to influence contemporary politics, how should we consider and prepare for its impact on our government? Pastor and executive director of Vote Common Good, Doug Pagitt, walks us through the history of the movement, and tells us how he and other faith leaders are finding ways to combat the effects of Christian nationalism in their own faith communities.   “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Keeping the voters in the midterm conversation: We invite callers to tell us what motivated them this election and what’s on their minds as news continues to unfold. Joan Walsh, national affairs correspondent for The Nation and a CNN political contributor, joins host Kai Wright to open the phone lines. They invite listeners to call in and share their perspectives on the developing news from the midterm elections. They also check in with reporters across the country who have been covering the races in their states: Jo Ingles (Ohio), Sam Dunklau (Pennsylvania), and Fred Hicks (Georgia).  PRODUCERS NOTE: This conversation took place the weekend after Election Day 2022. Official vote tallies and other news have likely developed. Check WNYC or Gothamist.com for the latest updates. Companion listening for this episode: The Morning After: A Midterm Breakdown (11/10/2022) Of red ripples and blue walls. Kai joins The Brian Lehrer Show to help digest election results. Why did Democrats defy predictions? And where does it leave the Republican Party? “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Of red ripples and blue walls. Host Kai Wright joins The Brian Lehrer Show for a panel to help digest election results. Why did Democrats defy predictions? And where does it leave the Republican Party? Other panelists include Alexis Grenell, columnist for The Nation and the cofounder of Pythia Public, and Charlie Sykes, founder, editor-at-large and host of a podcast at The Bulwark, MSNBC contributor and author of How the Right Lost Its Mind (St. Martin's Press, 2017). The three help callers deconstruct the results and reflect on how the democratic process has held up this election. PRODUCERS NOTE: This panel discussion was lightly edited from a segment from The Brian Lehrer Show. This conversation took place the morning after Election Day 2022. Official vote tallies and other news have likely developed. Check WNYC or Gothamist.com for the latest updates. Companion listening for this episode: The Conservative ‘Swing’ Vote: Explained (11/7/2022) Trump-to-Biden voters may decide the upcoming midterms. So, who are they? And what do they want from candidates now?  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

It’s often emphasized as a defining factor in electoral politics: the ‘Latino vote.’ But that simple phrase erases a far more complex political story. Maritza Félix, founder of the Spanish news service Conecta Arizona, has been covering the political evolution of Arizona’s Latino community over the past decade. She joins host Kai Wright to discuss the future of Latino politics in Arizona from party affiliation to policy reform and prove while the mythical ‘Latino Vote’ is constantly deemed influential, all Latino voters are not alike. Maritza comes to us from Feet in 2 Worlds, a project that brings the work of immigrant journalists to public radio, podcasts and online news sites.  Companion listening for this episode: The Conservative ‘Swing’ Vote: Explained (11/7/2022) Trump-to-Biden voters may decide the upcoming midterms. So, who are they? And what do they want from candidates now?  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Trump-to-Biden voters may decide the upcoming midterms. So, who are they? And what do they want from candidates now?  Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, host of the podcast “The Focus Group,” and founder of the Republican Accountability Project, has studied voters throughout this midterm election cycle. There’s one group that she finds particularly fascinating: modern-day swing voters. These voters–who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but Joe Biden in 2020– are a small population with significant political potential. Host Kai Wright is joined by Longwell to better understand her interest in this group, as they go to the polls in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. And, we take calls from voters on the eve of Election Day. Companion listening for this episode: Black Georgians Are Leading the Charge to the Polls (10/17/2022) Young Black voters are the key to changing the politics of Georgia. What can the rest of the country learn from the civic engagement in that state? “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Beauty. Everyone wants it, but only some are considered to have it. What steps can we take to democratize beauty? Journalist Tracie Hunte is trying to foster real and honest conversations about what it means to be beautiful, and who has access to the power that comes along with beauty. Hunte speaks with Tressie McMillan Cottom, a New York Times columnist and sociologist who has thought and written about the culture of “Big Beauty” in America for years. Her 2013 essay “When Your (Brown) Body is a (White) Wonderland” and 2020 essay “AOC’s Attractiveness Drives Us All Mad” went viral and sparked conversations about the challenges Black women face against beauty standards. Together, they wrestle with what it means to not just reclaim beauty, but reimagine it.  Companion listening for this episode: Blackness (Un)interrupted (2/22/2021) Our Future of Black History series concludes with conversations about self-expression. Because when you carry a collective history in your identity, it can be hard to find yourself.     “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

We’ve received a lot of messages from listeners in response to our recent episodes so, producer Kousha Navidar and host Kai Wright open the listener mailbag and one voicemail inspires a conversation with Dr. Carol Anderson. The author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy response spans from the efficacy of voting and voter suppression to what we can do beyond the ballot box. And, we take your calls about what motivates you to keep voting.    Companion listening for this episode: Your Vote Matters (9/12/2022) So why don't more people vote in smaller elections? What motivates people to vote — and how that could inform greater participation in the upcoming midterm elections?  “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

If you identify as conservative, what is at stake for you during these midterms? Which issues matter to you most, and how are you thinking about your place in the future of conservative politics? We’re looking for messages to use in our November 6th episode with guest Sarah Longwell. Here's how to talk to us: You can now record and send us a message right from https://www.speakpipe.com/notesfromamerica, or visit our website, notesfromamerica.org, and click on the green button that says “start recording.” The button is just above our episode descriptions. Or, you can record a voice memo and email it right to us. Our email address is notes@wnyc.org. Plus, if you’re on Instagram, you can send us a message or tag us in your post or story. Our handle is @NotesWithKai. We look forward to hearing from you. Companion listening for this episode: The Higher Cost of Higher Ed for Americans of Color (10/24/2022)Student loans for higher education promises immigrants and people of color access to the American Dream — but at what cost? “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Student loans for higher education promises immigrants and people of color access to the American Dream — but at what cost? Higher education has traditionally been a pathway to achieving the American Dream for people of color and immigrants, but the high cost of tuition has resulted in a deepening of the wealth divide as student debt continues to create an economic crisis. Borrowers, including show producer Rahima Nasa, share their stories of how student loan repayment drastically changed their financial picture. Plus, policy expert and author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee, joins host Kai Wright to discuss federal forgiveness efforts and what else the U.S. government could do to promote economic equality with respect to racial justice.  Companion listening for this episode: The Promise and Failure of Cryptocurrency (7/11/2022) Cryptocurrency promised to democratize the financial world by giving people equal access to banking tools. It has potential, but also a long way to go. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Young Black voters are the key to changing the politics of Georgia. What can the rest of the country learn from the civic engagement in that state? Georgia’s two big midterm races may be the most consequential this election year. One will likely determine control of the Senate. The other is a bellwether for American politics – and democracy – overall. Out of this, can political power shift in the South? The answer to that question might be in the hands of young, Black voters. Trymaine Lee, host of MSNBC’s Into America has been traveling the country talking with Black students at HBCUs about their engagement on big political questions. He and Rose Scott, host of the daily news show Closer Look with Rose Scott out of WABE in Atlanta, offer us a pulse check on these young voters and their political priorities. Companion listening for this episode: The Racist History of Georgia’s Runoff (12/​​21/2020) Segregationists gamed the system 57 years ago. But this year, Black organizers may have finally slipped the knot that Jim Crow tied around democracy in the state. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Young Iranian Americans are witnessing a historic moment, as protests continue in Iran. We invited some of them to share how they are finding ways to participate from afar. Young Iranian Americans are witnessing a historic moment, as deadly protests in Iran continue over the death of a 22-year-old woman who died while in custody of the Tehran Guidance Patrol, better known as morality police. We invited some of them to share how they are processing these events and finding ways to participate from afar. Narges Bajoghli, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, joins senior producer Kousha Navidar and host Kai Wright to talk about Mahsa Amini’s death and the response in Iranian communities across the U.S. Companion listening for this episode: The Art of Remembrance (9/14/2022) The story of one local NYC artist who uses digital technology to honor our city’s past. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Christian nationalism – the push to have laws, policies and social norms reflect Christian values –  is a growing movement in the U.S. As its rise continues to influence contemporary politics, how should we consider and prepare for its impact on our government? Pastor and executive director of Vote Common Good, Doug Pagitt, walks us through the history of the movement, and tells us how he and other faith leaders are finding ways to combat the effects of Christian nationalism in their own faith communities.   Companion listening for this episode: The Obamas' Lonely Walk on the High Road (10/3/2022) Anti-Obama conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election still shape post-truth politics. What, if anything, is to be done about these conspiracies? “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Imani Perry introduces us to A Raisin in the Sun, the first show ever staged on Broadway written by a black woman – and the show’s legendary playwright, Lorraine Hansberry. In Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, author Imani Perry pays tribute to one of the most pivotal Black playwrights in modern history. In Perry's 2018 biography of Lorraine Hansberry, we meet a talented writer whose mainstream success with A Raisin In The Sun often overshadows her strategic and radical work as an artist and progressive thinker. That renowned play has returned to The Public Theater and Imani Perry joins host Kai Wright to explore how Hansberry and the story of the Younger family shaped the landscape of theater. Companion listening for this episode: Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022) Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

Anti-Obama conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election still shape post-truth politics. What, if anything, is to be done about these conspiracies? It’s been more than a decade since Barack Obama moved into the White House and began his first term as U.S. President. But conspiracy theories about the history-making leader continue to influence today’s political landscape and polarize Americans.  The theories run the gamut – from the familiar (Obama’s citizenship) to the familial (calling Michelle Obama’s gender into question). Folklorist and professor at University of California, Los Angeles, Patricia A. Turner Ph.D., has been researching what’s at the root of so many unfounded and unhinged rumors about America’s first Black president and studying why they persist. She joins host Kai Wright to discuss her new book, Trash Talk: Anti-Obama Lore and Race in the Twenty-First Century, and the connections between harmful narratives, current political divisions, and digital media. Companion listening for this episode: The Line Between Independence and Insurrection (8/4/2022) Decoding the Jan. 6th Insurrection – what we should have learned from the past and what we must remember for the future. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

‘The Woman King’  sits somewhere between the cringe of 'Coming to America' and the fantasy of 'Black Panther' in Hollywood’s troubled history of stories about Africa. Dr. Aje-Ori Agbese, professor in the Communication department of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, joins host Kai Wright to discuss Hollywood’s spotty history with stories about Africa and the cultural significance of the new blockbuster hit. Companion listening for this episode: Somebody, Sing a Black Girl’s Song (5/16/2022) An intergenerational meditation on Ntozake Shange’s iconic Broadway play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf." “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

The world has changed a lot since 2020. We open the phones to hear how this change has shaped listeners’ relationships and political opinions. Angela Davis, host of Minnesota Public Radio’s daily call-in show, MPR News with Angela Davis, shares the changes she’s seen personally and politically–from money to mental health. Companion listening for this episode: The Dangerous Cycle of Fear (4/11/2022) Asian American New Yorkers explain how Covid-era bigotry and violence changed their lives, and what’s at stake for everybody when we fear each other.   “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.   We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

We say goodbye to our summer playlist project – and hello to our show’s new name and theme music. Host Kai Wright checks in with producer Regina de Heer to wrap up our summer playlist. Hear the latest submissions from listeners, and WNYC staff, with their songs of the summer and the reasons why they chose it. Stream the complete Summer Playlist on Spotify here. Plus, we end the playlist by unveiling our show's new name and theme music with our sound designer and engineer, Jared Paul. Companion listening for this episode: Introducing 'Notes From America': New Name, Same Show (9/20/2022)We’re inviting you into a more positive – less anxious – conversation. Notes from America with Kai Wright airs Sundays at 6 p.m. ET on public radio stations and YouTube. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

We’re inviting you into a more positive – less anxious – conversation. Notes from America with Kai Wright airs Sundays at 6 p.m. ET on public radio stations and YouTube. Companion listening for this episode: A Pre-Midterms Vibe Check (9/19/2022)An election is coming. Summer is over. And the vibe is…what? We open the phones to hear what’s on your mind–from democracy to baseball. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on www.notesfromamerica.org or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @noteswithkai using the hashtag #NoteswithKai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.

An election is coming. Summer is over. And the vibe is…what? We open the phones to hear what’s on your mind–from democracy to baseball. WNYC's own Brian Lehrer joins to help take your calls. Tune in to The Brian Lehrer Show’s midterm election special, 30 Issues in 30 Days, starting on September 27th.  Companion listening for this episode: What Could Go Wrong? Everything (And It’s Ok) (8/8/2022) What zombie movies can teach us about our era of perpetual crisis, and other lessons from a disaster management specialist. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.  

The story of one local NYC artist who uses digital technology to honor our city’s past. Meet Vladimir Nazarov, a visual artist living in New York City, who combined his love for the city and his love of art to create a special 9/11 NFT. Through his story of hope, grief, and artistry, find out what happened to his commemorative NFT – and how this technology can bring a whole new experience to the world of art. Plus, a question about the subject of the piece propels the conversation in a completely unexpected direction.  Companion listening for this episode: Your Vote Matters (9/12/2022) So why don't more people vote in smaller elections? What motivates people to vote — and how that could inform greater participation in the upcoming midterm elections? *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

So why don't more people vote in smaller elections? What motivates people to vote — and how that could inform greater participation in the upcoming midterm elections? Roxanna Moritz, former chief election officer from Scott County, Iowa, shares her story of what drew her to public service — and what made her walk away. Plus, Zaki Hamid, Director of Community Engagement at KUOW, reports his radio station’s community feedback club's response to the question “what election did you care about the most and why?” Schools Had a Tough Year. What’d We Learn? (6/6/2022) Plus, follow the season of a girl’s varsity volleyball team, and find one Brooklyn school building’s effort to bridge its stark racial divide. From WNYC’s new miniseries, Keeping Score. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

A National Geographic explorer’s story of diving for sunken slave ships. Hear more of Tara Roberts' historic journey in the six-part podcast series, Into the Depths. Companion listening for this episode: Revisiting A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right (9/5/2022)Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Companion listening for this episode: Episode 1: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going? (9/22/2016) Listen back to our very first episode where we went to Long Island to find out if America has truly lost its mind. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Folashade Olatunde, a WNYC Radio Rookie, shares a series of open and honest audio diaries, inviting listeners on her journey to rebuild a relationship with her dad. Folashade’s dad went to prison when she was two years old. She used to go visit him all the time with her mom. Until her parents got divorced. Now, it’s been more than a decade since she saw her father. In this extended version of an installment of Radio Rookies, Folashade shares a series of open and honest audio diaries and invites listeners on her journey to rebuild her relationship with her dad. Companion listening for this episode: The Prison of Manhood Can’t Hold Shaka Senghor (8/29/2022) He went to prison at age 19. When released, he had to learn how to be a father to two Black sons with very different life experiences. His letters to them have lessons for us all. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

He went to prison at age 19. When released, he had to learn how to be a father to two Black sons with very different life experiences. His letters to them have lessons for us all. Hear more from Shaka Senghor in his book, Letters to the Sons of Society: A Father's Invitation to Love, Honesty, and Freedom, available now. Audio included in the episode excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio, read by Shaka Senghor.  Companion listening for this episode: Jason Reynolds Needs to Be Useful (7/18/2022) The YA author talks about his successes, fears, and his new podcast that explores his relationship with his mother. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Which election did you care about the most, and why? We want to hear your stories. Next month, we’re doing an episode about how we can make voting better. Is it an issue of motivation, or something else? Send us your stories, about any kind of election, political or not. It could be an election for a sports team, to the local PTA, or for your favorite reality competition show. Send us a voicemail to anxiety@wnyc.org. We hope to use your stories during an upcoming episode. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  Companion listening for this episode: Digital Life Is a Moral Mess (8/22/2022)It seems like digital technology – from Facebook to cryptocurrency – could do great harm to society. Should that change how, and if, we use it? “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

A listener voicemail sends the show’s Senior Digital Producer Kousha Navidar on a search for moral clarity with philosopher and senior lecturer in ethics and public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Dr. Christopher Robichaud. Then, Shirin Ghaffary, senior reporter at Recode and co-host of the podcast Land of The Giants, shares the story of Facebook, and why it has been so hard of them to respond to the damage their technology has created. *You can read more about Land of the Giants, and hear new episodes, here. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  Companion listening for this episode: The Promise and Failure of Cryptocurrency (7/11/2022) Cryptocurrency promised to democratize the financial world by giving people equal access to banking tools. It has potential, but also a long way to go. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Host Kai Wright checks in with producer Regina de Heer about our summer playlist. Hear the contributions from listeners, and some folks on our team, about their songs of the summer and why they chose it. Stream our Summer Playlist so far on Spotify here. And keep the song submissions coming by sending us your own summer song recommendations. Record a voice memo with your name, location and the story or memory you associate with your song. Email it as an attachment to anxiety@wnyc.org to have your song included in the playlist — and our next update. Companion listening for this episode: Let Us Take You on an Pop Escapade (7/21/2022) Joy. Freedom. Resilience. We kick off a summer playlist project with selections from the Black women who have defined pop. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Colonialism. Militarism. Homophobia. It took decades of neglect and selfishness to create this viral outbreak. Host Kai Wright speaks with Joseph Osmundson, microbiologist, activist, writer, professor at New York University and author of Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022). They welcome listener questions about the state of the monkeypox outbreak, and the polarizing narrative surrounding the LGBT communities that the virus is disproportionately affecting.  A special thanks to Kali, Michael, Justin, Larry and Daniel – LGBT community leaders at the forefront of the monkeypox response in the Atlanta Metro Area – who participated in our listening session. Companion listening for this episode: Michael Calvert’s Good, Too Short Life (8/12/2022) What can we learn from the HIV pandemic? We revisit a conversation from a year of living with COVID-19. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.   “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

What can we learn from the HIV pandemic? We revisit a conversation from a year of living with COVID-19. Back at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, senior editor, Karen Frillmann was reminded of life in this city in the 1980s. She reached back into the far corners of a closet in her apartment, and dug out a recording that she made decades ago. In this segment, Karen shares parts of that intimate conversation, as an act of remembrance. Companion listening for this episode: What Could Go Wrong? Everything (And It’s Ok) (8/8/2022) What zombie movies can teach us about our era of perpetual crisis, and other lessons from a disaster management specialist. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

What zombie movies can teach us about our era of perpetual crisis, and other lessons from a disaster management specialist. Former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security under President Obama, and current professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Juliette Kayyem joins host Kai Wright to help us make sense of our current age of constant disasters. Learn what tools we have at our disposal based on her new book, The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters. Companion listening for this episode:The Wolf Pack of White Nationalism (5/23/2022)There are no “lone wolves” in the terrorist violence of white identity politics. So what’s that mean for white people who want to confront it? *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.   “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

In 2020, Michael Tubbs lost his reelection campaign for Mayor of Stockton, California after capturing the nation’s attention. But he hopes the lessons he learned can inspire future generations of local leaders. Find out more about End Poverty in California on their website.  Companion listening for this episode: How to Start Saving the World (8/1/2022)Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe has a simple request for the 93 percent who know there’s a crisis: Talk to each other about it more and start with your values. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Scientist Katharine Hayhoe has a simple request for the 93 percent of people who know there’s a climate crisis: Talk to each other about it more and start with your values. Plus, producer Regina de Heer is joined by members of the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions to hear how these ideals are put into practice on a local level. Find more in Professor Hayhoe’s bestselling book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World and her Global Weirding series on Youtube. The Global Weirding segment mentioned in this episode can be found here. Companion listening for this episode: Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate (9/20/2021) New science finds we’ve got less than a decade to avoid catastrophe. Activist and author Bill McKibben says the only solutions that can beat that deadline are collective. *And stream our Summer Playlist on Spotify here.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Two mothers lost their daughters to gun violence but received disparate levels of attention. Now, they’re using their stories – and their grief – to inspire others. WNYC correspondent Tracie Hunte introduces host Kai Wright to two mothers – Nelba Márquez-Greene and Celeste Fulcher – who both lost their daughters to gun violence. Their stories teach us about the exacting toll of gun violence, and the power grief yields to stir change and inspire progress. Companion listening for this episode: The Culture of Gun Violence (7/25/2022) And why it must change to make any political progress on gun control. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Host Kai Wright speaks with Nina Vinik, Founder and Executive Director of Project Unloaded about the culture of gun violence in our country and why that must change to make any political progress on gun control.  How can we reduce gun violence, and has there been progress on that front since the shooting in Sandy Hook? Plus, ​​Marie Delus, New York State Survivor Lead of Moms Demand Action, redefines what it means to be a survivor of gun violence.  Marie Delus, New York State Survivor Lead for Moms Demand Action, with a photograph of her nephew, Pierre-Paul Jean-Paul Jr., who was shot and killed in the Cambria Heights neighborhood of Queens, NY. (Marie Delus/Moms Demand Action) *Find our Summer Spotify playlist from the previous episode here. To have your song included, record a voice memo of your song choice and the story of what it means to you and email the recording to us at anxiety@wnyc.org. Companion listening for this episode: The Wolf Pack of White Nationalism (5/23/2022) There are no “lone wolves” in the terrorist violence of white identity politics. So what’s that mean for white people who want to confront it? “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Joy. Freedom. Resilience. We kick off a summer playlist project with Danyel Smith's selections from the Black women who have defined pop. From Phillis Wheatley to Beyoncé, read more about Danyel’s picks in her new book, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop. Playlist curation will begin this Sunday on Spotify, so record a voice memo with your playlist recommendation (and the story that inspired it) and email it to anxiety@wnyc.org to have your song included. *Starting this week, we are publishing individual segments from each live episode. Listen back earlier this week for another segment talking about finding purpose through service with YA author, Jason Reynolds.  Companion listening for this episode: Jason Reynolds Needs to Be Useful (7/18/2022) The YA author talks about his successes, fears, and his new podcast that explores his relationship with his mother. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

The YA author talks about his successes, fears, and his new podcast that explores his relationship with his mother. Hear more from Jason Reynolds in Radiotopia Presents: My Mother Made Me.  *Starting this week, we are publishing individual segments from each live episode. Check back later this week for another segment talking about our summer playlist.  Companion listening for this episode: Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022) Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Cryptocurrency promised to democratize the financial world by giving people equal access to banking tools. It has potential, but also a long way to go. Guest host and senior digital producer Kousha Navidar takes calls and speaks with fintech policy expert Scott Astrada about the value and pitfalls of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin. Then, Dr. Kortney Ziegler from Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society speaks about empowering communities that the traditional banking system leaves behind. Companion listening for this episode: The End of Institutions: Hollywood Edition (4/4/2022) To many, cryptocurrency’s value is its promise to revolutionize one of the oldest institutions: finance. Hollywood is another institution that is undergoing its own evolution. The hope is that this evolution leads towards something more inclusive. But is that the case? Which roles does Hollywood encourage its members to play, on screen and off?  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Decoding the Jan. 6th Insurrection – what we should have learned from the past and what we must remember for the future. This Independence Day weekend, host Kai Wright is joined by Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, who previously hosted Trump Inc. They discuss their new 8-part podcast series, Will Be Wild, which examines the forces that led to the January 6 Insurrection and what comes next.  Companion listening for this episode: Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021) Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of “post-traumatic growth.” “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

The series ends with a final test for the Jaguars at the city championship. After the final point has been scored, members of the team try to assess their success. And what about the success of the merger? Students and coaches look at how the integration played out across John Jay’s athletics program, and ask: was it all worth it? “Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June.  Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org. For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.  For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon. Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones. Special thanks to Atiqa Chowdhury, Delsina Kolenovic, Giana Ospina, Adrian Uribarri, Mike Barry, Theodora Kuslan, Andrea Latimer, Kim Nowacki, Dalia Dagher, Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, Michelle Xu, Rachel Leiberman, Miriam Barnard, Andrew Golis, Christopher Werth, and the entire team at The United States of Anxiety.

Plus, a reflection on the significance of LGBT Pride in a scary political time for the community.  Host Kai Wright and listeners react to the recent SCOTUS decisions, including the fall of Roe v. Wade. Hear Dr. Sanithia Williams from Alabama Women’s Clinic, and her experience as a provider in one of the 13 states with trigger laws; Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation; and Imara Jones, the creator of TransLash media.  Companion listening for this episode: The Abortion Clinic That Won't Go Quietly (rereleased on 5/5/2022) A broken democracy. A Supreme Court showdown. And a group of Alabama women who continue to provide care despite it all. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

What does it mean to lead a team in an anti-racist way? After getting strong feedback from Mariah and other players, Coach Mike Salak decides to change his tactics. But as the girls volleyball practices lead into tournaments, it’s clear that who gets to play continues to be a divisive issue.  “Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June.  Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org. For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.  For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon. Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones.

On this national live call-in special: The history. The party. The food. Black Texans school us on the holiday they created. This Juneteenth, host Kai Wright is joined by Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and Harvard law professor, Annette Gordon-Reed, to break down the history behind the newest federal holiday, and help take calls from Black Texans about what it means to them. Read more about Professor Gordon-Reed's reflections in the New York Times Bestseller, On Juneteenth. Plus, Ms. Opal Lee, retired teacher, counselor and activist known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth," checks in as she's moving between Juneteenth celebrations in Fort Worth, Texas. And Houston Public Media reporter, Cory McGinnis, calls in from the "150th Juneteenth Celebration" festival in Houston's Emancipation Park. And, food writer and host of the podcast Hot Grease, Nicole A. Taylor, tells us about her new cookbook, Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations. A special thanks to Houston Public Media, KERA-Dallas, and Texas Public Radio for partnering with us on this episode. Companion listening for this episode: Juneteenth, an Unfinished Business (6/26/2020)As the nation grappled with a reckoning during the summer of 2020, we paused to celebrate Juneteenth, for Black liberation and the ongoing birth of the United States. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Mariah Morgan, a junior at Park Slope Collegiate and setter on the girls varsity volleyball team, was an early proponent of the merger – she helped lobby for it as a member of the Campus Council. But her optimism is tested when practice starts. To understand the building’s complicated history, she explores how Millennium came to be at John Jay in the first place, and why the campaign to merge the athletics programs began. “Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June.  Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org. For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.  For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon. Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones. Special thanks to Andy Lanset, Norman Scott, Gwynne Hogan, and Afi Yellow-Duke. 

Why We Can't (and Shouldn't) Move On From Jan. 6. Fordham University political science professor, Christina Greer, joins to takes our politics questions on the hearings and more. Plus, producer Rahima Nasa takes show host Kai Wright to an exhibit displaying the work of artist Faith Ringgold, and we hear her story and the impact of her work. Companion listening for this episode: A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right (1/24/2022) Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Then, a listener mailbag begs us to explore how "normal people" became part of the Jan 6. attack. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

The John Jay Educational Campus, a large brick building in Park Slope, Brooklyn, houses four high schools: Cyberarts Studio Academy, the Secondary School for Law, Millennium Brooklyn, and Park Slope Collegiate. Each school is its own separate universe, but the students yearn to connect. When the administration announces that the athletics programs will merge, they ask what it will take for the building to live up to its new motto: “We Are One.” “Keeping Score” is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June.  Connect with us at keepingscore@wnyc.org. For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn.  For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon. Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul – with additional tracks by Hannis Brown, Isaac Jones, and "Con Anima" by Dee Yan-Key. Special thanks to Afi Yellow-Duke, Rebecca Clark-Callender and Tracie Hunte.

Schools Had a Tough Year. What’d We Learn? Plus, follow the season of a girl’s varsity volleyball team, and find one Brooklyn school building’s effort to bridge its stark racial divide. From WNYC’s new miniseries, Keeping Score. The past year has forced public classrooms into the center of our country’s intense culture wars and political debates, from Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, to Critical Race Theory, to the ever-present threat of gun violence. What do these fights mean about the future over public education itself? Education reporter for The Washington Post and author of the long-running Answer Sheet blog, Valerie Strauss, breaks what she learned covering this year, and takes your calls. Plus, WNYC host Alana Casanova-Burgess introduces us to a new miniseries that explores one school building in Brooklyn attempt to integrate its own student population this year. Companion listening for this episode: The True Story of Critical Race Theory (10/11/2021) Is racism a permanent fixture of society? Jelani Cobb, staff writer for The New Yorker, unravels the history of Derrick Bell’s quest to answer that question. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

After publishing 34 books, Alice Walker talks through her latest release, a collection of personal journals spanning four decades. Read more in Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965–2000, out now.  Companion listening for this episode: Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022) Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

There are no “lone wolves” in the terrorist violence of white identity politics. So what’s that mean for white people who want to confront it? First, assistant secretary for homeland security under President Obama and current professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Juliette Kayyem, joins host Kai Wright to help us make sense of the moment with tools from her new book, The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters. Read her article for The Atlantic in response to the mass shooting in Buffalo here. Then, Sarah Posner, reporting fellow at Type Investigations and the author of Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump, helps us examine the packs in which these ideologies flourish, as candidates like Pennsylvania Republican Party's gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano, continue to thrive.  Companion listening for this episode: The Dangerous Cycle of Fear (4/11/2022) Asian American New Yorkers explain how Covid-era violence changed their lives, and what’s at stake for everybody when we fear each other. Then, rediscovering community through food. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

An intergenerational meditation on Ntozake Shange’s iconic Broadway play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. First, host Kai Wright and producer Regina de Heer speak with the director and choreographer of the current Broadway Revival, Camille A. Brown. Then, performers Trezana Beverley, Aku Kadogo, and Carol Maillard reminisce on the original production and working with the show's legendary creator, Ntozake Shange.   A special thanks to actor Francina Smith for her reading of "Dark Phrases." Companion listening for this episode: Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022) Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

His leaked opinion tells us more about a powerful minority’s view of the U.S. than it does about the Constitution or the history of abortion. Kai Wright talks to Susan Matthews, news director at Slate and host of the upcoming season of Slow Burn: Roe v. Wade, about her recently published essay, “The Constitution Wasn't Written for Women.” And Michele Goodwin, a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Irvine, joins Kai to open the phones to your questions and emotional reactions to this frightening but galvanizing moment.    Companion listening for this episode: The Abortion Clinic That Won't Go Quietly (5/5/2022) A leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in a separate case suggests the Court is now poised to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. In this 2018 story, hear first hand from the medical providers who are determined to provide this health care – and learn the political history of this moment.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

In 2018, host Kai Wright visited the Alabama Women’s Center in Huntsville, to learn how abortion providers were dealing with the state’s new law that sought to make their practice a felony crime. The law was one of several that Republican controlled states passed in an effort to provoke a Supreme Court ruling on Roe.  A leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in a separate case suggests the Court is now poised to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.  So we revisit this 2018 story, to hear first hand from the medical providers who are determined to provide this health care – and learn the political history of this moment.   Reporting for this episode was supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Jane and Gerald Katcher and the Katcher Family Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Companion listening for this episode: How to End the Dominion of Men  Why is masculinity so often conflated with domination? And how do we separate the two? Kai turns to a historian and to a novelist for answers. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and The Nation Magazine’s John Nichols explain how the Democrats can fight – and win – the culture wars. Plus, listeners weigh in with how they would like the party to proceed. Watch State Senator McMorrow’s speech here. Then, read John’s article in reaction to the speech here.  Companion listening for this episode: How the Right’s Anti-Trans Hate Machine Works (5/28/2021)Last year, guest More than 100 anti-Trans bills have been introduced across 30 states since January. We find out what’s happening — both in the courts and in society — and what still needs to be done. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Kai Wright talks with WNYC colleague Nancy Solomon about her new podcast: Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery New Jersey politics is not for the faint of heart. But the brutal killing of John and Joyce Sheridan, a prominent couple with personal ties to three governors, shocks even the most cynical operatives. The mystery surrounding the crime sends their son on a quest for truth. Dead End is a story of crime and corruption at the highest levels of society in the Garden State. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Voters who switched from Trump to Biden in 2020 are headed to the polls again, and former GOP strategist Sarah Longwell wants to know what they’re thinking. Longwell is executive director of the Republican Accountability Project and publisher of The Bulwark, where she hosts The Focus Group podcast. She’s convening an ongoing series of focus groups with voters, including “flippers” who ditched Trump in 2020. What are they thinking as they head into primary elections for this year’s midterms? Then, Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum responds to one of our listener voicemails about choosing a name as a trans woman. Dr. Tanenbaum shares her own story with producer Kousha Navidar, as well as her work at the intersection of technology, media, and identity.  Companion listening for this episode: A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right (1/24/2022) Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Plus, she helps take your calls. Then, a listener mailbag begs us to explore how "normal people" became part of the Jan 6. attack. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

As the country confronts racial tensions and class conflicts, it begs the question: How did we get here? We look back to a moment in history when our country was struggling to become a true, multiracial democracy -- meeting a lot of roadblocks, many of which persist today. Historian Eric Foner gives us a primer on the Reconstruction Era amendments that we explored in season four, as producer Veralyn Williams rides along to help us make sense of what it means today and how we can move forward as one nation. Companion listening for this episode:A History of Voter Suppression (1/20/2022)A conversation with historian Dr. Carol Anderson about how Black Americans have fought for their right to participate in the democratic process safely and make their votes count. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Asian American New Yorkers explain how Covid-era bigotry and violence changed their lives, and what’s at stake for everybody when we fear each other. Then, rediscovering community through food. First, host Kai Wright attends a free self defense class hosted in partnership between The Alicia and Jason Lee Foundation and University Settlement, and meets the instructor. Read more about the effort’s mission here.  (The Alicia and Jason Lee Foundation/ Adriana Ball)  Then, he speaks with Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation, which works with nonprofits to support the pan-Asian community. What’s the economic and social cost of hate crime on Asian American communities? What are the uncomfortable – yet crucial –  tensions between Black and Asian-American communities in the air right now? And then, Kai grabs dinner with Tammie Teclemariam, New York Magazine’s first-ever Diner-at-Large, at her favorite restaurant, Singiri. They try Sri Lankan food as we learn about Tammie’s weekly newsletter and column called, “The Year I Ate New York.” Subscribe here. (WNYC/ Regina de Heer) Companion listening for this episode: People Feel Unsafe–and It’s More Than Crime (3/14/2022) The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going so far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear? “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

A slap at the Oscars tarnished Will Smith’s legacy. What about him did Hollywood treasure? Is this institution just a screen for projecting our own social anxieties and cultural debate? Culture critic Soraya McDonald joins to take a deeper look  at the roles Hollywood allows us to play, on screen and off. Plus, breaking down the exhausting reaction to Pixar’s defiantly Asian film, Turning Red, with Jeff Yang, the co-author of Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. Read his piece for The Guardian here.  Companion listening for this episode: A Year of Performing Humanity, Reviewed (12/13/2021) A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic of the New York Times, helps us review the year in culture. What can we learn from 2021’s art about our struggling effort to live together? “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

The Senate’s questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson revealed where she might fit in the history, and future, of the Supreme Court. Host Kai Wright is joined by Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York University, Melissa Murray, to discuss. Plus, National Geographic explorer Tara Roberts’ story of diving for sunken slave ships. Read the NatGeo feature and listen to the podcast here. Companion listening for this episode: Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021) Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of “post-traumatic growth.” “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

What’s in a name? A lot. A listener's voicemail inspired us to explore the sometimes complicated relationship between our names and our racial and ethnic identities. Host Kai Wright is joined by novelist Beth Nguyen to discuss her personal journey when it comes to her name, and invites callers to share their own stories. Check out Beth’s article for The New Yorker: America Ruined My Name For Me.  Companion listening for this episode: Why So Many Are Stuck in the “Other” Box (2/21/2022) The episode that motivated such listener reactions: The U.S. Census named “some other race” as the second-largest racial group in the U.S. Mona Chalabi talks us through the data, and the stakes, of that statistic. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going as far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear? Scholar James Forman Jr., author of the book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, helps break down what’s real, vs perception, about the rise in violent crime. Plus, a conversation with Nina Jankowicz, expert on disinformation and democratization, and author of How to Be A Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back, about how to make the internet safer for women with political expertise and opinions. If you’re experiencing abuse or harassment online, here are two links with more resources about steps you can take: https://womensmediacenter.com/speech-project/tools-resources https://onlineviolenceresponsehub.org/ Companion listening for this episode: Cop Watch Series (2017-2021) We’ve talked to officers, judges, and kids stuck behind bars. We’ve explored the system’s history, and imagined a future without it. Here are some of our favorite episodes.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Presidencies are rarely transformational, and neither Biden nor Trump have lived up to their supporters’ dreams. So what does it take to really change our politics? Host Kai Wright is joined by political theorist Corey Robin to confront that question, and take your calls about Biden’s first year in office. Companion listening for this episode: Government: A Love-Hate Story (4/12/2021) How did Americans come to think so poorly of the government? And how did Joe Biden come to be the first modern president who’s even tried to change our minds? Kai talks with three change-makers about the role of government in our lives. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Democracy won’t work if we can’t talk to each other. So how do we do it across the cultural and political divides? WNYC’s own Brian Lehrer has hosted his syndicated show for over 30 years. Find out how a Raegan-era repeal changed the course of his career. Companion listening for this episode: The Method to Tucker Carlson’s Madness (5/3/2021) History suggests we shouldn’t laugh off what’s happening in right wing media right now. Plus, profiting off of racism is a business model as old as the news. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

U.S. Census data found that more people are choosing "some other race" when asked to self-identify. It reveals just how complicated identity is, especially when it comes to race. Data journalist Mona Chalabi talks us through the data, and the stakes, of that statistic. Plus we hear from people around New York City who live outside of the Black-white binary, as they share their stories. Mona is also the host of the podcast "Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi," from the TED Audio Collective.   Companion listening for this episode: This Land Is My Land, That Land Is Your Land (10/6/2016) One thing politicians on both sides of the aisle have agreed on is that immigrants seeking legal status should "go to the back of the line." Problem is, that line doesn't exist. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Afrofuturism is an old idea that’s reaching new people. This Black History Month, we travel from Seneca Village to Wakanda, from Sun Ra to Lil Nas X as we learn this cosmic vision of Black freedom, directly from the culture makers propelling the movement. Academy Award winning production designer and lead curator of the Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hannah Beachler (Creed, Moonlight, Beyoncé's Lemonade, Black Panther, and more), tells us what Afrofuturism looks like. Then, Professor Louis Chude-Sokei, director of the African American studies program at Boston University and co-curator of the Afrofuturism festival hosted by Carnegie Hall, tells us what Afrofuturism sounds like.  Companion listening for this episode: Louis Chude-Sokei: Afrofuturism Playlist “It’s no secret that when movements and concepts reach the ‘ism’ phase, they often congeal into cliche or harden into orthodoxy. As they expand to attract and include others, the raw, unorthodox creativity that created them in the first place can be forgotten or lost to those who arrive to a table that’s already been set. With this tendency in mind, I’ve selected tracks that honor the wild, experimental sensibilities that feed Afrofuturism across the Black diaspora. From dub textures to the machinic surfaces of techno, kuduro, and gloriously uncategorizable beatscapes, these tracks are intended to keep Afrofuturism geographically, culturally, and sonically nonconformist.” —Louis Chude-Sokei (Carnegie Hall Festivals Playlist)

The former Talking Heads frontman explores the various challenges – and beauties – of human connection while breaking down his hit Broadway show, American Utopia. David Byrne's American Utopia is running at Broadway's St. James Theater through early April. You can also stream the filmed version, directed by Spike Lee, on HBO Max.  Companion listening for this episode: Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022) Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.  “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Biden’s vow to finally appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court has ignited a debate before a nomination has even materialized. How do you fight for representation, without getting stuck in the tired old debate over “affirmative action?” Hear reactions from President and CEO of the National Women's Law Center Fatima Goss Graves, Court scholar Elie Mystal, and listeners.   Companion listening for this episode: A Court On The Edge (9/21/2020) After the passing of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the long sought a stable conservative majority in the Supreme Court became a reality - but not without a fight. WNYC's Jami Floyd (Senior Editor for Race and Justice) and Elie Mystal (Justice Correspondent at The Nation) joined us to set the scene for the battle over the Supreme Court and what a vacancy on the bench of the highest court in the nation represents for Election 2020 and our collective future. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

New science finds we’ve got less than a decade to avoid climate catastrophe. Activist and author Bill McKibben says the only solutions that can beat that deadline are collective. Host Kai Wright invites listeners to ask McKibben their own climate questions, on the heels of a United Nations report that declared the damage from carbon and methane emissions at our current rate will be irreversible by 2030. What can we do that will make enough change, quickly enough?  Companion listening for this episode: The Birth of Climate Denial (5/11/2017) How a movement to create doubt about the reality of climate change began — and how scientific consensus has been perpetually undermined.  'Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate' was originally published on September 20, 2021. Listen to more episodes here. "The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Plus, she helps take your calls. Then, a listener mailbag begs us to explore how "normal people" became part of the Jan 6. attack. Host Kai Wright and senior digital producer Kousha Navidar spoke with Seamus Hughes, Deputy Director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, to learn more. Companion listening for this episode: Episode 1: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going? (9/22/2016) Listen back to our very first episode where we went to Long Island to find out if America has truly lost its mind. "The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

As recent voting rights legislation struggles to even get a vote in the Senate, we revisit a conversation with historian Dr. Carol Anderson about how American voters, particularly Black Americans, had fought and continue to fight for their right to participate in the democratic process - safely and with certainty that their votes will count. Dr. Anderson is a Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of several books including White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide (2016). Companion listening for this episode:The Short Life and Early Death of Voting Rights (7/12/2021)Birth, August 1965. Death, July 2021. So now what for multiracial democracy? “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

This MLK Weekend, Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lewis helps us understand the potential of love in our politics. Then, hear from a student participating in a hunger strike for voting rights. What is it like putting your body on the line when your own Senator is the person standing in the way? Arizona State University sophomore, Michaela Schillinger, takes us through the process of organizing a strike while balancing school, meeting with legislators like Senator Kyrsten Sinema, and a surprising update as the story continues to unfold. Companion listening for this episode:How Martin Luther King, Jr., Changed American Christianity (1/18/2021)What did MLK’s uniquely Black theology teach us about the relationship between faith and politics in 2021? "The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  

On a scale of 1-10, how anxious are you about the state of our democracy? Kai considers when democracy is past its tipping point with New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall. Plus callers tell us how anxious they are about the state of our democracy. Then is the right better at the internet than the left? Senior producer Kousha Navidar reports back. You can read more about the Twitter study here. Check out Anna Kramer's article about the study here. Companion listening for this episode: The Supreme Court v. Our Rights (12/6/2021) Another year of the SCOTUS is coming to a close. But can we still trust our nine appointed justices to be the final arbiters of the law? Listen to the end for our last digital living segment. "The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat, Clyde’s) breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories. Plus, she tells host Kai Wright about her hopes for the future of theater and her interest in making the medium accessible and meeting people where they are. Companion listening for this episode: Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021) Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of “post-traumatic growth.” "The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

James Reese Europe was already famous when he enlisted to fight in World War I. But the band he took to the frontlines — as part of the famous 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters — thurst him, and Black American music, onto the global stage. Moran sits down at the piano to show Kai how Europe’s band changed music, and how jazz carries the resilient sound of Black history and ambition in America.  Companion listening for this episode: The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History (2/8/2021) Saidiya Hartman introduces Kai to the young women whose radical lives were obscured by respectability politics, in the second installment of our Future of Black History series.   “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.    We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.