Notes from America with Kai Wright

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. Under the Dinkins administration, the crime rate declined, but his complex relationship with the New York Police Department - which grew in size under his tenure - often overshadows his legacy. As voting is underway for the 2021 mayoral race, our senior editor Christopher Werth tells the story of Dinkins’s attempt to balance crime fighting and racial justice, and of a police union reaction that looked a lot like the January 6th attack on the U.S. capital. Also, activist Erica Ford, who is the CEO and Founder of LIFE Camp, Inc., joins to talk about community-based solutions to public safety and expectations of our elected officials. What will it take for New Yorkers to feel safe? Companion listening for this episode: How NYPD ‘Kettled’ the Spirit of Reform (5/24/2021) New Yorkers reacted to George Floyd’s murder with mass protests demanding police accountability. NYPD met them with targeted violence and abuse. Why Cops Don’t Change (4/19/2021) A retired NYPD detective says the force’s stubborn, insular culture was built to last. And Elie Mystal explains a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that made killing “reasonable.” “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Ibram X. Kendi reflects on a shifting political culture -- and the fierce backlash against it. Plus, a remembrance of the 1921 Tulsa massacre. With five best-selling books, including How to Be an Antiracist and Four Hundred Souls, Kendi has been at the center of the nation’s racial reckoning over the past year. He talks with Kai about the ideas people have found most challenging, and about his new podcast, Be Antiracist, which launches on June 9th. Then, listeners tell us what they’ve learned about the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as Kai talks with KalaLea, host and producer of Blindspot: Tulsa Burning. The six-episode season from The HISTORY® Channel and WNYC Studios explores the racial terror that destroyed the Greenwood district - and its continued impact today - through conversations with descendants, historians, and local activists. Companion listening for this episode: The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History (Feb 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. One Family’s Land of Opportunity (Nov 30, 2020) A family’s legend about "40 acres and a mule” takes host Kai Wright on a fact checking mission to the Mississippi Delta. He finds an unexpected solution to wealth inequality in the U.S. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Jazz pianist Jason Moran brings us an exploration into the life and work of James Reese Europe and how the infamous 369th Infantry Regiment - also known as the Harlem Hellfighters - crossed racial lines and brought jazz to Europe. Joe Young of New York Public Radio talks about how using music as a service member informed his own patriotism Companion listening for this episode: Juneteenth, an Unfinished Business (June 26, 2020) As the nation grapples with a reckoning, we pause to celebrate Juneteenth. Our holiday special, for Black liberation and the ongoing birth of the United States. Music, McCarthy, and the Sound of Americana (May 23, 2017) The "common man" era in the 1930s and '40s needed a truly American music. Aaron Copland created it in one America and 20 years later found himself in quite another 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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

New Yorkers reacted to George Floyd’s murder with mass protests demanding police accountability. NYPD met them with targeted violence and abuse. On June 4, 2020, a few hundred people gathered in the South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven to protest the murder of George Floyd. They were met with overwhelming force -- in an event that has come to represent NYPD’s steadfast refusal to accept public scrutiny. WNYC’s Race and Justice Unit has been reconstructing what happened that night, from the vantage point of two dozen protestors who were present. Editor Jami Floyd tells the story her team found. Jami also introduces us to an active-duty officer who says racism is hard-wired into NYPD’s culture. He’s part of a group of Black and Latinx officers who have sued the department, and he charges he’s been met with extreme retaliation. Finally, The Greene Space will be hosting a Town Hall on the One Year Anniversary of the Mott Haven Protest on Friday, June 4th, 2021. You can find more information here. Special thanks to WNYC/ Gothamist reporters Gwynne Hogan and Jake Offenhartz for on-the-scene recordings from last summer’s protests. Companion listening for this episode: Why Cops Don’t Change (Apr 19, 2021) A retired NYPD detective says the force’s stubborn, insular culture was built to last. And Elie Mystal explains a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that made killing “reasonable.” The Secret Tapes of a Suburban Drug War (Mar 1, 2021) A cop in Westchester, NY, was disturbed by what he saw as corruption. He started recording his colleagues -- and revealed how we’re all still living with the excess of the war on drugs. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

We’re finally back in the streets -- but are we ready to reimagine how we share public space? This week, a trip through the century-long fight between cars, bikes, and people. Kai Wright takes us on a bike tour across Brooklyn - alongside Streetsblog New York reporter Dave Colon - to survey the ways in which inequity is built into the blacktop. Former New York City Traffic Commissioner Sam Schwartz a.k.a. Gridlock Sam shares a behind-the-scenes look at the history of the city’s streets and how our relationship to public space has transformed - for better or worse. WNYC transportation reporter Stephen Nessen talks about Vision Zero, the push for biking infrastructure and why mayoral candidates’ rhetoric about safe streets is revolutionary. Read Stephen's latest reporting on Gothamist, including “Who Will Be The Next Vision Zero Mayor?” And we hear a clip of an artistic rendition of the battle for the city’s streets through “A Marvelous Order,” an opera conceived by three artists: composer Judd Greenstein, poet Tracy K. Smith, and visual artist and director Joshua Frankel. The selection features Megan Schubert as Jane Jacobs; with Eliza Bagg, Kelvin Chan, Marisa Clementi, Tomás Cruz, Lucy Dhegrae, Christopher Herbert, and Kamala Sankaram; conducted by David Bloom, and instrumentals by NOW Ensemble. Companion listening for this episode: “Government: A Love-Hate Story” (4/12/21) How did Americans come to think so poorly of government? And how did Joe Biden come to be the first modern president who’s even tried to change our minds? “Zoned for Resistance” (7/10/20) Chicago’s Little Village has been hit hard by COVID-19, but after a botched demolition left it coated in dust, one lifelong activist and her community are standing together while apart. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

We failed her long before the cops killed her. We’re failing thousands more children like her now. In this bonus episode, we meet one of those girls. Girls often land in detention because they have experienced some form of trauma: abusive families, bad experiences in the foster care system, and especially sexual abuse. Desiree is a young woman who has bounced between foster care, detention centers, and residential treatment centers since she was 10. Even though she has been the repeated victim of abuse, she says she's been made to feel like she's the problem...and she's angry about it. But she has her own ideas about how to make things better and she’s making her voice heard.” This episode was initially released as part of the podcast Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice. Caught was supported, in part, by the Anne Levy Fund, Margaret Neubart Foundation, the John and Gwen Smart Family Foundation, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Find the whole series at CaughtPodcast.org. Companion listening for this episode: “Revisiting Caught: ‘I Just Want You to Come Home’” (7/30/20) Episode one of our podcast Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice. “Do We Need the Police at All” (4/26/21) The answer isn’t simple, but it’s time to ask. Listeners weigh in with stories of their own efforts to solve problems with and without cops. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Erased from history. Ignored in public policy. This Mother’s Day, we ask how to truly value “motherwork.” Plus: The story of one “woke birth.” Gates scholar and author Anna Malaika Tubbs encourages each of us to reimagine our relationships with motherhood and challenge the erasure of mothering figures - starting in the past. Her book, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, tells the stories of the three women who birthed, raised and shaped these changemakers. Then, executive producer Veralyn Williams brings us a series of conversations about the decision to become a mother in the U.S. in spite of unsettling Black maternal mortality statistics. Companion listening for this episode: “Collective Loss, Collective Care” (3/15/21) A reflection on the remarkable ways communities have come together to take care of themselves during a year of COVID-19. “The Necessary Work” (9/7/20) Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance tells the origin story of today’s movement to value care workers, and reporter Jenny Casas dives into the history of cleaning up after New Yorkers. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

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. Nicole Hemmer, an associate research scholar at Columbia University and author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics, explains how right wing media serves -- and surrounds -- its audience. Then, Channing Gerard Joseph, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California-Annenberg, describes how today’s most notable newspapers built their businesses by selling racism and anti-Black violence. He breaks down the research for his recent cover story in The Nation magazine, “American Journalism’s Role in Promoting Racist Terror.” Companion listening for this episode: MAGA, the New Confederate Lost Cause (11/16/2020) White supremacist myths turn defeated leaders into heroic victors. Will Donald Trump now get the same transfiguration as Robert E. Lee? Down the Rabbit Hole (10/13/2016) A journey into the right wing media world through which Donald Trump built his movement. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The answer isn’t simple, but it’s time to ask. Listeners weigh in with stories of their own efforts to solve problems with and without cops. Community organizer and educator Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele joins callers as we reimagine a world without policing, and shares his own stories from decades of police reform activism in New York City. Plus, Dr. Jameta Nicole Barlow, a psychologist, public health scientist, and assistant professor at The George Washington University, explains intergenerational trauma and the lifelong damage that consuming racial violence does to our bodies. And writer Hali Bey Ramdene meditates on the impact of living -- and growing up -- with this non-stop violence towards Black people. Companion listening for this episode: “Why Cops Don’t Change” (4/19/21) A retired NYPD detective says the force’s stubborn, insular culture was built to last. And Elie Mystal explains a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that made killing “reasonable.” “Keep Calm and Check Your Bias” (3/26/20) Research shows that racism and other prejudices are most acute when the stakes are high, so Kai talks with Dr. Gail Christopher about how to control for that reality, during a pandemic. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

A retired NYPD detective says the force’s stubborn, insular culture was built to last. And Elie Mystal explains a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that made killing “reasonable.” Armed with the lessons from a 20-year-long career in law enforcement, retired NYPD Detective Marq Claxton talks about the police mindset and how a badge never shielded him from the fear that so many Black Americans carry everyday. Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation, grounds the conversation in the history of American policing and how the Supreme Court enabled their impunity. And we check in with a couple of our listeners as they grappled with their own feelings around police in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder last year. Companion listening for this episode: 'I Did Not Watch the Video' (5/21/20) In the aftermath of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing, Kai calls up "Friday Black" author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah to reflect on love, loss... and American zombies. Revisiting Caught: 'I Just Want You to Come Home' (7/30/20) What happens once we decide a child is a criminal? We return to Caught as the nation continues to grapple with long-standing systemic racism in our policing and justice systems. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

How did Americans come to think so poorly of 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. Activist Mari Copeny a.k.a. “Little Miss Flint” recounts how a letter that she sent as an elementary school student brought national attention to a public health crisis in her backyard - and inspired her to continue giving back to her community, speaking out and holding her government accountable. Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018), explores Reaganism, the possibilities of the Biden presidency, and challenges the idea that the country’s biggest problems are best solved by turning to the leadership of the super wealthy -- as philanthropists and innovators, presidents and mayors. And Senator Liz Krueger (D-28), chair of the New York State Senate’s Finance Committee, joins to talk about the proposed $212 Billion dollar state budget deal and the monumental tax increase -- on New York’s wealthiest -- that echoes cries to “tax the rich”. Companion listening for this episode: “A Secret Meeting in South Bend” (2/27/20) Descendants of the Great Migration in South Bend, Indiana, tell their family stories of housing in the “heartland,” and inequity in home ownership today. “One Family’s Land of Opportunity” (11/30/20) A family’s legend about "40 acres and a mule” takes Kai on a fact checking mission to the Mississippi Delta. He finds an unexpected solution to wealth inequality in the U.S. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

A gun-toting Black Power advocate was made principal of a Marin County, California school during efforts to desegregate 50 years ago. As they try again, we recount his radical legacy. As the Sausalito Marin City School District continues to grapple with school desegregation, Reporter Marianne McCune brings us the sequel -- and the prequel -- to “Two Schools in Marin County”. She takes us back in time to witness how one of the first communities in the country to voluntarily desegregate took an unapologetically Black approach to better educate all students and the lessons that resonate as they push for change today. Special thanks to David Duncan, a PhD student in history at UC Santa Cruz looking at school desegregation in the Bay Area, and to many other Sausalito and Marin City residents, past and present, who shared their memories for this story. Companion listening for this episode: “Two Schools in Marin County” (2/6/2020) In the classrooms and town meetings of Marin, California we witness a community grappling with what desegregation and reparations might look like in the 21st century. “Actor Daniel Kaluuya’s Road to Revolutionary” (3/4/21) Kai talks to the “Judas and the Black Messiah” star about his award-winning portrayal of Fred Hampton and the legacy of the Black Panther Party. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Andrew Cuomo’s just the latest. 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. Linda Hirschman, author of Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment, tells the story of how a small group of women in a room in Ithaca, New York, came up with two words that attempted to change the law, and the workplace, forever. But as you'll hear, victory really has a thousand mothers. Many of the social movements against sexual harassment and assault, including #MeToo, have been pioneered by Black women like Carmita Wood and Tarana Burke, but violence against Black women is often overshadowed or missing from conversations. Kiese Laymon, author of the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America and the forthcoming re-release of Long Division, talks to Kai about the role of masculinity in this violence through his own journey to manhood -- what he has learned, had to unlearn, and how he and Kai are both still wrestling with it. Companion listening for this episode: The 'Indoor Man' and His Playmates (10/2/2018) Playboy wasn’t just about the pictures. Hugh Hefner’s magazine helped create a new ideal for the so-called alpha male -- built on the notion that women were there for the taking. The Dream Was Not Mine (9/17/2018) Jennifer Willoughby and Saily Avelenda each woke up one day wanting to make a change. They ended up toppling two political giants. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

We’ve been here before: A time of national stress, Asian Americans made into scapegoats, and violence follows. The community saw it coming. So why didn’t everybody else? A mass shooting in Atlanta follows a year of warnings from Asian Americans who have said they do not feel safe. But the violence has forced to the surface old questions about where Asian Americans sit in our nation’s maddening racial caste system, and community leaders have struggled to get people across the political and racial spectrum to take the moment seriously. Helen Zia, activist and author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People and other books about the Asian American community, was spokesperson for the Justice for Vincent Chen campaign in the early 1980s. She tells the story of that era’s scapegoating of Asian Americans, and draws a line all the way back to the 18th Century. And Arun Venugopal, senior reporter in WNYC’s Race and Justice Unit, shares his reporting on the community in New York City, which has emerged as an epicenter of day to day reports of harassment and violence. Companion listening for this episode: The (Un)Making of a ‘Model Minority’ (1/4/21) An odd racial pecking order puts Indian Americans in a curious place -- outside of whiteness, but distinct from other people of color. How’d that come to be? And is it changing? 'Community' Is a Verb. And It’s Hard (6/12/20) Racism is not a Black and white challenge; communities of color are often pitted against one another. A story from Chicago about how the pandemic challenged, and strengthened inter-community alliances. Plus, a dispatch from one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in the country, where the community has had to fend for itself. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

More than half a million Americans - our family, friends, neighbors, loved ones - have lost their lives to the virus over the past year and our collective grief continues to compound, but communities have come together in remarkable ways to take care of themselves. Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Gregory Porter checks in with us on the first anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic to talk about grieving his brother lost to the virus, the power of community, and finding encouragement through song. Activist Dean Spade, the author of “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)” and Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law, offers a primer on the political history of mutual aid and communal care-taking before taking listener calls. Companion listening for this episode: “What COVID Revealed” (COLLECTION) COVID-19 revealed hard truths about our society, but it could also force us to make new choices and transform our lives. “Rage, Grief, Joy” (6/18/20) Something has been pushed to the surface that can no longer be repressed. And it’s transforming everything— from what we tolerate politically to how we mourn those we’ve lost. “Lessons From a Year in Isolation” (12/28/20) A first draft of history for 2020, told through three very personal efforts to find -- and keep -- human connection amid a pandemic. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

As Amazon workers conclude a historic unionization drive, we consider the history of collective action -- and the struggle to shield our humanity from the demands of productivity. Labor journalist and Type Media Center reporting fellow Sarah Jaffe breaks down the history of workplace organizing at Amazon and in the Black South. And she talks about her new book, “Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone,” as listeners chime in about their own experiences with collective action in the workplace. Then adrienne maree brown - writer, activist and co-host of the How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables - joined our reporter Jenny Casas to frame our conflicts - as individuals within a country battling with overlapping crises - through the lens of Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” a science fiction classic that experienced a surge in readership in 2020. Companion listening for this episode: “The Necessary Work” (9/7/2020) Public and care workers have been on the frontlines of the pandemic, but who takes care of them? We explore the histories, realities and hopes of these very essential workers. “‘Community’ is a Verb. And It’s Hard” (6/12/2020) People all over the country are stepping up to make change. But as they do, they face challenges that go beyond Covid-19 and police violence. Two stories, from Chicago and New York City. “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

On December 4th of 1969, Fred Hampton -- the 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party -- was shot dead in his sleep during a raid by Chicago police, but decades of investigation into his death revealed an even more insidious plot. Actor Daniel Kaluuya -- known for his roles in “Get Out” and “Queen & Slim” -- portrays Hampton in the new film, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which follows Hampton’s meteoric rise through the party, a multiracial class movement and the series of betrayals that led to his untimely fall. Weeks before he won the Golden Globe award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture,” Kaluuya joined Kai to talk about preparing for the role, the legacy of the Black Panther Party and how Hampton’s revolutionary love for his community positioned him as "an enemy of the state." A special thanks to our friends at The New Yorker Radio Hour, and particularly KalaLea, who produced the initial version of this conversation. Companion listening for this episode: “How Politics Turns Violent” (5/30/2017)In this episode we look at the culture wars of the Boomer generation from another vantage point. Instead of focusing on the debates themselves, we ask the question: How do people move from radical politics to political violence? “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 [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

A cop in Westchester, NY, was disturbed by what he saw as corruption. He started recording his colleagues -- and revealed how we’re all still living with the excess of the war on drugs. Following months of investigation into allegations of police corruption in Mount Vernon, reporter George Joseph of WNYC’s Race & Justice Unit brings us a story about unchecked power, policing in communities of color and our long national hangover from the war on drugs. Part of George Joseph’s story, “The Mount Vernon Police Tapes: At Least Seven Black Men Now Allege False Drug Charges Involving Controversial Detective,” was published via Gothamist last year and can be found here. Special thanks to Jami Floyd (the editor of WNYC’s Race and Justice Unit), Celia Muller and engineers Bill Moss and Wayne Schulmister. Companion listening for this episode: “The Drug War” (7/3/2017) We didn’t always respond to drug addiction with militarized policing. In this episode, a look back at the political and cultural shift Richard Nixon’s administration drove. “Revisiting Caught: ‘I Just Want You to Come Home’” (7/30/2020) The first episode in our award-winning series “Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice,” created in partnership with WNYC’s Radio Rookies program. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

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. We reflect on the life, language and legacy of renowned writer Zora Neale Hurston with Bernice McFadden, a novelist and contributor to the new anthology, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History Of African America, 1619-2019. Producer Veralyn Williams then brings us a story about a deep division that continues to plague the Black community today, despite being a remnant of chattel slavery: colorism. Through a candid conversation with her sister who lives with vitiligo, she learns how one’s outlook on life and love of self changes when you’ve lived as both a lighter and darker-skinned woman. Companion listening for this episode: “The Origin Story of Black History Month” (02/01/2021) We’ve got complicated relationships with this annual celebration -- from joy to frustration. So to launch our Future of Black History series, we ask how it began and what it can be. “The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History” (02/08/2021) Cultural historian 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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

People are excited to replace Andrew Jackson’s face with an abolitionist hero. But Brittney Cooper argues not all honorifics are the same. The Biden Treasury Department has announced that efforts to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s portrait -- in place of President Andrew Jackson -- on the face of the twenty dollar bill will resume. It represents an effort to celebrate her and “reflect the history and diversity of our country,” but some believe that this would do more harm than good. Dr. Brittney Cooper, a professor at Rutgers University and author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, discusses how Black people have long been reduced to symbol, the failings of representational politics, and ways that the nation can actually honor the life and legacy of the formerly enslaved pioneer. Last month, she addressed the subject in “Putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill Is Not a Sign of Progress. It's a Sign of Disrespect” (TIME). Companion listening for this episode: “The Origin Story of Black History Month” (01/31/21) To launch our Future of Black History series, we turned our complex relationships with Black History Month to curiosity in order to uncover how a week-long celebration of Black Achievement became the month-long observance that we know today. “The Life and Work of Ida B. Wells” (05/08/20) We look back at the life of the oft-overlooked journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, whose intrepid reporting contributed to the fight for racial injustice in America. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The Senate’s trial and acquittal of Donald Trump left many with mixed emotions. But did it move us any closer to a reckoning with the worst of America’s political culture? Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight returns to the show to help Kai put the trial in historical context. Blight has warned that the former president is trying to create a Confederate-style Lost Cause mythology. So where’s that project stand now? Then WNYC’s Brian Lehrer and The Nation’s Elie Mystal join Kai as he checks in with listeners about the impeachment trial. Did it serve any meaningful purpose in your life or community, or was it a disappointment? The answer, it seems, is both. COMPANION LISTENING: “The ‘Indoor Man’ and His Playmates” (10/02/18) One caller reacted to the impeachment trial by making connections between domestic abusers and Donald Trump. Her call reminded us of this episode, in which Sara Fishko offers a history of the men’s liberation movement, and we consider its echo in the Trump era. “MAGA, the New Confederate Lost Cause” (11/16/20) Our first conversation with historian Douglas Blight, in which he explains how secessionist mythology survived after the Civil War and echoes in Donald Trump’s movement today. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Cultural historian 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 MacArthur fellow 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 -- simply for not fitting into the box. Through a series of readings, we 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. Companion listening for this episode: “The Origin Story of Black History Month” (01/31/21) To launch our Future of Black History series, we turned our complex relationships with Black History Month to curiosity in order to uncover how a week-long celebration of Black Achievement became the month-long observance that we know today. “The Life and Work of Ida B. Wells” (05/08/20) We look back at the life of the oft-overlooked journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, whose intrepid reporting contributed to the fight for racial injustice in America. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

We’ve got complicated relationships with this annual celebration -- from joy to frustration. So to launch our Future of Black History series, we ask how it began and what it can be. Producer Veralyn Williams invites us into a lively conversation about her annual Black History Month parties -- before COVID-19 social distancing was imposed -- with some friends of the show. Then, Dr. Pero Dagbovie, a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and an Associate Dean in the Graduate School at Michigan State University, introduces us to Dr. Carter G. Woodson - often called the “Father of Black History” - before explaining how a week-long celebration of Black Achievement at the turn of the 20th century evolved into the month-long observance that we know today. Companion listening for this episode: “The Life and Work of Ida B. Wells” (5/8/20) She’s a bold-faced name of history -- but do you really know her story? She played a defining role in 20th Century American politics. “Juneteenth, an Unfinished Business” (6/26/20) Reflections on the annual celebration of Emancipation, from music to personal histories. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Kai checks in with poet Jericho Brown, historian Kidada Williams, and listeners as we all try to transition out of the Trump presidency. Jericho Brown, recipient of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, reads his new work ‘Inaugural,’ and reflects upon the power of our words - political rhetoric and prose alike - to strengthen communities. Professor and historian Dr. Kidada E. Williams reflects on the relationship between justice, history and why we must make space for uncomfortable truths about our nation. Her research centers around the impact of racist violence on African Americans and she will be the host of a new podcast ‘Seizing Freedom,’ which debuts on February 1st. Arun Venugopal, senior reporter of WNYC’s Race and Justice Unit, then joins Kai as he invites callers to share what they have been carrying through the Trump era and what they are ready to put down. Companion listening for this episode: “‘I Did Not Watch The Video’” (5/21/20) In response to the viral video of Ahmaud Arbery’s death, dystopian fiction writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah talks about reimagining America's responses to anti-black violence, dealing with the spectacle and living through a pandemic. “Meditations on a Bittersweet Victory” (11/9/20) A post-election call-in show with Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry to explore complex feelings as Donald Trump’s presidency comes to an end. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Historian Timothy Snyder offers lessons on what could happen if those who enabled the attack on our democracy don’t face consequences. President Biden was just inaugurated and many Americans are eager to turn the page into a new era. But many are still processing the January 7th U.S. Capitol riot. In this segment from our colleagues at The Brian Lehrer Show, Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, offers historical context for the attack on our democracy. COMPANION LISTENING: “MAGA, the New Confederate Lost Cause” (11/16/20) Historian David Blight on the past and potential future of white supremacist mythology. “A Zombie Political Party” (10/19/20) Kai talks with Charlie Sykes, a leading voice in the anti-Trump conservative movement, about the old roots of Trumpism in the Republican Party. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

And what MLK’s uniquely Black theology can teach us about the relationship between faith and politics in 2021. Rev. Dr. Yolanda Pierce, dean of the Howard University School of Divinity and author of the forthcoming book “In My Grandmother's House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit,” walks Kai through the history of the Black Church and Dr. King’s place in its evolution. And Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church, explains how her own ministry -- centered on love and inspired by King’s message -- attempts to build a new and diverse progressive movement. Her new podcast, Love.Period, debuts on Valentine’s Day. A special thanks to the New York City Municipal Archives and WNYC’s archivist Andy Lanset for audio recordings of Dr. King. COMPANION LISTENING: “In Jesus’s Name...We Legislate” (6/13/17) A court battle over LGBTQ rights in Mississippi reveals the segregationist history of the religious right’s effort to avoid anti-discrimination laws. “Dissent, Dissent, Dissent” (9/20/20) We reflect on the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, including her political roots in a progressive, Jewish tradition. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

January 6, 2021, offered a hyper-condensed version of our country’s entire political history--with all of its complexity, inspiration, and terror. In a special national radio broadcast of our show, we walk through a day that began with the historic election of a Black man and ended with a horrifying insurrection led by white nationalists. Newly elected Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) explains why he’s introduced a bill to investigate white nationalists’ infiltration of the Capitol Police. And Kai takes calls from around the country with Dr. Christina Greer, author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream” and co-host of the podcasts “FAQ-NYC” and The Grio’s “What's In It For Us”. COMPANION LISTENING: “The Racist History of Georgia’s Runoff” (12/21/20) Journalist Ari Berman connects a system created by segregationists in 1957 to the 2020 elections, and a modern-day, Black-led organizing effort to reverse history. “MAGA, the New Confederate Lost Cause” (11/16/20) Historian Douglas Blight explains how secessionist mythology survived after the Civil War, and how it echoes in Donald Trump’s movement today. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

An odd racial pecking order puts Indian Americans in a curious place -- outside of whiteness, but distinct from other people of color. How’d that come to be? And is it changing? We explore these questions by revisiting a story from Arun Venugopal, senior reporter with WNYC’s Race & Justice Unit, about how a Kansan community grappled with one of the first widely reported hate crimes following the 2016 election. Then he joins us to check in on that community today and walk through the history of the “model minority” myth -- and how perceptions may or may not be about to change, yet again. Most recently, Venugopal penned “The Truth Behind Indian American Exceptionalism” for the January/February 2021 issue of The Atlantic. COMPANION LISTENING: “White Like Me” (10/20/2016) A history of what it means -- and has meant -- to be white in the United States of America, and what that meant for the 2016 election. “A Secret Meeting in South Bend” (6/18/2020) How a group of Black families in the mid 20th Century carved out a neighborhood for themselves, and tried to make their American Dreams real, despite the terrorism of Jim Crow. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

A first draft of history for 2020, told through three very personal efforts to find -- and keep -- human connection amid a pandemic. We hear from 13-year-old Adiva Kaisary about how 2020 has complicated her relationships with her school friends and new neighborhood. Producer Veralyn Williams brings us a story from WNYC’s own reporter Cindy Rodriguez who faced COVID-19 head-on this year - while living alone as so many have. Finally, reporter Jenny Casas checks in with Chicagoan Niky Crawford, following a social experiment that they crafted to bring strangers in isolation together. COMPANION LISTENING: “An Invitation to Dream” (11/2/2020)An exercise in radical imagination for a post-Trump world, with some of our favorite guests. “Rage, Grief, Joy” (6/18/2020)Stories about catharsis -- and the ways we gather to fight, to grieve, and to show up for each other. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

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. Ari Berman, senior reporter at Mother Jones and author of “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America” (2016), joins us to explain the history of runoff elections in Georgia -- and to talk about what might have changed in 2020. We also talk to Nsé Ufot, the CEO of The New Georgia Project, about the organization’s work to get out the vote on the ground right now. COMPANION LISTENING: “They’ve Never Wanted You to Vote” (10/26/2020) Historian Carol Anderson walks Kai through the history of voter suppression since the Voting Rights Act. “A Historian’s Guide to the 2020 Election” (9/28/2020) Eric Foner explains the Reconstruction amendments to our Constitution--and why we don’t actually have an affirmative right to vote, among other oddities. “The Right Kind of Woman” (10/31/2018) Kai drops in on Stacey Abrams’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign and talks with her about her strategy for turning Georgia purple. “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Two Black physicians describe the racist history the medical world carries into the COVID-19 vaccine rollout -- and answer listeners’ questions about why we should still get vaccinated. A recent Pew Research Center survey, among others, revealed that Black Americans are by far the most likely to know someone who’s been hospitalized or killed by COVID-19. It also found Black people are most reluctant to trust the vaccine. When Dr. Brittani M. James “rage Tweeted” that she totally gets why her patients are skeptical of the medical system, her thread went viral. She joins Kai to offer insights on the apprehension that many Black Americans are feeling, through the lens of her own experience as a practitioner and a patient. And Dr. Oni Blackstock, who has served on the frontlines of both COVID-19 and HIV interventions in New York City, responds to callers’ questions about the coming vaccine. What’s in it? How’d it get done so fast? And why should we trust pharmaceutical companies? She’s got answers. Companion listening for this episode: “Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People” (April 24, 2020) and “Keep Calm and Check Your Bias” (March 26, 2020) “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The HIV epidemic is nearly 40 years old. So what can we learn from that pandemic, as we approach a year of living with COVID-19? When COVID-19 overwhelmed New York City this spring, our executive producer 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 episode, Karen shares parts of that intimate conversation, as an act of remembrance. Also, Kai talks with epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves, who helped start ACT UP more than 30 years ago, about how his decades of AIDS activism color his view of the fight against COVID-19. Gregg is now co-director of the Global Health Justice Project at Yale University, and writes about COVID-19 for The Nation. Companion listening for this episode: “Rage, Grief, Joy” (June 18, 2020) and “Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People” (April 24, 2020) “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

A family’s legend about "40 acres and a mule” takes host Kai Wright on a fact checking mission to the Mississippi Delta. He finds an unexpected solution to wealth inequality in the U.S. We first told the Lester family’s story in February, when we began exploring the unfinished business of Reconstruction. Now, as the country transitions out of the chaos of the Trump administration, we revisit the story and reflect on the effort to bring about economic justice in the Biden era. Elbert Lester has lived his full 94 years in Quitman County, Mississippi, on land he and his family own. 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? Kai’s reporting leads him to a question still at the core of our national political debate: Who are the rightful owners of this country’s staggering wealth? Plus, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, a labor economist and the former president of Bennett College, talks about the legacy of anti-Black terrorism in the U.S. and reparations. Companion listening from our archives: “Who Owns the Deed to the American Dream”“A Secret Meeting in South Bend” “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

White supremacist myths turn defeated leaders into heroic victors. Will Donald Trump now get the same transfiguration as Robert E. Lee? If history is our guide -- as it often is on this show -- then there’s reason to worry about the answer to that question. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. David Blight (Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and the author of "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom") joins Kai to tell the story of the Confederacy’s Lost Cause mythology -- how it was created, why it still matters today, and how similar it may feel to the new Lost Cause of Donald Trump. Plus, we open our pre-election time capsule of your wildest dreams. Before the election, we asked you to imagine a future for the country, your communities, and yourselves. In this episode, we share some of the dreams you sent us -- including a dream of cross-species telepathy! Really, though. Companion listening from our archives: An Invitation to Dream (11/02/2020) https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/invitation-dream A Historian’s Guide to the 2020 Election (09/28/2020) https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/historians-guide-2020-electionThe Life and Work of Ida B. Wells (05/08/2020) https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/life-and-work-ida-b-wells “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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry joins Kai to discuss all of our complex feelings as Donald Trump’s presidency comes to an end. More people voted in this presidential election than ever. But did it resolve anything? Are we any closer to being a truly multiracial democracy? And how do we feel about the United States and our place in it -- after all that has happened? Listeners call in to answer these questions for themselves, as Kai and Melissa Harris-Perry try to take stock. Drs. Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren are the hosts of The Nation’s System Check, a new 10-episode podcast uncovering the harmful systems operating under the hood of US democracy. The United States of Anxiety airs live every Sunday evening at 6 eastern time. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, stream the show on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC, each Sunday evening. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Radical imagination is now essential. What can we imagine for our country, our communities, and ourselves beyond this election, and beyond this pandemic? In this episode, we face our fears and dream big. Help us make a time capsule of our imaginations. Record a voice memo with your wildest dreams about the future, and send it to [email protected]. Plus, Ashley C. Ford, writer and co-host of the HBO's Lovecraft Country Radio podcast, joins our producer Veralyn Williams for a discussion about American horror, power, race and so much more. Plus, we invite a few friends of the show back to imagine a future that lives up to the American Dream and the ideals of our democracy. You can vote safely in-person across the country this Tuesday, November 3, 2020. To locate your designated polling place, visit vote.org or vote.nyc if you live in New York City. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Trump, Inc. co-host Andrea Bernstein sits down with Kai Wright, to discuss how American history informs the 2020 election. The conversation, called "Who Matters in America 2020?," was part of Reporter's Notebook series at The Greene Space. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Voting is a hallmark of our democracy, but it is not guaranteed for any American citizen. Visit WNYC/ Gothamist’s “2020 Voter Guide For New York And New Jersey” to make a plan and if you live outside of NY and NJ, visit vote.org for information about how you can safely vote this year. This week, Senior editor Christopher Werth brings us a story about the not-so-secret legal crusade against the Voting Rights Act, led by law firms representing the Republican Party and the Trump campaign. And with Election season coming to an end, Historian Dr. Carol Anderson joins us for a conversation 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). Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

With almost two weeks left until Election Day, Charlie Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, joins us for a conversation about Republican party politics over the last 50 years, the Trump effect, the dramatic fight for the Supreme Court and how we all may move forward in the days, months and years following November 3rd. Conservative listeners grappling with their political identity and choices, weigh in during the show. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

After a summer of outdoor dining, hiking, and staying indoors, New York City is on alert… again. Localized COVID spikes across the city have prompted lockdowns of schools and businesses, but the pandemic is back on all our minds, following the diagnosis and hospitalization of President Trump and many of the people around him. Dr. Oxiris Barbot M.D., the former commissioner of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, joins us to discuss leadership in a pandemic, the state of American public health today and the hard choices we’ve made to live another day. And reporter Jenny Casas brings us a short meditation on risk in the time of Covid-19. For information on free COVID testing in New York City, visit nyc.gov/COVIDtest. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Reporter Christopher Werth brings us a story from Wisconsin, a key swing state, about the legal efforts to suppress the votes of communities of color and how Milwaukee-based organizers like Melody McCurtis are determined to make sure that every vote is counted. WNYC’s Brigid Bergen joins us to talk about the challenges that New Yorkers are facing to get their vote out amidst uncertain circumstances. Visit vote.nyc (NYC) or vote.org to ensure that you are registered to vote and make a plan. Listen to Brian Lehrer’s special, “America, Are We Ready to Vote in a Pandemic?” here. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

As the country confronts racial tensions and class conflicts, the question begs: how did we get here? We look back to a moment in our history when our country was struggling to become a true, multiracial democracy -- and 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 and producer Veralyn Williams rides along to help us make sense of what it means today and how we can move forward as one nation. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The Republican Party has long sought a stable conservative majority in the Supreme Court. With the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat up for grabs, that could become 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) join 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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

In this special episode, we reflect on the life and legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, following her passing on Friday. Kai is joined by Emily Bazelon (Staff Writer at The New York Times Magazine and Co-Host of “Political Gabfest” at Slate), WNYC’s own Brian Lehrer and callers like you to talk about the impact of the “Notorious RBG” on the nation and its citizens. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Many teams have been playing without crowds this year but stadiums still have a captive audience. Sports editor and “Edge of Sports” podcast host Dave Zirin joins us for the hour as we explore how and when in our history athletes have taken a stand for civil rights and social justice. WNBA point guard Renee Montgomery talks about what led her to sit out the 2020 season to pursue change and uplift Black communities. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

2020 has been a year of reflection, mourning and perspective. This Labor Day, we look back at the last major fiscal crisis in New York City before delving into the history and experiences of the “essential workers” who have kept the city running during the COVID pandemic. Reporter Jenny Casas gets into the gritty work and history of “New York’s Strongest,” the Department of Sanitation. Ai-jen Poo, the co-founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, joins us to talk about the state of care and domestic work today. Plus, we take calls from listeners who work in homes across the Tri-state. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The suburbs are in danger, according to the speakers at the Republican National Convention last week. President Trump and Republican voices leaned into the anxieties that some white and suburban residents are grappling with in the face of deep political division, violent unrest and rapidly changing demographics. We revisit our 2016 segment with Kwame Holmes, a historian and scholar-in-residence for Human Rights at Bard College, about the segregated history of the classic American suburbs of the past and today. Andrea Bernstein, host of the WNYC and ProPublica podcast, Trump, Inc. and best-selling author of “AMERICAN OLIGARCHS: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power,” (out in paperback on October 6th) offers insight into her coverage of the RNC and joins us as we take calls from suburban voters who are uncertain about how they will vote come November. Following the untimely passing of award-winning actor and philanthropist Chadwick Boseman, globally known for his role as Black Panther/ King T'Challa in the Marvel film franchise, our producer Veralyn Williams responds and encourages our listeners to tell us how they are lifting their own spirits in the midst of these heavy and uncertain times. How have you been seeking joy? What is keeping you going? Send us your voice notes to [email protected] or tweet using the hashtag #USofAnxiety. You can also follow Kai at @kai_wright and subscribe to our podcast for all of our episodes. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Do you have a story about something you’ve endured for racial justice? Producer Veralyn Williams tells us her story and we wanna hear YOUR version! How much tension and discomfort are YOU willing to endure (or not), to create the kind of equitable, multiracial society we say we want? Record a voice memo and email us at [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

For our first LIVE episode, we reflect on last week’s Democratic National Convention by exploring what it means to be a Democrat in a party divided and we take your calls about what you need to see from the Dems. Producer Carolyn Adams takes us to Southeast Queens to meet District Leader Roslin Spigner who sheds light on civics in Black institutions and what it means to be a Democrat in a borough divided. Kai invites Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a former Democratic candidate for Governor in Michigan and author of “Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic,” to discuss progressive policies, privilege and power. And we ask listeners what they need to see from Democratic candidates going forward. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Do you consider yourself part of the Democratic Party? We want to hear from you! Tell us what the Democratic Party can do for YOU, in YOUR life? Record a voice memo and send it to us at [email protected]. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.