Notes from America with Kai Wright

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...

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 dispo...

In 2020, Michael Tubbs lost his reelection campaign 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...

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 th ese   ideals are put into practice on a local level. Find more in Professor Hayhoe’s bestselling book, Saving...

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 t...

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, redefi...

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, so record a voice memo with your playlist recommendation (and the story tha...

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 :...

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...

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...

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 ....

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,...

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 t...

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. Plus, Ms. Opal Lee,...

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...

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, the story of 91-year-old artist Faith Ringgold, as told by her daughter. Companion listening for this episode : A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right   (1/24/2022) Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of con...

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 bui...

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 Ra...

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 optimi...

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...

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 speak with the director and choreographer of the current Broadway Revival, Camille A. Brown. Then, performers Trazana Beverley, Aku Kadogo, and Carol Maillard reminisce on the original production and with the show's...

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 ,  “The Constitution Wasn't Written for Women.”  And  Michele Goodwin, a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Irvine, jo...

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 C...

Michigan State Senator 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 Mach...

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. Dea...