Notes from America with Kai Wright

Incarcerated youth do what it takes to survive in prison everyday, in the hopes of making it back home someday. In this final installment of our presentation of Caught , reporter Jared Marcelle finds Z behind bars again - following a misstep while on parole - and chronicles how solitary confinement and years of uncertainty have changed his life. Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice is hosted by K...

In this second installment of our presentation of Caught , then-16-year-old Z grapples with a reality that incarcerated youth with mental health needs face everyday: support comes at a cost. Reporter Jared Marcelle continues to follow his journey through the criminal justice system and juvenile justice lawyer and poet Dwayne Betts sheds light on a vicious catch-22. Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Ju...

The United States locks up more people - and more children - than any country in the world. Two years ago, Caught delved into the experiences of youth whose worst decisions led them to be entrapped within the criminal justice system, often for life. We’re revisiting the story of then-16-year-old Z, as he awaits a decision that could change his life forever and details how he landed in a detention...

Being Black in Italy means you’re likely NOT born a citizen. Until the Civil War, the same was true for Black people in the United States. Citizenship was reserved for white people only. These histories aren’t so disconnected.  Black American reporter Ngofeen Mputubwele (New Yorker Radio Hour) tells the story of Black Italians like Bellamy Ogak of   Afroitalian Souls   and the multi-year campaign...

As Covid-19 first spread through Chicago, the residents of Little Village faced another imminent crisis — the hastily-approved demolition of an old coal-fired power plant that left the neighborhood shrouded in dust during a pandemic lock-down. This week, reporter  Jenny Casas  tells the story of  Kim Wasserman's  decades-long fight for environmental justice in Little Village and the lessons it off...

Juneteenth marks a triumphant moment for not just Black Americans, but all people who have sought liberation globally. On June 19 th , Kai Wright hosted   a special episode   of “The Brian Lehrer Show” with   a series of conversations about the history of the national holiday, classical music and Black politics - then and now. Guests include WQXR's  Terrance McKnight , historian   Dr. Daina Ramey...

After months of fear and mourning amid a global pandemic, we’re now in the streets. This week, we talk about catharsis and the ways we gather to fight, to grieve and to show up for each other. We hear from Shanika Hart, First Lady of The Gathering Harlem , on being a Black mom, fighting for Black lives. And we learn about the life of beloved Brooklynite Lloyd Porter, who died of Covid-19, and the...

As the nation faces the dual brunts of the pandemic and the on-going brutality against black bodies, people more than ever are finding ways to “do the work” in their communities. This week our reporter  Jenny Casas  takes us to a neighborhood in Chicago where Mexican residents are confronting anti-black violence.  Anjali Kamat  reports a dispatch from her neighborhood in New York, one of the Ameri...

It’s hard enough when there’s no pandemic to keep mentally ill inmates from falling through the holes in a patchwork system. Now it’s harder than ever. A huge number of people who are locked up in this country are mentally ill or addicted to drugs or both. This episode, we go to Cleveland, Ohio to follow a psychiatrist and a social worker as they, first, try to find and, then, wrap their arms arou...

The week  Ida B. Wells’ reporting on lynching received a Pulitzer Prize , a video of 25 year-old Ahmaud Arbery being chased and killed began to circulate on social media. It was one of the few news stories that have grabbed widespread attention amid the coronavirus pandemic. But how do we all process such horrible violence, even as we continue to face the daily tragedies of a pandemic? To answer t...

Journalist and activist Ida B. Wells was in some ways, a forgotten figure, overlooked even in black civil rights history. But her reporting on lynchings across the South was unwavering in its mission: calling America out on racial injustice. And this week, that work received a special  Pulitzer Prize Citation . Also, in 2018 we recorded a live episode remembering the life and work of Ida B. Wells...

Three months ago, Kai Wright joined  The New Yorker Radio Hour 's David Remnick, for a  special episode  about the effects of mass incarceration and the movement to end it. And now, as the coronavirus pandemic puts inmates in acute and disproportionate danger, that effort gains new traction. Wright and Remnick reconvene to examine the COVID-19 crisis in prison and its political effects. Kai Wright...

As black people die from Covid-19 at disproportionate rates, the disease is highlighting health disparities we’ve long known about. Kai Wright speaks with  Arline Geronimus , a public health researcher, about what happens to black people’s bodies — on a cellular level — while living in a racist society. Plus, we hear from senior producer   Veralyn Williams ’ dad, an essential worker in New York wh...

Right now, many of us are sheltered in our homes — alone or with company — finding ways to connect in our “new normal.” And as we grapple with how COVID-19 has reshaped our day-to-day, all most of us can do is wait it out. So in this episode, we’re going to turn to a poem,  45 Questions to Ask While Waiting , our reporter  Jenny Casas  looks to when she wants to get to know the people around her....

When health officials ordered everyone to wear face masks during the 1918 influenza pandemic, black women in Chicago got creative and crafted jewel-studded veils to stay safe. Kai Wright speaks with The Undefeated’s   Soraya Nadia McDonald   about seeking joy — and staying fly — in times of crisis. Show us how you’re staying safe and stylish: Get your look together and send us a selfie with the ha...

We’ve got two dispatches from communities where "social-distancing" is not an option. And where decisions we made long ago about homelessness and immigration policy are getting in the way of our ability to protect against Covid 19. WNYC Investigative Reporter   Matt Katz   brings us calls from inside immigration detention centers. And our reporter   Marianne McCune   checks in with a homeless advo...

Our current situation has left many of us asking  fundamental questions about our work, about our relationships, and the meaning of home. This week, we're checking in on one another and taking stock. Host   Kai Wright   calls reporter   Jenny Casas   on her drive from New York to Chicago. Then, he and   Dr. Gail Christopher , an expert in public health and founder of the Ntianu Center for Healing...

History tells us that, in a time of crisis, we have to be careful about how we respond. At the start of the Iraq War in 2003, Salah Hasan Nusaif al-Ejaili was working as a journalist when the U.S. military detained him inside Abu Ghraib, a prison that would become notorious for American abuses committed in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Only a handful of people were ever held re...

Part of the mission of our show is to address our collective anxieties. The COVID-19 pandemic has already drastically reshaped our lives, our politics, and our health -- both physical and mental. Right now, it's not clear if or when things will feel normal again. In this bonus episode, host Kai Wright teams up with Anna Sale of Death, Sex & Money to take listener calls, and to talk about how every...

A lot of people have a  lot  of opinions about the choices black people are making in the Democratic primary. But as we've seen in other election cycles, when the dust settles, the country seems to move on. This week, host  Kai Wright  sits down with  Rashad Robinson , President of  Color of Change , to discuss the Reconstruction-era origins of today's  coalition between black voters in the South...

The United States of Anxiety presents: What Next "One person, one vote" has not always been a given in America. After the Civil War, there was some debate over who should be counted in a congressional district: every person, or every person eligible to vote? The 14th Amendment aimed to settle this question forever, but as the demographics of our country have shifted and changed over the course of...

Mike Jackson, like many descendants of the Great Migration, has a family home that was built from protest, resilience and ingenuity. In the spring of 1950, his parents met in secret with 25 other families to create Better Homes of South Bend. Their efforts would later become a collection of homes on the 1700 and 1800 blocks of N. Elmer St. But today, the value of those houses doesn’t match the wor...

Many of us associate the Statue of Liberty with the poem mounted on her pedestal:   “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The monument has become a symbol of immigration. What fewer of us know is that Lady Liberty was originally conceived as a tribute to the abolition of slavery. In fact, what we find as we look into history is that our country's immigratio...

As primary season kicks off, Democratic voters around the country face a deeper choice than electability: Is the best response to Donald Trump a return to comity and unity in our politics, or must they embrace the ugly conflict that fundamental change will likely require? We get advice on confronting the enormity of the choice from Deidre Dejear, a voting advocate in Iowa. Plus, a look back  at an...

Last year, the California Attorney General held a tense press conference at a tiny elementary school in the one working class, black neighborhood of the mostly wealthy and white Marin County. His office had concluded that the local district "knowingly and intentionally" maintained a segregated school, violating the 14th amendment. He ordered them to fix it, but for local officials and families, th...