Notes from America with Kai Wright

Our friends at On the Media have teamed up with ProPublica to create a miniseries about how the U.S. Supreme Court moved so far to the right. In the third and final episode of   We Don't Talk About Leonard ,   Leonard Leo is in Maine, a man in his castle, at the height of his powers. He has helped remake the American judicial system, and now he has a plan to do the same for society and politics —...

How can we have a more honest conversation about security, war, and peace in the region? As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, we ask two scholars with ties to the region for help. Kai is joined by Laila El-Haddad, a Palestinian author and journalist based in Clarksville, Maryland, whose family has fled their home in northern Gaza. She is the author of “Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenti...

Our friends at On the Media have teamed up with ProPublica to create a miniseries about how the U.S. Supreme Court moved so far to the right. In the second episode of   We Don't Talk About Leonard ,   Leonard Leo realized that in order to generate conservative rulings, the Supreme Court needs the right kind of cases. ProPublica reporters Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll, and Ilya Marritz investigate t...

In a new memoir, How to Say Babylon, the award-winning poet and essayist is revisiting her youth as a Rastafari girl.  Being Rasta is about so much more than what shows up in American pop culture – it’s an anti-colonial, pro-Black way of life that was deeply important to Safiya’s father. But for her, it was a set of rules and dictates that tried to shrink the world for her and her sisters. This we...

Our friends at On the Media have teamed up with ProPublica to create a miniseries about how the U.S. Supreme Court moved so far to the right. In this first episode of We Don't Talk About Leonard , ProPublica reporters Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll, and Ilya Marritz investigate the background of the man who has played a critical role in the conservative takeover of America's courts — Leonard Leo. Fr...

One guest says “a free market is a mythical creature, like Santa Claus.” So how do we describe “capitalism” really, and can we make it do better? We examine our current economic system, callers’ feelings about it, and the evolution of that system with guest host Noel King, host of Vox’s “Today Explained.” She’s joined by Vinson Cunningham, Staff Writer for the New Yorker, and Kirstin Munro, Profes...

Silicon Valley is notorious in the global economy and the American psyche. According to author  Malcolm Harris , the Bay Area tech hub and California at large are a laboratory for the worst consequences of capitalism–centuries in the making. Harris unpacks this theory in his book  “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.”  He joins  Kai   to dig into the global history of Si...

Ayana Mathis joins us to discuss her new novel,  The Unsettled . It’s an intergenerational story centered around one Black family’s struggle to find freedom in the 1980s. Like her previous work, migration and movement are major themes in the book. But this time, her characters are at a crossroads, unsure of their next step in search for self-determination. Ayana breaks down the characters in her g...

A new graphic memoir from  New Yorker  cartoonist  Navied Mahdavian  tells the story of his decision to move with his wife from San Francisco to rural Idaho. Mahdavian joins producer Kousha Navidar to discuss,  This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America . Plus, we take your calls. Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter):   @noteswithkai . Email us at   notes@wnyc.org . Send...

Starting with the 1925 Scopes Trial — also known as the "trial of the century" — we look at one of the most controversial topics in our time: the debate over evolution versus a Fundamentalist understanding of the Bible. It started with a substitute teacher in Tennessee who believed that evolution should be taught in the classroom. What followed was a fiery debate that rocketed around the world. Fr...

In 2013 Chicago shut down 50 public schools – the largest mass closing in U.S. history. The city promised a chance to revitalize communities. 10 years later, it’s another reality. We speak with   Sarah Karp   from WBEZ and   Lauren FitzPatrick   from the Chicago Sun Times about   their recent reporting story . Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter):   @noteswithkai . Email us at   notes...

“The Death of Public School” author Cara Fitzpatrick  tells the story of a movement, six decades in the making, that’s picked away at the very idea of public education in the U.S. Listeners from Chicago and Jersey City, including a teacher, call in with their own perspectives about the state of our schools. Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter):   @noteswithkai . Email us at   notes@wn...

As hip hop turns 50, Kai and reporter Christopher Johnson look back on an era of “conscious rap” that championed a sound that was political, community-minded and deeply pro-Black. But about six years after it started, that first wave of socially-conscious hip hop seemed to be over. Who killed it? And what’s the story of its rise and fall tell us about the relationship between culture, politics, an...

This summer, producer Regina de Heer explored diaspora stories through the lens of music. In this installment, she meets someone whose identity is more complex than what we hear in the mainstream: Nodia Mena is a Lecturer of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She gave a TEDx talk a few years ago about her background as...

Vivek Ramaswamy labeled Trump the best president of the 21st century. Chris Christie compared Ramaswamy to ChatGPT.  Conservative callers share their reflections on the first Republican presidential debate, and Mona Charen from The Bulwark breaks down why having just 12 minutes of airtime can encourage bad behavior. Send us your song for our summer playlist! What’s a song that represents your pers...

From Stone Mountain to Alpharetta, we hear from listeners around the state and unpack what Trump’s indictment means for future elections and our democratic process. As former President Trump is indicted in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election in Georgia, we wonder what’s on the mind of folks in Georgia right now. In partnership with our friends at WABE in Atlan...

Producer Regina de Heer is asking listeners for songs that represent something about their identity as part of a diaspora – any kind of diaspora! And you’ve been answering. In this installment, we hear Brazilian Calypso, a modern take on a Yiddish classic by the Andrews Sisters, and get a special submission from one of our favorite show guests. And you can hear the playlists now at   WNYC.org/play...

More people consider climate change an urgent concern than ever. But people in the climate movement fear that our collective anxiety about the end of the world has paralyzed us from taking action. In this episode, Kai collects stories of climate victories.  Kai talks with Rikki Held, the 22-year-old lead plaintiff in Held v. Montana , a lawsuit brought by the group Our Children’s Trust. Held and h...

David Wallace-Wells , author of  The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming   calculated the cost to fix our climate. It requires us to reconsider what needs to change and who’s responsible. He talks to Kai about some of the ways we can rethink the history of climate change and one way forward. Send us your song for our summer playlist! What’s a song that represents your personal diaspora story?...

It's beyond impossible to save the planet one meatless plate at a time. So what can we do instead? Producer Rahima Nasa wants to know about the roots of plant-based eating. So she talks to writer and cook Alicia Kennedy, author of  No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating .  If not eating meat is not enough, then what is? Send us your song for our summer pla...

Former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment leaves a lot to unpack. We answer questions and take your calls. Brian Lehrer, host of The Brian Lehrer Show, talks to   Charlie Sykes , founder and editor-at-large and host of a podcast at   The Bulwark , MSNBC contributor and author of   How the Right Lost Its Mind   (St. Martin's Press, 2017). Brian also recently invited Kai and others on his sh...

Jelani Cobb , staff writer for The New Yorker, tells the fascinating story behind a provocative idea. Understanding the origins of Critical Race Theory is the first step in understanding the evolution of civil rights and whether racism could be a permanent fixture of society. Then, producer Regina de Heer shares some listener submissions to our summer playlist project. Send us your song for our su...

The story of the first Black doll to have the name Barbie.  Until 1980, Barbie was always white. Mattel had made Black dolls before, but they were sidekicks to the brand’s main character with facial features that didn’t really distinguish them from the other dolls. Correspondent  Tracie Hunte  brings you the story of the first Black doll to have the name Barbie. Hear from  Kitty Black Perkins, Mat...

A disastrous period in the 1980’s. Where we went wrong and what we keep doing wrong today. What do you think of when you hear the term, “crack cocaine?” The drug is at the heart of an epidemic in the 1980’s that destroyed lives. But for writer Donovan X. Ramsey, a lot of our assumptions and understandings about this era are actually mistruths. So he wrote  When Crack Was King: A People's History o...

James Spooner  made a documentary in 2003 called “Afro-Punk.” It was a defining film for a generation of young Black people who felt like outsiders. This fall, he’ll publish a collection he co-edited with Chris L. Terry called  Black Punk Now . Hear his place in the story of punk rock and the future he’s helping young Black artists pave for themselves. This episode   is an installment of "Black Hi...