All Episodes
Notes from America with Kai Wright — 424 episodes
Not Just Forgotten, but Erased From History: A Final Note from Notes from America
The Real Heartbeat of D.C. Isn’t Politics. It’s Go-Go Music.
Dear Listener: A Celebration of Our Best Moments with You
A Year After Being Shot in Vermont, Palestinian Student Hisham Awartani Sets His Sights on Home
We Could End AIDS. So Why Are People Still Dying?
Writer Ekow Eshun on James Baldwin’s History
An America Without Police is Safer Than You Think
Writer Hisham Matar on James Baldwin’s Patience
Presenting This is Uncomfortable: Writer Hanif Abdurraqib on what it Means to “Make it”
It’s Trump’s Policy, But Both Parties Set the Stage for Mass Deportations
Nikki Giovanni on James Baldwin's Anger
A Majority of Voters Have Endorsed Cruelty. So Now What?
Author Colm Toibin on James Baldwin’s Interiority
The Real Reason Why the Lies and Violent Rhetoric Won’t Stop On Election Day
Biographer David Leeming on James Baldwin’s Teaching
In Michigan, Arab Americans Weigh the Power of a Vote
Live From Atlanta: GA Politics, a Growing Gender Gap and Scenes From Spelhouse Homecoming's Tailgate
Author and Playwright Caryl Phillips on James Baldwin’s Friendship
How Important is College to a Successful Career?
Novelist Elif Shafak on James Baldwin’s Compassion
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Journey to the Supreme Court Has Been a ‘Lovely One’
Writer Darryl Pinckney on James Baldwin’s Love
‘Imperfect Allies’: Processing a Year of War Across Communities
Writer Siri Hustvedt on James Baldwin’s Complexity
Gen Z’s Political Priorities Feel Both Fresh and Familiar
Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on James Baldwin’s Courage
The Way Candidates Have Historically Approached the Latino Vote Won’t Fly in 2024
Ta-Nehisi Coates on James Baldwin's Words
A Flood of Claims From Rikers Island Amplify the Pervasive Problem of Sexual Assault in Jails
How Spanish Language Radio Became a Platform for Spreading Misinformation and Disinformation
Presenting: ‘Notes on a Native Son,’ A Celebration of James Baldwin at 100
Kamala Harris’s Debate Style Was a Master Class in Rhetoric for the Trump Era
Why Climate Change Isn’t a Top Ticket Issue in 2024
What the Next U.S. President Must Face in Gaza
The Gifts of Mortality and Movement, According To Dance Legend Bill T. Jones
The Next Insurrection Could Be Led By Extremists in the U.S. Military. Are We Ready?
Everything Is Too Damn High: Facts vs Feelings on Harris and Trump's Economic Plans
Who’s Winning the Swing States? Let’s Check the Polls.
How Greek Life and HBCUs shaped Kamala Harris and a Generation of Black Students
Gaza Is Kamala Harris’s Moral Challenge, and Also Her Opportunity
Megan Thee Stallion, Kid Rock, and the Musical Politics of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz Caught the Vibe of 2024. What Will That Change?
The Juxtaposition of Sonya Massey's Killing and Kamala Harris' Presidential Run
James Baldwin's Words Continue to Challenge us 100 Years After His Birth
Kamala Harris Is a ‘Supreme Court Realist.’ So Will She Reform It?
A History of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement Through One Activist's Life Story
Did 44,000 Black Women Just Close Dems' 'Enthusiasm Gap' in One Zoom Call?
Biden Was Their Candidate. How Are Americans Feeling Now That Kamala Harris Is Poised To Replace Him?
Trump Assassination Attempt Exposes Security Concerns, Conspiracy Theories and a Democracy In Danger
What 100 Years Of Audio Can Tell Us About Black Americans and Belonging
Biden's Struggles, Trump's Lies and What Your Post-Debate Depression Means for November
Can American democracy ever be truly democratic?
How Black People Built American Democracy: A Juneteenth Celebration
Message Received: Listener Questions About Trump, What ‘The Wiz’ Means and Stories About Summer
Tony-Nominated Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins on Using Theater to Make Sense of Nonsense
Still In Recovery From Being Shot, Hisham Awartani Commits To a Summer of Activism
Is Donald Trump's Historic Felony Conviction Just a Part of Our New Political Normal?
What Does It Mean To Be Free?
Class Of 2024 Grads Reflect On Being Expected to Change the World
Why Divestment Is At the Core of Student Protests
What ‘The Wiz’ Was And Is to Black Culture
Tonya Mosley Reckons with a Dark Family Story and Holds Tight to Hope in the Podcast She Has a Name
How This Passover Feels Different For Many Jewish Americans
An Investigative Journalist Is Rocked By the ‘Inconceivable Truth’ Of His Own Identity
Amber Ruffin Talks ‘The Wiz’ Revival, Writing for ‘Late Night,’ and Representation in Comedy
Voter Vibe Check: Why Trump Has More Support from Black Voters Than Ever
Comedian Bassem Youssef’s Honest Reflection on Fame, the Pressure of Representation, and What it Means to be American
David Alan Grier Is Still Hitting Career Highs, More Than 40 Years After His Debut
Voter Vibe Check: Democratic Voters Are Torn Over Biden’s Gaza Policy
Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 5: What If I Could Have Grown Old With My Brother?
How Actor Danielle Brooks 'Already Won' Before The Oscars
Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 4: Respectability Politics and the AIDS Crisis
Are We Really Having a 'Migrant Crisis?' Depends Who You Ask.
We Could End AIDS. So Why Are People Still Dying?
Leading with Love: Care and Compassion in the Early Days of AIDS
It's Giving ‘Hell No’ — Danielle Brooks On Becoming ‘The Color Purple’s’ Sofia
A Palestinian-American Victim of American Gun Violence Becomes A Reluctant Poster Child
Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 3: ‘Women Don’t Get AIDS, They Just Die From It’
Intercultural Relationships Are More Common, But Are They Less Taboo?
Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 2: If I Didn’t Have HIV, I Wouldn’t Have Met You
Voter Vibe Check: Anti-Trump Conservatives On Republican Party Politics In 2024
Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 1: Mourning In America
What A Segregated Mental Asylum Can Tell Us About Health Care in the US Today
Kai Wright Hosts Blindspot: The Plague In The Shadows
Doom. Denial. ‘Hopium.’ What About Climate Action?
Reclaiming Woke: Celebrating The Legacy Of Martin Luther King Jr. Live At The Apollo
What the Ozempic Craze Means for Our Personal Health
Raoul Peck Fights for Justice With His Movies
I Was A Child of Dread
Why NYC’s Move to Privatize Public Housing Could Impact the Rest of the Country
Remembering Rapper Prodigy As A Cure For Sickle Cell Emerges
What the New Cure for Sickle Cell Disease Really Means
Bias in A.I. and the Risks of Continued Development, with Dr. Joy Buolamwini
Out of hope? Maybe stop for a sandwich and a song.
How Boston’s Big Dig built our expectations of American infrastructure
Nikki Giovanni and Kimberly McGlonn on space travel, sustainable fashion and Black liberation
Black Lives Matter, 10 years later
‘It’s Worse Than Ever’
Imminent Danger Ep 3: One Doctor and a Trail of Injured Women
Can Osage Citizens Revive Fairfax?
We Don't Talk About Leonard: Episode 3
The View From Gaza
We Don't Talk About Leonard: Episode 2
I Was A Child of Dread
We Don't Talk About Leonard: Episode 1
Is Capitalism Working for You?
Silicon Valley’s History of Fumbles with Capitalism
What Does It Mean to be Free?
Eating Elk Kabobs in Idaho
The Birth of Climate Denial
When Chicago Closed 50 Public Schools at Once
Public School’s Failing Prospects
When Hip Hop Tried to Fight the Power, and Lost
The Blurry Line Between Appropriation And Appreciation
Republican Debate No. 1: How Do You Limit Demagogues?
Trump’s Indictment: Georgia’s Crucial Voters Respond
The Music of Your Diaspora
Doom. Denial. ‘Hopium.’ What About Climate Action?
The Planet Sent a Bill. Here’s What We Owe.
The Radical Roots of Plant-Based Eating
If You Go After Me, I'm Coming After You!
Critical Race Theory: What It Actually Means
When Barbie Stopped Being White
The Misunderstood Era of Crack Cocaine
A Punk Rock Guide to Making a Scene
A Song to “Define the Most African Moment of My Life”
The Case for 29 Supreme Court Justices
Lessons from Mom at a Magic Mike Show in Vegas
Affirmative Action is About More Than Acceptance Letters
What Does “Color-Blind” Really Mean?
Black Life Resuscitated from the Ocean Floor
Why It’s So Hard to Sound “American”
The Coolest Music Parties You Didn’t Know Were Happening
Why the Indian Child Welfare Act is the Gold Standard in Family Law
95 Unmarked Graves
Juneteenth Is an Act of Bravery
Comedian Sam Jay Isn’t Afraid of Getting Canceled
Billy Porter Doesn’t Need a Month to Celebrate Pride
Trust the Media? Yeah, Right.
January 6th Was Not a Secret Attack
Padma Lakshmi’s Low-Key Subversive Food Show
No, We Can’t Stop Saying Their Names
How the Supreme Court Got So Supreme
Clarence Thomas and his Hotep Supreme Court
Who’s Responsible for Jordan Neely’s Death?
Homelessness Hides in Plain Sight. So Does Its Fix.
Joy Harjo and Native Stories
Indian Boarding Schools Are Not Ancient History
Money Shame, and How To Overcome It Through Financial Literacy
How Assata Shakur Became One of America’s Most Wanted
Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, and the Future of Fox News
Why Ralph Yarl Was Shot
The Joy and Pain of Little Richard
Tell Me Your Politics–But Do It In Verse
The Week That Changed America’s Cities
How a Young, Black Progressive Won in Chicago
Grieving Loss From Gun Violence
Of Tech Moguls and Gold Miners: A Capitalist History
Trump, the GOP, and a New Confederacy
Ramadan: A Month About Much More Than Fasting
The Truth Behind the Religious Right
The History Behind New Waves of Anti-Trans Legislation
The Rocky Statue: A Famous Monument to a Fictitious Hero
Revising History, One Monument at a Time
Preserving Untold Oral Histories
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Hollywood
Celebrating Terrance McKnight’s ‘Every Voice’ Podcast
How Respectability Politics Erased Young Women From History
Black History Is Now: How Misty Copeland Went From Different to Special
The Battle Over Black Studies
How Black People Remade Mississippi
A First Date Immigrant Story
American Political Myths Have Consequences For Us All
Black Music’s Most Memorable Moments With Emil Wilbekin
Putting An End To Toxic Cop Culture
History On Repeat: The Killing Of Tyre Nichols
Monterey Park: The Making of America’s First Suburban Chinatown
Living With And Learning From Estrangement
The Not-So-Sunny Side of Louis Armstrong’s Legacy
The Legacy of MLK Jr. Is To Be Young, Gifted and Black
New Congress, New Consequences
The Future of Work As We Know It
Faith Ringgold Creates Space for Black Americans
How Afrofuturism Redefines Our Past
Rediscovering Myself Through Rebuilding A Relationship With My Dad
YA Literature Chose Jason Reynolds
How Singer Marian Anderson Dominated the Global Stage
Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art
Your Happy Holiday Hits
Idina Menzel Talks Broadway, Balance and Her Dream Gig
Many #Twitter Users Are Riding Out The Controversy
Crime, Panic and The Case Of The Exonerated Five
We’ve Always Been A Divided United States
How You’re Dealing With Digital And Political Life
Actor Omar Epps Imagines Life After The Climate Crisis
The Climate Crisis Needs a New Gospel
The Right Wing Media Empire Hiding in Plain Sight
Notes From Our Exit Poll Episode
The Morning After: A Midterm Breakdown
What Arizona Teaches Us About The ‘Latino Vote’
The Conservative ‘Swing’ Vote: Explained
Who Gets to Be Beautiful in America?
What Keeps You Voting?
What's at Stake for You This Midterm Election?
The Higher Cost of Higher Ed for Americans of Color
Black Georgians Are Leading the Charge to the Polls
Women. Life. Freedom.
Church, State and the Soul of Our Nation
The Black Playwright Who Transformed Theater
The Obamas' Lonely Walk on the High Road
‘The Woman King’ Isn’t a Biopic. So What?
Everything’s Changed. But Have You?
Your Summer Jams…One Last Time
Introducing 'Notes From America': New Name, Same Show
A Pre-Midterms Vibe Check
The Art of Remembrance
Your Vote Matters
Revisiting Tara Roberts on Diving for Sunken Slave Ships
Revisiting A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right
Half of My Parents, All of Me
The Prison of Manhood Can’t Hold Shaka Senghor
Which Election Did You Care About The Most?
Digital Life Is a Moral Mess
Let’s Hear It For The Summer Playlist
Monkeypox: The Making of an Outbreak
Michael Calvert’s Good, Too Short Life
What Could Go Wrong? Everything (And It’s Ok)
Michael Tubbs Has A Message for All Of US
How to Start Saving the World
How Are We Grieving?
The Culture of Gun Violence
Let Us Take You on an Pop Escapade
Jason Reynolds Needs to Be Useful
The Promise and Failure of Cryptocurrency
The Line Between Independence and Insurrection
Keeping Score: Part 4
Roe Is Gone. What Now?
Keeping Score: Part 3
Why Juneteenth? Let’s Ask Black Texas
Keeping Score: Part 2
Why We Can't (and Shouldn't) Move On From Jan. 6
Keeping Score: Part 1
Schools Had a Tough Year. What’d We Learn?
Alice Walker Is Very Happy, A Lot of the Time
The Wolf Pack of White Nationalism
Somebody, Sing a Black Girl’s Song
Justice Alito Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
The Abortion Clinic That Won't Go Quietly
Voters to Democrats: Get a Spine!
Kai Wright Introduces Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery
They Dumped Trump for Biden. Now What?
A Historian's Guide to the 2022 Midterm Elections
The Dangerous Cycle of Fear
The End of Institutions: Hollywood Edition
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Black Patriotism
How "Bich" Became “Beth” – An American Tale
People Feel Unsafe–and It’s More Than Crime
Why the ‘Reagan Regime’ Endures
Brian Lehrer on Productive Discourse
Why So Many Are Stuck in the “Other” Box
Black People Are From Outer Space
David Byrne on Musical Democracy
How to Avoid the ‘Affirmative Action’ Ploy
Revisiting Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate
A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right
A History of Voter Suppression
Is Love the Most Transformative Political Act?
How to Spot the End of Democracy
Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist
What Does Black Ambition Sound Like?
Face the Darkness, Welcome the Light
Talking About Racism Is an Act of Love
A Year of Performing Humanity, Reviewed
The Supreme Court v. Our Rights
An Anti-Racism Refresher
The Myth of a ‘United’ States
Promises to Help the Climate Keep Breaking
Fired at 59: Lessons on Job Insecurity in the U.S.
How the Dead Still Speak to Us
Making it in New York: The Eric Adams Story
What’s Wrong With the NFL?
The True Story of Critical Race Theory
Hear No Evil: Asylum Policy in America
Art That Matters
Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate
A 9/12 Story: ‘I Forgot I Was a Muslim Kid’
The Legacy of Abu Ghraib
Maybe We Just Want Less ‘Work’
How Zillow Explains Education Inequity
The Man, the Myth, the Manipulation
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Haiti and International Aid
Affirmative Action: Truths and Lies
What the Olympics Taught Us About Us
‘Ethical People Can Be Effective’
To Protect and Observe: A History
The American Story, in Half a Year
The Short Life and Early Death of Voting Rights
Can America Be Redeemed?
How the Right’s Anti-Trans Hate Machine Works
Why We Must Vote
David Dinkins vs. the NYPD
The Dawn of ‘Anti-Racist’ America
The ‘Big Bang’ in Jazz History
How NYPD ‘Kettled’ the Spirit of Reform
F*&% Robert Moses. Let’s Start Over
Ma’Khia Bryant’s Story Is Too Familiar
No More ‘Selfless’ Moms
The Method to Tucker Carlson’s Madness
Do We Need the Police at All?
Why Cops Don’t Change
Government: A Love-Hate Story
Desegregation By Any Means Necessary
How to End the Dominion of Men
The Missing History of Asian America
Collective Loss, Collective Care
Capitalism vs. Time
Actor Daniel Kaluuya’s Road to Revolutionary
The Secret Tapes of a Suburban Drug War
Blackness (Un)interrupted
The Case Against Those ‘Tubman $20s’
Impeachment: Catharsis and Impunity
The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History
The Origin Story of Black History Month
New Hopes, Old Fears
Life After Fascism: A Brief History
How Martin Luther King, Jr., Changed American Christianity
The American Story, in a Single Day
The (Un)Making of a ‘Model Minority’
Lessons From a Year in Isolation
The Racist History of Georgia’s Runoff
Tell It To Me Straight, Doc
ACT UP, Fight Covid
One Family’s Land of Opportunity
MAGA, the New Confederate Lost Cause
Meditations on a Bittersweet Election
An Invitation To Dream
Who Matters in America 2020?
They’ve Never Wanted You to Vote
A Zombie Political Party
Inside the Pandemic's First Days
How to Steal an Election
A Historian's Guide to the 2020 Election
A Court On The Edge
Dissent, Dissent, Dissent
Serving Up Social Justice
The Necessary Work
Scared in the Suburbs
What Do You Have to Lose?
“It’s My Party”
What Do You Want from the Democrats?
Revisiting Caught: 'You Just Sit There and Wait for the Next Day to Come'
Revisiting Caught: 'They Look at Me Like a Menace'
Revisiting Caught: 'I Just Want You to Come Home'
The Laws of Soil and Blood
Zoned for Resistance
Juneteenth, an Unfinished Business
Rage, Grief, Joy
'Community' Is a Verb. And It’s Hard
Keeping Released Prisoners Safe and Sane
'I Did Not Watch the Video'
The Life and Work of Ida B. Wells
Inside the Prison Pandemic
Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People
Questions to Ask While Waiting
A History of Style in a Pandemic
Dispatches from People Stranded in Place
Keep Calm and Check Your Bias
Last Chance at Justice
Alone Together During COVID-19: Live Call-in
Black Power at the Polls
Keeping White Power at the Polls
A Secret Meeting in South Bend
Fragility in Liberty
Paralysis at the Crossroads
Two Schools in Marin County
40 Acres in Mississippi
Can We Finally Build a Multiracial Democracy in 2020?
Welcome to 'The Stakes'
Kirsten Gillibrand's Path to Power
¡Sí Se Puede!
What Does the Right Kind of Woman Sound Like?
The Right Kind of Woman
The Women of Texas's Secret Resistance
Ida B. Wells
The Original Nasty Woman
The 'Indoor Man' and His Playmates
The Pedestal
We've Been Here Before
The Dream Was Not Mine
The United States of Anxiety Season Three: There's an Election Coming
The US of Anxiety Wants to Hear from You
Introducing ‘Caught’: Our New Podcast
How Ivanka Trump And Donald Trump, Jr., Avoided a Criminal Indictment
The Counter-Jihad Movement & the Making of a President
Help Us Map the Confederate Flag
America's Fourth: Beyond Pie and BBQs
The Drug War
Nixon's Enemies
These 'Witches' Are Empowering the Next Generation
In Jesus' Name... We Legislate
The New, Old White Supremacist Movement
How Politics Turns Violent
Music, McCarthy, and the Sound of Americana
America's Allergy to Intellect — Why It Keeps Flaring Up
The Birth of Climate Denial
Whose Kansas Is it Anyway?
Welcome to The United States of Anxiety: Culture Wars
Call-In Special: Across the Aisle
Call-In Special: Culture Shock
Call-In Special: Pass the Politics
Call-In Special: An Electoral Industrial Revolution
Call-In Special: Where Technology Takes Us
Call-In Special: Examining the 'Women's Vote'
Call-In Special: Hopes and Fears for the Next Four Years
Episode 9: Where Are We Now?
Episode 8: What Is This Election Doing to Us?
Episode 7: This Is Your Brain on Politics
Episode 6: The Kids Are Not Alright
Episode 5: White Like Me
Episode 4: Down the Rabbit Hole
Episode 3: This Land Is My Land, That Land Is Your Land
Episode 2: Who Owns the Deed to the American Dream?
Episode 1: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going?
Welcome to The United States of Anxiety