Notes from America with Kai Wright
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Notes from America with Kai Wright
Notes from America with Kai Wright is a show about the unfinished business of our history, and its grip on our future.
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424 Episoden
Not Just Forgotten, but Erased From History: A Final Note from Notes from America
This is the last episode of Notes from America with Kai Wright.
If you’ve been with the show through its multi-year history and iterations as a...
The Real Heartbeat of D.C. Isn’t Politics. It’s Go-Go Music.
The drumbeat of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area is not politics. It’s go-go music.
The genre developed by Chuck Brown in 1976 features...
Dear Listener: A Celebration of Our Best Moments with You
Host Kai Wright celebrates the many years and iterations of Notes from America by revisiting some of the show’s most engaging listener moments.
...
A Year After Being Shot in Vermont, Palestinian Student Hisham Awartani Sets His Sights on Home
College student Hisham Awartani, 21, was visiting family in Vermont over Thanksgiving break in 2023 when he and two of his friends were shot. All thre...
We Could End AIDS. So Why Are People Still Dying?
This episode was originally published March 1, 2024.
Host Kai Wright started his career covering the impact of HIV and AIDS on communities in Am...
Writer Ekow Eshun on James Baldwin’s History
Our guest on the final episode of “Notes on a Native Son” is British writer Ekow Eshun. He has been described as a cultural polymath. At a startlingly...
An America Without Police is Safer Than You Think
The public debate over policing has made more of us more familiar with ideas like defunding or abolishing the police, but these ideas are still often...
Writer Hisham Matar on James Baldwin’s Patience
In the 10th episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” host Razia Iqbal sits down with writer and former architect Hisham Matar. He won the Pulitzer Prize fo...
Presenting This is Uncomfortable: Writer Hanif Abdurraqib on what it Means to “Make it”
This is Uncomfortable is a podcast from Marketplace. For their season premiere earlier in 2024, host Reema Khrais shared a conversation with one of ou...
It’s Trump’s Policy, But Both Parties Set the Stage for Mass Deportations
For nearly a decade, Donald Trump and his political allies have made it clear that one of their primary goals is mass deportation of undocumented peop...
Nikki Giovanni on James Baldwin's Anger
As a young woman, poet and writer Nikki Giovanni could see that no one was interested in a Black girl writing what was seen as militant and revolution...
A Majority of Voters Have Endorsed Cruelty. So Now What?
What do the results of the presidential election tell us about our country? We asked a veteran movement organizer to reflect on what feels like a reje...
Author Colm Toibin on James Baldwin’s Interiority
Award-winning Irish writer Colm Toibin has long admired James Baldwin, ever since he read “Go Tell It on the Mountain" as a teenager, and has now writ...
The Real Reason Why the Lies and Violent Rhetoric Won’t Stop On Election Day
Former President Donald Trump has spent the last days of his 2024 campaign casting doubt on the U.S. election system, even taking the stage at a rally...
Biographer David Leeming on James Baldwin’s Teaching
In the seventh episode of “Notes on a Native Son" our guest is writer, philologist and James Baldwin biographer David Leeming.
In the biograph...
In Michigan, Arab Americans Weigh the Power of a Vote
This presidential election is likely to be a squeaker, decided by a handful of votes in some key swing states. In this episode from our friends at the...
Live From Atlanta: GA Politics, a Growing Gender Gap and Scenes From Spelhouse Homecoming's Tailgate
With the 2024 presidential election right around the corner, all eyes are on the swing states. In this episode, host Kai Wright travels to Atlanta, th...
Author and Playwright Caryl Phillips on James Baldwin’s Friendship
In the sixth episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” writer Caryl Phillips shares the experience of getting to know James Baldwin beyond the pages of his...
How Important is College to a Successful Career?
There is a longstanding, widely held belief that the best chance at a better future is to go off to college – especially for people from marginalized...
Novelist Elif Shafak on James Baldwin’s Compassion
In the fifth episode of Notes on a Native Son, our guest is Turkish-British writer Elif Shafak. She has published 21 books, 13 of them novels — includ...
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Journey to the Supreme Court Has Been a ‘Lovely One’
Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson has always aspired to be a federal judge. In fact, the newest appointed associate justice of the United States Supreme Co...
Writer Darryl Pinckney on James Baldwin’s Love
In the fourth episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” our guest is the writer and essayist Darryl Pinckney. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The N...
‘Imperfect Allies’: Processing a Year of War Across Communities
A year ago, the world was shaken when Hamas militants entered Israel, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people and the kidnapping of hund...
Writer Siri Hustvedt on James Baldwin’s Complexity
In the third episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” host Razia Iqbal sits down with the celebrated writer of novels and essays, Siri Hustvedt. When Hustv...
Gen Z’s Political Priorities Feel Both Fresh and Familiar
Americans under 30 years old have been through a lot in their young lives. Perhaps living through and witnessing the volatile political moment that wa...
Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on James Baldwin’s Courage
Host Razia Iqbal sits down with the celebrated civil rights lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson, a man as dedicated to his chosen profession as James...
The Way Candidates Have Historically Approached the Latino Vote Won’t Fly in 2024
More than 36 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in the 2024 presidential election. Who they will support in November is still very much in play...
Ta-Nehisi Coates on James Baldwin's Words
In the debut episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” host Razia Iqbal sits down with essayist and novelist Ta-Nehisi Coates to discuss one of his favorite...
A Flood of Claims From Rikers Island Amplify the Pervasive Problem of Sexual Assault in Jails
Warning: This episode contains profane language and detailed descriptions of sexual assault allegations.
More than 20 women say a man who went b...
How Spanish Language Radio Became a Platform for Spreading Misinformation and Disinformation
Come November, an estimated 36 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in the U.S. presidential election. Across the nation, there are Spanish langua...
Presenting: ‘Notes on a Native Son,’ A Celebration of James Baldwin at 100
“Notes on a Native Son” is a new, limited audio series about how and why the writer James Baldwin continues to matter. We hear from people who turn to...
Kamala Harris’s Debate Style Was a Master Class in Rhetoric for the Trump Era
Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and columnist for The Nation, joins host Kai Wright “On the Call” to break down how Vice President Kamala Harris us...
Why Climate Change Isn’t a Top Ticket Issue in 2024
The election is less than two months away and neither candidate has laid out specific terms or plans for environmental policies if they were to win th...
What the Next U.S. President Must Face in Gaza
The Biden administration says it’s putting forward its best and final proposal to Israel for a ceasefire deal that would pause the violence in Gaza an...
The Gifts of Mortality and Movement, According To Dance Legend Bill T. Jones
Dancers and romantic partners Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane stood out in the modern dance movement of the 1970s and 1980s as they explored a new vocabu...
The Next Insurrection Could Be Led By Extremists in the U.S. Military. Are We Ready?
In 2021, a trio of retired U.S. military generals co-authored an opinion piece in the Washington Post. It warned that what happened on January 6, 2021...
Everything Is Too Damn High: Facts vs Feelings on Harris and Trump's Economic Plans
The 2024 Democratic National Convention was a spectacle filled with rhetoric around the middle class and the goal of creating an “opportunity economy....
Who’s Winning the Swing States? Let’s Check the Polls.
Everything about the dynamic of the 2024 election changed when Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris to take his place o...
How Greek Life and HBCUs shaped Kamala Harris and a Generation of Black Students
The Vice President came of age inside collegiate institutions that have shaped Black, middle-class culture for generations. She says they imprinted de...
Gaza Is Kamala Harris’s Moral Challenge, and Also Her Opportunity
Slate staff writer Aymann Ismail gets “On the Call” with host Kai Wright to share his reporting on the “uncommitted” Democrats pushing Kamala Harris f...