x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

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.

news news commentary

All Episodes

49:16

Voter Vibe Check: Anti-Trump Conservatives On...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/02/05

With the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries behind us, the 2024 election cycle is well underway. Donald J. Trump isn’t the 2024 Republican presidential candidate yet, but his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire suggest that it will be smooth sailing to the GOP nomination for the former president once again — notwithstanding his several impending criminal cases and tons of political baggage. In this, the first of a series of conversations leading up to the 2024 presidential election,

en-us

35:54

Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 1: Mourning In...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/02/02

Valerie Reyes-Jimenez called it “The Monster.” That’s how some people described HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. Valerie thinks as many as 75 people from her block on New York City’s Lower East Side died. They were succumbing to an illness that was not recognized as the same virus that was killing young, white, gay men just across town in the West Village. At the same time, in Washington, D.C., Gil Gerald, a Black LGBTQ+ activist, saw his own friends and colleagues begin to disappear, dying out of sight

en-us

49:56

What A Segregated Mental Asylum Can Tell Us About...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/01/29

If you were Black with mental illness in the early 1900s, you couldn’t seek help just anywhere. You’d have to go to a segregated asylum like Maryland’s Crownsville Hospital, formerly known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane. The facility opened in 1911 when 12 men were brought into the woods outside of Baltimore and told to start working. They were tasked with creating one of the first asylums for Black Americans with mental illnesses, and they would soon become its first patients. Kai speaks

en-us

5:07

Kai Wright Hosts Blindspot: The Plague In The Shadows

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/01/26

The latest season of the Blindspot podcast brings listeners voices of people who were affected in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when so little was known about HIV, and so much was misunderstood. It’s also hosted by a familiar voice — Kai Wright, who has covered the impact of HIV and AIDS in communities of color throughout his career as a journalist. Season three of the show, a co-production of The HISTORY Channel and WNYC Studios, is called “The Plague In The Shadows” and Kai introduces us

en-us

49:36

Doom. Denial. ‘Hopium.’ What About Climate Action?

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/01/22

The hottest year on record was 2023, but we're already on track to make the same claim at the end of this calendar year. As the world warms and reports of historic flooding, wildfires, tornadoes and droughts continue to permeate the news, it's easy to feel burdened with anxiety about the future of our planet. But there are moments of hope to hold on to. Are they enough to shift to an optimistic outlook about climate change? And how much does hope matter to designing solutions? Kai talks with Rikki

en-us

50:50

Reclaiming Woke: Celebrating The Legacy Of Martin...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/01/15

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final Sunday sermon was titled, “Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution.” In other words, he was advising us to stay woke. Today, that term has become a political slur. “Woke” is at the very center of our culture wars – especially as we enter a contentious election year. But like a lot of slang words, woke has an origin story that’s got little to do with how it’s used now. Host Kai Wright is joined by Alvin Singh, great-great nephew Lead Belly and producer of the

en-us

49:21

What the Ozempic Craze Means for Our Personal Health

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/01/08

Interest in Ozempic as a way to lose weight has only been outmatched by demand for the drug, which has been in short supply as celebrities and social media influencers continue to popularize its use. The Type 2 diabetes treatment, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017, has become a catch-all term for a class of medications now used to treat obesity, including Wegovy, Zepbound and others. The efficacy of these drugs have some in the medical community pondering if we are on a

en-us

49:39

Raoul Peck Fights for Justice With His Movies

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2024/01/01

Raoul Peck became known as a filmmaker and vocal advocate for racial justice with the release of his 2016 Academy Award-nominated film “I Am Not Your Negro,” which attempts to complete James Baldwin's unfinished book about the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers. It was followed in 2021 by another documentary series, “Exterminate All the Brutes.” In his latest film, “Silver Dollar Road,” Peck completes his trilogy about the economic injustice Black people face worldwide

en-us

50:36

I Was A Child of Dread

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/12/25

In Safiya Sinclair’s new memoir, “How to Say Babylon: A Memoir,” 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. In this conversation from October 2023, she tells Kai the story of her childhood,

en-us

50:12

Why NYC’s Move to Privatize Public Housing Could...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/12/18

When Fanta Kaba was growing up, her family moved around a lot: Harlem, Queens, the Bronx, even North Carolina for a while. But when they moved into public housing, they finally found stability. Now, a controversial plan is changing the way public housing operates — and a lot of residents are scared about the future of their homes. On this week’s show, Fanta — a reporter for WNYC’s Radio Rookies — speaks with residents, organizers and officials as she tries to find out what this program means for

en-us

29:38

Remembering Rapper Prodigy As A Cure For Sickle Cell...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/12/13

The FDA’s approval of gene-editing therapy to effectively treat sickle cell disease has many people hopeful while also thinking about the many lives lost to the disease. One of the most high profile people in the entertainment world with sickle cell was hip-hop artist Prodigy, who died of related complications in 2017. Kai invites you to listen back to an episode of WYNC’s podcast “The Realness,” which documents the rapper's life and experiences in the music industry. As a kid with sickle cell

en-us

50:14

What the New Cure for Sickle Cell Disease Really Means

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/12/11

The Food and Drug Administration has approved gene therapy as a treatment for sickle cell disease, effectively making a cure available to many people affected by the genetic disease. Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders and is the most common form of an inherited blood disorder. In this episode, Kai is joined by Ashley Valentine of Sick Cells, which seeks to elevate the voices of the patient community to influence decision makers and empower people with the disease

en-us

50:22

Bias in A.I. and the Risks of Continued Development,...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/12/04

This week on Notes from America, host Kai Wright talks with Dr. Joy Buolamwini, a computer scientist who uses art and research to illuminate the social implications of artificial intelligence. The self-described “poet of code” warns that A.I. could write the biases of today’s world into algorithms and even regress the progress of U.S. civil rights in everything from medicine to loan applications and police surveillance. Kai and Dr. Buolamwini take calls about listener fears around A.I. and address

en-us

50:36

Out of hope? Maybe stop for a sandwich and a song.

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/11/27

Playwright Lynn Nottage says it’s in her nature to be optimistic. And if it’s true what they say that you can manifest good things by thinking positively, well, it’s worked out for her in myriad ways. Nottage is the first and only woman to have won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, and she’s one of today’s most produced playwrights. Her work, though, explores the experiences of Americans existing in the margins who have little reason to have hope. In this episode, she joins host Kai Wright to

en-us

50:56

How Boston’s Big Dig built our expectations of...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/11/20

Boston's Big Dig started as a vision for a large-scale highway tunnel system that became a cautionary tale about American infrastructure. Guest host Nancy Solomon speaks with Ian Coss, host of The Big Dig podcast from GBH and PRX, which dives into the history behind some of the most notable infrastructure projects in the Greater Boston area leading up to The Big Dig, which became “a symbol of waste and corruption.” Nancy and Ian talk through the notorious failures and unsung successes of the Big

en-us

50:31

Nikki Giovanni and Kimberly McGlonn on space travel,...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/11/13

Guest host Janae Pierre sits down with legendary poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, who is the subject of a new documentary, Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project. Giovanni reflects on the legacy of Black storytelling, gospel music, what she describes as original libraries, and why she’s working to get more Black women involved in space travel. Plus, we hear from Kai as he pays a visit to Kimberly McGlonn, an award-winning social entrepreneur. The founder of Grant Blvd & Blk Ivy Thrift,

en-us

51:26

Black Lives Matter, 10 years later

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/11/06

It’s been 10 years since the Black Lives Matter was founded in response to the acquittal of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Kai Wright speaks with organizer Chelsea Miller about the impact the movement has had on a generation of young people. She makes the case for why we must keep telling the story of Black life and death in America and saying the names of those killed as a result of police violence. Plus, in partnership with New Yorker Radio Hour, Kai discusses the impact of

en-us

49:53

‘It’s Worse Than Ever’

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/10/30

The events of October 7th shook the world and greatly impacted different intersections of people. Arab Americans sit at a unique intersection. As an Arab American journalist, Notes From America producer Suzanne Gaber set out to find a place for her to process the complex emotions she’s been feeling since that day. She visits the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, NJ and speaks with the center’s executive director, Rania Mustafa, to hear how the center is prioritizing communal mental

en-us

27:05

Imminent Danger Ep 3: One Doctor and a Trail of...

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/10/26

Imminent Danger, a new series from NYC NOW, looks into the role state medical boards had in how one doctor was allowed to keep practicing despite consistently bad outcomes. Marquita Baird has kept a bootbox full of medical records on a shelf in her home in Shawnee, Oklahoma for over two decades in the hope that, someday, someone would ask about what happened after an OB-GYN named Thomas J. Byrne performed a hysterectomy on her in 1999. Shawnee was one of several areas where Byrne would practice in

en-us

49:32

Can Osage Citizens Revive Fairfax?

Notes from America with Kai Wright ·

2023/10/23

Killers of the Flower Moon, a new film directed by Martin Scorcese based on the bestselling book of the same name, tells the story of how greed and profound injustice took the lives of so many Osage. The film has helped people like Damon Waters, an Osage filmmaker and actor, reconnect with his roots and imagine a different future for Fairfax, Okla., where the film takes place. Damon joins us to discuss the impact the film had on him and his upcoming documentary about the restoration of Tall Chief

en-us

422 results

Similar Podcasts

Expres Ráno

Expres FM

PBS News Hour - Full Show

PBS NewsHour

CD Voice

China Daily

Israel Today: Ongoing War Report

Noa Levi

Jeffrey Epstein: The Coverup Chronicles

Bobby Capucci