Notes from America with Kai WrightNotes from America with Kai Wright is a show about the unfinished business of our history, and its grip on our future.
Our friends at More Perfect dove into Clarence Thomas's past to make sense of his ideology today. You'll hear from: Juan Williams — Senior Political Analyst at Fox NewsCorey Robin — Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate CenterAngela Onwuachi-Willig — Dean of Boston University School of LawStephen F. Smith — Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School The More Perfect team inspired us to do our own deep-dive: Unearthing Thomas's ideological roots, and what they mean for the Court's looming opinions. Pair this episode with our last drop, "Clarence Thomas and his Hotep Supreme Court." Tell us what you think. Instagram and Twitter: @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel.
The Supreme Court's most senior member writes opinions that have an outsized impact on U.S. law. Our listeners call in to understand what really shapes Justice Thomas, and what we should expect from SCOTUS as the 2023 term comes to an end. Plus, - Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent for The Nation and Supreme Court scholar. - Corey Robin, Author of The Enigma of Clarence Thomas. For more, check out our colleagues at More Perfect, the show about "how the Supreme Court got so Supreme." The first episode of their newest season, "Clarence X," dives into the history of Justice Thomas. It also features Corey Robin. Click here to listen or find them on Twitter @MorePerfect. Tell us what you think. Instagram and Twitter: @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel.
Jordan Neely's death raised deep, fundamental questions about our society; about what kind of people we are, and why? Our colleagues at The Brian Lehrer Show talked with Eli Mystal from the Nation to confront these questions. Last week, our show talked about homelessness. "Homelessness Hides in Plain Sight. So Does Its Fix." is available in your feed. We recommend listening alongside this episode. Tell us what you think. Instagram and Twitter: @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel.
Homelessness Hides in Plain Sight. So Does Its Fix.
One in every 14 Americans experiences homelessness at some point. Our listeners who know about it firsthand talk to us. Plus, - Michael Kimmleman, architecture critic for The New York Times. His article, "How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own," was published in his Headways column of the Times, from June 14, 2022. - Ana Rausch, Vice President of Operations for Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County Tell us what you think. Instagram and Twitter: @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel.
Homelessness Hides in Plain Sight. So Does Its Fix.
Before she was the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo's journey as an artist began at a federal Indian boarding school. She reveals an unexpected perspective about her experience. Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022. Her new children's book, Remember (Penguin Random House, 2023), is an adaption of her famous poem by the same name. That poem was one of the first Joy ever wrote, almost 40 years ago. Today, her book invites readers to pause and reflect on the wonder of the world around us, and our place in it. Joy joins host Kai Wright to discuss the poem and reflect on her own career and inspirations. Those inspirations include her fellow students at the Institute of American Indian Arts, a Bureau of Indian Affairs School. Her honesty reveals an unexpected perspective to the nuanced conversation about a difficult history. Companion listening for this episode: Tell Me Your Politics–But Do It In Verse (4/17/2023) In a world that feels divided, two storytellers invite people to share what shapes their politics through poetry, using the prompt "Where I'm From." "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
From 1819 and 1969, the U.S. removed thousands of Native children from their homes and tried to strip them of their culture. What would a reparations program for this history look like? The U.S. Department of the Interior has begun finally wrestling with the history of the Indian boarding school program. In 2021, the department's head, Secretary Deb Haaland, launched the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to not only document the history, but to understand its ongoing impact. Last year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs published the first volume of their findings from the initiative, which found that the U.S. operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states and highlighted the dire conditions many children faced in these schools. The report also called for a reorientation of federal policy to support tribal languages and culture, to counteract the harm caused by the federal Indian boarding school system.? Allison Herrera, the Indigenous affairs reporter at KOSU, has been covering Secretary Haaland's listening sessions and has spoken with many of the survivors. She joins Kai Wright to share these emotional testimonies and hear from Native listeners. If you are a survivor or related to someone who went through the federal Indian boarding school program, you can find resources for healing and self care through the National Native American Boarding Healing Coalition. If you want to hear from more survivors about their experiences you can listen to: Stolen: Surviving Saint MichaelsInvestigative journalist Connie Walker unearths Canada's residential school program and what the path to healing looked like for survivors, including her father. She also examines the flaws in the way the Canadian government has attempted to reconcile with its role in the program through reparations. IllumiNative: American Genocide: Series hosts Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) and Lashay Wesley (Choctaw) hit the ground in Pine Ridge, South Dakota to chronicle the actively-developing situation for themselves, covering every twist and turn in this true crime story about the compounding intergenerational pain of Native American boarding schools and whether it's possible for a community, Native peoples, and the United States to achieve truth, healing, and reconciliation. In Trust: "In Trust" By Rachel Adams-Heard is the story of the Osage Nation and a system that moved wealth from Native hands to White ones. One that three brothers learned to operate, laying the foundation for a modern American dynasty of land and influence that continues to this day. They Called it Prairie Light Established in 1884 and operative for nearly a century, the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma was one of a series of off-reservation boarding schools intended to assimilate American Indian children into mainstream American life. Critics have characterized the schools as destroyers of Indian communities and cultures, but the reality that K. Tsianina Lomawaima discloses was much more complex. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
Money Shame, and How To Overcome It Through Financial Literacy
The world of finance can be confusing for people who weren't born into it – more often, that's people of color. Berna Anat is a "Financial Hype Woman" on a mission to fix that. The freelance writer-turned-financial education content creator is deeply skeptical of capitalism and dedicated to empowering first-generation Americans and people of color to thrive in the system. Anat shares the lessons she's learned in her book, "Money Out Loud: All the Financial Stuff No One Taught Us." It investigates our relationship with money, debt, and a new way forward. Amid the world's ongoing economic anxiety, host Kai Wright turns to Anat for a money talk. Together, they invite listeners to share their money stories. Companion listening for this episode: How Black People Remade Mississippi (2/16/2023) Who are the rightful owners of this country's staggering wealth? Down in the Mississippi Delta, the Lester Family made a space for themselves and claimed their land–and they didn't need "40 Acres and a mule" to do it. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
Money Shame, and How To Overcome It Through Financial Literacy
How Assata Shakur Became One of America's Most Wanted
A deadly encounter fifty years ago between the New Jersey State Police and a group of Black activists turned Assata Shakur into a cultural icon – and an enduring political villain. In May 1973, activist Assata Shakur and two members of the Black Liberation Army were pulled over by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. Tragically, guns were fired, people were killed, and in the aftermath, a political standoff between Shakur and state law enforcement began. On the fiftieth anniversary marking the incident, WNYC reporters Nancy Solomon and Tracie Hunte share their reporting with host Kai Wright. They explore the many unanswered questions it raises and what this moment means in the history of Black self-defense movements. Companion listening for this episode: The Week That Changed America's Cities (4/13/2023) On the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, one journalist examines the 1968 Holy Week which he calls one of the most consequential weeks in U.S. history. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
How Assata Shakur Became One of America's Most Wanted
Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, and the Future of Fox News
The state of Fox News today is thanks to Rupert Murdoch. A look inside the Murdoch media empire shows how media outlets can turn into right-wing political influence machines. Famed Fox News host Tucker Carlson got fired. The story is still unfolding, but initial reports claim that the decision came straight from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch after vulgar language and messages were attributed to Carlson. In a recent episode, our colleagues at On The Media took a moment to consider Murdoch's history and his impact on our present culture. On The Media host, Brooke Gladstone speaks with Jim Rutenberg, writer-at-large for the New York Times and its Sunday magazine, about the Fox News Dominion lawsuit settlement and what's next for the company. You can listen to more episodes of On The Media here. Companion listening for this episode: Of Tech Moguls and Gold Miners: A Capitalist History (4/3/2023) In Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, one writer sees a model for amassing obscene wealth, pioneered in 19th century California, finally nearing its limits. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, and the Future of Fox News
A history of anti-Black fear has left everyone unsafe in a nation full of anxious gun owners. There are more guns than there are people in the U.S., and a lot of people seem to be afraid. According to historian and Emory University African American studies professor Carol Anderson, our nation's history with guns is directly related to its legacy of anti-Black racism. She explains this history in her 2021 book, "The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America." Anderson joins host Kai Wright to discuss the state of gun violence today and the role that race and fear have played. They hear from both pro and anti-gun listeners about fear and choice as they respond to gun violence in this country. Then, producer Rahima Nasa returns to reflect on her Ramadan celebration. She joins Kai to open our listener mailbag and hear voicemails responding to our recent episodes. Companion listening for this episode: Grieving Loss From Gun Violence (4/6/2023) Two mothers lost their daughters to gun violence but received disparate levels of attention. Now, they're using their stories – and their grief – to inspire others. "Notes from America" airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC's YouTube channel. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter @noteswithkai or email us at notes@wnyc.org.
