Notes from America with Kai Wright

Perhaps you’ve noticed: the news is newsing in overdrive lately. Notes from America is meeting the moment with an extra podcast drop on Thursdays starting today. Welcome to On the Call, a pop-up podcast series of conversations about politics, voters and democracy right now.

While most of America was still processing the news that President Joe Biden would not seek re-election, Black women across the nation were receiving notifications to join a Zoom call in support of the person Biden endorsed to replace him as the Democratic nominee: Vice President Kamala Harris. In the end, an estimated 44,000 people joined that virtual meeting, which managed to raise more than $1 million dollars in a matter of hours. One person on that call was CNN national politics correspondent Eva McKend, who says at times it was more like a prayer circle than a political event. In this episode, she joins host Kai Wright from the campaign trail to reflect on the meeting, what’s happened since with organized efforts in support of Harris, and what these investments of energy in a new contender mean for the 2024 election.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

“The call was coming from inside the house,” says Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer about the pressure campaign Democrats applied to President Joe Biden in the weeks since his debate against Republican contender Donald Trump. Biden’s fitness for another four-year term had been called into question, and although he seemed determined to stay in the race, his late-July announcement that he’d suspend his re-election campaign came with little surprise. That decision also came with an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the new Democratic nominee, which prompted anxiety from Biden devotees, excitement for some Democrats who hoped for a (younger) infusion of energy into this campaign, and vicious attacks from the right. 

In this episode, host Kai Wright is joined by Greer, who is also host of The Blackest Questions podcast, and by Joan Walsh, national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine, to discuss Biden’s choice and electability politics as they relate to a likely new Democratic ticket with Kamala Harris at the top. They also hear from Americans around the country as they process the new dynamics of a volatile campaign year.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Federal investigators are charged with uncovering how a 20-year-old man was able to use an automatic rifle from a rooftop just outside of a campaign rally for Donald Trump to open fire, killing one attendee and injuring others, including the former president. The horrific images from the rally flooded social media timelines, followed by conspiracy theories, misinformation and more concerning narratives that demonstrate how trust in politicians and media alike has eroded.

In this episode, host Kai Wright unpacks the violence and the fallout with a panel of expert guests. Joining him are:

• Juliette Kayyem, professor of national security at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, CNN senior national security analyst, former United States Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, and author of “The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters.”
• David Gilbert, reporter for WIRED who covers disinformation and online extremism.
• Jacob Ware, research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies domestic and international terrorism and counterterrorism.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

WNYC, the most listened-to public radio station in America and the production home of this podcast, turns 100 years old this year. Its audio archives are full of gems from history — including voices, interviews and performances from some of the most well-known Black Americans of the 20th century.

In this episode, host Kai Wright digs through some of the audio and discovers moments that illuminate the Black experience through the words of legends like Josephine Baker, Malcolm X, Dick Gregory and Shirley Chisholm. He’s joined by Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University and the host of the podcast The Blackest Questions. Together, they listen through time and discuss a shared goal of these influential figures: making the promise of America work for them.

Special thanks to the WNYC Archives, The Municipal Archives and to archivist Andy Lanset for preserving and cataloging the historical audio contained in this episode. To learn more about WNYC’s centennial anniversary, click here.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

When President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump shared the stage for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season, it was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Namely, it displayed a concern of many Americans: Biden’s age and acuity. We watched two men, both in the late years of their lives, both of whom have already spent decades as rich and powerful people, both of whom have already been president, and neither of whom can conceive of a future in which they aren’t in charge. Many in the Democratic Party were left angry and terrified, and the event prompted an op-ed from The New York Times’ Editorial Board calling for Biden to remove himself from the race.

In this episode, host Kai Wright is joined by New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen to talk about the calls for Biden’s removal and her own suggestion that Vice President Kamala Harris step in instead. They also sit down with Christopher Ojeda, a political scientist at the University of California, Merced, and author of the forthcoming book “The Sad Citizen,” to hear about his research on how politics impacts our mental health and what that in turn means for elections. Plus, we hear why some of you are starting to feel anxious, depressed, and angry about the upcoming presidential election.

Companion listening for this episode:

Voter Vibe Check: Anti-Trump Conservatives On Republican Party Politics in 2024  (2/5/2024)

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Minority rule – by which a few get to decide the outcomes for many – is eroding American democracy at nearly every level, according to veteran journalist Ari Berman, author of Minority Rule: the Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It. 

In this episode, host Kai Wright talks to Berman about how the U.S. has been in a push-and-pull between oligarchy and democracy since 1787 when the Founding Fathers put systems in place, like the Senate and the Electoral College, to prevent the will of the people from having too much influence in national government. Berman explains how these systems have laid the foundation for modern day partisanship, making the future of America’s democracy seem increasingly shaky as right-wing political leaders engage with authoritarian ideals, and as the will of the people is curtailed by the wants, fears and needs of white, wealthy Americans.

Berman is the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones and a reporting fellow at Type Media Center. His previous books include Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America and Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The promise of American democracy could not be fulfilled until all Americans were free.

Following the moment of Black liberation marked by Juneteenth, Black Americans began the ongoing project of securing and protecting their rights to vote, and to lead. In this special Juneteenth episode, host Kai Wright traces the lineage of our democracy being actualized to the period after Emancipation, when political leadership like that of late Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan emerged and began to shape the potential and the power of the Black vote on our nation.

Recorded live at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church where Jordan was a member, Kai welcomes Rev. Ronald Bell, the church's senior director of membership, and scholar Mary Ellen Curtin, author of the forthcoming biography "She Changed The Nation: Barbara Jordan's Life and Legacy in Black Politics," to reflect on the first Black person elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Black woman from the South to serve in Congress. They're also joined by  Sonny Messiah-Jiles, CEO and Publisher of Houston's Defender Media Group, a Black community news organization, to discuss how Black voters continue to shape politics in an election year that's crucial to the sustainability of our democracy.

Special thanks to event partner AHF through its We The People Coalition, marching forward to protect democracy. Thanks also to Houston Public Media, Rice University and the community of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church including Pastor D.Z. Cofield, Linda Whitley, Mark Taylor, David Donaldson, Daniel Williams, Ian Chestnut and Travis Rucker.

Companion listening for this episode: "Juneteenth is an Act of Bravery" (6/19/2023)

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Back in April, some of our listeners told us they were “Trump curious.” A few months later, the former president is now a convicted criminal and other listeners have lingering questions.

The Notes from America inbox is always teeming with interesting takes from our audience and in this episode, host Kai Wright is joined by producer Regina de Heer to go through the various messages the show has received in recent months. They include notes about this year’s presidential election, one listener’s chance interaction with a performance of “The Wiz” in a historic town, and a touching response to our request for your stories about summer. 

By the way, it’s not too late to send in your summer stories! Do you have a summer tradition that you will be breaking this year, for whatever reason? Will you make an intentional change to your seasonal routine, whether big or small? If so, we want to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 844-745-8255 with your name, location and the story of what you’re doing differently. Or you can record a voice memo on your device and email it to us at [email protected]. Regina just may reach back out to you for a more detailed version of your shifting summer experience.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Ten years after its original staging, “Appropriate” has received eight Tony Award nominations. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins talks about the moments of his life that inspired it.

The play tells the story of three siblings reuniting in their family home after the death of their father. Charged with going through his belongings, the children discover troubling relics within the home. They are left to deal with the question of an inheritance, but also this new challenge to their late father’s legacy.

Jacobs-Jenkins has since staged “Appropriate” several times, been a Pulitzer Prize finalist for two subsequent plays, and been awarded a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. But it wasn’t until December 2023 that the playwright made his Broadway debut with “Appropriate,” which is now up for eight Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for actress Sarah Paulson.

Host Kai Wright sits with Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins to discuss the real-life moments that inspired the creation of this show, and the playwright’s efforts to understand the complicated inheritances of race in America.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Notes from America producer Suzanne Gaber returns to the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, for an update on Hisham Awartani, a 21-year-old student of Palestinian descent, who was paralyzed after being shot during a holiday break in Vermont in 2023. As Awartani continues to work on his physical recovery and navigating life in a wheelchair, he has also assumed a high profile role on campus in the student-led movement to urge Brown to divest from companies doing business in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Companion listening for this episode: 

A Palestinian American Victim of American Gun Violence Becomes a Reluctant Poster Child (2/19/2024)

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at [email protected]. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.