Notes from America with Kai Wright

Two Black physicians describe the racist history the medical world carries into the COVID-19 vaccine rollout -- and answer listeners’ questions about why we should still get vaccinated. 

A recent Pew Research Center survey, among others, revealed that Black Americans are by far the most likely to know someone who’s been hospitalized or killed by COVID-19. It also found Black people are most reluctant to trust the vaccine. 

When Dr. Brittani M. James “rage Tweeted” that she totally gets why her patients are skeptical of the medical system, her thread went viral. She joins Kai to offer insights on the apprehension that many Black Americans are feeling, through the lens of her own experience as a practitioner and a patient.

And Dr. Oni Blackstock, who has served on the frontlines of both COVID-19 and HIV interventions in New York City, responds to callers’ questions about the coming vaccine. What’s in it? How’d it get done so fast? And why should we trust pharmaceutical companies? She’s got answers.

Companion listening for this episode: “Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People” (April 24, 2020) and “Keep Calm and Check Your Bias” (March 26, 2020)

“The United States of Anxiety” 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 WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

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 HIV epidemic is nearly 40 years old. So what can we learn from that pandemic, as we approach a year of living with COVID-19?

When COVID-19 overwhelmed New York City this spring, our executive producer Karen Frillmann was reminded of life in this city in the 1980s. She reached back into the far corners of a closet in her apartment, and dug out a recording that she made decades ago. In this episode, Karen shares parts of that intimate conversation, as an act of remembrance.

Also, Kai talks with epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves, who helped start ACT UP more than 30 years ago, about how his decades of AIDS activism color his view of the fight against COVID-19. Gregg is now co-director of the Global Health Justice Project at Yale University, and writes about COVID-19 for The Nation.

Companion listening for this episode: “Rage, Grief, Joy” (June 18, 2020) and “Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People” (April 24, 2020)

“The United States of Anxiety” 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 WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

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.

A family’s legend about "40 acres and a mule” takes host Kai Wright on a fact checking mission to the Mississippi Delta. He finds an unexpected solution to wealth inequality in the U.S.

We first told the Lester family’s story in February, when we began exploring the unfinished business of Reconstruction. Now, as the country transitions out of the chaos of the Trump administration, we revisit the story and reflect on the effort to bring about economic justice in the Biden era. 

Elbert Lester has lived his full 94 years in Quitman County, Mississippi, on land he and his family own. That’s exceptional for Black people in this area today, but at one time, Black farmers owned the majority of this land. What happened to change that? Kai’s reporting leads him to a question still at the core of our national political debate: Who are the rightful owners of this country’s staggering wealth? 

Plus, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, a labor economist and the former president of Bennett College, talks about the legacy of anti-Black terrorism in the U.S. and reparations.

Companion listening from our archives: 

“Who Owns the Deed to the American Dream”“A Secret Meeting in South Bend”

“The United States of Anxiety” 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 WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

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.

“Reverse racism” has haunted the fight for job equity for generations. How’d this bizarre idea become such a bugbear? One Supreme Court case, 50 years ago helps explain. 

This week, our reporter Marianne McCune tells the story of that case -- and its aftermath -- to help explain why the American workplace is still so segregated. It’s the story of an affirmative action program at an aluminum plant on the banks of the Mississippi River. Marianne introduces us to a Black family that finally found economic opportunity through the plant’s affirmative action program -- and to a white man who argued that the program violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. The outcome will surprise you. 

Companion listening from our archives: Two Schools In Marin County (02/06/2020) and A Secret Meeting in South Bend (02/27/2020)

“The United States of Anxiety” 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 WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

White supremacist myths turn defeated leaders into heroic victors. Will Donald Trump now get the same transfiguration as Robert E. Lee?

If history is our guide -- as it often is on this show -- then there’s reason to worry about the answer to that question. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. David Blight (Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and the author of "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom") joins Kai to tell the story of the Confederacy’s Lost Cause mythology -- how it was created, why it still matters today, and how similar it may feel to the new Lost Cause of Donald Trump.

Plus, we open our pre-election time capsule of your wildest dreams. Before the election, we asked you to imagine a future for the country, your communities, and yourselves. In this episode, we share some of the dreams you sent us -- including a dream of cross-species telepathy! Really, though. 

Companion listening from our archives:

An Invitation to Dream (11/02/2020)

 https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/invitation-dream

A Historian’s Guide to the 2020 Election (09/28/2020)

 https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/historians-guide-2020-electionThe Life and Work of Ida B. Wells (05/08/2020) https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/life-and-work-ida-b-wells

“The United States of Anxiety” 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 WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

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.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry joins Kai to discuss all of our complex feelings as Donald Trump’s presidency comes to an end.

More people voted in this presidential election than ever. But did it resolve anything? Are we any closer to being a truly multiracial democracy? And how do we feel about the United States and our place in it -- after all that has happened? Listeners call in to answer these questions for themselves, as Kai and Melissa Harris-Perry try to take stock.

Drs. Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren are the hosts of The Nation’s System Check, a new 10-episode podcast uncovering the harmful systems operating under the hood of US democracy.

The United States of Anxiety airs live every Sunday evening at 6 eastern time. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, stream the show on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC, each Sunday evening.

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.

Radical imagination is now essential. What can we imagine for our country, our communities, and ourselves beyond this election, and beyond this pandemic? In this episode, we face our fears and dream big. Help us make a time capsule of our imaginations. Record a voice memo with your wildest dreams about the future, and send it to [email protected]. 

Plus, Ashley C. Ford, writer and co-host of the HBO's Lovecraft Country Radio podcast, joins our producer Veralyn Williams for a discussion about American horror, power, race and so much more. Plus, we invite a few friends of the show back to imagine a future that lives up to the American Dream and the ideals of our democracy.

You can vote safely in-person across the country this Tuesday, November 3, 2020. To locate your designated polling place, visit vote.org or vote.nyc if you live in New York City.

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.

Trump, Inc. co-host Andrea Bernstein sits down with Kai Wright, to discuss how American history informs the 2020 election. The conversation, called "Who Matters in America 2020?," was part of Reporter's Notebook series at The Greene Space.

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.

Voting is a hallmark of our democracy, but it is not guaranteed for any American citizen. Visit WNYC/ Gothamist’s “2020 Voter Guide For New York And New Jersey” to make a plan and if you live outside of NY and NJ, visit vote.org for information about how you can safely vote this year.

This week, Senior editor Christopher Werth brings us a story about the not-so-secret legal crusade against the Voting Rights Act, led by law firms representing the Republican Party and the Trump campaign. And with Election season coming to an end, Historian Dr. Carol Anderson joins us for a conversation about how American voters, particularly Black Americans, had fought and continue to fight for their right to participate in the democratic process - safely and with certainty that their votes will count.

Dr. Anderson is a Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of several books including “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide” (2016).

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.

With almost two weeks left until Election Day, Charlie Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, joins us for a conversation about Republican party politics over the last 50 years, the Trump effect, the dramatic fight for the Supreme Court and how we all may move forward in the days, months and years following November 3rd. Conservative listeners grappling with their political identity and choices, weigh in during the show.

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.