Notes from America with Kai Wright

Once again, race has become a central issue in a presidential campaign. But this time, it's not all about people of color. It's also about white Americans, and what their place is in 21st century America.

This week, WNYC Studios and The Nation examine the history of what it means and has meant to be white in the United States of America.

WNYC’s Jim O’Grady accompanies journalist Chris Arnade to Long Island. What they find is that as the economy has transitioned away from manual labor, it's struck at the very heart of the way many working-class Americans define masculinity, and, in turn, themselves.

Plus, The Nation’s Kai Wright explores this notion with a group of Italian Americans who document their families' journey from immigrant scapegoats to full-fledged "whiteness."

Episode Contributors:

Kai Wright

Jim O'Grady

Karen Frillmann

Joseph Capriglione

About the show:

In a Presidential election cycle big on negativity and short on discussion of issues, anxiety is proving to be a dominant theme -- over the economy, national security, and indeed, what it means to be an American in the 21st century. This podcast brings the voices of people trying to hold on to their piece of the American Dream and others who are looking to build one. The United States of Anxiety gives you an wide-open window into the polarizing economic, social and political ideas that have people on the edge of their seats during this unprecedented election cycle.

The United States of Anxiety is hosted by Kai Wright and produced by WNYC Studios & The Nation. 

Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXpListen to more shows from The Nation: http://apple.co/1V85l3I

WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics, Radiolab, Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin and many more.

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.

So how did we get to this point? Where a nominee for a major party has been heard bragging about assaulting women. The United States of Anxiety has been listening carefully to Trump supporters in an effort to understand this election season.

This week, WNYC Studios and The Nation turn once again to Patty Dwyer. We then go down the rabbit hole with WNYC reporter Matt Katz and take a look at the media landscape that helped create this moment.

Finally, we visit with another Long Island resident, Joselo Lucero. Just after Election Day in 2008, Joselo’s brother, Marcelo Lucero was murdered during the course of a hate crime.

Though separated by years, these two events—the rise of Donald Trump and the murder of Marcelo Lucero—may have arisen from a single reality: individuals listening to inflammatory language.

Episode Contributors:

Kai Wright

Arun Venugopal

Matt Katz

Julianne Hing

Karen Frillman

Joseph Capriglione

In a Presidential election cycle big on negativity and short on discussion of issues, anxiety is proving to be a dominant theme -- over the economy, national security, and indeed, what it means to be an American in the 21st century. This podcast brings the voices of people trying to hold on to their piece of the American Dream and others who are looking to build one. The United States of Anxiety gives you an wide-open window into the polarizing economic, social and political ideas that have people on the edge of their seats during this unprecedented election cycle.

The United States of Anxiety is hosted by Kai Wright and produced by WNYC Studios & The Nation. 

Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXpListen to more shows from The Nation: http://apple.co/1V85l3I

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.

Tom McCarthy, a retired NYPD detective and lifelong Long Island resident, has spent much of his adult life straddling two very different worlds. Each day he would leave the calm of his suburban community to patrol the notorious Queensbridge housing projects. This was in 1989, at the height of the crack epidemic, and what Tom saw in New York's public housing felt worlds away from his suburban Eden.

But now, the line that once separated Tom’s home from his work feels like it's dissipating. It's exemplified by leafy Suffolk County leading all of New York state in heroin overdose deaths last year.

What's brought about this change in the suburbs? For many, the problems seem to stem not from within, but from the outside, coming over our southern border. Donald Trump has repeatedly bemoaned the crime and drugs that he says Mexican immigrants who are here illegally are bringing into the United States. He has said he'll deport this population and send them to "the back of the line."

But of all the controversial things the Republican nominee has said, sending immigrants here illegally to the back of the line is actually quite mainstream. In fact, it's been advocated by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The idea projects order, fairness and a sense of fairness. There's only one problem, according to Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist who helped to workshop "the back of the line" phrase in the early-2000's: the line doesn't exist, leaving the country's immigration process a hopeless hall of mirrors for people trying to do the right thing and enter the country legally.

Episode Contributors:

Arun Venugopal

Julianne Hing

About the show:

In a Presidential election cycle big on negativity and short on discussion of issues, anxiety is proving to be a dominant theme -- over the economy, national security, and indeed, what it means to be an American in the 21st century. This podcast brings the voices of people trying to hold on to their piece of the American Dream and others who are looking to build one. The United States of Anxiety gives you an wide-open window into the polarizing economic, social and political ideas that have people on the edge of their seats during this unprecedented election cycle.

The United States of Anxiety is hosted by Kai Wright and produced by WNYC Studios & The Nation. 

Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXpListen to more shows from The Nation: http://apple.co/1V85l3I

WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics, Radiolab, Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin and many more.

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 idea of an idyllic 'suburbia' has been a touchstone along the cultural landscape of America for over 70 years. From Norman Rockwell's 1943 Freedom from Want to the printed pages of Martha Stewart's Living, the trimmed hedges, white picket fences and—most importantly—families who live behind them, have become the consummate symbol encapsulating the American Dream.

For Patty Dwyer's mother — Mrs. Johnson — Long Island was the American Dream and she's called the village of Patchogue on the Island's South Shore home for nearly 50 years. In fact, Long Island had always been a refuge for her, after spending summers at her uncle’s house in Farmingville throughout her youth. So when a mysterious figure appeared outside her doorway in Jamaica, Queens in 1958, Mrs. Johnson left the city for the 'burbs.

Suburbia was a Garden of Eden for people like Mrs. Johnson. Apolitical for much of her life, she does not fully recall her voting record but experiences genuine pain towards the racial divisions she sees in America, including the death of Eric Garner. Yet, she also believes that Trump’s projection of strength, and prioritization of American citizens is the best antidote to her view of a faltering nation. 

Plus, WNYC Studios and The Nation speak with University of Boulder’s Kwame Holmes to decipher the so-called “White Flight” movement that brought millions of Americans out of cities and into the suburbs. Following World War II, a massive housing shortage found itself intermingling with growing white anxiety spurred from the 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education; a combination that would initiate one of the most significant alterations to American society and how Americans live. Following World War II, the suburbs offered three key attractions for the residents moving to them in droves.

According to Lawrence Levy of Hofstra University: they were safe; they were secure; and, they were segregated.

Episode Contributor:

Arun Venugopal

About the show:

In a Presidential election cycle big on negativity and short on discussion of issues, anxiety is proving to be a dominant theme -- over the economy, national security, and indeed, what it means to be an American in the 21st century. This podcast brings the voices of people trying to hold on to their piece of the American Dream and others who are looking to build one. The United States of Anxiety gives you an wide-open window into the polarizing economic, social and political ideas that have people on the edge of their seats during this unprecedented election cycle.

The United States of Anxiety is hosted by Kai Wright and produced by WNYC Studios & The Nation. 

Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXpListen to more shows from The Nation: http://apple.co/1V85l3I

WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics, Radiolab, Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin and many more. 

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.

For many voters, this election is not simply about deciding the next President of the United States, or even setting the landscape of national politics. Instead, it serves as a referendum on what it means to be innately American.

Join WNYC Studios and The Nation as we travel to East Long Island to embark on a new journey beyond the constant churn of daily headlines. There we will begin the journey documenting not only what Americans are thinking, but what events transpired that brought them to their current state of mind.

First we meet Patty, a one-time Obama supporter who now can be found protesting on highway overpasses, and skeptical of the president for whom she once voted. Patty had high hopes for the Obama Presidency; she thought he could heal a nation still grappling with its racial history. Instead, she says he's only made those divisions worse. Patty's dealt with her own hardships over the past decade as well: She was forced to sell her dream home after a divorce, her son battled addiction to prescription drugs, and she had her hours cut at her job. In short, Patty thinks the country is changing, and not for the better, and she thinks that Donald Drumpf is uniquely qualified to turn the tide.

In time, we turn our attention to Leni, a woman attempting to keep her family from unraveling, as her fiancé fights deportation.

About the show:

In a Presidential election cycle big on negativity and short on discussion of issues, anxiety is proving to be a dominant theme -- over the economy, national security, and indeed, what it means to be an American in the 21st century. This podcast brings the voices of people trying to hold on to their piece of the American Dream and others who are looking to build one. The United States of Anxiety gives you an wide-open window into the polarizing economic, social and political ideas that have people on the edge of their seats during this unprecedented election cycle.

The United States of Anxiety is hosted by Kai Wright and produced by WNYC Studios & The Nation. 

Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXpListen to more shows from The Nation: http://apple.co/1V85l3I

WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics, Radiolab, Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin and many more. 

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.

About the show:

In a Presidential election cycle big on negativity and short on discussion of issues, anxiety is proving to be a dominant theme -- over the economy, national security, and indeed, what it means to be an American in the 21st century. This podcast brings the voices of people trying to hold on to their piece of the American Dream and others who are looking to build one. The United States of Anxiety gives you an wide-open window into the polarizing economic, social and political ideas that have people on the edge of their seats during this unprecedented election cycle.

The United States of Anxiety is hosted by Kai Wright and produced by WNYC Studios & The Nation. 

Listen to more shows from WNYC Studios: http://wny.cc/yzc4304odXpListen to more shows from The Nation: http://apple.co/1V85l3I

WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics, Radiolab, Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin and many more. 

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.