Notes from America with Kai Wright is a show about the unfinished business of our history, and its grip on our future.
Latest episodes
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53 min
Not Just Forgotten, but Erased From History: A Final Note from Notes from America
This is the last episode of Notes from America with Kai Wright.If you’ve been with the show through its multi-year history and iterations as a NYC-based narrative podcast and local…
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52 min
The Real Heartbeat of D.C. Isn’t Politics. It’s Go-Go Music.
The drumbeat of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area is not politics. It’s go-go music.The genre developed by Chuck Brown in 1976 features syncopated rhythms, a large ensemble…
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50 min
Dear Listener: A Celebration of Our Best Moments with You
Host Kai Wright celebrates the many years and iterations of Notes from America by revisiting some of the show’s most engaging listener moments.He’s joined by producer Regina de Hee…
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51 min
A Year After Being Shot in Vermont, Palestinian Student Hisham Awartani Sets His Sights on Home
College student Hisham Awartani, 21, was visiting family in Vermont over Thanksgiving break in 2023 when he and two of his friends were shot. All three victims are of Palestinian d…
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50 min
We Could End AIDS. So Why Are People Still Dying?
This episode was originally published March 1, 2024.Host Kai Wright started his career covering the impact of HIV and AIDS on communities in America. A new project brings that expe…
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30 min
Writer Ekow Eshun on James Baldwin’s History
Our guest on the final episode of “Notes on a Native Son” is British writer Ekow Eshun. He has been described as a cultural polymath. At a startlingly young age, 29, he became the…
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51 min
An America Without Police is Safer Than You Think
The public debate over policing has made more of us more familiar with ideas like defunding or abolishing the police, but these ideas are still often dismissed as infeasible. In th…
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36 min
Writer Hisham Matar on James Baldwin’s Patience
In the 10th episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” host Razia Iqbal sits down with writer and former architect Hisham Matar. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his profound and painful mem…
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37 min
Presenting This is Uncomfortable: Writer Hanif Abdurraqib on what it Means to “Make it”
This is Uncomfortable is a podcast from Marketplace. For their season premiere earlier in 2024, host Reema Khrais shared a conversation with one of our favorite writers, Hanif Abdu…
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49 min
It’s Trump’s Policy, But Both Parties Set the Stage for Mass Deportations
For nearly a decade, Donald Trump and his political allies have made it clear that one of their primary goals is mass deportation of undocumented people living in the U.S. After th…
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28 min
Nikki Giovanni on James Baldwin's Anger
As a young woman, poet and writer Nikki Giovanni could see that no one was interested in a Black girl writing what was seen as militant and revolutionary poetry. So she formed a co…
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50 min
A Majority of Voters Have Endorsed Cruelty. So Now What?
What do the results of the presidential election tell us about our country? We asked a veteran movement organizer to reflect on what feels like a rejection of her core values.To he…
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30 min
Author Colm Toibin on James Baldwin’s Interiority
Award-winning Irish writer Colm Toibin has long admired James Baldwin, ever since he read “Go Tell It on the Mountain" as a teenager, and has now written a book about him called si…
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50 min
The Real Reason Why the Lies and Violent Rhetoric Won’t Stop On Election Day
Former President Donald Trump has spent the last days of his 2024 campaign casting doubt on the U.S. election system, even taking the stage at a rally in Pennsylvania to say he “sh…
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41 min
Biographer David Leeming on James Baldwin’s Teaching
In the seventh episode of “Notes on a Native Son" our guest is writer, philologist and James Baldwin biographer David Leeming. In the biography, Leeming tells us that almost from t…
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43 min
In Michigan, Arab Americans Weigh the Power of a Vote
This presidential election is likely to be a squeaker, decided by a handful of votes in some key swing states. In this episode from our friends at the podcast Code Switch, we visit…
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50 min
Live From Atlanta: GA Politics, a Growing Gender Gap and Scenes From Spelhouse Homecoming's Tailgate
With the 2024 presidential election right around the corner, all eyes are on the swing states. In this episode, host Kai Wright travels to Atlanta, the heart of one swing state whe…
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30 min
Author and Playwright Caryl Phillips on James Baldwin’s Friendship
In the sixth episode of “Notes on a Native Son,” writer Caryl Phillips shares the experience of getting to know James Baldwin beyond the pages of his work. Phillips not only respec…
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50 min
How Important is College to a Successful Career?
There is a longstanding, widely held belief that the best chance at a better future is to go off to college – especially for people from marginalized communities.Whether it was you…
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30 min
Novelist Elif Shafak on James Baldwin’s Compassion
In the fifth episode of Notes on a Native Son, our guest is Turkish-British writer Elif Shafak. She has published 21 books, 13 of them novels — including “The Forty Rules of Love”…