What Exactly Does “Woke” Mean, and How Did It Become so Powerful?

What Exactly Does “Woke” Mean, and How Did It Become so Powerful?

Many on the right blame “wokeness” for all of America’s ills—everything from deadly mass shootings to lower military recruitment. Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, recently signed a so-called Stop WOKE Act into law, and made the issue the center of his midterm victory speech. In Washington, there has been talk in the House of forming an “anti-woke caucus.” “I think ‘woke’ is a very interesting term right now, because I think it’s an unusable word—although it is used all the time—because it doesn’t actually mean anything,” the linguist and lexicographer Tony Thorne, the author of “Dictionary of Contemporary Slang,” tells David Remnick.

Plus, the poet Robin Coste Lewis talks with the staff writer Hilton Als about how suffering a traumatic brian injury led her to a career in poetry. Her most recent book, “To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness,” was published last month.

Episoder(1019)

Social Media Goes to Court

Social Media Goes to Court

In the book “The Anxious Generation,” Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, argues that social-media platforms are detrimental to youths’ well-being, and that society needs to ...

13 Mar 28min

Ryan Coogler on “Sinners,” His Epic Film about Race, Music, and the Undead

Ryan Coogler on “Sinners,” His Epic Film about Race, Music, and the Undead

When the Oscar nominations were announced this year, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” set a record. It received sixteen nominations, the most for any film ever. The fact that it’s, in part, a vampire movie, m...

10 Mar 19min

The Global Fallout of Donald Trump’s War on Iran

The Global Fallout of Donald Trump’s War on Iran

As Iran’s retaliation hit American allies throughout the Middle East this week, David Remnick was joined by two New Yorker writers with decades of experience reporting from the region. Robin Wright ha...

6 Mar 31min

Failed “Finance Bros” Find Success with HBO’s “Industry”

Failed “Finance Bros” Find Success with HBO’s “Industry”

David Remnick sits down with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, the creators of a show he loves, “Industry,” which is currently airing its fourth season. The show is centered on the financial and personal dr...

1 Mar 16min

What Could Go Wrong, or Right, in a War with Iran

What Could Go Wrong, or Right, in a War with Iran

As Donald Trump and his Administration threaten to attack Iran, their motivations remain unclear. Does the President want to force Iran to make a nuclear deal, to replace the one that he scrapped in h...

27 Feb 34min

The Evidence on Ozempic to Treat Addiction

The Evidence on Ozempic to Treat Addiction

Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs have had a major impact in their short time on the market—currently, one in eight Americans say that they have been on GLP-1 drugs. As tens of millions of people take the...

24 Feb 19min

Conan O’Brien on What Can Go Wrong at the Oscars

Conan O’Brien on What Can Go Wrong at the Oscars

Hosting the Academy Awards ceremony is a notoriously tricky gig, but Conan O’Brien nailed it in 2025, and he will return for this year’s event. Since leaving late-night television, in 2021, O’Brien ha...

20 Feb 31min

Richard Brody Presents the 2026 Brody Awards

Richard Brody Presents the 2026 Brody Awards

Every year, ahead of Oscar night, the film critic Richard Brody joins the New Yorker Radio Hour to discuss his picks for the year’s best films. David Remnick sits down with Brody and the staff writer ...

17 Feb 14min

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