The Real Heartbeat of D.C. Isn’t Politics. It’s Go-Go Music.

With the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries behind us, the 2024 election cycle is well underway.  Donald J. Trump isn’t the 2024 Republican presidential candidate yet, but his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire suggest that it will be smooth sailing to the GOP nomination for the former president once again — notwithstanding his several impending criminal cases and tons of political baggage.  In this, the first of a series of conversations leading up to the 2024 presidential election, host Kai Wright asks conservative voters who are not aligned with Trump or the MAGA movement some key questions. What do anti-Trump conservatives care about? What space do they occupy in this political landscape? How do they make their voices heard? Kai also speaks with Theodore R. Johnson, senior advisor at New America focusing on race and Black electoral behavior, and a contributing columnist at the Washington Post; and with David Siders, politics editor at POLITICO who leads their reporting series “Road Trip,” which introduces readers to voters and local political players across the nation.  Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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., and listeners to the broadcast and podcast are invited to join the conversation at 844-745-TALK(8255). Podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

5 Feb 202449min

Valerie Reyes-Jimenez called it “The Monster.” That’s how some people described HIV and AIDS in the 1980s. Valerie thinks as many as 75 people from her block on New York City’s Lower East Side died. They were succumbing to an illness that was not recognized as the same virus that was killing young, white, gay men just across town in the West Village. At the same time, in Washington, D.C., Gil Gerald, a Black LGBTQ+ activist, saw his own friends and colleagues begin to disappear, dying out of sight and largely ignored by the wider world. In the first episode of Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows, host Kai Wright shares how HIV and AIDS was misunderstood from the start — and how this would shape the reactions of governments, the medical establishment and numerous communities for years to come. Listen to more episodes and subscribe to Blindspot here. Voices in this episode include: Valerie Reyes-Jimenez is an HIV-positive woman, activist, and organizer with Housing Works. She saw the AIDS crisis develop from a nameless monster into a pandemic from her home on New York City’s Lower East Side.Dr. Larry Altman was one of the first full-fledged medical doctors to work as a daily newspaper reporter. He started at The New York Times in 1969.Dr. Anthony Fauci was director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease from 1984 to 2022. Known most recently for his work on Covid-19, Dr. Fauci was also a leading figure in the fight against HIV and AIDS.Gil Gerald is a Black HIV and AIDS activist and writer, who co-founded the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays.Phill Wilson is the founder of the Black AIDS Institute, AIDS policy director for the city of Los Angeles at the height of the epidemic, and a celebrated AIDS activist in both the LGBTQ+ and Black communities since the early 1980s.Dr. Margaret Heagarty ran the pediatrics department of Harlem Hospital Center for 22 years. She died in December 2022. Blindspot is a co-production of The HISTORY® Channel and WNYC Studios, in collaboration with The Nation Magazine. A companion photography exhibit by Kia LaBeija featuring portraits from the series is on view through March 11 at The Greene Space at WNYC. Photography by Kia LaBeija is supported in part by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Tell us what you think. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here. We’re also on Instagram and X (Twitter) @noteswithkai. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

2 Feb 202435min

If you were Black with mental illness in the early 1900s, you couldn’t seek help just anywhere. You’d have to go to a segregated asylum like Maryland’s Crownsville Hospital, formerly known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane. The facility opened in 1911 when 12 men were brought into the woods outside of Baltimore and told to start working. They were tasked with creating one of the first asylums for Black Americans with mental illnesses, and they would soon become its first patients.  Kai speaks with NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton about her latest book, “MADNESS: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum,” which breaks down the dark history of one psychiatric institution, and highlights the hope it offered Black patients. And we hear from listeners around the country about their own experiences with mental health treatment and care in the U.S. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

29 Jan 202450min

The latest season of the Blindspot podcast brings listeners voices of people who were affected in the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when so little was known about HIV, and so much was misunderstood. It’s also hosted by a familiar voice – Kai Wright, who has covered the impact of HIV and AIDS in communities of color throughout his career as a journalist. Season three of the show, a co-production of The HISTORY Channel and WNYC Studios, is called “The Plague In The Shadows” and Kai introduces us to the series, which you can listen to and subscribe to here. Tell us what you think. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here. We’re also on Instagram and X (Twitter) @noteswithkai. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

26 Jan 20245min

The hottest year on record was 2023, but we're expected to make the same claim at the end of this calendar year. As the world warms and reports of historic flooding, wildfires, tornadoes and droughts continue to permeate the news, it's easy to feel burdened with anxiety about the future of our planet. But there are moments of hope to hold on to. Are they enough to shift to an optimistic outlook about climate change? And how much does hope matter to designing solutions? Kai talks with Rikki Held, the 22-year-old lead plaintiff in Held v. Montana, a lawsuit brought by the group Our Children’s Trust. Held and her co-plaintiffs won an historic victory recently when a court ruled that the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Then, author and activist Liza Featherstone shares insight from her essay “The Case Against Both Climate Hope and Climate Despair,” in The New Republic. And we hear listener stories about progress they’ve witnessed in their own communities. This episode was originally published on August 21, 2023. Join our conversations. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here. We’re also on Instagram and X (Twitter) @noteswithkai. Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

22 Jan 202449min

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final Sunday sermon was titled, “Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution.” In other words, he was advising us to stay woke. Today, that term has become a political slur. “Woke” is at the very center of our culture wars – especially as we enter a contentious election year. But like a lot of slang words, woke has an origin story that’s got little to do with how it’s used now.  Host Kai Wright is joined by Alvin Singh, great-great nephew Lead Belly and producer of the documentary Lead Belly: The Man Invented Rock & Roll. Together, they explore the folk singer who popularized the term, and the landmark civil rights case that inspired him to issue a note of caution to Black America. Then, Juliet Hooker, Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University and author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss, and Maimouna “Mumu Fresh” Youssef, Grammy-nominated Afro-Indigenous singer, songwriter, and activist, join for a conversation about the current sociopolitical landscape and the true motivations behind the co-opting of “wokeness.” Plus, a live audience at the Apollo Theater contributes ideas on what we need to “stay woke” today. This conversation was programmed as part of The Apollo’s Uptown Hall series and originally recorded on Sunday, January 14 at 2pm ET. This 18th annual co-production between The Apollo and WNYC, two of New York City’s leading media and cultural institutions, has become the city’s signature event commemorating the political, cultural, and social legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tell us what you think. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here. We’re on Instagram and X (Twitter) @noteswithkai. Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

15 Jan 202450min

Interest in Ozempic as a way to lose weight has only been outmatched by demand for the drug, which has been in short supply as celebrities and social media influencers continue to popularize its use. The Type 2 diabetes treatment, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017, has become a catch-all term for a class of medications now used to treat obesity, including Wegovy, Zepbound and others. The efficacy of these drugs have some in the medical community pondering if we are on a path to effectively eliminating obesity by treating it as a chronic disease, rather than solely treating the diseases most often related to it. Kai invites Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician scientist and associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, to explain how these latest weight loss treatments work, and who can (and can’t) access them. Plus, Ronald Young Jr., host of the podcast Weight For It, joins the show to share his experience and express some concerns about how Ozempic and similar drugs have dominated the conversation about our bodies and our health. And we hear from listeners around the country who weigh in with their questions and stories. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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. Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

8 Jan 202449min

Raoul Peck became known for his filmmaking and fight for racial justice with the released of his Academy Award-nominated film I Am Not Your Negro which attempts to complete James Baldwin's unfinished book about the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Medgar Evers. It was followed by another documentary series, Exterminate All the Brutes. In his latest film, Silver Dollar Road, Peck completes his trilogy about the economic injustice Black people face worldwide.Silver Dollar Road closes the circle with a look at a modern-day family’s fight to keep the land they purchased soon after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Guest host, and Notes From America Executive Producer, André Robert Lee sits down with Raoul to discuss how he came across the story in his latest film, and why he feels compelled to make these movies today.  Plus, we hear how Assata Shakur Became one of America’s most wanted in 1973 when state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike pulled over her and two members of the Black Liberation Army. Tragically, guns were fired, people were killed, and in the aftermath, a political standoff between Shakur and state law enforcement began. Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter): @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.  Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. 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.

1 Jan 202449min