Notes from America with Kai Wright

This week on Notes from America, host Kai Wright talks with Dr. Joy Buolamwini, a computer scientist who uses art and research to illuminate the social implications of artificial intelligence. The self-described “poet of code” warns that A.I. could write the biases of today’s world into algorithms and even regress the progress of U.S. civil rights in everything from medicine to loan applications and police surveillance. Kai and Dr. Buolamwini take calls about listener fears around A.I. and address which concerns we should focus on. Plus, she shares her latest poem on the implications of A.I. in war as the crisis in the Middle East continues. 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.

Playwright Lynn Nottage says it’s in her nature to be optimistic. And if it’s true what they say that you can manifest good things by thinking positively, well, it’s worked out for her in myriad ways. Nottage is the first and only woman to have won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, and she’s one of today’s most produced playwrights. Her work, though, explores the experiences of Americans existing in the margins who have little reason to have hope. In this episode, she joins host Kai Wright to reflect on her remarkable career and share how she develops complicated characters that manage to be relatable, resilient and inspire optimism in audiences. Plus, musician David Byrne is known for a darkness to his lyrics. As the former frontman for the band Talking Heads with songs like “Psycho Killer,” “Road To Nowhere,” and “Slippery People,” it’s easy to assume Byrne is fresh out of hope in humanity. Instead, he says he’s motivated by the beauty of human connection he experiences when he pushes past the anxiety of being a social creature. Byrne and Kai discuss how he channeled that uplifting outlook into his Broadway show “American Utopia,” named for Byrne’s 2018 album. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Boston's Big Dig started as a vision for a large-scale highway tunnel system that became a cautionary tale about American infrastructure. Guest host Nancy Solomon speaks with Ian Coss, host of The Big Dig podcast from GBH and PRX, which dives into the history behind some of the most notable infrastructure projects in the Greater Boston area leading up to The Big Dig, which became “a symbol of waste and corruption.” Nancy and Ian talk through the notorious failures and unsung successes of the Big Dig, what we do with the lessons learned, and what it means for the future of our communities. Plus, we hear from people around the country about their experiences with massive infrastructure projects in their cities. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Guest host Janae Pierre sits down with legendary poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, who is the subject of a new documentary, Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project. Giovanni reflects on the legacy of Black storytelling, gospel music, what she describes as original libraries, and why she’s working to get more Black women involved in space travel. Plus, we hear from Kai as he pays a visit to Kimberly McGlonn, an award-winning social entrepreneur. The founder of Grant Blvd & Blk Ivy Thrift, welcomes us to her store in West Philadelphia to learn about the relationship between fashion, justice, and the history of Black America. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

It’s been 10 years since the Black Lives Matter was founded in response to the acquittal of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Kai Wright speaks with organizer Chelsea Miller about the impact the movement has had on a generation of young people. She makes the case for why we must keep telling the story of Black life and death in America and saying the names of those killed as a result of police violence. Plus, in partnership with New Yorker Radio Hour, Kai discusses the impact of the movement with Samuel Sinyangwe, a policy analyst with Mapping Police Violence & Police Scorecard, Anya Bidwell, an attorney for the Institute of Justice and the Federalist Society, and Mike White, professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University. They look back on some of the policy changes that have been implemented to reduce use of force by police and whether they’ve been successful. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

The events of October 7th shook the world and greatly impacted different intersections of people. Arab Americans sit at a unique intersection. As an Arab American journalist, Notes From America producer Suzanne Gaber set out to find a place for her to process the complex emotions she’s been feeling since that day. She visits the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, NJ and speaks with the center’s executive director, Rania Mustafa, to hear how the center is prioritizing communal mental health resources during this time. Then, host Kai Wright is joined by Palestinian-American psychotherapist, Lena Derhally. They open the phones to Arab Americans and allies to address specific mental health concerns as news continues to develop out of Gaza and the West Bank. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Imminent Danger, a new series from NYC NOW, looks into the role state medical boards had in how one doctor was allowed to keep practicing despite consistently bad outcomes. Marquita Baird has kept a bootbox full of medical records on a shelf in her home in Shawnee, Oklahoma for over two decades in the hope that, someday, someone would ask about what happened after an OB-GYN named Thomas J. Byrne performed a hysterectomy on her in 1999. Shawnee was one of several areas where Byrne would practice in the years after losing his medical license in New York. This is episode 3 of the series but you can listen to earlier episodes here: Episode 1: Wrongful Death Episode 2: License Revoked New episodes come out every Saturday on the NYC Now feed. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Killers of the Flower Moon, a new film directed by Martin Scorcese based on the bestselling book of the same name, tells the story of how greed and profound injustice took the lives of so many Osage. The film has helped people like Damon Waters, an Osage filmmaker and actor, reconnect with his roots and imagine a different future for Fairfax, Okla., where the film takes place. Damon joins us to discuss the impact the film had on him and his upcoming documentary about the restoration of Tall Chief Theater. We also hear from Allison Herrera, KOSU’s Indigenous affairs reporter, who brings us a note from Fairfax. We’ll meet Joe and Carol Conner and learn about their efforts to restore the historic Tall Chief Theater in downtown Fairfax. Joe, who is Osage, hopes that the attention brought by the film will get more people to invest money in Fairfax. To learn more about the systemic issues that caused the murders of so many Osage, listen to more of Allison Herrera’s reporting for the podcast In Trust. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Our friends at On the Media have teamed up with ProPublica to create a miniseries about how the U.S. Supreme Court moved so far to the right. In the third and final episode of We Don't Talk About Leonard, Leonard Leo is in Maine, a man in his castle, at the height of his powers. He has helped remake the American judicial system, and now he has a plan to do the same for society and politics — to make a Federalist Society for everything. ProPublica reporters Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll, and Ilya Marritz drill even further into the fight to gain influence over state courts, and reveal what Leo and his allies are planning for the future. You can listen to more episodes from We Don’t Talk About Leonard by visiting On The Media’s podcast, or by visiting this link. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

How can we have a more honest conversation about security, war, and peace in the region? As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, we ask two scholars with ties to the region for help. Kai is joined by Laila El-Haddad, a Palestinian author and journalist based in Clarksville, Maryland, whose family has fled their home in northern Gaza. She is the author of “Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything In Between,” and her latest book is "The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey." Plus Anna Baltzer, who is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, describes her own evolution in thinking about the relationship between security for Jewish people and Palestinian rights. She shares stories and perspectives from her book "Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories." 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Our friends at On the Media have teamed up with ProPublica to create a miniseries about how the U.S. Supreme Court moved so far to the right. In the second episode of We Don't Talk About Leonard, Leonard Leo realized that in order to generate conservative rulings, the Supreme Court needs the right kind of cases. ProPublica reporters Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll, and Ilya Marritz investigate the machine that Leonard Leo built across the country to bring cases to the Supreme Court and fill vacant judgeships, and the web of nonprofits he’s created through which to funnel dark money into judicial races. You can listen to more episodes from We Don’t Talk About Leonard by visiting On The Media’s podcast, or by visiting this link. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

In a new memoir, How to Say Babylon: A Memoir, the award-winning poet and essayist is revisiting her youth as a Rastafari girl. Being Rasta is about so much more than what shows up in American pop culture – it’s an anti-colonial, pro-Black way of life that was deeply important to Safiya’s father. But for her, it was a set of rules and dictates that tried to shrink the world for her and her sisters. This week, she tells Kai the story of her childhood, the history of the often persecuted Rastafari movement in Jamaica, and her own journey to finding herself by leaving behind her beloved home. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Our friends at On the Media have teamed up with ProPublica to create a miniseries about how the U.S. Supreme Court moved so far to the right. In this first episode of We Don't Talk About Leonard, ProPublica reporters Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll, and Ilya Marritz investigate the background of the man who has played a critical role in the conservative takeover of America's courts — Leonard Leo. From his humble roots in middle class New Jersey, to a mansion in Maine where last year he hosted a fabulous party on the eve of the Supreme Court decision to tank “Roe.” You can listen to more episodes from We Don’t Talk About Leonard by visiting On The Media’s podcast, or by visiting this link. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

One guest says “a free market is a mythical creature, like Santa Claus.” So how do we describe “capitalism” really, and can we make it do better? We examine our current economic system, callers’ feelings about it, and the evolution of that system with guest host Noel King, host of Vox’s “Today Explained.” She’s joined by Vinson Cunningham, Staff Writer for the New Yorker, and Kirstin Munro, Professor of Economics and the New School. Plus we take your calls. This episode was inspired by “Today Explained’s” recent series, “Blame Capitalism: Souring on the system.” 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Silicon Valley is notorious in the global economy and the American psyche. According to author Malcolm Harris, the Bay Area tech hub and California at large are a laboratory for the worst consequences of capitalism–centuries in the making. Harris unpacks this theory in his book “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.” He joins Kai to dig into the global history of Silicon Valley and his upbringing in the region. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Ayana Mathis joins us to discuss her new novel, The Unsettled. It’s an intergenerational story centered around one Black family’s struggle to find freedom in the 1980s. Like her previous work, migration and movement are major themes in the book. But this time, her characters are at a crossroads, unsure of their next step in search for self-determination. Ayana breaks down the characters in her gripping novel, the questions which torment them, and her own journey grappling with those themes. During this episode, Kai refers to a previous episode about our Future of Black History series featuring Saidiya Hartman: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/beautiful-experiments-left-out-black-history Check out more about our Future of Black History series here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/projects/future-black-history 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

A new graphic memoir from New Yorker cartoonist Navied Mahdavian tells the story of his decision to move with his wife from San Francisco to rural Idaho. Mahdavian joins producer Kousha Navidar to discuss, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America. Plus, we take your calls. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org. Special thanks to our friends at All of It with Alison Stewart, where this segment originally aired.

Starting with the 1925 Scopes Trial — also known as the "trial of the century" — we look at one of the most controversial topics in our time: the debate over evolution versus a Fundamentalist understanding of the Bible. It started with a substitute teacher in Tennessee who believed that evolution should be taught in the classroom. What followed was a fiery debate that rocketed around the world. From that moment on through to the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, we’ll unpack the major moments of the movement denying climate change. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

In 2013 Chicago shut down 50 public schools – the largest mass closing in U.S. history. The city promised a chance to revitalize communities. 10 years later, it’s another reality. We speak with Sarah Karp from WBEZ and Lauren FitzPatrick from the Chicago Sun Times about their recent reporting story. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

“The Death of Public School” author Cara Fitzpatrick tells the story of a movement, six decades in the making, that’s picked away at the very idea of public education in the U.S. Listeners from Chicago and Jersey City, including a teacher, call in with their own perspectives about the state of our schools. 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 going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio. “Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.