Kai Wright

Host & Managing Editor, Notes From America with Kai Wright

Kai Wright is host and managing editor of Notes From America with Kai Wright. The show airs live on public radio stations nationally, Sundays at 6p eastern.

The Atlantic hailed the show as one of the “The Best Podcasts of 2018,” declaring that it “has always been able to swiftly explain current events through the lens of the past.”

In addition, Wright has been the host of a number of WNYC Studios’ limited edition podcasts with social justice themes. He is host, most recently, of Blindspot Season 3: The Plague in the Shadows, which documents the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. He was also host of The Stakes, There Goes the Neighborhood, and Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which was honored with an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. He also served as one of the hosts of Indivisible, a national live radio call-in show that WNYC convened during the first 100 days of the Trump Administration to invite Americans to come together across divides.

Wright’s journalism has focused on social, racial, and economic justice throughout his career. Formerly, he was an editor at The Nation, the editorial director of Colorlines, and an investigative reporting fellow of Type Media Center. Wright is the author of Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay and Coming of Age on the Streets of New York, as well as two surveys of Black American history, and a contributor to the best-selling collection Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America.

Shows:

Kai Wright appears in the following:

Amber Ruffin Talks ‘The Wiz’ Revival, Writing for ‘Late Night,’ and Representation in Comedy

Monday, April 15, 2024

The comedian breaks down how her long career writing and performing as a Black woman prepared her for her new venture: bringing the Black cult-classic, "The Wiz," back to Broadway.

Voter Vibe Check: Why Trump Has More Support from Black Voters Than Ever

Monday, April 08, 2024

New poll says if the presidential election was held today, 23 percent of Black voters would cast their ballot for Trump. 

Comedian Bassem Youssef’s Honest Reflection on Fame, the Pressure of Representation, and What it Means to be American

Monday, April 01, 2024

The Egyptian American satirist struggles to separate his comedy from the war in Gaza during a worldwide tour.

David Alan Grier Is Still Hitting Career Highs, More Than 40 Years After His Debut

Monday, March 25, 2024

David Alan Grier is reaching new audiences more than four decades after his first star turn on Broadway.

Voter Vibe Check: Democratic Voters Are Torn Over Biden’s Gaza Policy

Monday, March 18, 2024

More than 100,000 people voted “uncommitted” in Michagan’s democratic primary, a trend that’s only growing. 

Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 5: What If I Could Have Grown Old With My Brother?

Friday, March 15, 2024

How one woman refused to accept the status quo and helped save the lives of thousands of people in her neighborhood.

How Actor Danielle Brooks 'Already Won' Before The Oscars

Monday, March 11, 2024

"The Color Purple" actor discusses her rise to fame and carrying on the legacy of "The Color Purple" at the 96th Academy Awards.

Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 4: Respectability Politics and the AIDS Crisis

Friday, March 08, 2024

Why it took the Black community so long to respond to the AIDS crisis.

Are We Really Having a 'Migrant Crisis?' Depends Who You Ask.

Monday, March 04, 2024

Three reporters in El Paso, New York City and Chicago explain the nuances and realities of migration in America today.

We Could End AIDS. So Why Are People Still Dying?

Friday, March 01, 2024

If the problem of HIV and AIDS were still primarily a medical one, it’d be over. So why is the disease still spreading and what can be done about it?

Leading with Love: Care and Compassion in the Early Days of AIDS

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Where institutions failed at the onset of the AIDS epidemic, individuals led with love to respond in their communities. What did that look like and what can we learn from the experience?

It's Giving ‘Hell No’ — Danielle Brooks On Becoming ‘The Color Purple’s’ Sofia

Friday, February 23, 2024

Actor Danielle Brooks pays homage to her beloved character from “The Color Purple,” Sofia.

A Palestinian-American Victim of American Gun Violence Becomes A Reluctant Poster Child

Monday, February 19, 2024

Brown University student Hisham Awartani is processing his injuries, and the trauma of his community back home in the West Bank.

Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 3: ‘Women Don’t Get AIDS, They Just Die From It’

Friday, February 16, 2024

The story of how a group of women changed the very definition of AIDS.

Intercultural Relationships Are More Common, But Are They Less Taboo?

Monday, February 12, 2024

For Valentine’s Day, we hear your love stories about dating across racial and cultural differences…and what you’ve learned about yourself in these relationships.

The AIDS Epidemic and Black Communities

Monday, February 12, 2024

How communities of color struggled with, and eventually reckoned with the HIV and AIDS crisis.

Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 2: If I Didn’t Have HIV, I Wouldn’t Have Met You

Friday, February 09, 2024

Stories From Harlem Hospital’s pediatric AIDS ward.

Voter Vibe Check: Anti-Trump Conservatives On Republican Party Politics In 2024

Monday, February 05, 2024

Notes From America kicks off a series of conversations leading up to the 2024 presidential election. First up: conservatives who do not support Donald Trump or the MAGA movement.

Kai Wright Presents Blindspot Episode 1: Mourning In America

Friday, February 02, 2024

The dawn of HIV and AIDS.

What A Segregated Mental Asylum Can Tell Us About Health Care in the US Today

Monday, January 29, 2024

Madness, by Antonia Hylton, documents how systemic racism has shaped mental health treatment for Black Americans throughout history.