Ursula Sommer is a producer and writer.
She has worked on a number of WNYC’s live radio shows, including All Of It, Midday on WNYC, and Indivisible. Ursula’s reporting has appeared on WNYC, Gothamist, and in The Art Newspaper. She has a master’s degree from Freie Universität Berlin where she studied visual and media anthropology and she loves getting lost in an archive.
Ursula Sommer appears in the following:
Antony Blinken’s Exit Interview
Friday, January 17, 2025
President Biden’s long-serving Secretary of State on the crisis in Gaza, and his reason for optimism about a lasting peace in the region.
One Environmental Journalist Thinks that the U.S. Needs More Mining
Friday, January 10, 2025
Mining for rare-earth metals has severe environmental consequences. Speaking with Elizabeth Kolbert, the journalist Vince Beiser says that the U.S. needs more of it.
Julianne Moore Explains What She Needs in a Film Director
Friday, December 27, 2024
The actress talks with Michael Schulman about her time on “As the World Turns,” starring in Pedro Almodóvar’s first film in English, and why she hates when people call actors “brave.”
Rashid Khalidi on the Palestinian Cause in a Volatile Middle East, and the Meaning of Settler Colonialism
Friday, December 13, 2024
The historian discusses events that have weakened supposed allies of the Palestinians, and the idea of settler colonialism that has taken hold on the left. Critic Adam Kirsch responds.
Inside Donald Trump’s Mass-Deportation Plans
Friday, December 06, 2024
The staff writer Jonathan Blitzer on the rhetoric and the reality of deporting “millions”—and why immigrants in the country legally are likely to be targeted.
Audra McDonald on Stephen Sondheim, “Gypsy,” and Being Black on Broadway
Friday, December 06, 2024
The actress stars as Rose in a Broadway revival of “Gypsy.” She shares that, throughout her career, some people have been upset when she plays characters conceived for white actors.
Sarah McBride Wasn’t Looking for a Fight on Trans Rights
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
The first transgender person elected to Congress discusses how to respond to a bathroom bill and transphobic attacks from other House members, including Speaker Mike Johnson.
The Authors of “How Democracies Die” on the New Democratic Minority
Friday, November 15, 2024
Two leading political scientists explain why voters failed to defend democracy: We never do.
Danielle Deadwyler on August Wilson and Denzel Washington
Friday, November 15, 2024
The actress discusses starring in the new film adaptation of “The Piano Lesson,” Wilson’s play about the Great Migration and a family torn apart by inheritance.
The Stakes for Abortion Rights, from the Head of Planned Parenthood
Friday, October 18, 2024
Alexis McGill Johnson discusses lobbying for a Democratic “trifecta” in Washington—and what a second Trump Administration would do on abortion rights in America.
With “The Warriors,” Lin-Manuel Miranda Takes on Another New York Story
Friday, October 18, 2024
A concept album based on a 1979 gang film is no big stretch for the creator of “Hamilton,” a rap musical based on a biography of a Founding Father.
Bon Iver on “SABLE,” His First New Record in Five Years
Friday, October 11, 2024
The musician talks with Amanda Petrusich about his three-song EP. “I was getting a lot of positive feedback for . . . having heartache . . . maybe I’m pressing the bruise.”
Newt Gingrich on What Trump Could Accomplish in a Second Term
Friday, October 04, 2024
A second Trump Administration would be “dramatically more managerial and practical,” the former Speaker of the House claims. Trump “has a much deeper grasp of what has to be done.”
Young Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, and the Dark Arts of Power
Friday, September 27, 2024
Gabriel Sherman on “The Apprentice,” his coming-of-age film about Trump. There are “parts of the film that I could imagine Donald Trump liking,” Sherman says.
Can Trump Voters Still Change Their Minds?
Friday, September 20, 2024
The Republican strategist Sarah Longwell explains what she’s hearing in focus groups from swing-state voters, and those who’ve “flipped” between Democratic and Republican candidates.
Preparing For Trump’s Next “Big Lie,” with the Election Lawyer Marc Elias
Friday, September 06, 2024
The Democrats’ top legal strategist in the 2020 Presidential election won nearly every lawsuit brought by Trump’s team. He explains why the threat to democracy is far greater in 2024.
The Writer Danzy Senna on Kamala Harris and the Complexity of Biracial Identity in America
Friday, August 30, 2024
The novelist, who uses the word “mulatto” to describe mixed-race people like herself, talks with Julian Lucas about living across the color line, in a country obsessed with it.
R.F.K., Jr., and the Central Park Bear, with Clare Malone
Friday, August 09, 2024
The staff writer Clare Malone reported that Kennedy, a Presidential candidate, once dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park as a joke. But Kennedy tried to get ahead of the story.
Israel’s Other Intractable Conflict
Friday, August 02, 2024
The writer Nathan Thrall and the lawyer Raja Shehadeh on the occupation of the West Bank, and whether there can be any prospect for peace.
What Kamala Harris Needs to Win the Presidency, from a Veteran of Hillary Clinton’s Campaign
Friday, July 26, 2024
Jennifer Palmieri explains what she learned working on the 2016 election, and how the race that Harris faces differs from those of other women who’ve run for President.
