Decoding the Jan. 6th Insurrection ? what we should have learned from the past and what we must remember for the future.

This Independence Day weekend, host Kai Wright is joined by Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, who previously hosted Trump Inc. They discuss their new 8-part podcast series, Will Be Wild, which examines the forces that led to the January 6 Insurrection and what comes next. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021)

Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of ?post-traumatic growth.?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

The series ends with a final test for the Jaguars at the city championship. After the final point has been scored, members of the team try to assess their success. And what about the success of the merger? Students and coaches look at how the integration played out across John Jay?s athletics program, and ask: was it all worth it?

?Keeping Score? is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June. 

Connect with us at [email protected].

For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn. 

For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.

Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul ? with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones. Special thanks to Atiqa Chowdhury, Delsina Kolenovic, Giana Ospina, Adrian Uribarri, Mike Barry, Theodora Kuslan, Andrea Latimer, Kim Nowacki, Dalia Dagher, Jennifer Houlihan Roussel, Michelle Xu, Rachel Leiberman, Miriam Barnard, Andrew Golis, Christopher Werth, and the entire team at The United States of Anxiety.

Plus, a reflection on the significance of LGBT Pride in a scary political time for the community. 

Host Kai Wright and listeners react to the recent SCOTUS decisions, including the fall of Roe v. Wade. Hear Dr. Sanithia Williams from Alabama Women?s Clinic, and her experience as a provider in one of the 13 states with trigger laws; Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation; and Imara Jones, the creator of TransLash media. 

Companion listening for this episode:

The Abortion Clinic That Won't Go Quietly (rereleased on 5/5/2022)

A broken democracy. A Supreme Court showdown. And a group of Alabama women who continue to provide care despite it all.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

What does it mean to lead a team in an anti-racist way? After getting strong feedback from Mariah and other players, Coach Mike Salak decides to change his tactics. But as the girls volleyball practices lead into tournaments, it?s clear that who gets to play continues to be a divisive issue. 

?Keeping Score? is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June. 

Connect with us at [email protected].

For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn. 

For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.

Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul ? with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones.

On this national live call-in special: The history. The party. The food. Black Texans school us on the holiday they created.

This Juneteenth, host Kai Wright is joined by Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and Harvard law professor, Annette Gordon-Reed, to break down the history behind the newest federal holiday, and help take calls from Black Texans about what it means to them. Read more about Professor Gordon-Reed's reflections in the New York Times Bestseller, On Juneteenth. Plus, Ms. Opal Lee, retired teacher, counselor and activist known as the "grandmother of Juneteenth," checks in as she's moving between Juneteenth celebrations in Fort Worth, Texas. And Houston Public Media reporter, Cory McGinnis, calls in from the "150th Juneteenth Celebration" festival in Houston's Emancipation Park. And, food writer and host of the podcast Hot Grease, Nicole A. Taylor, tells us about her new cookbook, Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations.

A special thanks to Houston Public Media, KERA-Dallas, and Texas Public Radio for partnering with us on this episode.

Companion listening for this episode:

Juneteenth, an Unfinished Business (6/26/2020)
As the nation grappled with a reckoning during the summer of 2020, we paused to celebrate Juneteenth, for Black liberation and the ongoing birth of the United States.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Mariah Morgan, a junior at Park Slope Collegiate and setter on the girls varsity volleyball team, was an early proponent of the merger ? she helped lobby for it as a member of the Campus Council. But her optimism is tested when practice starts. To understand the building?s complicated history, she explores how Millennium came to be at John Jay in the first place, and why the campaign to merge the athletics programs began.

?Keeping Score? is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June. 

Connect with us at [email protected].

For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn. 

For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.

Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul ? with additional tracks by Hannis Brown and Isaac Jones. Special thanks to Andy Lanset, Norman Scott, Gwynne Hogan, and Afi Yellow-Duke. 

Why We Can't (and Shouldn't) Move On From Jan. 6. Fordham University political science professor, Christina Greer, joins to takes our politics questions on the hearings and more. Plus, producer Rahima Nasa takes show host Kai Wright to an exhibit displaying the work of artist Faith Ringgold, and we hear her story and the impact of her work.

Companion listening for this episode:

A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right (1/24/2022)

Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Then, a listener mailbag begs us to explore how "normal people" became part of the Jan 6. attack.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

The John Jay Educational Campus, a large brick building in Park Slope, Brooklyn, houses four high schools: Cyberarts Studio Academy, the Secondary School for Law, Millennium Brooklyn, and Park Slope Collegiate. Each school is its own separate universe, but the students yearn to connect. When the administration announces that the athletics programs will merge, they ask what it will take for the building to live up to its new motto: ?We Are One.?

?Keeping Score? is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The Bell. This four-part series will appear in the United States of Anxiety feed on Thursdays in June. 

Connect with us at [email protected].

For WNYC: Alana Casanova-Burgess, Jessica Gould, Joe Plourde, Jenny Lawton, Karen Frillmann, Emily Botein, Wayne Schulmeister, and Andrew Dunn. 

For The Bell: Mariah Morgan, Lauren Valme, Renika Jack, Noor Muhsin, Thyan Nelson, Jacob Mestizo, Taylor McGraw, and Mira Gordon.

Fact-check by Natalie Meade. Music by Jared Paul ? with additional tracks by Hannis Brown, Isaac Jones, and "Con Anima" by Dee Yan-Key. Special thanks to Afi Yellow-Duke, Rebecca Clark-Callender and Tracie Hunte.

Schools Had a Tough Year. What?d We Learn? Plus, follow the season of a girl?s varsity volleyball team, and find one Brooklyn school building?s effort to bridge its stark racial divide. From WNYC?s new miniseries, Keeping Score.

The past year has forced public classrooms into the center of our country?s intense culture wars and political debates, from Florida?s ?Don?t Say Gay? bill, to Critical Race Theory, to the ever-present threat of gun violence. What do these fights mean about the future over public education itself? Education reporter for The Washington Post and author of the long-running Answer Sheet blog, Valerie Strauss, breaks what she learned covering this year, and takes your calls. Plus, WNYC host Alana Casanova-Burgess introduces us to a new miniseries that explores one school building in Brooklyn attempt to integrate its own student population this year.

Companion listening for this episode:

The True Story of Critical Race Theory (10/11/2021)

Is racism a permanent fixture of society? Jelani Cobb, staff writer for The New Yorker, unravels the history of Derrick Bell?s quest to answer that question.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

After publishing 34 books, Alice Walker talks through her latest release, a collection of personal journals spanning four decades. Read more in Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965?2000, out now. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022)

Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

There are no ?lone wolves? in the terrorist violence of white identity politics. So what?s that mean for white people who want to confront it? First, assistant secretary for homeland security under President Obama and current professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Juliette Kayyem, joins host Kai Wright to help us make sense of the moment with tools form her new book, The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters. Read her article for The Atlantic in response to the mass shooting in Buffalo here. Then, Sarah Posner, reporting fellow at Type Investigations and the author of Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump, helps us examine the packs in which these ideologies flourish, as candidates like Pennsylvania Republican Party's gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano, continue to thrive. 

Companion listening for this episode:

The Dangerous Cycle of Fear (4/11/2022)

Asian American New Yorkers explain how Covid-era violence changed their lives, and what?s at stake for everybody when we fear each other. Then, rediscovering community through food.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

An intergenerational meditation on Ntozake Shange?s iconic Broadway play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. First, host Kai Wright and producer Regina de Heer speak with the director and choreographer of the current Broadway Revival, Camille A. Brown. Then, performers Trezana Beverley, Aku Kadogo, and Carol Maillard reminisce on the original production and working with the show's legendary creator, Ntozake Shange. 

 A special thanks to actor Francina Smith for her reading of "Dark Phrases."

Companion listening for this episode:

Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022)

Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

His leaked opinion tells us more about a powerful minority?s view of the U.S. than it does about the Constitution or the history of abortion. Kai Wright talks to Susan Matthews, news director at Slate and host of the upcoming season of Slow Burn: Roe v. Wade, about her recently published essay, ?The Constitution Wasn't Written for Women.? And Michele Goodwin, a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Irvine, joins Kai to open the phones to your questions and emotional reactions to this frightening but galvanizing moment. 

Companion listening for this episode:

The Abortion Clinic That Won't Go Quietly (5/5/2022)

A leak of Justice Samuel Alito?s draft opinion in a separate case suggests the Court is now poised to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. In this 2018 story, hear first hand from the medical providers who are determined to provide this health care ? and learn the political history of this moment. 

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

In 2018, host Kai Wright visited the Alabama Women?s Center in Huntsville, to learn how abortion providers were dealing with the state?s new law that sought to make their practice a felony crime. The law was one of several that Republican controlled states passed in an effort to provoke a Supreme Court ruling on Roe. 

A leak of Justice Samuel Alito?s draft opinion in a separate case suggests the Court is now poised to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.  So we revisit this 2018 story, to hear first hand from the medical providers who are determined to provide this health care ? and learn the political history of this moment.  

Reporting for this episode was supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Jane and Gerald Katcher and the Katcher Family Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Companion listening for this episode:

How to End the Dominion of Men 

Why is masculinity so often conflated with domination? And how do we separate the two? Kai turns to a historian and to a novelist for answers.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and The Nation Magazine?s John Nichols explain how the Democrats can fight ? and win ? the culture wars. Plus, listeners weigh in with how they would like the party to proceed. Watch State Senator McMorrow?s speech here. Then, read John?s article in reaction to the speech here. 

Companion listening for this episode:

How the Right?s Anti-Trans Hate Machine Works (5/28/2021)
Last year, guest More than 100 anti-Trans bills have been introduced across 30 states since January. We find out what?s happening ? both in the courts and in society ? and what still needs to be done.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Kai Wright talks with WNYC colleague Nancy Solomon about her new podcast: Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery

New Jersey politics is not for the faint of heart. But the brutal killing of John and Joyce Sheridan, a prominent couple with personal ties to three governors, shocks even the most cynical operatives. The mystery surrounding the crime sends their son on a quest for truth. Dead End is a story of crime and corruption at the highest levels of society in the Garden State.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Voters who switched from Trump to Biden in 2020 are headed to the polls again, and former GOP strategist Sarah Longwell wants to know what they?re thinking. Longwell is executive director of the Republican Accountability Project and publisher of The Bulwark, where she hosts The Focus Group podcast. She?s convening an ongoing series of focus groups with voters, including ?flippers? who ditched Trump in 2020. What are they thinking as they head into primary elections for this year?s midterms?

Then, Dr. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum responds to one of our listener voicemails about choosing a name as a trans woman. Dr. Tanenbaum shares her own story with producer Kousha Navidar, as well as her work at the intersection of technology, media, and identity. 

Companion listening for this episode:

A Conservative View of the Vigilante Right (1/24/2022)

Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Plus, she helps take your calls. Then, a listener mailbag begs us to explore how "normal people" became part of the Jan 6. attack.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

As the country confronts racial tensions and class conflicts, it begs the question: How did we get here? We look back to a moment in history when our country was struggling to become a true, multiracial democracy -- meeting a lot of roadblocks, many of which persist today. Historian Eric Foner gives us a primer on the Reconstruction Era amendments that we explored in season four, as producer Veralyn Williams rides along to help us make sense of what it means today and how we can move forward as one nation.

Companion listening for this episode:
A History of Voter Suppression (1/20/2022)
A conversation with historian Dr. Carol Anderson about how Black Americans have fought for their right to participate in the democratic process safely and make their votes count.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Asian American New Yorkers explain how Covid-era bigotry and violence changed their lives, and what?s at stake for everybody when we fear each other. Then, rediscovering community through food. First, host Kai Wright attends a free self defense class hosted in partnership between The Alicia and Jason Lee Foundation and University Settlement, and meets the instructor. Read more about the effort?s mission here. 

 Then, he speaks with Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation, which works with nonprofits to support the pan-Asian community. What?s the economic and social cost of hate crime on Asian American communities? What are the uncomfortable ? yet crucial ?  tensions between Black and Asian-American communities in the air right now? And then, Kai grabs dinner with Tammie Teclemariam, New York Magazine?s first-ever Diner-at-Large, at her favorite restaurant, Singiri. They try Sri Lankan food as we learn about Tammie?s weekly newsletter and column called, ?The Year I Ate New York.? Subscribe here.

Companion listening for this episode:

People Feel Unsafe?and It?s More Than Crime (3/14/2022)

The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going so far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

A slap at the Oscars tarnished Will Smith?s legacy. What about him did Hollywood treasure? Is this institution just a screen for projecting our own social anxieties and cultural debate? Culture critic Soraya McDonald joins to take a deeper look  at the roles Hollywood allows us to play, on screen and off. Plus, breaking down the exhausting reaction to Pixar?s defiantly Asian film, Turning Red, with Jeff Yang, the co-author of Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. Read his piece for The Guardian here.

 Companion listening for this episode:

A Year of Performing Humanity, Reviewed (12/13/2021)

A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic of the New York Times, helps us review the year in culture. What can we learn from 2021?s art about our struggling effort to live together?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

The Senate?s questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson revealed where she might fit in the history, and future, of the Supreme Court. Host Kai Wright is joined by Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York University, Melissa Murray, to discuss. Plus, National Geographic explorer Tara Roberts? story of diving for sunken slave ships. Read the NatGeo feature and listen to the podcast here.

Companion listening for this episode:

Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021)

Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of ?post-traumatic growth.?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

What?s in a name? A lot. A listener's voicemail inspired us to explore the sometimes complicated relationship between our names and our racial and ethnic identities. Host Kai Wright is joined by novelist Beth Nguyen to discuss her personal journey when it comes to her name, and invites callers to share their own stories. Check out Beth?s article for The New Yorker: America Ruined My Name For Me. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Why So Many Are Stuck in the ?Other? Box (2/21/2022)

The episode that motivated such listener reactions: The U.S. Census named ?some other race? as the second-largest racial group in the U.S. Mona Chalabi talks us through the data, and the stakes, of that statistic.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going as far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear? Scholar James Forman Jr., author of the book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, helps break down what?s real, vs perception, about the rise in violent crime. Plus, a conversation with Nina Jankowicz, expert on disinformation and democratization, and author of How to Be A Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back, about how to make the internet safer for women with political expertise and opinions.

If you?re experiencing abuse or harassment online, here are two links with more resources about steps you can take:

https://womensmediacenter.com/speech-project/tools-resources

https://onlineviolenceresponsehub.org/

Companion listening for this episode:

Cop Watch Series (2017-2021)

We?ve talked to officers, judges, and kids stuck behind bars. We?ve explored the system?s history, and imagined a future without it. Here are some of our favorite episodes.

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Presidencies are rarely transformational, and neither Biden nor Trump have lived up to their supporters? dreams. So what does it take to really change our politics? Host Kai Wright is joined by political theorist Corey Robin to confront that question, and take your calls about Biden?s first year in office.

Companion listening for this episode:

Government: A Love-Hate Story (4/12/2021)

How did Americans come to think so poorly of the government? And how did Joe Biden come to be the first modern president who?s even tried to change our minds? Kai talks with three change-makers about the role of government in our lives.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Democracy won?t work if we can?t talk to each other. So how do we do it across the cultural and political divides? WNYC?s own Brian Lehrer has hosted his syndicated show for over 30 years. Find out how a Raegan-era repeal changed the course of his career.

Companion listening for this episode:

The Method to Tucker Carlson?s Madness (5/3/2021)

History suggests we shouldn?t laugh off what?s happening in right wing media right now. Plus, profiting off of racism is a business model as old as the news.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

U.S. Census data found that more people are choosing "some other race" when asked to self-identify. It reveals just how complicated identity is, especially when it comes to race. Data journalist Mona Chalabi talks us through the data, and the stakes, of that statistic. Plus we hear from people around New York City who live outside of the Black-white binary, as they share their stories. Mona is also the host of the podcast "Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi," from the TED Audio Collective.

Companion listening for this episode:

This Land Is My Land, That Land Is Your Land (10/6/2016)

One thing politicians on both sides of the aisle have agreed on is that immigrants seeking legal status should "go to the back of the line." Problem is, that line doesn't exist.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Afrofuturism is an old idea that?s reaching new people. This Black History Month, we travel from Seneca Village to Wakanda, from Sun Ra to Lil Nas X as we learn this cosmic vision of Black freedom, directly from the culture makers propelling the movement. Academy Award winning production designer and lead curator of the Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hannah Beachler (Creed, Moonlight, Beyoncé's Lemonade, Black Panther, and more), tells us what Afrofuturism looks like. Then, Professor Louis Chude-Sokei, director of the African American studies program at Boston University and co-curator of the Afrofuturism festival hosted by Carnegie Hall, tells us what Afrofuturism sounds like. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Louis Chude-Sokei: Afrofuturism Playlist

?It?s no secret that when movements and concepts reach the ?ism? phase, they often congeal into cliche or harden into orthodoxy. As they expand to attract and include others, the raw, unorthodox creativity that created them in the first place can be forgotten or lost to those who arrive to a table that?s already been set. With this tendency in mind, I?ve selected tracks that honor the wild, experimental sensibilities that feed Afrofuturism across the Black diaspora. From dub textures to the machinic surfaces of techno, kuduro, and gloriously uncategorizable beatscapes, these tracks are intended to keep Afrofuturism geographically, culturally, and sonically nonconformist.? ?Louis Chude-Sokei (Carnegie Hall Festivals Playlist)

The former Talking Heads frontman explores the various challenges ? and beauties ? of human connection while breaking down his hit Broadway show, American Utopia. David Byrne's American Utopia is running at Broadway's St. James Theater through early April. You can also stream the filmed version, directed by Spike Lee, on HBO Max. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022)

Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Biden?s vow to finally appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court has ignited a debate before a nomination has even materialized. How do you fight for representation, without getting stuck in the tired old debate over ?affirmative action?? Hear reactions from President and CEO of the National Women's Law Center Fatima Goss Graves, Court scholar Elie Mystal, and listeners.  

Companion listening for this episode:

A Court On The Edge (9/21/2020)

After the passing of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the long sought a stable conservative majority in the Supreme Court became a reality - but not without a fight. WNYC's Jami Floyd (Senior Editor for Race and Justice) and Elie Mystal (Justice Correspondent at The Nation) joined us to set the scene for the battle over the Supreme Court and what a vacancy on the bench of the highest court in the nation represents for Election 2020 and our collective future.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

New science finds we?ve got less than a decade to avoid climate catastrophe. Activist and author Bill McKibben says the only solutions that can beat that deadline are collective. Host Kai Wright invites listeners to ask McKibben their own climate questions, on the heels of a United Nations report that declared the damage from carbon and methane emissions at our current rate will be irreversible by 2030. What can we do that will make enough change, quickly enough? 

Companion listening for this episode:

The Birth of Climate Denial (5/11/2017)

How a movement to create doubt about the reality of climate change began ? and how scientific consensus has been perpetually undermined. 

'Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate' was originally published on September 20, 2021. Listen to more episodes here.

"The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Mona Charen discusses the true meaning of conservative and the radical shift in the GOP. Plus, she helps take your calls. Then, a listener mailbag begs us to explore how "normal people" became part of the Jan 6. attack. Host Kai Wright and senior digital producer Kousha Navidar spoke with Seamus Hughes, Deputy Director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, to learn more.

Companion listening for this episode:

Episode 1: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going? (9/22/2016)

Listen back to our very first episode where we went to Long Island to find out if America has truly lost its mind.

"The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

As recent voting rights legislation struggles to even get a vote in the Senate, we revisit a conversation with historian Dr. Carol Anderson about how American voters, particularly Black Americans, had fought and continue to fight for their right to participate in the democratic process - safely and with certainty that their votes will count.

Dr. Anderson is a Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of several books including White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide (2016).

Companion listening for this episode:
The Short Life and Early Death of Voting Rights (7/12/2021)
Birth, August 1965. Death, July 2021. So now what for multiracial democracy?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

This MLK Weekend, Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lewis helps us understand the potential of love in our politics. Then, hear from a student participating in a hunger strike for voting rights. What is it like putting your body on the line when your own Senator is the person standing in the way? Arizona State University sophomore, Michaela Schillinger, takes us through the process of organizing a strike while balancing school, meeting with legislators like Senator Kyrsten Sinema, and a surprising update as the story continues to unfold.

Companion listening for this episode:
How Martin Luther King, Jr., Changed American Christianity (1/18/2021)
What did MLK?s uniquely Black theology teach us about the relationship between faith and politics in 2021?

"The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.  

On a scale of 1-10, how anxious are you about the state of our democracy? Kai considers when democracy is past its tipping point with New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall. Plus callers tell us how anxious they are about the state of our democracy.

Then is the right better at the internet than the left? Senior producer Kousha Navidar reports back. You can read more about the Twitter study here. Check out Anna Kramer's article about the study here.

Companion listening for this episode:

The Supreme Court v. Our Rights (12/6/2021)

Another year of the SCOTUS is coming to a close. But can we still trust our nine appointed justices to be the final arbiters of the law? Listen to the end for our last digital living segment.

"The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat, Clyde?s) breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories. Plus, she tells host Kai Wright about her hopes for the future of theater and her interest in making the medium accessible and meeting people where they are.

Companion listening for this episode:

Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021)

Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of ?post-traumatic growth.?

"The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

James Reese Europe was already famous when he enlisted to fight in World War I. But the band he took to the frontlines ? as part of the famous 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters ? thurst him, and Black American music, onto the global stage. Moran sits down at the piano to show Kai how Europe?s band changed music, and how jazz carries the resilient sound of Black history and ambition in America. 

Companion listening for this episode:

The ?Beautiful Experiments? Left Out of Black History (2/8/2021)

Saidiya Hartman introduces Kai to the young women whose radical lives were obscured by respectability politics, in the second installment of our Future of Black History series.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Do you need a revival?  On the longest night of the year, join us to celebrate Yalda, a poetic Persian tradition. Then, a conversation about those we?ve lost with jazz and gospel artist Gregory Porter.

Here?s the translation of the Hafez poem read by Armen Davoudian at the end of our show:

Ghazal 43 (Hafez)

The orchard charms our hearts, and chatter when our dearest friends appear ? is sweet;

God bless the time of roses! To drink our wine among the roses here ? is sweet!

Our souls? scent sweetens with each breeze; ah yes, the sighs that lovers hear ? are sweet.

Sing, nightingale! Rosebuds unopened yet will leave you, and your fear ? is sweet;

Dear singer of the night, for those in love your sad lament is clear ? and sweet.

The world?s bazaar contains no joy, except the libertine?s; food cheer ? is sweet!

I heard the lilies say, ?The world is old, to take things lightly here ? is sweet.?

Hafez, the happy heart ignores the world; don?t think dominion here ? is sweet.

? Translated by Dick Davis in Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shriaz (Penguin)

You can watch the live-streamed Yalda event mentioned in the show. Here is the information:

Tuesday, Dec. 21st, 9PM Eastern/ 6PM, PST

?Celebrating Shab-e Yalda? is a pre-recorded event premiering on the longest night of the year, Tuesday, December 21, 2021 at 6:00 PM. This very special program includes poetry reading and a performance from Paris-based opera singer and composer Ariana Vafadari and California-based singer Sima Shahverdi, as well as a ceremonial lighting of candles to bring light and warmth to this night.

Co-presented by The Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University and the Diaspora Arts Connection, this is a free event and no registration is required. All you have to do is tune in to our Facebook, Instagram, and/or YouTube channels on the evening of December 21 to watch.

Companion Listening:

How the Dead Still Speak to Us (11/1/2021)

This Halloween, we reveal its history and why connecting to the dead is important to so many, from Ireland, to Mexico, to NYC. Plus a guided meditation to help you connect, too.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Three men ? White, Black, and Asian ? discuss the nuances of identity that divide this country. A bonus episode, introducing a new podcast we love: ?Some of My Best Friends Are??

Our host Kai Wright talks with Khalil Gibran Muhammed about the new show. And we share an episode in which Khalil and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in '80s, talk with New York Times journalist and author Jay Caspian Kang about his new memoir, The Loneliest Americans, and his experience growing up Asian in America. 

Companion Listening:

Listen to more episodes of the Some of My Best Friends Are... Podcast:

?Some of My Best Friends Are? is a podcast hosted by Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s. Today a Harvard professor and an award-winning journalist, Khalil and Ben still go to each other to talk about their experiences with the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. In Some of My Best Friends Are... with Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Ben Austen, they invite listeners into their unfiltered conversations about growing up together in a deeply-divided country, and navigating that divide as it exists today."

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic of the New York Times, helps us review the year in culture. What can we learn about our struggling effort to live together from this year?s art? Then, a conversation with WQXR?s Terrance McKnight about the life and legacy of famed contralto, Marian Anderson.

The List

Here?s a crowd-sourced list of 2021?s defining art gathered from listeners and our guest. If you have a suggestion tweet us at #USofAnxiety.

 Film

 Television

 Music

Art

Cultural Trends

Companion Listening:

Actor Daniel Kaluuya?s Road to Revolutionary (3/4/2021)

Kai talks to the ?Judas and the Black Messiah? star about his award-winning portrayal of Fred Hampton and the legacy of the Black Panther Party.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Another year of The Supreme Court of the United States is coming to a close. But can we still trust our nine appointed justices to be the final arbiters of the law? Could we ever? Co-hosts of the Boom! Lawyered podcast, Jessica Mason Pieklo and Imani Gandy, join Kai Wright to answer those questions and more from our listeners about Dobbs v. Jackson and the impact of abortion rights on the U.S. Plus, results from our audience experiment to see how platforms on the Internet shape the content we consume.

Companion Listening:

Dissent, Dissent, Dissent (9/20/2020)

In this special episode, we reflect on the life and legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, following her passing. Kai is joined by Emily Bazelon (Staff Writer at The New York Times Magazine and Co-Host of ?Political Gabfest? at Slate), WNYC?s own Brian Lehrer and callers like you to talk about the impact of the ?Notorious RBG? on the nation and its citizens.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Anti-racist work snuck into the mainstream last year. But ever since, it?s received a huge backlash. Why, and what did right-wing media have to gain? This week, Kai revisits two conversations: First, with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of five best-selling books including How to Be an Antiracist, about what anti-racism really means. Then, Dr. Nicole Hemmer, author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics, explains how right wing media serves -- and surrounds -- its audience.

Companion listening for this episode:

The ?Beautiful Experiments? Left Out of Black History (02/08/2021)

Cultural historian Saidiya Hartman introduces Kai to the young women whose radical lives were obscured by respectability politics, in the second installment of our Future of Black History series. 

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

History shows that our country?s actually been divided from the start. If secession is in our DNA, what?s keeping us together? Should we just break up already? Kai talks with author Richard Kreitner about his book, ?Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America?s Imperfect Union.? Plus, a look at how the Internet and the ?Filter Bubble? contribute to our isolation today. Stick around for an exercise you can do when the divide gets real at the Thanksgiving table.

Companion listening for this episode:

Can America Be Redeemed? (07/05/2021)

Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of ?post-traumatic growth.?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Who?s breaking them, and why? Coming off of COP26, we talk to journalists Elizabeth Kolbert and David Wallace-Wells about the real cost of the climate crisis and who is paying the price. Learn about climate reparations, hear answers to listener questions, and discover what?s left for us to try to move forward as a global society. Plus, revisit the history of the 1992 Earth Summit that we discuss in the episode here. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Nothing You Do Alone Will Save the Climate (9/20/2021)

New science finds we?ve got less than a decade to avoid catastrophe. Activist and author Bill McKibben says the only solutions that can beat that deadline are collective.

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Broadcast journalist Ray Suarez was 59 when he lost a dream job that took decades to reach. What he did next reveals a harsh reality of class blindness and the consequences of job insecurity in the U.S. His experience inspired a new podcast that ?gives voice to people who have lost jobs, lost their homes, and sometimes lost the narrative thread of their lives.? He joins host Kai Wright to preview his story and helps take calls from our listeners. 

Listen to Going for Broke With Ray Suarez, a new podcast by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Nation.

Companion listening for this episode:

Maybe We Just Want Less ?Work? (9/7/2021)

The ?Great Resignation? appears to be a real thing. But why? We ask workers what they really want. Plus, 45 questions to help us understand each other, and ourselves.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

This Halloween, we reveal the holiday?s often untold history and why connecting to the dead is important to so many people, from Ireland, to Mexico, to NYC. What about this time of year lowers the veil between the living and the dead, and what does this universal desire to connect with those who?ve passed teach us about ourselves? Plus, make sure to listen to the end for a conversation with award-winning psychic medium Betsy LeFae, host of the podcast Trust Yourself. She leads Kai through a guided meditation that can help you connect, too.

Companion listening for this episode:

Collective Loss, Collective Care (3/15/2021)

More than half a million Americans - our family, friends, neighbors, loved ones - have lost their lives to the virus over the past year and our collective grief continues to compound. But communities have come together in remarkable ways to take care of each other.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

In just two weeks, New Yorkers could elect Eric Adams, making him the city?s second-ever Black mayor. What does his rise through civil service tell us about the ways race and power have evolved in the nation?s largest city? Hear from Errol Louis, one of New York's longest-serving political journalists, about how Adams's story is part of a much broader history of Black politics -- a story that began in a Brooklyn church, some 50 years ago. 

Companion listening for this episode:

'Community' Is a Verb. And It?s Hard (6/12/2020)

To a lot of people, Eric Adams offers a sense of safety after a spike of violence in their communities. Revisit an episode about how people all over the country found ways to ?do the work? in their communities in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. But as they did, they faced challenges that went beyond Covid-19 and police violence. Two stories, from Chicago and New York City.

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Jon Gruden, a star coach in the NFL, recently resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders. A sexual harassment investigation within a separate part of the league surfaced old emails in which Gruden used homophobic, racist, and misogynistic language. Scandals like these ? driven by men in positions of power ? have plagued the sport and the league for decades. But what does this mean for fans who just want to enjoy the game? When a sport is a crucial part of a person?s community and culture, should bigotry like this change the way they watch?

Companion listening for this episode:

The 'Indoor Man' and His Playmates (10/2/18)

Sexism and the sexual exploitation of women isn?t new, just like Playboy wasn't just about the pictures. Revisit how Hugh Hefner's magazine helped create the notion that women were there for the taking.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Is racism a permanent fixture of society? Host Kai Wright is joined by Jelani Cobb, staff writer for The New Yorker, to unravel the history of Derrick Bell?s quest to answer that question and how it led to our present debate over critical race theory. 

Companion listening for this episode:

The Method to Tucker Carlson?s Madness (5/3/2021)

History suggests we shouldn?t laugh off what?s happening in right wing media right now. Plus, profiting off of racism is a business model as old as the news.

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Displaced Haitians are still seeking safe harbor. But the U.S. long ago abandoned the ideal that all migrants should at least be allowed to tell their stories. Host Kai Wright is joined by globally recognized immigrant rights advocate and professor at Columbia Law School, Elora Mukherjee, to break down asylum. When refugees arrive, how do we respond, and how are we all implicated in that choice?

Companion listening for this episode:

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Haiti and International Aid (8/23/2021)

Haiti?s recent tragedies revives a conversation about disaster, aid, and how people recover. Then, a discussion about perspective on the 30th anniversary of the Crown Heights riots.

 ?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

The fall season is here. A season of new shows on television, art in museums, and musicals on Broadway. Can the creative work that?s been made during the pandemic, and that?s going to be made now, help us move forward together? Host Kai Wright takes calls from listeners with bestselling author and senior culture editor at ESPN's The Undefeated, Morgan Jerkins. Then, we revisit a conversation with Ashley C. Ford about a piece of art that we?re still thinking about, the HBO series Lovecraft Country. 

Companion listening for this episode:

Can America Be Redeemed? (7/5/2021)

Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry consider the question through the work of James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Plus: How our country could enter a period of ?post-traumatic growth.?

?The United States of Anxiety? airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].