Notes from America with Kai Wright

Donald Trump understands something very important about American democracy: We don’t debate public policy, we fumble our way toward a shared political culture. So if you want to control the debate over how to build a health care system, you first have to capture our political culture -- our values, norms, shared assumptions, what we feel and believe about ourselves. Trump gets that. So he's waging a culture war, tweet by tweet.

But the battle to capture America’s political culture has a long history. On race and gender, science and religion, matters of sex and media and war and peace — all of it — there's a backstory, starring somebody like Donald Trump. Somebody who went all in to change what Americans feel and believe about a given issue. So over the next several weeks, we're going to meet some of those people and tell the stories that brought us to this juncture in our political culture.

The United States of Anxiety: Culture Wars introduces listeners to people who have been battling to shape America’s political culture for decades. We profile culture warriors, past and present, who have shaped debates over race, religion, science, sexuality, gender and more. We connect those debates to real people, with real stakes in the outcome. We’re filling in the blanks--hopefully answering questions you didn’t even know you had--and we’re asking, what are you willing to fight for? Because if you want to control American politics, you’ve first got to capture American culture.

Beginning May 9, join us in The United States of Anxiety: Culture Wars.

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