Notes from America with Kai Wright

This week we’re looking at a President Richard M. Nixon, a man obsessed with winning. Whether it was an election or becoming a great leader, he would go to great lengths to ensure his success. But Nixon felt he was surrounded by enemies, so to make sure

In 2016, the campaign promise to “Make America Great Again” highlighted an important cultural shift. It represented the idea that the country needed to return to its traditions in order to be as prosperous as it was once before. But groups like Brujas, a

There’s been much progress for the LGBTQ community over the past decade: the legal debate over same-sex marriage has been resolved, popular culture has largely embraced gay and lesbian people, and transgender people are gaining legal recognition. But as

At the height of the election season last September, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables.” “We are living in a volatile political environment," she said. "You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half

The culture wars of the Boomer generation still shape our politics today. In this episode we look at those culture wars from another vantage point. Instead of focusing on the debates themselves, we ask the question: How do people move from radical politi

How can music — even music without lyrics — be political? We explore that question in episode 4 of "Culture Wars." In the 1920s, composer Aaron Copland took off for Paris. His search for a distinctive American sound in classical music resulted in some of

Talking to Trump voters during the campaign, we'd sometimes hear what felt like a unified sentiment bubbling up beneath the popular, and populist, reasons for supporting their candidate. Retired truck mechanic Fiore Napolitano from Long Island put it thi

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 teach

The city of Olathe, Kansas, has been shaken since February, when a man gunned down two Indian immigrants in a bar there. Witnesses say the shooter yelled,  “Go back to your country!” It was the first hate-crime killing after the 2016 presidential electio

  From activists in the current resistance movement to a McDonald's worker just trying to survive, get to know Americans fighting for what they believe in and shaping the future of the country's political culture. The United States of Anxiety: Culture Wa