WNYC Adds The United States of Anxiety to its Weekend Radio Lineup
Award-winning podcast hosted by Kai Wright about the social issues of our time to air weekly on Sundays at 6pm on WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820 beginning Sunday, August 23
(New York, NY — August 20, 2020) — Beginning Sunday, August 23, The United States of Anxiety — WNYC Studios’ award-winning podcast about our nation’s history and its grip on our future — will air weekly at 6pm on WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820 as a radio show. The show will continue to be available as a podcast.
Hosted by Kai Wright and hailed by the Atlantic as one of the “Best Podcasts of 2018,” The United States of Anxiety explores the biggest questions of our times: who counts as an American, who is allowed to live here, who gets access to opportunity, and whose lives matter? Each Sunday, Wright and a team of WNYC reporters will offer a deep dive into the cultural, political and social spaces and stories where these issues are playing out, examine how our history got us here, and explore the collective choices we face as a city and a nation. Listeners will hear deeply reported dispatches from the front lines of justice; compelling interviews with artists, journalists and thought leaders whose work is making an impact; and live call-ins with listeners making sense of these issues in their own lives.
For the radio debut, Wright will be joined by two guests for a review of the DNC convention: Roslin Spigner, a Democratic district leader from Southeast Queens and strong supporter of Joe Biden, and Abdul El-Sayed, the former health commissioner of Detroit who wanted Bernie Sanders to get the nomination. He will also take listener calls on their reflections of the Democratic race.
Additional topics in upcoming weeks include a review of the RNC convention, a Labor Day conversation with two groups — sanitation workers and home health aides — who are often overlooked in discussions of essential workers, and an investigative report into attempts at voter suppression in the upcoming election.
“I’m excited to join WNYC’s radio schedule in the lead-up to next presidential election,” said Wright. “From the beginning, when we interviewed Trump voters and their immigrant neighbors before the last election, The United States of Anxiety has elevated the voices of real people living the consequences of our nation’s socio-political dynamics. Having a live radio platform each week gives us the chance to build on that and talk about the issues we’ve been covering — racism, economic inequality, inequities in healthcare and education, criminal justice reform, sexism —with listeners in real time at a moment when the stakes couldn’t be higher.”
“We’re thrilled to bring Kai’s voice to a permanent spot on the WNYC airwaves as we grapple with unprecedented change in our city and our world,” said Andrew Golis, Chief Content Officer, WNYC. “Since the debut season’s prescient — and at the time, rare — look at Trump voters before the 2016 election, The United States of Anxiety has deftly kept its finger on the pulse of the nation’s mood and illuminated the historical roots of how we got here. Kai’s weekly presence on the radio expands the audience for these conversations, and allows for more opportunities for listeners to join in.”
Kai Wright has been covering racial and economic justice issues for over 20 years. At WNYC, Wright was the host of WNYC Studios’ limited-run podcasts 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 to bring Americans together across divides during the first 100 days of the Trump Administration.s. Previously, Wright was an editor at The Nation, the editorial director of Colorlines, and a founding editor at TheRoot.com. He 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.
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