Veralyn Williams was a Senior Producer at WNYC.
Veralyn Williams appears in the following:
What Mahmoud Khalil's arrest means for international students ... and everyone
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia alum, was detained by ICE for his role in leading pro-Palestinian protests at his former university last year. As Khalil's case has captured the nation's attention, free speech advocates see it as a test of the First Amendment. Meanwhile, the Trump administration argues they have the right to deport Khalil without charging him with a crime. On this episode, why Khalil's arrest should worry all of us.
Untangling the history of Black rights on Native land
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
How the criminal legal system considers who is and isn't Native, and what that means for the Black people who are members of tribal nations. This reporting is part of an audio documentary from Audible called Tribal Justice: The Struggle for Black Rights on Native Land.
B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Parker has been trying to find her place in the banjo world. So this week, she talks to Black banjo players like Grammy nominee Rhiannon Giddens about creating community and reclaiming an instrument that's historically already theirs.
Why laughing while crying is so Korean
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Comedian Youngmi Mayer talks about how her Korean family uses humor as a tool for survival. She gets into the Korean comedic tradition and why the saddest stuff is what makes them laugh the hardest.
Race, Romance and Reality TV
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Reality TV has been referred to as a funhouse mirror of our culture. But even with its distortions, it can reflect back to us what we accept as a society – especially when it comes to things like gender, sexuality and race.
On today's episode we get into all of that, zeroing in on the Bachelorette, but also looking at a dating show that's trying to do it differently.
On today's episode we get into all of that, zeroing in on the Bachelorette, but also looking at a dating show that's trying to do it differently.
The truth and lies behind one of the most banned books in America
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Author Mike Curato wrote Flamer as a way to help young queer kids, like he once was, better understand and accept themselves. It was met with immediate praise and accolades — until it wasn't. When the book got caught up in a wave of Texas-based book bans, suddenly the narrative changed. And like so many books that address queer identity, Flamer quickly became a flashpoint in a long, messy culture war that tried to distort the nature of the book.
How Black People Remade Mississippi
Thursday, February 16, 2023
Down in the Mississippi Delta, the Lester Family made a space for themselves and claimed their land–and they didn’t need “40 Acres and a mule” to do it.
Actor Daniel Kaluuya’s Road to Revolutionary
Thursday, March 04, 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 Secret Tapes of a Suburban Drug War
Monday, March 01, 2021
A cop in Westchester, NY, was disturbed by what he saw as corruption. He started recording his colleagues -- and revealed how we’re all still living with the excess of the war on drugs.
Blackness (Un)interrupted
Monday, February 22, 2021
Our Future of Black History series concludes with conversations about self-expression. Because when you carry a collective history in your identity, it can be hard to find yourself.
The Case Against Those ‘Tubman $20s’
Thursday, February 18, 2021
People are excited to replace Andrew Jackson’s face with an abolitionist hero. But Dr. Brittney Cooper argues not all honorifics are the same.
Impeachment: Catharsis and Impunity
Monday, February 15, 2021
The Senate’s trial and acquittal of Donald Trump left many with mixed emotions. But did it move us any closer to a reckoning with the worst of America’s political culture?
The ‘Beautiful Experiments’ Left Out of Black History
Monday, February 08, 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 Role of Black History Month in Black Lives
Thursday, February 04, 2021
United States of Anxiety's Kai Wright and Veralyn Williams talk about their feelings around Black History Month -- skepticism and enthusiasm, respectively, and its origins.
The Origin Story of Black History Month
Monday, February 01, 2021
We’ve got complicated relationships with this annual celebration -- from joy to frustration. So to launch our Future of Black History series, we ask how it began and what it can be.
New Hopes, Old Fears
Monday, January 25, 2021
Kai checks in with poet Jericho Brown, historian Kidada Williams, and listeners as we all try to transition out of the Trump presidency.
Life After Fascism: A Brief History
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Historian Timothy Snyder offers lessons on what could happen if those who enabled the attack on our democracy don’t face consequences.
How Martin Luther King, Jr., Changed American Christianity
Monday, January 18, 2021
And what MLK’s uniquely Black theology can teach us about the relationship between faith and politics in 2021.
The American Story, in a Single Day
Monday, January 11, 2021
January 6, 2021, offered a hyper-condensed version of our country’s entire political history--with all of its complexity, inspiration, and terror.
The (Un)Making of a ‘Model Minority’
Monday, January 04, 2021
An odd racial pecking order puts Indian Americans in a curious place -- outside of whiteness, but distinct from other people of color. How’d that come to be? And is it changing?
