The Guardian is introducing a new US video podcast, Stateside with Kai and Carter, and it is betting on two journalists with deep experience explaining America at its most complicated.

Kai Wright and Carter Sherman will co-host the show, according to the publication’s introduction to the project. The pitch is straightforward: make sense of a fast-moving national story that often feels fragmented, overheated and hard to follow. That framing matters. Audiences do not just face a flood of headlines; they face a crisis of context, and the show appears designed to meet that gap directly.

The new show positions journalism not just as a stream of updates, but as a tool for understanding how power, history and identity shape daily life in the US.

The strongest signal in the launch comes from Wright’s track record. The Guardian describes him as a Peabody award-winning host, editor and writer whose reporting examines the intersection of history, power and American identity. His previous work includes Notes From America with Kai Wright for WNYC, along with limited-run podcasts such as Blindspot Season 3: The Plague in the Shadows, which documented the early years of the Aids epidemic in the US; Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which earned an Alfred I duPont-Columbia University award; and The United States of Anxiety, a reported series on the rise of the Maga movement and its effect on political culture.

Key Facts

  • The Guardian has introduced Stateside with Kai and Carter as a US video podcast.
  • Kai Wright and Carter Sherman serve as co-hosts.
  • Kai Wright previously hosted WNYC’s Notes From America and led several acclaimed podcast projects.
  • Wright’s work focuses on history, power and evolving American identity.

The launch also tells readers something about where political and cultural coverage may be heading. News outlets increasingly want hosts who can report, interpret and connect dots across issues instead of treating each story as a self-contained event. Wright’s body of work suggests that approach, and Sherman’s role as co-host points to a format built around conversation as much as explanation. Reports indicate the show aims to do more than recap the news cycle; it aims to help viewers understand the forces driving it.

What comes next will determine whether Stateside becomes essential viewing or simply another entry in a crowded media field. If the hosts can turn breaking developments into clear, grounded analysis, the show could carve out a real place in how audiences follow American politics and public life. In a moment when attention splinters and trust feels fragile, that kind of clarity carries real weight.