The Guardian is launching a new US focused video podcast next week with episodes released three times each week.
Stateside with Kai and Carter will launch on 13 May, hosted by journalist Kai Wright and Guardian reporter Carter Sherman.
It’s interview led programme will focus on topics including authoritarianism, inequality, racial injustice, climate change and corporate power, alongside lighter discussions around football, wellness and lifestyle.
The show is being introduced as a video first podcast at a time when many news publishers are adapting existing audio programmes for video platforms.
The Guardian says the format will slow down fast-moving stories and provide analysis designed to help audiences better understand the news cycle.
Stateside with Kai and Carter will be available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast platforms, with accompanying content shared across Instagram and TikTok.
Kai Wright previously worked as host and managing editor at WNYC, where he led Notes From America with Kai Wright and several limited run podcasts centred on social justice.
He said the programme aims to create “something that feels genuinely fresh” while continuing the journalistic approach he has followed throughout his career in podcasting.
He added: “We want to facilitate a conversation about how the nation can progress rather than devolve.”
Carter Sherman was most recently the Guardian’s reproductive health and justice reporter and is also author of The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future.
“At this critical moment in US history, too much of our media is dominated by celebrity-driven content, political surrogates making partisan arguments, and journalists who pretend not to have an identity or perspective,” she said.
She added: “At Stateside, we’ll ask the questions we actually have and say what we actually think.”
The Guardian said the new podcast forms part of its continued expansion in the United States and wider investment in audio and video journalism.
The publisher said its US editorial team now exceeds 200 staff for the first time, with larger teams covering politics, media, sport, culture and artificial intelligence.
