Listeners, every Thursday night during President Biden's first hundred days in office, I'm hosting a series of call-in specials called America, Are We Ready?

And we've been having such good discussions with our guests and with callers from across the country that we want to share them with you on this podcast feed.

So here's this past Thursdays, America, are we ready?

I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my Daily Politics Podcast from WNYC Studios. This is located on Muncie-Lennepie Territory, also known as Lower Manhattan in New York City.

It's America, are we ready? A Thursday night national call-in show

for the first hundred days of the Biden presidency. This is day 44. And the music behind me is from

the new album called I Pray for My Enemies. It's by the U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, who happens to be

Native American, a member of the Muskogee Nation.

We'll talk to her in just a minute as the first guest on tonight show.

Then later we'll cover the news today that Congresswoman Deb Holland of New Mexico is pretty much assured now of becoming the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history

as her nomination to be Interior Secretary got out of committee and with two Republican votes

this afternoon. We'll take your calls later, too, on President Biden's promise to change the

federal relationship with Native tribes. But hold off on the calls for now. We'll give out

the number in a few minutes after we spend a few minutes with U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo, the first

Native American to serve in that position. She was appointed to it in 2019. Joy, it is always a joy

to speak with you. Thank you for joining us on America.

Are we ready? Yes. Thank you so much for having me on again. It's nice to be here.

And just to talk about the track that we were listening to, I read that you didn't start learning the

saxophone until you were around 40. Is that right? And what inspired you to take it up

relatively late in life to start learning an instrument? Yes, most people don't do that.

And I always loved the sound of the saxophone. And when I was in junior high, I wanted

to play sax and the band teacher wouldn't let girls play sax, so I walked away from music.

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