Playwright Lynn Nottage says it’s in her nature to be optimistic. And if it’s true what they say that you can manifest good things by thinking positively, well, it’s worked out for her in myriad ways. Nottage is the first and only woman to have won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, and she’s one of today’s most produced playwrights. Her work, though, explores the experiences of Americans existing in the margins who have little reason to have hope. In this episode, she joins Kai to reflect on her remarkable career and share how she develops complicated characters that manage to be relatable, resilient and inspire optimism in audiences. Plus, musician David Byrne is known for a darkness to his lyrics. As the former frontman for the band Talking Heads with songs like “Psycho Killer,” “Road To Nowhere,” and “Slippery People,” it’s easy to assume Byrne is fresh out of hope in humanity. Instead, he says he’s motivated by the beauty of human connection he experiences when he pushes past the anxiety of being a social creature. Byrne and Kai discuss how he channeled that uplifting outlook into his Broadway show “American Utopia,” named for Byrne’s 2018 album.

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“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.