American Voters, in Their Own Words

About three years ago, Patty Dwyer began waving flags from highway overpasses. The 60-year-old respiratory therapist from Long Island joined the protests to throw her weight behind the idea that the American identity was disintegrating. She and other protestors invited passersby to honk if they agreed. At first, she said, only a few cars bleated. But over time, the chorus built to a crescendo. “Cars go crazy,” she told WNYC. Eventually, “the sound of the beeping horns drowned you out.”

Dwyer is part of the cast of characters in the new podcast, “The United States of Anxiety,” a collaboration between WNYC and The Nation. Taking Long Island communities as a case study, the seven-part series, with new episodes rolling out every Thursday until the election, aims to humanize voters whose multi-faceted lives are often reduced to single sound bite issues in this boiling election season. The series aims to explore how identities—personal, aspirational, immutable, and in flux—are shaping voters’ choices.