Kai Wright clings to old phones, not trends

Peabody Award-winning journalist Kai Wright says he hasn’t bought a new phone in years, relying instead on his partner’s hand-me-downs. In a candid look at his daily routine, he praises simple tools like a wheelbarrow, spends time with John Coltrane records wh

The first thing Kai Wright reaches for isn’t a charger or a new handset. It’s the same phone—kept going, passed along, and refusing to be swept up by the pace of upgrades.

Wright. co-host of Stateside with Kai and Carter at The Guardian. has spent years profiling powerful men. exploring what it means to be American. and chronicling the AIDS epidemic. He’s also a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has hosted Notes From America, The United States of Anxiety, and Indivisible. But in the rhythm of his own day. he’s steadfast about one thing: he won’t buy a new phone.

When asked what he wishes he could change about his phone. Wright’s answer comes with the kind of stubborn clarity that sounds less like policy and more like frustration earned the hard way. He wants to have bought “one smartphone and never ever had to buy another one again. forever.” His complaint is simple and specific: phones “constantly go obsolete.”.

Wright hasn’t actually bought a new phone “in I dunno how many years,” he says. Instead, he takes his partner’s hand-me-downs—on cranky principle, he adds, but with the practical reality of making do.

Even his list of everyday essentials leans toward things that don’t demand reinvention every year. Asked about his most indispensable tool, he doesn’t reach for tech at all. “Wheelbarrow,” he says—then makes the argument in plain physical terms. Haul enough dirt and rocks, and you start to appreciate the “brilliant utility of this basic design.”.

In the same interview, he counts his digital clutter without pretending it’s elegant. Right now, he has 10 tabs open in the window he’s using “right this moment.” He also has 11 more windows open—enough that he can’t bring himself to “account for what’s in them.”

Not every gadget in Wright’s past was so forgiving. He won’t name brands. but he calls out one experience as deeply disappointing: he says you can “make a coffee machine too complicated.” His goal. he adds. is just to become a functioning human—by getting caffeinated—without turning a morning ritual into an engineering challenge.

His thoughts on what he wishes he’d created point in a different direction: toward the kind of storytelling that feels intimate rather than optimized. He says he wishes he had thought of The Memory Palace. describing it as podcasting at its best—short. sweet. and built around “deeply human histories” told by “one person” with “a well-written story.”.

When he’s asked for the best advice he’s ever received, Wright keeps returning to a moral compass rather than a device. “Live an honest life,” he says—telling himself the truth as best he can and then making choices accordingly.

And when he gets stuck, he doesn’t open apps to force momentum. He listens to John Coltrane records.

Underneath the specific talk about phones and tabs, the through-line is hard to miss: Wright seems most comfortable when the tools around him require less constant maintenance of the future—and more attention to the present.

Kai Wright The Guardian Stateside phones smartphone obsolescence John Coltrane podcasting The Memory Palace Peabody Award gadgets