Code Switch
484 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 14K ratingsWhat's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for. Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between. This podcast makes all of us part of the conversation — because we're all part of the story. Code Switch was named Apple Podcasts' first-ever Show of the Year in 2020.
Want to level up your Code Switch game? Try Code Switch Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/codeswitch
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Getting let down by the 'Great Expectations' of electoral politics
March 20, 2024 07:00 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBThis episode is brought to you by our play cousins over at NPR's It's Been A Minute. Brittany Luse chops it up with New Yorker writer and podcast host Vinson Cunningham to discuss his debut novel Great Expectations. It's a period piece that follows the story of a young man working on an election campaign that echoes Obama's 2008 run. Brittany and Vinson discuss American politics as a sort of religion - and why belief in politics has changed so much in the last decade. Learn more about sponso...
In the world of medicine, race-based diagnoses are more than skin deep
March 13, 2024 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBWe've probably said it a hundred times on Code Switch — biological race is not a real thing. So why is race still used to help diagnose certain conditions, like keloids or cystic fibrosis? On this episode, Dr. Andrea Deyrup breaks it down for us, and unpacks the problems she sees with practicing race-based medicine. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
This conspiracy theory about eating bugs is also about race
March 06, 2024 08:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBGene Demby and NPR's Huo Jingnan dive into a conspiracy theory about how "global elites" are forcing people to eat bugs. And no huge surprise — the theory's popularity is largely about its loudest proponents' racist fear-mongering. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The musical legacy of Japanese American incarceration
February 28, 2024 08:00 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MBIn February of 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government issued an executive order to incarcerate people of Japanese descent. That legacy has become a defining story of Japanese American identity. In this episode, B.A. Parker and producer Jess Kung explore how Japanese American musicians across generations turn to that story as a way to explore and express identity. Featuring Kishi Bashi, Erin Aoyama and Mary Nomura. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices....
Why menthol cigarettes have a chokehold on Black smokers
February 21, 2024 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBIn the U.S., flavored cigarettes have been banned since 2009, with one glaring exception: menthols. That exception was supposed to go away in 2023, but the Biden administration quietly delayed the ban on menthols. Why? Well, an estimated 85 percent of Black smokers smoke menthols — and some (potentially suspect) polls have indicated that a ban on menthols would chill Biden's support among Black people. Of course, it's more complicated than that. The story of menthol cigarettes is tied up in p...
Before the apps, people used newspapers to find love
February 14, 2024 11:57 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBTo celebrate the history of Black romance, Gene and Parker are joined by reporter Nichole Hill to explore the 1937 equivalent of dating apps — the personals section of one of D.C.'s Black newspapers. Parker attempts to match with a Depression-era bachelor, and along the way we learn about what love meant two generations removed from slavery. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
How college footballers led the fight against racism in 1969
February 09, 2024 20:02 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBIt's 1969 at the University of Wyoming, where college football is treated like a second religion. But after racist treatment at an away game, 14 Black players decide to take a stand, and are hit with life-changing consequences. From our play cousins across the pond, our own B.A. Parker hosts the BBC World Service's Amazing Sport Stories: The Black 14. Listen to the rest of the series wherever you get your podcasts. *This episode contains lived experiences which involve the use of strong raci...
What it's like to be a Black woman with bipolar disorder
February 07, 2024 08:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MB"Three springs ago, I lost the better part of my mind," Naomi Jackson wrote in an essay for Harper's Magazine. On this episode, Jackson shares her experience with biopolar disorder. She talks about how she's had to decipher what fears stem from her illness and which are backed by the history of racism. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taylor Swift and the unbearable whiteness of girlhood
January 31, 2024 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBTaylor Swift has become an American icon, (and she's got the awards, sales, and accolades to prove it.) With that status, she's often been celebrated as someone whose music is authentically representing the interior lives of young women and adolescent girls. On this episode, we're asking: Why? What is it about Swift's persona — and her fandom — that feels so deeply connected to girlhood? And, because this is Code Switch, what does all of that have to do with race? Learn more about sponsor me...
A former church girl's search for a new spiritual home
January 29, 2024 08:00 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MBAfter leaving the Pentecostal Church, reporter Jess Alvarenga has been searching for a new spiritual home. They take us on their journey to find spirituality that includes the dining room dungeon of a dominatrix, Buddhist monks taking magic mushrooms and the pulpit of a Pentecostal church. This episode is a collaboration with our friends at LAist Studios. Special thanks to the Ferriss, UC Berkeley's Psychedelic Journalism program for their support. Learn more about sponsor message choices: p...
What happens when public housing goes private?
January 24, 2024 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37 MBThe New York City Housing Authority is the biggest public housing program in the country. But with limited funding to address billions of dollars of outstanding repairs, NYCHA is turning to a controversial plan to change how public housing operates. Fanta Kaba of WNYC's Radio Rookies brings the story of how this will affect residents and the future of housing, as a resident of a NYCHA complex in the Bronx herself. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Pr...
The women who masterminded the Montgomery Bus Boycott
January 17, 2024 11:27 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBWhen people think back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, they often remember just the bullet points: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and voila. But on this episode, we're hearing directly from the many women who organized for months about what exactly it took to make the boycott happen. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Everyone wants a piece of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy
January 10, 2024 14:07 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBMartin Luther King Jr. was relatively unpopular when he was assassinated. But the way Americans of all political stripes invoke his memory today, you'd think he was held up as a hero. In this episode, we talk about the cooptation of King's legacy with Hajar Yazdiha, author of The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
67 years after desegregation, Arkansas schools are in the spotlight again
January 03, 2024 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBClassrooms in Arkansas were at the center of school desegregation in the 1950s. Now, with the LEARNS Act, they're in the spotlight again. Code Switch comes to you live from Little Rock, Arkansas this week to unpack the latest education bill and how it echoes themes from decades past. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Women of color have always shaped the way Americans eat
December 27, 2023 12:00 - 33 minutes - 31 MBFor decades, the ingredients, dishes and chefs that are popularized have been filtered through the narrow lens of a food and publishing world dominated by mostly white, mostly male decision-makers. But with more food authors of color taking center stage, is that changing? In this episode, we dive deep into food publishing, past and present. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Here are our favorite Code Switch episodes from 2023
December 20, 2023 12:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBIt's that time of year again, fam, when we look back at the past 12 months and think, "WHOA, HOW'D THAT GO BY SO FAST?" So we're taking a beat: for this week's episode, each one of us who makes Code Switch is getting on the mic to reflect on — and recommend — an episode we loved from 2023. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Revisiting 'The Color Purple' wars
December 18, 2023 18:22 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBThe Color Purple remake drops this week and to celebrate, we're bringing you this special episode from our play cousins over at Pop Culture Happy Hour. Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple has been adapted a few times. Next week, the new movie The Color Purple hits theaters – it's based on the Tony-winning musical. The 1985 film is remembered as a fan-favorite centering Black women's lives, but this acclaimed adaptation was received quite differently among female viewers and male viewers. To...
This is what "real self-care" looks like
December 13, 2023 08:00 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MB"You can't meditate yourself out of a 40-hour work week with no childcare and no paid sick days," says Dr. Pooja Lakshmin. But when you're overworked and overwhelmed, what can you do? On this episode, host B.A. Parker asks: What are your options when a bubble bath won't cut it? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Watching 'Renaissance' and what we hear in Beyoncé's silence
December 11, 2023 19:35 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBWe're bringing you an extra treat this week from our play cousins over at It's Been A Minute: In the credits for 'Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé' the Queen Bee makes it clear who is in charge. Written by? Beyoncé. Directed by? Beyoncé. Produced by? Beyoncé. And of course, starring...Beyoncé. For someone who is so in control of their own image, what is spoken and what is unspoken are equally loud. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The world can be painful. But love is possible, too
December 06, 2023 08:00 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBKai Cheng Thom is no stranger to misanthropy. There have been stretches of her life where she's felt burdened by anger, isolation, and resentment toward other people. And not without reason. Her identities, especially as a trans woman and a former sex worker, have frequently made her a locus for other people's fear and hatred. But at a certain point, Kai decided to embark on a radical experiment: to see if she could "fall back in love with being human." The result was a series of letters, poe...
Can you travel the world — ethically?
November 29, 2023 08:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBTraveling is supposed to open your mind and expand your horizons — but what if it doesn't? In her new book Airplane Mode, author Shahnaz Habib suggests that sometimes, traveling does more to enforce our ideas about the world than to upend them. Which means that people with "passport privilege" — AKA, the ability to travel freely from country to country — may end up feeling like the stars of some massive international adventure, while people whose travel is more restricted feel like perpetual ...
A Tale of Two Tribal Nations
November 22, 2023 08:00 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MBThe word "reservation" implies "reserved" – as in, this land is reserved for Native Americans. But most reservation land actually isn't owned by tribes. That's true for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in northern Minnesota, where the tribe owns just a tiny fraction of its reservation land. But just northwest of Leech Lake is Red Lake: one of the only reservations in the country where the tribe owns all of its land. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Pri...
Who Has The "Right To A Story?"
November 15, 2023 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBOn this week's Code Switch, we hear from two Palestinian American poets who talk about what it's like to be Palestinian American in the U.S. Fady Joudah and Tariq Luthun say the way their stories are told — or aren't told — has contributed to what they see as an erasure of their identities, and often of their humanity. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
How does a computer discriminate?
November 08, 2023 08:00 - 33 minutes - 31 MBOK, not exactly a computer — more like, the wild array of technologies that inform what we consume on our computers and phones. Because on this episode, we're looking at how AI and race bias intersect. Safiya Noble, a professor at UCLA and the author of the book Algorithms of Oppression talks us through some of the messy issues that arise when algorithms and tech are used as substitutes for good old-fashioned human brains. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoice...
All The Only Ones: The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle
November 03, 2023 07:00 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBWe're bringing you something special from our play cousins over at Embedded: the first episode of a three part series about the often neglected history of trans youth in America. We meet Zen, a Mexican-American, New Orleans native, who is coming into their transness, as we learn about an historic trans person, Bernard, from Alabama in the early 1900s, fighting to be seen. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Looking For My People In The Black Punk Scene
November 01, 2023 07:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBMore than a decade since B.A. Parker last dabbled in the Black punk scene, she heads to a punk a show, and remembers a question from James Spooner: "What is more liberating than a mosh pit full of smiling Black faces?" Parker talks to James about what it means to be a Black punk, creating the Afropunk Festival and its evolution, and a new anthology he co-edited called Black Punk Now. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Giving up on identity with Ada Limón
October 25, 2023 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBAda Limón is many things: the U.S. Poet Laureate, a recently named MacArthur "Genius," a Latina, a summer person becoming a fall person. But underneath all those outer identities, she's still in search for the "original animal at [her] core." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The agony and ecstasy of parenting with Hari Kondabolu
October 18, 2023 07:00 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBBeing a new parent is exhausting at the best of times. There are diapers to change, bottles to fill, screaming sobs to quiet down. But beyond all the routine chores that come with parenting, there are the larger social questions of how to raise a kid in a complex, unjust, and ever-changing world. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
What does it mean to be good?
October 11, 2023 07:00 - 32 minutes - 29.4 MBIn her memoir Rivermouth, author Alejandra Oliva recounts her experiences working as a translator and interpreter for people seeking asylum in the U.S. But as she navigates the world of immigration advocacy, she starts to grapple with the question of what it means to help, and what it means to "want to star in the helping." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Student activists are fighting big coal, and winning
October 04, 2023 07:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBSouth Baltimore has some of the most polluted air in the country. Local teenagers are fighting polluters back, and slowly building toward climate justice. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Probation and parole — the under-researched arms of mass incarceration
September 27, 2023 04:30 - 36 minutes - 33 MBIn the past decade, the problem of mass incarceration has gotten increased attention and thought. But in his new book, Mass Supervision, Vincent Schiraldi argues that in those conversations, people often neglect to think about probation and parole — two of the biggest feeders to the U.S.'s prison population. These systems surveil close to four million Americans, which Schiraldi says is both a huge waste of resources and a massive human rights violation. On this episode, we're talking to Schir...
'I Can Die For This Country, But I Can't Learn'
September 20, 2023 04:10 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBIn June, the Supreme Court banned affirmative action at colleges and universities across the country, with one glaring exception: military academies. On this episode, we're asking — why? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Remembering and unremembering, from Kigali to Nashville
September 13, 2023 10:36 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBFor centuries, the idea of the "American Dream" has been a powerful narrative for many immigrant communities. But for just as long, many African Americans have known that the American Dream was never meant to include them. So what happens when those beliefs collide? Today ten percent of the Black population in the U.S. are immigrants, and many grapple with this question. In this episode, we'll hear from Claude Gatebuke, who moved from Kigali to Nashville as a teenager in the wake of the Rwand...
Fall football — or the fall of football?
September 06, 2023 04:10 - 34 minutes - 31.7 MBThis week, the NFL is gearing up for the start of its 104th season. But as this new chapter begins, we're looking at some of the league's old problems with race and diversity — ones that have implications for the coaches, the players, and the fans. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Bad Bunny, Reggaeton, and Resistance
August 30, 2023 04:30 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBBad Bunny, the genre- and gender norm-defying Puerto Rican rapper, is one of the biggest music stars on the planet. He has also provided a global megaphone for Puerto Rican discontent. In this episode, we take a look at how Bad Bunny became the unlikely voice of resistance in Puerto Rico. This episode originally aired in January 2023. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
What Makes A Good Race Joke?
August 23, 2023 13:00 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MBWhen a comedian of color makes a joke, is it always about race, even if it's not about race? Code Switch talks to comedians Aparna Nancherla, Brian Bahe and Maz Jobrani about how and why race makes an appearance in their jokes. Plus, one of our own reveals her early-career dabbling in comedy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Family, fortune, and the fight for Osage headrights
August 16, 2023 04:30 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBWhen Richard J. Lonsinger's birth mother passed away in 2010, he wasn't included in the distribution of her estate. Feeling hurt and excluded, he asked a judge to re-open her estate, to give him a part of one particular asset: an Osage headright. But the more Lonsinger learned about the history of the headrights, the more he began to wonder who was really entitled to them, and where he fit in. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
How Hip-Hop Fights The Power — And Also Serves It
August 09, 2023 04:10 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBFor hip-hop's not-official-but-kind-of-official 50th birthday, we dig into its many contradictions. From the legend of the South Bronx block party where hip-hop was born to the multi-billion-dollar global industry and tool for U.S. diplomacy it has become, America's relationship with hip-hop — and the people who make it — is complicated. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Rolling the dice on race in Dungeons & Dragons
August 02, 2023 04:15 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBDungeons & Dragons is one of the most popular tabletop role-playing games of all time. But it has also helped cement some ideas about how we create and define race in fantasy — and in the tangible world. This week we revisit a deep dive into that game. What we find about racial stereotypes and colonialist supremacy is illuminating. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Code Switch's beach reads — no beach required
July 26, 2023 04:15 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBThere are race books, and there are beach reads, and never the twain shall meet. You know that old truism, right? Well, this is Code Switch (the show about race and identity and romance and drama from NPR), and we weren't willing to accept that dichotomy. So on this episode, we're bringing you a bouquet of our favorite summer thrillers, love stories, memoirs and more — all of which have something to say about race. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR ...
This Conspiracy Soup Contains Bugs — And Racism
July 19, 2023 04:15 - 33 minutes - 30.4 MBGene Demby and NPR's Huo Jingnan dive into a conspiracy theory about how "global elites" are forcing people to eat bugs. And no huge surprise — the theory's popularity is largely about its loudest proponents' racist fear-mongering. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Is "home" still home after 30 years away?
July 12, 2023 04:10 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBBrian de los Santos always thought of Mexico as his "home" — despite not having been able to return to his country of birth for three decades. But when he finally got a chance to visit, his conception of what home was and where he belonged totally shifted. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
What Happens After A Racist Massacre In Your Neighborhood?
July 05, 2023 04:10 - 32 minutes - 30 MBThis week, we're sharing the first episode of "Buffalo Extreme," a three-part series from our play cousins at NPR's Embedded. The series follows a Black cheer squad, their moms and their coaches in the year after the racist massacre at the Jefferson Street Tops in Buffalo, New York, just blocks from their gym. NPR hands the mic to the girls and women in that community as they navigate the complicated path to recovery in the year after. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices...
Honoring My Enslaved Ancestors, Part Two
June 28, 2023 04:15 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBIn the second of two episodes, Code Switch co-host B.A. Parker is figuring out what kind of descendant she wants to be. Parker and her mom decide to go back to the plantation where their ancestors were enslaved, because despite the circumstances of slavery, this is where their family began. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Honoring My Enslaved Ancestors, Part One
June 21, 2023 04:15 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBCode Switch co-host B.A. Parker digs into what it means to maintain the legacy of her ancestors. In part one of two episodes, Parker goes to a symposium for descendants of slavery and meets people who, like her, are caretakers of "culturally significant historical places." Note: A technical error with a previous version of this episode resulted in an audio mix that may have been difficult to listen to. Please check out the new mix! Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.co...
Going to a white church in a Black body
June 14, 2023 04:10 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBHow do you participate in a faith practice that has a rough track record with racism? That's what our play-cousin J.C. Howard gets into on this week's episode of Code Switch. He talks to us about Black Christians who, like him for a time, found their spiritual homes in white evangelical churches. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Spilling the "T" with comedian D'Lo
June 07, 2023 04:15 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBOn this week's Code Switch, producer Kumari Devarajan finds her demographic clone in actor and comedian D'Lo. Kumari found that when you share so much in common with a stranger who is putting their business on front street for the world to see, it can feel like they're sharing your secrets, too. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Exclusion, resilience and the Chinese American experience on 'Mott Street'
May 31, 2023 04:10 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBAva Chin's family has been in the U.S. for generations — but Ava was disheartened to learn that so much of what they had experienced was totally absent from American history books. So she embarked on a journey to learn more about her ancestors, and in doing so, to work toward correcting the historical record for all Americans. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Across the ocean: a Japanese American story of war and homecoming
May 24, 2023 04:10 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBOne of the most pivotal moments in Japanese American history was when the U.S. government uprooted more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry and forced them into incarceration camps. But there is another, less-known story about the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans who were living in Japan during World War II — and whose lives uprooted in a very different way. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The implications of the case against ICWA
May 17, 2023 04:10 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBThe Supreme Court is about to decide on a case arguing that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) discriminates against white foster parents. Journalist Rebecca Nagle explains how this decision could reverse centuries of U.S. law protecting the rights of Indigenous nations. "Native kids have been the tip of the spear in attacks on tribal sovereignty for generations." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy