Code Switch

Ask Code Switch: What About Your Friends?

22 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We help our listeners understand how race and its evil play cousin, racism, affect our friendships. And we're doing it with help from WNYC's Death, Se...

Is The Door To Iran Closed Forever?

15 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In light of all the news coming out of Iran, we're talking with Jason Rezaian — an Iranian-American author and journalist who has experienced Iran's...

Carmen Maria Machado Takes Us 'In The Dream House'

08 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When Carmen Maria Machado started searching for stories about intimate partner violence in queer relationships, there wasn't much out there. But in he...

Beautiful Lies

01 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

So many people's New Year's resolutions are centered around getting in shape, updating their skincare routine, and generally being more attractive. Bu...

The Birth Of A 'New Negro'

25 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Can travel change your identity? It certainly did for one man. Alain Locke, nicknamed the 'Dean of the Harlem Renaissance,' traveled back and forth be...

Who Shot Ya?

18 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The shootings of the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur in the late 1990s are widely thought to be connected, but have never been officially solved. On...

The Martha's Vineyard migrant flight has echoes of a dark past: Reverse Freedom Rides

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Many people have heard of the Freedom Rides of 1961, when civil rights activists rode buses through the South to protest segregation. But most people ...

Death Of A Blood Sport

04 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Later this month, a Congressional ban will make cockfighting illegal in U.S. territories. Animal rights activists argue that the sport is cruel and in...

Sometimes Explain, Always Complain

27 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's Thanksgiving week, so we wanted to give y'all a question to fight about: How much context should you have to give when talking about race and cul...

Sex, Lies And Audio Tape

20 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes, in order to understand yourself, you fumble through a tough conversation with your mom. Other times, you roll up to a sex club with your be...

Status Update

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly 9 million people in the U.S. are part of a "mixed-status" family: some may be U.S. citizens; some may have green cards; others may face the con...

Is This What It Means To Be White?

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, a white minister and civil rights organizer, James Reeb, was killed by a group of white men in Selma, Ala. Reeb's death drew national outrage...

Fear In An Age Of Real-Life Horror

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's Halloween, and people are leaning into all things scary. But sometimes those celebrations of the macabre hit a little too close to home, brushing...

A Strange And Bitter Crop

23 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Eighty-five years ago, a crowd of several thousand white people gathered in Jackson County, Florida, to participate in the lynching of a man named Cla...

President Trump's (Anti-)Social Media

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The President's Twitter feed has become the White House's primary mechanism for communicating with the world. Ayesha Rascoe of NPR Politics took a dee...

That's The Anthem, Get Your [Dang] Hands Up!

09 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, we look closer at hit songs that have taken on broader resonances: from a wistful ode to Puerto Rico to a disco classic about outlast...

Political Prisoners?

02 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In "Prison City," Wisconsin, white elected officials are representing voting districts made up mostly of prisoners. Those prisoners are disproportiona...

The Original Blexit

25 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

How is it that the party of Lincoln became anathema to black voters? It's a messy story, exemplified in the doomed friendship between Richard Nixon an...

The Black Table In The Big Tent

18 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Black Republicans are basically unicorns — they might just be the biggest outliers in American two-party politics. So who are these folks who've fou...

A Tale Of Two School Districts

11 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In many parts of the U.S., public school districts are just minutes apart, but have vastly different racial demographics — and receive vastly differ...

'20 And Odd. Negroes'

28 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In August of 1619, a British ship landed near Jamestown, Virginia with dozens of enslaved Africans — the first black people in the colonies that wou...

All That Glisters Is Not Gold

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's a widely accepted truth: reading Shakespeare is good for you. But what should we do with all of the bigoted themes in his work? We talk to a grou...

Dora's Lasting Magic

14 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Nickelodeon's Dora The Explorer helped usher in a wave of multicultural children's programming in the U.S. Our friends at Latino USA tell the story of...

After The Cameras Leave

07 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Five years ago, the death of an unarmed black teenager brought the town of Ferguson, Mo. to the center of a national conversation about policing in bl...

Puerto Ricans Stand Up

31 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It took less than two weeks for Puerto Ricans to topple their governor following the publication of unsavory private text messages. We tell the story ...

Chicago's Red Summer

24 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Almost exactly 100 years ago, race riots broke out all across the United States. The Red Summer, as it came to be known, occurred in more than two doz...

Oh So Now It's Racist?

17 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, an argument about what to call President Trump's rhetoric. NPR editors Mark Memmott and Keith Woods offer different ideas for how news orga...

The Return Of Race Science

10 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the 19th century it was mainstream science to believe in a racial hierarchy. But after WWII, the scientific world turned its back on eugenics and t...

America's Concentration Camps?

03 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

There's a debate over what to call the facilities holding migrant asylum seekers at the southern border. We revisit an earlier controversy to help mak...

Some Of The People Knew Magic

26 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years after the Stonewall Uprising, queer and trans folks are uncovering hidden parts of LGBTQ+ history. A new exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum...

Code Switch Book Club: Summer 2019

19 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Our listeners suggestions include American history, compelling fiction, a few memoirs—and Jane Austen, re-imagined with brown people.Learn more abou...

E Ola Ka 'Olelo Hawai'i

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker. That was the fate of Hawaiian, until a group of second-language learners put up a fight and dec...

The Original 'Welfare Queen'

05 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's a pernicious stereotype, but it was coined in reference to a real woman named Linda Taylor. But her misdeeds were far more numerous and darker th...

Salt Fat Acid Race

29 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Samin Nosrat is an award-winning chef, cookbook author, and star of the Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. She's also an Iranian American woman try...

Dispatches From The Schoolyard

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In middle school and high school, we're figuring out how to fit in and realizing that there are things about ourselves that we can't change — whethe...

Anger: The Black Woman's 'Superpower'

15 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A Sapphire isn't only a jewel—it's also cultural shorthand for an angry black woman. In this episode, we look at where Sapphire was born, and how th...

We Don't Say That

08 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

France is the place where for decades you weren't supposed to talk about someone's blackness, unless you said it in English. Today, we're going to mee...

You Say Chicano, I Say...

01 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When members of the nation's oldest Mexican-American student organization voted to change its name, it revealed generational tensions around the past,...

Poets, The Life Boats

24 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

April is National Poetry Month, so on this episode, we're passing the mic to a handful of talented poets — the people who narrate our lives and help...

Can the Go-Go Go On?

17 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For more than two decades, a cellphone store in Washington, D.C. has blasted go-go music right outside of its front door. But a recent noise complaint...

Love & Walkouts

10 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1968, thousands of students participated in a series of protests for equity in education that sparked the Chicano Movement. But for two of the stud...

Why Is It So Hard To Talk About Israel?

05 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Support for Israel has long been the rare bipartisan position among lawmakers in Washington. But recently, several younger, brown members of Congress ...

Ask Code Switch: You Are What You Eat

27 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we tackle reader questions on vegetarianism, the specter of grocery store Columbuses, and the quiet opprobrium directed at "smelly ethnic f...

'On Strike! Blow It Up!'

20 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years ago, a multiracial coalition of students at a commuter college in San Francisco went on strike. And while their bloody, bitter standoff ha...

Respect Yourself

13 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What does "civility" look like and who gets to define it? What about "respectable" behavior? This week, we're looking at how behavior gets policed in ...

When Disaster Strikes

06 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A deadly tornado ripped through Lee County Alabama this past Sunday. An NPR investigation found that white Americans and those with safety nets often ...

On The Shoulders Of Giants

27 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Colin Kaepernick stopped standing for the national anthem at NFL games it sparked a nationwide conversation about patriotism and police brutality...

Getting A Foot In the Door

21 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Anali, a young woman from Los Angeles, wants to break into the film industry. A local program taught her the skills of the trade and the language, but...

From Blackface To Blackfishing

13 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Okay, news cycle: you win. We're talking about blackface. This week, we delve into the hidden history of "blackening up" in popular culture — from a...

We're Going To Start A Dialogue...Again.

07 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Another week of racial controversies, another week of calls to "start a dialogue on race." What does that even mean? We talk to two veterans of one hi...

Pretty Hurts

30 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Some may think of beauty as frivolous and fun, but on this episode, we're examining a few of the ugly ways that its been used to project power.Learn m...

Intrigue At The Census Bureau

24 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Another day, another drama: Last week, a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration's decision to add a controversial citizenship question t...

Perfect Son

16 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Kim and his father were once very close, but drifted apart after the family came to the United States from Korea. They drifted even further afte...

The Return

09 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Meet one of the people caught up in the Trump Administration's hard-line stance on immigration: Javier Zamora. He was living in the US legally under T...

America's Other Anthems

02 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're uncovering the stories behind three American Anthems. First, we hear from two musical greats about their respective versions of "Figh...

Race Underneath The Skin

26 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Spit into a tube and get in touch with your ancestors! Or not. This week we're revisiting a conversation about DNA, and what it tells us about who we ...

Code Switch Goes To College

19 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A professor at the University of Texas San Antonio designed a college course based around episodes of the Code Switch podcast! In it, her students lea...

Code Switch Book Club

12 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We checked in with authors, poets and great literary minds to see what books they think everyone should read this holiday season.Learn more about spon...

The Story Of Mine Mill

05 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Reporter Julia Simon tells us about a radical miners' union in Birmingham, Alabama. It laid the foundation for civil rights organizers in the South, a...

Dog Show!

28 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, we're hanging out with pups. First, is Kat's anxious dog Samson really just a little beagle bigot? Then, the author Bronwen Dickey an...

Live From The Apollo...It's Code Switch!

21 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Gene and Shereen talk to poet Denice Frohman, percussionist Bobby Sanabria, chef Marcus Samuelsson and comedian Ashley Nicole Black at Harlem's World ...

The House On The Corner

14 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The news item about the shooting was bare: one man shot another 17 times in a dispute over drugs. The actual story — of a family that feared for its...

Politics Podcast Pop Up

07 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We know where your mind's going to be this week: midterm election results!!! So, we're handing the reins over to our play cousins from NPR's Politics ...

Is Ron Brown High School Working?

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Ron Brown High School was built on a novel notion: a school for boys of color, based on a model of restorative justice. We visited the school last yea...

The Cost To Cast A Ballot

24 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week: why people don't vote, why people can't vote, and two state races that might have national implications for 2020.Learn more about sponsor m...

What So Proudly We Hail

17 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

So "The Star-Spangled Banner" is kind of a mess: notoriously tough to sing and with some weird stanzas about slavery. This week, we're looking at two ...

Our Homeland Is Each Other

10 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're handing the mic over to transracial adoptees. They told us what they think is missing from mainstream narratives about adoption, and ...

Deja Vu All Over Again

03 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Decades before Christine Blasey-Ford testified before lawmakers, the country had another reckoning with sexual misconduct set against the backdrop of ...

#CriticsSoWhite

26 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The reckoning that is reshaping Hollywood is finally making its way to the critic's perch. Bilal Qureshi joins us to talk about exciting movies coming...

Puerto Rico's Other Storm

19 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Long before Hurricane Maria devastated the territory, the threat of financial disaster loomed over Puerto Rico. Now, an old, bitter struggle over who ...

Ask Code Switch: School Daze

12 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

For better or worse, classrooms have always been a site where our country's racial issues get worked out — whether its integration, busing, learning...

Update: Looking For Marriage In All The Wrong Places

06 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In a unanimous decision, India's Supreme Court struck down a long-standing ban on gay sex. In light of this, we're revisiting an episode about same-se...

Stuck Off The Realness

05 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Prodigy made up half of the hugely influential hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, but spent his life in excruciating pain due to a debilitating disease called sic...

So What If He Said It?

29 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In recent weeks, rumors of a recording of President Trump using the N-Word have resurfaced. But critics have been describing Trump as racist for years...

Live From Birmingham...It's Code Switch!

22 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Shereen and Gene head to Alabama to talk about race in the American South. Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham talks about growing up in the shadow of...

Behind The Lies My Teacher Told Me

15 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It's a battle that's endured throughout so much of American history: what gets written into our textbooks. Today we tag in NPR education correspondent...

Talk American

08 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What is the "Standard American Accent"? Where is it from? And what does it mean if you don't have it? Code Switch goes on a trip to the Midwest to fin...

Word Watch, The Sequel: 2Watch 2Wordiest

01 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We're back this week with the grand finale of the Word Watch Game Show! First, we'll uncover the messy history of the term "white trash." Then we'll g...

Word Watch: A Code Switch Game Show

25 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

English is full of words and phrases with hidden racial backstories. Can you guess their histories? On part one of this two-part episode, we're unpack...

Rap On Trial

18 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Olutosin Oduwole was a college student and aspiring hip hop star when he was charged with "attempting to make a terrorist threat." Did public percepti...

Word Up

11 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Since 1992, the study known as "The 30 Million Word Gap" has, with unusual power, shaped the way educators, parents and policymakers think about educa...

Code Switch's Summer Vacation

04 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We're going on a trip, and we're taking you with us! From the peak of Mount Denali to the beaches of Queens, we're talking camp, suntans and our favor...

Immigration Nation

27 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise, and the prospect of mass deportation is in the news. But as much as this seems like a unique moment in histor...

Looking For Marriage In All The Wrong Places

20 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Online matchmaking sites are making it easier than ever for couples seeking an arranged marriage to meet. Well...not all couples.Learn more about spon...

Twenty-First Century Blackface

13 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We have one story of how blackface was alive and well on network television in Colombia until 2015.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastch...

What We Inherit

06 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, the story of one family's struggle to end a toxic cycle of inter-generational trauma from forced assimilation. Getting back to their ...

A Thousand Ways To Kneel And Kiss The Ground

30 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, the NFL announced a new policy to penalize players who kneel during the national anthem. The announcement drew fresh attention to the centu...

Of Bloodlines and Conquistadors

23 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Hispanos have lived side by side the Pueblo people for centuries—mixing cultures, identities and even bloodlines. But recently, tensions have risen ...

What's Black And Gray And Inked All Over?

16 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Black-and-gray tattoos have become increasingly popular over the last four decades. But many people don't realize that the style has its roots in Chic...

Tough Questions For The World's Toughest Job

09 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mother's Day is coming up, so we're taking on your most difficult questions around parenting. We'll talk about choosing a school, raising bilingual ch...

Code Switch Census Watch 2020

02 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We've said it before: The U.S. Census is way more than cold, hard data. It informs what we call ourselves and how we're represented. On this episode, ...

It's Bigger Than The Ban

25 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Muslims make up a little over one percent of the U.S. population, but they seem to take up an outsized space in the American imagination. On this epis...

Members of Whose Tribe?

18 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Today, Americans tend to think of Jewish people as white folks, but it wasn't always that way. On this episode, we dig into the complex role Jewish id...

Location! Location! Location!

11 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It's the force that animates so much of what we cover on Code Switch. And on the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, we take a look at some ways...

The Road To The Promised Land, 50 Years Later

04 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tenn. This week, we have two stories about the aftermath of his death. The...

Amara La Negra: Too Black To Be Latina? Too Latina To Be Black?

28 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

People are constantly telling Amara La Negra that she doesn't fit anywhere. Sometimes, she's "too black to be Latina." Other times, she's "too Latina ...

The Madness Of March

21 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The NCAA men's basketball tournament is going on right now and will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The coaches and commissioners...

Who Is 'Us,' Anyway?

14 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

"Shouldn't you help out your own community first?" That's the question we're exploring this week via our play-cousins at Latino USA. A black celebrity...

Searching For A Home After Hate

07 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In February 2017, Srinivas Kutchibhotla fell victim to an alleged hate crime. In the aftermath, his widow, Sunayana Dumala, had her life and her immig...

A House Divided By Immigration Status

28 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

All four of the Gonzalez kids grew up under one roof, in Los Angeles, Calif. But when the oldest was in middle school, she realized that she and her s...