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Race. In your face.

The Code Switch Podcast

The Code Switch Podcast

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

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Some freed people actually received '40 acres and a mule.' Then it got taken away.

Reveal's 40 Acres and a Lie Part 1 Illustration by Michael Johnson for Mother Jones hide caption

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Illustration by Michael Johnson for Mother Jones

The Code Switch Podcast

Some freed people actually received '40 acres and a mule.' Then it got taken away.

The promise of "40 acres and a mule", is often thought of as a broken one. But it turns out, some freed people actually received land as reparations after the Civil War. And what happened to that land and the families it was given to is the subject of a new series, 40 Acres and a Lie, by our colleagues at Reveal and the Center for Public Integrity.

Some freed people actually received '40 acres and a mule.' Then it got taken away.

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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

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

The Code Switch Podcast

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

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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

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Jackie Lay

Analysis

Word Watch

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"?

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100 years of immigration policies working to keep out immigrants

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

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Jackie Lay

The Code Switch Podcast

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

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

The Code Switch Podcast

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

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Where are the Black punks now?

Left: James Spooner, co-creator of Afropunk Festival and co-editor of Black Punk Now. Right: Black Punk Now cover art. PR Agency hide caption

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PR Agency

The Code Switch Podcast

Where are the Black punks now?

More 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.

Where are the Black punks now?

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From 'fight the power' to advertising for the power: hip-hop turns 50
Islen Milien for NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

From 'fight the power' to advertising for the power: hip-hop turns 50

For 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.

From 'fight the power' to advertising for the power: hip-hop turns 50

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Rolling the dice on race in Dungeons & Dragons
Thumy Phan for NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Rolling the dice on race in Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & 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.

Rolling the dice on race in Dungeons & Dragons

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Black praise in white pews: When your church doesn't love you back
LA Johnson/Getty Images/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Black praise in white pews: When your church doesn't love you back

How 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.

Black praise in white pews: When your church doesn't love you back

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The tricky obligations of utang na loob
Malaka Gharib/NPR

Perspective

The Code Switch Podcast

The tricky obligations of utang na loob

Utang na loob is the Filipino concept of an eternal debt to others, be it family or friends, who do a favor for you. In this episode from 2022, we break down this "debt of the inner soul" — and discover a surprising side to this pre-colonial value.

The tricky obligations of utang na loob

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The Women Behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott
NPR

Perspective

The Code Switch Podcast

The Women Behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott

We've heard about Rosa Parks and her crucial role in the Montgomery bus boycott. But Parks was just one of many women who organized for years. In this episode, those women tell their own story.

The Women Behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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Whose Nightmares Are We Telling? How Horror Has Evolved for People of Color

Jasmin Savoy Brown stars in Scream 6 and Yellowjackets. photo by Robb Klassen/design by NPR hide caption

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photo by Robb Klassen/design by NPR

Perspective

The Code Switch Podcast

Whose Nightmares Are We Telling? How Horror Has Evolved for People of Color

Host B.A. Parker talks to Jasmin Savoy Brown, of the recently-released Scream 6, about playing a queer Black girl who lives. And film critics Richard Newby and Mallory Yu discuss how horror movies can actually help us empathize with each other

Whose Nightmares Are We Telling? How Horror Has Evolved for People of Color

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We owe women of color for the foods we love to eat

Chefs Von Diaz, Mayukh Sen, Reem Assil and Priya Krishna. NPR hide caption

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NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

We owe women of color for the foods we love to eat

For 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.

We owe women of color for the foods we love to eat

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Reckoning With The NFL's Rooney Rule
NPR/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

Reckoning With The NFL's Rooney Rule

The large majority of NFL players are people of color. The coaches on the sidelines? Not so much. In this episode, we're looking at the NFL's famous diversity plan and what it might tells us about why so many corporate initiatives like it don't work.

Reckoning With The NFL's Rooney Rule

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The Utang Clan
Malaka Gharib/NPR

Perspective

The Code Switch Podcast

The Utang Clan

Utang na loob is the Filipino concept of an eternal debt to others, be it family or friends, who do a favor for you. It goes back to pre-colonial times in the Philippines, and can pass from one generation to another. And some Filipino-Americans want to do away with utang all together, especially when it butts up against "American" values of independence and self-reliance. On this week's episode, we break down this "debt of the inner soul" — and discover a surprising side to this value.

The Utang Clan

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Can therapy solve racism?

Can therapy erase racism? What are the limits of how it can be used to combat anti-Blackness? Islenia Milien for NPR hide caption

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Islenia Milien for NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Can therapy solve racism?

In 2020, nearly 20% of Americans turned to therapy. Many of those people were looking for a space to process some of the big, painful events they were living through, including the pandemic, a contentious election cycle, and of course, the summer's racial reckoning. But that had us wondering: What exactly can therapy accomplish? Can it mitigate the effects of racism? Help us undo how we internalize racial trauma? Today, we're sharing the stories of two Latinx people who tried to use therapy as a means to understand and combat anti-Blackness in their own lives.

Can therapy solve racism?

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A Glimpse At 'How The Other Half Eats'
Little, Brown and Company

The Code Switch Podcast

A Glimpse At 'How The Other Half Eats'

How do race and class affect the way we eat? What makes dollar store junk food different from organic junk food? And when did Whole Foods become such a polarizing grocery store? We're getting into all those questions and more with Priya Fielding-Singh, author of the new book, How the Other Half Eats.

A Glimpse At 'How The Other Half Eats'

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Black And Up In Arms

(From left) Dickson "Q" Amoah, Jon McDonald, Kourtney Redmond, Costia Harris and David Hayes are members and/or officers of the Chicago chapter of the National African American Gun Association. Olivia Obineme for NPR hide caption

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Olivia Obineme for NPR

Analysis

The Code Switch Podcast

Black And Up In Arms

Guns. They're as American as apple pie. They represent independence and self-reliance. But ... not so much if you're Black. On this episode, we're getting into the complicated history of Black gun ownership and what it has to tell us about our present moment.

Black And Up In Arms

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Opinion: Report On Racism, But Ditch The Labels

President Trump listens during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Oliver Contreras/Getty Images hide caption

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Oliver Contreras/Getty Images

Opinion

The Code Switch Podcast

Opinion: Report On Racism, But Ditch The Labels

I understand the moral outrage behind wanting to call the president's tweets racist. But I disagree.

Opinion: Report On Racism, But Ditch The Labels

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