Code Switch

By NPR

Society & Culture

What's Code Switch about?

What'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.

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Exclusion, resilience and t...

05.31.2023

Ava 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 ...

Code Switch episodes:

05.31.2023 Exclusion, resilience and the Chinese American experience on 'Mott Street' Ava 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 ...
05.24.2023 Across the ocean: a Japanese American story of war and homecoming One 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 ...
05.17.2023 The implications of the case against ICWA The 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 ...
05.10.2023 Naomi Jackson talks 'losing and finding my mind' "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 reads from that essay about her experience with mental illness, including how she has had to ...
05.03.2023 K-Pop's Surprising B(l)ackstory K-pop disrupted pop culture in South Korea in the early 1990s, and later found fans around the world. Vivian Yoon was one of those fans, growing up thousands of miles away in Koreatown, Los Angeles. This week, we're sharing an ...
04.26.2023 The Fallout of a Callout In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu called out Hollywood's portrayals of South Asians with his documentary The Problem With Apu. The film was also a criticism of comedian Hank Azaria, who is white, for voicing the Indian character on The Simpsons. ...
04.19.2023 Self-Care Laid Bare "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 actually can you do? On this episode, host B.A. Parker asks: ...
04.12.2023 W2s and WTFs You finally get through the confusing, stressful work of doing your taxes only to hear back from the IRS: you're being audited. And it turns out that your race plays a big role in whether you get that letter, how ...
04.05.2023 Women in hip-hop push back against the male gaze The male gaze objectifies, consumes and shames people for not fitting into a mold. This week, we're looking at how that affects women in hip-hop. Our play cousins at Louder Than A Riot bring us the voices of artists who ...
03.29.2023 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 ...
03.22.2023 The Women Behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott We've all heard about Rosa Parks and her crucial role in the Montgomery bus boycott. But Parks was just one of the many women who organized for years to make that boycott a reality. In this episode, the women behind ...
03.15.2023 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 ...
03.08.2023 The Women Who Influence How America Eats 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, ...
03.01.2023 This Racism Is Killing Me Inside This week, we revisit an episode from 2018 that looks into how discrimination not only degrades your health, but can cost you your life. We hear the story of Shalon Irving, who died after giving birth to her daughter. Black ...
02.22.2023 Black History's Family Tree Brett Woodson Bailey grew up knowing he was the descendant of "the father of Black history," Carter G. Woodson. He also grew up with the support and guidance of his "cousin" Craig Woodson, who is white. In this week's Code ...
02.15.2023 The Merengue War From the dance floors of weddings and bar mitzvahs to the Billboard Hot 100, chances are, you've enjoyed some merengue music – think about the 1998 Puerto Rican hit 'Suavemente,' which topped charts across the globe. But did you know ...
02.08.2023 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 ...
02.01.2023 Celebrating Lunar New Year In A Time Of Grief In this week's episode, we dive into the traditions and stories that shape Lunar New Year, and why violence and tragedy in the U.S. on the eve of the holiday cuts deep for celebrants. We also visit Monterey Park, California, ...
01.25.2023 The Original Rainbow Coalition In this episode we turn to late 1960s Chicago, when three unlikely groups came together to form a coalition based on interracial solidarity. It's hard to imagine this kind of collaboration today, but we dove into how a group of ...
01.18.2023 Bad Bunny, Reggaeton, and Resistance Bad 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 ...
01.11.2023 Meet Lori Lizarraga—Our Newest Co-host From the world of local TV news, meet Code Switch's newest co-host, Lori Lizarraga! Before she was born, her mother had the nickname "Lori" ready for her, even though her legal name is Laura. The story behind why starts more ...
01.04.2023 Revisiting 'How The Other Half Eats' How do race and class affect the way we eat? What does it mean to "eat like a white person?" And if food inequality isn't about "food deserts," what is it really about? We're getting into all those questions and ...
12.28.2022 How cumbia has shaped music across Latin America Whether you're from Ushuaia or East Los Angeles, you've likely heard cumbia blaring from a stereo. From our play friends at NPR's Alt.Latino, Jasmine Garsd and Felix Contreras talk about their common love of the musical backbone of Latin America.
12.21.2022 Unlocking family history in 'Before Me' It wasn't until Lisa Phu had her own child that she started unlocking her mother's history. In her new 5-part series called Before Me, Lisa asks her mother, Lan, the questions she should have asked years ago. Lisa tells us ...
12.14.2022 What We Watched in 2022 There are a lot of TV shows to watch out there - so the Code Switch team isn't trying to bring you a list of the "best." Instead, we're chatting about the shows we watched this year that we loved, ...
12.07.2022 Why some Republicans want to narrow who counts as Black Republican officials in Louisiana want to change how Black people are counted in voting maps. If their plan is successful, it could shrink the power of Black voters across the country — and further gut the Voting Rights Act.
11.30.2022 Notes from America: 'Blackness (Un)interrupted' So many of our perceptions of race have to do with color. How does that change if you've lived in both Black and white skin? Our Executive Producer Veralyn Williams, explores this question in conversation with her sister, Lovis. Lovis ...
11.23.2022 A lost bird, a found treasure Bear Carrillo grew up knowing only a few details about his birth parents: when he was born they were university students, the first from their tribes to go to college, and they just couldn't afford to keep him. Decades later, ...
11.16.2022 Live from Chicago: What makes a city home? This episode is excerpted from the Code Switch Live show at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, featuring special guests José Olivarez, Sultan Salahuddin, Diallo Riddle and Adriana Cardona-Maguidad to talk all about Chicago. Musical guest KAINA provides music!
11.09.2022 Throughline: How Korean culture went global From BTS to Squid Game to high-end beauty standards, South Korea reigns as a global exporter of pop culture and entertainment. How does a country go from a war-decimated state just 70 years ago, to a major driver of global ...
11.02.2022 Code Switch fam! Say hello to It's Been a Minute's new host, Brittany Luse! Code Switch's host B.A. Parker, introduces us to our play cousin It's Been a Minute's new voice, Brittany Luse! In Brittany's first two episodes she talks about the representation and contextual history of Black women in politics and Hollywood. You ...
10.26.2022 Fear In An Age Of Real Life Horror, Revisited It's that time of year again: celebrations of the macabre hit a little too close to home and brush up against our country's very dark past. We talk about navigating fake horror amid what's actually terrifying and how scaring ourselves, ...
10.19.2022 Skeletons in the closet, revisited More than 10,000 Native human remains are currently sitting in a storage facility in a Maryland suburb. This week, how one small tribe is fighting to get them back to Florida. This episode originally aired October 13, 2021.
10.12.2022 Black reality in a world of fantasy Why build a fantasy world that still has racism? B.A. Parker moderates a discussion on Black science fiction and fantasy with authors Tochi Onyebuchi and Leslye Penelope at the National Book Festival.
10.05.2022 Omar Apollo on making music, being queer and Latinx NPR's Alt.Latino gets a reboot, and for its first episode, they speak with R&B darling Omar Apollo. Apollo shares what it's been like being a role model for queer Latinx kids and the pressure of having to watch what he ...
09.28.2022 Gaming out race in Dungeons & Dragons Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most popular tabletop roleplaying 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. We take ...
09.21.2022 In 1962, segregationists set up "Reverse Freedom Rides" Recently, Republican governors have been sending migrants from the southern border to cities they deem more liberal under false pretenses. The political stunt echoes what segregationists 1962 called Reverse Freedom Rides. This episode originally aired in December 2019.
09.14.2022 Can therapy solve racism? Nearly 20% of Americans turned to therapy in 2020. That had us wondering: What exactly can therapy accomplish? Today, we're sharing the stories of two Latinx people who tried to use therapy to understand and combat anti-Blackness in their own ...
09.07.2022 How the Pell Grant helped POCs go to college The cost of college has been on everyone's minds, especially with student debt cancellation. Pell Grants are one way many low income students have managed to pay for college. And they exist in large part because of one Black woman ...
08.31.2022 What does it mean to "inherit whiteness?" In Baynard Woods' new memoir, Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness, Woods reflects on how growing up white in South Carolina impacted his life. He argues that it is crucial for white people in the U.S. to reckon with their personal ...
08.24.2022 What makes a good race joke? When a comedian of color makes a joke, is it always about race, even if it's not about race? In part two of our comedians episodes, Code Switch talks to comedians Aparna Nancherla, Brian Bahe and Maz Jobrani about how ...
08.17.2022 What's so funny about race? What makes a great joke about race? In the first of two episodes, Code Switch talks to comedians Ziwe, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes and Joel Kim Booster about their favorite race joke they tell: What's its origin story? Why is it so ...
08.10.2022 Into the glittering neon universe of 'P-Valley' with Katori Hall The Starz hit show P-Valley takes audiences to a strip club in a fictional town in the Mississippi Delta. Part soap opera, part Southern Gothic, the show focuses on the interior lives of the Black women who work at the ...
08.03.2022 Lost In Translation Today on the show, we're bringing you the stories of two families grappling with how best to communicate across linguistic differences. In the first story, a young man sorts through how to talk to his parents about gender in Chinese, ...
07.27.2022 Meet B.A. Parker — our new co-host! Fam: We finally have a new co-host of the Code Switch podcast! And we're just a tiny bit excited. So today on the show, we're introducing you to B.A. Parker. Gene chats with Parker about who she is, what drew ...
07.20.2022 Who belongs in the Cherokee Nation? In 1866, the Cherokee Nation promised citizenship for Black "freedmen" and their descendants. But more than a century later, the descendants of the freedman are calling foul on that promise being fulfilled. This episode, from our friends at The Experiment ...
07.15.2022 School Colors Episode 9: "Water Under The Bridge" Over the course of this season, we've explored a rich history and complicated present, but what about the future? In the final episode, we catch up with parents who became activated on both sides of the debate over the diversity ...
07.13.2022 Code Switch's playlist for a summer road trip This week, we're talking about the podcasts that podcasters listen to. These are the shows that members of the Code Switch team cannot tear our ears away from. We think they'd be great for a long car ride, plane ride, ...
07.08.2022 School Colors Bonus: "Ms. Mitchell's Pandemic Diary" Pat Mitchell is the longtime principal of P.S. 48 – an elementary school in Jamaica, Queens. And while she cares deeply about her students and her work, she has struggled with the growing challenges faced by her school community. In ...
07.06.2022 'Wherever you go, there you are' Many immigrants have described the feeling of being different people in different places. Maybe in one country, you're a little goofy, a little wild. In another, you're more serious — more of a planner. In this episode, which originally aired ...

Older episodes

Code Switch

What's Code Switch about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Code Switch episodes:

Exclusion, resilience and the Chinese American experience on 'Mott Street'

Across the ocean: a Japanese American story of war and homecoming

The implications of the case against ICWA

Naomi Jackson talks 'losing and finding my mind'

K-Pop's Surprising B(l)ackstory

The Fallout of a Callout

Self-Care Laid Bare

W2s and WTFs

Women in hip-hop push back against the male gaze

The Tricky Obligations of Utang Na Loob

The Women Behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott

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

The Women Who Influence How America Eats

This Racism Is Killing Me Inside

Black History's Family Tree

The Merengue War

Reckoning With The NFL's Rooney Rule

Celebrating Lunar New Year In A Time Of Grief

The Original Rainbow Coalition

Bad Bunny, Reggaeton, and Resistance

Meet Lori Lizarraga—Our Newest Co-host

Revisiting 'How The Other Half Eats'

How cumbia has shaped music across Latin America

Unlocking family history in 'Before Me'

What We Watched in 2022

Why some Republicans want to narrow who counts as Black

Notes from America: 'Blackness (Un)interrupted'

A lost bird, a found treasure

Live from Chicago: What makes a city home?

Throughline: How Korean culture went global

Code Switch fam! Say hello to It's Been a Minute's new host, Brittany Luse!

Fear In An Age Of Real Life Horror, Revisited

Skeletons in the closet, revisited

Black reality in a world of fantasy

Omar Apollo on making music, being queer and Latinx

Gaming out race in Dungeons & Dragons

In 1962, segregationists set up "Reverse Freedom Rides"

Can therapy solve racism?

How the Pell Grant helped POCs go to college

What does it mean to "inherit whiteness?"

What makes a good race joke?

What's so funny about race?

Into the glittering neon universe of 'P-Valley' with Katori Hall

Lost In Translation

Meet B.A. Parker — our new co-host!

Who belongs in the Cherokee Nation?

School Colors Episode 9: "Water Under The Bridge"

Code Switch's playlist for a summer road trip

School Colors Bonus: "Ms. Mitchell's Pandemic Diary"

'Wherever you go, there you are'

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