Code Switch

NPR

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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20 episodes
Updated Friday

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Episodes20

Newest first

Friday · 44 min
Work does not deserve your full self
"Be vulnerable." "We love your authenticity." "Bring your full self to work." Sound familiar? In this episode, we talk to Jodi-Ann Burey, author of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, about why you should absolutely NOT do those things at work -- especially if you're a Black woman. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 28 · 30 min
Inside the culty white supremacists the feds are ignoring
Patriot Front is a white nationalist group that focuses on high visibility stunts, like banner drops, disrupting events, or swarming Washington, DC for Independence Day. Meanwhile, the State Department has convened 60 nations against what it calls far-left terrorism. We talk to NPR’s Odette Yousef about who the guys in Patriot Front actually are, why their finances resemble a pyramid scheme selling stickers and stencils, and what it means that the federal government is aiming its counterterrorism attention in a very different direction. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 24 · 22 min
How the potato became an insult
The potato may be one of the world's most beloved foods but it's also an insult. In Colombia, speaking with "una papa en la boca" means you mumble — or that you're too posh. Producer Christina Cala follows the potato from Bad Bunny to the Andes to her own mother's kitchen, and finds that potato jokes are often about whose heritage gets celebrated and who gets treated like they're worth understanding. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 21 · 33 min
With 'deed theft' scammers are targeting Black homeowners
Longtime homeowners — often Black seniors — are being tricked into signing away the deeds to their own homes, then getting evicted from them. It's called deed theft, and it's rampant in gentrifying neighborhoods like Bed Stuy, where brownstones that redlining once made cheap now sell for millions. New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé and WNYC/Gothamist reporter David Brand explain how the scam works, why it targets Black homeowners, and why it's so hard to stop. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 17 · 27 min
Why the World Cup is race and class all the way down
All good (and complicated) things must come to an end, and the World Cup is no exception. To deal with the anticipatory grief ahead of the Spain v. Argentina final, NPR World Cup and Lionel Messi expert Jasmine Garsd hops on the mic to talk all things fútbol. Lace up your limited edition pink cleats: We're talking African soccer's moment, diaspora players, colonizers vs. colonies, and what's up with race erasure on Argentina's team. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 14 · 28 min
Trump's new legal weapon for prosecuting protestors
This summer, protesters connected to a demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in North Texas were sentenced to as much as 100 years in prison. It's the first case prosecuted under President Trump's National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which targets "extremism on migration, race, and gender" and classifies antifa as a domestic terrorism organization. What's striking is the evidence: zines, Signal messages, hosting a book club. This week, we talk with Guardian reporter Lex McMenamin about what this case could mean for dissent going forward. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 10 · 29 min
Whose rights just changed? Our SCOTUS debrief
A lot went down this term in the Supreme Court. So, we’re breaking down the landmark SCOTUS decisions that affect Black voters, trans athletes and immigrants. B.A. Parker and Code Switch producer Jess Kung go over the outcomes of the cases we’ve been watching, and NPR’s immigration correspondent Ximena Bustillo helps us untangle the latest for immigrants. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 7 · 33 min
How anti-DEI hit the military
Pete Hegseth's Pentagon has been dismantling diversity initiatives and blocking the promotions of high-ranking Black officers. This week, Parker talks with The Atlantic's Clint Smith, who interviewed two dozen Black service members about the long, contradictory history of Black patriotism and what it means to serve a country that has always struggled with how to honor them. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
July 3 · 37 min
The story we don't tell about how this country was founded
We have been told the American Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But the last entry of the Declaration of Independence focuses on the founding fathers' contempt for quote merciless Indian savages unquote. On this July 4th, the 250th anniversary of its founding, Rebecca Nagle, host of the new podcast First America asks: How did an entire country miss a major point of its founding document? See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 30 · 36 min
The hunger strike ICE says never happened
Hundreds of people detained at an ICE detention center in Newark, NJ refused to eat and work for a month. They were protesting the conditions inside — spoiled food, lack of medical care, overcrowding. The detainees are the ones who actually keep the facility running — cooking, cleaning, doing laundry — all while getting paid a dollar a day. This week, two reporters who have been covering the strikes, José Olivares and Sophie Hurwitz, talk about what happens when detainees stop eating and working — and what it means that the government insists none of it is happening. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 26 · 34 min
The 'white genocide' myth is shaping immigration policy
Since October 2025, the U.S. has admitted more than 6,000 refugees — and all but three are white South Africans. The Trump administration says Afrikaners are fleeing a "genocide." They're not. This week, we look at how we got here: a conversation with a reporter who was in the Oval Office when Trump pushed this conspiracy theory on South Africa's president — and what his fixation on white South Africans reveals about anxieties over white replacement here in the U.S. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 23 · 34 min
What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?
Any day now, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Trump administration’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship. But beyond the ruling, the fight for who belongs in a country is much older and broader than the United States. Gene talks with Daisy Hernández, the author of Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth, about what we can learn from both other nations’ and our own history about where we might be headed. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 19 · 34 min
When is joy actually resistance?
Joy is not a crumb. It's cookouts with soul music, celebrating what Ossie Davis called the full sweetness of our Blackness. But what exactly does the phrase "joy is resistance," which has been flooding social media, mean? This Juneteenth, we're asking what joy actually is, when it can be a tool for social change, and why the slogan has become so popular -- even when joy itself feels more tenuous. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 16 · 34 min
Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side
After nearly 10 years of planning and construction, the Obama Presidential Center is opening on the South Side of Chicago — right across the street from an under-resourced high school, in a segregated neighborhood where home prices have jumped. Who is the Center for, and what will it mean for the people who live there? We get into it with two South Siders who've covered the Center for years — journalist Natalie Moore and the Invisible Institute's Maira Khwaja — about the Chi's tricky relationship with the president who claims them. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 12 · 26 min
Why being Black and outdoorsy is a whole thing
A viral video of a young Black man frolicking in an Oregon meadow sent B.A. Parker looking for a deeper answer: what does it take for people of color to feel safe outdoors? We dive into the racist history of what it means to be a Black person outside -- and why that complicates people's relationship today to the outdoors. Parkers talks with the self-described "Black frolicker" Daniyel and Pamela Slaughter of the Oregon-based nonprofit People of Color Outdoors. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 9 · 31 min
Trump's 'weaponization' fund steals reparations blueprint
The DOJ created a $1.776 billion fund to compensate January 6 defendants. The fund may not survive, but the federal redress system it was reaching into — built by Native nations over generations — is still intact. So today on Code Switch: who counts as having been harmed by the state? See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 5 · 22 min
Pete Hegseth's American crusade
It’s no secret that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has embraced the idea of crusading for American dominance — he published a book titled American Crusade and has several tattoos of crusader iconography. And that language has become a part of how Hegseth talks about the U.S. war with Iran. B.A. Parker talks to the religion scholar Matthew Taylor about Hegseth’s corner of Christianity and its connection with Christian nationalism. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
June 2 · 34 min
DACA recipients are trapped in Trump's limbo
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been around for almost 14 years — long enough that the so-called "DACA kids" are now middle-aged adults with jobs, mortgages and families. But the Trump administration is making it harder to hold onto the only legal status they've ever had: slowing down processing, stripping benefits, and detaining and even deporting some recipients. This week, NPR's Ximena Bustillo takes us to Arizona to meet people living in limbo, and asks what it means to build an entire life on a permit that expires every two years. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
May 30 · 31 min
The trans athlete debate is about a lot more than sports
The Supreme Court is about to rule on whether states can ban transfeminine student athletes from playing on girls' and women's teams. But we're talking to journalist Imara Jones about why these cases aren't just about school sports. They come out of a massive wave of state-level anti-trans legislation that Imara says is part of a broader movement to undermine discrimination protections — by going after the small, vulnerable minority of trans girls. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
May 27 · 24 min
It's giving incel: The evolution of internet slang
How have recommendation algorithms affected language? Linguist Adam Aleksic — aka the Etymology Nerd — says most “Gen-Z slang” is either appropriated from Black people or incels. This week, we trace how -maxxing went from the eugenicist looksmaxxing subculture to trending TikToks to the Pentagon tweeting about “lethality maxxing.” And we ask what’s actually at stake when we use words without knowing where they come from. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy