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Code Switch 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.

Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Code Switch.
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Code Switch

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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.

Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org. You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Code Switch.

NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews.
Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR.

Most Recent Episodes

A historical reenactment of enslaved Haitians. A group of people stand in a field led my a man carrying a torch.
Black Zombie/Kino Lorber

How Hollywood stole the zombie from Haiti

Zombies have roots most fans have never heard of. In Haitian Vodou, being zombified meant being enslaved even in death. B.A. Parker talks to Maya Annik Bedward, director of the new documentary Black Zombie, about how a spiritual metaphor for slavery was repackaged by Hollywood and sold back to the world, all while Haitian culture keeps getting cast as something to fear.

How Hollywood stole the zombie from Haiti

Listen · 28:27
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Demonstrators wave signs during a nationwide protest against AI data center expansion.
SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images

The shady deals behind data centers

Clarksdale, Mississippi, the birthplace of the blues, has been losing people, jobs, and businesses for years. Now land there has been rezoned to make room for a hyperscale data center, a process that got underway before anyone even put the words “data center” in writing. Capital B reporter Aallyah Wright walks us through the hard bargain her hometown is weighing over a project nobody will even confirm is happening.

The shady deals behind data centers

Listen · 31:20
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Let’s stop pretending we desegregated schools
Jackie Lay

Let’s stop pretending we desegregated schools

Seventy years after Brown v. Board of Education, Black parents still face an impossible choice about where to send their kids. Gene talks with his twin sister about the different choices they’ve made for their kids, and with historian Noliwe Rooks about why Black families are still stuck choosing between schools that will teach their children and schools that will love them.

Let’s stop pretending we desegregated schools

Listen · 42:44
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The Lindsay Clancy case and the women we make into monsters
Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

The Lindsay Clancy case and the women we make into monsters

The Lindsay Clancy trial captured the nation this summer, and reactions toward Clancy have been split. The case brought much needed attention to postpartum psychosis, but some question the support Clancy received from the public. This week, we speak with writer Myriam Gurba about why some cases of family annihilation get more attention than others, why we villainize mothers and the parallels with the Latin American legend of La Llorona.

The Lindsay Clancy case and the women we make into monsters

Listen · 29:47
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Chris Brown won't get cancelled. This is why.
Jackie Lay/NPR

Chris Brown won't get cancelled. This is why.

When Rep. Jasmine Crockett took the stage at a Chris Brown concert to honor him, the backlash came fast. It's a familiar cycle: every few years, Brown lands back in the news, and the public relitigates a history of violence stretching back to 2009. Gene talks with cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux and writer and DJ Noella Williams about why so many fans stay 10 toes down for him, and what accountability could even look like.

Chris Brown won't get cancelled. This is why.

Listen · 34:13
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Do voters want woke?
Jackie Lay/NPR

Do voters want woke?

Lots of progressive politicians eyeing runs for higher office are distancing themselves from the politics of 2020, like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez declaring, "woke 1.0 was crazy." But should they be? Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times says voters are swayed more by identity than ideology — so it's less about the ideas and more about the vibes. We talk to him about who gets read as radical (even if they're not) and whether anyone who isn't a white guy can run as a populist.

Do voters want woke?

Listen · 37:20
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A collage of two men sitting on a porch under a starry night.
Jackie Lay/NPR

Is Cuba Trump's next real estate project?

Cubans are living through near-constant blackouts after an executive order that called the Cuban government an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and blocked their fuel imports. A hundred-page State Department report describes Cuba as the puppeteer behind everything from the George Floyd protests to what it calls the rise of antifa. We talk to historians Michael Bustamante and Alexander Hall about the day to day effects of U.S. pressure, why this crisis is old and new at the same time, and why Black Cubans are absorbing the worst of the crisis.

Is Cuba Trumps next real estate project?

Listen · 25:09
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Why can’t people be normal about the WNBA?
Michael Reaves / Getty Images

Why can’t people be normal about the WNBA?

The WNBA is more popular than ever, but the growth has come with a lot of unwanted attention, like protests at games and death threats directed towards players. This week, we talk with independent journalist Frankie de la Cretaz about what brought all of this hate into the league, and NPR’s domestic extremism correspondent, Odette Yousef, about the ways the league is responding.

Why can’t people be normal about the WNBA?

Listen · 35:52
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Multiple surveillance cameras fixed on a pole.
Roland Weihrauch/AFP via Getty Images

Why we’re all being watched

There’s a growing backlash to the surveillance systems that have quietly wired themselves into American neighborhoods, with concern growing among people who have never felt watched this way before. Gene talks with historian Matthew Guariglia about how the surveillance state got built, who it was built on first, and why opposing it now unites so many factions.

Why we’re all being watched

Listen · 36:16
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A sign at a 2019 protest reading "ANTIFA = TERRORISM!"
JOHN RUDOFF/AFP/via Getty Images

25 years after 9/11, our definition of terrorism continues to expand

In the 25 years since 9/11, we've seen the definition of terrorism expand. The Trump administration has called more and more groups “terrorists,” from “narco-terrorists” in Ecuador to people who protest ICE to the entire Democratic party. This week, our conversation with Saher Selod, an expert on the surveillance of Muslims, about the effects of the war on terror after 9/11, and historian Alex Lubin about how the word “terrorist” has been used to enact violence and surveillance.

25 years after 9/11, our definition of terrorism continues to expand

Listen · 27:49
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