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The Code Switch Podcast

Is Cuba Trump's next real estate project?

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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?

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The Code Switch Podcast

Why we’re all being watched

by  ,  ,  ,  ,  Jasmine Romero

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

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The Logo for the show Big Lives. The word "Big" is large and colorful, and the word "Lives" is smaller, black, and in the foreground with a large drop shadow.
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The Code Switch Podcast

We're Miseducated on Lauryn Hill

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Lauryn Hill is a generational voice, a cultural lightning rod, and one of music’s biggest what-ifs. Our very own B.A. Parker joined the Big Lives podcast, hosted by Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi, to unpack the meteoric rise of the Fugees frontwoman and the intense pressures that pushed one of hip-hop and R&B’s brightest stars out of the spotlight.

We're Miseducated on Lauryn Hill

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The Code Switch Podcast

"Freedom" from fatness: Why GLP-1s go after Black bodies

by  ,  ,  ,  ,  Jasmine Romero

Ads for GLP-1s are everywhere. This week, we dig into why so many of those ads seem to feature Black women with Sabrina Strings, author of  “Fearing the Black Body” a book about the racial origins of fatphobia. We get into the toxic comment culture around everyone from Lizzo to Ariana Grande, and how the origins of body shaming have all led us to this post-body positive moment. 

Freedom from fatness: Why GLP-1s go after Black bodies

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The Code Switch Podcast

Unpacking estrangement: Who goes No Contact?

by  ,  ,  ,  Jasmine Romero

Is there a family estrangement epidemic? This week, we dig into what’s behind the no-contact movement with sociologist Rin Reczek, author of the new book, “Families We Lose.” Rin walks us through who gets cut off, why the numbers look so different for Black mothers and Black fathers, and how we can start rethinking what family means.

Unpacking estrangement: Who goes No Contact?

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Our Ancestors Were Messy: a Black history comedy show

The Code Switch Podcast

Our Ancestors Were Messy: a Black history comedy show

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In 1775, half a million enslaved people had to pick a side in a war between two groups of white men who both claimed to want freedom. In this live episode of Our Ancestors Were Messy, friend of the show, Nichole Hill takes B.A. Parker and Gene Demby through the choices one man made – from a South Carolina plantation, to the British lines, to Nova Scotia, to Sierra Leone. It's a choose-your-own-adventure through history where there are no great options.

Our Ancestors Were Messy: a Black history comedy show

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Hispanic farmworkers harvest Strawberries at a farm April 28, 2006 in Carlsbad, California.
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The Code Switch Podcast

How farm work became the exception to Trump's border crackdown

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The Trump administration has been closing off nearly every pathway into the U.S. — except one. The H-2A visa is for the seasonal workers who pick the fruits and vegetables in your grocery store, and it’s the only federal visa program still growing: up 500% since 2012, even though pretty much everyone hates it. NPR’s Ximena Bustillo traces how the history of agricultural labor created this problematic program we can’t live without.

How farm work became the exception to Trump's border crackdown

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A passenger looks on as members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front ride the Washington Metro on July 04, 2026 in Washington, DC.
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The Code Switch Podcast

Inside the culty white supremacists the feds are ignoring

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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.

Inside the culty white supremacists the feds are ignoring

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The Code Switch Podcast

Whose rights just changed? Our SCOTUS debrief

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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.

Whose rights just changed? Our SCOTUS debrief

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A collage of Black service people, General Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., and Pete Hegseth.
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The Code Switch Podcast

How anti-DEI hit the military

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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.

How anti-DEI hit the military

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What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?
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The Code Switch Podcast

What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?

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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.

What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?

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A collage of Barack Obama, a statue of him, kids walking to school, and his new Presidential Center, a rectangular facade with text texturing the top left corner.
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The Code Switch Podcast

Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

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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.

Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

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Pete Hegseth's American crusade
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The Code Switch Podcast

Pete Hegseth's American crusade

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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.

Pete Hegseth's American crusade

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Protesters for trans rights in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC. In the foreground, a sign that reads "Sports for all" in the pink white and blue of the trans flag.
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The Code Switch Podcast

The trans athlete debate is about a lot more than sports

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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.

The trans athlete debate is about a lot more than sports

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A hand pulls the word "maxxing" out of murky depths.
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The Code Switch Podcast

It's giving incel: The evolution of internet slang

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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.

It's giving incel: The evolution of internet slang

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How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power
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The Code Switch Podcast

How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power

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The passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act marked what many historians mark as the actual beginning of democracy in the US. But last week the Supreme Court gutted what was left of the landmark civil rights law. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang joins us to talk through what it means for Black political power, especially in the South.

How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power

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A 50s style illustration divided into four scenes, each featuring a different woman. One dressed for work is alarmed by a clock, one is wearing an apron and cooking, one is cleaning glamousously, and one is serving a martini to a man.
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The Code Switch Podcast

Tradwives and the pressures of modern motherhood

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Motherhood in the U.S. is revered. Actual mothers? Not so much. So where's a bedraggled mom to turn when she feels overworked, overwhelmed, and underappreciated? Turns out, momfluencers are stepping in to fill that void, including a particular category of momfluencer: the tradwife. We dive into that world to understand how it might intersect with the Trump administration, what it has to do with white supremacy, and where moms of color fit in.

Tradwives and the pressures of modern motherhood

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The Code Switch Podcast

In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness

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At most elite colleges and universities, affirmative action is a thing of the past. But admissions offices are still interested in building racially diverse incoming classes — which can mean looking at students' essays to help determine their background. In those essays, Black students have been often been encouraged to write about experiences of overcoming trauma in order to help underscore their race. Our guest, the sociologist Aya Waller-Bey, says that practice has troubling implications for how we understand what it means to have an authentic Black experience.

In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness

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A syellow tatue of Donald Trump reminiscent of a Roman Emporer against a blue cloudy background. There is a crack in the statue's face.
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The Code Switch Podcast

Is the U.S. 'empire' beginning to show cracks?

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The Trump administration's recent military actions have had certain observers asking... are we going full empire? But Daniel Immerwahr, a historian and the author of How to Hide an Empire, argues that the U.S. has engaged in empire building for hundreds of years — we've just been sneakier about it than other countries. So on today's show, we're breaking down what that history of colonization has looked like, and how President Trump's international escapades are scrambling the global order.

CS Hide an Empire

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How your vote became your identity
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The Code Switch Podcast

How your vote became your identity

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Do you vote Republican or Democrat? And why does that answer reveal so much about the rest of who you are? We talk to political scientist Lilliana Mason about how party affiliation has become a “mega-identity” — a lens through which we see all other aspects of identity — and how that shapes views on race, political behavior, and so much more.

How your vote became your identity

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A sign at a 2019 protest reading "ANTIFA = TERRORISM!"
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The Code Switch Podcast

As the definition of “terrorist” expands, so does state violence

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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. But it’s also nothing new. We talk to Saher Selod, expert on the racialized surveillance of Muslims about the effects of the war on terrorism after 9/11, and historian Alex Lubin about how even since colonial settlers were fighting Indigenous people to establish frontier towns, the word “terrorist” has been used by the state to enact violence and surveillance against whoever they want.

CS WW Terrorism

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Markwayne Mullin wears a cowboy hat at work.
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The Code Switch Podcast

Markwayne Mullin is conservative, Christian, Cherokee, and the new head of DHS

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On Monday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as the newest head of the Department of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem. It's an enormously consequential role that involves taking charge of ICE, border patrol, and TSA. And Mullin is an interesting choice for the role — he's a conservative, Christian citizen of Cherokee nation, known both for his ability to reach across the aisle, and for being a political firebrand. So today on the show, we're asking: What will Markwayne Mullin's leadership of DHS mean for Indian Country? And what will it mean for the nation as a whole?

Markwayne Mullin is conservative, Christian, Cherokee, and the new head of DHS

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