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.

Similar Podcasts

El hilo

El hilo
Cuando alguien comparte un hilo en redes sociales sabemos que nos va a contar una historia, o dar análisis y contexto que no hemos visto en otro lado. Este podcast es todo eso: una invitación a profundizar las historias más importantes de la semana en América Latina. Todos los viernes en la mañana Eliezer Budasoff y Silvia Viñas te ayudan a entender las noticias más allá de los titulares. Más en elhilo.audio El hilo es un podcast de Radio Ambulante Estudios. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Farid y Diego

Farid y Diego
Conversaciones que ya teníamos, decidimos grabar y nos gustaría que más gente tuviera acerca de los temas difíciles de la modernidad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pianista en un burdel

Pianista en un burdel
Doctor en ciencia política y profesor de política europea en la Universidad de Toronto, Paco Beltrán conversa cada semana con un invitado sobre controversias, debates y tendencias globales en política, cultura, arte e ideas, y su influencia en el mundo hispano

What the success of "Sinners" does (and doesn't) say about race and Hollywood

March 11, 2026 0:35:29 6.38 MB ( 27.68 MB less) Downloads: 0

Sinners has already broken records — it's the most Oscar-nominated film in the history of the Academy Awards. But is the movie itself actually historic? And what will its success mean for the future of Black filmmaking? This week, we're joined by Aisha Harris, a host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, and NY Mag film critic Angelica Jade Bastién. We get into what we loved, what we hated, and how Sinners fits into the broader landscape of big, splashy films that are beloved...yet never quite seem to move the needle on how Hollywood greenlights and funds future projects.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Why Iranian perspectives often get flattened and caricatured

March 07, 2026 0:13:05 2.93 MB ( 9.62 MB less) Downloads: 0

Iran has 90 million people of different ethnicities, faiths, and backgrounds, who have very different ideas about the country. Iranian American scholar Sina Toossi shares some of those varying perspectives with us to help complicate how Iranians feel about U.S. intervention, the war, and what should come next.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

How the internet got gentrified

March 04, 2026 0:31:12 6.23 MB ( 23.71 MB less) Downloads: 0

We all know what gentrification looks like IRL — boxy, corporate-owned apartment complexes, places to get a quick bowl for lunch, streets that are dubbed "cleaner" and "safer" (even at the expense of the people who used to live there). But what does gentrification look like online? We’re talking to Jessa Lingel, who studies digital culture at the University of Pennsylvania, about her argument that the internet has become gentrified, and that we're all suffering the consequences.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Remembering Jesse Jackson

February 28, 2026 0:20:18 4.5 MB ( 14.99 MB less) Downloads: 0

The late Reverend Jesse Jackson was — and still is — a revered civil rights activist, political trailblazer, and pop culture icon. For his critics, he was also villainized, or at the very least, a punchline. As Jackson's home going ceremony continues, we take some time to remember how Jackson shaped American politics with journalist Adam Serwer, who warns us not to flatten Jackson into a cliche or caricature.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Young Lords' legacy of fighting for Puerto Rico from the mainland

February 25, 2026 0:47:52 8.87 MB ( 37.08 MB less) Downloads: 0

While Puerto Rican independence is in the spotlight after Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show, we're throwing it to our play cousins at  La Brega, a show about all things Puerto Rico. We hear from former Young Lords member Iris Morales about how the group took their love for their homeland to educate and organize against U.S. colonialism.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

White Culture

February 21, 2026 0:27:12 26.12 MB Downloads: 0

Jeremy Carl — President Trump's nominee for a senior State Department role -- was called out for his commentary on "white erasure" during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month. He defended the idea that "white culture" is in danger of being erased in the U.S. and that white people face more racial discrimination than any other group in country. So on this episode, we're talking to the Princeton historian Nell Irvin Painter about her book, The History of White People, and how definitions of whiteness have morphed over time depending on the interests of the people creating those definitions.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The U.S., Cuba, and the people caught between

February 18, 2026 0:35:52 34.43 MB Downloads: 0

The U.S. has been deporting people from Cuba in record numbers. That has come as a shock to many Cuban American communities, who had long enjoyed special protections that don't apply to most other immigrant groups. This week on the show we're talking about where this change fits into the trajectory of Cuban immigration to the U.S. We'll hear from Ada Ferrer, a historian at Princeton who shares how her family's divergent paths to the U.S. reverberated through her life. Then, we talk to historian Michael Bustamante of the University of Miami about how U.S.-Cuba immigration policy has evolved since the Cuban Revolution.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Trump shared a racist "joke." That humor is an American tradition

February 14, 2026 0:21:06 20.25 MB Downloads: 0

When President Trump shared a racist video on his Truth Social account last week, the blowback was real. But the video is also part of a tradition that has existed in the U.S. since the early 1800s — of using "humor" to spread and crystallize racist ideals. On this episode, we speak with Raul Perez, the author of "The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy," who tells us how making fun of Black people was crucial to constructing "whiteness" — and perpetuating white supremacy — in the early days of the U.S.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Was dating while Black always so hard?

February 11, 2026 0:39:16 37.7 MB Downloads: 0

Dating can be tough. Dating while Black? That can feel nigh impossible sometimes, given how the long tentacles of racism have wrapped themselves around every aspect of our lives (and hearts.) But was dating any easier in the past? We're putting that question to the test on this special Valentine's Day episode of the pod. We revisit a conversation with audio storyteller and host of the podcast, Our Ancestors Were Messy, Nichole Hill. She takes us back in time to 1937, using archival personal ads from the Washington Afro-American to show us what it was like for Black folks to date almost a century ago.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Bad Bunny, resistance, and the Super Bowl halftime show

February 07, 2026 0:20:23 19.58 MB Downloads: 0

Can a superstar be an actual voice of resistance? How does Bad Bunny's choice to perform at the NFL Super Bowl halftime show square with his politics of resistance to U.S. imperialism and decision to avoid the U.S. in his current world tour? We're speaking with Bad Bunny experts and authors of "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance," Vanessa Diaz and Petra River-Rideau.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

February 04, 2026 0:35:12 33.79 MB Downloads: 0

In so many spaces, celebrating Black History History month means learning a few fun facts about famous African Americans. But Black History Month was designed to be much more radical — it was an opportunity for Black communities to learn about the aspects of their history that had been downplayed, diminished, or even actively suppressed. Teaching Black history was seen as a threat to the powers that be back in 1926, much as it is today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Americans are worried about crime. Here’s how politicians leverage it

January 31, 2026 0:17:19 16.64 MB Downloads: 0

"Fighting crime" is often used as a justification for many of the Trump administration's policies — from mass deportations to its actions in Venezuela to its crackdown in Minnesota — despite the fact that crime is at a historic low, and has been falling for decades. We talk to Meg Anderson, NPR’s criminal justice correspondent, about how that taps into Americans' disproportionate fears about crime, and how that makes scenes like what we see in Minneapolis possible.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

January 28, 2026 0:28:05 26.96 MB Downloads: 0

To the casual observer, it might seem like the U.S. has spent years in a constant state of protest — and they’re only getting more intense under the second Trump administration. So we’re revisiting our conversation with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, the author of “A Protest History of the United States” about what forms of protest have worked in the past, and what lessons people can take from those protesters.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What the quarter-zip craze tells us about Blackness and respectability

January 24, 2026 0:17:25 16.72 MB Downloads: 0

What does the humble, boring quarter-zip sweater have to do with respectability politics and Blackness? Apparently, a lot! When two young Black men on TikTok brought the quarter-zip into vogue for young folks, they unknowingly waded into some very long-lived discourse on Black fashion and looking "respectable." Today on the pod, we chop it up with Jonathan Square, professor of Black visual culture at Parsons School of Design, about Black fashion, and what's happening more broadly to make this pretty plain sweater the "it" garment.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

January 21, 2026 0:39:15 37.68 MB Downloads: 0

Sanctuary policies have been described on both sides of the aisle as protecting immigrants. But in many ways, in practice, they have given rise to a specific kind of policing that gives ICE a much wider reach than it might otherwise have. We talk to anthropologist Peter Mancina, who is the author of a recent book, On the Side of Ice: Policing Immigrants in a Sanctuary State about his on-the-ground research  embedding with police in New Jersey.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy