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How Halloween celebrations can brush up against real-life horror : Code Switch 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, on purpose, can help us. This episode first ran in October 2019.

Code Switch

Fear, Halloween and the real-life horrors of the past

Fear, Halloween and the real-life horrors of the past

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A jack-o-lantern is part of a Halloween display in front of an Upper East Side home on October 30, 2020 in New York City. There are two pumpkins. The jack-o-lantern is in the forefront, next to green ivies, and the second pumpkin is in the background.
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Cindy Ord/Getty Images
A jack-o-lantern is part of a Halloween display in front of an Upper East Side home on October 30, 2020 in New York City. There are two pumpkins. The jack-o-lantern is in the forefront, next to green ivies, and the second pumpkin is in the background.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Ghosts of Halloween past come back to haunt us in this episode of Code Switch. Celebrations of the macabre can 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 terrifying in real life, what makes a costume versus cultural appropriation, and how scaring ourselves, on purpose, can help us.