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Kumari Devarajan

Producer, Code Switch

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What We Watched in 2021

Clockwise from top left: We Are Lady Parts, City of Ghosts, Bachelorette (Season 18), The Wonder Years, and Reservation Dogs. NPR hide caption

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NPR

Review

Code Switch

What We Watched in 2021

Y'all, 2021 brought us a lot of TV. Some of it was even good! So this week, we're talking about the shows that had something interesting to say about race, from We Are Lady Parts to Reservation Dogs to City of Ghosts.

What We Watched in 2021

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Ask Code Switch: Parents Just Don't Understand
Jasjyot Singh Hans for NPR

Code Switch

Ask Code Switch: Parents Just Don't Understand

Or do they? This week, we're answering some of your toughest questions about race and your parents. How do you create boundaries with immigrant parents? What dynamics might interracial couples bring to families? And why do so many Black parents want to prevent their kids from looking "too grown"?

Ask Code Switch: Parents Just Don't Understand

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Code Switch: Archeological skeletons in the closet

A young Native American woman sits in a museum display case alongside artifacts and human remains. Gabriella Trujillo for NPR hide caption

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Gabriella Trujillo for NPR

Short Wave

Code Switch: Archeological skeletons in the closet

Today, we present a special episode from our colleagues at Code Switch, NPR's podcast about race and identity.

Code Switch: Archeological skeletons in the closet

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Skeletons In The Closet

A young Native American woman sits in a museum display case alongside artifacts and human remains. Gabriella Trujillo for NPR hide caption

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Gabriella Trujillo for NPR

Code Switch

Skeletons In The Closet

In a small suburb of Washington, D.C., a non-descript beige building houses thousands of Native human remains. The remains are currently in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution. But for the past decade, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has been fighting to get some of them back to Florida to be buried. The controversy over who should decide the fate of these remains has raised questions about identity, history, and the nature of archaeology.

Skeletons In The Closet

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What Does It Mean To Be Latino? The 'Light-Skinned Privilege' Edition

Maria Hinojosa (left) and Maria Garcia. Krystal Quiles for NPR hide caption

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Krystal Quiles for NPR

Code Switch

What Does It Mean To Be Latino? The 'Light-Skinned Privilege' Edition

Maria Garcia and Maria Hinojosa are both Mexican American, both mestiza, and both relatively light-skinned. But Maria Hinojosa strongly identifies as a woman of color, whereas Maria Garcia has stopped doing so. So in this episode, we're asking: How did they arrive at such different places?

What Does It Mean To Be Latino? The 'Light-Skinned Privilege' Edition

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'Where We Come From': By Any Other Name

Podcast host and author Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Elton Anderson Jr. hide caption

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Elton Anderson Jr.

Code Switch

'Where We Come From': By Any Other Name

Anyone with a name that isn't super common in the United States will tell you that the simple act of introducing yourself can lead to a whole interrogation: Where are you from? What does your name mean? Help me pronounce it using words I understand! So on this bonus episode from our friends at the "Where We Come From" series, we're getting into what, exactly, is in a name — and what names can tell us about where we've been and where we're going.

'Where We Come From': By Any Other Name

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The Kid Mero Talks 'What It Means To Be Latino'

An illustration of author, podcaster and entertainer, The Kid Mero. Krystal Quiles for NPR hide caption

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Krystal Quiles for NPR

Code Switch

The Kid Mero Talks 'What It Means To Be Latino'

We've said it multiple times on the show: Latinos are the second largest demographic in the United States. But...what does that actually mean? Are Latinos a race? Ethnicity? Culture? We try (and fail) to answer some of these questions with Dominican American podcaster and entertainer the Kid Mero.

The Kid Mero Talks 'What It Means To Be Latino'

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Live From Philly*: A Code Switch Jawn
WHYY / NPR

Opinion

Code Switch

Live From Philly*: A Code Switch Jawn

OK, so we weren't really in Philly (it's still a pandemic, after all.) But we did talk all things race and Philadelphia with special guests Erika Alexander and Denice Frohman. On the docket for the night: reparations, basketball, poetry and of course, the word "jawn."

Live From Philly*: A Code Switch Jawn

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Screams And Silence
Hokyoung Kim for NPR

Code Switch

Screams And Silence

Asian American organizers and influencers have been trying to sound the alarm over a dramatic spike in reports of anti-Asian racism over the last year, and have been frustrated by the lack of media and public attention paid to their worries. Then came last week, when a deadly shooting spree in Georgia realized many of their worst fears and thrust the issue into the national spotlight.

Screams And Silence

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Saving A Language You're Learning To Speak

Larry Kimura, one of the people who spearheaded the fight to save the Hawaiian language. Shereen Marisol Meraji/NPR hide caption

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Shereen Marisol Meraji/NPR

Code Switch

Saving A Language You're Learning To Speak

Every two weeks, a language dies with its last speaker. That was almost the fate of the Hawaiian language — until a group of young people decided to create a strong community of Hawaiian speakers — as they were learning to speak it them themselves.

Saving A Language You're Learning To Speak

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From The Fringe To The Capitol
Jon Cherry / Getty / LA Johnson/NPR

Code Switch

From The Fringe To The Capitol

Like all of you, we are still trying to make sense of Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Because even after the past four years, there are still new iterations of WTF. So on this episode, we're talking police, "terrorism", and the symbols of white nationalism that made it to the floor of the Capitol.

From The Fringe To The Capitol

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The Books That Got Away
NPR

Review

Code Switch

The Books That Got Away

Listen, a lot has happened this year, and it's no shock that some things may have slipped under the radar. So our resident book expert, Karen Grigsby Bates, took a virtual trip around the country to talk to independent book store owners about their favorite underappreciated reads of 2020.

The Books That Got Away

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Stepping Back Inside Carmen Maria Machado's 'Dream House'

Carmen Maria Machado's new memoir is called "In The Dreamhouse." Art Streiber/AUGUST hide caption

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Art Streiber/AUGUST

Review

Code Switch

Stepping Back Inside Carmen Maria Machado's 'Dream House'

It's no secret that Code Switch is a team full of book nerds. So this week, we're revisiting one of our favorite book conversations, with author Carmen Maria Machado. Her genre-defying memoir, In the Dream House, tells the story of how she survived intimate partner violence, despite having few models of how to deal with, or even recognize abusive dynamics in queer relationships.

Stepping Back Inside Carmen Maria Machado's 'Dream House'

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Claim Us If You're Famous

Vice president-elect Kamala Harris, front center, with, from left, her grandfather, sister, mother and grandmother in 1972. Twitter/ @mayaharris_ hide caption

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Twitter/ @mayaharris_

Code Switch

Claim Us If You're Famous

Kamala Harris is the vice president-elect, which marks an impressive list of firsts: woman in the White House; Black woman in the White House, Asian American in the White House; etc. Her Indian heritage has gotten much less attention than her Black identity, and in many ways, it has been complicated by her Black identity. On this episode, we look at what Harris's identities can tell us about dual-minority POCs, South Asian political representation in the U.S., and what it all means at the voting booth.

Claim Us If You're Famous

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