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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.

Want to level up your Code Switch game? Try Code Switch Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/codeswitch
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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.

Want to level up your Code Switch game? Try Code Switch Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/codeswitch

Most Recent Episodes

How a Black cheer squad in Buffalo deals with the racist massacre blocks away

The Buffalo All-Star Extreme cheer team grapples with the repercussions from a mass shooting at a nearby grocery store. Kristen Uroda for NPR hide caption

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Kristen Uroda for NPR

How a Black cheer squad in Buffalo deals with the racist massacre blocks away

This week, we're sharing the first episode of "Buffalo Extreme," a three-part series from our play cousins at NPR's Embedded. The series follows a Black cheer squad, their moms and their coaches in the year after the racist massacre at the Jefferson Street Tops in Buffalo, New York, just blocks from their gym. NPR hands the mic to the girls and women in that community as they navigate the complicated path to recovery in the year after.

How a Black cheer squad in Buffalo deals with the racist massacre blocks away

Listen · 32:47
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Going back to the plantation where my ancestors were enslaved

B.A.Parker at Somerset Place plantation as a child. Courtesy of B.A.Parker hide caption

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Courtesy of B.A.Parker

Going back to the plantation where my ancestors were enslaved

In the second of two episodes, Code Switch co-host B.A. Parker is figuring out what kind of descendant she wants to be. Parker and her mom decide to go back to the plantation where their ancestors were enslaved, because despite the circumstances of slavery, this is where their family began.

Going back to the plantation where my ancestors were enslaved

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How do descendants of slavery honor their ancestors' legacy?

A photo of Somerset Place plantation in North Carolina. B.A. Parker/NPR hide caption

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B.A. Parker/NPR

How do descendants of slavery honor their ancestors' legacy?

Code Switch co-host B.A. Parker digs into what it means to maintain the legacy of her ancestors. In part one of two episodes, Parker goes to a symposium for descendants of slavery and meets people who, like her, are caretakers of "culturally significant historical places."

How do descendants of slavery honor their ancestors' legacy?

Listen · 33:44
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Black praise in white pews: When your church doesn't love you back
LA Johnson/Getty Images/NPR

Black praise in white pews: When your church doesn't love you back

How do you participate in a faith practice that has a rough track record with racism? That's what our play-cousin J.C. Howard gets into on this week's episode of Code Switch. He talks to us about Black Christians who, like him for a time, found their spiritual homes in white evangelical churches.

Black praise in white pews: When your church doesn't love you back

Listen · 38:17
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When your demographic clone tells their secrets, are they telling yours, too?

Actor and comedian D'Lo performing in his one-man play, "To T or Not to T." Mikel Darling hide caption

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Mikel Darling

When your demographic clone tells their secrets, are they telling yours, too?

On this week's Code Switch, producer Kumari Devarajan finds her demographic clone in actor and comedian D'Lo. Kumari found that when you share so much in common with a stranger who is putting their business on front street for the world to see, it can feel like they're sharing your secrets, too.

When your demographic clone tells their secrets, are they telling yours, too?

Listen · 30:18
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Finding generations of family — and history — on Chinatown's Mott Street

Author Ava Chin poses next to the cover of her recent book, Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming Author headshot via Tommy Kha hide caption

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Author headshot via Tommy Kha

Finding generations of family — and history — on Chinatown's Mott Street

Ava Chin's family has been in the U.S. for generations — but Ava was disheartened to learn that so much of what they had experienced was totally absent from American history books. So she embarked on a journey to learn more about her ancestors, and in doing so, to work toward correcting the historical record for all Americans.

Finding generations of family — and history — on Chinatown's Mott Street

Listen · 30:12
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Across the ocean: a Japanese American story of war and homecoming

Joan Suzuki, the grandmother of reporter Kori Suzuki, who was born and raised in the U.S., but lived in Japan during World War II. Kori Suzuki hide caption

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Kori Suzuki

Across the ocean: a Japanese American story of war and homecoming

One of the most pivotal moments in Japanese American history was when the U.S. government uprooted more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry and forced them into incarceration camps. But there is another, less-known story about the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans who were living in Japan during World War II — and whose lives uprooted in a very different way.

Across the ocean: a Japanese American story of war and homecoming

Listen · 34:33
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The implications of the case against ICWA

Rebecca Nagle is the host of the podcast "This Land." Sean Scheidt/Sean Scheidt hide caption

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Sean Scheidt/Sean Scheidt

The implications of the case against ICWA

The Supreme Court is about to decide on a case arguing that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) discriminates against white foster parents. Journalist Rebecca Nagle explains how this decision could reverse centuries of U.S. law protecting the rights of Indigenous nations. "Native kids have been the tip of the spear in attacks on tribal sovereignty for generations."

The implications of the case against ICWA

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Naomi Jackson talks 'losing and finding my mind'

Writer Naomi Jackson Lola Flash/Naomi Jackson hide caption

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Lola Flash/Naomi Jackson

Naomi Jackson talks 'losing and finding my mind'

"Three springs ago, I lost the better part of my mind," Naomi Jackson wrote in an essay for Harper's Magazine. On this episode, Jackson reads from that essay about her experience with mental illness, including how she has had to decipher which of her fears stem from her illness and which are backed by the history of racism.

Naomi Jackson talks 'losing and finding my mind'

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K-Pop's Surprising B(l)ackstory

In LAist's podcast California Love: K-Pop Dreaming, host Vivian Yoon tells the story of the origins of K-Pop. LAist/NPR hide caption

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LAist/NPR

K-Pop's Surprising B(l)ackstory

K-pop disrupted pop culture in South Korea in the early 1990s, and later found fans around the world. Vivian Yoon was one of those fans, growing up thousands of miles away in Koreatown, Los Angeles. This week, we're sharing an episode of In K-Pop Dreaming, the second season of LAist's California Love podcast. In it, Yoon takes listeners on a journey to learn about the history behind the music that had defined her childhood.

K-Pop's Surprising B(l)ackstory

Listen · 45:06
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