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Code Switch

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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Episodes

The story we don't tell about how this country was founded

We have been told the American Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But the last entry of the Declaration of Independence focuses on the founding fathers' contempt for quote merciless Indian savages unquote. On this July 4th, the 250th anniversary of its founding, Rebecca Nagle, host of the new podcast First America asks: How did an entire country miss a major point of its founding document?

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2026-07-03
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The hunger strike ICE says never happened

Hundreds of people detained at an ICE detention center in Newark, NJ refused to eat and work for a month. They were protesting the conditions inside ? spoiled food, lack of medical care, overcrowding. The detainees are the ones who actually keep the facility running ? cooking, cleaning, doing laundry ? all while getting paid a dollar a day. This week, two reporters who have been covering the strikes, José Olivares and Sophie Hurwitz, talk about what happens when detainees stop eating and working ? and what it means that the government insists none of it is happening.

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2026-06-30
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The 'white genocide' myth is shaping immigration policy

Since October 2025, the U.S. has admitted more than 6,000 refugees ? and all but three are white South Africans. The Trump administration says Afrikaners are fleeing a "genocide." They're not. This week, we look at how we got here: a conversation with a reporter who was in the Oval Office when Trump pushed this conspiracy theory on South Africa's president ? and what his fixation on white South Africans reveals about anxieties over white replacement here in the U.S.

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2026-06-26
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What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?

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.

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2026-06-23
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When is joy actually resistance?

Joy is not a crumb. It's cookouts with soul music, celebrating what Ossie Davis called the full sweetness of our Blackness. But what exactly does the phrase "joy is resistance," which has been flooding social media, mean? This Juneteenth, we're asking what joy actually is, when it can be a tool for social change, and why the slogan has become so popular -- even when joy itself feels more tenuous.

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2026-06-19
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Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

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.

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2026-06-16
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Why being Black and outdoorsy is a whole thing

A viral video of a young Black man frolicking in an Oregon meadow sent B.A. Parker looking for a deeper answer: what does it take for people of color to feel safe outdoors? We dive into the racist history of what it means to be a Black person outside -- and why that complicates people's relationship today to the outdoors.  Parkers talks with the self-described "Black frolicker" Daniyel and Pamela Slaughter of the Oregon-based nonprofit  People of Color Outdoors.

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2026-06-12
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Trump's 'weaponization' fund steals reparations blueprint

The DOJ created a $1.776 billion fund to compensate January 6 defendants. The fund may not survive, but the federal redress system it was reaching into ? built by Native nations over generations ? is still intact. So today on Code Switch: who counts as having been harmed by the state?

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2026-06-09
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Pete Hegseth's American crusade

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.

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2026-06-05
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DACA recipients are trapped in Trump's limbo

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been around for almost 14 years ? long enough that the so-called "DACA kids" are now middle-aged adults with jobs, mortgages and families. But the Trump administration is making it harder to hold onto the only legal status they've ever had: slowing down processing, stripping benefits, and detaining and even deporting some recipients. This week, NPR's Ximena Bustillo takes us to Arizona to meet people living in limbo, and asks what it means to build an entire life on a permit that expires every two years.

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2026-06-02
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The trans athlete debate is about a lot more than sports

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.

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2026-05-30
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It's giving incel: The evolution of internet slang

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.

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2026-05-27
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Why so many Americans never learned to swim

In the U.S., roughly 8 in 10 kids from lower-income households grow up with few or no swimming skills ? and Black and Latino children lag behind their white peers. Those gaps aren't an accident. They trace back to a long history of segregated public pools, and to fears of the water that have been passed down through generations. This week, we follow Jasmine Romero, who in her mid-thirties walked into a room full of four- and five-year-olds to take her first swim class, determined to break the cycle before her own child is born.

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2026-05-23
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Why do Latinos join ICE?

Latinos make up at least 50% of all Customs and Border Patrol agents and 20% of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ? which has a lot of critics asking, why? We talk to Geraldo Cadava, professor of Latino Studies at Northwestern and contributor to the Atlantic, to break down some of the reasons Latinos join ICE, and he tells us, there are many people who believe in the mission of immigration enforcement.

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2026-05-20
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Is astrology real? Depends who you ask

Happy tenth birthday to us! In true Gemini fashion - we're that sign - we're celebrating by exploring our duality through astrology. Our intrepid Aquarius, B.A. Parker, talks to an astrologer and a science writer - a true believer and a real skeptic - about why Black and Latina women are twice as likely as men to believe in astrology. She also finds out what's written in the stars for the show. Spoiler alert: our birth chart is cute. And we are ready to be outside!

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2026-05-16
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What the Savannah Bananas have to do with race and baseball

Ever heard of the Savannah Bananas? They're a baseball team with millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram ? known as much for their dance routines and shenanigans as their actual baseball. Now their league, Banana Ball, has resurrected the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro League team with a contentious history of racial minstrelsy. We chop it up with journalist Josh Levin, who followed the Clowns through their Banana Ball debut.

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2026-05-13
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How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power

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.

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2026-05-09
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The minefields of parenting and race

Parenting is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Between choosing a neighborhood to live in or whether to send your kid to public school, there are a lot of decisions that feel high stakes ? and sticky, especially when it comes to race. We're here to help. This week we're digging into our archives to bring you some parenting advice around some of the parenting-and-race dilemmas our listeners have faced.

This episode features advice from Cassandra Harewood, child and adolescent psychiatrist, Amy Stuart Wells, professor emeritus of sociology and education at Teachers College at Columbia University, Jenn Jackson, professor of political science at Syracuse University focusing on Blackness and gender, Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African & African American Studies at Duke University, and Gigliana Melzi, associate professor of applied psychology at New York University.

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2026-05-06
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Tradwives and the pressures of modern motherhood

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.

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2026-05-02
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Are Black men facing a mental health crisis, a patriarchy crisis, or both?

Over the past few weeks, there have been multiple high-profile incidents of Black men committing acts of violence against their loved ones, from a man in Shreveport killing his children, to the former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia killing himself and his wife. On this episode, we're asking: What does this violence have to do with patriarchy? What does it have to do with mental health? What does it have to do with race and gender? And what would it take to create a culture that actually protects Black women and children?

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2026-04-29
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In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness

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.

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2026-04-25
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Hate it or love it, is DEI a distraction?

The Trump administration has been very candid about their disdain for all things DEI. But it's not just conservatives who have critiques. On this episode, we're talking to Jennifer C. Pan, author of Selling Social Justice: Why the Rich Love Antiracism, about why she thinks people on the left should be skeptical of DEI programs as well. We get into how DEI programs are frequently used as a tool for large corporations to assert their moral authority ? without actually sacrificing their bottom line, or improving conditions for workers writ large.

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2026-04-22
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Is the U.S. 'empire' beginning to show cracks?

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.

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2026-04-18
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Gaza commanded our attention. Why hasn't Sudan?

What makes people pay a lot of attention to some wars and crises, but not others? And what does that attention actually do for the people in those situations? We're looking at Sudan, which has entered its fourth year of a civil war this week. But, unlike in Gaza, the violence and famine there has struggled to break through headlines in the U.S. We talk to Sudanese journalist Isma'il Kushkush, political scientist Scott Straus, Sudan expert Alex de Waal, and political scientist Mai Hassan.

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2026-04-15
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How your vote became your identity

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.

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2026-04-11
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As the definition of ?terrorist? expands, so does state violence

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.

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2026-04-08
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From the Confederacy to the White House: How Southern beauty traditions went MAGA

What do the women in Bama Rush, beauty pageants and President Trump's orbit have in common? Their look traces back to the beauty traditions of the white, antebellum South. We talk to Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd, author Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual and Memory in the Modern South, about how nostalgia for a Southern past influences the aesthetics of today.

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2026-04-04
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'Mar-a-Lago face:' MAGA's aesthetic loyalty test

The MAGA look ? you know the one: dramatic eyeliner, long, wavy hair, sheath dresses ? is a defining feature of President Trump's Republican Party. And it's about a lot more than appearances. Journalist Inae Oh joins us to talk about what the aesthetics of MAGA tell us about power, influence, race and femininity.

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2026-04-01
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Being an ?ally? is kind of cringe. Why?

People have been talking about being "allies" for a long time now. But what has that actually meant, over the years? And how performative should allyship be? One of our guests says, keep it to yourself. The other says, be loud and proud. So that's what we're getting into today with comedians Hari Kondabolu and Milly Tamarez ? the many ways (good and bad) to be a so-called ally.

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2026-03-28
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Markwayne Mullin is conservative, Christian, Cherokee, and the new head of DHS

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?

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2026-03-25
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What Trump's language has in common with cult language

When President Trump says things like ?fake news,? ?witch hunt? or even ?Make America Great Again,? he?s not just using catchy phrases -- he?s persuading people into a way of thinking and believing. This week on Code Switch, we talk to Amanda Montell, author of Cultish and co-host of the podcast Sounds Like A Cult, about what the language of MAGA shares with cult language, and why it matters.

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2026-03-21
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The Scouts are too woke, according to Pete Hegseth

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently put Scouting America ? formerly known as the Boy Scouts ? "on notice." The once great organization was becoming too woke, he said, and had been tarnished by embracing DEI. On this episode, we're talking to Benjamin René Jordan, author of Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America, about the Scouts' surprisingly progressive history. And we ask him about the complex relationship between scouting and the military.

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2026-03-18
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The Black civil rights leader who sued to be called ?Miss?

It?s Alabama, 1963. A black woman stands before a judge, but she refuses to acknowledge his questions until he addresses her by the same honorific given to white women: ?Miss.? That woman's name is Mary Hamilton. Her case eventually reached the Supreme Court and changed the courts, and eventually broader culture, for good. We?re revisiting the largely forgotten story of Miss Mary Hamilton, a Freedom Rider who struck a blow against a pervasive form of disrespect.

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2026-03-14
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What the success of "Sinners" does (and doesn't) say about race and Hollywood

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.

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2026-03-11
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Why Iranian perspectives often get flattened and caricatured

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.

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2026-03-07
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How the internet got gentrified

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.

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2026-03-04
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Remembering Jesse Jackson

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.

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2026-02-28
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The Young Lords' legacy of fighting for Puerto Rico from the mainland

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.

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2026-02-25
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What is "white culture," anyway?

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.

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2026-02-21
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The U.S., Cuba, and the people caught between

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.

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2026-02-18
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Trump shared a racist "joke." That humor is an American tradition

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.

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2026-02-14
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Was dating while Black always so hard?

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.

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2026-02-11
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Bad Bunny, resistance, and the Super Bowl halftime show

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 Rivera-Rideau.

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2026-02-07
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The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

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. We talk to historian Jarvis Givens about his new book, ?I?ll Make Me A World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month?, and how studying and preserving Black history has changed (or not) over the years.

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2026-02-04
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Americans are worried about crime. Here?s how politicians leverage it

"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.

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2026-01-31
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What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

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.

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2026-01-28
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What the quarter-zip craze tells us about Blackness and respectability

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.

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2026-01-24
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How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

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.

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2026-01-21
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Freedom through the eyes of foes: Rev. Martin Luther King and Sen. Barry Goldwater

In honor of MLK Day, we sit down with historian Nicholas Buccola, author of One Man?s Freedom, to re-examine the concept of "freedom" by comparing the legacies of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and conservative politician Barry Goldwater. In our conversation, Buccola reveals the profound gulf between Goldwater's abstract view of freedom and King's focus on the daily fight for dignity and individual liberty? and he helps us understand what this historical battle can teach us about the fight for freedom today.

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2026-01-17
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Venezuela and the long tradition of US interference

The U.S. ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is just the latest chapter in a long, troubling history of American intervention in Latin America. NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garsd brings us to the New York courthouse where President Maduro was indicted by the U.S. government. We also talk to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Greg Grandin, who explains how the modern concept of national sovereignty ? a country?s right to govern itself ? originated in Latin America as a response to U.S. expansion.

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2026-01-14
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