Accessibility links
Code Switch Blog Race and identity, remixed.

Code SwitchCode Switch

Race. In your face.

Friday

The Supreme Court building in 2026.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

Whose rights just changed? Our SCOTUS debrief

by  Jess Kung ,  ,  ,  , 

A lot went down this term in the Supreme Court. So, we’re breaking down the landmark SCOTUS decisions that affect Black voters, trans athletes and immigrants. B.A. Parker and Code Switch producer Jess Kung go over the outcomes of the cases we’ve been watching, and NPR’s immigration correspondent Ximena Bustillo helps us untangle the latest for immigrants.

Whose rights just changed? Our SCOTUS debrief

Listen · 29:00
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5884867/nx-s1-mx-5884867-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

A collage of Black service people, General Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., and Pete Hegseth.
Jackie Lay/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

How anti-DEI hit the military

by  ,  ,  Jess Kung

Pete Hegseth's Pentagon has been dismantling diversity initiatives and blocking the promotions of high-ranking Black officers. This week, Parker talks with The Atlantic's Clint Smith, who interviewed two dozen Black service members about the long, contradictory history of Black patriotism and what it means to serve a country that has always struggled with how to honor them.

How anti-DEI hit the military

Listen · 33:39
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5869453/nx-s1-mx-5869453-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?
Al Drago/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?

by  ,  ,  , 

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.

What happens if the US ends birthright citizenship?

Listen · 34:11
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5861724/nx-s1-mx-5861724-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Tuesday

A collage of Barack Obama, a statue of him, kids walking to school, and his new Presidential Center, a rectangular facade with text texturing the top left corner.
Jackie Lay/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

by  ,  ,  , 

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.

Obama's new Presidential Center and his tricky relationship with the South Side

Listen · 34:06
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5853362/nx-s1-mx-5853362-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Pete Hegseth's American crusade
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

Pete Hegseth's American crusade

by  ,  ,  ,  , 

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.

Pete Hegseth's American crusade

Listen · 22:33
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5845047/nx-s1-mx-5845047-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Protesters for trans rights in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC. In the foreground, a sign that reads "Sports for all" in the pink white and blue of the trans flag.
Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

The trans athlete debate is about a lot more than sports

by  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

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.

The trans athlete debate is about a lot more than sports

Listen · 31:33
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5684332/nx-s1-mx-5684332-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

A hand pulls the word "maxxing" out of murky depths.
Jackie Lay

The Code Switch Podcast

It's giving incel: The evolution of internet slang

by  ,  ,  , 

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.

It's giving incel: The evolution of internet slang

Listen · 24:05
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5826896/nx-s1-mx-5826896-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power
Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power

by  ,  ,  , 

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.

How the Supreme Court gutted Black voting power

Listen · 22:22
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5810937/nx-s1-mx-5810937-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

A 50s style illustration divided into four scenes, each featuring a different woman. One dressed for work is alarmed by a clock, one is wearing an apron and cooking, one is cleaning glamousously, and one is serving a martini to a man.
Jackie Lay/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Tradwives and the pressures of modern motherhood

by  ,  ,  , 

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.

Tradwives and the pressures of modern motherhood

Listen · 38:37
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5805222/nx-s1-mx-5805222-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

The backs of graduates in robes at Harvard.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness

by  ,  , 

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.

In college admission, trauma is shorthand for Blackness

Listen · 27:32
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5793935/nx-s1-mx-5793935-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

A syellow tatue of Donald Trump reminiscent of a Roman Emporer against a blue cloudy background. There is a crack in the statue's face.
Jackie Lay/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

Is the U.S. 'empire' beginning to show cracks?

by  ,  , 

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.

CS Hide an Empire

Listen · 28:51
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5785139/nx-s1-mx-5785139-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

How your vote became your identity
CSA Images/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

How your vote became your identity

by  ,  ,  , 

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.

How your vote became your identity

Listen · 31:07
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5781216/nx-s1-mx-5781216-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

A sign at a 2019 protest reading "ANTIFA = TERRORISM!"
JOHN RUDOFF/AFP/via Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

As the definition of “terrorist” expands, so does state violence

by  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

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.

CS WW Terrorism

Listen · 28:04
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5759328/nx-s1-mx-5759328-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Markwayne Mullin wears a cowboy hat at work.
Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

Markwayne Mullin is conservative, Christian, Cherokee, and the new head of DHS

by  ,  ,  , 

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?

Markwayne Mullin is conservative, Christian, Cherokee, and the new head of DHS

Listen · 35:16
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5759708/nx-s1-mx-5759708-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

The top half of a face wearing a camouflage hat that reads "TRUMP" in orange letters and aviator sunglasses.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

What Trump's language has in common with cult language

by  ,  ,  ,  , 

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.

What Trump's language has in common with cult language

Listen · 16:25
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5755013/nx-s1-mx-5755013-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript