Code Switch

Episodes

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  The white woman tears of Elizabeth Holmes 10.11.2026 28m

  The new documentary ‘You Can See Everything’ has left audiences wondering how the line between fact and fiction is drawn, and who gets to draw it. At the center of the discourse is the film’s subject, convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, and its co-director, comedian Nathan Fielder. Parker and Gene get into the racial and gender dynamics that many reviewers aren’t talking about with writer Hunter Harris and podcaster Ronald Young Jr.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Julio Torres wants more time (and five clones) 06.11.2026 25m

  Comedian Julio Torres has made a career out of seeing the whimsical in the mundane, from the hidden meanings of shapes, colors, to the bureaucracy of the United States immigration system. Yet, he still feels like he's running out of time to make the art he wants to. This week, Julio joins us to talk about his new book The Perfect Gift, his appearance in La Bola Negra, and the urgency of making art in this moment.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Who gets to joke about Israel? (feat. Ilana Glazer & Gianmarco Soresi) 03.11.2026 34m

  Being a Jewish comic who criticizes Israel right now means getting it from all sides. Ilana Glazer and Gianmarco Soresi talk to Gene about being called self-hating, getting accused of faking being Jewish, and watching gigs dry up. As comedy has become more intertwined with politics and power, some of the loudest critics of Israel are on the political right, and some of them traffic in antisemitic and racist tropes. Ilana and Gianmarco get into where that leaves them, and who the joke’s really on.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Black voters could decide the midterms. Why are they being ignored? 30.10.2026 29m

  Every election season, politicians remember Black voters exist, and then lecture them, pander to them or skip their doors entirely. MS NOW’s Eugene Daniels has been reporting on Black voters in Cleveland and Detroit, and he tells Parker what actually gets people to the polls (hint: it’s not guilt-tripping).Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Weaponizing IQ: Who gets to be smart? 27.10.2026 36m

  President Trump and Silicon Valley tech bros are obsessed with IQ, but the history of intelligence testing is full of bunk race science and eugenics. With the rise of AI's "super intelligence," should we still be ranking human intelligence at all? We teamed up with our play cousins from It's Been a Minute to find out who gets to be labeled as smart with Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and Angela Saini, author of Superior: The Return of Race Science.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  What if men read more books 23.10.2026 41m

  Are the men in your life reading? How do you convince people to check out more novels? This week, we turn to our play cousins at It's Been a Minute and their recent conversation with author Jason Reynolds. Reynolds is the acclaimed author of young adult novels, Look Both Ways, Long Way Down, and Ghost and he joins host Brittany Luse to discuss the lessons in empathy, friendship and hope that novels can inspire in all readers.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  How "defund the police" became radioactive 20.10.2026 33m

  In 2020, “defund the police” was everywhere. Now, even politicians like AOC and Zohran Mamdani have turned around on it. But some proposals that fell under the defund umbrella, like unarmed crisis responders and violence prevention programs, actually took hold. Gene talks with Chenjerai Kumanyika, journalism professor and creator of the Empire City podcast about the history of the NYPD. They dig into why politicians will say “abolish ICE” but not “defund the police,” and whether the public is more ready to rethink policing than the people running for office think they are.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Why fascists love “fitness” 16.10.2026 37m

  Right-wing ideology has crept into gyms across the country. Is this a new phenomenon, or is the very idea of "fitness" ripe for politicization? Is our idea of fitness inherently fascist? We find out with political commentator Hasan Piker, historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and professor Ava Purkiss, author of Fit Citizens.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  How much reality do we want in our reality TV? 13.10.2026 27m

  Why do Black contestants on reality TV keep getting voted out first? Like a lot of people, B.A. Parker watches reality TV to escape. But seeing contestants of color on the receiving end of microaggressions keeps pulling her back to reality. Parker talks with Xavier Prather, Big Brother’s first Black winner, and sociologist Danielle Lindemann, author of True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us, about whether reality TV has an implicit bias problem.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  How Hollywood stole the zombie from Haiti 09.10.2026 28m

  Zombies have roots most fans have never heard of. In Haitian Vodou, being zombified meant being enslaved even in death. B.A. Parker talks to Maya Annik Bedward, director of the new documentary Black Zombie, about how a spiritual metaphor for slavery was repackaged by Hollywood and sold back to the world, all while Haitian culture keeps getting cast as something to fear.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  The shady deals behind data centers 06.10.2026 31m

  Clarksdale, Mississippi, the birthplace of the blues, has been losing people, jobs, and businesses for years. Now land there has been rezoned to make room for a hyperscale data center, a process that got underway before anyone even put the words “data center” in writing. Capital B reporter Aallyah Wright walks us through the hard bargain her hometown is weighing over a project nobody will even confirm is happening.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Let’s stop pretending we desegregated schools 02.10.2026 42m

  Seventy years after Brown v. Board of Education, Black parents still face an impossible choice about where to send their kids. Gene talks with his twin sister about the different choices they’ve made for their kids, and with historian Noliwe Rooks about why Black families are still stuck choosing between schools that will teach their children and schools that will love them.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  The Lindsay Clancy case and the women we make into monsters 29.09.2026 29m

  The Lindsay Clancy trial captured the nation this summer, and reactions toward Clancy have been split. The case brought much needed attention to postpartum psychosis, but some question the support Clancy received from the public. This week, we speak with writer Myriam Gurba about why some cases of family annihilation get more attention than others, why we villainize mothers and the parallels with the Latin American legend of La Llorona.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Chris Brown won't get cancelled. This is why. 25.09.2026 34m

  When Rep. Jasmine Crockett took the stage at a Chris Brown concert to honor him, the backlash came fast. It's a familiar cycle: every few years, Brown lands back in the news, and the public relitigates a history of violence stretching back to 2009. Gene talks with cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux and writer and DJ Noella Williams about why so many fans stay 10 toes down for him, and what accountability could even look like.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Do voters want woke? 22.09.2026 37m

  Lots of progressive politicians eyeing runs for higher office are distancing themselves from the politics of 2020, like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez declaring, "woke 1.0 was crazy." But should they be? Jamelle Bouie of The New York Times says voters are swayed more by identity than ideology — so it's less about the ideas and more about the vibes. We talk to him about who gets read as radical (even if they're not) and whether anyone who isn't a white guy can run as a populist.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Is Cuba Trump's next real estate project? 18.09.2026 25m

  Cubans are living through near-constant blackouts after an executive order that called the Cuban government an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and blocked their fuel imports. A hundred-page State Department report describes Cuba as the puppeteer behind everything from the George Floyd protests to what it calls the rise of antifa. We talk to historians Michael Bustamante and Alexander Hall about the day to day effects of U.S. pressure, why this crisis is old and new at the same time, and why Black Cubans are absorbing the worst of the crisis.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Why can’t people be normal about the WNBA? 15.09.2026 35m

  The WNBA is more popular than ever, but the growth has come with a lot of unwanted attention, like protests at games and death threats directed towards players. This week, we talk with independent journalist Frankie de la Cretaz about what brought all of this hate into the league, and NPR’s domestic extremism correspondent, Odette Yousef, about the ways the league is responding.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  Why we’re all being watched 11.09.2026 36m

  There’s a growing backlash to the surveillance systems that have quietly wired themselves into American neighborhoods, with concern growing among people who have never felt watched this way before. Gene talks with historian Matthew Guariglia about how the surveillance state got built, who it was built on first, and why opposing it now unites so many factions.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  25 years after 9/11, our definition of terrorism continues to expand 08.09.2026 27m

  In the 25 years since 9/11, we've seen the definition of terrorism expand. 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. This week, our conversation with Saher Selod, an expert on the surveillance of Muslims, about the effects of the war on terror after 9/11, and historian Alex Lubin about how the word “terrorist” has been used to enact violence and surveillance.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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  We're Miseducated on Lauryn Hill 04.09.2026 1h 5m

  Lauryn Hill is a generational voice, a cultural lightning rod, and one of music’s biggest what-ifs. Our very own B.A. Parker joined the Big Lives podcast, hosted by Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi, to unpack the meteoric rise of the Fugees frontwoman and the intense pressures that pushed one of hip-hop and R&B’s brightest stars out of the spotlight.Find Big Lives wherever you get your podcasts.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy