Every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker. That was the fate of Hawaiian, until a group of second-language learners put up a fight and declared, "E Ola Ka 'Olelo Hawai'i" (The Hawaiian Language Shall Live!!!) Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
It's a pernicious stereotype, but it was coined in reference to a real woman named Linda Taylor. But her misdeeds were far more numerous and darker than welfare fraud. This week: how politicians used one outlier's story to turn the public against government programs for the poor. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Samin Nosrat is an award-winning chef, cookbook author, and star of the Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. She's also an Iranian American woman trying to represent two cultures that are often perceived as being at odds with each other. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
In middle school and high school, we're figuring out how to fit in and realizing that there are things about ourselves that we can't change — whether or not we want to. This week, we're turning the mic over to student podcasters, who told us about the big issues shaping their nascent identities. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
A Sapphire isn't only a jewel—it's also cultural shorthand for an angry black woman. In this episode, we look at where Sapphire was born, and how the stereotype continues to haunt black women, even successful, powerful ones. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
France is the place where for decades you weren't supposed to talk about someone's blackness, unless you said it in English. Today, we're going to meet the people who took a very French approach to change that. (Note: This story contains strong language in English and French.) Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
When members of the nation's oldest Mexican-American student organization voted to change its name, it revealed generational tensions around the past, present, and future of the Chicano movement. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
April is National Poetry Month, so on this episode, we're passing the mic to a handful of talented poets — the people who narrate our lives and help us better understand our own experiences. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
For more than two decades, a cellphone store in Washington, D.C. has blasted go-go music right outside of its front door. But a recent noise complaint from a resident of a new, upscale apartment building in the area brought the music to a halt — highlighting the tensions over gentrification in the nation's capital. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
In 1968, thousands of students participated in a series of protests for equity in education that sparked the Chicano Movement. But for two of the students at one struggling high school, that civil unrest — which became known as East L.A. Walkouts — also marked the beginning of a 50-year romance. This week, Code Switch is cosigning that love story, brought to us by our play-cousins at Latino USA. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Support for Israel has long been the rare bipartisan position among lawmakers in Washington. But recently, several younger, brown members of Congress have vocally questioned the U.S.'s relationship with Israel — and were met with fierce condemnation, including charges that their criticism was anti-Semitic. On this episode: We're talking about why it remains so hard to have nuanced conversations about Israel. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Polic...
This week, we tackle reader questions on vegetarianism, the specter of grocery store Columbuses, and the quiet opprobrium directed at "smelly ethnic foods" in the workplace. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Fifty years ago, a multiracial coalition of students at a commuter college in San Francisco went on strike. And while their bloody, bitter standoff has been largely forgotten, it forever changed higher education in the United States. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
What does "civility" look like and who gets to define it? What about "respectable" behavior? This week, we're looking at how behavior gets policed in public. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
A deadly tornado ripped through Lee County Alabama this past Sunday. An NPR investigation found that white Americans and those with safety nets often receive more federal dollars after a disaster than people of color and Americans with less wealth. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
When Colin Kaepernick stopped standing for the national anthem at NFL games it sparked a nationwide conversation about patriotism and police brutality. Black athletes using their platform to protest injustice has long been a tradition in American history. In this episode we tap in our friends at Throughline to explore three stories of protest that are rarely told but essential to understanding the current debate: the heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, the sprinter Wilma Rudolph, and the basketball ...
Anali, a young woman from Los Angeles, wants to break into the film industry. A local program taught her the skills of the trade and the language, but will any of that that matter in an industry that runs mostly on connections? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Okay, news cycle: you win. We're talking about blackface. This week, we delve into the hidden history of "blackening up" in popular culture — from a certain iconic cartoon mouse's minstrel past to Instagram models trying to pass as black. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Another week of racial controversies, another week of calls to "start a dialogue on race." What does that even mean? We talk to two veterans of one high-profile attempt at a national conversation on race, who have different views of its effectiveness. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Some may think of beauty as frivolous and fun, but on this episode, we're examining a few of the ugly ways that its been used to project power. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Another day, another drama: Last week, a federal judge ruled against the Trump administration's decision to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census. But if the Justice Department has any say, the fight will go on...all the way to the Supreme Court. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Jason Kim and his father were once very close, but drifted apart after the family came to the United States from Korea. They drifted even further after Jason came out to his parents as gay. But after a health crisis, Jason and his father try to reckon with the silence between them. This week, a story about a family's hopes, dreams, and obligations, brought to us by the dope folks at WNYC's Nancy podcast. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Meet one of the people caught up in the Trump Administration's hard-line stance on immigration: Javier Zamora. He was living in the US legally under Temporary Protected Status but when the White House threatened to take it away, Javier went back to El Salvador to apply for a new visa. He didn't know if he'd ever return to the US, his home of nearly twenty years. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
This week, we're uncovering the stories behind three American Anthems. First, we hear from two musical greats about their respective versions of "Fight the Power." Next, we learned about the transformation of the children's choir staple, "This Little Light of Mine." Finally, we took a trip down "Whittier Blvd." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Spit into a tube and get in touch with your ancestors! Or not. This week we're revisiting a conversation about DNA, and what it tells us about who we are. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
A professor at the University of Texas San Antonio designed a college course based around episodes of the Code Switch podcast! In it, her students learned how to have tough conversations about race and identity, using Shereen and Gene as an example. But after an incident on campus involving the police made national news, their theoretical classroom discussions stopped being polite and started getting real. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
We checked in with authors, poets and great literary minds to see what books they think everyone should read this holiday season. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Reporter Julia Simon tells us about a radical miners' union in Birmingham, Alabama. It laid the foundation for civil rights organizers in the South, and holds lessons for the future of labor. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On this episode, we're hanging out with pups. First, is Kat's anxious dog Samson really just a little beagle bigot? Then, the author Bronwen Dickey and the political scientist Michael Tesler explain how the pitbull transformed from America's most beloved sidekick to a doggo non grata. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Gene and Shereen talk to poet Denice Frohman, percussionist Bobby Sanabria, chef Marcus Samuelsson and comedian Ashley Nicole Black at Harlem's World Famous Apollo Theater in New York City. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
