Utang na loob is the Filipino concept of an eternal debt to others, be it family or friends, who do a favor for you. It goes back to pre-colonial times in the Philippines, and can pass from one generation to another. And some Filipino-Americans want to do away with utang all together, especially when it butts up against "American" values of independence and self-reliance. On this week's episode, we break down this "debt of the inner soul" — and discover a surprising side to this value. Learn mor...
May 18, 2022•44 min•Ep. 341
School District 28 in Queens, N.Y., has a Northside and a Southside. To put it simply, the Southside is Black and the farther north you go, the fewer Black people you see. But it wasn't always like this. Once the home to two revolutionary experiments in integrated housing, the Southside of the district served as a beacon of interracial cooperation. So what happened between then and now? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
May 11, 2022•50 min•Ep. 342
In 2019, a school district in Queens N.Y., one of the most diverse places on the planet, is selected to go through the process of creating something unexpected: a diversity plan. Why would the school district need such a plan and why were some parents so adamantly opposed? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
May 04, 2022•58 min•Ep. 341
Coming soon to the Code Switch feed: School Colors , a limited-run series about how race, class and power shape American cities and schools. Hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman take us to Queens, N.Y. – often touted as the most racially diverse place in the world. In 2019, a Queens school district announced that they were chosen to get a "diversity plan." One reaction from local parents? Outrage. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
May 02, 2022•3 min•Ep. 340
Some call it a riot. Some call it an uprising. Many Korean Americans simply call it "Sai-i-gu" (literally, 4-2-9.) But no matter what you call it, it's clear to many that April 29, 1992 made a fundamental mark on the city of Los Angeles. Now, 30 years later, we're talking to Steph Cha and John Cho — two authors whose books both center around that fateful time. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Apr 27, 2022•51 min•Ep. 339
How can anything be more important than what's happening right now? That's the question a woman named Evelyn Wang is pondering right before she is thrust into a surreal, sci-fi multiverse, in the movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once." On the other side — googly eyes, talking rocks, people with hot dog hands — and an exploration of the dynamics between three generations in a Chinese immigrant family. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Apr 20, 2022•26 min•Ep. 338
In the 70s and 80s, Fashion Fair was an iconic cosmetics company designed to create makeup for Black women of all shades. This is the story of that company's meteoric rise, its slow decline, and the two women who think they can resurrect it once more. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Apr 13, 2022•25 min•Ep. 337
What do you do when all your options for school kind of suck? That was the question some folks on the Standing Rock Reservation found themselves asking a couple of years ago. Young people were being harassed in public schools, and adults were worried that their kids weren't learning important tenets of Lakota culture. So finally, a group of educators and parents decided to start a brand new school, unlike any others in the region. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adch...
Apr 06, 2022•36 min•Ep. 336
Lindy Hop is a dance that was born in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s — created and performed by African Americans in segregated clubs and dance halls. But today, one of the world's most vibrant Lindy Hop communities is in Sweden. So what happens when a Black American wants to learn the art form that she first encountered at the hands of her great-grandmother? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Mar 30, 2022•43 min•Ep. 334
It is probably the most radioactive word in the English language. At the same time, the N-word is kind of everywhere: books, movies, music, comedy (not to mention the mouths of people who use it frequently, whether as a slur or a term of endearment.) So on this episode, we're talking about what makes the word unique — and how the rules about its use line up with other words. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Mar 23, 2022•37 min•Ep. 334
This week marks the one year anniversary of a deadly shooting spree in Atlanta, where eight people were killed. Six of those people were Asian American. That violence came after Asian American organizers had been trying, for months, to sound the alarm over a dramatic spike in reports of anti-Asian racism. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Mar 16, 2022•32 min•Ep. 333
Gene Demby and comedian Hari Kondabolu are both new fathers, and they're both learning to raise kids who will have very different identities and upbringings than their own. It's left both of them reflecting on some big questions: How will they teach their children about race? What are the elements of their childhoods that they want to pass on? And what, exactly, is a father anyway? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Mar 09, 2022•28 min•Ep. 332
Figure skating has always been about flair and drama. But what happens on the ice is nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes. This week, with the help of our friends at the Blind Landing podcast, we're telling the story of Mabel Fairbanks. Fairbanks was a Black and Seminole figure skater who spent her career training figure skaters of color — while navigating the complicated racial and social dynamics that characterized the sport. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoic...
Mar 02, 2022•39 min•Ep. 331
At the height of his career, Bill Cosby was one of the most famous men in the United States. He was the biggest and highest paid star in the country, and with his image plastered on billboards, advertisements and television, many people felt like they knew him. Of course, few people really knew Bill Cosby. And many of the people who had seen who he was up close would be traumatized for the rest of their lives. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Pol...
Feb 23, 2022•41 min•Ep. 330
In 2020, nearly 20% of Americans turned to therapy. Many of those people were looking for a space to process some of the big, painful events they were living through, including the pandemic, a contentious election cycle, and of course, the summer's racial reckoning. But that had us wondering: What exactly can therapy accomplish? Can it mitigate the effects of racism? Help us undo how we internalize racial trauma? Today, we're sharing the stories of two Latinx people who tried to use therapy as a...
Feb 16, 2022•32 min•Ep. 329
Live from your computer screens, it's Code Switch! Guest hosts Ayesha Rascoe and Denice Frohman joined us to talk poetry and humor with special guests Paul Tran and Hari Kondabolu. Then, Ayesha and Denice answered your questions about race and love. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Feb 09, 2022•36 min•Ep. 328
In Canada, tensions between indigenous fishermen and commercial fishermen have been simmering for decades. On today's bonus episode, from our friends at NPR's Planet Money team, we travel to Nova Scotia to figure out how a group of Mi'kmaw fishermen asserted their rights to fish and what happened when commercial lobsterman struck back hard. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Feb 07, 2022•25 min•Ep. 327
It's Black History Month, which is likely to bring boundless stories of Black Excellence and Black Firsts. So today on the show, we're talking about Constance Baker Motley — a trailblazing civil rights judge who paved the way for many to come after her (including, perhaps, the next Supreme Court justice?) But, as we learned, Motley's life was full of contradictions, and her many achievements also came with many costs. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Pri...
Feb 02, 2022•34 min•Ep. 326
We hear the phrase "unapologetically Black" thrown around a lot. But what does it actually mean? In this bonus episode from our newest play cousins at NPR's The Limits podcast, actress, businessperson, and author Gabrielle Union talks about what it meant for her to stop paying so much attention to what white people wanted from her. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Jan 30, 2022•49 min•Ep. 325
People lie about being Native American all the time – on college applications, on job applications, in casual conversation. But how do "Pretendians" hurt real Indigenous people and communities? And what does all that mean for people who aren't quite sure if they're claiming or reclaiming? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Jan 26, 2022•33 min•Ep. 324
Since he died this week, André Leon Talley has been described over and over again as "larger than life." But on this episode, brought to us by our friends at NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast, three queer Black men talk about the smaller, more personal moments that made Talley such an icon in the fashion world — and in the broader culture. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Jan 23, 2022•35 min•Ep. 323
We use words related to color to describe different racial categories all the time — Black, white, brown. But how much of race and identity actually has to do with the color of your skin? What if what appears to be "whiteness" is only skin deep? Today we're sharing stories from people of color with albinism whose experiences challenge what many people think they know about race. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Jan 19, 2022•25 min•Ep. 322
It's now been more than a year since the so-called "racial reckoning" that marked the summer of 2020. The country, some said confidently, was having the biggest racial reckoning since the civil rights movement. But since then, the Code Switch team has been wondering...what was actually being reckoned with? And by whom? And what would the backlash be? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Jan 12, 2022•35 min•Ep. 321
What stories do we learn about the history of the United States? Who dreamed up those stories? And what happens when we challenge them? This week on the pod, our play cousins at NPR's Throughline podcast talk to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones about the historical argument she tried to make with the 1619 project. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Jan 05, 2022•50 min•Ep. 320
This time of year, folks are being inundated with messages about how to become more beautiful. But beauty is an ever-changing goalpost that has everything do with race, class and power. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Dec 29, 2021•48 min•Ep. 319
Y'all, 2021 brought us a lot of TV. Some of it was even good! So this week, we're talking about the shows that had something interesting to say about race, from We Are Lady Parts to Reservation Dogs to City of Ghosts. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Dec 22, 2021•33 min•Ep. 318
Our play cousins at NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast reexamine the so-called "Latin explosion" of the late '90s: What it was supposed to be for audiences across the U.S., and what it actually came to represent. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Dec 20, 2021•35 min•Ep. 317
The term 'Latin Music' can encompass everything from Celia Cruz to Bad Bunny to Selena Gomez to Los Tigres del Norte. It's rock, pop, hip hop, salsa, bachata, reggaeton, and so much more. So...what exactly is the connective tissue? Language? The ethnicity of the artist? Pure vibes? Or is it something else entirely? Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Dec 15, 2021•35 min•Ep. 316
How do race and class affect the way we eat? What makes dollar store junk food different from organic junk food? And when did Whole Foods become such a polarizing grocery store? We're getting into all those questions and more with Priya Fielding-Singh, author of the new book, How the Other Half Eats. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Dec 08, 2021•33 min•Ep. 315
When Derecka Purnell was growing up, the police were a regular presence in her life. Years later, the lawyer, activist, and author of the new book, Becoming Abolitionists, realized that her vision of a just society was radically different from the world in which she'd been socialized. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Dec 01, 2021•32 min•Ep. 314
