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The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

February 4, 2026 •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.

The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

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Protesters against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026.

What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

by Jess Kung, B.A. Parker, Xavier Lopez, Leah Donnella

January 28, 2026 •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.

What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

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How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

by Jess Kung, Gene Demby, Leah Donnella

January 21, 2026 •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.

How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

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A makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents is taped to a post near the site of the previous day's shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

Mike Householder/AP

How the ICE shooting in Minneapolis and calls to deport Nicki Minaj are related

by Leah Donnella

January 9, 2026 •How are the calls to deport Nicki Minaj to Trinidad and the ICE shooting in Minneapolis related? They illustrate the contradictions that come up when people try to cherry pick applications of the law.

A cartoon baby head on a volcano, erupting with rage and little people swept up in the panic.

LA Johnson

From "CRT" to "DEI": A history of race and moral panics

by Jess Kung, Gene Demby, Leah Donnella

December 31, 2025 •A few years back, many politicians were raising the alarm about the dangers of "CRT" in schools. Today, the new risk to public education is "DEI." What do both of these moments have in common? They have all the elements of a moral panic. So in this installment of Code Switch History Class, we're looking at the history of moral panics in the U.S., and why they so often invoke fears about race and integration.

From "CRT" to "DEI": A history of race and moral panics

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Lisa Rae Gutierrez was one of the students at San Francisco State University who took part in the longest student strike in U.S. history, from 1968-1969. Shereen Marisol Merajihide caption

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Shereen Marisol Meraji

What the 1968 fight for ethnic studies classes teaches us about today

by Gene Demby, B.A. Parker, Shereen Marisol Meraji

December 24, 2025 •The fight over the soul of higher education is very alive right now, with the Trump administration engaged in dozens of investigations and multiple lawsuits against colleges and universities around the country. Billions of research dollars at those schools have been frozen, too. So today, in a special series called Code Switch History Class, we're looking back at another time of upheaval — a long, bloody strike at San Francisco State that forever changed higher education in the United States.

What the 1968 fight for ethnic studies classes teaches us about today

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A school building with limbs and eyes like a monster.

Jackie Lay/NPR

The fight over public education, from Texas to the White House

by Gene Demby, Leah Donnella, Jess Kung

December 17, 2025 •For months, the Trump administration has been making moves to dismantle the Department of Education — with mixed success. But when it comes to the fight over public education, some of the most significant dustups are happening on the local level, with school boards around the country. Today, we're looking at one of those fights, which played out in a rapidly changing suburb of Dallas called Southlake.

The fight over public education, from Texas to the White House

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A collage of Black women obscured by digital artifacts

Jackie Lay/NPR

The evolution of blackface in the age of AI

by Jess Kung, B.A. Parker, Leah Donnella

December 13, 2025 •With AI image and video generators, it's become easier than ever to create hyper-realistic clips of almost anything. Today, we're looking at the landscape of AI influencers that depict Black people in various ways, from the mildly stereotypical to the ultra-demeaning. And we're talking to writer Zeba Blay about why she thinks these types of videos can erode the our society's ability to take the problems of IRL, human Black people seriously.

The evolution of blackface in the age of AI

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A grey gavel with barbed wire wrapped around the handle in front of a cloudy red background.

Jackie Lay

How the Trump administration is reshaping immigration

by Christina Cala, Gene Demby, Jess Kung, Ximena Bustillo, Dalia Mortada, Anna Yukhananov

December 3, 2025 •The Trump administration has been firing immigration judges, despite the fact that there’s a massive backlog of immigration cases that need rulings. Ximena Bustillo, NPR’s immigration and DHS reporter, has spotted a trend: many of the judges let go have previous experience in immigration defense. At the same time, the Trump administration has allocated $30 billion to beef up ICE as an agency and hire “deportation judges.”

Code Switch-12.10.2025 - fired judges

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Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty/Lavitt/Yale

Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving

November 29, 2025 •For the millions of Americans that celebrate Thanksgiving, it's a time when many people reflect on the things and the people in our lives that they appreciate. But according to Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor at Yale and host of the podcast, The Happiness Lab, a practice of gratitude can improve our lives year-round. This week on the pod, we're bringing you a conversation from our friends over at It's Been A Minute. Host Brittany Luse chats with Dr. Santos about the surprising science of how gratitude can affect our brains — and how it leads us to be more generous with our future selves.

Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving

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Lucas Marquardt

How poetry helps Ada Limon navigate life, even when it’s tough

by Christina Cala, Gene Demby

November 26, 2025 •As we enter "cozy season," we're revisiting our conversation with Ada Limon, who just wrapped up her tenure as the U.S. Poet Laureate. She talks to us about loss and grief and evolving identity -- like becoming a "fall person" after a lifetime of identifying as a "summer person" -- and the power of poetry to navigate it all.

How poetry helps Ada Limon navigate life, even when it’s tough

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A portrait of Esther Green, an elder in Bethel, Alaska. She wears glasses and furs.

Katie Basile/KYUK

How Trump's cuts to public media threaten the first Native American station

by Courtney Stein, B.A. Parker, Dalia Mortada, Jess Kung

November 15, 2025 •On October 1, 2025, public radio stations lost all of their federal funding -- and for Black and Native American community stations, the cuts hit hard. Case in point, KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, which was the first Indigenous-led public radio station. They lost 70% of their budget after federal public media cuts, and will be shrinking from 10 full-time staffers, to 4 people. We speak to Esther Green, a Yupik elder, and her co-host Diane McEachern of KYUK's spiritual wellness show, Ikayutet, and station general manager Kristin Hall, about what the future looks like for the station.

How Trump's cuts to public media threaten the first Native American station

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Why Malala Yousafzai is a hero in the West but not back home

by Mariya Karimjee, B.A. Parker, Dalia Mortada, Jess Kung, Xavier Lopez, Christina Cala, Leah Donnella, Gene Demby, Veralyn Williams

October 1, 2025 •Why is Malala Yousafzai so revered in the West while being much less popular in her home country of Pakistan? On this week's Code Switch, we unpack how Pakistani skepticism of Malala extends from a suspicion of U.S. and other foreign interests.

CS MALALA

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Is the American dream a scam?

by Xavier Lopez, B.A. Parker, Leah Donnella, Cher Vincent, Jess Kung, Dalia Mortada, Christina Cala, Veralyn Williams, Gene Demby

September 24, 2025 •This week on the pod: author Edgar Gomez talks about what it was like growing up poor, queer, and Nicaraguan Puerto Rican in Florida. His new memoir, Alligator Tears, chronicles his dreams of making it big, the various mini-scams he got into along the way, and his realization that a rich life might not ever come with bundles of money.

Alligator Tears

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How calls for mass deportations went mainstream

by Jess Kung, Gene Demby, Dalia Mortada, Huo Jingnan, Lisa Hagen, Audrey Nguyen, Brett Neely, Xavier Lopez, Leah Donnella, Veralyn Williams, Christina Cala

September 10, 2025 •Calls to ban “third world immigration” in favor of “remigration” -- or, mass deportation -- went from fringe ideas in far right circles to ones pedaled by mainstream conservatives. Now, those ideas are mirrored in government policy. On this week'sCode Switch, we track how these ideas got their start among white nationalists and neo-Nazis in the U.S. and Europe and found their way into the language of popular right-wing influencers and Trump administration advisers. Note: This episode makes references to Charlie Kirk, and it was reported and recorded before he was shot in Utah.

How calls for mass deportations went mainstream

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An encampment for the unhoused in Washington D.C. near the Kennedy Center was cleared by employees of the city's Department of Health and Human Services. The residents of the encampment packed up their belongings and left with the help of city outreach workers as well as non-profit employees and volunteers. Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPRhide caption

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Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR

Code Switch

How Trump's D.C. takeover criminalizes homelessness

by Jess Kung, Leah Donnella, Gene Demby, Xavier Lopez, Courtney Stein, Christina Cala, Dalia Mortada, B.A. Parker, Veralyn Williams

August 20, 2025 •On August 11, President Trump announced his intention to "rescue" the nation's capital. A central feature of his plan involved using federal officials to remove people experiencing homelessness from the city — people that he listed alongside "violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, and drugged out maniacs." On this episode, we're diving into what it means to criminalize homelessness, what it looks like when police officers are used to solve social problems, and what this D.C. takeover might portend for the rest of the country.

"Crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor."

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Courtesy of Kovert Creative

The Code Switch Podcast

Statelessness, but make it funny

by Xavier Lopez, Gene Demby, Leah Donnella, Dalia Mortada, Jess Kung, B.A. Parker, Christina Cala, Veralyn Williams, Courtney Stein

August 13, 2025 •Mo Amer is the creator and star of the hit Netflix comedy series Mo. It's a first-of-its kind Palestinian-American sitcom with a fraught plot line about the American immigration system and the hope to return, at least for a visit, to his family's homeland. We talk to Mo Amer what it’s like to make a show so centered on the real facts of his own life, and to be thrust into the role of spokesperson for Palestinian-Americans at this particular moment.

Statelessness, but make it funny

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Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

Hot weather kills. Who gets protected?

by B.A. Parker, Christina Cala, Rebecca Hersher, Lauren McGaughy, Alejandra Borunda

August 5, 2025 •The heat disproportionately kills poor, elderly and people of color. So on this episode we're focusing on the lives of those impacted, from roofers in Florida to prisoners who live and die in cells that feel more like ovens in Texas. We’re asking why so many people are dying from the heat and whose lives we value enough to count their deaths and try to prevent them.

Hot weather kills. Who gets protected?

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We asked, and you answered: How doyouconnect joy and resistance? Jackie Layhide caption

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Jackie Lay

You told us — what brings you joy

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A woman smiles while sipping a fancy drink. That's joy, right? Jackie Layhide caption

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Jackie Lay

July 30, 2025 •The phrase "joy is resistance" has been popping up all over the place lately. But what, exactly, does it mean? In this episode, we're unpacking what joy is, when it can actually be used as a tool for social change, and why the slogan has become so popular (even when joy itself feels more tenuous.)

Is joy an act of resistance?

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Protests are near constant. Do they work?

A side-by-side of protests from the civil rights movement, versus protests of the 21st century. Jackie Layhide caption

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Jackie Lay

Code Switch

Protests are near constant. Do they work?

by B.A. Parker, Xavier Lopez, Leah Donnella, Courtney Stein, Gene Demby, Jess Kung, Dalia Mortada, Christina Cala, Veralyn Williams

July 23, 2025 •To the casual observer, it might seem like the U.S. has been spent years in a constant state of protest, from the Women's March in 2017 to the racial uprisings in 2020 to the No Kings protests earlier in the summer. But some are starting to wonder: How effective are any of those protests? When it comes to achieving lasting social change, do any of them work?

Protests are near constant. Do they work?

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Thành ‎

Code Switch

The books, movies and music that shaped the Code Switch team

by Courtney Stein, Leah Donnella, Gene Demby, B.A. Parker, Xavier Lopez, Jess Kung, Sequoia Carrillo, Dalia Mortada, Veralyn Williams

July 16, 2025 •Once upon a time, members of theCode Switchteam were just kids, learning about race and identity for the first time. So on this episode, we're sharing some of the books, movies and music that deeply influenced each of us at an early age — and set us on the path to being the race nerds we are today.

The books, movies and music that shaped the Code Switch team

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From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok

Jackie Lay

Code Switch

From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok

by B.A. Parker, Xavier Lopez, Dalia Mortada, Gene Demby, Jess Kung, Courtney Stein, Leah Donnella, Veralyn Williams

July 9, 2025 •Have you noticed people using terms like "unalive" and

From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok

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Movatterモバイル変換

The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

From "CRT" to "DEI": A history of race and moral panics

What the 1968 fight for ethnic studies classes teaches us about today

The fight over public education, from Texas to the White House

The evolution of blackface in the age of AI

Code Switch-12.10.2025 - fired judges

Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving

How poetry helps Ada Limon navigate life, even when it’s tough

How Trump's cuts to public media threaten the first Native American station

CS MALALA

Alligator Tears

How calls for mass deportations went mainstream

"Crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor."

Statelessness, but make it funny

Hot weather kills. Who gets protected?

You told us — what brings you joy

Is joy an act of resistance?

Protests are near constant. Do they work?

The books, movies and music that shaped the Code Switch team

From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok