Code Switch

Why fascists love “fitness”

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 inh

How much reality do we want in our reality TV?

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 th

How Hollywood stole the zombie from Haiti

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

The shady deals behind data centers

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 hyperscal

Let’s stop pretending we desegregated schools

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 d

The Lindsay Clancy case and the women we make into monsters

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

Chris Brown won't get cancelled. This is why.

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 n

Do voters want woke?

Lots of progressive politicians eyeing runs for higher office are distancing themselves from the politics of 2020, like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez declaring,

Is Cuba Trump's next real estate project?

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 securit

Why can’t people be normal about the WNBA?

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

Why we’re all being watched

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 fe

25 years after 9/11, our definition of terrorism continues to expand

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”

We're Miseducated on Lauryn Hill

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 W

Freedom from fatness: Why GLP-1s go after Black bodies

Ads for GLP-1s are everywhere. This week, we dig into why so many of those ads seem to feature Black women with Sabrina Strings, author of  “Fearing the Black Body” a boo

Banana Ball's racial minstrelsy past

Banana Ball is a barnstorming baseball league revived by the tremendously popular Savannah Bananas, a team with millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram — known as m

Unpacking estrangement: Who goes No Contact?

Is there a family estrangement epidemic? This week, we dig into what’s behind the no-contact movement with sociologist Rin Reczek, author of the new book, “Families We Lo

Our Ancestors Were Messy: a Black history comedy show

In 1775, half a million enslaved people had to pick a side in a war between two groups of white men who both claimed to want freedom. In this live episode of Our Ancestor

Trump is demanding English — while defunding ESL

Last year President Trump made English the official language of the United States. Then his administration moved to zero out the federal money that teaches it. But even f

Jay-Z has F-you money. Is he saying it to the wrong people?

Jay-Z says he's a business, man. He sold out Yankee Stadium for three nights, and used the stage to answer everyone calling him a sellout. The billionaire released the 30

How farm work became the exception to Trump's border crackdown

The Trump administration has been closing off nearly every pathway into the U.S. — except one. The H-2A visa is for the seasonal workers who pick the fruits and vegetable