Accessibility links
Code Switch Race and identity, remixed.

Code SwitchCode Switch

Race. In your face.
Sex, Friendship And Aging: 'It's Not All Downhill From Here'
Matthew Jordan Smith/Courtesy of Penguin Random House

Code Switch

Sex, Friendship And Aging: 'It's Not All Downhill From Here'

This week, senior correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates talks with the best-selling author Terry McMillan, famous for her novels Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The two longtime friends chat about McMillan's latest novel, It's Not All Downhill From Here, and the topics the book tackles: aging, friendship, race and sex.

Sex, Friendship And Aging: 'It's Not All Downhill From Here'

Listen · 22:36
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/820775968/821229731" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Unlikely Story Behind Japanese Americans' Campaign For Reparations

People of Japanese descent wait in line for their assigned homes at an internment camp reception center in Manzanar, Calif., the same camp in which John Tateishi was detained as a child. AP hide caption

toggle caption
AP

Code Switch

The Unlikely Story Behind Japanese Americans' Campaign For Reparations

by Isabella Rosario

In his new book Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations, John Tateishi recounts the fight for justice in the wake of World War II internment camps.

The All-Women Mariachi Group That's Lifting Our Spirits
Piero F Giunti/Latino USA

Code Switch

The All-Women Mariachi Group That's Lifting Our Spirits

by , Jeanne Montalvo

With all this pandemic anxiety swirling, we thought you might need some music to take your mind off things. So this week, we've got an episode from our friends over at Latino USA. It's about Flor de Toloache, an all-women mariachi group that's making history by bucking tradition and playing a style of music that's usually performed by men.

The All-Women Mariachi Group That's Lifting Our Spirits

Listen · 17:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/817316400/817456976" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Limits Of Empathy
Sara Ariel Wong

Code Switch

The Limits Of Empathy

by , Natalie Escobar , Sarah Kate Kramer

In matters of race and justice, empathy is often held up as a goal unto itself. But what comes after understanding? In this episode, we're teaming up with Radio Diaries to look at the career of a white writer who put herself in someone else's skin — by disguising herself as a black woman — to find out what she learned, and what she couldn't.

The Limits Of Empathy

Listen · 36:41
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/812864654/814294160" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus
LA Johnson

Code Switch

When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus

by Natalie Escobar

As international health agencies warn that COVID-19 could become a pandemic, fears over the new coronavirus' spread have activated old, racist suspicions toward Asians and Asian Americans. It's part of a longer history in the United States, in which xenophobia has often been camouflaged as a concern for public health and hygiene.

When Xenophobia Spreads Like A Virus

Listen · 25:16
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/811363404/811927113" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The Cruel Story Behind The 'Reverse Freedom Rides'

Lela Mae Williams and seven of her nine children on arrival in Hyannis. Frank C. Curtin/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Frank C. Curtin/AP

Code Switch

The Cruel Story Behind The 'Reverse Freedom Rides'

WGBH Radio

Southern segregationists resented the Freedom Riders who came by bus to protest Jim Crow laws. So in 1962, they tricked black Southerners into migrating north and transformed families' lives forever.

The Cruel Story Behind The 'Reverse Freedom Rides'

Listen · 43:00
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/809740346/810324828" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
B. Smith, Restaurateur And Lifestyle Icon, Dies At 70 Of Early Onset Alzheimer's

Barbara Elaine Smith, better known as B. Smith, began her career as a model, going on to be a restaurateur, celebrity chef, author, entertainer and lifestyle doyenne. bsmith.com hide caption

toggle caption
bsmith.com

Code Switch

B. Smith, Restaurateur And Lifestyle Icon, Dies At 70 Of Early Onset Alzheimer's

Born Barbara Elaine Smith, she began her career as a model and went on to gain fame and influence as a restaurateur, celebrity chef, lifestyle doyenne and entertainer.

B. Smith, Restaurateur And Lifestyle Icon, Dies At 70 Of Early Onset Alzheimer's

Listen · 3:37
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/808760806/808786971" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A New Memoir Talks 'Riding Shotgun' With Whitney Houston

Robyn Crawford shares her story as Whitney Houston's closest friend in her new memoir A Song For You: My Life With Whitney Houston. Marc Hom/Penguin Random House hide caption

toggle caption
Marc Hom/Penguin Random House

Code Switch

A New Memoir Talks 'Riding Shotgun' With Whitney Houston

From the day they met as teenagers, Robyn Crawford was by Whitney Houston's side. In her new memoir A Song For You: My Life With Whitney Houston, Crawford speaks in depth about their long friendship.

The Day That Never Happened
Atieh Sohrabi for NPR

Code Switch

The Day That Never Happened

by Farnoush Amiri

In the early 2000s, an Iranian American family's home was searched unexpectedly. Afterward, the family questioned their place in the U.S. but didn't talk about the incident for more than a decade.

The Day That Never Happened

Listen · 8:00
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/454050270/795366682" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Your Body Being Used': Where Prisoners Who Can't Vote Fill Voting Districts

Prisoners pass through a courtyard at Waupun Correctional Institution. Officials in some prison towns have come up with creative ways to avoid forming voting districts made up primarily of prisoners. But in many others, political lines are drawn around prisons in a way that critics deride as "prison gerrymandering." Lauren Justice for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Lauren Justice for NPR

Code Switch

'Your Body Being Used': Where Prisoners Who Can't Vote Fill Voting Districts

The U.S. census counts incarcerated people as residents of where they are imprisoned. In many prison towns, that has led to voting districts made up primarily of prisoners who can't vote.

'Your Body Being Used': Where Prisoners Who Can't Vote Fill Voting Districts

Listen · 6:07
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/761932806/792821206" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Reflections From A Jew At A Mock-Jewish Restaurant

The walls of the Golden Rose restaurant in Lviv, Ukraine, are covered with collages that tell detailed stories about the Jewish legacy of the city. Alex Schmidt hide caption

toggle caption
Alex Schmidt

Opinion

Code Switch

Reflections From A Jew At A Mock-Jewish Restaurant

by Alex Schmidt

On a trip to explore her Jewish-Ukrainian roots, one writer made a stop at a controversial Jewish-themed restaurant, where guests are served matzo at every meal and invited to haggle over the check.

Browse archive or search npr.org