Podcasts

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?

If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past couple years, you know what a so-called ‘Karen’ is: a white woman who uses her race and gender to wield power over someone more vulnerable. But long before most people became familiar with the term Karen, POCs have been calling out Karen-esque behavior.

Black women have always faced immense pressure to make their bodies look a certain way. But if done the “wrong way,” achieving that idealized figure can lead to just as much scrutiny and critique. So today, we’re talking about the cosmetic procedure known as a Brazilian Butt Lift, and what its rise in popularity illustrates about the type of bodies that do and don’t get valued.

Kacen Callender started out as a kid in St. Thomas writing fan fiction. Today, they are the author of multiple middle-grade and young adult novels full of empathy, learning, and a healthy dose of high school drama.

But seriously, who? Because while it is Hispanic Heritage Month, the notion of a multiracial, multinational, pan-ethnic identity called “Hispanic” is a relatively recent — and somewhat haphazard invention — in the United States. So on this episode, we’re digging into how the term got created and why it continues to both unite and bewilder.

OK, they’re not all kids. But they’re all students, they’re all amazing, and frankly, we’re concerned that they might be coming for our jobs. That’s right — the Student Podcast Challenge is back, and this year, the stories are more powerful than ever.

As the rollout of coronavirus vaccines unfolds, one big challenge for public health officials has been the skepticism many Black people have toward the vaccine. One notorious medical study — the Tuskegee experiment — has been cited as a reason. But should it be?

Marcus Garvey was an immigrant, a firebrand, a businessman. He was viewed with deep suspicion by the civil rights establishment. He would also become one of the most famous and powerful Black visionaries of the 20th century. Our play-cousins at NPR’s Throughline podcast went deep on how he became the towering (and often misunderstood) figure that he is.

The Trump administration is coming to a close, but which elements of the Trump era are here to stay? We spoke to NPR’s White House reporter, Ayesha Rascoe, about where we were when Donald Trump took office — and what he’s left behind.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that history informs every aspect of our present. So today we’re bringing you an episode of NPR’s history podcast, Throughline. It gets into some of the most urgent lessons we can learn from James Baldwin, whose life and writing illuminate so much about what it would really mean for the United States to reckon with its race problem.

For the first time in election history, Latinos are projected to be the second-largest voting demographic in the country. The reason? Gen Z Latinx voters, many of whom are casting a ballot for the first time in 2020. So we asked a bunch of them: Who do you plan to vote for? What issues do you care about? And what do you want the rest of the country to know about you?

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated issues that disproportionately affect women. So on this episode, we’re talking to Mikki Kendall — author of the new book, Hood Feminism — about what on-the-ground feminism practiced by women of color can teach us that the mainstream feminist movement has forgotten.

It’s one of the thorniest questions in any theoretical plan for reparations for black people: Who should get them? On this episode, we dig into some ideas about which black people should and shouldn’t receive a payout — which one expert estimates would cost at least $10 trillion.

The video is horrific, and the brutality is stark. But that was the case in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 and Minnesota in 2016. This time, though, white people are out in the streets in big numbers, and books such as “So You Want to Talk About Race” and “How to Be an Antiracist” top the bestseller lists. So we asked some white people: What’s different this time?

For people of color, “civility” is often a means of containing them, preventing social mobility and preserving the status quo. by KAREN GRIGSBY BATES