At most elite colleges and universities, affirmative action is a thing of the past. But admissions offices are still interested in building racially diverse incoming classes — which can mean looking at students' essays to help determine their background. In those essays, Black students have often been encouraged to write about experiences of overcoming trauma in order to help underscore their race. The sociologist Aya Waller-Bey joins the Code Switch podcast to talk about how the pressure to write a traumatic college essay has troubling implications for how we understand what it means to have an authentic Black experience.
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Between choosing a neighborhood to live in or whether to send your kid to public school, there are a lot of decisions that feel high stakes — and loaded with tricky racial dynamics. We're here to help. This week we're digging into our archives to bring you some parenting advice around some of our listeners’ thorniest parenting-and-race dilemmas.
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People say motherhood is the best job in the world. And even though it feels like that at times, it’s also work that can feel thankless and overwhelming.
So where's a bedraggled mom to turn when she feels overworked, overwhelmed, and underappreciated? Influencers are stepping in to fill that void, including a particular category of momfluencer: the tradwife. We’re digging deep into the world of momfluencers and tradwives to find its connections to MAGA politics, white supremacy, and where moms of color fit in.
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The Trump administration has been very candid about their disdain for all things DEI. But it's not just conservatives who have critiques. This week on the Code Switch podcast, we're talking to Jennifer C. Pan, author of “Selling Social Justice: Why the Rich Love Antiracism,” about why she thinks people on the left should be skeptical of DEI programs as well. We get into how DEI programs are frequently used as a tool for large corporations to assert their moral authority — without actually sacrificing their bottom line, or improving conditions for workers.
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The Trump administration's recent military actions have had certain observers wondering ... are we going full empire? But Daniel Immerwahr, a historian and the author of “How to Hide an Empire,” argues that the U.S. has engaged in empire building for hundreds of years — we've just been sneakier about it than other countries. We're breaking down what that history of colonization has looked like, and how President Trump's international escapades are scrambling the global order.
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What makes people care about major crises that are unfolding in other parts of the world? What makes them turn away? And what does that attention actually do for the people in those situations?
This week on the Code Switch podcast, we're looking at Sudan, which has entered its fourth year of civil war this week. But, unlike in Gaza, the violence and famine there has struggled to gather as much attention, in the news and in people's minds. We talk to Sudanese American journalist Isma'il Kushkush, political scientist Scott Straus, Sudan expert Alex de Waal, and political scientist Mai Hassan.
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Why is it that voting Republican or Democrat says anything about you and your identity? We talk to political scientist Lilliana Mason about how party affiliation has become a “mega-identity” — a lens through which we see all other aspects of identity — and how that shapes views on race, political behavior, and so much more.
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The Trump administration has called more and more groups “terrorists,” from supposed “narco-terrorists” in Ecuador, to people who protest ICE, to the entire Democratic party. But that expansion of the term terrorist is nothing new. On the Code Switch pod, we’re exploring the ever-broadening term “terrorist”. We talk to Saher Selod, an expert on the racialized surveillance of Muslims, about the effects of the War on Terror after 9/11, and historian Alex Lubin about how this term has been weaponized even going back to colonial times.
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This week on the Code Switch podcast, we’re dissecting “The MAGA look.” Dramatic eyeliner, long, wavy hair, sheath dresses — these are defining features of the women of President Trump's Republican party. But it's about a lot more than just appearances. Inae Oh, a journalist at Mother Jones who wrote an article called “In Your Face: The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA,” joins us to talk about what the aesthetics of MAGA tell us about power, influence, race and femininity.
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Earlier this week Sen. Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as the newest head of the Department of Homeland Security, replacing Kristi Noem. Head of DHS is an enormously consequential role that involves taking charge of ICE, border patrol, and TSA. And Mullin is an interesting choice for the role — he's a conservative, Christian citizen of Cherokee nation, known both for his ability to reach across the aisle, and for being a political firebrand. On the Code Switch podcast we're asking: What will Markwayne Mullin's leadership of DHS mean for Indian Country? And what will it mean for the nation as a whole?
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Words can’t hurt you, or can they? Language is powerful, it can be used to develop us-versus-them mindsets and shape people's perception of reality. That gets magnified when the person wielding that language is the president. When President Trump says things like “fake news,” “witch hunt” or even “Make America Great Again,” he’s not just using catchy phrases — he’s persuading people into a way of thinking and believing.
On the podcast, we talk to @amanda_montell , author of "Cultish" and co-host of the podcast @soundslikeacultpod , about what the language of MAGA shares with the language of cults, and why it matters.
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One day before the United States went to war with Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was on a different war path, putting Scouting America — formerly known as the Boy Scouts — "on notice." The once great organization was becoming too woke, he said, and had been tarnished by embracing DEI. On this episode of the Code Switch pod, we're talking to Benjamin René Jordan, author of “Modern Manhood and the Boy Scouts of America,” about the Scouts' surprisingly progressive history. And we ask him about the complex relationship between scouting and the military.
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