Code Switch: Perspectives What can the news tell us about race? Timely, insightful and bold perspectives from the folks who bring you the Code Switch podcast.

Special Series

Code Switch: Perspectives

Wednesday June 19, 2024

Confederate statue in front of the courthouse in Columbia, North Carolina,with a plaque on the bottom that reads: “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES.”

A Confederate statue in front of the courthouse in Columbia, N.C., with a plaque on the bottom that reads: “IN APPRECIATION OF OUR FAITHFUL SLAVES.” Dwight Fenner hide caption

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Dwight Fenner

Perspective

Appreciating our enslaved ancestors despite the relics of the Confederacy

June 19, 2024 • Code Switch co-host B.A. Parker on what to do with the debris of Southern sins as we celebrate Juneteenth.

Monday June 10, 2024

SAN ANTONIO, TX - MAY 19: (2nd L) Team owner Donald Sterling of the Los Angeles Clippers and V. Stiviano watch the San Antonio Spurs play against the Memphis Grizzlies during Game One of the Western Conference Finals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at AT&T Center on May 19, 2013 in San Antonio, Texas.

Former Los Angeles Clippers team owner Donald Sterling and V. Stiviano watch the San Antonio Spurs play against the Memphis Grizzlies during the Western Conference Finals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs Ronald Martinez/Getty Images hide caption

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Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Perspective

Code Switch co-host weighs in on basketball, housing, and two Donalds

June 10, 2024 • Gene Demby on what former NBA Clippers team owner Donald Sterling getting banned for life from the league has to do with Donald Trump and racist housing policy.

Saturday May 18, 2024

In a debate over a school name, it's not just parents who are attached to the past

Yasmine Gateau for NPR

Perspective

Code Switch

In a debate over a school name, it's not just parents who are attached to the past

May 18, 2024 • At the height of the racial reckoning, a school district in Virginia voted to rename two schools that had been previously named for Confederate generals. This month, that decision was reversed.

Saturday May 4, 2024

Jerry Seinfeld and the fraught history of comedians and 'political correctness'

In an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee called "Larry Eats A Pancake," Jerry Seinfeld has coffee with Larry David. YouTube hide caption

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YouTube

Perspective

Code Switch

Jerry Seinfeld and the fraught history of comedians and 'political correctness'

May 4, 2024 • Jerry Seinfeld has the become the latest in a string of public figures to blame "political correctness" for the death of comedy (among other societal ills). But what does the term actually refer to?

Friday February 16, 2024

How ageism against Biden and Trump puts older folks at risk

President Biden delivers remarks Thursday at the White House. Biden addressed the special counsel's report on his handling of classified material, and the status of the war in Gaza. Nathan Howard/Getty Images hide caption

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Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Analysis

Code Switch

How ageism against Biden and Trump puts older folks at risk

February 16, 2024 • Recently, conversation about the age of the 2024 presidential candidates has risen to a fever pitch. That's the sign of a deeper problem with how our culture views aging.

Wednesday January 31, 2024

What Taylor Swift's icon status says about who gets to be a 'girl'

Taylor Swift, who has been celebrated for her ability to channel the emotions and perspectives of adolescent girls. Photos: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP, Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images for TAS/Design: Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption

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Photos: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP, Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images for TAS/Design: Jackie Lay/NPR

January 31, 2024 • Taylor Swift has become an American icon, (and she's got the awards, sales, and accolades to prove it.) With that status, she's often been celebrated as someone whose music is authentically representing the interior lives of young women and adolescent girls. On this episode, we're asking: Why? What is it about Swift's persona — and her fandom — that feels so deeply connected to girlhood? And, because this is Code Switch, what does all of that have to do with race?

What Taylor Swift's icon status says about who gets to be a 'girl'

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Sunday January 14, 2024

Martin Luther King Jr. stands in front of a crowd in Washington, D.C. AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/Getty Images