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Race. In your face.
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The top half of a face wearing a camouflage hat that reads "TRUMP" in orange letters and aviator sunglasses.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP/Getty Images

The Code Switch Podcast

What Trump's language has in common with cult language

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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. This week on Code Switch, we talk to Amanda Montell, author of Cultish and co-host of the podcast Sounds Like A Cult, about what the language of MAGA shares with cult language, and why it matters.

What Trump's language has in common with cult language

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Activist Mary Hamilton, a Black woman with short hair, stands in front of a painted sign for the Congress of Racial Equity.
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Mary Hamilton was found in contempt of court in Alabama, when she refused to answer questions after the prosecution addressed her only by her first name. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled in her favor. AP/AP hide caption

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The Code Switch Podcast

The Black civil rights leader who sued to be called “Miss”

by  ,  ,  ,  Maria Gutierrez ,  ,  , 

It’s Alabama, 1963. A black woman stands before a judge, but she refuses to acknowledge his questions until he addresses her by the same honorific given to white women: “Miss.” That woman's name is Mary Hamilton. Her case eventually reached the Supreme Court and changed the courts, and eventually broader culture, for good. We’re revisiting the largely forgotten story of Miss Mary Hamilton, a Freedom Rider who struck a blow against a pervasive form of disrespect.

The Black civil rights leader who sued to be called “Miss”

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Pictures of screens displaying outdated myspace and facebook landing pages.

The Code Switch Podcast

How the internet got gentrified

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We all know what gentrification looks like IRL — boxy, corporate-owned apartment complexes, places to get a quick bowl for lunch, streets that are dubbed "cleaner" and "safer" (even at the expense of the people who used to live there). But what does gentrification look like online? We’re talking to Jessa Lingel, who studies digital culture at the University of Pennsylvania, about her argument that the internet has become gentrified, and that we're all suffering the consequences.

How the internet got gentrified

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An illustration of Iris Morales, a member of the Young Lords, as she appeared in the 1960s.
Raysa Rodriguez/Futuro Studios

The Code Switch Podcast

The Young Lords' legacy of fighting for Puerto Rico from the mainland

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While Puerto Rican independence is in the spotlight after Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show, we're throwing it to our play cousins at La Brega, a show about all things Puerto Rico. We hear from former Young Lords member Iris Morales about how the group took their love for their homeland to educate and organize against U.S. colonialism.

The Young Lords' legacy of fighting for Puerto Rico from the mainland

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What is "white culture," anyway?

Jeremy Carl, President Trump's recent nominee for a senior State Department role Getty Images (Wire Photo)/Getty Images hide caption

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The Code Switch Podcast

What is "white culture," anyway?

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Jeremy Carl — President Trump's nominee for a senior State Department role -- was called out for his commentary on "white erasure" during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month. He defended the idea that "white culture" is in danger of being erased in the U.S. and that white people face more racial discrimination than any other group in country. So on this episode, we're talking to the Princeton historian Nell Irvin Painter about her book, The History of White People, and how definitions of whiteness have morphed over time depending on the interests of the people creating those definitions.

White Culture

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The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in
Photo by Camilla Greenwell/Courtesy of Harper Collins

The Code Switch Podcast

The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

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In so many spaces, celebrating Black History History month means learning a few fun facts about famous African Americans. But Black History Month was designed to be much more radical — it was an opportunity for Black communities to learn about the aspects of their history that had been downplayed, diminished, or even actively suppressed. We talk to historian Jarvis Givens about his new book, “I’ll Make Me A World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month”, and how studying and preserving Black history has changed (or not) over the years.

The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

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Protesters against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) march through the streets of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026.

The Code Switch Podcast

What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

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To the casual observer, it might seem like the U.S. has spent years in a constant state of protest — and they’re only getting more intense under the second Trump administration. So we’re revisiting our conversation with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, the author of “A Protest History of the United States” about what forms of protest have worked in the past, and what lessons people can take from those protesters.

What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

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How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

The Code Switch Podcast

How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

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Sanctuary policies have been described on both sides of the aisle as protecting immigrants. But in many ways, in practice, they have given rise to a specific kind of policing that gives ICE a much wider reach than it might otherwise have. We talk to anthropologist Peter Mancina, who is the author of a recent book, On the Side of Ice: Policing Immigrants in a Sanctuary State about his on-the-ground research  embedding with police in New Jersey.

How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities

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A cartoon baby head on a volcano, erupting with rage and little people swept up in the panic.
LA Johnson

The Code Switch Podcast

From "CRT" to "DEI": A history of race and moral panics

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A few years back, many politicians were raising the alarm about the dangers of "CRT" in schools. Today, the new risk to public education is "DEI." What do both of these moments have in common? They have all the elements of a moral panic. So in this installment of Code Switch History Class, we're looking at the history of moral panics in the U.S., and why they so often invoke fears about race and integration.

From "CRT" to "DEI": A history of race and moral panics

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Lisa Rae Gutierrez was one of the students at San Francisco State University who took part in the longest student strike in U.S. history, from 1968-1969. She has salt and pepper hair and stands with a raised fist and a Black Lives Matter t-shirt.

Lisa Rae Gutierrez was one of the students at San Francisco State University who took part in the longest student strike in U.S. history, from 1968-1969. Shereen Marisol Meraji hide caption

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Shereen Marisol Meraji

The Code Switch Podcast

What the 1968 fight for ethnic studies classes teaches us about today

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The fight over the soul of higher education is very alive right now, with the Trump administration engaged in dozens of investigations and multiple lawsuits against colleges and universities around the country. Billions of research dollars at those schools have been frozen, too. So today, in a special series called Code Switch History Class, we're looking back at another time of upheaval — a long, bloody strike at San Francisco State that forever changed higher education in the United States.

What the 1968 fight for ethnic studies classes teaches us about today

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A school building with limbs and eyes like a monster.
Jackie Lay/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

The fight over public education, from Texas to the White House

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For months, the Trump administration has been making moves to dismantle the Department of Education — with mixed success. But when it comes to the fight over public education, some of the most significant dustups are happening on the local level, with school boards around the country. Today, we're looking at one of those fights, which played out in a rapidly changing suburb of Dallas called Southlake.

The fight over public education, from Texas to the White House

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A collage of Black women obscured by digital artifacts
Jackie Lay/NPR

The Code Switch Podcast

The evolution of blackface in the age of AI

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With AI image and video generators, it's become easier than ever to create hyper-realistic clips of almost anything. Today, we're looking at the landscape of AI influencers that depict Black people in various ways, from the mildly stereotypical to the ultra-demeaning. And we're talking to writer Zeba Blay about why she thinks these types of videos can erode the our society's ability to take the problems of IRL, human Black people seriously.

The evolution of blackface in the age of AI

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A grey gavel with barbed wire wrapped around the handle in front of a cloudy red background.
Jackie Lay

The Code Switch Podcast

How the Trump administration is reshaping immigration

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The Trump administration has been firing immigration judges, despite the fact that there’s a massive backlog of immigration cases that need rulings. Ximena Bustillo, NPR’s immigration and DHS reporter, has spotted a trend: many of the judges let go have previous experience in immigration defense. At the same time, the Trump administration has allocated $30 billion to beef up ICE as an agency and hire “deportation judges.”

Code Switch-12.10.2025 - fired judges

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Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving
Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty/Lavitt/Yale

The Code Switch Podcast

Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving

For the millions of Americans that celebrate Thanksgiving, it's a time when many people reflect on the things and the people in our lives that they appreciate. But according to Dr. Laurie Santos, psychology professor at Yale and host of the podcast, The Happiness Lab, a practice of gratitude can improve our lives year-round. This week on the pod, we're bringing you a conversation from our friends over at It's Been A Minute. Host Brittany Luse chats with Dr. Santos about the surprising science of how gratitude can affect our brains — and how it leads us to be more generous with our future selves.

Gratitude isn’t just for Thanksgiving

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How poetry helps Ada Limon navigate life, even when it’s tough
Lucas Marquardt

The Code Switch Podcast

How poetry helps Ada Limon navigate life, even when it’s tough

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As we enter "cozy season," we're revisiting our conversation with Ada Limon, who just wrapped up her tenure as the U.S. Poet Laureate. She talks to us about loss and grief and evolving identity -- like becoming a "fall person" after a lifetime of identifying as a "summer person" -- and the power of poetry to navigate it all.

How poetry helps Ada Limon navigate life, even when it’s tough

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A portrait of Esther Green, an elder in Bethel, Alaska. She wears glasses and furs.
Katie Basile/KYUK

The Code Switch Podcast

How Trump's cuts to public media threaten the first Native American station

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On October 1, 2025, public radio stations lost all of their federal funding -- and for Black and Native American community stations, the cuts hit hard. Case in point, KYUK in Bethel, Alaska, which was the first Indigenous-led public radio station. They lost 70% of their budget after federal public media cuts, and will be shrinking from 10 full-time staffers, to 4 people. We speak to Esther Green, a Yupik elder, and her co-host Diane McEachern of KYUK's spiritual wellness show, Ikayutet, and station general manager Kristin Hall, about what the future looks like for the station.

How Trump's cuts to public media threaten the first Native American station

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Why Malala Yousafzai is a hero in the West but not back home

Code Switch

Why Malala Yousafzai is a hero in the West but not back home

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Why is Malala Yousafzai so revered in the West while being much less popular in her home country of Pakistan? On this week's Code Switch, we unpack how Pakistani skepticism of Malala extends from a suspicion of U.S. and other foreign interests.

CS MALALA

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Is the American dream a scam?

Code Switch

Is the American dream a scam?

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This week on the pod: author Edgar Gomez talks about what it was like growing up poor, queer, and Nicaraguan Puerto Rican in Florida. His new memoir, Alligator Tears, chronicles his dreams of making it big, the various mini-scams he got into along the way, and his realization that a rich life might not ever come with bundles of money.

Alligator Tears

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How calls for mass deportations went mainstream

The Code Switch Podcast

How calls for mass deportations went mainstream

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Calls to ban “third world immigration” in favor of “remigration” -- or, mass deportation -- went from fringe ideas in far right circles to ones pedaled by mainstream conservatives. Now, those ideas are mirrored in government policy. On this week's Code Switch, we track how these ideas got their start among white nationalists and neo-Nazis in the U.S. and Europe and found their way into the language of popular right-wing influencers and Trump administration advisers. Note: This episode makes references to Charlie Kirk, and it was reported and recorded before he was shot in Utah.

How calls for mass deportations went mainstream

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An encampment for the unhoused in Washington D.C. near the Kennedy Center was cleared by employees of the city's Department of Health and Human Services. The residents of the encampment packed up their belongings and left with the help of city outreach workers as well as non-profit employees and volunteers.

An encampment for the unhoused in Washington D.C. near the Kennedy Center was cleared by employees of the city's Department of Health and Human Services. The residents of the encampment packed up their belongings and left with the help of city outreach workers as well as non-profit employees and volunteers. Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR hide caption

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Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR

Code Switch

How Trump's D.C. takeover criminalizes homelessness

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On August 11, President Trump announced his intention to "rescue" the nation's capital. A central feature of his plan involved using federal officials to remove people experiencing homelessness from the city — people that he listed alongside "violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, and drugged out maniacs." On this episode, we're diving into what it means to criminalize homelessness, what it looks like when police officers are used to solve social problems, and what this D.C. takeover might portend for the rest of the country.

"Crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor."

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Statelessness, but make it funny
Courtesy of Kovert Creative

The Code Switch Podcast

Statelessness, but make it funny

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Mo Amer is the creator and star of the hit Netflix comedy series Mo. It's a first-of-its kind Palestinian-American sitcom with a fraught plot line about the American immigration system and the hope to return, at least for a visit, to his family's homeland. We talk to Mo Amer what it’s like to make a show so centered on the real facts of his own life, and to be thrust into the role of spokesperson for Palestinian-Americans at this particular moment.

Statelessness, but make it funny

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