Ask Code Switch: Is this a racist question?

By Lori Lizarraga,

Schuyler Swenson, Courtney Stein, Lauren González

Published September 9, 2024 at 10:17 AM EDT

Hey Code Switch fam!

Lori Lizarraga here – your resident Texan and Latina Code Switch co-host with some exciting news...Ask Code Switch is back!

Every Monday this fall, I'm calling in special guests to help me tackle some of your stickiest, trickiest, most cringe, and candid questions about race and identity. And I am so excited for y'all to hear what we've been cooking up.

It's been a minute since we brought one of our race advice episodes to the feed...but your Ask Code Switch questions haven't stopped coming! Before I jump into the race advice shoes of my teammates before me, I had a few questions of my own.

This week on Ask Code Switch, I reach out to two seasoned pros for advice on giving advice!

First, I sit down with Gustavo Arellano, the controversial columnist behind the 2000s race column ¡Ask a Mexican! Arellano spent years answering questions like, "Are Mexicans 'Latino' or 'Hispanic'?," "What's a 'Cholo'?," and "Why do Mexicans swim with their clothes on?".

Then, I turn to our podcast play cousins at Slate's Dear Prudence. I sit down with Jenée Desmond-Harris, the fifth Prudie to take on the role, to talk about what makes good advice and which race questions to avoid.

Listen to the first episode of Ask Code Switch every Monday and subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Do you have a question for Lori and the Code Switch massive? Send us your questions on Instagram @nprcodeswitch. Or, email us at codeswitch@npr.org – subject line, Ask Code Switch.

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Lori Lizarraga

Award-winning journalist Lori Lizarraga is a co-host of NPR's Code Switch, the preeminent podcast about race and identity in America. Before joining NPR, she reported across the country in Texas, California, Colorado and internationally in Ecuador. She has a reputation for breaking news and a passion and energy for covering under-reported communities, civil rights and issues surrounding immigration and Latinos in the U.S.

Schuyler Swenson

Schuyler Swenson is an audio producer, editor and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Prior to NPR Schuyler worked at Vox Media, making podcasts for New York Magazine's The Cut, Vox.com, and Recode. She got her start in radio at WNYC for Studio 360 and later made podcasts for The New York Public Library. Swenson's taught audio journalism at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and the Transom Story Workshop. Prior to working in audio, she taught histories of immigration at the Tenement Museum. She enjoys horn sections, profanity and regional accents. [Copyright 2024 NPR]

Courtney Stein

Courtney Stein comes to NPR from the New York Times, where she helped to create the weekly podcast First Person. Prior to that, she spent over a decade at WNYC's Peabody Award-winning Radio Rookies, teaching young people to report radio documentaries about issues important to them. While at WNYC, Courtney also helped to pilot the podcast Nancy and was on the team that created the dupont-Columbia award-winning podcast Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which began as a radio workshop she started in a juvenile detention center in Queens.

Lauren González

Lauren González is the Senior Manager of the Content Development Team, where she manages new pitches for podcasts and other content, and works closely with the programming leadership team to develop them.