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  • White Culture

    White Culture
    Feb 21 2026
    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.

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    27 Min.
  • The U.S., Cuba, and the people caught between

    The U.S., Cuba, and the people caught between
    Feb 18 2026
    The U.S. has been deporting people from Cuba in record numbers. That has come as a shock to many Cuban American communities, who had long enjoyed special protections that don't apply to most other immigrant groups. This week on the show we're talking about where this change fits into the trajectory of Cuban immigration to the U.S. We'll hear from Ada Ferrer, a historian at Princeton who shares how her family's divergent paths to the U.S. reverberated through her life. Then, we talk to historian Michael Bustamante of the University of Miami about how U.S.-Cuba immigration policy has evolved since the Cuban Revolution.

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    36 Min.
  • Trump shared a racist "joke." That humor is an American tradition

    Trump shared a racist "joke." That humor is an American tradition
    Feb 14 2026
    When President Trump shared a racist video on his Truth Social account last week, the blowback was real. But the video is also part of a tradition that has existed in the U.S. since the early 1800s — of using "humor" to spread and crystallize racist ideals. On this episode, we speak with Raul Perez, the author of "The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy," who tells us how making fun of Black people was crucial to constructing "whiteness" — and perpetuating white supremacy — in the early days of the U.S.

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    21 Min.
  • Was dating while Black always so hard?

    Was dating while Black always so hard?
    Feb 11 2026
    Dating can be tough. Dating while Black? That can feel nigh impossible sometimes, given how the long tentacles of racism have wrapped themselves around every aspect of our lives (and hearts.) But was dating any easier in the past? We're putting that question to the test on this special Valentine's Day episode of the pod. We revisit a conversation with audio storyteller and host of the podcast, Our Ancestors Were Messy, Nichole Hill. She takes us back in time to 1937, using archival personal ads from the Washington Afro-American to show us what it was like for Black folks to date almost a century ago.

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    39 Min.
  • Bad Bunny, resistance, and the Super Bowl halftime show

    Bad Bunny, resistance, and the Super Bowl halftime show
    Feb 7 2026
    Can a superstar be an actual voice of resistance? How does Bad Bunny's choice to perform at the NFL Super Bowl halftime show square with his politics of resistance to U.S. imperialism and decision to avoid the U.S. in his current world tour? We're speaking with Bad Bunny experts and authors of "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance," Vanessa Diaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau.

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    20 Min.
  • The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in

    The history of Black History Month, one hundred years in
    Feb 4 2026
    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.

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    35 Min.
  • Americans are worried about crime. Here’s how politicians leverage it

    Americans are worried about crime. Here’s how politicians leverage it
    Jan 31 2026
    "Fighting crime" is often used as a justification for many of the Trump administration's policies — from mass deportations to its actions in Venezuela to its crackdown in Minnesota — despite the fact that crime is at a historic low, and has been falling for decades. We talk to Meg Anderson, NPR’s criminal justice correspondent, about how that taps into Americans' disproportionate fears about crime, and how that makes scenes like what we see in Minneapolis possible.

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    17 Min.
  • What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today

    What the history of U.S. protests illuminates about today
    Jan 28 2026
    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.

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    28 Min.