Episodes

  • 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 River-Rideau.

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    20 mins
  • 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 mins
  • 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 mins
  • 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 mins
  • What the quarter-zip craze tells us about Blackness and respectability

    What the quarter-zip craze tells us about Blackness and respectability
    Jan 24 2026
    What does the humble, boring quarter-zip sweater have to do with respectability politics and Blackness? Apparently, a lot! When two young Black men on TikTok brought the quarter-zip into vogue for young folks, they unknowingly waded into some very long-lived discourse on Black fashion and looking "respectable." Today on the pod, we chop it up with Jonathan Square, professor of Black visual culture at Parsons School of Design, about Black fashion, and what's happening more broadly to make this pretty plain sweater the "it" garment.

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

    How local police extend ICE's reach, even in sanctuary cities
    Jan 21 2026
    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.

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    39 mins
  • Freedom through the eyes of foes: Rev. Martin Luther King and Sen. Barry Goldwater

    Freedom through the eyes of foes: Rev. Martin Luther King and Sen. Barry Goldwater
    Jan 17 2026
    In honor of MLK Day, we sit down with historian Nicholas Buccola, author of One Man’s Freedom, to re-examine the concept of "freedom" by comparing the legacies of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and conservative politician Barry Goldwater. In our conversation, Buccola reveals the profound gulf between Goldwater's abstract view of freedom and King's focus on the daily fight for dignity and individual liberty– and he helps us understand what this historical battle can teach us about the fight for freedom today.

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    22 mins
  • Venezuela and the long tradition of US interference

    Venezuela and the long tradition of US interference
    Jan 14 2026
    The U.S. ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is just the latest chapter in a long, troubling history of American intervention in Latin America. NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garsd brings us to the New York courthouse where President Maduro was indicted by the U.S. government. We also talk to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Greg Grandin, who explains how the modern concept of national sovereignty — a country’s right to govern itself — originated in Latin America as a response to U.S. expansion.

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    33 mins