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“Code Switch,” NPR’s podcast on race and identity, is expanding its presence on the radio, through live and virtual events and on social media through a $600,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“CPB originally invested in Code Switch 10 years ago, and since then, it has been a model of successful innovation in public media,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. “We’re pleased to support the expansion of its reach on radio and on multiple platforms to advance needed discussions and awareness about race and identity. This dialogue is crucial to helping us understand one another, which is the basis of a civil society.”
With this two-year grant, NPR is raising the profile of the Code Switch podcast and radio program with an expansion of live and online events and the development of new offerings. With the addition of a new host and a senior editor, the Code Switch team will increase its production of short, news pieces featured on NPR’s flagship news programs, as well as longer features written and produced by influential journalists and scholars, member station contributors, and Code Switch fellows.
“We are grateful to CPB for their support of Code Switch that has allowed it to grow from blog to podcast, radio show and live events program. Code Switch’s fearless conversations about race are more vital than ever now and a key part of public radio’s mission to serve the American public, said NPR President and CEO John Lansing. “Thanks to this grant, the Code Switch team will be able to reach an even broader audience and become a larger forum for discussion, innovation, and thoughtful conversation.”
With a $1.5 million grant from CPB to support digital and broadcast content creation in 2012, the Code Switch news team launched a blog and contributed content to NPR. A podcast was launched in 2016, hit No. 1 on Apple’s podcast chart in the wake of the George Floyd murder and protests in 2020 and was later named Apple Podcasts’ first ever Show of the Year. NPR has offered Code Switch as a public radio show since 2021, now carried by 197 stations with more than 650,000 weekly broadcast listeners.