Zadie Smith Asks, What Makes Us Feel Alive?

Chris Brown is in the news again. And that means that people are publicly relearning and relitigating his history of violence toward women. Many of us are wanting to be protective of black men and boys to the point that we're unwilling to hold them accountable for the things that they do to women and girls. Listen to NPR's Code Switch podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Terry Gross.

Before we start the show today, I want to say a few words about public media. It's been in the news a lot because federal funding for it was completely eliminated earlier this year. But it's the fact that NPR is public media that enables fresh air and all of NPR's podcasts to reach. to be unique and to be there for you. Public media was created to represent and serve diverse audiences, including underrepresented communities throughout America, enabling us to better hear and understand each other, and in the words of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, to offer programs for quote, instructional, educational, and cultural purposes.

At NPR we still believe in these core commitments, but the loss of federal funding that the Act provided for is creating major challenges for NPR and all public radio stations. As we move into this uncharted future together, we know that you will not let the service that has been here for you all these years falter. We rely on your support to bring you fresh air, Now more than ever. This year we've continued to bring you interviews with investigative journalists who have uncovered important stories that otherwise may have never been revealed about our government and the state of our democracy, as well as interviews with authors, musicians, actors, directors, scientists, health experts, religion scholars, and more.

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