Washington Post Launches Podcast About Being Mixed Race in America

By Yessenia Funes Apr 25, 2017

The Washington Post announced its newest podcast yesterday (April 24), “Other: Mixed Race in America.” Social media producer Alex Laughlin—half Korean and half White—will be hosting the podcast, which is set to launch May 1.

The upcoming five-part miniseries will take a look at the experiences of people whose parents come from two different countries, cultures or races. The Washington Post describes it further in this announcement:

It’s the kindergarten-level foreign language you can speak to your aunts, the taste for “foreign” flavors you’ve known since childhood, and the distinct feeling of otherness projected onto your face because you look just a little bit “different.”

The podcast poses the question: What does it mean to be a mixed-race American?

The series has released a teaser that gives listeners a taste of what to expect from the series. One person speaking identifies as Black; another as mixed race with an emphasis on her Korean background. Host Laughlin identifies as "mixed."

“For as long as I’ve known that, I’ve been confused about what that means,” Laughlin says in the podcast intro. “I’ve lived in places growing up where I was the whitest kid in my classroom and then others where people asked if I spoke English, so I spent the last year exploring what multiracial identity means to other people.”

The first podcast launches May 1, with one episode coming out every day after for a week. Listen to the intro below.