EPISODE 76
On Journalism, Identity, and the Power of Listening
What happens when a journalist turns the lens back on the industry itself? In this episode of The Latino Majority, Pedro A. Guerrero sits down with award-winning journalist Lori Lizarraga for a deeply personal conversation about media, identity, accountability, and the responsibility of telling the truth — even when it comes at a personal cost.
Lori reflects on growing up in rural Texas as the daughter of immigrants, stumbling into journalism almost by accident, and discovering a profession that immediately felt like home. From local newsrooms to national platforms like NPR’s Code Switch, she shares how curiosity, courage, and a relentless desire to “dig” shaped her career and worldview.
The conversation also dives into Lori’s widely discussed essay Latinxed, the fallout that followed, and why she still believes journalism must hold itself accountable the same way it scrutinizes every other institution. Along the way, Pedro and Lori unpack the growing disconnect between media and the public, the difference between conversation and conversion, and why America’s story cannot be told without Latinos at its center.
By the end of the episode, Lori offers a powerful reflection on identity, belonging, and the complicated beauty of the Latino experience in America — reminding us that there is no single Latino story, only millions of interconnected human ones.
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ABOUT OUR GUEST
Lori Lizarraga is an Ecuadorian-Mexican-American journalist, award-winning local news reporter and host of NPR’s Code Switch, the nation’s premiere show about race & identity – Apple’s 2021 Podcast of the Year and named to Times’ 2025 list of 100 Best Podcasts of All Time.
After a decade in the industry, Lori has worked in newsrooms in Texas, California, Colorado, Chicago, Washington D.C. Arkansas, Pennsylvania, New York and on international assignment. It was her reporting of “LatinXed” in 2021 that forced new standards on immigration coverage banning the use of “illegal alien” in reporting of undocumented immigrants at more than 60 TV news and radio stations across the country.
You can find Lori’s most recent work on Code Switch wherever you listen to podcasts. Her role as host of the show from 2022 to 2025 saw the youngest and only Latina to ever hold the position at NPR. At 31, Lori is a Murrow and Emmy award-winning international journalist recognized by the ACLU and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for her work holding power to account.
