These multiracial characters, their very bodies providing evidence of racial lines crossed, are marked by confusion and betrayal, jealousy and cowardice, and most frequently, a tragic ending.

Well, it’s 2017 — 50 years since the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision invalidated anti-miscegenation laws across the country. It’s been legal to cross these racial lines for five decades now, almost two full generations. What does it mean to be mixed race in America today?

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I suppose I should tell you a little about myself and why I’m so interested in this topic.

I’m a half-Korean, half-white woman who grew up all over the country. I’ve lived in places where I was the whitest kid in my class, and other places where my dry cleaner asked if I spoke English. I only speak the most elementary Korean, and I haven’t been back to Korea since I was a toddler. I grew up the darkest cousin, going to family reunions full of blond people in Kansas. By the time I was 3, I knew to explain to strangers why I looked the way I did: “Hi, I’m Alex. I’m half Korean.”

When I meet other multiracial people, I get excited. I’ve talked to my mixed friends about this — it’s something familiar you see in each other. You might not know exactly what their mix is, but you can see in their faces that they don’t quite fit in either.

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That brief moment of recognition is what I wanted to investigate with this podcast.

I’ve spent the last year talking to people about what it means to them to be mixed race. The answers have been diverse as the people I spoke with.

“Other: Mixed Race in America” is not meant to paint the definitive portrait of mixedness in America. I’m not even sure such a portrait is possible. But I do hope that the stories we tell will inform and enrich the conversation about what it means to live in America today.

New episodes of “Other: Mixed Race in America” will publish every day for a week, starting May 1. Subscribe to the series on Apple Podcasts or RadioPublic.