How journalist Michele Norris exposed our 'Hidden Conversations' about race

Michele Norris remembers inadvertently eavesdropping on her grandparents' neighbors during the hot summer days when she would visit Alabama. There was no air conditioning, so people had to throw their windows open and risk all of their dinnertime conversations being overheard.

But ever since 2010, when Norris, a Peabody Award-winning journalist for many publications (including The Times) and former co-host of NPR's "All Things Considered," launched the Race Card Project, asking people to submit six-word sentences about race, she has — "with permission" — been eavesdropping on a sizable sampling of the nation. Now it's all collected in a new book, "Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity."

"That's what this book feels like," Norris said during a recent phone interview. "The windows are open and I