Self Evident: Asian America's Stories: Recent Episodes
Self Evident Media LLC
We tell Asian America's stories to go beyond being seen.
As people of all backgrounds reckon with complex legacies of race, power, culture, and identity and ask themselves, “Where do I stand?” Self Evident presents reported stories and radically open conversations from the everyday Asian Americans who have been confronting this question for generations. Our mission is to empower local communities to share stories and build relationships around the value of self-representation.
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production, made with support from our listener community.
Carol Kwang Park was 12 years old, working as a cashier at her family’s gas station in Compton, California, when the 1992 LA Uprising forever changed her life. Her mom was at the gas station that day and Carol was unsure if she’d even make it home. At the time, she didn’t understand why tensions came to a head in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. She also never understood why her mother insisted on keeping the business going, especially after the Uprising. As an adult, a personal crisis prompts Carol to finally start processing that event and her place in history.
Hear more from Inheriting at laist.com/podcasts/inheriting.
Content Warning: This episode contains racial slurs and discusses police brutality.
Our friend Tracey Nguyen Mang, host of the Vietnamese Boat People Podcast, goes behind the scenes with Lisa Phu in this conversation — about how to document the lives of our parents, when that process can feel overwhelming.
This episode, recorded live online, is the Season 6 Premiere of The Vietnamese Boat People, a podcast and nonprofit project that preserves the story of the Vietnamese diaspora community — and provides spaces where people can share their experiences. This latest season of their podcast follows the theme, “Ba, Mẹ ơi” (which roughly translates to "Dear Dad and Mom"). You can listen to more stories from the season by searching for “Vietnamese Boat People” where you get podcasts, or on their website.
Boen’s mom thinks he’s brainwashed by the New York Times. Boen thinks his mom is brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party. But when Boen starts listening more deeply to his mom’s stories of growing up in China and then immigrating to the U.S., he spots the signs of his own political conditioning — and unravels the threads of Chinese and American history that led to the very fabrication of “brainwashing” as a concept.
This story comes from our friends at Feet in 2 Worlds, originally airing on their podcast, A Better Life? — and was written and produced by Boen Wang. Full transcript, credits, and show notes available on our website.
America! The land of opportunity! And also, for so many, the ambiguous loss of immigration and uprooting a life and a history comes with a complex web of emotions. In this episode of Grief, Collected by The Mash-Up Americans, hosts Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer speak with trauma therapist and educator Linda Thai — about ancestral grief, and how unmetabolized grief, particularly in "Mash-Up" families, is passed down through generations. We dive into how important understanding historical context is for grief and healing, and ask: What happens to a family structure if we don’t grieve? Full episode transcript available on the Grief, Collected website.
Episode Credits
- Grief, Collected is a production of The Mash-Up Americans
- Executive produced by Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer
- Senior editor and producer is Sara Pellegrini
- Development Producer is Dupe Oyebolu
- Production manager Shelby Sandlin
- Original music composed by The Brothers Tang
- Sound design support by Pedro Rafael Rosado
- Website design by Rebecca Parks Fernandez
- Grief, Collected was supported in part by a grant from The Pop Culture Collaborative
The LahPai family’s arrival to Virginia from Myanmar was highly anticipated: the local resettlement agency prepped their home; the local religious community was ready to provide support; the family’s U.S connection lived just minutes down the street. Even with these support systems, resettlement was (and still is) not a straightforward, clean-cut process.
Why is that? In this debut episode from Resettled — a series by Virginia Public Media about the real experiences of refugees after they arrive to the U.S. — you'll meet the people helping the LahPais during their early days of resettlement... and explore some of the unexpected difficulties that arise when moving to a new country, a new culture and a new life.
Episode Credits:
- Resettled is a production of VPM
- Produced by Gilda di Carli and edited by Kelly Jones, with oversight from Angela Massino and Nate Tobey
- Hosted by Ahmed Badr
- Production management by Gavin Wright
- Steve Humble is VPM’s Chief Content Officer
- Music for this episode by Sandhill and Blue Dot Sessions.
Special thanks from VPM:
- Thanks to Catherine Komp, Zar Wahidi, Yasmine Jumaa and interns Safiya Ahmed and Helen Zein Eddine, along with the folks at NPR’s Story Lab for helping kickstart the podcast.
- Thanks to Leslie Bretz, Louise Keeton and Michael Hayes for web and digital support.
More photos and stories available at vpm.org/resettled.
Today, we're sharing some work by our friends at Immigrantly, a weekly podcast that features deeply personal conversations about race, identity, and the immigrant experience. This episode features a conversation between host Saadia Khan and reporter Neda Toloui-Semnani, who wrote a book called THEY SAID THEY WANTED REVOLUTION: A Memoir of My Parents.
To finish that book, Neda went through a whole journey to learn about the life her parents lived before she was born, understand why they moved from the U.S. to Iran to join the revolution taking place there in 1979, and unpack what kind of legacy they had left for her in the process. You can listen to Immigrantly wherever you get your podcasts, or learn more at immigrantlypod.com.
Immigrantly Episode Credits:
- Host & Producer: Saadia Khan
- Content Writer: Ashley Lanuza & Saadia Khan
- Editorial Review: Yudi Li
- Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon
- Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki
- Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Please take our listener survey to tell us what you think of Before Me! The survey is anonymous, takes 5 minutes, and is incredibly important for helping us take our next steps as an independent studio for stories by and about Asian Americans. We use your answers to better understand your needs as a listener — but we also use your feedback to show how we’re making an impact as we raise funds for our next new podcast season or storytelling program.
Just before I gave birth to my daughter Acacia, I turned 36. And on my birthday my mom sent me a birthday card that was full of heartfelt words — more than she’d ever written to me before. On the last night of her visit to help me take care of Acacia, as she read the card aloud, I realized how I was — and still am — a part of the lives that came before me.
Full show notes, photos, credits, and transcript on our web site.
At the moment my mom steps onto a small fishing boat off the coast of Cambodia, headed for a refugee camp in Thailand under cover of night, she becomes the head of our family. It takes her less than a year to make it safely to her new home in New York, give birth to me, and learn how to be a single parent in the U.S. But it will end up taking her decades to process what she’s overcome, what she’s become, and what she’s left behind on the beaches of Cambodia.
Full show notes, photos, credits, and transcript on our web site.
Reunited with my cousin Lynn, my mom becomes a gold dealer to support her growing family — and realizes that the charmed childhood she had in Cambodia is nowhere to be found for her own kids. She recounts the joyful memories that helped her hold on for more than five years as a refugee in Vietnam, before making the decision to leave both countries for good.
Full show notes, photos, credits, and transcript on our web site.
As the genocidal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge takes hold of Cambodia, my mom and dad run for their lives — separated from my cousin, Lynn, who is then faced with keeping her siblings alive in a forced labor camp.
Full show notes, photos, credits, and transcript on our web site.
When I became a parent, my mom flew across the country to help me take care of my firstborn child. And opened up to share a story I’d never fully heard, about her firstborn child — the sister I’ve never met.
Full show notes, photos, credits, and transcript on our web site.
Lisa Phu grew up telling a story about how her family left Cambodia as refugees, to start a new life in the United States — but for the longest time, she’d never heard this story firsthand, from her mom, Lan.
After Lisa gave birth to her first daughter, her mom flew across the country to meet her first grandchild. And during that visit, she finally shared the real story with Lisa. About growing up in Cambodia, fleeing genocide by the Khmer Rouge, surviving as a gold dealer in Vietnam, building a home in America while navigating the fallout and traumas of war… and carrying the future of four children with her throughout the journey.
Before Me follows one woman’s life, from Cambodia to America, over the course of decades. But it also follows a long overdue conversation between mother and daughter, about their family’s history — through death and birth, separation and reunion, endings and beginnings.
Because while we may never fully understand the reality of those who came before us, every story is a chance to get closer. And in listening, find meaning in what’s been preserved.
During November and December 2022, Self Evident is presenting Before Me *through our podcast feed.*
It's a brand new audio series we're launching in partnership with Lisa, and we hope you'll join us in listening and sharing the story as it unfolds, week by week.
Learn how to conduct an oral history interview with your loved ones at selfevidentshow.com/history.
To meet other listeners of Self Evident and Before Me, and get started on your own oral history journey, join our Discord community at selfevidentshow.com/participate.
When you get into a taxi, you usually know where you’re coming from, where you’re going, and what you’ll do when you get there. But what about your taxi driver – someone whose work is in constant motion, moving from destination to destination, meeting new people by the hour? What was the road that brought them to this moment, what is the journey they'll take next?
On this episode of Re:Work, by the UCLA Labor Center, join host Saba Waheed as she travels with Javaid on the path that brought him from a small agricultural town in Punjab, Pakistan to driving cabs in New York City.
**Reading and Resources:** * “Taxi!: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City” by Biju Mathew
- Self Evident’s audio story on the New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance Hunger Strike of 2021
- UCLA Labor Center.
- The New York Taxi Workers' Alliance
**Credits:**
Produced by Stefanie Ritoper, Saba Waheed, Ob1, and Asif Ahmed. Music supervision by Francisco Garcia Nava.
When Augustine Tang’s father passed away, Augustine decided to inherit his taxi medallion – the license that had allowed his father to drive a yellow taxi cab in New York City for decades. But the medallion came with a $530,000 debt trap and years of struggling to escape it. Augustine’s friend Kenny, a fellow taxi cab driver, committed suicide. So did several other drivers who were crushed under the weight of these impossible debts. In hopes of preventing another death, Tang joined a push by the local taxi drivers’ union, to campaign for debt relief. And eventually, city resistance to worker demands culminated in a 15-day hunger strike to convince City Hall that immigrant taxi drivers deserved a fair deal. The drivers’ struggles for livable working conditions showed how political power doesn’t just come down to votes. It’s a reminder how strong collective will can be, especially for those often silenced and ignored by our imperfect democracy.
Resources and Reading * After listening, please take our survey about this story — to help us fund more stories like this one! * This show mentions instances of suicide. We understand this topic may be difficult for some listeners. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 1-800-273-8255 * WATCH: “Cheated, Desperate, Financially Ruined NYC Taxi Drivers Go on Hunger Strike” by Maximillian Alvarez of the Real News Network * WATCH: “New York Taxi Drivers Hunger Strike for Debt Relief” by More Perfect Union * READ: “‘They Were Conned’: How Reckless Loans Devastated a Generation of Taxi Drivers” by Brian Rosenthal for the New York Times * READ: “How the Taxi Workers Won” by Molly Crabapple for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project * READ: “Distressed Drivers: Solving the the New York City Taxi Medallion Debt Crisis” by Aaron Jacobs for Columbia Human Rights Law Review
Special Thanks To Augustine Tang, Jaslin Kaur, John Duda, Kader Guerrab, Kuber Sancho-Persad, Maria Santana, Maximillian Alvarez, Michelle Faust Raghavan and Alec Saleens, and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance Media Team
Credits: * Produced by Self Evident Media * Reported by Sahil Nisha, with help from Alina Panek and Janrey Serapio * Interview recordings by Sahil Nisha, Stacey Wong, and James Boo * Public protest and demonstration recordings by NYTWA, Augustine Tang, CM Zohran Mamdani, and Former CM Brad Lander * Edited by James Boo and Julia Shu * Fact checked by Harsha Nahata and Tiffany Bui * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Music by Epidemic Sound * At the Moment theme music by Satoru Ohno * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda * This episode was made with support from the Solutions Journalism Network’s Advancing Democracy program
Amidst the ongoing crush of anti-Asian violence in America, Producer James turns to a personal source of restoration: ska music (yes, that ska music).
When he was a teenager, the do-it-yourself ska scene — and an indie record label called Asian Man — taught him to take racism seriously, embrace the road less traveled, and never wait for anyone else’s approval to be himself. But as James starts connecting with all of the Asian American ska fans he’s met over the past few years, he also starts to question how much his own memories are wrapped in a black-and-white-checkered blanket of nostalgia.
Eventually, these connections all lead to Mike Park, Korean American founder and still-only-employee of Asian Man Records — and Jer Hunter, a younger Black and queer musician who’s carrying the torch for ska music as a home for anti-racist activism.
And the more these conversations peel away the layers of nostalgia surrounding ska, the more James believes that this oft-misunderstood subculture has something real to offer in a world that can feel like it’s crumbling beneath our feet.
Resources * WATCH: “Racism in East London,” an episode of the 1970s docuseries Our People by ThamesTV * WATCH: The entirety of Dance Craze, the documentary about 2-Tone that hooked Mike Park (and countless others) on ska music * WATCH: Skatune Network’s life-giving cover of the Koopa Troopa Beach theme from Mario Kart 64 * LISTEN: Ska Against Racism 2020, the benefit compilation by Bad Time Records, Ska Punk Daily, and Asian Man Records * LISTEN: SKA DREAM by Jeff Rosenstock * LISTEN: “Five Miles to Newark,” the full-length debut album by Chris Erway’s high school ska-punk band, Taxicab Samurais * LISTEN: Mike Park chats with Charlene Kaye on The Golden Hour podcast * READ: “Tracing Ska Music’s Great Migration” by Evan Nicole Brown for Atlas Obscura * READ: “The Chinese Jamaicans: Unlikely Pioneers of Reggae Music” by Tranquilheart for Spinditty * READ: “It Came From the Garage: Celebrating 25 Years of Asian Man Records,” a comic by JB Roe * READ: In Defense of Ska by Aaron Carnes * READ: “Skatune Networks’ Jer on Pushing Ska Forward” by Eve Sicks for Reverb.com * READ: “Ska’s New Generation is Here to Pick It Up Pick It Up” by Arielle Gordon for Stereogum * READ: “Ska is Thriving Right Now: Here’s a Look at the DIY Scene That’s Keeping It Alive” by Andrew Sacher for Brooklyn Vegan
Credits * Produced, written, and sound designed by James Boo * Edited by Julia Shu, with help from Cathy Erway * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Fact checked by Tiffany Bui and Harsha Nahata * “No Guarantee” written and performed by James Boo, feat. Dorian Love on bass and Chris Erway on trombone, trumpet, and alto saxophone * Ska Dream by Jeff Rosenstock; original compositions for “No Time to Skank” and pickitup” licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 * Music provided courtesy of Asian Man Records: + “Still Down for Tomorrow” by the Bruce Lee Band + “Signature” and “You Don’t Know” by The Chinkees + “Riptide 28” and “Sultan’s Cross” by Let’s Go Bowling + “David Duke Is Running For President,” “Pabu Boy,” “Onyonghasayo,” and “Thick Ass Stout” by Skankin’ Pickle + “Mutually Parasitic,” “Achilles’ Dub,” and “Stash” by Slow Gherkin * Photos of Mike Park courtesy of Mike Park * Photo of Jer Hunter courtesy of Rae Mystic * Photo of band huddle at Ska Dream Nights by listener Frank Chan * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
About Self Evident is a Studio To Be production. Our show is made with support from PRX and the Google Podcasts creator program — and our listener community.
The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of caregiving work — and the ways that this work is overlooked, under-resourced, or placed as a burden on families without a sense of fairness or compassion. In this episode we’re sharing two stories that show people taking on the role of caregiver, and asking: Who gets to be healthy in a world that leaves so many people with family as their only lifeline?
“My Heartbeats”: When Indian American filmmaker Tanmaya Shekhar moved his life from Kanpur to New York City, he was running away from family and dreaming of standing on his own two feet. But when the first wave of Covid in India put both of his parents in the hospital, he found himself in a race against time to reunite with them — and then a slow process of rethinking his life’s path, as an immigrant and as a son.
“Delma and Delvin”: Guest contributor Angela Edward shares a day in the life of her aunt Delma, a middle-aged Micronesian mom whose full time job is taking care of Delvin — her 30-year old son who has always lived with cerebral palsy. After being hospitalized for Covid, Delma invites Angela over to spend time with Delvin and share how it feels to be senselessly locked out of the American healthcare system.
Resources, Reading, Viewing, and Listening * Take our listener survey! * LISTEN: For Micronesians by Micronesians podcast * READ: “How Decades of Advocacy Helped Restore Medicaid Access to Micronesian Migrants” and “Hirono Seeks to Restore federal Benefits for Pacific Islanders from COFA Nations,” by Anita Hofschneider for Honolulu Civil Beat * READ: “A Historical and Contemporary Review of the Contextualization and Social Determinants of Health of Micronesian Migrants in the United States” by Davis Rehuher, Earl S. Hishinuma, Deborah A. Goebert,and Neal A. Palafox for the Hawai’i Journal of Health & Social Welfare * READ: The Husk, a newsletter covering Micronesian people and happenings * WATCH: “Reflections at 29,” a documentary short by Tanmaya Shekhar about the costs and regret of living as an immigrant filmmaker in the U.S. * SUPPORT: Donate to the Hemkunt Foundation, which has been helping Indians survive, recover from, and weather the impact of Covid-19
Credits * Produced by James Boo, Emily Cardinali, and Angela Edward * Edited by Julia Shu * Fact checked by Tiffany Bui and Harsha Nahata * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
About Self Evident is a Studio to Be production. Our show is made with support from PRX and the Google Podcasts creator program — and our listener community.
Hey everybody, I'm asking for just a few minutes of your time to help what us keep doing what we do. Details at https://selfevidentshow.com/participate
Thanks!
- Cathy and the team
For so many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Spam is a beloved classic food, showing up in everything from musubi to fried rice. But behind that nostalgia is a history of war and colonization, and the inheritance of both favorite foods and hidden traumas.
Korean American playwright Jaime Sunwoo’s surreal new play, Specially Processed American Me, takes a close look at Spam’s legacies, and the lost stories of her own family — who’ve migrated twice over two generations, from North Korean to South Korea, then from South Korea to the United States.
While sharing behind-the-scenes previews of the play, Jaime and Cathy talk about the challenges and rewards of interviewing older generations, and how those conversations have helped her process her own identity as an Asian American.
Specially Processed American Me is co-produced by Dixon Place, Ping Chong and Company, and Free Rein Projects. You can learn more about Specially Processed American Me and find tickets to the show (debuting Jan 27 - Feb 19 in New York City) at speciallyprocessed.com.
Resources and Reading * READ: “SON OF SPAMMEAT-PACKING HEIR GEORDIE HORMEL HAMS IT UP IN PHOENIX SOCIETY,” a funny and interesting profile of George A. Hormel II * LISTEN: “Tater Pie,” sung by the Hormel Girls * WATCH: Time for Talk - Hormel Girls of the 1950's * WATCH: South Korea's love affair with Spam * WATCH: Why SPAM Is So Popular In Guam * WATCH: ACP Live Presents: Jaime Sunwoo
Credits * Produced by James Boo * Edited by Julia Shu, with help from Harsha Nahata * Fact checked by Tiffany Bui and Harsha Nahata * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
Specially Processed American Me co-produced by Ping Chong and Company and Free Rein Projects (production photos by Toby Tenenbaum
Community Producer Rochelle Kwan (a.k.a. YiuYiu in her DJ life) gathers the DJs who joined her in curating our first annual mixtape — to chat about how we can use music to reconnect our diaspora communities, across generations and borders.
If you haven’t heard the mixtape — which features musical selections by Les Talusan (a.k.a. Les The DJ of OPM Sundays), Arshia Fatima Haq (of Discostan), Roger Bong (of Aloha Got Soul), and YiuYiu (of Manhattan Chinatown) — then you can hear it here, or wherever you get podcasts.
Need more music? Did we miss a favorite track of yours that the world absolutely needs to hear? Then check out our public Spotify playlist (a totally separate, community-sourced playlist that we’re pairing with this mixtape) to hear a bigger range of tunes from Asian and Pacific diaspora cultures — and add your own favorites!
About the DJs Les Talusan a.k.a. Les The DJ (she/they)
Les The DJ aka Les Talusan is a DJ, photographer, curator, teaching artist and organizer whose practice immerses people in the joy of discovery, empowerment, and community. This approach is informed by Les’ own story of resilience, liberation and courage as an immigrant, mother and v/s.
Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Les fell in love with music at a young age, DJing at local clubs and playing in bands. Les has lived in Washington, DC for over 20 years and continues to expand their talents, performing behind the decks in the U.S. and abroad.
Arshia Fatima Haq - @discostan | @arshiaxfatima
Arshia Fatima Haq (born in Hyderabad, India) works through film, visual art, performance, and sound, in feminist modes outside of the Western model. She is interested in counterachives and speculative narratives, and is currently exploring themes of embodiment, mysticism, indigenous and localized knowledge within the context of Sufism.
She is the founder of Discostan, a collaborative decolonial project and record label working with cultural production from South and West Asia and North Africa. She hosts and produces radio shows on Dublab and NTS, and has produced episodes for KCRW's acclaimed "Lost Notes" podcast series. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, nightclubs, and in the streets.
Roger Bong (he/him) - @alohagotsoul | @rogerbong
Roger Bong launched Aloha Got Soul as a blog in 2010 after graduating college with a journalism degree and — more importantly — after hearing DJ Muro's Hawaiian Breaks mix. Roger's love for story, sound and design has turned the blog into an independent record label that champions all genres and generations of music from Hawai‘i. He and his wife run the label from Honolulu.
Rochelle Kwan a.k.a. YiuYiu (she/her) - @rochellehkwan
Rochelle Kwan, also known as YiuYiu, is a cultural organizer, oral history educator, and DJ based on Lenape land in NYC’s Manhattan Chinatown. Bringing together her backgrounds in organizing, history, and music, she trains everyday people to build multigenerational oral history projects and engage with their communities as classrooms. As a cultural archivist, DJ, and dancer, she works to amplify arts and culture as essential to community resilience and foster intergenerational relationships and dance floors.
Rochelle’s also the Community Producer at Self Evident, where she leads our budding oral history program and helps to grow our listening party program through partnership and collaboration.
Credits * Produced by Rochelle Kwan and Julia Shu * Music curated by Les The DJ (a.k.a. Les Talusan), Arshia Fatima Haq, Roger Bong, and YiuYiu (a.k.a. Rochelle Kwan) * Edited by James Boo, with help from Sheena Tan * Fact checked by Alex Chun and Harsha Nahata * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
Community Producer Rochelle Kwan (a.k.a. YiuYiu) invites three of her favorite DJs to curate our first annual mixtape — and chat with them about how we can use music to reconnect our diaspora communities, across generations and borders.
Our first annual international, transnational mixtape features musical selections from YiuYiu (of NYC Manhattan Chinatown), Les Talusan (a.k.a. Les The DJ of OPM Sundays), Arshia Fatima Haq (of Discostan), and Roger Bong (of Aloha Got Soul).
The 22 specially curated tracks on this episode span the South West Asian / North African (SWANA) region, Hawai’i, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and their global diasporas. Just as each song and record comes with its own stories, this mixtape weaves in the personal stories that brought Roger, Les, Arshia, and Rochelle to music and DJing today.
Need more music? Did we miss a favorite track of yours that the world absolutely needs to hear? Then check out our public Spotify playlist (a totally separate, community-sourced playlist that we’re pairing with this mixtape) to hear a bigger range of tunes from Asian and Pacific diaspora cultures — and add your own favorites!
Resources, Reading, and Music * READ “Vinyl-Only Nights Return to D.C.” by Haley McKey for District Fray Magazine * READ "How an obscure '80s album helped this father and son connect" by Aparita Bhandari for CBC/Radio-Canada * READ + LISTEN “Kalapana's 1974 debut: the record that forever changed Hawaii” by Aloha Got Soul * READ + LISTEN "Chinatown Records" by Rochelle Kwan for The Vinyl Factory * LISTEN - DJ Muro - Hawaiian Breaks (with tracklist) by Aloha Got Soul * LISTEN - OPM Sundays w/ Les The DJ & Joel Quizon on Twitch * LISTEN - Phambinho w/ YiuYiu for NTS Radio * LISTEN - My Father's Favorite Music by Discostan * LISTEN - Disco Se Aagay by Nermin Niazi and Feisal Mosleh for Discostan * LISTEN - Pacific Sounds (inspired by the sounds of Hawaii and the Pacific) * SUPPORT Aloha Got Soul and Aloha Got Soul Bandcamp * SUPPORT Discostan and Discostan Bandcamp * SUPPORT YiuYiu * Add your own diaspora tracks to our public Spotify playlist!
About the DJs Les Talusan a.k.a. Les The DJ
Les The DJ aka Les Talusan is a DJ, photographer, curator, teaching artist and organizer whose practice immerses people in the joy of discovery, empowerment, and community. This approach is informed by Les’ own story of resilience, liberation and courage as an immigrant, mother and v/s.
Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Les fell in love with music at a young age, DJing at local clubs and playing in bands. Les has lived in Washington, DC for over 20 years and continues to expand their talents, performing behind the decks in the U.S. and abroad.
Arshia Fatima Haq - @discostan | @arshiaxfatima
Arshia Fatima Haq (born in Hyderabad, India) works through film, visual art, performance, and sound, in feminist modes outside of the Western model. She is interested in counterachives and speculative narratives, and is currently exploring themes of embodiment, mysticism, indigenous and localized knowledge within the context of Sufism.
She is the founder of Discostan, a collaborative decolonial project and record label working with cultural production from South and West Asia and North Africa. She hosts and produces radio shows on Dublab and NTS, and has produced episodes for KCRW's acclaimed "Lost Notes" podcast series. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, nightclubs, and in the streets.
Roger Bong - @alohagotsoul | @rogerbong
Roger Bong launched Aloha Got Soul as a blog in 2010 after graduating college with a journalism degree and — more importantly — after hearing DJ Muro's Hawaiian Breaks mix. Roger's love for story, sound and design has turned the blog into an independent record label that champions all genres and generations of music from Hawai‘i. He and his wife run the label from Honolulu.
Rochelle Kwan (a.k.a. YiuYiu) - @rochellehkwan
Rochelle Kwan, also known as YiuYiu, is a cultural organizer, oral history educator, and DJ based on Lenape land in NYC’s Manhattan Chinatown. Bringing together her backgrounds in organizing, history, and music, she trains everyday people to build multigenerational oral history projects and engage with their communities as classrooms. As a cultural archivist, DJ, and dancer, she works to amplify arts and culture as essential to community resilience and foster intergenerational relationships and dance floors.
Rochelle’s also the Community Producer at Self Evident, where she leads our budding oral history program and helps to grow our listening party program through partnership and collaboration.
Credits * Produced by Rochelle Kwan and Julia Shu * Music curated by Les The DJ (a.k.a. Les Talusan), Arshia Fatima Haq, Roger Bong, and YiuYiu (a.k.a. Rochelle Kwan) * Edited by James Boo, with help from Sheena Tan * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
About Self Evident is a Studio To Be production. Our show is made with support from PRX and the Google Podcasts creator program — and our listener community.
Daphne Chen always held a special place in her heart for the Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. Growing up in Ohio, she’d listen to their greatest hits before falling asleep, clinging to their pop songs as one of her only genuine links to the island and the culture her family had left far behind.
So years later, when Daphne realized that those greatest hits were actually covers of American pop songs by Destiny’s Child and the Legally Blonde soundtrack, she suddenly had a lot of questions... not just about S.H.E., but about why idolizing a Taiwanese girl group was so important to young Daphne in the first place.
In this episode, we're sharing three conversations about the need to see and hear ourselves in popular culture — and the limitations of what pop culture can do to meet those needs.
After Cathy chats with Daphne about their Asian teen idols in music, our intern Alex Chun calls up his favorite OnlyFans star, Cody Seiya, to unpack how watching queer porn has played such an outsized role in their own understanding of intimacy.
Then, producer Harsha Nahata meets with two Indian diaspora culture writers to compare how — even with their differing upbringings and vastly different relationships to Bollywood movies — they began to question the role and the power of the Bollywood industry.
Credits * Produced by Julia Shu, Harsha Nahata, and Alex Chun * Edited by James Boo and Julia Shu * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production, made with support from our listener community. This episode was made with support from PRX and the Google Podcast Creator Program.
Resources and Reading * LISTEN — A totally legal way to listen to “Girls’ Dorm” by S.H.E. * WATCH — “Know Your Chicken” music video by Cibo Matto * SUBSCRIBE — Cody Seiya on OnlyFans * READ — Coming Out as Dalit by Yashica Dutt * READ — “The Urgent Question Gay Asian American Men Are Asking Themselves” by Richard Morgan for Esquire * READ — “Consuming Diaspora” by Mitali Desai for Kajal Magazine * READ — “The Specter of Caste in Silicon Valley” by Yashica Dutt for the New York Times * READ — “‘Shining Indians’: Diaspora and Exemplarity in Bollywood” by Ingrid Therwath
This Fall many public primary schools in the U.S. switched back to in-person learning. But that can mean very different things for students, teachers, and parents — depending on their school system, local political environment, family resources, or language needs.
We started getting word from listeners about their back-to-school experiences in July, and checked in with them as these first few months of the school year unfolded. Cathy and our team found out how a Chinese American mother of three navigated the anti-mask and anti-CRT activity surrounding school reopenings in Arizona; learned about the hidden harms of this transition from immigrant mental health advocates in New York City; and heard how having an immunocompromised family member affected an Indian American family in Minneapolis.
While these conversations are by no means comprehensive, a recurring theme in these conversations was a sense of loss, which many students haven’t had the space to properly heal from.
Credits * Produced by Julia Shu and James Boo * Edited by Julia Shu * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Fact checking by Harsha Nahata * Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
Resources and Reading * WATCH: “Towards An Inclusive Reopening: The Mental Health Needs of Asian Children” discussion panel by the Asian American Federation, Sapna NYC, Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Hamilton-Madison House, and the Arab American Association of New York * READ: “Anti-mask school law isn't justice, safety for our kids” by Yvonne So for the Arizona Daily Star * READ: “Asian American young adults are the only racial group with suicide as their leading cause of death, so why is no one talking about this?” by Amelia Noor-Osho for The Conversation * READ: “New York’s Once-Thriving Asian Businesses Struggle to Recover From 4,000% Unemployment Spike” by Amy Yee, Adre Tartar, and Christopher Cannon for Bloomberg * READ: “Digital Literacy in New York’s Asian American Community” by Juo-Hsi (Sylvia) Peng for Advancing Justice | AAJC * READ: “Teens in America: How the Covid-19 Pandemic is Shaping the Next Generation” by Maria Abenes for Psychiatric Times
This is the second part of a two-part story. If you haven’t heard part one, “Don’t Eat Nazi Shit Melons,” you can listen to it here.
After the arrest of Indiana University Professor Cara Caddoo, the Mayor of Bloomington doubled down on anti-protest rules and police presence in the Bloomington City Farmers Market. But this failed to satisfy local activists calling for the removal of “Identitarian” Sarah Dye — and failed to mollify right-wing groups who were now turning Dye into a White nationalist media icon.
As it became clear that the city wouldn’t change its position, differences between different groups of anti-racist activists became clear as well. And as Bloomington Police continued to arrest protestors in the market, local Black Lives Matter core council member JadaBee found herself at odds with her friend Abby Ang, who continued to amplify Sarah Dye’s links to the American Identity Movement while navigating the tense boundaries between “free speech,” “unacceptable protest,” and “arrestable offense.”
Eventually, multiple new markets took root — including The People’s Market, a cooperatively-run alternative to the Bloomington City Farmers’ Market and co-created largely by BIPOC community members (including Abby and Jada). Some in Bloomington would consider this addition of new markets to be a successful result of the farmers market protests of 2019. But for the local farmers and activists who continue to grow that alternative at great expense, the experience has left lasting scars and raises ongoing questions about what it takes to truly dismantle White supremacy.
Credits * Produced and written by James Boo * Edited by Julia Shu * Fact checking by Harsha Nahata * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
Resources and Reading * “Bloomington 2019: ‘The Year of the Farmers’ Market Controversy’” by Ellen Wu for Limestone Post Magazine * “Identity Evropa’s Neo Nazi Organizing Plans Revealed in New Leaks” by Freddy Martinez, Caroline Sinders, and Chris Schiano for Unicorn Riot * Black Lives Matter in Bloomington archive of blog posts and open letters * “Man Drives SUV at Anti-Fascist, No Space for Hate Protestors Near Bloomington Farmers Market” by Lydia Gerike for the Indiana Daily Student * “Five Protestors Arrested at Farmers Market” by Jeremy Hogan for the Bloomingtonian * “Ethos of New People’s Market Focuses on Food Justice, Mutual Aid” by Ellen Wu for Limestone Post Magazine * “A Graduate Student in the (Farmers’) Marketplace of Ideas” by Abby Ang for In the Middle * “Confronting White Supremacy: The Negative Peace of White Liberalism” by JadaBee for Black Lives Matter B-Town IN * “Food Justice Locally Part 2” by the Black Progressives Podcast feat. JadaBee, Lauren McAllister, and Martin Law
In the summer of 2019, a public fight unfurled in Bloomington, Indiana — over accusations that Sarah Dye and Douglas Mackey, who sold produce at the city-run farmers’ market, were members of an organization classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League as a white nationalist hate group (an association that would soon be confirmed).
Abby Ang, a graduate student at Indiana University in Bloomington who had also become a community organizer, picked up on a series of chat leaks and reports from local farmers and activists about Sarah Dye, taking action to further publicize this connection and pressuring the city to remove Sarah and Doug’s farm from their market.
But when the city refused to do anything of the sort, Abby found herself in a fast-moving conflict that included the full spectrum of American politics: liberal elites, progressive organizers, antifascist activists, right-wing militias, farmers, customers, police, Black Lives Matter leaders… and of course, White nationalists (or in this particular case, as they preferred to be identified, White Identitarians).
The story eventually hit mainstream national news, the farmers’ market became a political battleground, and an Asian American professor was arrested by Bloomington Police — showing what it really looks like to wield White power in America.
Credits * Produced by James Boo * Edited by Julia Shu, with help from Cathy Erway * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Production support from Alex Chun * Fact checking by Harsha Nahata * Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love * Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
Resources and Reading * “Bloomington 2019: ‘The Year of the Farmers’ Market Controversy’” by Ellen Wu for Limestone Post Magazine * “What if Your Farmer Is a White Nationalist?” by Kayte Young for Earth Eats, WFIU * “I Yield My Time” statement during LAPC public hearing on June 2, 2020 * “Federal Charges Filed in Carmel Synagogue Hate Incident” by U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana * Southern Poverty Law Center brief on Identity Evropa / American Identity Movement * Anti-Defamation League brief on Identity Evropa / American Identity Movement * “Identity Evropa’s Neo-Nazi Organizing Plans Revealed In New Leaks” by Chris Schiano and Freddy Martinez, for Unicorn Riot * No Space for Hate web site and “Market in Context” Timeline * “Video: IU Professor Arrested After Demonstration at Farmers’ Market” by Adam Pinsker for WFIU (original video by Dina Okamoto)
Self Evident's third season starts this month. Subscribe where you get podcasts, and help spread the word to your family and friends!
During the current refugee crisis in Afghanistan, we’ve seen Asian Americans working to resettle Afghan refugees and help them build new lives. Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong Americans in particular have been reminded of their own refugee stories — not just the stories of leaving their homes, but stories of the challenges they’ve faced in rebuilding their lives.
So we’re presenting a story from Re:Work, a women-led radio show and podcast from the UCLA Labor Center that spotlights the voices of workers, immigrants and people of color.
In this episode, Re:Work looks at how the American criminal justice system continues to marginalize youth from communities of color through the story of Phal Sok, a Cambodian refugee. His story shows how too often, low-income refugee youths are seen not as needing protection, but as the ones Americans need protection against.
Check out Re:Work wherever you listen to podcasts!
We’re presenting an episode from Shoes Off, a podcast about Asian Australian culture hosted by Jay Ooi. In conversation with performers and scholars, producer Thinesh Thillai explains how power and status, and in particular, caste, enable art forms from marginalized communities to be co-opted.
Shoes Off takes a close look at the history of Bharantanatyam, a style of Indian classical dance commonly studied and performed in modern-day arangetrams. Who holds the power in propagating Bharantanatyam and who is being erased in this process?
Check out Shoes Off wherever you listen to podcasts!
This week, we’re playing an episode from Making Contact. Making Contact produces media that analyses critical issues and showcases grassroots solutions in order to inform and inspire audiences to action. The episode, based on a documentary by filmmaker Grace Lee, is called “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” and it’s about the life and legacy of the famed civil rights activist.
Making Contact takes a close look at Boggs’s lifetime of vital thinking and action; from labor to civil rights, to Black Power, feminism, the Asian American and environmental justice movements and beyond. Revolution, Boggs says, is about something deeper within the human experience — the ability to transform oneself to transform the world.
Check out Making Contact at radioproject.org. or wherever you listen to podcasts!
We’re playing an episode from an exciting new podcast by our friends at APIENC, an organization that builds transgender, non-binary, and queer power for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Bay Area (you might’ve heard their director, Sammie, on one of our previous episodes).
The new podcast is called Dragon Fruit, and it’s all about the history of trans and queer Asian and Pacific Islander organizing, some juicy conversations about love and relationships, and reclaiming space for healing.
In this episode, community members explored love, intimacy, and relationships. What does love mean for each of us and what does love beyond romance look like? How has our understanding of love changed over time? And how do we navigate being in relationship with each other?
Content warning: This episode mentions issues of sex, touch, and conflict. There is a gentle reminder before each section so you can skip certain parts if you like.
Check out Dragon Fruit Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts!
We're sharing the story “When Your Country Doesn’t Trust You” from the podcast WorldAffairs.
In the past year, reports of anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked across the country. A lot of this is attributed to anti-Asian rhetoric about the pandemic. But the hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the United States and Asian nations overseas, Asian-Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home.
In this episode, we hear from US Congressman Andy Kim about how the power competition between China and the US creates fear and anxiety on the homefront, which often escalates to anti-Asian rhetoric. Then, we hear the stories of two scientists, Wen Ho Lee and Xiaoxing Xi. Both were racially profiled by the FBI—and falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government.
Check out WorldAffairs, a podcast that features far away stories that hit close to home, wherever you get podcasts. Search for WorldAffairs, one word, no space.
Julianne Sato-Parker first heard the phrase, “Shikata ga nai” while watching a video series of interviews with Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals who were incarcerated by the U.S government after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese phrase translates to, “It cannot be helped.” It reminded Julianne of her grandmother, who has always said a similar phrase when navigating life’s unpredictable twists and turns: “That’s just the way the ball bounces.”
But the phrases may not be as passive as they seem. As Julianne became fixated on how one became the other, she turned to her grandmother for answers — and to better understand how we find resistance and resilience, even in things as seemingly simple as a phrase.
Resources
- A longer version of this story — called “That’s the Way the Ball Bounces” — first aired on Asian Americana, where you can even hear host Quincy Surasmith’s interview with Julianne about the making of this piece. Check it out here.
- “Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence” by Linda Tamura
- Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project (including an interview with Dorothy Sato, a.k.a. Bobbe)
- Japanese American Museum of Oregon
- PDX Japanese American Citizens League
Credits
- Produced and written by Julianne Sato-Parker
- Edited by Julia Shu and James Boo
- Scored and mixed by James Boo
- Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
- Music by Blue Dot Sessions
- Additional music (“Umbrella Pants” and “I Knew a Guy”) by Kevin Macleod (licensed under CC-BY-4.0)
- Hail archival tape via freesound.org
Self Evident is a Studio To Be production. Our show is made with support from PRX and the Google Podcasts creator program — and our listener community.
We’re sharing this story from one of our favorite podcasts, See Something Say Something, by Ahmed Ali Akbar.
Pakistani-American communities in the U.S. rely on dealers on WhatsApp to gain access to their most coveted treasure: Pakistani mangoes. And they pay a premium for it. In part one of this two-part investigation, reporter Ahmed Ali Akbar searches for answers. Why are Pakistani mangoes so hard to find? And why is the Pakistani community resorting to deals on WhatsApp to procure them?
For part two, listen and subscribe to See Something Say Something: https://www.seesomethingpodcast.com/
Support Ahmed’s work on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ahmedaliakbar
Ahmed originally produced this for the podcast Proof, from America’s Test Kitchen. Listen to more of Proof: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/proof
And to see our team and Ahmed eating some of the tastiest mangoes of the season, check out our Instagram, @selfevidentshow
The phrase “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is buzz-word-ier than ever, but what does it really take to empower workers and reduce racialized harm in the places where we spend so many of our waking hours? And when is it OK to simply stop trying?
In this second episode of a three-part series, guest host Alex Sujong Laughlin (Senior Producer at Transmitter Media) invites Gautam Srikishan (Producer at the On Being Project) and Snigdha Sur (Founder and CEO of The Juggernaut) to discuss their own experiences with creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces — whether that involves organizing your fellow workers into a union or breaking away from big media companies entirely to start your own workplace.
Along the way, Snigdha, Gautam, and Alex also open up about how difficult it is to take on this responsibility... especially when it’s hard to see the results of your efforts.
Credits:
- Produced by James Boo and Julia Shu
- Edited by Julia Shu and James Boo
- Sound mix by Julia Shu and Timothy Lou Ly
- Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
- Our Executive Producer is Ken Ikeda
More From Today’s Guests * Gautam Srikishan — @gsrikishan (Twitter), @floatingfast (Instagram) * Snigdha Sur — @snigdhasur (Twitter), @_thejuggernaut (Instagram) * Subscribe to The Juggernaut * Check out this collection of “Labor Stories” recorded using the StoryCorps app * Alex Sujong Laughlin — @alexlaughs (Twitter)
Recommended Reading * “How bosses are (literally) like dictators” by Elizabeth Anderson for Vox * “Buzzfeed Layoffs and the False Promise of ‘Unions Aren’t For Us,’” Fast Company * “StoryCorps, of all Places, Is Running an Anti-Union Campaign” by Hamilton Nolan for SPLINTER * “The Aggressive Anti-Union Campaign at StoryCorps” By Stephanie Russel-Kraft for The Nation * “Glass Walls” by James T. Green * “The business case for diversity in the workplace is now overwhelming” by Vijay Eswaran for the World Economic Forum
The impact of storytelling is often portrayed as a story changing the life of the person consuming it — and changing the world by reaching as many people as possible. But what about the person who offers their story to be consumed? How else can we define the value of our life’s stories, and the importance of how they’re shared?
In this second episode of a three-part series, Managing Producer James Boo invites Randy Kim (Host of the Banh Mi Chronicles) and Tracey Nguyen Mang (Host of The Vietnamese Boat People) to dig deep and get personal about how they’ve seen participation in storytelling change the life of one person at a time.
Our team decided to host these conversations because in the U.S. it’s once again Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time that can often feel routine and repetitive. And during a year when absolutely nothing has been routine, we hope these episodes will join many other podcasts, panels, and events in diving beneath the surface of representation, diversity, and inclusion.
We often take for granted that “seeing people who look like us” — especially in mass media — means progress towards racial justice. But what forms of representation do we see making an impact? And who is that impact for?
In this first episode of a three-part series, Senior Producer Julia Shu invites Eliza Romero (co-host of Unverified Accounts and blogger at Aesthetic Distance), Marvin Yueh (co-host of Books & Boba and co-creator of the Potluck Podcast Collective), and Thomas Mangloña II (journalist and co-founder of the Pacific Islander Task Force at AAJA) — to question conventional wisdom and share what kind of representation we want to have more of.
Our team decided to host these conversations because in the U.S. it’s once again Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time that can often feel routine and repetitive. And during a year when absolutely nothing has been routine, we hope these episodes will join many other podcasts, panels, and events in shaking up the usual talking points of representation, diversity, and inclusion for AAPIHM.
Why do Asian Americans have such deep relationships with fruit?
Cathy goes on a quest to find the answers — starting with her friendly neighborhood fruit vendor, Cece, then spending time with friends and listeners in our extended podcast fam.
Along the way, she hears stories about family heirloom trees, mango sharing techniques, persimmon obsessions, and an unbridled love for durian. Then, she calls up food writer Priya Krishna and heritage farmer Kristyn Leach to unpack all the personal stories she’s heard.
As Cathy learns the ways that Asian Americans across the country have instilled a reverence for fruit and upheld countless rituals with it in their lives, she realizes that our tastes are even more deeply rooted than we might think.
Credits * Written by Cathy Erway * Produced by James Boo, Harsha Nahata, and Julia Shu * Edited by James Boo and Julia Shu * Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
Shoutouts Big thanks to everyone who shared their fruit stories and fruit feels with us for this episode:
- Ahmed Ali Akbar
- Ann Duong
- Dorothy Faye Pirtle
- Jack Shu
- Jenn De La Vega
- Jenn Wong
- Kristyn Leach
- Merk Nguyen
- Nidhi Prakash
- Niha Reddy
- Priya Krishna
- Raman Sehgal
- Stanford Chiou
We couldn’t fit everyone into the final cut, but you can see and hear bonus stories on our Instagram, using the hashtag #MyImmigrantFruitStory.
Reading, Listening, and Resources * "If I'm Cutting Fresh Fruit For Dessert, I Probably Love You" by Priya Krishna for Bon Appetite * "A Bowl of Cut Fruit is How Asian Moms Say I Love You" by Yi Jun Loh for TASTE * "How the simple art of cutting fruit can be an act of love" by Daniela Galarza for The Washington Post * “The Loquat, San Francisco’s Secret Fruit, Is Hidden in Plain Sight” by Jenn Wong for Mission Local * “Bok Choy Isn’t ‘Exotic’,” by Cathy Erway in Eater * Check out Priya’s recipes in her cookbook, Indianish * “Underground Aams Trade,” by Ahmed Ali Akbar for Proof (America’s Test Kitchen) * Grow your own East Asian heritage crops and cook from recipes at Kristyn Leach’s Second Generation Seeds
When producer Erica Mu moved back to her hometown in 2014, she said goodbye to a past life without any idea what exactly her new life should look like. Looking for the most grounded place she could find, she went to the local mall early one morning, turned on her tape recorder, and started talking to everyone she could meet.
As Erica made her way through this sprawling landscape of mostly Chinese businesses in one of the most East Asian cities in the country, she peeked in the dreams, annoyances, and love lives of dim sum diners, shop owners, security guards, young children, young parents, weightlifters, all-night partiers, and one very skilled harmonica player.
But as she grasped for some universal truth that would tie all the threads of the mall, Erica realized that the unpredictable, unresolved mess of everyday life is exactly what makes it something to treasure.
Credits * Produced and written by Erica Mu * Edited by Liz Mak * Co-produced by Rebecca Kanthor and Paulina Hartono * Major recording help from Leslie Chang and Alyssa Kapnik Samuel * Immense story input from George Lavender * Final edits by James Boo and Julia Shu * Music by Podington Bear * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
Shoutouts Big thanks to everyone who spoke with Erica during her time at the mall for this story!
Support from the California Council for the Humanities, and advisors:
- Al Letson
- Catherine Ceniza Choy
- Wei Li
- Oliver Wang
- Leila Day
Support from the Association of Independents in Radio, Mentor Martina Castro
Support from Third Coast International Audio Festival and Radio Residency
Fiscal sponsorship from Visual Communications, developing and supporting the voices of Asian American & Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists
Countless friends and colleagues who have given their time to talk about all our stories
What happens when you come to America to marry the person you thought would take care of you, only to find yourself in an abusive family, losing all sense of self?
Guest producer Rosalind Tordesillas brings us this story about Joy, a woman whose dream marriage turned into a nightmare — and the advocates for survivors of domestic violence who helped her through the long journey to becoming whole.
Immigrant women like Joy often have an especially hard time getting help with domestic abuse because of immigration status, language, and cultural issues. Unfortunately, every one of these challenges has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading Joy and her advocates at the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) to speak out.
In this episode, they share how Joy dealt with her situation and reveal the critical role that social workers, advocates, and lawyers play in supporting survivors who have no other path forward.
WARNING: Skip minutes 10:00-17:30 if you do not wish to hear descriptions of domestic abuse, including some graphic descriptions of violence. If this is an especially tough subject for you to hear about, then you may want consider skipping this episode.
Resources and Reading
If you are experiencing abuse or want to help someone who is, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233).
- The Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (includes a 24-hour multilingual hotline for Boston area residents)
- “A Pandemic Within a Pandemic — Intimate Partner Violence during COVID-19”
- “Study Finds Rise in Domestic Violence during COVID” by Alan Mozes for WebMD
- “Why Can’t the Senate Pass the Violence Against Women Act?” by Jay Willis for GQ
- U.S. Department of Justice Memo on the implications of Congress’ failure to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act since 2019
Credits
- Produced by Rosalind Tordesillas
- Edited by James Boo and Mia Warren
- Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
This episode was made in partnership with Feet in 2 Worlds, a project that brings the work of immigrant journalists to digital news sites and public radio. Since their founding in 2004, Feet in 2 Worlds has brought the work of immigrant journalists from communities across the U.S. to public radio and online news sites.
Shoutouts
Thanks to Cristina Ayala (co-executive director) and the staff of ATASK for helping us produce this episode.
And big thanks to Blair Matsuura, one of our biggest supporters on Patreon!
If you want to join Blair in supporting our mission and making our work sustainable, please become a member at patreon.com/selfevidentshow.
During this year’s protests for Black lives, the national conversation was filled with calls to have uncomfortable conversations about anti-Blackness. This push, to talk about racism with our loved ones, has been both championed and criticized — but how do these conversations actually go down, and where do they lead?
To find out, we spoke with three cousins who created a conversation toolkit for Filipinx families, and made the nerve-wracking decision to test drive on a video call with their entire extended family.
Then we caught up with two friends who grew up in a redlined suburb of Detroit, to learn how their experiences with present-day school segregation have shaped their expectations about what’s needed to move towards justice.
To unpack our own thoughts on all of this, we hopped on the phone with our show’s co-founder, Talisa Chang, to hear about her experiences leading an abolition reading and discussion group for the past six months.
Along the way, we grappled with how these conversations can feel like way too much to handle, yet perhaps not enough to make a difference — and ultimately, how keeping these conversations going can help give Asian Americans the resolve and capacity to act in defense of Black lives in America.
Reading and Listening
- “We Cannot Stay Silent About George Floyd,” by Hasan Minhaj for Patriot Act
- A Conversation on Race & Anti-Blackness: The Filipinx Family Edition by Ivy, Patricia, Anthony, and Paul Ocampo
- “Letters for Black Lives,” by Quincy Surasmith for Asian Americana
- “About Those ‘Letters to My Asian Parents About Anti-Black Racism’,” by Andy Liu for Time To Say Goodbye
- “To Indian Americans for Black Lives Matter, On Doing the Hard Work,” by Maya Bhardwaj for Overachiever Magazine
- “What Detroit Tells Us About How America Divides its Black and Brown Communities,” by Harsha Nahata for The Juggernaut
- “Black flight to Suburbs Masks Lingering Segregation in metro Detroit,” by Mike Wilkinson form Bridge Michigan
- South Asians for Black Lives: A Call for Action, Accountability, and Introspection by Thenmozhi Soundararajan for We Are Your Voice
- “Your Anti-Racism Books are Means, Not an End” by Saida Grundy for The Atlantic
- “Are Prisons Obsolete?” by Angela Davis
- “How We Show Up” by Mia Birdsong
Credits * Produced by James Boo, Harsha Nahata, and Julia Shu * Edited by Julia Shu * Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly * Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound * Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
Shoutouts
Thanks to the Ocampos (Anthony, Ivy, Patricia, and Paul), Maya, Ragen, and Talisa for speaking on this episode! We’re also grateful to Marissiko Wheaton for introducing us to Anthony Ocampo, and to Gilded Audio for helping us record with the Ocampo cousins.
And big thanks to Annie Tan, Audrey Agot Fox, Ceci Villaseñor, Christynn Morris, Elisa Rapadas, Jenny Lee, Kaitlyn Borysiewicz, and Parag Rajendra Khandhar for sharing their experiences with us as we were reporting this story. You can see and hear some of those experiences on Instagram and Facebook (follow @selfevidentshow).
Special shoutout to Jack Shu, one of our biggest supporters on Patreon. If you want to join Jack in supporting our mission and making our work sustainable, please become a member at patreon.com/selfevidentshow.
During the 48 hours of uncertainty after November 3, 2020, our producer James called over a dozen people — not to talk about Trump vs. Biden, but about the more systemic problems that would stick with us after all the votes were counted.
These conversations with family and friends led him to reexamine a pivotal moment in his civic education: When he founded a chapter of the Junior State of America in the midst of the 2000 Presidential race, and learned that the act of democracy was a lot tougher than it seemed.
After speaking with Cris Aguila and Karl Kristian Flores (two of our youngest voting-age listeners) about their frustrations with our we vote for President, James dug up the phone number of the high school student who leads the same Junior State chapter that he had started a generation ago… and ended this week of cynicism with a surprising moment of hope.
Reading and Listening
- “Stacey Abrams on minority rule, voting rights, and the future of Democracy” on the Ezra Klein Show by Vox Media
- “Are Asian Americans the Last Undecided Voters?” by Hua Hsu for The New Yorker
- Cathy Park Hong and Ayad Akhtar discuss Ayad’s new novel, “Homeland Elegies” on the Bookable podcast by Loudtree Media
- “Grassroots Organizers Flipped Georgia Blue. Here’s How They Did It,” by Anoa Chang for Truthout
- “Lessons From the Pacific Islands — Adapting to Climate Change by Supporting Social and Ecological Resilience” by multiple researchers for Frontiers in Marine Science
- “Can I Tell You Something?” a book of poems by Karl Kristian Flores
Resources for Action
- “The Work Will Continue After Nov 3. Here’s how you can stay involved” by Anjali Enjeti for Mic
- “My Role in a Social Change Ecosystem: A Mid-Year Check-In” by Deepa Iyer
- A list of Georgia BIPOC-led voter outreach organizations that you can support right now with donations and volunteer work, created by They See Blue Georgia
- “Craft Talks 4 Georgia,” a series of audio craft talks to raise money for Fair Fight, to ensure the right to vote for marginalized and disenfranchised people in the Georgia run-off elections in January 2021
Credits
- Produced by James Boo
- Edited by Julia Shu
- Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
- Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
Shoutouts
Thanks to everyone who hopped on the phone during the 48 hours after the election, to share their in-the-moment feelings and their experiences with voting:
- Alex Laughlin
- Dorian Love
- Justine Lee
- Melissa Sebastian
- Marissiko Wheaton
- Rachel Ramirez
- Sidharth Gupta
With so much attention focused on the Presidential race and other federal elections right now, we hope you'll find it refreshing to hear from Yuh-Line Niou, the only Asian American woman in New York's state legislature.
In this conversation with Rock the Boat podcast host Lucia Liu, Yuh-Line explains how and why she got involved with local and state government, and how her experiences as an immigrant American woman have enabled her to make a distinct impact in the New York state assembly.
The latest season of Rock the Boat, produced in partnership with Model Majority highlights Asian Americans working in government and civic engagement.
Reading and Viewing:
- "'I Can Still Smell Him': For 4 Legislators, the Child Victims Act Is Personal" by Corina Knoll for the New York Times
- Yuh-Line speaks against New York State Budget priorities during the peak of the pandemic's first wave in New York City
Rock the Boat is made by:
- Lucia Liu, Host
- Rachel Chou, Music & Sound Editor
- David Liu, Associate Producer
- Chia-Yi Hou, Blog Editor
- Emily Cheng, Email Marketing Manager
- Debbie Wong, Social Media Coordinator
- Margaret Zhao, Press & Partnerships
- Sung Hwang, Mental Health Events
When New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, Brooklyn-based producer Beenish Ahmed struggled over whether to visit her parents in Ohio or stay put. Her parents — a landlord and hairdresser who immigrated from Pakistan in the ‘70s — begged her to come home. When Beenish finally decided to go in May, she recorded that journey, and the discoveries she made about her family’s relationship to America.
This story is an episode we're sharing from A Better Life?, a new podcast by our friends at Feet in 2 Worlds that explores how America’s failed response to COVID-19 has reshaped immigrants’ lives and their relationship to the United States.
Here's the team behind the story, and many other stories and conversations that you can hear on A Better Life? wherever you get podcasts:
- A Better Life? is hosted by Zahir Janmohamed.
- This episode was produced by Beenish Ahmed.
- It was edited by Mia Warren and John Rudolph.
- It was mixed by Jocelyn Gonzalez.
- Anna Dilena is our assistant producer.
- Alejandro Salazar Dyer is our development coordinator.
- Olivia Cunningham is our digital content manager.
- Kenny Leon is our intern.
- A Better Life?’s theme song was composed by Fareed Sajan.
- A Better Life? is produced by Feet in 2 Worlds, an organization that has supported the work of immigrant journalists since 2005.
How can Asian American communities create safety, when the harms of racism and xenophobia are so deeply rooted in our society?
We’ve spent time unpacking the simplistic solution of hate crime enforcement, then learning how local activists rallying against anti-Asian hate often reveal a much deeper history of neglect and under-resourcing of immigrant communities.
In this third of three episodes on community responses to anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, we speak with four people — Rachel Kuo of the Asian American Feminist Collective; Sammie Ablaza Wills of API Equality in Northern California; and Suja and Iram Amir from American Muslims Uncovered.
From seeking non-policing solutions for conflict management, to helping intergenerational communities understand how to express what they need most, to challenging the racism that festers in schools across the country, each voice in this episode challenges Asian Americans to ask for fundamental change in how we achieve safety for our communities.
Credits
- Produced by James Boo and Julia Shu
- Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
- Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
Shout Outs
- Thanks to Rachel Kuo and the entire leadership of the Asian American Feminist Collective, Sammie Ablaza Wills of APIENC, Suja Amir of the Asian & Latino Solidarity Alliance of Central Virginia, and Iram Amir of American Muslims Uncovered for sharing their time with us.
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production, made with the support of our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
Resources, Reading, and Listening
- “We Want Cop-Free Communities: Against the Creation of an Asian Hate Crime Task Force by the NYPD” by the Asian American Feminist Collective
- “Internal Affairs Investigating Columbus Park Incident” by The Lowdown
- “Charges Dropped in New York City Jaywalking Incident” by ABC News
- “Trusting Abundance: A Conversation With Sammie Ablaza Wills” by Lia Dun for Autostraddle
- “Race, Policing, and the Universal Yearning for Safety” featuring Phillip Atiba Goff for the Ezra Klein Show
- “The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd” by Aymann Ismail for Slate
The rise in xenophobic harassment, discrimination, and violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic has led to a rise in neighborhood watch groups in historic Chinatowns and other Asian immigrant communities across the country.
While these groups have made headlines for speaking out against racism, their motivations and actions reveal a deeper story about the pain of underserved communities and the role of policing in those communities.
In this second of three episodes on community responses to anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, we report on three neighborhood watch groups in historic Chinatown neighborhoods: the Manhattan Chinatown Blockwatch, the SF Peace Collective, and the United Peace Corps. The diverging approaches that they take reveal how much American communities rely on a “law-and-order” definition of safety.
Two Asian American olds (Cathy and James) watch the original Mulan for the first time, then join a seasoned fan (Julia) — for an animated discussion about the limitations of Hollywood representation, the saving grace of gender-bending innuendo, and what exactly it is about Mulan that resonates with so many Asian Americans who grew up with it.
Resources and Recommended Reading:
- Ariana Amour performs "Reflection"
- 'Mulan' Was the Most Bisexual Cartoon Ever
- What Mulan taught me about identity, honor, and drag saving China
- The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's 'Mulan'
- ‘Mulan’ remake drops Li Shang character because of #MeToo movement
- Pro-democracy boycott of Disney's Mulan builds online via #milkteaalliance
Two incidents of anti-Asian racism — the beating of an elderly grandfather in a San Francisco park and the harassment of a mourning son in a New York pharmacy — reveal an ugly side of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the first of three episodes reporting on Asian American responses to anti-Asian hate incidents. Share your thoughts on the stories with us by emailing community@selfevidentshow.com.
To support our ongoing mission and work on stories like these, join our membership program via Patreon.
Credits
- Produced by James Boo
- Edited by Julia Shu
- Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
- Reporting and production assistance by Prerna Chaudhary
- Interview recordings by Sonia Paul
- Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
- Sound effects by Soundsnap
Shout out to
- Cynthia Choi at Chinese for Affirmative Action SF for her help with research and reporting
- Sojung Yi and Charles Wang for sharing their stories with us and with the rest of the world
- Our intern Prerna, who learned roughly two million new skills to help us report, produce, and edit this episode
Resources and Reading
- To report a micro-aggression, bullying, hate speech, harassment, or violence incident, fill out a form at Stop AAPI Hate (multiple languages provided).
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice’s Coronavirus/COVID-19 Resources to Stand Against Racism
- Bystander Intervention Trainings To Stop Anti-Asian/Xenophobic Harrassment by Hollaback!
- I’m an Asian American doctor on the front lines of two wars: Coronavirus and racism by Sojung Yi, for The Lily
- Asian Americans Face Dual Challenges: Surging Unemployment and Racism By Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil and Kimmy Yam, for NBC News
- “As anti-Asian hate incidents explode, activists push for aid” by Anh Do, for the Los Angeles Times
Self Evident is a Studitobe production, made with the support of our listener community. This episode was made with support from the Solutions Journalism Network, and from the National Geographic Society’s Emergency Fund for Journalists. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
You’ve said the words, “Black Lives Matter.” You’ve put your money where your mouth is. You’ve shown up for the marches.
What next? What exactly is the change we’re showing up for, and how exactly can we commit to making that change in our own communities?
In this bonus episode, we’re passing the mic to Jaime Sunwoo (a Korean American interdisciplinary artist and former housing advocate) and Brandon West (a longtime Black organizer for democracy rights and racial justice). Jaime and Brandon’s experiences in community service, city budgeting, and organizing work clarify why and how today’s movement for racial justice is asking us to defund the police.
Resources and Links
- Jaime Sunwoo (@jaimesunwoo) worked in homeless services from 2015-2017. She's a multidisciplinary artist and is developing Specially Processed American Me, a performance project on the significance of SPAM in the Asian diaspora. You can learn more about her at jaimesunwoo.com.
- Brandon West (@btwest) is a campaign manager for voting rights at the Center for Popular Democracy, and collaborates with a great many community organizers in Brooklyn. He’s also a candidate for New York City Council, which you can learn more about at westforcouncil.com (full disclosure: our Managing Producer James Boo is Brandon’s roommate, and volunteers for Brandon’s campaign).
- Both Jaime and Brandon support the work of Communities United for Police Reform, a coalition of community groups seeking to defund the New York Police Department and create greater accountability for police misconduct.
- Jaime worked as a housing advocate for Breaking Ground, a non-profit organization that provides housing and wraparound services to over 8,000 New Yorkers a year.
- The Brooklyn Liberation march for Black trans lives ended up attracting an estimated total of 15,000 people. Many organizers intersecting with that action support the repeal of “Walking While Trans” laws across the country. You read about the underlying issues here.
- If you’re still looking for ways to learn and donate in support of Black lives, then check out our latest newsletter for a curated list of some of our favorite works (almost all by or centering Black voices) and Black-led groups.
Credits
- Produced by James Boo and Julia Shu
- Edited by Julia Shu, with assistance from Prerna Chaudhury
- Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
- Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
- Thanks to Dolly Li of Plum Radio for helping us record some of the protest tape heard on this episode!
The struggle to save lives from COVID-19 is far from over, and neither is America’s struggle against racism.
As we report on hate crime and anti-racist action, Cathy and James hop on the phone and check in with a couple of our friends in podcasting: Paola Mardo (who tells stories from the Filipino diaspora on Long Distance) and Ahmed Ali Akbar (who covers the social, cultural, and political experiences of American Muslims on See Something Say Something).
We took this time to unpack the ugly, reckon with the bad, and speak to the good that we hope comes out of this pivotal moment in history.
We hope you’re all getting the support you need out there, and would love to hear from you — just write to community@selfevidentshow.com, and please take care.
Resources and links:
“COVID-19 is not the great equalizer” — a short piece from Marketplace showing how hard this pandemic is hitting communities of color and the working poor.
If you want to dive into reports focused on anti-Asian racism and Asian American efforts to save lives from COVID-19, Next Shark has been relentlessly covering these beats. Big thanks to them for taking on all of the work required to keep this up.
We shared a list of anti-racism resources in a recent newsletter. Since circumstances evolve day by day, we’ll continue using the newsletter to bundle and share resources that might help you get through it all. You can sign up for that here.
Paola (@paolamardo) is working on a new episode of Long Distance about health care workers on the front lines. You can hear the full story of her recent encounter with racism here.
Ahmed (@radbrowndads) is working on “M Train,” a 6 part miniseries focused on Muslim life in New York, made as a collaboration between See Something Say Something and BRIC. You can listen here.
Cathy (@cathyerway) covered new efforts to save Manhattan Chinatown’s local businesses for NYMag’s Grubstreet. You can read that story here.
James (@actualjamesboo) wrote these show notes. If you’re wondering why he’s not a Governor Cuomo fan, read this Gothamist news piece and this op-ed by Prasanna Shah.
Credits
Produced by Julia Shu
Edited by Julia Shu and James Boo
Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
When we started Self Evident, we were surprised at how many people wanted a new show but hadn’t heard about all the Asian American podcasts already out there.
In this bonus episode, our team shares clips from a few other independent podcasts, showing a wide range of Asian American stories and conversations.
Tell us what you think of our first season!
As we head into our off-season, we could use your help understanding what we're doing well and what can improve.
Please take this survey, even if you've only listened to one episode of Self Evident, to give us your honest feedback.
Resources
If you want to really dig deep into the world of Asian American & Asian diaspora podcasts, you can check out this extensive list of shows, maintained by the Asian American Podcasters group.
Here's what Cathy, Julia, and James share in this bonus episode:
- Long Distance, Season 1 Episode 6: "Filipino Tiki Bar" (and the Long Distance Radio Club Patreon)
- See Something Say Something: "Ramy" (and the See Something Say Something Patreon)
- Saturday School, Season 6 Episode 1: "Kal Ho Naa Ho" (and the Saturday School newsletter)
- Escape From Plan A, Episode 92: "Boba Liberalism vs. Asian Left Twitter" and Episode 86: "Yellow Asians, Brown Asians... Who's Asian?" (and the Plan A Patreon)
Shout Outs
We’ve been on a really long journey, with hopefully a long way to go! So we want to thank the podcasters and producers who took the time to give us advice and encouragement as we were creating Self Evident: Anne Saini, Erica Mu, Marvin Yueh, Vishal Janmohamed, and Stephanie Tam.
Credits
Produced and edited by James Boo
Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
Long Distance theme music by C. Light and the Prisms
Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
We asked our listener community, “How did you learn where you come from?”
What came back was a wide range of personal stories about how tricky it can be to access our heritage. From kids going to culture camp, to adoptees making journeys to their birth countries, to Asian Americans of all ages realizing that they’re inevitably going to lose a piece of themselves — we explore how we fit in with what came before us and figure out what comes next.
We need your help!
Please take this 1-minute survey, so we can have better conversations with partners and sponsors and keep this show growing. It’s fast, easy, and anonymous.
Resources and Recommended Reading
- Misha recommends that Self Evident listeners check out episode 2 of Tell Them, I Am, “Deana.”
- Read some of Ansley’s poetry, accompanied by her own visual artwork, on Culturestrike.
- If you’d like to participate in Henry’s Chinese geneaology workshop, e-mail Henry [dot] Tom [at] Cox [dot] net.
- Mark, one of the voices on today’s episode, has told the full story of his trip to find his birth record in Korea on this episode of the Escape from Plan A podcast.
- Check out Leading Youth Forward, Chicago Desi Youth Rising, NQAPIA, and APIENC to see examples of Asian American spaces for cultural and political education.
- To learn more about “Love Boat” and how it’s impacted Asian Americans, check out Valerie Soe’s documentary, Love Boat: Taiwan, which is touring film festivals across the country.
Shout Outs
Shout out to Yin Kong and Yin Mei of Think!Chinatown for inviting us to the workshop where we met Henry Tom.
Thanks to everyone from our listener community who shared their experiences with us in the making of this episode: Alice Chou, Davey Kim, Gabor Fu, Jenni Wong, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Lily Susman, Lori Wanko, Mark from Plan A, Mark Zastrow, Merk Nguyen, Michelle Chu, Rekha Radhakrishnan, Waverly Colville, and Win-Sie Tow.
And very special thanks to our advisors for this season of the show: Alex Laughlin, Anika Gupta, Blair Matsuura, Christina Choi, Davey Kim, and Ted Hsieh.
Credits
Produced by James Boo
Edited by Julia Shu and Cheryl Devall
Editorial support from Davey Kim
Production support by Jaye McAuliffe
Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly
Theme music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.
Under the Trump administration, the United States has pushed aggressively to deport Southeast Asian Americans with criminal records. Hurt that members of the Vietnamese community would support this action, guest producer Thanh Tan (creator of the podcast “Second Wave”) seeks out the people at risk of deportation — and the organizers fighting to keep them in the only home they’ve known. Along the way, she learns to embrace a new direction for Vietnamese Americans confronting the deeply rooted narrative of “the good refugee.”
We need your help!
Please take this 1-minute survey, so we can have better conversations with partners and sponsors and keep this show growing. It’s fast, easy, and anonymous.
Resources and Recommended Reading
Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress and prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.
"Know Your Rights" resources to prepare for ICE raids written in Arabic, Bangla, Burmese, Chinese, Dar/Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Karen, Khemer, Korean, Nepali, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese, compiled by the Asian American Federation in NY.
Primary sources:
- The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which laid much groundwork for today’s deportations
- The 2008 Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Vietnam
- President Trump’s Jan 25, 2017 Executive Order on Border Security and Immigration Enforcement
- President Trump’s Jan 25, 2017 Executive Order declaring that the presence of “removable aliens” from “foreign nations that refuse the repatriation of their nationals” is “contrary to the national interest”
- Text of President Trump’s Jan 27, 2017 Executive Order temporarily ceasing admission of refugees to the United States (a.k.a. “the travel ban”)
- Migration Policy Institute dataset on U.S. annual refugee resettlement ceilings and refugee admissions, starting from 1980
- ICE datasets on deportations from FY 2011 through FY 2018
Reporting and analysis on the federal government’s role in detention and deportation of immigrants:
- “City of Fear” by New York Magazine and The Marshall Project
- “The Disastrous, Forgotten 1996 Law That Created Today’s Immigration Problem” by Dara Lind, for Vox
- “ICE and the Banality of Spin” by Eileen Guo, for Topic
- “U.S.: 20 Years of Immigrant Abuses,” a summary of reports by Human Rights Watch on harm caused by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
Reporting and analysis on the detention and deportation of Vietnamese Americans and Cambodian Americans:
- “As Cambodian Deportations Resume, Community Looks for Ways to Cope” by Agnes Constante, for NBC Asian America
- “Deported: A Grassroots Movement” (5-part docuseries) by Sahra V. Nguyen, for NBC Asian America
- “Fear Grips Immigrants Who Fled Here to Escape Genocide” by Matt Driscoll, for The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington
- “A State of Captivity: Immigrants Detained Repeatedly for Old Crimes” by Anjali Enjeti, for Guernica Magazine
- “Trump Is Pushing Vietnam to Accept Deportees Who Have Lived in the US for Over 20 years” by Dara Lind, for Vox
- “Trump Moves to Deport Vietnam War Refugees” by Charles Dunst and Krishnadev Calamur, for The Atlantic
- “The U.S. Ambassador Who Crossed Trump on Immigration” by Mike Ives, for the New York Times
Shout Outs
John Woo and Kerry Donahue voiced the English translations of Thanh’s parents. Thanks to Julia Preston and Willoughby Mariano for their advice on reporting this story.
Credits
Produced by Thanh Tan and James Boo
Edited by Julia Shu and Cheryl Devall
Production support by Austin Jenkins, Jamala Henderson, Kevin Rinker, and Merk Nguyen
Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly
Theme music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.
Three intimate conversations reveal how we deal with changes to our most deeply rooted identities, and how we tell the people who matter most.
“Unspoken”
Documentary filmmaker Patrick G. Lee tells Cathy about the unexpected ways that coming out affected his family.
“The Debut”
Producer Preeti Varathan and her cousin Srinidhi unpack complicated feelings about their larger-than-life, coming-of-age musical performances.
“Buzz Cut”
Old college friends L and Sindhu reunite to talk about why they decided to cut off their hair.
We need your help!
Please take this 1-minute survey, so we can have better conversations with partners and sponsors and keep this show growing. It’s fast, easy, and anonymous.
Resources and Recommended Reading
- To learn more about Patrick G. Lee’s documentary, “Unspoken,” follow the film on Facebook.
- Self Evident and Patrick will screen the film exclusively for our listeners in August, so if you want to see it online, subscribe to our mailing list. If you’re in New York on July 31, you can catch the big screen debut at the Asian American International Film Festival.
- There’s more at the intersection of LGBTQIA and Asian American identity than coming out, but our friends at Mochi Mag recently put together this sweet collection of coming-out stories from Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Singaporean Americans to celebrate Pride.
- And one of our favorite podcasts, Nancy, has lots of awesome stories and episodes about being queer and Asian American — including this favorite, about co-host Kathy Tu’s visit with family to Taiwan.
- To hear Preeti’s violin performance from this episode, check out this video of her last concert.
- For more about arangetrams, their history, and discussions about class and gender, Preeti recommends this primer from The Hindu and this deep look at T.M. Krishan, whose writing explores how to “de-Brahmanize” carnatic music.
- For more work from Pavana Reddy (the poet who Srinidhi collaborated with onstage), visit pavanareddy.com.
- You can check out L's writing and comics here.
Shout Outs
Thanks to Sindhu Gnanasambandan for the conversation with L, and all the members of our community panel who gave us feedback on these stories.
Credits
Produced by Julia Shu, Preeti Varathan, and Alex Laughlin
Edited by Cheryl Devall
Production support by James Boo
Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly
Theme music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Sound effects by Soundsnap
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.
Gabe's always felt distant from his parents: not Filipino enough for his dad, not affectionate enough for his mom. But when he moves back to his white-bread hometown to donate a kidney to his dad and work alongside him at the “Fiesta in America,” Gabe is forced to rethink the way he's seen his family, his heritage, and his lifelong struggle to belong.
Share your story and keep the conversation going!
What food or dish reminds you of home? Let us know by writing, or sharing a photo, or even a recipe on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@selfevidentshow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident). Cathy and Gabe will kick it off, so watch out for their recipes and memories online!
Resources and Recommend Reading
The 21st annual Fiesta in America will take place on August 10-11, 2019 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ.
Here's some food for the soul, straight from our team:
- 🎥Gabe shopping for lumpia ingredients
- 🎥Gabe making his mom’s lumpia recipe
- Manansala Family Lumpia Recipe
- Cathy’s Potsticker Recipe
And a few articles examining the unique challenges of talking about mental health and accessing mental health resources from an Asian American perspective:
- “Don’t Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health,” a diverse collection of essays, lists, comics, and illustrations exploring the meaning and lived experience of mental illness and mental health today
- “Overcoming Challenges to Mental Health Services for Asian New Yorkers,” a local study on lack of access to mental health services and cultural competence within those services, released in 2017 by the Asian American Federation
- “We’re Fine: What’s Stopping Asian American Millennials From Talking About Mental Health” by Kimberly Truong, for Refinery29
Shout Outs
This story began when Gabe wrote to us to share his deeply personal story and his determination to find meaning in it. Thanks to Gabe, his family, and his friends for allowing us to record these important conversations.
This episode was made possible by the generous support of Cheny Milholand and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers.
Credits
Produced by James Boo and Gabriel Mara
Edited by Cheryl Devall and Julia Shu
Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li
Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly
Theme music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Sound effects by Soundsnap
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
About CAAM
CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.
Sharmin Hossain, a member of New York’s Bangladeshi Feminist Collective, helps us take a hard look at the roles of class, colorism, and cultural education within the broader conversation about Asian representation in America.
This interview was one of many conversations we had when producing Episode 002: “The Non-United States of Asian America.”
To hear more about the impact of caste on South Asian Americans, check out friend of the show Sonia Paul's Code Switch piece, "When Caste Discrimination Comes to the United States."
Do you have a story about going to language classes, Saturday schools, religious community groups, clubs, music lessons, or other alternative classrooms where you learned about your culture or heritage? Was it a positive, negative, or mixed experience for you?
We're producing an episode of the podcast exploring the ways that we learn where we come from — for better or for worse. And we want this episode to be based in the experiences of you, our listeners.
So please share your story with us:
- Record a voice memo on your phone. Please keep it to three minutes or less. It doesn’t have to be perfect!
- Email your voice memo to community@selfevidentshow.com. Include your name, location, and age in the email.
We’re looking for a wide variety of stories and memories, including from people of South Asian, Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Pacific Islander descent; mixed-race folx; adoptees; kids; parents; grandparents; and people who speak a language other than English.
Got an idea for a person or community organization we should talk to about this episode? Please share this bonus episode with them, or email us at community@selfevidentshow.com.
Self Evident tells Asian American stories — but that term itself, “Asian American,” can mean many different things to different people. In this episode we present three stories from our listener community to explore the ways “Asian American” reflects both representation and exclusion, empowerment and stereotyping, under the diverse umbrella of Asian American identity.
Share your story and keep the conversation going!
We want to hear from you! Do you identify as Asian American? Why or why not? Email your story to community@selfevidentshow.com, or share with us on social media @SelfEvidentShow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident.
Resources and Recommend Reading:
Key Facts about Asian Americans research from the Pew Research Center
“Who Is Vincent Chin? The History and Relevance of a 1982 Killing” by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang from NBC Asian America
Census Suppression podcast episode of “In the Thick,” with Hansi Lo Wang from NPR and Dorian Warren from the Center for Community Change, for more discussion about the upcoming Census
The Asian American Movement, a history book recommended by Marissiko Wheaton
Activist Amy Uyematsu Proclaims the Emergence of “Yellow Power,” a 1969 article recommended by Marissiko Wheaton
Shout Outs:
In addition to the nearly 100 community members who shared their perspectives with us for this episode, we want to give a special shout out to everyone who sent in voice memos and had conversations with us about how they felt about the term “Asian American”: Akira Olivia Kumamoto, Alana Mohamed, Andrew Hsieh, Julia Arciga, Kelly Chan, Maha Chaudhry, Marissiko Wheaton, Mia Warren, Nicole Go, Sharmin Hossain, and Veasna Has.
This episode was made possible by the generous support of Noah Berland and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers.
Credits:
Produced by Julia Shu and Cathy Erway
Edited by Cheryl Devall and Julia Shu
Tape syncs by Mona Yeh and Shana Daloria
Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li
Editorial support from Davey Kim, Alex Laughlin, Managing Producer James Boo, and Executive Producer Ken Ikeda
Sound Engineering by Timothy Lou Ly
Theme Music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP.
About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.
What does it mean to be excluded from the American Dream? Two stories, set 100 years apart, explore this question from the perspective of immigrants who think they’ve made it in America, only to find out that their dream comes at a cost.
"No Place Like Home"
At the height of America’s Exclusion era, an Indian immigrant’s quest for prosperity ends in a tragic realization that being a “good immigrant” isn’t enough to escape the realities of racism.
"Non-White Picket Fences"
A fight over a homeless shelter in one of America’s most Asian cities reveals the choices that Americans face in seeking suburban paradise.
Share your story and keep the conversation going!
Do you have a story about feeling excluded from the “American Dream”? Where or when in your life have you felt most like you belonged?
Email your story to community@selfevidentshow.com or share with us on social media @SelfEvidentShow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident.
Resources and Recommended Reading:
Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255
The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress and prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.
History of Angel Island Immigration Station, by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
History of “Race, Nationality, and Reality” (including more about the Supreme Court decisions that declared only white people could be U.S. citizens) at National Archives
Primary Sources chronicling the life of Vaishno Das Bagai, preserved by the South Asian American Digital Archive
The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee, published by Simon & Schuster
“Escape From Los Angeles: White Flight From Los Angeles and Its Schools, 1960-1980” by Jack Schneider, for the Journal of Urban History
“The Court Case That Forced OC to Stop Ignoring Its Homeless” by Jill Replogle, for LAist
Public Record of Irvine City Council Emergency Town Hall Meeting to discuss the proposal to place an emergency homeless shelter in the Orange County Great Park
Public Record of Orange County Board of Supervisors Meeting to discuss the proposal to place emergency homeless shelters in Huntington Beach, Irvine, and Laguna Niguel
The OC Needle Exchange Program research directory lists many sources of information regarding the public health outcomes of syringe exchanges
“In Fighting Homeless Camp, Irvine’s Asians Win, but at a Cost” by Anh Do, for the Los Angeles Times
“Asian Americans in Irvine Draw Outrage for Protesting Homeless Shelters” by Carl Samson, for NextShark
“Supervisors Defend Their Turf and Criticize Spitzer’s Homeless Warnings” by Nick Gerda, for Voice of OC
“Homelessness in Orange County: The Costs to Our Community,” a research report by UC Irvine faculty, sponsored by OC United Way and Jamboree Housing
Executive Summary of research on our national homelessness crisis done by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
"Student Housing Issues at UC Irvine," a recently released research report by Izzak Mirales at UC Irvine, based in part on data collected by the ASUCI Housing Security Commission.
"Irvine Student Housing Cost and Crowding Under Scrutiny in Report Presented at UCI" by Lilly Nguyen, for the Los Angeles Times
“Not in My Backyard: What the Shouting Down of One Homeless Housing Complex Means for Us All” by Jill Replogle for Southern California Public Radio
Shout Outs:
Erika Lee and Samip Mallick helped us connect with Rani Bagai.
Brandon Morales, Mike Carman and Molly Nichelson helped us report our story about homelessness in Irvine, California.
Anne Saini and Jill Replogle graciously consulted with our team on these stories.
We received feedback on this episode from Aileen Tieu, Aishwarya Krishnamoorthy, Akira Olivia Kumamoto, Alex Wong, Alicia Tyree, Anish Patel, Chris Lam, Emily Ewing Hays, Erica Eng, Irene Noguchi, Jen Young, Jennifer Zhan, Jon Yang, Jonathon Desimone, Kelly Chan, Kevin Do, Lynne Guey, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Marvin Yueh, Mia Warren, Rebecca Jung, Robyn Lee, and Tommy Tang.
This episode was made possible by the generous support of Stefan Mancevski and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers.
Credits:
Produced by James Boo, Cathy Erway, and Associate Producer Kathy Im
Additional reporting by Anthony Kim
Edited by James Boo and Cheryl Devall
Tape syncs by Mona Yeh and Eilis O’Neill
Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li
Editorial support from Davey Kim, Alex Laughlin, Senior Producer Julia Shu, and Executive Producer Ken Ikeda
Sound Engineering by Timothy Lou Ly
Theme Music by Dorian Love
Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
Sound effects by Soundsnap
Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community.
About CAAM:
CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.
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