Self Evident: Asian America's Stories

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

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

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

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

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.