Asian Americana

Featured story from “Mid Pacific” podcast:

For Chinatowns, Japantowns, K-Towns, and other Asian-American communities in the United States, the only constant these days is change. But our need for cultural connection remains the same. Take a tour with Mid Pacific host Sarah Mizes-Tan to see what these spaces mean today.

Learn more about Mid Pacific on their website.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we’re bringing you an episode from Books & Boba, one of our fellow podcasts from the Potluck Podcast Collective.

Books & Boba is a book club podcast featuring books by Asian and Asian American authors. In addition to discussing books from a wide range of genres, they also bring you interviews with Asian authors and monthly book news updates. 

You can learn more about Books & Boba and our other Potluck Podcasts by going to podcastpotluck.com.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we’re bringing you an episode from Asians in Baseball, one of our fellow podcasts from the Potluck Podcast Collective.

Each week, hosts Naomi Ko, Scott Okamoto, and Kim Cooper break down what’s notable with the Asian players in the MLB and then take a deeper dive into the Asians and Asian Americans who have shaped baseball as it is today.

You can learn more about Asians in Baseball and all our other Potluck Podcasts by going to podcastpotluck.com.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

Featured story from “A Better Life?” podcast:

In Los Angeles Chinatown, local shops and restaurants eagerly welcome back customers as they return to business after the height of the pandemic shutdown. But the neighborhood’s rebound from Covid has been uneven. The pandemic has shone a light on the divide separating the successful and the struggling, as well as concerns about the varied nature of anti-Asian violence.

Producer Quincy Surasmith explores the starkly different visions for the future of L.A. Chinatown and the organizations promoting these competing ideas. 

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

Read the full story and see other episodes at A Better Life?

Mohammed Ahsanul and his wife Tropa on their trip across the U.S. Photo courtesy of Mohammed Ahsanul.

Featured story from “A Better Life?” podcast:

Mohammed Ahsanul is an international student at the University of Wyoming. Once he finishes his Ph.D., he expects to return home to Dhaka, Bangladesh—but not before his family reunites with him for the first time since the pandemic began. 

Producer Naina Rao joins Mohammed and his family for a trip to see America as she examines the ways a better life in the U.S. doesn’t always mean a permanent stay.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

Read the full story and see other episodes at A Better Life?

Learn more about Naina’s work on her website.

You can find out more about Feet in 2 Worlds and apply to their Editing Fellowship at their website fi2w.org.

Jasmine Jiwani lays roses at her the grave of her husband Asif Parbatani in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Photo by Zulekha Nathoo.

Today we’re featuring a story from the “A Better Life?” podcast:

Jasmine Jiwani is part of Atlanta’s large Ismaili Muslim community. Covid restrictions prevented the community from gathering for the funeral of her husband, who died of Covid-19. Producer Zulekha Nathoo reports on how the pandemic has created unique challenges for Jiwani and other Ismaili Muslims.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

Read the full story and see other episodes at A Better Life?

Learn more about Zulekha’s work on her website.

You can find out more about Feet in 2 Worlds and apply to their Editing Fellowship at their website fi2w.org.

Photo courtesy Timothy Singratsomboune

Timothy Singratsomboune had a complicated relationship to country music. How did his own experiences bring him away from and eventually back to the genre? And how does country music connect Tim to both Lao culture and the Lao communities he grew up around?

In this episode, we explore the connections between Asian Americans, country music, and rural life.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

You can find more about Timothy on his website, singhasonh.com.

Music from this episode included:

Idle Hours ft. BJ Cole - The Road
Good Luck Ola - I’m On Your Side
Nathan Ramos-Park - Gay Asian Country Love Song
Tai Orathai - วันที่บ่มีอ้าย (Wan Thii Bo Mii Ai)
Ko Viseth - Tai Dam Lam Phan
BettySoo - Who Knows; Next Big Thing

Host and Producer Quincy Surasmith

Five years ago in Spring of 2016, we launched Asian Americana. For our fifth anniversary, we take a moment to revisit all of the stories we’ve done from our first episode through the end of 2020. What happened after we stopped recording? What are those people doing now? Listen and find out.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

If you want to go back to listen to these episodes (again or for the first time), you can find them linked below or on our episodes page.

The Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour is starting up again! You can learn more and register on their website.

Here’s the video of the Kala Bagai Way ribbon cutting ceremony from SAADA:

You can find more about Julianne Sato-Parker on her website.

You can find all the letters, translations, and resources on the Letters for Black Lives site.

Here’s the video that we referenced being shown at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

You can read the tragic news about Kouraku’s owner on Rafu Shimpo’s “Kouraku’s Hiroshi Yamauchi, 67, Passes Away”

You can learn more about CCED and SEACA LA’s mutual aid efforts before they continued their work separately in this Facebook post.

Learn more about Christina Ong and her work on her website.

Desmond Chiam with the Captain America shield on the set of Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Photo from his Twitter.

Image from article: San Antonio native Saagar Shaikh lands acting role in upcoming Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (San Antonio Current)

Here’s some pictures of Desmond and Saagar with their facial hair on display, now both part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Dawn Mabalon in the mural at Arkipelago bookstore in San Francisco. Image from Heroes In Our Windows: Looking at the Making of a Mural in the South of Market (SOMCAN)

The piece “1965-1970: Filipino Farmworkers lead the Delano Grape Strike” in Time’s “11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know” was credited to “Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Associate Professor, History, San Francisco State University; Gayle Romasanta, Founder and Writer, Bridge and Delta Publishing; Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Professor, Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University”

ABC 10 in Stockton covered Dawn’s work in their story “A look into the rich history of Filipino Americans in Stockton and Little Manila.”

Keep an eye out for future books, including one on Dawn, from Bridge + Delta Publishing.

Here’s the trailer to Sue Ding’s Claudia Kishi Club. You can learn more about Sue on her website.

You can listen to all of Long Distance’s current two season and keep an eye out for their upcoming stories on the Long Distance website.

This Filipino American Life continues to run and can be found on their website.

Learn more about Cambodian Rock Band’s run at Oregon Shakespeare Festival on the OSF website, and see the trailer for the Signature Theatre run in New York:

And Playbill confirmed: “Post-Pandemic, Cambodian Rock Band's Tour is Ready to Storm the Stage”

Kristie Hang’s reporting on rumors of a boba shortage can be found in the Eater LA piece, “Los Angeles Is Safe From the Boba Apocalypse.” Her other work can be found on her website.

Learn more about Locke’s Oral History Project on their website: The Locke Foundation Oral History Project

You can learn more about Food Roots at foodroots.co.

Giant Robot continues on strong, and Eric still runs their gallery in Sawtelle, Los Angeles, and online projects at Giant Robot’s website.

And finally, you can learn more about The Linda Lindas on their website and get their music from their Bandcamp.

Here’s their show with the LA Public Library that drew everyone’s attention:

The Covid-19 pandemic has been in the United States for over a year, but the way we each think about it is shaped heavily by how it does or doesn’t directly affect us individually. For some people, they’ve become all too familiar with the impact of the coronavirus. Contributor Denise Chan shares her family’s experience with Covid-19 from her podcast, Until it Happened to Us, which originally ran in December of 2020.

Shin Ramyun with cheese. Photo credit: Quincy Surasmith

This is the second part of our comfort food episode. In the previous episode, we focused on the ways food traditions get passed down through families, communities, and cookbooks, and the way they adapt over time. Today, we look at how simple foods, convenience foods, and even fast food restaurants can become part of our cherished memories and culture.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

indo mie, indo you zine by Amy Wibowo. Art from BubbleSort

Learn more Amy Wibowo’s work at BubbleSort! Her zine, indo mie, indo you can be found on her site.

Art by Shing Yin Khor for Catapult

Read Noah Cho’s piece I’ll Fight Anyone Who Says You Shouldn’t Put Cheese on Your Ramyun on his column at Catapult.

And the Roy Choi recipe Noah referenced in the episode can be found on The New York Times.

Art from Foodbeast

You can read Virali Dave’s piece Why Do Indian Americans Love Taco Bell? on Foodbeast.

what's your cultural background, and what is the pinnacle of comfort food for you?

Check out Soleil Ho’s twitter thread on comfort food to see all the responses she got. You can find Soleil Ho’s current writing on The San Francisco Chronicle.

Music from this episode included:

Alice Tong - Home to Me
The Blazing Rays of the Sun - Closer. You can find the artists’ current music with the band Fevertalk.
Das Racist - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
Chris Iijima, Nobuko Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin - Imperialism is Just Another Word For Hunger