While We Were Burning is a domestic thriller set in Memphis examining the intersection of race, class, and female friendship, and the devastating consequences of everyday actions. On today’s show I'm joined by Memphis native and author, Sara Koffi, to discuss her debut novel.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented on screen? An actor or actress who looked like you? For better or worse, media shapes how we think about ourselves and others and often fills in the gap when we don’t have first-hand experience with certain situations, circumstances, or groups of people. For me, as an Asian American woman growing up in the 90s, Asian Americans weren’t completely invisible but we had limited and often stereotypical roles. I wonder what it would have been like to grow up with an Asian American actress to look up to. Today we’re delving into the life of our first Asian American movie star, the opportunities she seized, the challenges she faced, and the legacy she left. I’m joined by Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong.

Currently there are over 22 million Asians across the US representing a range of ethnic groups originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Yet, oftentimes, the ways we think of Asian American history is tethered to the East and West Coasts. But Asians in America have a long history in the Deep South, a history that has garnered growing attention. Documentaries like “Far East, Deep South” and “Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South” follow the filmmakers as they explore their personal family histories. How does knowing these histories help us have a fuller and richer understanding not only of Asian Americans but also the South? And how might these histories be shaping our shared present and future? Today I sit down with Dr. Shaolu Yu, whose work examines these questions and more.

A key part of Memphis history is its role in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly with the Sanitation Workers Strike that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to Memphis and his untimely death. Like the city itself, the story of Civil Rights activism is often presented through a Black-White lens. Yet, Asians and Asian Americans have been in the South since at least the late 1700s and in Memphis since the late 1800s. How then do Asian Americans fit into the history of civil rights? And how does knowing that history then change how we think about race, rights, Asian Americans, and the South? To answer these questions and more, today I’m joined by Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz, author of A Different Shade of Justice: Asian American Civil Rights in the South. She shares some of the complexities of Asian American legal cases during the 1880s to late twentieth century and reflects on some of the cases that didn’t make it into the book but still offer important insights into civil rights.

We spend a lot of our time on the road, commuting to work, running errands, meeting up with friends and family. In fact, maybe you’ll listen to this episode while you’re on the road. For all the possibilities that roads open up for us, it’s not without a cost. To talk more about how roads impact our lives – and the lives around us – for better and for worse, today I’m joined by Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet.

Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist. He’s the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet, which the New York Times named one of the best books of 2023. His previous book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, was the winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Ben’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Science, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and The New York Times, among others.

Memphis goes by many names – Home of the Blues, BBQ Capital, and the Bluff City. The last one a reference to our location on the Bluffs of the Mighty Mississippi River. But how much do you know about the muddy waters flowing in our backyard? Today I’m joined by Boyce Upholt, author of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi. We talk about our own personal relationships to the water, some of the people and events that have shaped the river, and what the future may hold for the communities and ecosystems along its banks.

Boyce Upholt is a “nature critic” whose writing probes the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. His work has been published in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications, and was awarded the 2019 James Beard Award for investigative journalism. He is the founder of Southlands, a newsletter field guide to Southern nature.

Previous episodes mentioned:

“Boys don’t cry.” “Man up.” “Emotions are a sign of weakness.”

I love a good cup of coffee, but if I'm being honest, I never really gave much thought to where my coffee came from or the history of this delicious beverage itself. That was until I learned about Cxffeeblack, a Memphis-owned coffee company, and its associated Anti-Gentrification Coffee Club. Founded in 2019, by husband and wife team, Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson, Cxffeeblack is a community-oriented, multi-disciplinary, education-based coffee company that’s centered around reclaiming coffee’s Black roots.

Coffee originates in Ethiopia, but because of trade and colonialism, there are now coffees that we’ve come to associate with various parts of the world, like Moka from Yemen or Java from the Indonesian island of Java. Although each of those countries or regions have their own coffee histories, we lose something when we only know history in part. We become disconnected from ourselves and one another.

Today I’m excited to share a very special episode of the Cxffeeblack podcast where host Bartholomew Jones sat down with Martin Mayorga of Mayorga Coffee & Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply to discuss how they honor their roots through their coffee enterprises. As a bonus, I'm including a few snippets from previous Let's Grab Coffee episodes with Bartholomew Jones (Ep 108) and Renata Henderson (Ep 131).

Watch the award-winning "Cxffeeblack to Africa: documentary and the video episode of The Cxffeeblack Podcast on Bartholomew Jones' Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bartholomewjones5450

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a nationally recognized heritage month established in 1992 to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Asians in America. Currently there are over 22 million Asians across the US representing a range of ethnic groups originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Yet, oftentimes, the ways we think of Asian American history is tethered to the East and West Coasts. But Asians in America have a long history in the Deep South, a history that has garnered growing attention. Documentaries like “Far East, Deep South” and “Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South” follow the filmmakers as they explore their personal family histories. How does knowing these histories help us have a fuller and richer understanding not only of Asian Americans but also the South? And how might these histories be shaping our shared present and future? Today I sit down with Dr. Shaolu Yu, whose work examines these questions and more.

This year I had the honor of moderating a panel conversation at SXSW featuring Dominic Lawson, Leta McCollough Seletzky, and Chassidy Jade. You may remember Dominic from our February feature of his multi-award winning podcast, Black is America. Leta was a previous guest (Ep 97) discussing her book The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today I'm sharing our conversation with you!

Telling It Like It Is, Was, and Could Be

Whether it's uncovering hidden narratives or reinventing the familiar, this panel will inspire you to rethink how stories can captivate, challenge, and resonate in fresh and impactful ways. Join creatives representing film, podcasting, and creative writing as they delve into the techniques of narrative design that they use to push the conventional expectations of their fields, inviting audiences to find new meaning in the stories that shape our world. They’ll also explore the intentional choices and potential challenges to prepare for when offering new perspectives on well-known stories.