October is Filipinx-American Heritage Month.

According to Wikipedia, Filipino-American Heritage Month, has been celebrated since 1988.

If it has been around nearly 3 decades, then why don't many people-API-identified or otherwise-- seem to know about it or acknowledge it?

This month we're centering Filipinx voices in a live conversation around Filipinx-American identity. Does Filipino-American Heritage Month matter to Filipinos? What, if anything, are folks under the broad API umbrella doing to stand up for and center these communities in the Pacific Northwest?

Featuring archived audio from whitenoise project discussion panel at the East Portland Arts and Literature Festival (EPALF), plus a live conversation featuring Jake Vermaas of the Whitenoise project in conversation with Maryanna Hollomon and Angelica Lim of GABRIELA Portland.

Portland can be a stressful place to live for people of color. POC who have moved here are often met with a feeling of being unwelcomed that stems from our state's historically racist founding. Writer Zahir Janmohamed's recent piece in the Portland Mercury talks about his experience of living in Portland and why he decided to leave.

Portland artist Alex Chiu joins us to talk about his recent work and what inspires his latest style.

Continuing our conversation with activists, we talk to Jacob Bureros of Direct Action Alliance. He has a fascinating upbringing that inspired him to do the work he's doing today. He believes in getting to know your neighbors and talking to the people that live on your block to know what directly affects peoples' lives.

We talk with labor organizer and activist D Pei Wu. How did they get involved? How do they stay motivated? How does their API identity help motivate or influence their work? Listen and find out!

Our planned guest wasn't able to make it in today, so we talked about our complex feelings about the 4th of July. Plus, we talk about Hawaii Five-0 and the two prominent API cast members leaving the show and other pop culture topics!

We spoke to Portland actor, poet, and spoken word artist Ken Yoshikawa about his work and how he explores his identity through his art. Also, an update on The Slants Supreme Court Case!

"It still feels weird checking off the box 'Asian Pacific Islander' on....anything....because it seems clear to me that what they want to know is if I'm East Asian."

Portland-based activist Amina speaks about her relationship to Muslim, South-Asian, and Asian-American identities, and the general lack of education/awareness that characterizes her experience negotiating PNW Whiteness.

May is Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month so we've decided to have another awkward episode about it. Last year, the crew of Pacific Underground found themselves in the not so comfortable position of being live on air while realizing that most of us didn't care to celebrate a month that was create to honor us. For some reason, we didn't really address it much, we just had a weirdly awkward show. So this year, we're tackling it head on. Bring on the awkwardness and much needed discussion about why having our own month is a good/bad/good thing. We're also featuring a live in-studio interview with Alex and Mazzy, stars of the YouTube cooking show, The Mazzy Show. They talk about what it's like to go viral and what their show means for API representation.

Music by @CHOPSmusic

In a time where discussions around activism has taken over the social media scene, the topic of oppression olympics has become a relevant one. Although not a new idea, the pitting of marginalized groups against one another has been a tool of oppression used in our country since its founding. Activist and writer Scot Nakagawa of ChangeLab joined us live in studio to talk about the effect of oppression olympics on identity politics and cultural change. We'll also be featuring an interview with Hari Kunzru, author of the book, "White Tears." This dark tale of fiction explores the pathology of whiteness...need we say more?

Theme music by @chopsmusic