Self Evident: Asian America's Stories

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.

• "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.

• 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

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

• 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.

• 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

• 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

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.

• 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

• 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

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.

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.

• 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

• 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!

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.

• 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