Asian American History 101

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 32! Do you know who the first Asian Pacific American Olympic champions were? We didn't know, so we researched, and are here to share it with you! In this episode we talk about the lives of Duke Kahanamoku, Vicki Manalo Draves, and Sammy Lee, our first Asian Pacific American Olympic heroes.   It's amazing what each of them overcame to be able to represent the United Sta...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 31! Have you ever wondered why Vietnamese Americans seem to dominate the nail salon industry in America? Although not all Vietnamese Americans are nail technicians, there are enough to make up approximately 50% of the nail technicians in the $8 billion per year American nail industry.   It all started with the celebrity activist, Tippi Hedren, an actress known for bein...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 30!  This is an ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) encore rebroadcast of The History of Chop Suey Fonts from S03E18. It was a favorite of ours to research because it amazes us how something not created by Asian Pacific Islanders has become so closely aligned to our businesses.   We've all seen them. Typefaces that signal an ethnic establishment. For businesses, especially r...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 29!  Eastwind Books has been an institution in Berkeley as well as a pioneer for Asian American and multicultural bookstores across the country. The co-owners, Bea and Harvey Dong have been longtime activists in the Asian American community, so we were honored to get a chance to have them on as guests to talk about their lives. The work of activists like Bea and Harvey...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 28! George Helm Jr. was a Native Hawaiian musician, activist, and passionate leader. He believed in Hawaiian sovereignty and protecting the land… embodying the values of Aloha ʻāina perfectly. Known for his beautiful falsetto voice and articulate reasoning, he was a founding member of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana (the PKO or 'Ohana for short) grassroots organization t...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 27 and Happy Canada Day (if you're reading this on July 1)! In this episode, we share a conversation with Chad Soon, an educator from Vernon, British Columbia, and the author of the book The Longest Shot: How Larry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey . The book is written for middle grade students… which is a great age for getting started reading diverse stories… and it's...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 26! Is there a more universal convenience food eaten across the world than instant ramen? We're not sure, but instant ramen has to be pretty high up as the most popular convenience food, and it's not just for college students and people looking for a cheap, fast meal. In this episode, we share the history of instant ramen, popularized through Momofuku Ando and his comp...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 25! Sometimes making space for diverse voices isn't about the realms of music, theater, TV, movies, or fictional literature… it's about hearing diverse voices in research and academia. We definitely encourage that… so it's with excitement that we could bring on Dr. Kelly Fong to our show. She's an author, community historian, and archaeologist who studies artifacts and...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 24! In this episode, we share a conversation with Sarah Myer, the Eisner Award nominated author and illustrator of the graphic memoir Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story , published by First Second Books . Other than the Eisner Awards, their work with Monstrous has gained attention with an L.A. Times Book Prize nomination and multiple starred reviews and recognitio...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 23! Today we're talking to Steven Wu, the Organizing and Policy Director at Woori Juntos . We're big believers in intersectionality and allyship, and so are they! The name Woori Juntos , combines two words in Korean and Spanish, that when combined mean "to rise together." On their website, they say the name "reflects the location of our organization in an area of Houst...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 22! We love learning. One area that is ever changing, that we want to learn more about is the world of language… specifically the context which impacts the language choices we make for communication. That's why we were so excited to invite award-winning author and editor Karen Yin to our show. Karen's latest book is The Conscious Style Guide: A Flexible Approach to Lan...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 21! It's time for the  2024 STAATUS Index published by The Asian American Foundation ( TAAF ) with partnership from Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change ( LAAUNCH ), AAPI Data , and the Asian American Research Initiative . This annual survey is a social tracking and national assessment of attitudes and stereotypes towards Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and P...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 20! There are plenty of things we love… and for sure one of them is the world of film and entertainment… especially when it's Asian American cinema. But what happens when what you see represented in Hollywood becomes blurred with the actual experience in an ethnic enclave… or even drives it? Our conversation today dives a bit into that. We're excited to share this conv...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 19! Back in S03E03 , we talked about one of the first popular Asian American singing groups, the Kim Loo Sisters, but there was also another group a few years later that made a longer lasting impact… the Kim Sisters. Originally from South Korea, the trio of ladies that included Sook-ja, Ai-ja, and Min-ja, were a dynamic vocal group that could also play a multitude of i...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 18!  Free Comic Book Day is coming soon… not to mention Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so as a lead-up to this confluence, we had a conversation with the Ringo Award-winning illustrator and comic artist, Christie Shinn of HoraTora Studios . If you're in Southern California on May 4th and 5th, you can meet Christie, other API creators, a...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 17! This is the next installment in our series on ethnic enclaves that have disappeared. Today we're here to talk about The History of the Hawaiian Settlement of Iosepa, Utah. It was predominantly Hawaiian, but there were others from the Pacific Islands as well. Established in 1889 in Skull Valley, Utah, it was a place where Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders were a...

Editors Note: We had an audio glitch in the original upload and have fixed it.  Welcome to Season 4, Episode 16! This episode is about The History of the Buddhist Churches of America. Buddhism is one of the religions often associated with Asian countries and the people who come from Asian Pacific nations. And it's for good reason, because it's a religion that originates from those countries. When...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 15! Today's guest is Kelisha Menon, the Public Relations and Partnerships Lead at  Send Chinatown Love , the incredible organization that formed during the height of the pandemic when New York's Chinatown businesses and the people who lived there were suffering the most. Already busy with a career in public relations, Kelisha is just one of many volunteers who have gro...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 14! Today's special guest is the talented and engaging actor Chen Tang. Born in Japan and raised in Guangxi, China as well as Memphis, Tennessee, Chen is best known for playing Hong in Warrior and Yao in the live action Mulan. Much like the character of Hong, Chen is an upbeat individual who is generous and multi-talented, and that comes through clearly in our conversa...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 13! Today's guest is Dr. Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn , an author, educator, speaker, and professional learning facilitator. Born in Bangkok, Thailand into a mixed-race Malaysian Chinese and white American family, she's a classic "third culture kid." She's had a very diverse upbringing, living in various East and Southeast Asian countries as well as the Washington DC area....

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 12! It's Another Conversation with Award-Winning Author and Illustrator Grace Lin. It's not hyperbole to say that Grace Lin is one of our favorite authors of all time… maybe that's why we love any opportunity to talk with her, and it's a great time for her return. We're still enjoying Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods , and her fi...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 11. Today's guest is Dr.  Michael Soon Lee , a fifth-generation Chinese American. He overcame prejudice, systemic discrimination, and depression to become a TV and film producer, an actor, a top-producing real estate broker, and the Dean of a university business school. HeI was the first Asian to earn the "Certified Speaking Professional" (CSP) designation in the histo...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 10!  Today we're talking about Bangladeshi Americans, a separate group of the South Asian diaspora (Desi community) that's a growing presence in the U.S. We go back to Bangladesh and talk about the importance of the area to the rest of India and the British Empire. Knowing the history of Bangladesh is essential to understand some of the struggles the Bangladeshi commun...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 9. We had a lot of fun talking to  Dr. Xenia Deviatkina-Loh about her life, her career, and her work with the Asian Classical Music Initiative . Dr. Deviatkina-Loh performs on violin and viola, and she is also a pedagogue, sharing her knowledge in various settings across the world. She's the president of the 2024 ACMI @ MSMU conference at Mount Saint Mary's University...

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 8! Today's conversation is with Amy Chu , a co-founder and former editor of A. Magazine, screenwriter, co-founder of Alpha Girl Comics , and well-known comic book author. Her latest title is Fighting to Belong! Volume 1 (out now, so go get it), which is a graphic novel focused on the history and contributions of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders in...