Self Evident Presents: "Carol & The Los Angeles Uprising, Pt 1" (by Inheriting)
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
Carol Kwang Park was 12 years old, working as a cashier at her family’s gas station in Compton, California, when the 1992 LA Uprising forever changed her life. Her mom was at the gas station that day and Carol was unsure if she’d even make it home. At the time, she didn’t understand why tensions came to a head in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. She also never understood why her mother insisted on keeping the business going, especially after the Uprising. As an adult, a personal crisis prompts Carol to finally start processing that event...
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Self Evident Presents: “Live! Making Before Me With Lisa Phu” (by The Vietnamese Boat People podcast)
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
Our friend Tracey Nguyen Mang, host of the Vietnamese Boat People Podcast, goes behind the scenes with Lisa Phu in this conversation — about how to document the lives of our parents, when that process can feel overwhelming. This episode, recorded live online, is the Season 6 Premiere of The Vietnamese Boat People, a podcast and nonprofit project that preserves the story of the Vietnamese diaspora community — and provides spaces where people can share their experiences. This latest season of their podcast follows the theme, “Ba, Mẹ ơi” (which roughly translates to "Dear Dad and...
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Self Evident Presents: “How to Wash Your Brain” (by Boen Wang and Feet in 2 Worlds)
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
Boen’s mom thinks he’s brainwashed by the New York Times. Boen thinks his mom is brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party. But when Boen starts listening more deeply to his mom’s stories of growing up in China and then immigrating to the U.S., he spots the signs of his own political conditioning — and unravels the threads of Chinese and American history that led to the very fabrication of “brainwashing” as a concept. This story comes from our friends at originally airing on their podcast, ? — and was written and produced by Boen Wang. Full transcript, credits,...
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Self Evident Presents: "Exploring Ancestral Grief" (by Grief, Collected)
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
America! The land of opportunity! And also, for so many, the ambiguous loss of immigration and uprooting a life and a history comes with a complex web of emotions. In this episode of Grief, Collected by The Mash-Up Americans, hosts Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer speak with trauma therapist and educator Linda Thai — about ancestral grief, and how unmetabolized grief, particularly in "Mash-Up" families, is passed down through generations. We dive into how important understanding historical context is for grief and healing, and ask: What happens to a family structure if we don’t grieve? on...
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Self Evident Presents: "Arrival" (by VPM's Resettled)
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
The LahPai family’s arrival to Virginia from Myanmar was highly anticipated: the local resettlement agency prepped their home; the local religious community was ready to provide support; the family’s U.S connection lived just minutes down the street. Even with these support systems, resettlement was (and still is) not a straightforward, clean-cut process. Why is that? In this debut episode from Resettled — a series by Virginia Public Media about the real experiences of refugees after they arrive to the U.S. — you'll meet the people helping the LahPais during their early days of...
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Self Evident Presents: "Before They Were Your Parents" (by Immigrantly)
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
Today, we're sharing some work by our friends at Immigrantly, a weekly podcast that features deeply personal conversations about race, identity, and the immigrant experience. This episode features a conversation between host Saadia Khan and reporter Neda Toloui-Semnani, who wrote a book called THEY SAID THEY WANTED REVOLUTION: A Memoir of My Parents. To finish that book, Neda went through a whole journey to learn about the life her parents lived before she was born, understand why they moved from the U.S. to Iran to join the revolution taking place there in 1979, and unpack what kind of legacy...
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Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
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Before Me, Part 5: Birthday Card
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
Just before I gave birth to my daughter Acacia, I turned 36. And on my birthday my mom sent me a birthday card that was full of heartfelt words — more than she’d ever written to me before. On the last night of her visit to help me take care of Acacia, as she read the card aloud, I realized how I was — and still am — a part of the lives that came before me. .
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Before Me, Part 4: Head of the House
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
At the moment my mom steps onto a small fishing boat off the coast of Cambodia, headed for a refugee camp in Thailand under cover of night, she becomes the head of our family. It takes her less than a year to make it safely to her new home in New York, give birth to me, and learn how to be a single parent in the U.S. But it will end up taking her decades to process what she’s overcome, what she’s become, and what she’s left behind on the beaches of Cambodia.
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Before Me, Part 3: Beautiful Country
Self Evident: Asian America's Stories
Reunited with my cousin Lynn, my mom becomes a gold dealer to support her growing family — and realizes that the charmed childhood she had in Cambodia is nowhere to be found for her own kids. She recounts the joyful memories that helped her hold on for more than five years as a refugee in Vietnam, before making the decision to leave both countries for good. .
info_outlineAmidst 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.
Resources
- 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
Credits
- 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
About
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.