Featured story from “A Better Life?” podcast:

In Los Angeles Chinatown, local shops and restaurants eagerly welcome back customers as they return to business after the height of the pandemic shutdown. But the neighborhood’s rebound from Covid has been uneven. The pandemic has shone a light on the divide separating the successful and the struggling, as well as concerns about the varied nature of anti-Asian violence.

Producer Quincy Surasmith explores the starkly different visions for the future of L.A. Chinatown and the organizations promoting these competing ideas. 

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Read the full story and see other episodes at A Better Life?

Mohammed Ahsanul and his wife Tropa on their trip across the U.S. Photo courtesy of Mohammed Ahsanul.

Featured story from “A Better Life?” podcast:

Mohammed Ahsanul is an international student at the University of Wyoming. Once he finishes his Ph.D., he expects to return home to Dhaka, Bangladesh—but not before his family reunites with him for the first time since the pandemic began. 

Producer Naina Rao joins Mohammed and his family for a trip to see America as she examines the ways a better life in the U.S. doesn’t always mean a permanent stay.

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Learn more about Naina’s work on her website.

You can find out more about Feet in 2 Worlds and apply to their Editing Fellowship at their website fi2w.org.

Jasmine Jiwani lays roses at her the grave of her husband Asif Parbatani in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Photo by Zulekha Nathoo.

Today we’re featuring a story from the “A Better Life?” podcast:

Jasmine Jiwani is part of Atlanta’s large Ismaili Muslim community. Covid restrictions prevented the community from gathering for the funeral of her husband, who died of Covid-19. Producer Zulekha Nathoo reports on how the pandemic has created unique challenges for Jiwani and other Ismaili Muslims.

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Read the full story and see other episodes at A Better Life?

Learn more about Zulekha’s work on her website.

You can find out more about Feet in 2 Worlds and apply to their Editing Fellowship at their website fi2w.org.

Photo courtesy Timothy Singratsomboune

Timothy Singratsomboune had a complicated relationship to country music. How did his own experiences bring him away from and eventually back to the genre? And how does country music connect Tim to both Lao culture and the Lao communities he grew up around?

In this episode, we explore the connections between Asian Americans, country music, and rural life.

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You can find more about Timothy on his website, singhasonh.com.

Music from this episode included:

Idle Hours ft. BJ Cole - The RoadGood Luck Ola - I’m On Your SideNathan Ramos-Park - Gay Asian Country Love SongTai Orathai - วันที่บ่มีอ้าย (Wan Thii Bo Mii Ai)Ko Viseth - Tai Dam Lam PhanBettySoo - Who Knows; Next Big Thing

Host and Producer Quincy Surasmith

Five years ago in Spring of 2016, we launched Asian Americana. For our fifth anniversary, we take a moment to revisit all of the stories we’ve done from our first episode through the end of 2020. What happened after we stopped recording? What are those people doing now? Listen and find out.

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If you want to go back to listen to these episodes (again or for the first time), you can find them linked below or on our episodes page.

Episode 14: Kala Bagai

The Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour is starting up again! You can learn more and register on their website.

Here’s the video of the Kala Bagai Way ribbon cutting ceremony from SAADA:

Episode 13: That's Just The Way The Ball Bounces

You can find more about Julianne Sato-Parker on her website.

Episode 12: Letters for Black Lives

You can find all the letters, translations, and resources on the Letters for Black Lives site.

Here’s the video that we referenced being shown at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Episode 11: Helpers in the Time of Coronavirus

You can read the tragic news about Kouraku’s owner on Rafu Shimpo’s “Kouraku’s Hiroshi Yamauchi, 67, Passes Away”

You can learn more about CCED and SEACA LA’s mutual aid efforts before they continued their work separately in this Facebook post.

Episode 10: What We Inherit: Marie Kondo and the Security of Stuff

Learn more about Christina Ong and her work going.com">on her website.

Episode 9: Facial Hair

Desmond Chiam with the Captain America shield on the set of Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Photo from his Twitter.

Image from article: San Antonio native Saagar Shaikh lands acting role in upcoming Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (San Antonio Current)

Here’s some pictures of Desmond and Saagar with their facial hair on display, now both part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Episode 8: Dawn Mabalon is in the Heart

Dawn Mabalon in the mural at Arkipelago bookstore in San Francisco. Image from Heroes In Our Windows: Looking at the Making of a Mural in the South of Market (SOMCAN)

The piece “1965-1970: Filipino Farmworkers lead the Delano Grape Strike” in Time’s “11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know” was credited to “Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Associate Professor, History, San Francisco State University; Gayle Romasanta, Founder and Writer, Bridge and Delta Publishing; Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Professor, Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University”

ABC 10 in Stockton covered Dawn’s work in their story “A look into the rich history of Filipino Americans in Stockton and Little Manila.”

Keep an eye out for future books, including one on Dawn, from Bridge + Delta Publishing.

Episode 7: Claudia Kishi

Here’s the trailer to Sue Ding’s Claudia Kishi Club. You can learn more about Sue on ding.com">her website.

Episode 6: Filipino American Podcasts

You can listen to all of Long Distance’s current two season and keep an eye out for their upcoming stories on the Long Distance website.

This Filipino American Life continues to run and can be found on their website.

Episode 5: Cambodian Rock Band

Learn more about Cambodian Rock Band’s run at Oregon Shakespeare Festival on rock-band.aspx">the OSF website, and see the trailer for the Signature Theatre run in New York:

And Playbill confirmed: “Post-Pandemic, Cambodian Rock Band's Tour is Ready to Storm the Stage”

Episode 4: Boba/Bubble Tea

Kristie Hang’s reporting on rumors of a boba shortage can be found in the Eater LA piece, “Los Angeles Is Safe From the Boba Apocalypse.” Her other work can be found on her website.

Episode 3: Sacramento Delta

Learn more about Locke’s Oral History Project on their website: foundation.org/oral-history/">The Locke Foundation Oral History Project

Episode 2: Roots CSA

You can learn more about Food Roots at foodroots.co.

Episode 1: Giant Robot

Giant Robot continues on strong, and Eric still runs their gallery in Sawtelle, Los Angeles, and online projects at Giant Robot’s website.

And finally, you can learn more about The Linda Lindas on their website and get their music from their Bandcamp.

Here’s their show with the LA Public Library that drew everyone’s attention:

The Covid-19 pandemic has been in the United States for over a year, but the way we each think about it is shaped heavily by how it does or doesn’t directly affect us individually. For some people, they’ve become all too familiar with the impact of the coronavirus. Contributor Denise Chan shares her family’s experience with Covid-19 from her podcast, Until it Happened to Us, which originally ran in December of 2020.

Shin Ramyun with cheese. Photo credit: Quincy Surasmith

This is the second part of our comfort food episode. In the previous episode, we focused on the ways food traditions get passed down through families, communities, and cookbooks, and the way they adapt over time. Today, we look at how simple foods, convenience foods, and even fast food restaurants can become part of our cherished memories and culture.

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cdn.com/content/v1/56a1814557eb8dec18413bcc/1613368971766

indo mie, indo you zine by Amy Wibowo. Art from BubbleSort

Learn more Amy Wibowo’s work at BubbleSort! Her zine, indo mie, indo you can be found on her site.

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Art by Shing Yin Khor for Catapult

Read Noah Cho’s piece I’ll Fight Anyone Who Says You Shouldn’t Put Cheese on Your Ramyun on his column at Catapult.

And the Roy Choi recipe Noah referenced in the episode can be found on The New York Times.

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Art from Foodbeast

You can read Virali Dave’s piece Why Do Indian Americans Love Taco Bell? on Foodbeast.

what's your cultural background, and what is the pinnacle of comfort food for you?

— Soleil Ho (@hooleil) October 7, 2020

Check out Soleil Ho’s twitter thread on comfort food to see all the responses she got. You can find Soleil Ho’s current writing on The San Francisco Chronicle.

Music from this episode included:

Alice Tong - Home to MeThe Blazing Rays of the Sun - Closer. You can find the artists’ current music with the band Fevertalk.Das Racist - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco BellChris Iijima, Nobuko Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin - Imperialism is Just Another Word For Hunger

A plate of Thai-Chinese style pork and rice. Photo credit: Quincy Surasmith

The past several months of pandemic have been really hard on all of us, and have kept a lot of us at home. For those of us that can afford to, that means a lot of finding solace in taking care of ourselves and others with some comforting meals.

This is the first of two episodes about Asian American comfort foods: the traditions we’ve passed down in our families, as well as the adaptations and substitutions different communities have picked up along the way.

You can listen to part two here!

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I present to you: the Weiner dinner, a Migaki family staple. Invented by my grandmother when she was was raising 3 kids with no money. Cut up hot dogs, potatoes, soy sauce + sugar served over rice.Asian-American fusion at its humblest and finest. A comforting meal always. pic.twitter.com/w6YVAcMmzL

— Lauren Migaki (@lmigaki) March 17, 2020

Check out Lauren Migaki’s original tweet and picture of the Migaki family “Weiner dinner.” This was the post that set this whole episode in motion!

Learn more about Kelly Fong and Clement Lai’s community cookbook research project on their blog, Chinese American Homestyle Cooking.

The Stockton cookbook Kelly’s family owned:Treasured Recipes from Two Cultures–American and Chinese. Photo credit: Kelly Fong

Recipes.png

From VAALA’s website:

“The Illuminated Recipes project’s purpose is to contribute to diversifying the story of the Vietnamese American refugee experience and the larger American immigrant narrative through the mediums of storytelling and oral history, photography, and mixed media art with food as the compelling connection.”

VAALA’s Illuminated Recipes project can be found on the VAALA website.

Music from this episode included:

Jason Chu ft. Olivia Thai - Grandma’s KitchenDavid Tran aka applesauce - Song for MomPeter Su - Before You Get Too Old

Image of Kala Bagai used with permission, courtesy Rani Bagai

What was it like for a South Asian woman immigrating to the US in the early 20th century, and how did she build a community over her lifetime? And why name a street in Berkeley after Kala Bagai — especially since she may not have spent much time living there, if she did at all?

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Kala Bagai and her family. Photo used with permission, courtesy Rani Bagai and SAADA.

Kala Bagai and her sons. Photo used with permission, courtesy Rani Bagai and SAADA.

Learn more about Kala Bagai and her story on the South Asian American Digital Archive website. There you can also find the recording of her oral history, Vaishno Das Bagai’s letter to the San Francisco Examiner, and other archival materials, such as the newspaper clipping below.

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Clipping of Los Angeles Daily News, featuring American Wives of India organization. Photo used with permission, courtesy Rani Bagai and SAADA.

You can read Rani Bagai’s letter supporting the Kala Bagai Way campaign on Berkeleyside here: Opinion: Berkeley might name a street after Kala Bagai. This is her story

Community historians Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee have founded Berkelely South Asian Walking tour with a wonderful mission, ie to bring the South Asi...

Learn more about the Berkeley South Asian Radical History walking tour on their website.

The language and phrases passed down in our families can reflect our specific cultures, heritage, and journey. But sometimes, they’re a way to cope with something darker and can belie hidden histories. Contributor Julianne Parker explores the depth and meaning of her grandmother’s signature saying in That’s Just the Way the Ball Bounces.