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The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.

Inheriting

"Inheriting" is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities. In each episode, NPR’s Emily Kwong sits down with one family and facilitates deeply emotional conversations between their loved ones, exploring how their most personal, private moments are an integral part of history. Through these stories, we show how the past is personal and how to live with the legacies we’re constantly inheriting.

Also, we want to stay connected! Email us at inheriting@laiststudios.com with questions, feedback, or to share your own story.

Check out our digital resource guide  with tips for interviewing your own family members, books, films and K-12 lesson plans from The Asian American Education Project to help process the historical moments covered on the show.

Episode 1

  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen
    Carol & the Los Angeles Uprising: Part 1
    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 and her place in history. 
    Content Warning: This episode contains racial slurs and discusses police brutality. 

Episode 2
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 42:35
    In part two of Carol Kwang Park's story, we follow Carol's journey to connect more deeply with her family – and introduce the family-led conversations that are central to "Inheriting." Decades after the 1992 L.A. Uprising, Carol finally learns what her mom experienced during the riots and how she made it back home. It allows for a better understanding of her mother, as well as her family's journey leading up to the Uprising – which she never had as a child. For the first time, Carol also talks to her brother, Albert Park, about what it was like to work at the gas station as kids, especially around the time of the Uprising.
    Carol & the Los Angeles Uprising: Part 2
    In part two of Carol Kwang Park's story, we follow Carol's journey to connect more deeply with her family – and introduce the family-led conversations that are central to "Inheriting." Decades after the 1992 L.A. Uprising, Carol finally learns what her mom experienced during the riots and how she made it back home. It allows for a better understanding of her mother, as well as her family's journey leading up to the Uprising – which she never had as a child. For the first time, Carol also talks to her brother, Albert Park, about what it was like to work at the gas station as kids, especially around the time of the Uprising.
Episode 3
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 41:33
    Growing up in Long Beach, California, Victoria Uce was surrounded by a loving and supportive family, while her dad, Bo, lost his parents at a young age in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Victoria only ever knew the basics of this story. Mainly, that her dad was forced to join the country's mobile youth brigade and take part in the state-sponsored violence that tore Cambodia apart. In this episode, Victoria talks to her father about how he turned away from a life of violence to live a life of compassion and gave her the kind of safety in childhood that he never had.
    Victoria & the Cambodian Genocide
    Growing up in Long Beach, California, Victoria Uce was surrounded by a loving and supportive family, while her dad, Bo, lost his parents at a young age in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Victoria only ever knew the basics of this story. Mainly, that her dad was forced to join the country's mobile youth brigade and take part in the state-sponsored violence that tore Cambodia apart. In this episode, Victoria talks to her father about how he turned away from a life of violence to live a life of compassion and gave her the kind of safety in childhood that he never had.
Episode 4
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 46:00
    Bảo Trương's parents both fled Vietnam in 1975 following the war. His father Thuận was a pilot for the South Vietnamese Air Force and left the day before the Fall of Saigon, evacuating almost 100 people to Thailand on a plane. Thuận has now been settled in the U.S. for decades, but he still writes songs mourning the Vietnam of his childhood – a country that, to him, no longer exists because it is still under a communist government. On the flip side, his son Bảo wants to live in the Vietnam of today, a yearning his father doesn't understand. In this episode, the father and son sit down for a frank conversation about the country they both long for, in different ways.
    Bảo & the Vietnam War
    Bảo Trương's parents both fled Vietnam in 1975 following the war. His father Thuận was a pilot for the South Vietnamese Air Force and left the day before the Fall of Saigon, evacuating almost 100 people to Thailand on a plane. Thuận has now been settled in the U.S. for decades, but he still writes songs mourning the Vietnam of his childhood – a country that, to him, no longer exists because it is still under a communist government. On the flip side, his son Bảo wants to live in the Vietnam of today, a yearning his father doesn't understand. In this episode, the father and son sit down for a frank conversation about the country they both long for, in different ways.
Episode 5
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 48:39
    Leah Bash is an avid runner, a dog mom, a wife – and there's a part of her family's history she can't stop thinking about. The fact that both sides of her family were incarcerated alongside 125,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. Her father and his six siblings spent more than three years behind barbed wire at isolated camps in Manzanar, California and Crystal City, Texas. After Leah learns about her father's struggles with panic attacks and is herself diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she starts to wonder: could those experiences at camp during World War II have far-reaching consequences a generation later?
    Leah & Japanese American Incarceration
    Leah Bash is an avid runner, a dog mom, a wife – and there's a part of her family's history she can't stop thinking about. The fact that both sides of her family were incarcerated alongside 125,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. Her father and his six siblings spent more than three years behind barbed wire at isolated camps in Manzanar, California and Crystal City, Texas. After Leah learns about her father's struggles with panic attacks and is herself diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she starts to wonder: could those experiences at camp during World War II have far-reaching consequences a generation later?
Episode 6
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 43:41
    Shakeel Syed has been a longtime activist within his South Asian community, fighting for the civil liberties of Muslims who were targeted by the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. But his activism had a cost. He was away from home on nights and weekends, absent from his wife, Saira Sayeed, and their four kids. Saira took on the work at home by herself, and they've never really talked about it. Now, for the first time, Shakeel and Saira open up about the roles they played after 9/11 and the future they want to build together.
    Saira, Shakeel & 9/11's Impact
    Shakeel Syed has been a longtime activist within his South Asian community, fighting for the civil liberties of Muslims who were targeted by the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. But his activism had a cost. He was away from home on nights and weekends, absent from his wife, Saira Sayeed, and their four kids. Saira took on the work at home by herself, and they've never really talked about it. Now, for the first time, Shakeel and Saira open up about the roles they played after 9/11 and the future they want to build together.
Episode 7
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 36:29
    Leialani Wihongi-Santos is CHamoru and was raised on the island of Guam with a distorted view of history. She was taught that the United States "saved" her island from occupation by Imperial Japan. As she's gotten older, Leialani has learned that framing is not entirely true. In some ways, the U.S. military took advantage of the island and the people who live there, sometimes destroying culture and customs that had survived centuries of colonization. Leialani is now determined to understand more of this history from a CHamoru perspective, so she can preserve and teach it to others. In this episode, she turns to her grandpa, Joseph Aflleje-Santos, for answers.
    Leialani & The Occupation of Guam
    Leialani Wihongi-Santos is CHamoru and was raised on the island of Guam with a distorted view of history. She was taught that the United States "saved" her island from occupation by Imperial Japan. As she's gotten older, Leialani has learned that framing is not entirely true. In some ways, the U.S. military took advantage of the island and the people who live there, sometimes destroying culture and customs that had survived centuries of colonization. Leialani is now determined to understand more of this history from a CHamoru perspective, so she can preserve and teach it to others. In this episode, she turns to her grandpa, Joseph Aflleje-Santos, for answers.
Episode 8
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 30:27
    Should the acronym "AAPI" even exist? In this special episode, we deconstruct it – tracing the 50-year history of the terms "Asian American" and "Pacific Islander" and interrogating how they are used today. Emily talks with Sefa Aina, associate dean and director of the Draper Center for Community Partnerships at Pomona College. He is also a longtime community organizer who served on President Barack Obama's White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Emily and Sefa also discuss how Pacific Islander experiences are often marginalized in so-called AAPI spaces, leading to misleading data sets, funding inequities, and erasure of history.
    What does AAPI really stand for?
    Should the acronym "AAPI" even exist? In this special episode, we deconstruct it – tracing the 50-year history of the terms "Asian American" and "Pacific Islander" and interrogating how they are used today. Emily talks with Sefa Aina, associate dean and director of the Draper Center for Community Partnerships at Pomona College. He is also a longtime community organizer who served on President Barack Obama's White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Emily and Sefa also discuss how Pacific Islander experiences are often marginalized in so-called AAPI spaces, leading to misleading data sets, funding inequities, and erasure of history.
Episode 9
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 1:57
    Nicole Salaver's uncle, Patrick Salaver, was one of the leaders of the Third World Liberation Front at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s. This movement not only led to the recognition of the term "Asian American," but also brought ethnic studies to colleges nationwide. Pat made a difference in the world as a Filipino civil rights leader, but is largely unknown by the public. Now, Nicole wants to set the record straight and honor her uncle's legacy, while building her own.
    Nicole & the Third World Liberation Front
    Nicole Salaver's uncle, Patrick Salaver, was one of the leaders of the Third World Liberation Front at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s. This movement not only led to the recognition of the term "Asian American," but also brought ethnic studies to colleges nationwide. Pat made a difference in the world as a Filipino civil rights leader, but is largely unknown by the public. Now, Nicole wants to set the record straight and honor her uncle's legacy, while building her own.
Episode 10
  • The podcast title "Inheriting" in all caps at the top of the image. Three people sit around a table in the foreground talking with a mic. In the background, people walk across a bridge. The colors in the image are a warm reddish, purple and orange.
    Listen 1:01:39
    Our final episode of Season 1 is a special "Inheriting" event recorded in front of a live audience. Host Emily Kwong is joined on stage by Bảo Trương (Episode 4), Shakeel Syed and Saira Sayeed (Episode 6), and Leialani Wihongi-Santos and Joseph Aflleje-Santos (Episode 7). They reveal what it was like to tell their stories and explore their family histories on "Inheriting."
    Inheriting Live: How do we talk about our family histories?
    Our final episode of Season 1 is a special "Inheriting" event recorded in front of a live audience. Host Emily Kwong is joined on stage by Bảo Trương (Episode 4), Shakeel Syed and Saira Sayeed (Episode 6), and Leialani Wihongi-Santos and Joseph Aflleje-Santos (Episode 7). They reveal what it was like to tell their stories and explore their family histories on "Inheriting."
Awards

Credits

Emily Kwong, Host & Creator
Anjuli Sastry, Senior Producer & Co-Creator
Sarah Keiko Sarasohn, Editor
James Chow, Producer
Minju Park, Producer
Donald Paz, Audio Production Engineer
Samanta Helou Hernandez, Visuals Editor
Catherine Mailhouse, Executive Producer & Dir. of Content Development
Shana Noami Krachmal, Vice President of LAist Studios

Thanks & Support

Inheriting is entirely funded by supporters. A special thanks to Jihee and Peter Huh, Winnie Kho, Stewart and Pat Kwoh, Bryant Garth, Ying Cai and Wann Lee, Fred and Diana Kong, Joanna Kong, Denise and Joseph Lumarda, and Cathay Bank, as well as all the donors who gave specifically to Inheriting.