We asked our listener community, “How did you learn where you come from?” What came back was a wide range of personal stories about how tricky it can be to access our heritage. From kids going to culture camp, to adoptees making journeys to their birth countries, to Asian Americans of all ages realizing that they’re inevitably going to lose a piece of themselves — we explore how we fit in with what came before us and figure out what comes next. We need your help! Please take this 1-minute survey, so we can have better conversations with partners and sponsors and keep this show growing. It’s fast, easy, and anonymous. Resources and Recommended Reading Misha recommends that Self Evident listeners check out episode 2 of Tell Them, I Am, “Deana.” Read some of Ansley’s poetry, accompanied by her own visual artwork, on Culturestrike. If you’d like to participate in Henry’s Chinese geneaology workshop, e-mail Henry [dot] Tom [at] Cox [dot] net. Mark, one of the voices on today’s episode, has told the full story of his trip to find his birth record in Korea on this episode of the Escape from Plan A podcast. Check out Leading Youth Forward, Chicago Desi Youth Rising, NQAPIA, and APIENC to see examples of Asian American spaces for cultural and political education. To learn more about “Love Boat” and how it’s impacted Asian Americans, check out Valerie Soe’s documentary, Love Boat: Taiwan, which is touring film festivals across the country. Shout Outs Shout out to Yin Kong and Yin Mei of Think!Chinatown for inviting us to the workshop where we met Henry Tom. Thanks to everyone from our listener community who shared their experiences with us in the making of this episode: Alice Chou, Davey Kim, Gabor Fu, Jenni Wong, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Lily Susman, Lori Wanko, Mark from Plan A, Mark Zastrow, Merk Nguyen, Michelle Chu, Rekha Radhakrishnan, Waverly Colville, and Win-Sie Tow. And very special thanks to our advisors for this season of the show: Alex Laughlin, Anika Gupta, Blair Matsuura, Christina Choi, Davey Kim, and Ted Hsieh. Credits Produced by James Boo Edited by Julia Shu and Cheryl Devall Editorial support from Davey Kim Production support by Jaye McAuliffe Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly Theme music by Dorian Love Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.

Under the Trump administration, the United States has pushed aggressively to deport Southeast Asian Americans with criminal records. Hurt that members of the Vietnamese community would support this action, guest producer Thanh Tan (creator of the podcast “Second Wave”) seeks out the people at risk of deportation — and the organizers fighting to keep them in the only home they’ve known. Along the way, she learns to embrace a new direction for Vietnamese Americans confronting the deeply rooted narrative of “the good refugee.” We need your help! Please take this 1-minute survey, so we can have better conversations with partners and sponsors and keep this show growing. It’s fast, easy, and anonymous. Resources and Recommended Reading Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress and prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones. "Know Your Rights" resources to prepare for ICE raids written in Arabic, Bangla, Burmese, Chinese, Dar/Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Karen, Khemer, Korean, Nepali, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, and Vietnamese, compiled by the Asian American Federation in NY. Primary sources: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which laid much groundwork for today’s deportations The 2008 Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Vietnam President Trump’s Jan 25, 2017 Executive Order on Border Security and Immigration Enforcement President Trump’s Jan 25, 2017 Executive Order declaring that the presence of “removable aliens” from “foreign nations that refuse the repatriation of their nationals” is “contrary to the national interest” Text of President Trump’s Jan 27, 2017 Executive Order temporarily ceasing admission of refugees to the United States (a.k.a. “the travel ban”) Migration Policy Institute dataset on U.S. annual refugee resettlement ceilings and refugee admissions, starting from 1980 ICE datasets on deportations from FY 2011 through FY 2018 Reporting and analysis on the federal government’s role in detention and deportation of immigrants: “City of Fear” by New York Magazine and The Marshall Project “The Disastrous, Forgotten 1996 Law That Created Today’s Immigration Problem” by Dara Lind, for Vox “ICE and the Banality of Spin” by Eileen Guo, for Topic “U.S.: 20 Years of Immigrant Abuses,” a summary of reports by Human Rights Watch on harm caused by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act Reporting and analysis on the detention and deportation of Vietnamese Americans and Cambodian Americans: “As Cambodian Deportations Resume, Community Looks for Ways to Cope” by Agnes Constante, for NBC Asian America “Deported: A Grassroots Movement” (5-part docuseries) by Sahra V. Nguyen, for NBC Asian America “Fear Grips Immigrants Who Fled Here to Escape Genocide” by Matt Driscoll, for The News Tribune of Tacoma, Washington “A State of Captivity: Immigrants Detained Repeatedly for Old Crimes” by Anjali Enjeti, for Guernica Magazine “Trump Is Pushing Vietnam to Accept Deportees Who Have Lived in the US for Over 20 years” by Dara Lind, for Vox “Trump Moves to Deport Vietnam War Refugees” by Charles Dunst and Krishnadev Calamur, for The Atlantic “The U.S. Ambassador Who Crossed Trump on Immigration” by Mike Ives, for the New York Times Shout Outs John Woo and Kerry Donahue voiced the English translations of Thanh’s parents. Thanks to Julia Preston and Willoughby Mariano for their advice on reporting this story. Credits Produced by Thanh Tan and James Boo Edited by Julia Shu and Cheryl Devall Production support by Austin Jenkins, Jamala Henderson, Kevin Rinker, and Merk Nguyen Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly Theme music by Dorian Love Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.

Three intimate conversations reveal how we deal with changes to our most deeply rooted identities, and how we tell the people who matter most. “Unspoken” Documentary filmmaker Patrick G. Lee tells Cathy about the unexpected ways that coming out affected his family. “The Debut” Producer Preeti Varathan and her cousin Srinidhi unpack complicated feelings about their larger-than-life, coming-of-age musical performances. “Buzz Cut” Old college friends L and Sindhu reunite to talk about why they decided to cut off their hair. We need your help! Please take this 1-minute survey, so we can have better conversations with partners and sponsors and keep this show growing. It’s fast, easy, and anonymous. Resources and Recommended Reading To learn more about Patrick G. Lee’s documentary, “Unspoken,” follow the film on Facebook. Self Evident and Patrick will screen the film exclusively for our listeners in August, so if you want to see it online, subscribe to our mailing list. If you’re in New York on July 31, you can catch the big screen debut at the Asian American International Film Festival. There’s more at the intersection of LGBTQIA and Asian American identity than coming out, but our friends at Mochi Mag recently put together this sweet collection of coming-out stories from Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Singaporean Americans to celebrate Pride. And one of our favorite podcasts, Nancy, has lots of awesome stories and episodes about being queer and Asian American — including this favorite, about co-host Kathy Tu’s visit with family to Taiwan. To hear Preeti’s violin performance from this episode, check out this video of her last concert. For more about arangetrams, their history, and discussions about class and gender, Preeti recommends this primer from The Hindu and this deep look at T.M. Krishan, whose writing explores how to “de-Brahmanize” carnatic music. For more work from Pavana Reddy (the poet who Srinidhi collaborated with onstage), visit pavanareddy.com. You can check out L's writing and comics here. Shout Outs Thanks to Sindhu Gnanasambandan for the conversation with L, and all the members of our community panel who gave us feedback on these stories. Credits Produced by Julia Shu, Preeti Varathan, and Alex Laughlin Edited by Cheryl Devall Production support by James Boo Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly Theme music by Dorian Love Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Sound effects by Soundsnap Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.

Gabe's always felt distant from his parents: not Filipino enough for his dad, not affectionate enough for his mom. But when he moves back to his white-bread hometown to donate a kidney to his dad and work alongside him at the “Fiesta in America,” Gabe is forced to rethink the way he's seen his family, his heritage, and his lifelong struggle to belong. Share your story and keep the conversation going! What food or dish reminds you of home? Let us know by writing, or sharing a photo, or even a recipe on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@selfevidentshow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident). Cathy and Gabe will kick it off, so watch out for their recipes and memories online! Resources and Recommend Reading The 21st annual Fiesta in America will take place on August 10-11, 2019 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ. Here's some food for the soul, straight from our team: 🎥Gabe shopping for lumpia ingredients 🎥Gabe making his mom’s lumpia recipe Manansala Family Lumpia Recipe Cathy’s Potsticker Recipe And a few articles examining the unique challenges of talking about mental health and accessing mental health resources from an Asian American perspective: “Don’t Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health,” a diverse collection of essays, lists, comics, and illustrations exploring the meaning and lived experience of mental illness and mental health today “Overcoming Challenges to Mental Health Services for Asian New Yorkers,” a local study on lack of access to mental health services and cultural competence within those services, released in 2017 by the Asian American Federation “We’re Fine: What’s Stopping Asian American Millennials From Talking About Mental Health” by Kimberly Truong, for Refinery29 Shout Outs This story began when Gabe wrote to us to share his deeply personal story and his determination to find meaning in it. Thanks to Gabe, his family, and his friends for allowing us to record these important conversations. This episode was made possible by the generous support of Cheny Milholand and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers. Credits Produced by James Boo and Gabriel Mara Edited by Cheryl Devall and Julia Shu Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li Sound engineering by Timothy Lou Ly Theme music by Dorian Love Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Sound effects by Soundsnap Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. About CAAM CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.

Sharmin Hossain, a member of New York’s Bangladeshi Feminist Collective, helps us take a hard look at the roles of class, colorism, and cultural education within the broader conversation about Asian representation in America. This interview was one of many conversations we had when producing Episode 002: “The Non-United States of Asian America.” To hear more about the impact of caste on South Asian Americans, check out friend of the show Sonia Paul's Code Switch piece, "When Caste Discrimination Comes to the United States."

Do you have a story about going to language classes, Saturday schools, religious community groups, clubs, music lessons, or other alternative classrooms where you learned about your culture or heritage? Was it a positive, negative, or mixed experience for you? We're producing an episode of the podcast exploring the ways that we learn where we come from — for better or for worse. And we want this episode to be based in the experiences of you, our listeners. So please share your story with us: Record a voice memo on your phone. Please keep it to three minutes or less. It doesn’t have to be perfect! Email your voice memo to community@selfevidentshow.com. Include your name, location, and age in the email. We’re looking for a wide variety of stories and memories, including from people of South Asian, Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Pacific Islander descent; mixed-race folx; adoptees; kids; parents; grandparents; and people who speak a language other than English. Got an idea for a person or community organization we should talk to about this episode? Please share this bonus episode with them, or email us at community@selfevidentshow.com.

Self Evident tells Asian American stories — but that term itself, “Asian American,” can mean many different things to different people. In this episode we present three stories from our listener community to explore the ways “Asian American” reflects both representation and exclusion, empowerment and stereotyping, under the diverse umbrella of Asian American identity. Share your story and keep the conversation going! We want to hear from you! Do you identify as Asian American? Why or why not? Email your story to community@selfevidentshow.com, or share with us on social media @SelfEvidentShow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident. Resources and Recommend Reading: Key Facts about Asian Americans research from the Pew Research Center “Who Is Vincent Chin? The History and Relevance of a 1982 Killing” by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang from NBC Asian America Census Suppression podcast episode of “In the Thick,” with Hansi Lo Wang from NPR and Dorian Warren from the Center for Community Change, for more discussion about the upcoming Census The Asian American Movement, a history book recommended by Marissiko Wheaton Activist Amy Uyematsu Proclaims the Emergence of “Yellow Power,” a 1969 article recommended by Marissiko Wheaton Shout Outs: In addition to the nearly 100 community members who shared their perspectives with us for this episode, we want to give a special shout out to everyone who sent in voice memos and had conversations with us about how they felt about the term “Asian American”: Akira Olivia Kumamoto, Alana Mohamed, Andrew Hsieh, Julia Arciga, Kelly Chan, Maha Chaudhry, Marissiko Wheaton, Mia Warren, Nicole Go, Sharmin Hossain, and Veasna Has. This episode was made possible by the generous support of Noah Berland and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers. Credits: Produced by Julia Shu and Cathy Erway Edited by Cheryl Devall and Julia Shu Tape syncs by Mona Yeh and Shana Daloria Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li Editorial support from Davey Kim, Alex Laughlin, Managing Producer James Boo, and Executive Producer Ken Ikeda Sound Engineering by Timothy Lou Ly Theme Music by Dorian Love Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.

What does it mean to be excluded from the American Dream? Two stories, set 100 years apart, explore this question from the perspective of immigrants who think they’ve made it in America, only to find out that their dream comes at a cost. "No Place Like Home" At the height of America’s Exclusion era, an Indian immigrant’s quest for prosperity ends in a tragic realization that being a “good immigrant” isn’t enough to escape the realities of racism. "Non-White Picket Fences" A fight over a homeless shelter in one of America’s most Asian cities reveals the choices that Americans face in seeking suburban paradise. Share your story and keep the conversation going! Do you have a story about feeling excluded from the “American Dream”? Where or when in your life have you felt most like you belonged? Email your story to community@selfevidentshow.com or share with us on social media @SelfEvidentShow, with the hashtag #WeAreSelfEvident. Resources and Recommended Reading: Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255 The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress and prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones. History of Angel Island Immigration Station, by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation History of “Race, Nationality, and Reality” (including more about the Supreme Court decisions that declared only white people could be U.S. citizens) at National Archives Primary Sources chronicling the life of Vaishno Das Bagai, preserved by the South Asian American Digital Archive The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee, published by Simon & Schuster “Escape From Los Angeles: White Flight From Los Angeles and Its Schools, 1960-1980” by Jack Schneider, for the Journal of Urban History “The Court Case That Forced OC to Stop Ignoring Its Homeless” by Jill Replogle, for LAist Public Record of Irvine City Council Emergency Town Hall Meeting to discuss the proposal to place an emergency homeless shelter in the Orange County Great Park Public Record of Orange County Board of Supervisors Meeting to discuss the proposal to place emergency homeless shelters in Huntington Beach, Irvine, and Laguna Niguel The OC Needle Exchange Program research directory lists many sources of information regarding the public health outcomes of syringe exchanges “In Fighting Homeless Camp, Irvine’s Asians Win, but at a Cost” by Anh Do, for the Los Angeles Times “Asian Americans in Irvine Draw Outrage for Protesting Homeless Shelters” by Carl Samson, for NextShark “Supervisors Defend Their Turf and Criticize Spitzer’s Homeless Warnings” by Nick Gerda, for Voice of OC “Homelessness in Orange County: The Costs to Our Community,” a research report by UC Irvine faculty, sponsored by OC United Way and Jamboree Housing Executive Summary of research on our national homelessness crisis done by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty "Student Housing Issues at UC Irvine," a recently released research report by Izzak Mirales at UC Irvine, based in part on data collected by the ASUCI Housing Security Commission. "Irvine Student Housing Cost and Crowding Under Scrutiny in Report Presented at UCI" by Lilly Nguyen, for the Los Angeles Times “Not in My Backyard: What the Shouting Down of One Homeless Housing Complex Means for Us All” by Jill Replogle for Southern California Public Radio Shout Outs: Erika Lee and Samip Mallick helped us connect with Rani Bagai. Brandon Morales, Mike Carman and Molly Nichelson helped us report our story about homelessness in Irvine, California. Anne Saini and Jill Replogle graciously consulted with our team on these stories. We received feedback on this episode from Aileen Tieu, Aishwarya Krishnamoorthy, Akira Olivia Kumamoto,  Alex Wong, Alicia Tyree, Anish Patel, Chris Lam, Emily Ewing Hays, Erica Eng, Irene Noguchi, Jen Young, Jennifer Zhan, Jon Yang, Jonathon Desimone, Kelly Chan, Kevin Do, Lynne Guey, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Marvin Yueh, Mia Warren, Rebecca Jung, Robyn Lee, and Tommy Tang. This episode was made possible by the generous support of Stefan Mancevski and the rest of our 1,004 crowdfund backers. Credits: Produced by James Boo, Cathy Erway, and Associate Producer Kathy Im Additional reporting by Anthony Kim Edited by James Boo and Cheryl Devall Tape syncs by Mona Yeh and Eilis O’Neill Production support and fact checking by Katherine Jinyi Li Editorial support from Davey Kim, Alex Laughlin, Senior Producer Julia Shu, and Executive Producer Ken Ikeda Sound Engineering by Timothy Lou Ly Theme Music by Dorian Love Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound Sound effects by Soundsnap Self Evident is a Studiotobe production. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. Season 1 is presented by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the Ford Foundation, and our listener community. About CAAM: CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org. With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CAAM provides production funding to independent producers who make engaging Asian American works for public media.

Self Evident is where we decide where we're from, where we belong, and where we're going. Here's a peep into the stories we've presented from Asian American communities, and the reason that we make this show. Subscribe today, and visit selfevidentshow.com to stay in touch!