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What is Asian Americanness and who does it serve?
I first spoke to the hosts in mid-March, shortly before the Atlanta shootings.
They sent back a collective answer, saying that it was important to challenge peoples thinking on retribution.
(They also tackled the Atlanta shootings and other attacks inrecentepisodes.)
Did you have the idea to do a podcast before that?
Jay Caspian Kang: I didnt.
We have to probe into what is specific to the Asian experience.
And I dont think its just Asian Americans, I think it extends to most immigrants as well.
I think it extends to the working white poor.
Liu: I mean its not just hardcore leftists who talk this way.
Can you tell me a little bit about how the three of you came to your political views?
Do you think being Asian has formed part of that identity?
Kim:I dont think Asianness has had anything to do with it for me.
My parents are pretty progressive, so I inherited some of those politics from them.
My views just came from thinking about why people are so poor and why things are so imbalanced.
Occupy Wall Street and Bernies rise were very important to me as well.
Liu: Tammy, I think youre more in these activist spaces than I am.
What do you think about the fact that they are so white or were so white, at least?
Did you feel like,Do I belong here?
Where do I fit in?Because I still think about that when I do stuff.
Sometimes Im like,Why am I here?
Kim: Professionally I was politicized through immigrant worker organizing, and that wasnt white.
I could empathize based on my parents experience and my own experience in childhood.
But yeah, those spaces youre describing can be very white.
Theres certainly the stereotypical critique of the Bernie types.
I was always a little more skeptical of electoral politics.
I think its impossible to be interested in protests without sort of immersing yourself in left politics.
My access is more through that lens than an electoral or an intellectual lens.
How has the podcast evolved over the past year?
How do we place ourselves within this struggle from our particular vantage point?
There were a lot of people who were essentially refugees within Korea.
Its irreverent, its funny.
Are there certain subjects you want to tackle in the future that you havent tackled yet?
Kang: We always want to make the show more international.
The show would be boring to us if we just turned into an Asian American podcast about movies.
We want to always have a broader perspective than that, one thats rooted in our politics.
Liu: Weve had conversations about how were East Asiacentric and how itd be good to expand.
In my daytime job in academia, Im always thinking about connections across the world.
Have you seen your listenership grow?
Way more than we thought.
I mean, its a very niche product.
Its not just Asian Americans.
Its multiracial and international.
We have listeners in Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Its really a mix.
For instance, we had the journalistAnakwa Dwamena, whos African American, on the show.
That makes sense in the same way that it made sense that we interviewed Julian about Guam.
Thats so exciting to see, and its cool to think that you are in conversation.
Do you eventually want to get a producer?
Kang: I dont know.
Liu: I dont want to jinx it.
Kim: I think we feel really happy with where we are right now.
We all have day jobs, and for none of us is podcasting our primary medium.
I think that could potentially be threatened if it got too big or too established.
What path forward do you see in covering this or thinking about it?
Kang: Its difficult.
I think that progressives and left people within this community cant just turn a blind eye to whats happening.
Being like, Ah, I dont want to touch that, would be an abdication of responsibility.
The vast majority of people, especially the people in these communities, dont want more violence.
They dont want police running down people throughout their community.
Because what happens after the police come?
On the other hand, thereissomething there.
Thats the nerve thats being struck for a lot of people, and that is something thats real.
But thats a separate thing and we should be clear about that.
We could have had an Asian president and Asian people would be blamed for the coronavirus.
She was an 83-year-old Korean woman who made her living collecting cans.
then I think you have failed.
Its a very difficult thing to navigate.
On a lighter note, my husband wants to know whos going to win the NBA finals.
Kang: The Nets probably.
Liu: Im going to regret saying this: the Utah Jazz.
I think its probably the Nets but I cant come to that reality yet.
One last question for Jay.
Im curious aboutyour Twitter personality.
Im 41 years old, I have a child.
I think nothing would change, except people might have a higher opinion of me.
Ive always had a troll impulse, probably since I was like 10 years old.
I cant help myself.
Im just a troll at heart.
