Inheriting: How Do We Talk About Our Family Histories?

Join us for an immersive, sound-rich night of storytelling and practical advice with Emily Kwong (she/her), the host behind NPR’s “Short Wave” and the new LAist Studios podcast, “Inheriting”.

Asian American and Pacific Islander history isn’t always taught in-depth in school and families can sometimes be reluctant to share their stories. As a result, many can have an incomplete understanding of their cultural histories and identities.

A hallmark of “Inheriting” is having these conversations about pivotal historical moments with family members – conversations that have never happened before and can be uncomfortable.

At this live show, Emily will take you back in time, with music, photos, archive tape, and intimate conversations – delving into three moments of AAPI history in a personal and deeply emotional way like you’ve never heard before. Emily will highlight the different issues and challenges the families faced, which prevented them from opening up about their stories and histories until “Inheriting.” An important part of the evening will be passing forward knowledge that Emily and the “Inheriting” team learned from their work on the show and “Inheriting”’s consulting psychologist. You’ll walk away with a guide to interview your own family members about their experiences.

If you’ve always wanted to interview someone in your life, our team made a printable handout to support you in this process!

Questions about Inheriting? Email our show at inheriting@laiststudios.com and donate to future seasons of our show at LAist.com/Inheriting. There you'll also find a digital resource guide and lesson plans to bring AAPI history into the K-12 classroom.

Listen to the “Inheriting” trailer.

Listen to the latest episode now. New episodes premiere weekly on Thursdays.

SPECIAL GUESTS

• Leialani Wihongi-Santos (she/her) and Joseph Aflleje-Santos (he/him) share their family's experiences during and after imperial Japan’s occupation of Guam
• Bảo Trương (he/him) shares stories about his family's experience with the Vietnam War
• Shakeel Syed (he/him) and Saira Sayeed (she/her) share their reflections on how 9/11 impacted their family
• Carol Kwang Park (she/her) - shares her personal process interviewing her mom and brother about their family's experiences during the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising & how she now teaches her students to talk their own families
• Sherry C. Wang, PhD (she/her) - Associate Professor, Santa Clara University School of Education & Counseling Psychology; Consulting Psychologist on “Inheriting”

A video of the discussion will be posted here on July 12.

ABOUT EMILY KWONG
Emily Kwong (she/her) is an audio journalist with over a decade of experience, interested in stories that unfold at a community level. She is currently the host for “Short Wave,” NPR's science podcast. In July 2023, she went on sabbatical with LAist Studios to develop and produce “Inheriting.” Kwong got her start as a reporter at KCAW, a community radio station in Sitka, Alaska. Chasing stories onto fishing boats and up volcanoes, her work earned multiple awards from the Alaska Press Club. Prior to that, Kwong produced youth media for WNYC and The Modern Story in Hyderabad, India. In 2013, Kwong won the “Best New Artist" award from the Third Coast Competition for a piece about a Maine journalist learning to speak with an electrolarynx. She was NPR's 2018 Above the Fray Fellow and reported a three-part series on climate change and migration in Mongolia. Her team's multimedia narrative, "Losing the Eternal Blue Sky," won a White House News Photographers Association award. In 2021, Emily reported a story on reclaiming her family’s heritage language for Anjuli Sastry Krbechek’s audio and video series, “Where We Come From.” That series was the inspiration for this show. Emily is the founding co-lead for NPR AZNs, an ERG that advocates for 160+ Pan-Asian and Pacific Islander employees at NPR. She is also the co-president for the Association for Independents in Radio (AIR), with advocates for freelancers in audio.

ABOUT SHERRY WANG
Sherry C. Wang (she/her) earned her BA in Psychology from Smith College, and her MA and PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She completed her predoctoral internship at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where she had a rotation opportunity working with survivors of political torture. Most recently, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she expanded her focus from immigrant and refugee mental health to examine barriers of care for African Americans living in the Deep South. Her research interests are focused on cultural factors in ethnic minority health disparities, such as the role of acculturation, stigma, and oppression in risky behaviors (e.g., hazardous alcohol use, risky sexual behaviors, HIV). To better understand how individual and systemic factors perpetuate oppression, she draws from quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. She co-directs the organization, Research Initiative on Social Justice and Equity, which is a national team of faculty, students, and community members committed to using critical inquiry to address issues of systemic inequalities. She is also a fellow of the APA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP), a scholar of the UCLA HIV/AIDS Substance Abuse and Training Program (HA-STTP), and an early career award recipient from the National Multicultural and Counseling Summit (NMCS). At Santa Clara University, she will be teaching her favorite classes, which include multicultural counseling, developmental counseling, micro skills, and counseling theories.

ABOUT “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.

Major support for Inheriting is provided by Jihee and Peter Huh and Cathay Bank, as well as many others who gave specifically to Inheriting.

ACCOMMODATIONS

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