New Books Network Podcast

American West May 23, 2023

Resisting Change in Suburbia

Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A.

James Zarsadiaz

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

The myth of the frontier West found its home in America's late twentieth century suburbs, argues University of San Francisco associate professor James Zarsadiaz in Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and …

American Studies May 4, 2023

White Borders

The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall

Reece Jones

Hosted by Nicole Trujillo-Pagan

Recent racist anti-immigration policies, from the border wall to the Muslim ban, have left many Americans wondering: How did we get here? In White Borders: The History of Race and …

American Studies April 1, 2023

The Racial Railroad

Julia H. Lee

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh

Despite the seeming supremacy of car culture in the United States, the train has long been and continues to be a potent symbol of American exceptionalism, ingenuity, and vastness. For …

Economics March 19, 2023

From China's Lost Generation to American Private Equity Professor

A Discussion with Weijian Shan

Weijian Shan

Hosted by Keith Krueger

Having lived through both China’s Great Leap Forward during primary school, then the Cultural Revolution and the closing of schools for ten years, Beijing-born Weijian Shan, instead of a secondary …

Asian American Studies March 14, 2023

History on the Run

Secrecy, Fugitivity, and Hmong Refugee Epistemologies

Ma Vang

Hosted by Donna Anderson

In this episode we discuss how secrecy structures both official knowledge and refugee epistemologies about militarism and forced migration as found in Ma Vang’s book History on the Run: Secrecy …

Asian American Studies February 8, 2023

Racist Love

Asian Abstraction and the Pleasures of Fantasy

Leslie Bow

Hosted by Jingyi Li

In Racist Love: Asian Abstraction and the Pleasures of Fantasy (Duke UP, 2022), Leslie Bow traces the ways in which Asian Americans become objects of anxiety and desire. Conceptualizing these …

Latino Studies February 6, 2023

Transborder Los Angeles

An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations

Yu Tokunaga

Hosted by David-James Gonzales

Focusing on Los Angeles farmland during the years between the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Japanese Internment in 1942, Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations …

Buddhist Studies February 4, 2023

Buddhist Responses to COVID

A Discussion with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana

Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana

Hosted by Pierce Salguero

Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana, chief abbot at the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center and a scholar of modern Buddhism in Sri Lanka. We talk about his role …

Chinese Studies December 16, 2022

The Chinese Atlantic

Seascapes and the Theatricality of Globalization

Sean Metzger

Hosted by Julia Keblinska

In The Chinese Atlantic: Seascapes and the Theatricality of Globalization (Indiana University Press, 2020), Sean Metzger proposes a new analytical frame through which to understand discourses of globalization: the so-called …

Asian Review of Books December 8, 2022

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories

Jamil Jan Kochai

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The first story in Jamil Jan Kochai’s newest collection has an interesting title and premise. “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” leads The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and …

Religion November 11, 2022

Heathen: Religion and Race in American History

Religion and Race in American History

Kathryn Gin Lum

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki

In Heathen: Religion and Race in American History (Harvard University Press, 2022), Kathryn Gin Lum shows how the idea of the “heathen” has been maintained from the colonial era to …

Asian Review of Books November 10, 2022

Stay True

A Memoir

Hua Hsu

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Stay True (Doubleday: 2022), the new memoir from Hua Hsu, is a coming-of-age story about the writer’s time in the University of California in Berkeley, where he tries to become …

Grinnell College: Authors and Artists November 1, 2022

Tomorrow in Shanghai and Other Stories

May-lee Chai

Hosted by Marshall Poe

In a vibrant and illuminating follow-up to her award-winning story collection, Useful Phrases for Immigrants, May-lee Chai's latest collection Tomorrow in Shanghai (Blair, 2022) explores multicultural complexities through lenses of class, wealth …

Japanese Studies October 26, 2022

Un-Thinking Collaboration: American Nisei in Transwar Japan

A. Carly Buxton

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg

Today I will be talking to Carly Buxton about her book Unthinking collaboration: American Nisei in transwar Japan, which came out this year [2022] with the University of Hawaiʹi Press …

Jewish Studies October 25, 2022

Elaine Black Yoneda

Jewish Immigration, Labor Activism, and Japanese American Exclusion and Incarceration

Rachel Schreiber

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

During World War II, Elaine Black Yoneda, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, spent eight months in a concentration camp--not in Europe, but in California. She did this voluntarily and …

Journal of Asian American Studies Podcast October 19, 2022

Reckoning with the Interdiscipline

Journal of Asian American Studies 25:2 (June 2022)

Lily Anne Welty Tamai and Paul Spickard

Hosted by Christopher Patterson

In this episode, we discuss a special issue of The Journal of Asian American Studies: “Reckoning with the Interdiscipline.” This special issue, first conceived in 2018, reflects on fifty years …

On Religion October 7, 2022

Heathen

Religion and Race in American History

Kathryn Gin Lum

Hosted by Gregory Soden

If an eighteenth-century parson told you that the difference between "civilization and heathenism is sky-high and star-far," the words would hardly come as a shock. But that statement was written …

Asian American Studies October 5, 2022

Fierce and Fearless

Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

The first biography of trailblazing legislator Patsy Takemoto Mink, best known as the legislative champion of Title IX. "Every girl in Little League, every woman playing college sports, and every …

Burned by Books October 4, 2022

Our Missing Hearts

A Novel

Celeste Ng

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Celeste Ng is the author of three novels, Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts. Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), was …

Food September 13, 2022

Asian-Cajun Fusion

Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou

Carl A. Brasseaux and Donald W. Davis

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Shrimp is easily America’s favorite seafood, but its very popularity is the wellspring of problems that threaten the shrimp industry’s existence. Asian-Cajun Fusion: Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou …