SELF EVIDENT Podcast to Launch Second Season

Self Evident, the podcast that tells Asian American stories to challenge long-held narratives of the American experience, will launch its second season on Tuesday, August 25 with a bracing look at the wave of anti-Asian incidents that's swept across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a successful six-episode season last Summer - which included stories about rebuilding family relationships and navigating the Trump administration's campaign of deportation - Self Evident brought stories to public radio in San Francisco, then premiered two pre-season episodes during the global pandemic to discuss the layers of racism and police brutality exposed during this unprecedented time. The innovative program will continue exploring these themes, among others, as it starts its new season tomorrow.

"It hurts to know that this ongoing problem of anti-Asian harassment and hate crime still isn't being taken seriously by many elected officials," said Cathy Erway, the host of Self Evident. "By putting audiences in the shoes of people who have experienced it, our season premiere exposes the ugly way these hate incidents emerge on the front lines of the pandemic."

"At the same time," added Managing Producer James Boo, "this starts a run of episodes exploring how Asian American experiences fit into systemic racism in this country. These stories and conversations open up complicated questions for listeners to grapple with in their own lives. That's something our fans, Asian American or not, have always appreciated about our storytelling - How we use stories to enable participation and action in local communities."

Self Evident's community engagement efforts have also included a crowdfunding campaign that brought in 1,000 listeners to support more diverse public media; partnerships with community groups on local reporting; and two popular episodes that featured a variety of BIPOC voices to unpack the harms and the hopes of underserved communities during the pandemic.

That interrogation of race, power, and inequality continues more fully in Season Two, which will air biweekly through the end of 2020. New episodes include:

A report on neighborhood watch groups that have popped up in Chinatown neighborhoods across the country in response anti-Asian hate incidents

A set of conversations that show exactly what happens, and why, when Asian Americans try to talk about anti-Blackness in their own families

A personal exploration into the cultural identities and intergenerational relationships that Asian Americans have created around fruit

An audio documentary about Black and Asian women who organize against neo-Nazi recruiters at their farmers' market, only to meet a wall of opposition from the race-blind liberals who run the town

The audio journal of a Cambodian American couple redefining their commitments to each other during their year-long journey towards citizenship

A musical dive into the subculture of third-wave ska, and the Asian American record label owner who's spent the past quarter century keeping its underrated legacies alive

24 hours in one of the most Chinese malls in one of the most Asian cities in America

All episodes of Self Evident can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and anywhere else listeners subscribe to podcasts.

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