Anna Qu teaches in the MFA program at New England College, and she joins us to tell her story of estrangement from her Chinese immigrant family after she turned them in to the Office of Children and Family Services for overworking her.
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When MTV Got Real
Amanda Ann Klein, associate professor of film studies at East Carolina University, joins us to discuss why MTV moved away from rock stars and shifted to ordinary people living wild lives.
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Do We Really Need More Freeway Lanes?
Texas Observer executive editor Megan Kimble joins us to talk about alternatives to building more roads to suit the state’s ever-growing population.
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How The U.S. Broke Central America
Aviva Chomsky, professor of history and the coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University, joins us to talk about hundreds of years of colonization and displacement, and why stabilizing the region will take more than just economic aid.
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The Vice President Who Set The Stage For Civil War
Baylor University historian Robert Elder joins us to talk about Vice President John C. Calhoun, a man who argued that slavery was a “positive good” and set the stage for the South to secede from the Union.
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An Immigrant Parent’s American Dream Meets A Child’s Reality
Sabreet Kang Rajeev joins us to talk about understanding her parents’ journey, their hopes for their new life, and connecting those to her own story as a first-generation American.
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An Illusionist Reveals His Secrets
Derek DelGaudio joins us to talk about his autobiography, a deep dive into how illusion and identity shaped his life.
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The Black Roots Of Beer Culture
James Bennett II joins us to talk about why beer is often conflated today with a rich, white world and why something as simple as the backyard BBQ is essential to understanding how America chooses to drink.
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When Kids Carry Their Identities In Their Lunchboxes
Jaya Saxena is a staff writer at Eater, and she joins us to talk about what it’s like to feel like an outsider simply because of what your well-meaning parents packed you for lunch.
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How A Girl Becomes A Woman
Melissa Febos joins us to talk about the flawed ways we ask children to shape their identities from puberty and her own coming-of-age story as she worked to find her voice and set boundaries.
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What Your Voice Says About You
New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto joins us to talk about the experience of losing his voice and how it led him to look into how the sounds we create are so integral to our identity.
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When Mom Left, Thank God For Grandma
Danielle Henderson, TV writer and cohost of the film podcast “I Saw What You Did,” joins us to discuss her experience being raised by her grandmother after her mother abandoned her – and about how her love of horror movies taught her to have faith in herself.
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