Recs from the Editors — TTSG
After a season of respite, as the earth slowly comes back to life, we’re launching our blog with a series of recommendations from the editors. In these posts, you’ll find our current delights, objects of desire— what we’re eating, watching, listening to, reading. A phantasmagoria of our obsessions. And if you have something YOU would like to recommend to US, feel free to give us a shout via email or on social media!
From editor Katie Yee:
Because we live in a world where #content is king, when tragedy strikes, sometimes we feel like we have to have something to say in the form of a think piece or personal essay or what have you. If this is the way you process, hats off to you. And if it's not, that's also more than okay. After the Atlanta shooting in March, I didn't have a lot to say. But a close friend recommended a podcast that gave me a lot to listen to. (Jessica, I am grateful for you!) Time to Say Goodbye* is a podcast about Asia and Asian America, by and for Asian Americans. Jay Caspian Kang, Tammy Kim, and Andy Liu are our courageous guides. I feel like they've given me new words with which to talk about my whole life.
Personally, I have struggled a lot with my Chinese American identity over the years. I find myself in a period of unlearning the hate that I have internalized. I find myself wondering where I fit in as a "person of color," as I think a lot of Asian Americans do. And that's all well and good but Time to Say Goodbye is also a podcast that pulls no punches. They seem to anticipate my murky and confused feelings here, and they really take me to task. To ask questions about identity like these is to come from a position of privilege. And don't we have braver questions by now?
In the episode they released to unpack the Atlanta massacre, for example, they start with the actual definition of a hate crime—and the legal ramifications it entails. They get into the mixed messaging of the demand to call something a hate crime while also calling for defunding the police. (Let me be clear: it is important to address these attacks without being pro-police.) In the most recent episode, they bring on a Princeton professor to discuss how to deal with the rise in violence against our community while also staying true to ideals of Asian American abolition. Just! Mind-blowing! The show feels like they're really grappling with something in a way that feels true and honest. And revelatory.
* Time to Say Goodbye is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher! They also have a Patreon here.
