Divided Families Podcast
by Divided Families Podcast
The Divided Families Podcast aims to provide a platform for connecting stories of family separation.For updates, follow us on Instagram at @DividedFamiliesPodcast, and contact us at [email protected]
Episodes
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Ep. 49 | Ukrainian Voices in Taiwan with Oleksandr Shyn
In this episode, Paul speaks with Oleksandr Shyn, founder of Ukrainian Voices, which works on raising awareness and building solidarity in Taiwan about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has separated countless families such as Olek's. A fourth-generation descendant of Soviet Koreans who were...
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Ep. 48 | On Making the Divided Families Film with Dr. Jason Ahn
This episode was recorded at the very beginning of creating this podcast, all the way back in January 2020, right before the pandemic. We had the opportunity to ground our podcast in its roots by speaking with Dr. Jason Ahn, who conceived of the Divided Families Film and helped start Divided...
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Ep. 47 | Help Me to Find My Children with Ndjuoh MehChu
In this episode, Eugene speaks with Professor Ndjuoh MehChu, an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law, about his article, "Help Me to Find My Children: A Thirteenth Amendment Challenge to Family Separation," published in the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties. Eugene's…
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Ep. 46 | The Island Caught in the Conflict with Tatiana Kim
In this episode, Katherine speaks with Tatiana Kim, who grew up on the island of Sakhalin in Russia. Sakhalin, which is just north of Japan and east of mainland Russia, has been the subject of (and subjected to) several international conflicts. Tatiana describes the mix of Korean, Russian, and...
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Ep. 45 | Recovering a Bombed Past with Sera Koulabdara
Sera Koulabdara is the Executive Director of Legacies of War. In this episode, Eugene sits down with Sera in the beginning of a three part series with Legacies of War to provide some background on the Laos bombings conducted during the American "Secret War" on Laos and how it resulted in family...
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Ep. 44 | Across the Pacific and Back with Kham Moua
Kham Moua is the Director of National Policy at Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), and in today's episode, he chats with Mai Tong Yang about about the swinging impact of American immigration policies on families who moved from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to the U.S. in the latter…
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Ep. 43 | Mixed Marriages in Northern Ireland with Paul McLaughlin
"In Northern Ireland terms, denomination dictates identity." In this episode, Paul speaks with Paul McLaughlin, Director of Development at Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association, about the long history of mixed marriages in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland one in five marriages are…
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Ep. 42 | Reflections on 2021 and the Future of the Divided Families Podcast
In this episode, Eugene and Paul look back on the Divided Families Podcast, two years later. The two also reflect on 2021, the current status of the Divided Families Podcast, and plans for producing Season 3 in 2022. Thank you so much to everyone who donated so far to our fundraiser, and we would...
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Ep. 41 | Living Deportation with Adam Crapser
Halfway through his ten-year ban from the United States, Adam Crapser has been thrust into public attention again with the release of Justin Chon's movie "Blue Bayou." The film has striking similarities to Adam's own life story, blasphemed as a heartfelt tragedy of Adam's personal trauma. In this...
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Ep. 40 | Unpacking the Intergenerational Trauma of Residential Schools with Brayden Sonny White
"Kill the Indian, save the man" was a mantra propagated by General Richard H. Pratt, who famously established a model for Native Residential Schools that tore Native children away from their families and cultures. Brayden Sonny White is Kanien'kehá:ka from the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, and…
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Ep. 39 | The "Underground Railroad" and Liberty in North Korea with Hannah Song
Liberty in North Korea, or LiNK, is a nonprofit that primarily works to help North Korean refugees hiding in China resettle in South Korea or the United States. The organization has many high school and college chapters, and seeks to raise awareness about human rights through North Korean issues....
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Ep. 38 | The Story of DACA and the Original Dreamer with Tereza Lee
In this episode, Paul speaks with Tereza Lee, a pianist, activist, and original Dreamer. Tereza tells the story of how she was born in Brazil to South Korean immigrants but later moved to Chicago, where she was undocumented. The two talk about how not only Tereza's life, but those of many others...
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Ep. 37 | Defending Omar Ameen, an Innocent Refugee with Rachelle Barbour
In this episode, Eugene interviews Rachelle Barbour, an assistant federal defender for the Office of the Federal Defender of the Eastern District of California. She is an advocate for Omar Ameen, an Iraqi refugee accused of being an ISIS commander and murdering a police officer in Iraq. On April...
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Ep. 36 | The Roma in the Holocaust and America with Ioanida Costache
Ioanida Costache is an ethnomusicology PhD student at Stanford University who is Romani-American and activist. In this episode, Eugene speaks with Ioanida, a friend from college, about Romani-American identity, the erasure of the Roma as victims of the Holocaust, and the continued separation of...
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Ep. 35 | Introduction to the Roma with the Trust for Social Achievement
The Trust for Social Achievement is an organization based in Bulgaria dedicated to helping people reach their full potential. Its staff particularly focus on aiding the Roma community, of which 72% live below the poverty line. In this episode, Eugene speaks with Maria Metodieva, the Institutional...
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Ep. 34 | Connecting Family through Genealogy with Hollis Gentry
Hollis Gentry is a genealogy specialist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture Library. Following DeNeen Brown's overview of family separation and slavery in our previous episode, Hollis shares her personal quest to reconnect her family through genealogical...
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Ep. 33 | American Slavery's Legacy of Family Separation with DeNeen Brown
Professor DeNeen Brown is an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and an associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. In this episode, Paul and Professor Brown discuss the legacy of American slavery and family separation, and in...
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Ep. 32 | Allowing Complexity in Refugee Narratives with Thanhha Lai
Thanhha Lai is Vietnam-born American author perhaps best known for her debut novel, "Inside Out and Back Again," which won the Newbery Honor and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. In this upbeat episode, Eugene and Thanhha talk about her young adult novel, "Butterfly Yellow,"...
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Ep. 31 | Writing a Transracial Adoption Story for an Audience with Nicole Chung
Nicole Chung is a writer, the Editor-In-Chief of Catapult Magazine, and a Korean transracial adoptee, raised by a white family in Oregon. In her bestselling memoir, All You Can Ever Know, Nicole describes the process of searching for her Korean birth parents, which happened in tandem with the…
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Ep. 30 | Climate Change and the Marshall Islands with Tyler Rivera
In this episode Eugene catches up with Tyler Rivera, a close friend who had recently returned from a five month fellowship conducting research regarding climate change in the Marshall Islands. Like many other island states, the Marshall Islands are at the frontlines of dealing with the…
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Ep. 29 | Online Activism in the Uyghur Diaspora with Halmurat Uyghur
Halmurat Uyghur is a Uyghur activist and physician based in Finland. In 2017, after his parents were sent to one of the Chinese government's "re-education camps" in Xinjiang, he began to campaign for Uyghur rights and was among the first to stand up and openly talk about his parents’ arbitrary...
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Ep. 28 | From Uyghur Studies to the Xinjiang Victims Database with Hanna Burdorf
Hanna Burdorf is a PhD candidate in Uyghur studies at Newcastle University. She has worked on the Xinjiang Victims Database, which aims to document ethnic-minority (namely Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Hui) who have been held at camps in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In this episode,...
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Ep. 27 | Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue with Miki Dezaki
Miki Dezaki is a recent graduate of the Graduate Program in Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. He is also known as "Medamasensei" on Youtube, where he has made comedy videos and videos on social issues in Japan. In this episode, Paul speaks with Miki about Shusenjo, his directorial...
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Ep. 26 | "When a Family Separation Becomes Permanent" with Chris Outcalt
In this episode, Eugene sits down with freelance journalist Chris Outcalt, who published a piece in The Atlantic in August 2020 titled "When a Family Separation Becomes Permanent." The article can be found here:...
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Ep. 25 | Birthright AFRICA with Walla Elsheikh
Walla Elsheikh is the co-founder and CEO of Birthright AFRICA, which is committed to providing a free educational trip to Africa for all youth and young adults of African descent in the US. She was born in Sudan and raised there as well as in Sweden and Uganda before immigrating to New York City....
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Ep. 24 | Confronting Family Holocaust Histories with Iris Tzafrir
Iris Tzafrir is an Israeli resident in the United States who writes and speaks about her family’s stories of surviving the Holocaust and about being the descendant of Shoah survivors. Compelled by her son’s school history project to speak publicly about her father’s memories of the Holocaust for...
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Ep. 23 | Tracing Family Histories at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with Steven Vitto
Steven Vitto has been a researcher at the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum for over thirty years. With deep expertise in examining documents both physical and digital, he has reconnected numerous families over the years. In this episode, Paul talks to Steven about specific stories of family…
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Ep. 22 | Reflections on 2020 and "ReFP 2021"
In this episode, Eugene and Paul look back on the Divided Families Podcast, one year later. The two also reflect on 2020 and possibilities for the future of the podcast. Stay tuned for new episodes in 2021, and thank you to all of our listeners for your continued support! For updates, follow us…
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Ep. 21 | Centering Adoptees in National Adoption Month
In our final episode of the season, Paul reflects on the stories we have featured in recognition of National Adoption Month with two other members of the Divided Families Podcast team, Liat Shapiro and Mailé Nguyen. Liat and Mailé share their experiences as adoptees, relating in different ways to...
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Ep. 20 | Coming Out of the Fog: Transracial International Adoptees on Abolition
Our second episode commemorating National Adoption Month features three members of a collective of transracial adoptees advocating for abolition of the transracial international adoption system: Meghan Kelly, Chris Santizo-Malafronti, and Eleanor Vasquez-Kelly. Meghan and Eleanor share their...
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Ep. 19 | Korean Adoptees and the Side by Side Project with Glenn Morey
Glenn Morey was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1960. He was abandoned days after birth, taken to Seoul City Hall, then to a Holt orphanage, and adopted at the age of six months to the US. In 2013, Glenn and his wife, Julie, began filming The Side by Side Project, a documentary series that…
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Ep. 18 | Family Separation in Cuba and Operation Pedro Pan with Professor Carlos Eire
Professor Carlos Eire is the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University. Originally from Cuba, he was separated from his parents during the Cold War through what became known as Operation Pedro Pan, the airlift of minors out of Cuba to escape...
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Ep. 17 | Al Otro Lado and Immigration in Tijuana and the U.S. with Regina Ramirez and Melissa Flores
Al Otro Lado is a bi-national, social justice legal services organization serving indigent deportees, migrants, and refugees in Tijuana, Mexico and Southern California. Back in January, Eugene was able to visit their office in the Los Angeles area, and spoke with Regina Ramirez, who works in the...
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Ep. 16 | [Unedited] "Wrong is Wrong" Life at Tule Lake Internment Camp with Yuka Yasui Fujikura
This is the unedited version of this episode to preserve this account in its entirety. The edited, condensed version can be found on our profile. Yuka Yasui Fujikura was separated from her father and sent to Tule Lake Japanese Internment Camp when she was just 14. In this episode, Paul speaks…
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Ep. 16 | "Wrong is Wrong" Life at Tule Lake Japanese Internment Camp with Yuka Yasui Fujikura
Yuka Yasui Fujikura was separated from her father and sent to Tule Lake Japanese Internment Camp when she was just 14. In this episode, Paul speaks with Yuka about life in the camps and the resilience required to build a life after leaving them in search of an education. Yuka also tells the story...
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Ep. 15 | Lessons in American Immigrant Past, Present, and Future with Professor Franklin Odo
In this episode, Eugene gets an overdue lesson in Asian American studies in a conversation with Franklin Odo, an activist, historian, and professor at Amherst College. Professor Odo provides an overview of legal landmarks in United States immigration history as well as insights to his personal...
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Ep. 14 | Human Rights First and the U.S.-Mexico Border with Jenna Gilbert
Jenna Gilbert is the Managing Attorney of the Los Angeles office of Human Rights First, where she oversees the pro bono legal representation of indigent asylum seekers. She provides support to volunteer lawyers from law firms in the Los Angeles area who represent asylum seekers at all levels of…
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Ep. 13 | Skeletons, Kaleidoscopes, and the Hyperbolic Time Chamber
In this episode, Eugene and Paul look back on the first six episodes to talk about some behind the scenes thoughts and the direction and future of this podcast. For updates, follow us on Instagram at @DividedFamiliesPodcast, and contact us at [email protected]
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Ep. 12 | "Final Boarding Call" and Hong Kong Intersectionality with Stefani Kuo
Stefani Kuo is a playwright/performer and native of Hong Kong and Taiwan. She is currently an MFA Playwriting Candidate at the Yale School of Drama, and has been awarded, among others, a Jerome fellowship. In this episode, Eugene sits down to talk with Stefani about her latest play, "Final…
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Value Our Families Week of Action July 6 to 10, 2020
This is just a quick message recorded by Eugene and Paul to talk about the Value Our Families Week of Action, which aims to remind our representatives that immigrants and refugees must be ensured the same resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, push for defunding of CBP and ICE to reallocate…
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Ep. 11 | Immigration Advocacy at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC with Megan Essaheb
Megan Essaheb is the Director of Immigration Advocacy at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC, an organization that advocates for an America in which all Americans can benefit equally from, and contribute to, the American dream. AAJC is also part of the Value Our Families campaign, which is a...
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Ep. 10 | Escaping North Korea and Becoming an Activist with Yeonmi Park
Yeonmi Park and her mother were smuggled from North Korea to China when she was just thirteen. Today, she is a human rights activist that speaks out against the North Korean regime and advocates on behalf of victims of human trafficking. In this episode, Paul speaks with Yeonmi about life in…
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Ep. 9 | Amplifying the Movement with E.J. Joseph
E.J. Joseph is an actor originally from Brooklyn who has been organizing protests against police brutality with a few friends in Los Angeles. His group recently started an organization called "Amplify the Movement" which aims to create a safe and inclusive space to amplify the voices of Black and...
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Ep. 8 | "Dream State" and the Hong Kong Protests with Yi-Ling Liu
Yi-Ling Liu is a nonfiction writer covering technology, culture & society in China. She has written for various outlets such as The New Yorker, The Economist, and Foreign Policy, and is currently a visiting scholar at the New York University Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. In this episode,...
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Ep. 7 | Webinar with NCNK "70 Years of Separation: U.S.-DPRK Divided Families"
On May 28, 2020, Paul was part of a webinar sponsored by the National Committee on North Korea titled " 70 Years of Separation: U.S.-DPRK Divided Families." He was joined by Chahee Lee Stanfield, a Korean-American divided family member and Executive Director of the National Coalition for the...
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Ep. 6 | From Medical School to the Frontlines of the Pandemic with Dr. Olamide Omidele
Olamide Omidele, now Olamide Omidele MD, recently graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai early and is now working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this more casual episode, Eugene speaks with Olamide to try and see the pandemic from the perspective of those in…
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Ep. 5 | Stories from Topaz Japanese Internment Camp with Mary Murakami
Mary Murakami was 14 when she was moved with her family to Topaz Japanese Internment Camp in Utah during the 1940s under Executive Order 9066. In this episode, Paul visits Mary in her suburban home in Maryland to speak with her about life in the camps, and why it is so important to remember and…
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Ep. 5 | [Unedited] Stories from Topaz Japanese Internment Camp with Mary Murakami
This is the unedited version of this episode to preserve this account in its entirety. The edited, condensed version can be found on our profile. Mary Murakami was 14 when she was moved with her family to Topaz Japanese Internment Camp in Utah during the 1940s under Executive Order 9066. In this...
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Ep. 4 | "Geese Families," Letters, and Magnanimity with E.J. Koh
E.J. Koh is a winner of the Pleiades Editors Prize for Poetry and author of a recent memoir, "The Magical Language of Others." The memoir is built around letters her mother sent her during her upbringing, when her parents left her and her brother in America to pursue a job in South Korea. One...
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Ep. 3 | The Pandemic Diaries with JinJin Xu
We hope everyone is doing well during these uncertain times with the COVID-19 outbreak. In this episode Eugene speaks with his friend JinJin, who tunes in from quarantine in Macau. JinJin is an MFA candidate at NYU who previously pursued a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to speak with dislocated...
About this show
The Divided Families Podcast aims to provide a platform for connecting stories of family separation.For updates, follow us on Instagram at @DividedFamiliesPodcast, and contact us at [email protected]
Hosted by
Divided Families Podcast