Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas

Summary

Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart
Episode: Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas (Aired May 13, 2026)
Main Theme:
Alison Stewart explores the new HBO documentary The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas. The episode features an in-depth conversation with filmmaker Eugene Yee and DJ Rekha, one of the documentary's subjects, delving into what it means to belong—personally, culturally, and generationally—within the Asian and Pacific diasporas in America. The episode discusses themes of identity, representation, assimilation, and the complexities of solidarity within such a broad community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Documentary’s Purpose: Defining Identity (02:43–03:35)

• Eugene Yee wanted to “explode and explore” the meaning of Asian American identity:
  • “Who are we talking about? Who do we think of? Is it someone who looks like me? ... If we can’t even define what our community is like, how can we talk about, you know, the bigger questions of solidarity and self?” (Eugene Yee, 02:52)
• The documentary is a collection of 15 intimate, one-on-one interviews with individuals from across the Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas, including celebrities and community heroes.

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2. Trust and Representation in Storytelling (04:02–05:38)

• DJ Rekha discussed the importance of trust in documentary projects:
  • “You just want to be sure where you’re...what you can go in a room where you can trust people.” (DJ Rekha, 04:56)
• Rekha described vetting the project for authentic representation by ensuring Asian Americans were behind the scenes.
• Eugene Yee emphasized the value of an AAPI crew and an atmosphere where interviewees “didn’t have to explain themselves and talk about like, oh, this is the food I eat...They could just kind of talk and be themselves.” (Eugene Yee, 06:06)

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3. Format and Interview Approach (05:38–08:01)

• The documentary follows a “bare bones” format, inspired by photographer Timothy Greenfield Sanders’ List series (e.g., The Blacklist for the African American community).
• Upfront preparation and research allowed participants to “connect about their passions,” without needing to explain the basics of their identity (Eugene Yee, 07:35).

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4. Belonging vs. Otherness – Personal Stories

Kumail Nanjiani on ongoing identity negotiation:

• “For me, the negotiation of my identity is still an ongoing project. …I don’t feel fully Pakistani because it’s not my home anymore. And I don’t feel American because your membership in a group is based on the other members seeing you as a member of that group.” (Kumail Nanjiani, 01:40)

Chef Ye Vang’s “stinky lunchbox” story:

• “Imagine being an 8-year-old kid...You get these kids who made fun of you and said your food stank...I threw my food away so that I could just be friends...And I would lie to [my mom].” (Ye Vang, 08:46)
• “We’re not done with those stories. That’s the reality of it.” (DJ Rekha, 09:49)
• “Something that just needs to be reasserted with every generation almost...” (Eugene Yee, 10:30)

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5. Pride and Complexity in Cultural Identity (11:04–13:43)

• DJ Rekha described herself as “the opposite of self-hating” (11:08), crediting her mother for instilling pride in her heritage.
• Rekha highlighted the diversity of experiences within the diaspora—distinguishing between class, generation, and inter-community solidarity.
  • “We’re not all white adjacent, we’re not all striving to be that...A lot of the reduction of experience is a class-based idea which is not discussed enough.” (DJ Rekha, 13:30)

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6. Visibility, Representation, and Community Heroes (15:17–17:42)

• Eugene Yee: “Representation is not liberation… The most visible among us feel like victories and they’re very important, but it doesn’t mean conditions change for the rest of us that look like that, though.” (Eugene Yee, 15:37, 16:17)
• The documentary includes both celebrities and community organizers, such as Japanese American activist Kathy Masaoka, to address “who are the heroes in the community?” (Eugene Yee, 16:47)
• Reparations for Japanese Americans are discussed as an under-recognized story of redress.
  • “Maybe reparations could be going to some other folks...It’s possible.” (DJ Rekha, 17:29)

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7. Assimilation and Generational Change (18:39–20:19)

• Connie Chung shared her own approach to assimilation in newsrooms—“I really was so convinced I was a man...when I walk past a mirror, I jump because I’d see a Chinese woman staring back at me.” (Connie Chung, 18:39)
• Both guests discussed how “assimilation” and experiences of being “othered” vary by generation, geography, language, and class.
• “What is it that people can have in common? ...We’re hoping...people can kind of come to their own conclusions about what might exist that might bind us together.” (Eugene Yee, 20:14)

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8. Navigating Exclusion and Microaggressions (20:19–23:50)

• DJ Rekha recounted feeling unwelcome or undervalued in some professional music spaces:

  • “I’m female bodied, I am...queer looking, I’m brown...those rooms happen, can happen in any space...You gotta figure out when to fight, when not to fight...” (DJ Rekha, 20:35)

• Discussed how women—especially those who don’t fit the “cookie cutter”—have less room to learn and make mistakes (23:13).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ye Vang’s heartbreaking reflection:
  “You fast forward like 30 years and feeling shame for that kid who didn’t know...” (Ye Vang, 09:27)
• DJ Rekha on pride:
  “I was always very into my culture, very proud about it, willing to be the cultural informant, you know. ...I didn’t have somewhat typical or sort of experiences. ...We’re not all white adjacent.” (DJ Rekha, 11:58–13:30)
• Nergis Mavalvala on being a minority and a maverick:
  “Being a minority has touched my life in many, many different ways. ...To be other is okay.” (Nergis Mavalvala, 14:12)
• Eugene Yee on representation:
  “Representation is not liberation.” (Eugene Yee, 15:37)
• DJ Rekha on reparations & history:
  “Every time I watch that...oh my God, yes, this country has paid reparations...So it’s possible.” (DJ Rekha, 17:29)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:40: Kumail Nanjiani on negotiation of identity
• 02:43–03:35: Eugene Yee on the film’s guiding question and identity
• 04:02–05:38: DJ Rekha on trusting storytellers
• 08:46–09:27: Ye Vang’s lunchbox and shame story
• 11:08: DJ Rekha: “I am the opposite of self-hating”
• 14:12: Nergis Mavalvala on embracing “otherness”
• 16:47–17:42: Kathy Masaoka and the history of reparations
• 18:39–19:11: Connie Chung on assimilation
• 20:30: DJ Rekha on navigating exclusion in creative industries

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Tone and Language

• The dialogue features candor, approachable humor, and moments of deep emotion as guests reflect on personal pain, pride, and resilience. Both Alison Stewart and her guests maintain a conversational, inclusive tone that invites listeners to reflect on their own experiences with identity, community, and belonging.

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Takeaways

• Identity is complex and evolving, especially in the Asian and Pacific diasporas.
• Representation matters, but true liberation demands structural and material change beyond just visibility.
• Generational, class, and regional differences shape the broad spectrum of diasporic experiences.
• The stories of community organizers and “unsung heroes” are as vital as those of celebrities.
• Navigating belonging and exclusion is a lifelong, situational process, requiring both pride in heritage and practical adaptation.
• The power of storytelling lies in authenticity, trust, and the celebration of community diversity.

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This episode of All of It weaves together humor, vulnerability, and critical insight on Asian and Pacific diasporic identities—making it an essential listen for anyone interested in the intersections of history, culture, and personal narrative.

Transcript

[WNYC Studios Announcer]

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[Alison Stewart]

You're listening to all of it. I'm Alison Stewart. I'm really glad that you're here. I want to preview tomorrow's show because it's a banger. That's because Grammy Award winning New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas will be here in studio. They have a new album out called the Last Balloon and they'll perform a few songs from it live from our own Studio 5+ we'll talk about two institutions marking their 15-50- anniversaries. MoMA PS1, which is celebrating with the new exhibit featuring 50 artists living and working in New York City, and the New York Transit Museum which is marking its golden anniversary with a series of special events and exhibits that is coming up tomorrow. Now let's get this hour started with the new documentary the A List. For a New Documentary. Filmmaker Eugene Yee asked a group of people with Asian and Pacific Islander roots. The question what does your identity in America mean to you? Here's how actor and comedian Kumail Nunjiani responded.

[Kumail Nanjiani]

For me, the negotiation of my identity is still an ongoing project. I still don't know. You know, if you asked how I identify myself, I say Pakistani. Wikipedia says Pakistani American. I don't really know what that means. So I don't feel fully Pakistani because it's not my home anymore. And I don't feel American because your membership in a group is based on the other members seeing you as a member of that group. And I understand that a lot of America is never going to see me as American. Fifteen others I don't feel American.

[Alison Stewart]

I'm so sorry. Fifteen other individuals were surveyed for the film included actor Sandra oh, journalist Connie Chung, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and my other guest, musician and friend of the show and Basement Bongra founder DJ Reika.

[DJ Rekha]

Hello.

[Alison Stewart]

Hello.

[DJ Rekha]

Friend of the show. Oh my go.

[Alison Stewart]

The documentary is titled The A list 15 stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas. It premieres on HBO today. Eugene, welcome to the studio as well as Rekha.

[DJ Rekha]

Thank you.

[Eugene Yee]

Great to Be here.

[Alison Stewart]

So, Eugene, what did you hope to get from that question? What does your identity in America mean to you?

[Eugene Yee]

I guess I can start by saying so we had the honor of being reviewed in the New York Times today, and the review was called the Diaspora Described. And that actually touches on something that we really wanted to think about, because when you think of Asian American, Aapi Anhpi, any of these umbrella terms that we're under, like, who are we talking about? Who do we think of? Is it someone who looks like me and I'm of East Asian descent? Is it someone who looks like Rekha, who has South Asian roots? It's probably someone who looks like me. And so if we can't even define what our community is like, how can we talk about, you know, the bigger questions of solidarity and self and, like, how we actually build something? And so exploding this identity, exploring this identity, these were some of the things that we were after.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Listeners, we're going to ask you the same. If you're part of the Asian or Pacific diaspora, call in and tell us,

[Alison Stewart]

how do you identify in America?

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

How have you navigated being defined by

[Alison Stewart]

others or defining yourself? Belonging, not belonging. Give us a call. Tell us how you're feeling.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Our Phone number is 212-433-WNYC 212-433-9692. Rekha, what was appealing to you about being in a documentary like this?

[DJ Rekha]

Well, it was hbo, true. But I got a request, and it was a. It was a short window, so I was trying to figure out if it worked. And then I was like, who's making? I'm always worrying, like, who's asking the questions? Are you making an Asian American film? Is it an Asian American? Are Asian Americans involved in it? Then I saw Eugene's name. Then I went and saw his movie, Free Cho Soo Lee, thank you. For you, it's Covid Long. Covid Brain. Free Cho. So, Lee, I saw his other movie last night, the Rose, which was excellent. I was like, okay, I really like this movie. I get it. I can trust this. And then someone who works with me, Salim Gandal is also a filmmaker. He said, oh, my friend Nosheen is the DP on this project. I was like, okay, it's getting better. So, yeah, that was enough vetting because I've definitely been around the block. And when I got an email from Zillow about making a video in Jackson Heights, I deleted that one. But, you know, you just want to be sure where you're. What you can go in a room where you can trust people.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

You use the word trust. What do you mean when you say you wanted to make sure you could trust?

[DJ Rekha]

You know, media, things get edited. You get asked sometimes the same questions. Things can be taken out of context, you can be prodded for answers. You know, you're putting yourself out there, you're talking about yourself. So I think that is something I'm aware of.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Eugene. It's a pretty simple format. 15 one on one interviews. When did that become clear to you? That was going to be your format.

[Eugene Yee]

So this film is actually part of a broader list series, starting by the Portrait, started by the Portrait photographer Timothy Greenfield Sanders. And so there are other installments of this series, all with the same format that cover different communities. So the very first one was called the Blacklist, and it explored the African American community. And it's gone on from there. And so the intent with that format was really to kind of have Timothy's portraits come to life. And so when we came on for this one, myself as well as our crew and our lead interviewer, Jada Yuan, who is a print journalist, we wanted to kind of preserve that format. And it was. It ended up being an interesting challenge because it really is so intimate and so simple. It's almost the bare bones of documentary filmmaking where it's like, can you have a moment? Can you sort of connect with someone quickly? And I think a big credit goes to Jada for just all of her skill and ability, as well as the fact that I think, you know, Reiko referred to this like, in terms of our dp, we tried to have as much as Aapi of a crew as possible so people could come in and feel like they were having a family conversation where they didn't have to explain themselves and talk about like, oh, this is the food I eat. It is made of A, B and C. Like they could just kind of talk and be themselves.

[DJ Rekha]

That's what we were hoping for. Jada did do a lot of the interviews, I understand, but Eugene interviewed me.

[Eugene Yee]

Reika was stuck with me.

[DJ Rekha]

Yeah. And I was pretty impressed. Did your homework. So a lot of times I have to eye roll. Try not to eye roll and explain the basics, but I didn't have to do that.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

That's interesting. What did your research go into? DJ Rekha, when you thought about interviewing them?

[Eugene Yee]

Rekha's well, Rekha is a legend, as folks know.

[DJ Rekha]

Still alive, though.

[Eugene Yee]

It's like awkward to talk about you in the third person.

[Alison Stewart]

You'

[Eugene Yee]

but what was interesting was to see over the years, like, I think the range of people who had interviewed them. And to see which interviews Rekha seemed to really come alive in. And those are the ones that I think were trying to do more of what we were trying to do as well. Really not have them explain everything and really just sort of like connect about their passions, what they're interested in, what they're up to, just what their mission is. And so that's what we were hoping to capture.

[Alison Stewart]

I'm speaking direct to director Eugene Yee about his new documentary, The A list 15 stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas. One of its subjects, DJ Rika, is also here. The documentary premieres on HBO today. Let's listen to another clip. This is a clip of Chef. I hope I pronounced this right. Yeah, Vang.

[Eugene Yee]

Ye Vang.

[Alison Stewart]

Ye Vang. Tell us about Ye Vang.

[Eugene Yee]

So, yeah, Vang is a James Beard Award finalist. He's currently based in Minneapolis from the Hmong community. And he runs a restaurant called Vinay, which is the refugee camp in Southeast Asia where he was born. And I think that's. Yeah, that's the context for him.

[Alison Stewart]

All right, we're going to listen to a little bit of him describing his childhood.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

This broke my heart.

[Alison Stewart]

This is from the A list.

[Ye Vang]

Imagine being an 8 year old kid. Your mom gives you lunch to take to school. She worked really hard to make sure that her boy was taken care of. The only way that she knew how was to cook. And then when you go to lunch, you get these kids who made fun of you and said your food stank and they didn't want you near them. You know what I did? I threw my food away so that I could just be friends so I can be cool. And I'd come home and I would lie to her saying, oh, yep, I ate everything. So that's like eight, nine year old. Yeah, right. And you fast forward like 30 years and feeling shame for like that kid who didn't know, you know, oh, that

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

one just broke my heart. What was exceptional about his answer, Eugene?

[Eugene Yee]

You know, his emotionality and how it connects with what he does now? Because I'll say this, there are. I feel like there are circles and conversations I'm in where people are like, you know, are we done with stinky lunchbox stories? We've heard a lot of stinky lunchbox stories over the years.

[DJ Rekha]

Like, yeah, it's a trope, but at the same time I cry each time I watch that. I'm veklempt every time. And we have some version of that story, you know, went to the Public Theater one time and someone said, does it smell like a curry house? After I'd just eaten something from Kebab King. But you know what? We're not done with those stories. That's the reality of it, is that we're not done is because to. To be. To not always. To not be visible in the way or to not have your heritage or be part of the fabric of this country in terms of its history, which it definitely is. I don't think we're done.

[Eugene Yee]

Yeah. And I think to build on that, like, it's something that just needs to be reasserted with every generation almost is what it felt like. Because I would talk to young people and, you know, they're not done with stinky lunchbox stories. So maybe it's just part of being like a washed dad. And I'm just like, tired of like, some of these stories also Gen X. But ultimately, like, these are the stories that we need to do to sort of continue and maintain and almost hold a baseline for who we are, especially in this time right now, where so much of our visibility and ourselves are being threatened and erased, even.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Ricky, you describe yourself in it as the opposite of self hating.

[DJ Rekha]

Yes.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Which was awesome, by the way.

[DJ Rekha]

Yeah, I am.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[DJ Rekha]

I saw the power in white baiting. Sorry. I think early on, I think people. My mother instilled a great sense of pride in me about where we were from, and I think I definitely inherited her curiosity about everything. So, you know, she got me a lot of books about our heritage, those comic books, some of them not the Hindu fascist ones, but the other ones. And I was always curious to know about where I was from. And I also knew that in school it was a way to connect with teachers. Like, people would be, you know, saying, like, I've been to an Indian restaurant. I'm like, oh, really?

[Eugene Yee]

Where?

[DJ Rekha]

And I think I kind of used it and as. As a way to connect with people because I was. I was proud of it and I did know about it. And so. And I didn't grow up in a white suburb, which is very common about. From a certain. It's a certain experience of post 65 South Asians of a certain class. And I think the overrepresentation of that class invisibilizes the many generations of other Asians and South Asians who've come here on different circumstances. You know, people who've come. I mean, there have been Asians coming to this country since it was done, you know, and also great. Which one reason of immigration anywhere is labor, you know, so, yeah, So I think for me, I was always very into my culture, very proud about it, willing to be the cultural informant, you know. Yeah. So that's how I felt. I didn't have somewhat typical or sort of experiences. You grow up and you're not very proud of who you are, then you go to college and then you join the bunger team or something. No, I went to college with so many South Asians of every stripe. It wasn't that. And I think that is an experience, a cultural experience that is not discuss enough. That we're not all white adjacent, we're not all striving to be that. That some of us live in communities of color, different kinds of communities. And a lot of the reduction of experience is a class based idea which is not discussed enough.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

I think we're talking about the A list, 15 stories from Asian and Pacific diasporas. It's on HBO tonight. It premieres on HBO tonight. My guests are director Eugene Yee as well as DJ Rika.

[Alison Stewart]

We're going to play a.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

A clip from a Pakistani American astrophysicist.

[Eugene Yee]

I'm going to ask you to say Nergis Mavalvala.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Thank you very much. What should we know about her before we hear this clip?

[Eugene Yee]

She's a MacArthur genius. She's a genius. Let's listen.

[Nergis Mavalvala]

Being a minority has touched my life in many, many different ways. And the most significant way is a total comfort with being a maverick, being an outsider in the mainstream, whether it is being comfortable being a queer person when it was pretty hard to be a queer person, to working on a physics experiment that everybody thought was sure to fail and that you're foolish to try to be other is okay. Just by being a scientist and being a South Asian or Pakistani American and being a queer person and being able to say all those things and yet have success in science has meant other people can imagine that for themselves as well.

[Alison Stewart]

What do you hear in her answer, Rekha?

[DJ Rekha]

I hear. I mean identify on the queer part, I think, you know, it resonates with me what she's saying about, you know, being able to be who you are or how you feel.

[Alison Stewart]

Definitely the film includes very famous people, Sandra oh, Bowen, Yang. But also names that you might not know. Eugene, why was that important?

[Eugene Yee]

Because we didn't just want to be like, so star. Sorry, no cursing. You know what I mean?

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, we do.

[Eugene Yee]

We didn't want to be so focused because I think so much of it leans into this idea that, you know, like, I'm a fir. I'm a staunch believer in the idea that like, representation is not liberation. And Rekha has said this before, we were just in San Francisco, we're on the panel, we sort of broke down this idea. So often the most visible among us feel like victories and they're very important. It's very important to see ourselves among the stars and among the most high profile people out there. It doesn't mean conditions change for the rest of us that look like that though, because so much about America, you know, takes our labor and does certain things with it or if. Or just, well, we don't have to get into all that. There's just so many ways that having someone who's famous that looks like you does not change the actual material conditions of your life. So who's in the community? Who are the heroes in the community? Who are the people that we want to be talking about and elevating, who are doing more of that kind of work? We wanted to make sure to have that balance. And this reflects the rest of the List series as well, where they had this mix of high profile folks and less well known folks who are still heroes in their communities and whose stories deserve to be told just as much.

[Alison Stewart]

What's an example?

[Eugene Yee]

An example would be Kathy Masaoka, who's a Japanese American activist, long time in Southern California, who was one of the central members of a lot of the work that went into getting reparations for the Japanese American community after the incarceration in concentration camps during World War II. And what was important to us was one, you know, Kathy Masaoka, after consulting with folks in the Japanese American community, was someone that folks felt like hadn't gotten her flowers. And so we wanted to make sure of that. But also to just kind of, you know, insert this idea of reparations. Just say, hey, this country's kind of done this before. Yeah, you know, maybe there are other communities and other kinds.

[DJ Rekha]

Yeah, maybe reparations could be going to some other folks. Every time I watch that, I mean, and I'm like, oh my God, yes, this country has paid reparations to the. So it's possible.

[Eugene Yee]

It's possible.

[DJ Rekha]

You know, like, let's just, I mean, I said it on the panel, like, has anyone thought about payback for redlining? You know, like, there's been such so much deep generational harm done to so many communities that, you know, in some ways the power of that story is about the story itself and what it, how it reflects that. It's indicative of, of how those things have affected other communities as well and how Much. I mean, I grew up learning about Asian and black solidarity in the West Coast. Informing of Asian American studies, you know, that's a history that's also in the film as well, which I think is really powerful. And people don't always, like, know those things, you know?

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

I want to play you a clip of Connie Chung. She came here to talk about her memoir and how she. She was able to get along early in her career. Let's play it and we can talk about it on the other side.

[WNYC Studios Announcer]

Since they were throwing f bombs around, I thought, why can't I? It just made no sense that if they were throwing sexual innuendos at me with words that most people wouldn't use, I could do it too. What was keeping me back from it? I really was so convinced I was a man. As I say in the book, when I walk past a mirror, I jump because I'd see a Chinese woman staring back at me and I'd say, what the.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

That was very interesting. Her idea of assimilation. How is assimilation handled in the documentary?

[Eugene Yee]

I think it's such a different situation for each person because I think there are some people who do come from dealing with more of a sense of other feeling othered or shame even. And then there are stories like Rekha's, where they grew up feeling none of that at all and everything in between and just sort of where the journey takes a person from there.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

It's all generational, I think, a little bit.

[Eugene Yee]

Yeah, absolutely. It's generational. And that connects with language, that connects with where you are as well. You know, whether there's a community around you or whether there isn't one around you. I mean, so many factors go into this, and it speaks to the breadth of the people who are, again, under this umbrell. Because, I mean, we're talking ultimately, everybody who's Asian American or Pacific Islander has roots there. It's like half to two thirds of the world. Like, what is it that people can have in common? And so what we're hoping with the film is that people can kind of come to their own conclusions about what might exist that might bind us together.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Rekha, have you ever found yourself in a room that you knew either the people didn't respect you or perhaps didn't want you in the room?

[DJ Rekha]

Yes, all the time. Not all the time. Yeah, of course it happens.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

What did you learn from those experiences?

[DJ Rekha]

I mean, you know, as I've said in the film and I say all the time, you know, identity is complex. And I mean, I've been in Those rooms in the music business, you know, where it's like, you know, I'm female bodied, I am, you know, queer looking, I'm brown. So they don't, you know, they're going to someone who has more conventional looks or they assume something else or they don't, you know, those rooms happen, can happen in any space. And, you know, I think it's. Again, I always say it's situational. You gotta figure out when to fight, when not to fight, what does, what makes sense. You know, where's the agency? I think over time, unfortunately, you develop a skin for it. And I, you know, I mean, I think there were times when it definitely used to bother me. I'm like, I know more, or, you know, something, something. And it takes a toll on an individual for sure. It definitely does. But, you know, I think depending on the room, you know, you have to figure it out. I mean, sometimes you just, you kind of need to be introduced somehow or like, sometimes, you know, it's hard. I find it hard to, you know, I. When you're on a panel and you have to introduce yourself, that's like the worst thing. Like, I don't know what to say, you know, like, you let other people

[Eugene Yee]

do it for you.

[DJ Rekha]

Yeah. You kind of want somebody else to do it for you. There's something about that. Maybe that's an Asian trait, to be a little humble. I don't know. Yeah. You know, and your parents don't say nice things about you in front of you. I don't know if that's Cuts across ethnicities or whatever.

[Ye Vang]

It hits me, it rings true for me.

[DJ Rekha]

Rings true. Rings true somewhat. Yeah. So I think, you know, you have to just sort of navigate each thing. I think, you know, no matter what, take any situation. Women are 100%, always underrepresented in any way anyway. I love that there's this solidarity amongst talk show hosts about the end of someone's show and you look at the picture and it's like, oh, my God, that picture. That picture is so.

[Eugene Yee]

Love them all.

[DJ Rekha]

I love them all.

[Alison Stewart]

At the same time,

[DJ Rekha]

I love them all. And it's like two of them have the same first name. So you know exactly from a distance. So maybe they should form a boy. No, that's a bad idea. That's a bad idea.

[Eugene Yee]

Don't give them more ideas.

[DJ Rekha]

Right. Let me not. They ain't free, these ideas. Okay.

[Eugene Yee]

Anyway, guys in late night are very seen.

[DJ Rekha]

Yes, they are. And you know, and we've had other people try to do late night and the thing I notice about TV is if you are not cookie cutter, you don't have time to learn how to do the show. You don't have enough time to figure it out. You have to get it right really fast. And that happened to me in a professional circumstance where I was around male colleagues who bragged about their ignorance in the job. And then within a short time frame, I wasn't given that same, you know, allowance to. To, like, figure it out. Yeah, and that's. That's just reality, you know?

[Alison Stewart]

The name of the documentary is The A list 15 stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas. It premieres tonight on hbo. Thanks to DJ Rekka and director Eugene Yee. Thanks for coming to the studio.

[DJ Rekha]

Thank you so much for having us.

[Unidentified Host/Interviewer]

Hi, I'm Maggie Smith, poet and host of the Slowdown. Each weekday, I share a poem and a moment of reflection, helping you turn listening into a daily ritual. It's five minutes to slow down, pay attention, and begin the day with intention. Find it in your favorite podcast app and make the Slowdown your new daily poetry practice.