Uplifting rich and diverse stories from our Asian Minnesotan community.
MinneAsianStories Podcast
The MinneAsianStories Podcast, co-produced by CAAL, The Uptake, and WFNU Frogtown Community Radio, brings you rich and diverse stories from our Asian Minnesotan community. These are real voices and real stories. Join us in reclaiming our narrative one story at a time.
Season 1: Uplifting rich and diverse stories from our Asian Minnesotan community.
Season 2: Honoring voices and histories from Asian Minnesotan social justice movements.
Episodes:
SEASON 2:
Episode 2.9: “Adoptee liberation is also connected to our shared liberation”
Episode 2.8: “Our healing is rooted in decolonizing ourselves”
Episode 2.7: “We’ve always had queer Hmong artists as a part of SOY”
Episode 2.6: “We were finally able to celebrate that part of ourselves”
Episode 2.5: “How do you get men to support your organization?… You don’t”
Episode 2.4: “Education should be used as a tool for liberation”
Episode 2.3: “We were born out of the people who started before us”
Episode 2.2: “Which started first, the dream or the dreamer?”
Episode 2.1: “Don’t give power to people who cannot see you”
SEASON 1:
Episode 1.8: “Is this what it means to be Asian in America?”
Episode 1.7: “This country viewed my mother as ‘unworthy’ of receiving a basic human right”
Episode 1.6: “I ask myself, when will others accept me as an American?”
Episode 1.5: “Would I remember all their names if they looked more like me?”
Episode 1.4: “I felt the strength that I needed to be out there capturing history”
Episode 1.3: “My classmates didn’t believe that I was Asian, so I brought in my mother for show-and-tell”
Episode 1.2: “We shared a love and pride for our people… Isn’t that what friendship is?”
Episode 1.1: “She was stomping and shooing me away like I’m some kind of wild animal”
Meet the podcast team
Julia Gay (she/they)
Host
Julia is an artist and community organizer committed to uplifting the intersections of justice, healing and the arts. Outside of the office, Julia is a dancer, playwright and stand-up comedian. She is currently a member of the MN Healing Justice Network and a steering committee member for the Network of Politicized Adoptees. In October 2019, Julia produced her one-woman show, Motherlanded, exploring her personal narrative as a Chinese adoptee. Learn more about her artistic work at www.juliagay.com.
Hannah Kinzer (she/her)
MinneAsianStories Correspondant
Hannah grew up just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota to pursue her graduate studies in public health at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is focused on advancing the health of all people by raising community voices in research. Her main research interests are in health communication and infectious disease. When she is not in class, doing research, or working, Hannah enjoys going for a run, playing boardgames, and trying new recipes. During the pandemic, Hannah has enjoyed listening to audiobooks, exploring new podcasts, and sustaining an ever-growing collection of plants.
Cirien Saadeh (she/they)
Producer & MinneAsianStories Correspondant
Cirien Saadeh is a journalist, educator, community organizer, and doctoral student who works at the intersections of journalism, social movements, experiential education, and sustainability. Saadeh is an Arab-American woman of color who has worked as a journalist for nearly a decade and was trained as a community organizer by the former Organizing Apprenticeship Project (now Voices for Racial Justice). She has written for local, national, and international publications and is committed to using journalism as a tool in the pursuit of justice for all historically disenfranchised communities. Saadeh is an experienced food justice organizer, who has also organized around tenant rights, transit equity, and immigrant justice. As a Ph.D. student at Arizona’s Prescott College, Saadeh is developing “journalism of color,” a new type of journalism practice which includes a community-based journalism curriculum, as well as a cooperative journalism model.
Katey DeCelle (she/her)
Editor
Katey DeCelle is an audio producer, writer and filmmaker out of Saint Paul, MN as well as a single mother and caregiver to people with disabilities. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit Frogtown Tuned-In and co-director of WFNU Frogtown Community Radio. She is the owner of the audio and video production company Sounds Powerful where she has created various podcasts and film projects for a variety of organizations and businesses. She is the marketing and social media strategist for Saint Paul Almanac, as well as manager of their solar powered story collector, Storymobile. Katey enjoys interviewing people, loves editing and exploring her favorite city, Saint Paul. She’s also a radio host, music DJ, loves animals, being outdoors, thrift store and funk music.