How one event in history can ripple through generations of a family

By B.A. Parker,

Gene Demby, Christina Cala, Jess Kung, Xavier Lopez, Lori Lizarraga, Courtney Stein, Leah Donnella, Veralyn Williams, Emily Kwong, Minju Park, Anjuli Sastry Krbechek, Sara Sarasohn, Catherine Mailhouse

Published July 3, 2024 at 9:17 AM EDT

Inheriting is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations.

Content Warning: This episode contains racial slurs and discusses police brutality.

This week we're bringing you the first episode in a new series called Inheriting, created in collaboration with our friends at LAist Studios. In each episode, NPR's Emily Kwong sits down with Asian American and Pacific Islander families and explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities.

Episode 1: Carol & the Los Angeles Uprising

Carol Kwang Park was 12-years-old, working as a cashier at her family's gas station in Compton, California, when the 1992 L.A. Uprising forever changed her life.

Her mom was at the gas station that day and Carol was unsure if she'd even make it home. At the time, she didn't understand why tensions came to a head in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. She also never understood why her mother insisted on keeping the business going, especially after the Uprising.

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B.A. Parker

Gene Demby

Gene Demby is the co-host and correspondent for NPR's Code Switch team.

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Christina Cala

Christina Cala is a producer for Code Switch. Before that, she was at the TED Radio Hour where she piloted two new episode formats — the curator chat and the long interview. She's also reported on a movement to preserve African American cultural sites in Birmingham and followed youth climate activists in New York City.

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Jess Kung

Jess Kung (they/them) is a production assistant on Code Switch. Previously, they interned with Code Switch and the podcast The Document from KCRW in Santa Monica. They are a graduate of Long Beach State University.

Xavier Lopez

Xavier Lopez is a producer for Code Switch. He came to NPR from CNN Audio, where he helped produce shows such as Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and the inaugural season of Tug of War. Prior to that, Lopez worked at NPR member station WHYY in Philadelphia, where he worked on shows such as The Pulse, Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane and the daily news podcast, The Why.

Lori Lizarraga

Award-winning journalist Lori Lizarraga is a co-host of NPR's Code Switch, the preeminent podcast about race and identity in America. Before joining NPR, she reported across the country in Texas, California, Colorado and internationally in Ecuador. She has a reputation for breaking news and a passion and energy for covering under-reported communities, civil rights and issues surrounding immigration and Latinos in the U.S.

Courtney Stein

Courtney Stein comes to NPR from the New York Times, where she helped to create the weekly podcast First Person. Prior to that, she spent over a decade at WNYC's Peabody Award-winning Radio Rookies, teaching young people to report radio documentaries about issues important to them. While at WNYC, Courtney also helped to pilot the podcast Nancy and was on the team that created the dupont-Columbia award-winning podcast Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice, which began as a radio workshop she started in a juvenile detention center in Queens.

Leah Donnella

Leah Donnella is an editor on NPR's Code Switch team, where she helps produce and edit for the Code Switch podcast, blog, and newsletter. She created the "Ask Code Switch" series, where members of the team respond to listener questions about how race, identity, and culture come up in everyday life.

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Veralyn Williams

Veralyn Williams (she/her) is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist who has been asking hard questions about our world since she picked up her first microphone in 2004. Now she brings her skills (and ears) to her role as executive producer of programming at NPR.

Emily Kwong

Emily Kwong (she/her) is the reporter for NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. The podcast explores new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines — all in about 10 minutes, Monday through Friday.

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Minju Park

Anjuli Sastry Krbechek

Anjuli Sastry (she/her) is a producer on It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders and a 2021 Nieman Journalism Foundation Visiting Fellow. During her Nieman fellowship in spring 2021, Sastry created, hosted and produced the audio and video series Where We Come From. The series tells the stories of immigrant communities of color through a personal and historical lens.

See stories by Anjuli Sastry Krbechek

Sara Sarasohn

Catherine Mailhouse