NPR reporter Emily Kwong has always been drawn to people. As a baby, she made direct eye contact with everyone around her. As Kwong got older, she would chat with store cashiers and insist on being the one to call in pizza orders over the phone.
“I have this immense curiosity about other people in our lives … and I always felt like that was a bit of an odd quality to have such an interest in talking to strangers,” Kwong says. “But it’s been fascinating to discover audio journalism, a career where deep listening is a good thing, especially in our on-the-go sound bite–filled society, where we are just misunderstanding each other more and more.”
Kwong, a third-generation Chinese American, discovered a love for radio journalism in college as a DJ for Columbia University’s student radio station before joining NPR in 2019. She is most well known for founding and co-hosting NPR’s science podcast, “Short Wave,” and this past May, she launched a new podcast called “Inheriting.” Mochi recently sat down with Kwong to hear about creating and hosting the new show and building community for Asian Americans at NPR.
Choosing What We Inherit
If journalists play favorites, Kwong’s most recent project might be hers. Kwong is part of an all-Asian team that created “Inheriting,” produced by LAist Studios and distributed by NPR. The first season features seven families reckoning with major moments in Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) history, and how the impact of those events ripples through generations. These seven were among more than 100 people who responded to a call to participate.
Kwong describes the podcast as something that she’s been preparing for her whole life, combining her natural curiosity to know people’s stories, a desire to tell the often-untold history of AAPI communities, and the belief that all people deserve support in processing hard things.
“[AAPI] histories have defined the world, and many aunties and uncles are not so…
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