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5.23.2025

They Call Us Strangers in the Land

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.


What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome Michael Luo, executive editor at The New Yorker and author of the book Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America, an epic narrative history of the Chinese in America, and their more than century-long struggle to belong in the face of bigotry, persecution, exclusion and racial terror. Michael talks about the real-life racist incident that partially inspired the project; the complexities and quirks of Chinese American immigration history; some of the fascinating stories and characters he uncovered during his extensive research for Strangers in the Land; and the alarming parallel connections between past and current debates on immigration, citizenship, and our multiracial democracy.




Our theme music is by Kero One.

They Call Us Bruce is a member of the Potluck Podcast Collective.

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