The Department of Justice (and Michael Kosta) try to gaslight Ronny Chieng about a suddenly "nonexistent" Jeffrey Epstein client list, Trump lists Benjamin Netanyahu as a reference on his Nobel Peace Prize application, and the TSA ends their foot fetish.
Ronny checks in on the status of Trump's trade war, including the president's half-firm decision on another tariff delay and his new international trade pen pal, "Mr. Japan."
Michael Luo, author of "Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America" and executive editor at The New Yorker, joins Ronny Chieng to discuss the untold stories of Asian American persistence and resilience in the face of bigotry. They talk about one of the worst mass lynchings in America involving Chinese immigrants, Wong Kim Ark’s Supreme Court fight for birthright citizenship, the pertinence of chronicling 19th-century expulsion during the Trump administration, and how this book became a 160,000-word response to a racial abuse incident on the Upper East Side.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central, from.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The most trusted journalist at Comedy Central is America's only
source for news. This is the Daily Show with your
host Frinny Day.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh my god, welcome the damn show. I'm right check.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We got so much to talk about tonight, the TSA
ends its foot fetish, the trade war gets semi erect
and great news pedophiles, the Epstein list doesn't exist.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Party tonight at Chuck E Cheese. So let's get into
the headlines. Let's kick things off with today's biggest news.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Because I know a lot of people out here always like, oh,
the news is so awful. Everything is terrible. I hate fascism,
doos on the airway. Well, stop whining, Okay, because finally there's.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Some great news for America.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
A senior government official says the TSA will no longer
require travelers to take off their shoes at security checkpoints.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
All right, say gee, yay, che yes, say.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Yes, say.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
People will chure anything.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yes, the TSA finally got fed up with yelling at
people to take the shoes off, just like Asians and
white people visit. Just take your shoes off, your barbarians, Okay,
there is no argument for shoes in the house. This
feces on the sidewalk anyway. Ending this policy is long overdue.
It's twenty twenty five. Terrorists don't crash airplanes anymore, okay,
(01:55):
Boeing crashes airplanes.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
The only people this is not good for is elitest
like me who and I don't want.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
To brag here, have pre check What benefits do I
still have over you? Please? Because I pay to keep
my shoes on, and.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Now what everyone else is just keeping their shoes on
for free?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So what the fuck am I paying for?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I should be allowed to wear two pairs of shoes
and have a loaded gun or four ounces of liquid. Okay,
give me something. Okay, that's enough good news. Let's move
on to Donald Trump. Yesterday he had a dinner with
Benjamin nan Yahoo, Israeli Prime Minister, and kosherthenos. And you
(02:46):
know how whenever a world leader visits Trump and they
have to butter him up with a special surprise, Well,
Bibe went all out.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Not the White House.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Last night, the President hosted a dinner for Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister gave him a letter
nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I want to present to you, mister President, the letter
I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And you should get it. Thank you very much. This
I didn't know.
Speaker 7 (03:19):
Well, thank you very much, all right, coming from you
in particular, this is a very meaningful.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, Peace Prize nomination from Nan Yahoo is very meaningful,
right up there with a Husband of the Year nomination
from OJ Simpson. But mister Nan Yahoo, let me tell
you something. If you think you can get Trump to
keep sending military aid Israel by sucking up to him,
well guess what you can expect that money in your
(03:48):
beg account by close a business.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Let's move on to the.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Last Bipolisan issue in America. What happened to Jeffrey at Stay.
We've all been waiting for you years for more details
to come out about his crimes and his mysterious death.
And now that Trump's in office and he said he'll
release the information, we can finally get some answers.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
The DOJ says it's case closed on Jeffrey Epstein's alleged
client list and his death.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
After months of promising the public release of the Jeffrey
Epstein client list. The Justice Department, the FBI now saying
the client list doesn't exist.
Speaker 8 (04:23):
The DJ says it will not be releasing any more
material from the case files.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
That's it. It's just not going to release any more information.
I've never been ghosted by a conspiracy before. I mean,
this is crazy. I could have sworn that someone said
there was an Epstein client list.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
Who was that.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Will that really happen.
Speaker 8 (04:51):
It's sitting on my desk right now to review.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Oh yeah, the Attorney General of the United States said
the my list was on a desk. Let me guess
your desk also hung itself, Pan BONDI was supposed to
release the pedophile list. If we wanted an attorney general
to cover up sex crimes, we would have stuck with
mc geetz.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
At this point, it's like the only way we can
learn about who is a certified pedophile is if Kendrick
Lahma makes a song about them. Look, I don't know
what to believe anymore. Okay, can you just declassify something?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
The Justice Department also releasing more than ten hours of
purported footage, which they say supports medical examiners finding Epstein
died by suicide while in custody in twenty nineteen. The
video allegedly shows the view from across epstein cell door
in a Manhattan prison, indicating no one entered the area
(05:48):
the night he died?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Is that background music to that?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Finally, some transparency from this administration, conclusive evidence that leaves
no room for debate.
Speaker 8 (06:01):
The release of that surveillance video has fueled.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Some conspiracies itself. There appears to be a missing minute
at midnight.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It's very interesting that at the eleven fifty eight mark
and fifty eight second the video jumps to twelve o'clock
and it's missing a full sixty one seconds.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
What is going on here?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Why would they edit out sixty one seconds? Was Epstein
listening to a Beatles song and the government couldn't get
the rights to it?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And if that wasn't suspicious enough.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
When Trump was asked about it in his cabinet meeting today,
he was over it.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
Are you still talking about Jeffrey Everystein? This guy's been
talked about for years? Are people still talking about this guy?
That's creepy, That is unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, why are you guys obsessed with the suspicious death
of my best friend in a federal prison when I
was president, right before he was going to be on.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Truffle sex trafficking.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
It's so boring. But yeah, Epstein is old news. Trump
is not going to use up his precious cabinet meeting
time talking about somebody from years and years ago.
Speaker 9 (07:10):
That's a gentleman named and we call him President Polk.
He was sort of a real estate too late, like
two twelve Jerones for the Dallas coup over there is
unstableing Nklin Delan Rosen member when Bill Clinton had it
and he rented it after Petty Roosevelt went out, And
you have Dwight Eisenhower, who was a very underrated president,
(07:32):
built the Interstag Quincy Adams Missus Adams.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
They were the first.
Speaker 9 (07:37):
Do you ever see John Lovetz the Liar where he
goes Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I guess I can see why you didn't have any
time to talk about Jeffrey Epstein. For more on this
sudden ending to the Epstein case, let's go live to
the Justice Department with Michael Costam.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Michael Michael. There are so many questions left to answer.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Not at all, Ronnie. I spoke to top Justice Department officials,
and trust me when I say that there's no story here.
Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list, He did
not get murdered in prison. He actually never even existed.
Albeit the daven Busters down the street. See you later, Ronnie,
thanks cost.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
The hold on. Can you elaborate. I'd be happy to
you elaborate.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I own the high score on buck Hunter, and that's
a game at Davenbusters, which is an adult arcade that
I go to after work every day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, no, no, not that.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I mean, they can't just say Jeffrey Epstein didn't exist.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
We all saw photos of him, we think.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
We did, but it was just one of those collective
false memories. It's like how many Americans believe there was
a movie starring Shaquille O'Neil called Shazam, but what there
never was a Shaquille O'Neal, and there's no Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
See you Headbusters.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait then whose client
list that Pam Bondi had on a desk?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
That was all a misunderstanding. It looked like a client list,
but you know what it was. It was actually just
a list of an old BuzzFeed list of the top
ten pokemon most likely to help you jumpstart your car.
You want to talk scandal, they only have Squirtle at
number seven.
Speaker 10 (09:29):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Michael? How can you believe all this?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Ronnie? Let me let me.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Let me ask you a question. Do you really think
there's a cabal of millionaires out there who have the
power to kill Jeffrey Epstein in prison and force the
President of the United States to cover it up?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Well, when you say it out loud like that, yeah,
I do.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, Okay, and I do too, all right, And I
want that cabal to know that I'm just guy with
a high scoring buck hunter who's happy with whatever explanation
they want me to believe.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I'm good, good we want so that's it. Then, what's
gonna move on? Ronnie?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Ronnie, there's so many other juicy scandals out there. Have
you seen this newly released Diddy client list? Let's check
out the names on it. Holy shit. You know what,
turns out this list actually never existed, So.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
God damny, Michael costs that everyone.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
When we come back, we'll find out who's gonna wing
this trade walt So don't go away.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Welcome back to Daily Show.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
The stock market is crashing, which means Donald Trump is
talking about terrorists again. Let's get into it with another
installment of trade wars.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
My favorite word, my favorite word, taraffics.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Last April, Donald Trump imposts brutal terrorists on every country
in the world because he doesn't give a But then
the economy crashed and it turns out he does give
a folk, so he delayed the terrorists ninety days, but
tomorrow those ninety days are up.
Speaker 11 (11:35):
This morning, President Trump threatening Steve Terrence on America's trading partners,
sending letters to more than a dozen world leaders.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
That's right, typed out letters, old school in shoppy.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The terrorists hit tomorrow, and there's no pushing it back
this time.
Speaker 11 (11:53):
Those terrans were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, but
the President pushing it back until August first.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
All right, we'll pushing it back one more time. But
August first, is it?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Right?
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Is the August one deadline?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Firm?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Now?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Is that it?
Speaker 10 (12:10):
Because you're moving in now, I would say firm firm.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
August first is one hundred firm I would say firm,
but not one hundred. Do you need a pill for
that because they make a pill for that?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Seriously, what what the fuck? I don't know what the
terrorists are anyway, just give us a number. Also, speak
your firm lines. Can you just please blend your makeup
a little bit better?
Speaker 5 (12:49):
All right?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Just look at this. He does his makeup the same
way missus doubt fire does. Hello.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Now you might be wondering why Trump is sending letters
instead of making trade deals with these countries. Luckily, Treasury
Secretary Bessence went on the news to clarify.
Speaker 8 (13:10):
The president has a reputation self described deal maker. So
why haven't we seen the kind of deals that he
promised in the last ninety days When we send out
one hundred letters to these countries that will set their
tariff right, So we're going to have a one hundred
done in the next few days. And that's not a deal,
(13:30):
that's a threat.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, that's the level, that's the deal. Okay. I see,
First of all, a letter of letters not a deal.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
It's a letter.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Second, could we give the Treasury secretary a seat with
a little more dignity, something, something that doesn't look like
he's in a high chair.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Maybe like, Hey, it comes into the question for.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
You, weird.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I guess there's not gonna be any deals. Trump is
just just gonna send letters to all the world leaders
announcing what their terrif rate is gonna be. And he
definitely knows all these leaders my name.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I'm gonna send letters. That's the end of the shradia.
I could send one to Japan.
Speaker 9 (14:23):
Okay, mister Japan, here's the story.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
That's right, Dear mister Japan, I'm imposing teriffs on your
starting tomorrow unless you say no, that is August first.
I'm not firm. Sincerely, mister America aka missus doubt fire.
When we come back, Michael Low, will you join me
(14:53):
on the show, so don't call away?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Welcome back to the Daily Show. I guess tonight is
an executive.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Editor The New Yorker and author of the new book
Strangers in Land, Exclusion, Belonging and the Epic Story of
the Chinese in America. Please welcome Michael law. Hey, Hey,
(15:43):
give you a standul vasion for the writers. Yeah, applaud
the writers. We need to applaud the writers. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
We love readers. We need people to read. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Speaking of reading.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Do you like these flags I put in your book
to make it look like I read this Ian. I
chose different colors too.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
You read it, you read it, or you're producers.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
No, I read it. It was great.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
This book is great because it's about the history of
Asians in America and there's something for everyone. If you
like Asians, you learn a lot about Asian history. And
if you don't like Asians, boy, you'll love this book.
And it's tons of horrible shit happens the Asians. You
couldn't the book, so man, I didn't know there was
so much horrible shit that happened to Asians.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
There are a lot of bad stuff. There's a lot
of white violence. Yeah, why you don't know about this? Yeah,
that's actually why I wrote the book. This history goes
back more than a century and it's part of the
American story. There's the worst mass lynching in America actually
(16:49):
happened in Los Angeles in eighteen seventy one. Nineteen men
were killed, eighteen of them lynched, and they were Chinese.
It was not black Americans. There was this horrific period
that I'm sure very few people in the audience have
heard of, called the Driving out this period eighteen eighty
five eighteen eighty six, where dozens of communities is nearly
(17:11):
two hundred communities, the American West violently physically expelled the
Chinese from their communities, And yeah, we do. I didn't
know this history before I this this book.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
This turning out period continues till today.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
But driving out I mean that that I didn't.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
I thought I was publishing this book into a second
Biden administration and it would be kind of a relatively
sedate time for this book to come out, But came
out in a second Trump administration, and I feel the
resonance of it every single day.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right Unfortunately, So this this I want to get to
the kind of lessons in history. But I mean again,
you know, you touch on some highlights of this book,
some pretty awful highlights. I mean, you know, it's some
almost like a who's who of horrible stuff that happened
to Chinese people. But like, what again, why do you
think we don't know about this stuff?
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Well?
Speaker 6 (18:04):
I mean, I think history is written by the powerful,
and the powerless are often left out of history. Historians
talk about the archives and and and what is left
behind and whose stories are left behind and the and
the sad thing is the and the tricky thing is
(18:24):
there aren't very many Chinese voices in the archives. You
have to really hunt for it. This book starts in
the gold Russ and I and I compare it to
Sifting for Gold. You that when you read through the
documents from the past, you have to look hard to
bring out those voices.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Sure, what's really cool is you tell it through this
kind of narrative of people.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Yeah, so it is actually yeah, not all just now,
not at all, not at all, not all.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
I mean, I think of it as like writers talk
about like a three acts structure, and where there's a
protagonist to confront say, conflict, and they and there's this
kind of rising tension in complications and then there's usually
some sort of resolution and you know in the sort
of feel good things is when they kind of overcome
(19:15):
and and you know, the heart of this book is
this violence and bigotry that the Chinese and America experienced
in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
But the Chinese persisted obviously.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
You know, you know, you and I are sitting here
and talking and we were part of that story. And
it really is a story of resilience.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Sure, and I mean, you talked about the digging for gold,
and that's really what's really cool here is that you
did dig for the photos of people you managed to find.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Yeah who.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You know, the lost the history.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, but you managed to find the photos and maybe
tell a fragment of what happened.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
No.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I mean a little example of we mentioned the Chinese
massacre in Los ange Uh. You know, there were nineteen
people who were killed, and I think it's so important
to say their names and so we can know who
they are and and and tell their stories. And you know,
we know their names because there were corners reports and
things like that. But but you're trying to build a story.
(20:16):
And and there was this herbalist, a doctor who named
Jeene Tong, who was one of the most well known
Chinese figures in Los Angeles, and and I tried to
build that chapter around his story. And one of the
just one little detail just shows how we do our
work is there was he was killed, he was lynched,
(20:37):
and and afterwards a reporter went through his apartment which
had been torn apart, and and there was blood everywhere,
and his possessions everywhere, and there was a pet poodle
he had a pet poodle that him and his wife
kept in their house, that that was under this table
with a broken leg and whimpering. And I just thought
that detail was so humanizing too, because that's in the
(21:00):
and what we need to be able to do is
to move past the level of abstraction and see these
people as humans.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Is that anyone in this book who didn't get lynched. Yeah,
there are a lot of people who didn't get with
some contribution to America that you can well.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
I mean the name wan Ki mark I Hope is
familiar to folks that his name has been the news.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
He he he was a.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Born in the United States and Exclusion Act so well
he was so he was born in San Francisco, and
and the Supreme Court through his case when he came
he went to back to China, and when he's tried
to come back in uh, they tried to deny his
right to land and and he said, I'm an American citizen.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
I was born in the United States.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
And and what they were trying to do at that
point is is what Trump is trying to do right
now and say no, you're you you were would they
acknowledged that he was born in the United States, but
they were saying that Chinese being born in the United
States shouldn't be American citizens, and went all the way
to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court affirmed the
right to both birthright citizenship, which is in the fourteenth Amendment,
(22:10):
and the fact that you know, many people, generations of
people who have you know, descendants of immigrants are American
citizens is owed to one k Mark, right, and.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
We don't know that. We don't know that to U.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Sadly, we should know that, we said we should know that.
I mean, the other thing about one King Mark is
that I actually didn't know. And maybe the larger story
him is known by some people. His troubles with immigration
didn't end after this really famous Supreme Court case. A
couple of years later, he was arrested at the border.
Even though people this Chinese inspector down they looked at yeah, yeah, well,
(22:50):
they searched through his phone exactly and uh, and they
hassled him and eventually they let him go. But his
sons who were American right exactly. They're his sons who
are American citizens through who were born in China. But
there were American citizens through him. When they tried to
enter the United States. They were also hassled, and one
(23:12):
of them was actually sent back to China. It's a
pretty incredible story that his problems just didn't end there.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
So, I mean, from all this and you know, kind
of what we know about history, it seems pretty obvious that,
like when the British came to America and founded America
with these ideals of freedom of religion and birth right citizenship,
they were like.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Oh, we meant it for us. We didn't mean you guys.
You guys weren't supposed to use this same thing.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
We just meant did generally.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So like, what does that mean for people? Now? You
know that we ye tried to live up to these
ideals that it's like the people who founded it didn't
even intend for that to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Yeah, and then yeah, they're totally right.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
There were there were no federal laws regulating immigration until
the Chinese Exclusion in Act in eighteen eighty two. And
you know, initially America's America was open people people.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
They wanted people to come.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
And you know, when this book tells the story of
what ten what what, how the country responded when tens
of thousands of people who spoke a different language, looked
different from the you know, the racial hierarchy, the racial
hierarchy that existed then had a different religion. When they
(24:31):
started landing on American shores. What what happened? How did
we respond? And obviously the it feels really resonant to
this moment, is not the story just the story of
the Chinese American It is the story of any number
of immigrant groups who have been.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Treated as strangers.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
That's the title of the book, Strangers in the Land
comes from a Supreme Court decision that upheld when the
Chinese exclusion laws and the Supreme Court just just refer
to the Chinese in a derogatory way as a group
of people that couldn't assimilate with the rest of us
and say it called them strangers in the land. And
(25:10):
you could say the same thing is happening. That's what's
in Stephen Miller's head when he's, uh, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
It seems like a nice guy, are you castings.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
He's reading this book and getting some ideas and and
and changing his mind.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah yeah, I mean, what do you uh like the
I remember when you got inspired to write this book?
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah you yeah, Now that's the journey you're talking about
this moment that happened on this street in twenty sixteen
on the Upper East side of Manhattan, you know, just
across town from here. It was after church on a Sunday,
and a group of friends of my all Asian Americans,
Uh and my family were We were on the We
were blocking the sidewalk in this well dressed white woman.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
You yeah, we were.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
We were annoying, yeah, and she brushed past us, annoyed
that that we were in her way, and she said, uh,
as she brushed past her shoes, she said, uh, go
back to China. And and and and I was like
kind of stunned, and and and then I kind of
abandoned my my daughter, who was two daughters, one of
(26:27):
them was two, was in the stroller that she's in
the audience here and and.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Uh Ran.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Ran Ran sprinted, hang on, you guys.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Sprinted after her and confronted this woman. And we were
kind of going back and forth, and uh, she yelled
down the street, Uh, go back to your effing country.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Uh. I guess I could say go back to your country.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
And here on the Daily Show, and and and and
I was trying to come up with some smart respons
like the adrenalines flowing and I and I yelled, I
was born.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
In this country. It was such a pathetic.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
Response and and I and I ended up writing a
piece for The New York Times about how a lot
of uh Asian Americans feel otherwise and and like strangers
in the land. And that was kind of what set
me on the journey to write this book. And that
that that piece went viral. Uh, yeah, that was it
(27:28):
was it was. I tweeted about it, Build de Blasio
tweeted about it.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
But it was this moment.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
It was really just an ordinary moment, uh, but it
really moved something in me because I was thinking about
my kids and thinking about you know, I was walking
away and I was thinking about, even though their two
generations removed from my parents immigrant experience, would they ever
feel like they truly belonged in this country? And and
that is uh, well what what stuck with me. And
(27:56):
it was a couple of years later, during the pandemic
when we had that surgeon violence against Asian Americans, the
Atlanta SPA attacks where several uh Korean immigrant women were killed,
and and I started to look into this history that
I that I didn't know that I felt like this,
this story were part of the story of America, and
(28:17):
yet it's not widely known.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Right, And I guess what you're saying is some racial
abuse inspired you to write a five hundred would response
was I came up with.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
You know, like, after you know you have on these
encounters and you're kicking yourself with what to say, I
decided to write one hundred and sixty thousand word book.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah. Yeah, Well, I'll tell you what I mean.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
I hope I'm gonna walk around the Upper East Side
and look for her and to give it this book,
give it to her.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Well, I mean, if you if racial abuse helps you
write this, I mean, if you want inspiration for more material,
just read the comments on this video, because you're going
to have a whole series.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Of books of this.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
There might be a go back to Malaysia, go.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Back to Malaysia, I might write.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
I might.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
They're forcing to do homework now, right. Every time someone
tells me to go back to Malaysia. But they don't
say go back to Malaysia. They never place.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
They go back to China.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Yeah, they told me to go back to China because
they think I'm from this.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
I dodn't even know.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I wish they said, go back to Malaysia, write about.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
It, and you could say and you could say, now
I'm an American, right.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
I'm America America.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Uh? Just yeah, just real quick. So, like, what do
you say to the kind of right wing Asians who
read this book and they go, you know what, all
this abuse that happened to Asians in America nobody knows
about and we never talk about it, and uh, this
is just proof that Asian people need to bang band
(29:54):
together and stop caring about any.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Other brace and just push our own a jail.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
And and the film of the BacT Yeah yeah, no,
well that that which is what.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Happened, what happens, I mean, because that's kind of what
that's kind of like one end of your possible response
to this.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Yeah yeah, no, that really is. I do.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
I think the impulse behind that is related to my
impulse to write this book, That this feeling of invisibility,
this feeling that this uh story needs to be told, uh,
and this lack of acknowledgment. But I think folks who
are kind of that maga Asian crowd are similarly forgetting
history and forgetting the parallels in our story, and you
(30:36):
know that of other immigrant groups in this country. Also
forgetting the fact that we benefited from Asian America's benefit
from the civil rights movement and the rights that were
fought for and bled for.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
And uh.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
And really, I think when you read history, when you
read a book like this, when you read other great
books that have been written about the story of other
groups in America, Black Americans, uh, Latino Americans, Uh, you
feel empathy, you feel kinship and uh. And so that
(31:11):
that's that's why people need to read history.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Sure, And I mean, yeah, people need to read history.
It's just that.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You know, sometimes I sometimes I I feel like we're
never going to live to see the final chapter of
the story of Asians in America. You end this your book, yeah,
and you'll find a chapter and you end it to
your daughters.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
Yeah, and you say you know, yeah, yeah, no, no.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
I I dedicated to the book to my my daughters,
and I wrote, like, may they find belonging this this
kind of and I write at the end of the
book kind of a it's a little bittersweet that the
that even though this I I think it's a book
of hope.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
And I said a story persistence resilience, that the feeling
of belongings remains elusive. You know, the question is how
are we going to get there? And and you know,
obviously the Asian Americans are actually the fastest growing ethnic
minority group in the country and are in a few
(32:21):
years are going to become the largest immigrant group in America.
So obviously numbers is part of it. But I also think, uh,
you know, people like you being on TV, that representation
is part of it.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
To telling these stories is part TV things.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Important people see.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
I think that's an important part of this part of this.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, well, thank you, Michael, thanks so much for letting
this book. Thanks for doing the work.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Thanks for sharing these stories that will lost the time.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Is very important and if.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
You didn't do it, I don't know if anyone else
we have done it. So thank you so much for
doing this. We're all very grateful for you for capturing this.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Strangers in the Lada is available now, Michael Lowell.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Everybody all all about to take a quick break and
be right back after this.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Hey, I thought so over tonight now here it is
your moment of ten for the hottest country in the world.
Speaker 9 (33:22):
I think baby would admit it even hotter than Ninchew
though issue it was pretty hot about a week ago.
Speaker 10 (33:26):
I can tell you for the wrong reasons, but we
are the hottest country in the world right now, and
it happened faster than anybody thought possible.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven ten.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on
Paramount Plus.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
This has been a Comedy Central podcast.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
M
You're listening to Comedy Central, from.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The most trusted journalist at Comedy Central is America's only
source for news. This is the Daily Show with your
host Frinny Day.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh my god, welcome the damn show. I'm right check.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We got so much to talk about tonight, the TSA
ends its foot fetish, the trade war gets semi erect
and great news pedophiles, the Epstein list doesn't exist.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Party tonight at Chuck E Cheese. So let's get into
the headlines. Let's kick things off with today's biggest news.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Because I know a lot of people out here always like, oh,
the news is so awful. Everything is terrible. I hate fascism,
doos on the airway. Well, stop whining, Okay, because finally there's.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Some great news for America.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
A senior government official says the TSA will no longer
require travelers to take off their shoes at security checkpoints.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
All right, say gee, yay, che yes, say.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Yes, say.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
All right.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
People will chure anything.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yes, the TSA finally got fed up with yelling at
people to take the shoes off, just like Asians and
white people visit. Just take your shoes off, your barbarians, Okay,
there is no argument for shoes in the house. This
feces on the sidewalk anyway. Ending this policy is long overdue.
It's twenty twenty five. Terrorists don't crash airplanes anymore, okay,
(01:55):
Boeing crashes airplanes.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
The only people this is not good for is elitest
like me who and I don't want.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
To brag here, have pre check What benefits do I
still have over you? Please? Because I pay to keep
my shoes on, and.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Now what everyone else is just keeping their shoes on
for free?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So what the fuck am I paying for?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I should be allowed to wear two pairs of shoes
and have a loaded gun or four ounces of liquid. Okay,
give me something. Okay, that's enough good news. Let's move
on to Donald Trump. Yesterday he had a dinner with
Benjamin nan Yahoo, Israeli Prime Minister, and kosherthenos. And you
(02:46):
know how whenever a world leader visits Trump and they
have to butter him up with a special surprise, Well,
Bibe went all out.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Not the White House.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Last night, the President hosted a dinner for Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister gave him a letter
nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I want to present to you, mister President, the letter
I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And you should get it. Thank you very much. This
I didn't know.
Speaker 7 (03:19):
Well, thank you very much, all right, coming from you
in particular, this is a very meaningful.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, Peace Prize nomination from Nan Yahoo is very meaningful,
right up there with a Husband of the Year nomination
from OJ Simpson. But mister Nan Yahoo, let me tell
you something. If you think you can get Trump to
keep sending military aid Israel by sucking up to him,
well guess what you can expect that money in your
(03:48):
beg account by close a business.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Let's move on to the.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Last Bipolisan issue in America. What happened to Jeffrey at Stay.
We've all been waiting for you years for more details
to come out about his crimes and his mysterious death.
And now that Trump's in office and he said he'll
release the information, we can finally get some answers.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
The DOJ says it's case closed on Jeffrey Epstein's alleged
client list and his death.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
After months of promising the public release of the Jeffrey
Epstein client list. The Justice Department, the FBI now saying
the client list doesn't exist.
Speaker 8 (04:23):
The DJ says it will not be releasing any more
material from the case files.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
That's it. It's just not going to release any more information.
I've never been ghosted by a conspiracy before. I mean,
this is crazy. I could have sworn that someone said
there was an Epstein client list.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
Who was that.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Will that really happen.
Speaker 8 (04:51):
It's sitting on my desk right now to review.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Oh yeah, the Attorney General of the United States said
the my list was on a desk. Let me guess
your desk also hung itself, Pan BONDI was supposed to
release the pedophile list. If we wanted an attorney general
to cover up sex crimes, we would have stuck with
mc geetz.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
At this point, it's like the only way we can
learn about who is a certified pedophile is if Kendrick
Lahma makes a song about them. Look, I don't know
what to believe anymore. Okay, can you just declassify something?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
The Justice Department also releasing more than ten hours of
purported footage, which they say supports medical examiners finding Epstein
died by suicide while in custody in twenty nineteen. The
video allegedly shows the view from across epstein cell door
in a Manhattan prison, indicating no one entered the area
(05:48):
the night he died?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Is that background music to that?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Finally, some transparency from this administration, conclusive evidence that leaves
no room for debate.
Speaker 8 (06:01):
The release of that surveillance video has fueled.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Some conspiracies itself. There appears to be a missing minute
at midnight.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It's very interesting that at the eleven fifty eight mark
and fifty eight second the video jumps to twelve o'clock
and it's missing a full sixty one seconds.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
What is going on here?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Why would they edit out sixty one seconds? Was Epstein
listening to a Beatles song and the government couldn't get
the rights to it?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And if that wasn't suspicious enough.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
When Trump was asked about it in his cabinet meeting today,
he was over it.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
Are you still talking about Jeffrey Everystein? This guy's been
talked about for years? Are people still talking about this guy?
That's creepy, That is unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, why are you guys obsessed with the suspicious death
of my best friend in a federal prison when I
was president, right before he was going to be on.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Truffle sex trafficking.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
It's so boring. But yeah, Epstein is old news. Trump
is not going to use up his precious cabinet meeting
time talking about somebody from years and years ago.
Speaker 9 (07:10):
That's a gentleman named and we call him President Polk.
He was sort of a real estate too late, like
two twelve Jerones for the Dallas coup over there is
unstableing Nklin Delan Rosen member when Bill Clinton had it
and he rented it after Petty Roosevelt went out, And
you have Dwight Eisenhower, who was a very underrated president,
(07:32):
built the Interstag Quincy Adams Missus Adams.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
They were the first.
Speaker 9 (07:37):
Do you ever see John Lovetz the Liar where he
goes Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I guess I can see why you didn't have any
time to talk about Jeffrey Epstein. For more on this
sudden ending to the Epstein case, let's go live to
the Justice Department with Michael Costam.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Michael Michael. There are so many questions left to answer.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Not at all, Ronnie. I spoke to top Justice Department officials,
and trust me when I say that there's no story here.
Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list, He did
not get murdered in prison. He actually never even existed.
Albeit the daven Busters down the street. See you later, Ronnie,
thanks cost.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
The hold on. Can you elaborate. I'd be happy to
you elaborate.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I own the high score on buck Hunter, and that's
a game at Davenbusters, which is an adult arcade that
I go to after work every day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, no, no, not that.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
I mean, they can't just say Jeffrey Epstein didn't exist.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
We all saw photos of him, we think.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
We did, but it was just one of those collective
false memories. It's like how many Americans believe there was
a movie starring Shaquille O'Neil called Shazam, but what there
never was a Shaquille O'Neal, and there's no Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
See you Headbusters.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait then whose client
list that Pam Bondi had on a desk?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
That was all a misunderstanding. It looked like a client list,
but you know what it was. It was actually just
a list of an old BuzzFeed list of the top
ten pokemon most likely to help you jumpstart your car.
You want to talk scandal, they only have Squirtle at
number seven.
Speaker 10 (09:29):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Michael? How can you believe all this?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Ronnie? Let me let me.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Let me ask you a question. Do you really think
there's a cabal of millionaires out there who have the
power to kill Jeffrey Epstein in prison and force the
President of the United States to cover it up?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Well, when you say it out loud like that, yeah,
I do.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, Okay, and I do too, all right, And I
want that cabal to know that I'm just guy with
a high scoring buck hunter who's happy with whatever explanation
they want me to believe.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I'm good, good we want so that's it. Then, what's
gonna move on? Ronnie?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Ronnie, there's so many other juicy scandals out there. Have
you seen this newly released Diddy client list? Let's check
out the names on it. Holy shit. You know what,
turns out this list actually never existed, So.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
God damny, Michael costs that everyone.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
When we come back, we'll find out who's gonna wing
this trade walt So don't go away.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Welcome back to Daily Show.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
The stock market is crashing, which means Donald Trump is
talking about terrorists again. Let's get into it with another
installment of trade wars.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
My favorite word, my favorite word, taraffics.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Last April, Donald Trump imposts brutal terrorists on every country
in the world because he doesn't give a But then
the economy crashed and it turns out he does give
a folk, so he delayed the terrorists ninety days, but
tomorrow those ninety days are up.
Speaker 11 (11:35):
This morning, President Trump threatening Steve Terrence on America's trading partners,
sending letters to more than a dozen world leaders.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
That's right, typed out letters, old school in shoppy.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The terrorists hit tomorrow, and there's no pushing it back
this time.
Speaker 11 (11:53):
Those terrans were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, but
the President pushing it back until August first.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
All right, we'll pushing it back one more time. But
August first, is it?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Right?
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Is the August one deadline?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Firm?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Now?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Is that it?
Speaker 10 (12:10):
Because you're moving in now, I would say firm firm.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
August first is one hundred firm I would say firm,
but not one hundred. Do you need a pill for
that because they make a pill for that?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Seriously, what what the fuck? I don't know what the
terrorists are anyway, just give us a number. Also, speak
your firm lines. Can you just please blend your makeup
a little bit better?
Speaker 5 (12:49):
All right?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Just look at this. He does his makeup the same
way missus doubt fire does. Hello.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Now you might be wondering why Trump is sending letters
instead of making trade deals with these countries. Luckily, Treasury
Secretary Bessence went on the news to clarify.
Speaker 8 (13:10):
The president has a reputation self described deal maker. So
why haven't we seen the kind of deals that he
promised in the last ninety days When we send out
one hundred letters to these countries that will set their
tariff right, So we're going to have a one hundred
done in the next few days. And that's not a deal,
(13:30):
that's a threat.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
No, that's the level, that's the deal. Okay. I see,
First of all, a letter of letters not a deal.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
It's a letter.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Second, could we give the Treasury secretary a seat with
a little more dignity, something, something that doesn't look like
he's in a high chair.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Maybe like, Hey, it comes into the question for.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
You, weird.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I guess there's not gonna be any deals. Trump is
just just gonna send letters to all the world leaders
announcing what their terrif rate is gonna be. And he
definitely knows all these leaders my name.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I'm gonna send letters. That's the end of the shradia.
I could send one to Japan.
Speaker 9 (14:23):
Okay, mister Japan, here's the story.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
That's right, Dear mister Japan, I'm imposing teriffs on your
starting tomorrow unless you say no, that is August first.
I'm not firm. Sincerely, mister America aka missus doubt fire.
When we come back, Michael Low, will you join me
(14:53):
on the show, so don't call away?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Welcome back to the Daily Show. I guess tonight is
an executive.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Editor The New Yorker and author of the new book
Strangers in Land, Exclusion, Belonging and the Epic Story of
the Chinese in America. Please welcome Michael law. Hey, Hey,
(15:43):
give you a standul vasion for the writers. Yeah, applaud
the writers. We need to applaud the writers. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
We love readers. We need people to read. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Speaking of reading.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Do you like these flags I put in your book
to make it look like I read this Ian. I
chose different colors too.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
You read it, you read it, or you're producers.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
No, I read it. It was great.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
This book is great because it's about the history of
Asians in America and there's something for everyone. If you
like Asians, you learn a lot about Asian history. And
if you don't like Asians, boy, you'll love this book.
And it's tons of horrible shit happens the Asians. You
couldn't the book, so man, I didn't know there was
so much horrible shit that happened to Asians.
Speaker 6 (16:25):
There are a lot of bad stuff. There's a lot
of white violence. Yeah, why you don't know about this? Yeah,
that's actually why I wrote the book. This history goes
back more than a century and it's part of the
American story. There's the worst mass lynching in America actually
(16:49):
happened in Los Angeles in eighteen seventy one. Nineteen men
were killed, eighteen of them lynched, and they were Chinese.
It was not black Americans. There was this horrific period
that I'm sure very few people in the audience have
heard of, called the Driving out this period eighteen eighty
five eighteen eighty six, where dozens of communities is nearly
(17:11):
two hundred communities, the American West violently physically expelled the
Chinese from their communities, And yeah, we do. I didn't
know this history before I this this book.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
This turning out period continues till today.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
But driving out I mean that that I didn't.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
I thought I was publishing this book into a second
Biden administration and it would be kind of a relatively
sedate time for this book to come out, But came
out in a second Trump administration, and I feel the
resonance of it every single day.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right Unfortunately, So this this I want to get to
the kind of lessons in history. But I mean again,
you know, you touch on some highlights of this book,
some pretty awful highlights. I mean, you know, it's some
almost like a who's who of horrible stuff that happened
to Chinese people. But like, what again, why do you
think we don't know about this stuff?
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Well?
Speaker 6 (18:04):
I mean, I think history is written by the powerful,
and the powerless are often left out of history. Historians
talk about the archives and and and what is left
behind and whose stories are left behind and the and
the sad thing is the and the tricky thing is
(18:24):
there aren't very many Chinese voices in the archives. You
have to really hunt for it. This book starts in
the gold Russ and I and I compare it to
Sifting for Gold. You that when you read through the
documents from the past, you have to look hard to
bring out those voices.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Sure, what's really cool is you tell it through this
kind of narrative of people.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Yeah, so it is actually yeah, not all just now,
not at all, not at all, not all.
Speaker 6 (18:53):
I mean, I think of it as like writers talk
about like a three acts structure, and where there's a
protagonist to confront say, conflict, and they and there's this
kind of rising tension in complications and then there's usually
some sort of resolution and you know in the sort
of feel good things is when they kind of overcome
(19:15):
and and you know, the heart of this book is
this violence and bigotry that the Chinese and America experienced
in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
But the Chinese persisted obviously.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
You know, you know, you and I are sitting here
and talking and we were part of that story. And
it really is a story of resilience.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Sure, and I mean, you talked about the digging for gold,
and that's really what's really cool here is that you
did dig for the photos of people you managed to find.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Yeah who.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You know, the lost the history.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, but you managed to find the photos and maybe
tell a fragment of what happened.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
No.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I mean a little example of we mentioned the Chinese
massacre in Los ange Uh. You know, there were nineteen
people who were killed, and I think it's so important
to say their names and so we can know who
they are and and and tell their stories. And you know,
we know their names because there were corners reports and
things like that. But but you're trying to build a story.
(20:16):
And and there was this herbalist, a doctor who named
Jeene Tong, who was one of the most well known
Chinese figures in Los Angeles, and and I tried to
build that chapter around his story. And one of the
just one little detail just shows how we do our
work is there was he was killed, he was lynched,
(20:37):
and and afterwards a reporter went through his apartment which
had been torn apart, and and there was blood everywhere,
and his possessions everywhere, and there was a pet poodle
he had a pet poodle that him and his wife
kept in their house, that that was under this table
with a broken leg and whimpering. And I just thought
that detail was so humanizing too, because that's in the
(21:00):
and what we need to be able to do is
to move past the level of abstraction and see these
people as humans.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Is that anyone in this book who didn't get lynched. Yeah,
there are a lot of people who didn't get with
some contribution to America that you can well.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
I mean the name wan Ki mark I Hope is
familiar to folks that his name has been the news.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
He he he was a.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Born in the United States and Exclusion Act so well
he was so he was born in San Francisco, and
and the Supreme Court through his case when he came
he went to back to China, and when he's tried
to come back in uh, they tried to deny his
right to land and and he said, I'm an American citizen.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
I was born in the United States.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
And and what they were trying to do at that
point is is what Trump is trying to do right
now and say no, you're you you were would they
acknowledged that he was born in the United States, but
they were saying that Chinese being born in the United
States shouldn't be American citizens, and went all the way
to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court affirmed the
right to both birthright citizenship, which is in the fourteenth Amendment,
(22:10):
and the fact that you know, many people, generations of
people who have you know, descendants of immigrants are American
citizens is owed to one k Mark, right, and.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
We don't know that. We don't know that to U.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Sadly, we should know that, we said we should know that.
I mean, the other thing about one King Mark is
that I actually didn't know. And maybe the larger story
him is known by some people. His troubles with immigration
didn't end after this really famous Supreme Court case. A
couple of years later, he was arrested at the border.
Even though people this Chinese inspector down they looked at yeah, yeah, well,
(22:50):
they searched through his phone exactly and uh, and they
hassled him and eventually they let him go. But his
sons who were American right exactly. They're his sons who
are American citizens through who were born in China. But
there were American citizens through him. When they tried to
enter the United States. They were also hassled, and one
(23:12):
of them was actually sent back to China. It's a
pretty incredible story that his problems just didn't end there.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
So, I mean, from all this and you know, kind
of what we know about history, it seems pretty obvious that,
like when the British came to America and founded America
with these ideals of freedom of religion and birth right citizenship,
they were like.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Oh, we meant it for us. We didn't mean you guys.
You guys weren't supposed to use this same thing.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
We just meant did generally.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
So like, what does that mean for people? Now? You
know that we ye tried to live up to these
ideals that it's like the people who founded it didn't
even intend for that to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Yeah, and then yeah, they're totally right.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
There were there were no federal laws regulating immigration until
the Chinese Exclusion in Act in eighteen eighty two. And
you know, initially America's America was open people people.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
They wanted people to come.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
And you know, when this book tells the story of
what ten what what, how the country responded when tens
of thousands of people who spoke a different language, looked
different from the you know, the racial hierarchy, the racial
hierarchy that existed then had a different religion. When they
(24:31):
started landing on American shores. What what happened? How did
we respond? And obviously the it feels really resonant to
this moment, is not the story just the story of
the Chinese American It is the story of any number
of immigrant groups who have been.
Speaker 5 (24:47):
Treated as strangers.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
That's the title of the book, Strangers in the Land
comes from a Supreme Court decision that upheld when the
Chinese exclusion laws and the Supreme Court just just refer
to the Chinese in a derogatory way as a group
of people that couldn't assimilate with the rest of us
and say it called them strangers in the land. And
(25:10):
you could say the same thing is happening. That's what's
in Stephen Miller's head when he's, uh, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
It seems like a nice guy, are you castings.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
He's reading this book and getting some ideas and and
and changing his mind.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah yeah, I mean, what do you uh like the
I remember when you got inspired to write this book?
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Yeah you yeah, Now that's the journey you're talking about
this moment that happened on this street in twenty sixteen
on the Upper East side of Manhattan, you know, just
across town from here. It was after church on a Sunday,
and a group of friends of my all Asian Americans,
Uh and my family were We were on the We
were blocking the sidewalk in this well dressed white woman.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
You yeah, we were.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
We were annoying, yeah, and she brushed past us, annoyed
that that we were in her way, and she said, uh,
as she brushed past her shoes, she said, uh, go
back to China. And and and and I was like
kind of stunned, and and and then I kind of
abandoned my my daughter, who was two daughters, one of
(26:27):
them was two, was in the stroller that she's in
the audience here and and.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Uh Ran.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Ran Ran sprinted, hang on, you guys.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Sprinted after her and confronted this woman. And we were
kind of going back and forth, and uh, she yelled
down the street, Uh, go back to your effing country.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Uh. I guess I could say go back to your country.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
And here on the Daily Show, and and and and
I was trying to come up with some smart respons
like the adrenalines flowing and I and I yelled, I
was born.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
In this country. It was such a pathetic.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
Response and and I and I ended up writing a
piece for The New York Times about how a lot
of uh Asian Americans feel otherwise and and like strangers
in the land. And that was kind of what set
me on the journey to write this book. And that
that that piece went viral. Uh, yeah, that was it
(27:28):
was it was. I tweeted about it, Build de Blasio
tweeted about it.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
But it was this moment.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
It was really just an ordinary moment, uh, but it
really moved something in me because I was thinking about
my kids and thinking about you know, I was walking
away and I was thinking about, even though their two
generations removed from my parents immigrant experience, would they ever
feel like they truly belonged in this country? And and
that is uh, well what what stuck with me. And
(27:56):
it was a couple of years later, during the pandemic
when we had that surgeon violence against Asian Americans, the
Atlanta SPA attacks where several uh Korean immigrant women were killed,
and and I started to look into this history that
I that I didn't know that I felt like this,
this story were part of the story of America, and
(28:17):
yet it's not widely known.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Right, And I guess what you're saying is some racial
abuse inspired you to write a five hundred would response
was I came up with.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
You know, like, after you know you have on these
encounters and you're kicking yourself with what to say, I
decided to write one hundred and sixty thousand word book.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah. Yeah, Well, I'll tell you what I mean.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
I hope I'm gonna walk around the Upper East Side
and look for her and to give it this book,
give it to her.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Well, I mean, if you if racial abuse helps you
write this, I mean, if you want inspiration for more material,
just read the comments on this video, because you're going
to have a whole series.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Of books of this.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
There might be a go back to Malaysia, go.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Back to Malaysia, I might write.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
I might.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
They're forcing to do homework now, right. Every time someone
tells me to go back to Malaysia. But they don't
say go back to Malaysia. They never place.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
They go back to China.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Yeah, they told me to go back to China because
they think I'm from this.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
I dodn't even know.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I wish they said, go back to Malaysia, write about.
Speaker 6 (29:21):
It, and you could say and you could say, now
I'm an American, right.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
I'm America America.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Uh? Just yeah, just real quick. So, like, what do
you say to the kind of right wing Asians who
read this book and they go, you know what, all
this abuse that happened to Asians in America nobody knows
about and we never talk about it, and uh, this
is just proof that Asian people need to bang band
(29:54):
together and stop caring about any.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Other brace and just push our own a jail.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
And and the film of the BacT Yeah yeah, no,
well that that which is what.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Happened, what happens, I mean, because that's kind of what
that's kind of like one end of your possible response
to this.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Yeah yeah, no, that really is. I do.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
I think the impulse behind that is related to my
impulse to write this book, That this feeling of invisibility,
this feeling that this uh story needs to be told, uh,
and this lack of acknowledgment. But I think folks who
are kind of that maga Asian crowd are similarly forgetting
history and forgetting the parallels in our story, and you
(30:36):
know that of other immigrant groups in this country. Also
forgetting the fact that we benefited from Asian America's benefit
from the civil rights movement and the rights that were
fought for and bled for.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
And uh.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
And really, I think when you read history, when you
read a book like this, when you read other great
books that have been written about the story of other
groups in America, Black Americans, uh, Latino Americans, Uh, you
feel empathy, you feel kinship and uh. And so that
(31:11):
that's that's why people need to read history.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Sure, And I mean, yeah, people need to read history.
It's just that.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You know, sometimes I sometimes I I feel like we're
never going to live to see the final chapter of
the story of Asians in America. You end this your book, yeah,
and you'll find a chapter and you end it to
your daughters.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
Yeah, and you say you know, yeah, yeah, no, no.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
I I dedicated to the book to my my daughters,
and I wrote, like, may they find belonging this this
kind of and I write at the end of the
book kind of a it's a little bittersweet that the
that even though this I I think it's a book
of hope.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
And I said a story persistence resilience, that the feeling
of belongings remains elusive. You know, the question is how
are we going to get there? And and you know,
obviously the Asian Americans are actually the fastest growing ethnic
minority group in the country and are in a few
(32:21):
years are going to become the largest immigrant group in America.
So obviously numbers is part of it. But I also think, uh,
you know, people like you being on TV, that representation
is part of it.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
To telling these stories is part TV things.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Important people see.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
I think that's an important part of this part of this.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, well, thank you, Michael, thanks so much for letting
this book. Thanks for doing the work.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Thanks for sharing these stories that will lost the time.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Is very important and if.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
You didn't do it, I don't know if anyone else
we have done it. So thank you so much for
doing this. We're all very grateful for you for capturing this.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Strangers in the Lada is available now, Michael Lowell.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Everybody all all about to take a quick break and
be right back after this.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Hey, I thought so over tonight now here it is
your moment of ten for the hottest country in the world.
Speaker 9 (33:22):
I think baby would admit it even hotter than Ninchew
though issue it was pretty hot about a week ago.
Speaker 10 (33:26):
I can tell you for the wrong reasons, but we
are the hottest country in the world right now, and
it happened faster than anybody thought possible.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven ten.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on
Paramount Plus.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
This has been a Comedy Central podcast.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
M
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.