Exit Spring Mountain
18 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 9 ratingsExit Spring Mountain is a show about the issues facing Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in Southern Nevada. We explore the impact of history, politics and the economy on AAPI community members, while sharing stories by and for AAPI people.
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Episodes
Remittances, A Homeland Connection
November 16, 2022 16:40 - 17 minutes - 16.3 MBFor the Season 2 Finale of Exit Spring Mountain, we’re talking about the care packages we send and receive to offer help and hope to our families and friends abroad. Balikbayan boxes are also a topic of conversation, as they have helped float the Phillippine country for decades. Many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders also send remittances - funds transferred from migrants or recent immigrants to their home countries. What does the money pay for? Why do AAPI communities continue this prac...
Mixed race Asians: Surviving and Thriving
October 19, 2022 15:35 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MBIn this episode, we’re talking about the complexities of being mixed, sometimes known as Hapa, Blasian, Wasian, or multiracial. Who decides who’s Asian enough… or not? How does categorizing people by race impact mixed race Asian identity and community? Elle Jules, the professional model from Hawai'i, talks about her experience as a mixed-race Asian and how she navigates representation in the modeling world. Sandra Douglass Morgan, the President of the Las Vegas Raiders, reflects on how fa...
Chefs Dish Authenticity
September 28, 2022 07:00 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBIn this episode, we’re talking with chefs - the ones who feed us - fulfilling our basic needs - and ALSO passing down our cultural legacies. From a Las Vegas Filipina start-up to the old school icons - How do these professional chefs and restaurateurs feel about food culture authenticity? Where’s the line between food appreciation and food appropriation? What are the unique challenges AAPI chefs and restaurants face? And why should we embrace our unique identities as we look to the tasty fut...
AAPI Women: Sex and Power
September 07, 2022 07:00 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBHow do these stereotypes harm Asian American and Asian women? Can they lead to violence? Simultaneously - in what ways are some AAPI women taking control of their own sexual narratives? And how can we support the vulnerable, change the conversation, and move forward? A content warning for listeners: In this episode, we’re talking about sex trafficking, domestic violence, and sex. We talk with Professor Tessa Winkelmann, assistant professor of history at UNLV who specializes in Asian Ameri...
Eastern Medicine vs. Western Medicine
August 17, 2022 18:10 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBIn this episode, we’re discussing “Traditional Chinese Medicine,” sometimes called “Oriental Medicine” - also known as Eastern Medicine or Alternative Medicine. But what does it really mean - how did these terms come about? What makes Eastern Medicine any different from Western Medicine - if any? Also - stick around to hear about Nevada’s first healthcare facility catering specifically to AAPI communities- the Healthy Asians and Pacific Islander (HAPI) Center! The ESM team visits a loca...
Tapping into the AAPI Voting Bloc Power
July 27, 2022 07:00 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBWe've all heard the term AAPI Voting Bloc — but how is the Asian American and Pacific Islander community actually tapping into this growing political power? A long-time public servant, Karl Catarata tells us his journey on how he ran for Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents District Six. Community organizer, Amanda Khan gives us insight into how the AAPI Democratic Caucus of Nevada host different events to educate the community on their rights as voters. Social and politica...
The Potluck: Food and AAPI Identity
March 08, 2022 20:54 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBEpisode 10 marks the end of season 1, so we decided to mark the event with a special episode: The Exit Spring Mountain team gathered (virtually) for a potluck of food and conversation. We each brought a dish to showcase stories and flavors that are meaningful to us, opening the door for deeper conversations: How do we talk about authenticity in food and cooking, and when is that a useful—and not so useful—concept? And what about the thorny topic of appropriation: When is cooking the food of ...
Navigating LGBTQ+ and AAPI in Nevada
February 22, 2022 00:22 - 28 minutes - 26 MBNavigating the experience of being both AAPI and LGBTQ+ can be a fraught experience—but when you've found your community, it can be a joyful one, too. Miss Nevada 2021, Kataluna Enriquez, was the first openly trans winner of the Miss Nevada pageant, tells her story about discovering herself and stepping into her stunning ball gowns—and into her power. UNLV psychology Professor Gloria Wong-Padoongpatt gives us the context for understanding how mental health in AAPI communities in discussed, a...
Chinatown, Las Vegas
February 09, 2022 05:52 - 25 minutes - 23 MBLas Vegas's Chinatown is a bustling three-mile stretch along Spring Mountain Road that's become a destination for foodies and travelers in-the-know. A long-time favorite of hospitality industry workers getting off their shifts, it's home to bakeries, bars, karaoke, and restaurants from around the world. But how did Chinatowns get their start in America, and what prejudices drove their creation? How is the Las Vegas Chinatown—and other suburban Chinatowns anchored in strip mall architecture—d...
Count us in: The promise and perils of the U.S. Census in Nevada
January 19, 2022 01:54 - 27 minutes - 25 MBThe U.S. Constitution mandates a Census every 10 years—it's how we allocate seats in the House of Representatives (Nevada gained a fourth seat in 2010 after the Census showed our relative population increase) and how we determine federal funding for housing, education, and health. For each Nevadan who isn't counted, whether a citizen or not, our state loses out on $10–12,000 in funding over the course of a decade. So how did local organizations reach out to AAPI communities to ensure an accu...
A year and counting of COVID in Las Vegas: The violence
December 31, 2021 21:48 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBThis is the third in a three-part series about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southern Nevada's AAPI communities. In this episode, we look at how Asian Americans in Southern Nevada are responding to the surge of anti-Asian violence in the wake of the pandemic. We visit a self-defense class organized by the Asian Community Development Council, and talk to Desert Fallout gun store owner Lyon Gong, who says he's seen a rise in Asian Americans buying guns since 2020. UNLV Professor Mar...
Leaves on a stream: An English-Tagalog mindfulness meditation exercise
December 22, 2021 08:23 - 7 minutes - 7.27 MBThis bonus episode accompanies episode 5: A year and counting of COVID in Las Vegas: The overworked. In that episode, Dr. Andrew Reyes, a professor of nursing at UNLV, tells us about the mindfulness exercises he is creating for healthcare workers—we developed one of the exercises he sent us into a scripted meditation, with a bilingual English-Tagalog track. We hope this meditation is helpful for you, whichever languages you speak, whether you work in healthcare or somewhere else. This mindf...
A year and counting of COVID in Las Vegas: The overworked
December 22, 2021 07:39 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBThis episode is the second in a three-part series about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southern Nevada's AAPI communities. Earlier this year, a startling statistic came to light: While Filipino nurses make up just 4% of nurses nationwide, they accounted for 33% of nurse deaths during the early months of the pandemic. Why was there such an outsized toll on Filipino nurses in particular? What effects does this have in a city like Las Vegas, where the Filipino population is our largest...
A year and counting of COVID in Las Vegas: The unemployed
November 30, 2021 05:43 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBThis episode is the first in a three-part series about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southern Nevada's AAPI communities. Nevada was hit harder by the pandemic shutdowns than any other state—and the numbers continue to bear that out. As of this fall, Nevada still has the highest unemployment rate in the country. In particular, Asian immigrant women, who are overrepresented in service industry work, have the highest rates of long-term pandemic unemployment. So how is Las Vegas fighti...
Home Means Nevada? The First Asians in the Silver State
November 16, 2021 03:55 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MB"Go home." "Go back to your country." "You don't belong here." These are phrases that many Nevadans of Asian descent have heard—it's rooted in a view of Asians as perpetual foreigners in this country, no matter how long they've lived here. As UNLV Professor Emeritus Sue Fawn Chung tells us, this modern-day sentiment is hardly new. It has roots in the treatment of some of the earliest Asian migrants to the U.S.: Chinese laborers who came to work in mining and railroads, in kitchens and laundr...
Voyagers: Pacific Islanders in Southern Nevada
November 02, 2021 04:39 - 27 minutes - 25 MBAccording to the most recent Census data, the population of Pacific Islanders in the U.S. has risen nearly 30% in the last decade—in Nevada, it's risen by 60%. Las Vegas, famously, has the largest population of Hawaiians outside of Hawai'i, earning our city the nickname "the Ninth Island." But some Native Hawaiians take issue with the term, pointing out that Hawai'i is a sovereign nation, and that describing Las Vegas as an extension of an American state is misguided. These issues of land ...
The Languages We Speak (Or: How to Attack the Monolith)
October 18, 2021 23:18 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBIn Nevada's most recent legislative session, Assembly Bill 359 was passed with little fanfare: It requires businesses to provide translated documents for certain consumer financial services transactions, including credit card issuance and auto title loans. For some individuals in AAPI communities here in Las Vegas, this bill, which took effect on October 1st, is an important step. Language barriers affect non-fluent English speakers in schools, hospitals, and business settings—according to ...
Exit Spring Mountain Trailer
October 15, 2021 01:28 - 1 minute - 1.04 MBJoin us every other week as we look at the impact of history, politics, and the economy of members of AAPI communities. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest-growing ethnic or racial group in Clark County—but despite the Census data grouping, it's not one homogenous group. You'll learn about the hundreds of languages and dialects spoken across AAPI, hear from Pacific Islanders keeping their cultures alive in Southern Nevada, and take deep dives with us into the loggin...