Kat Chow
Kat Chow is a reporter with NPR and a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is currently on sabbatical, working on her first book (forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing/Hachette). It's a memoir that digs into the questions about grief, race and identity that her mother's sudden death triggered when Kat was young.
For NPR, she's reported on what defines Native American identity, gentrification in New York City's Chinatown, and the aftermath of a violent hate crime. Her cultural criticism has led her on explorations of racial representation in TV, film, and theater; the post-election crisis that diversity trainers face; race and beauty standards; and gaslighting. She's an occasional fourth chair on Pop Culture Happy Hour, as well as a guest host on Slate's podcast The Waves. Her work has garnered her a national award from the Asian American Journalists Association, and she was an inaugural recipient of the Yi Dae Up fellowship at the Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat. She has led master classes and spoken about her reporting in Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Valparaiso, Louisville, Boston and Seattle.
She's drawn to stories about race, gender and generational differences
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The Asian-American band's case, inextricably linked to the battle over a certain NFL team, leaves some activists torn. While inclined to stand with a fellow advocate, they wonder: At what cost? -
The Slants want to register its name, arguing they are reappropriating a slur against Asians. But some Asian Americans are conflicted about whether it is worth opening trademark law to disparagement.
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The U.S. Census Bureau may add a new category to its 2020 form for people of Middle Eastern or North African descent. The category — called "MENA" for short — encompasses a broad range of identities.
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Playwright Qui Nguyen's latest work tells the story of how his parents met in an Arkansas refugee camp in 1975. -
President Obama recently signed a bill striking the term "Oriental" from federal law. It was a reminder for NPR's Kat Chow of the fact that her father still uses the word — to describe himself. -
Anthony Mendez's role as Jane's unseen narrator has garnered him critical acclaim. But before Mendez was able to turn his voice into a career, he was selling tombstones for the family business. -
Police in Irving, Texas, have decided not to press charges against a 14-year-old boy who brought a homemade clock to school. Authorities and educators were worried it might have been a bomb.
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A 14-year-old high school student in the Dallas area is home from school Wednesday after his expulsion. Ahmed Mohamed brought a homemade clock to class on Monday, and the school phoned police because it looked like it might be a bomb. Now the outcry has ricocheted across social media.
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Simon Tam, the founder and bassist of The Slants, has spent six years trying to register his group's name. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says the name disparages Asians. -
K-pop — or Korean pop — makes its latest move toward the center of American pop culture with Nickelodeon's new show, Make It Pop. But beyond "Gangnam Style," how did K-pop evolve?
