Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Self Evident Media launched a limited series on November 29 by Alaska-based journalist Lisa Phu, chronicling her mother’s journey from Cambodia to America over the course of decades.
‘Before Me’ is a five-part podcast that can be found on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and Stitcher as well as the ‘Before Me’ website.
Lisa Phu spoke to News of the North about creating ‘Before Me’.
“I always had it in my mind that I would make this podcast. I had asked my mom for years if I could interview her. She had said no numerous times. I think she wasn’t ready to go there yet, to go there emotionally. But I think me becoming a mom and having a daughter was the key for her to really start sharing. My mom was born and raised in Cambodia and left in her mid-20s escaping the Khmer Rouge genocide. But what I hope to impart in the show is her life goes far beyond the trauma and the horrors and the bravery that she had to have to escape the genocide. It goes into her first crush, and the happy childhood memories she had. In making this, I heard my mom laugh like I’d never heard before in all my life.”
Phu explained how her journalism skills influenced her telling her mother’s story.
“By just having the recorder there, it allowed us to kind of enter this different world of like, I’m honoring her and loving her by asking her questions. And she’s loving me and trusting me by talking to me. Obviously, she’s my mom. So I wasn’t necessarily a reporter by interviewing her, I was her daughter. But I think by having a reporter background, I was able to bring those skills to the actual storytelling. I got the interviews, hours, and hours of tape. I transcribed all of that. I sat for hours and transcribed all of them to like 67 pages of transcription and from there started piecing the story together. Some of the podcast, while very personal, also gets into some of the history of Cambodia at the time. I think my reporter skills were able to come out more in that aspect of the podcast-trying to have an unbiased view on the history aspect, and I interviewed a couple of experts.”
Phu commented that by opening this dialogue between her and her mother, a powerful impact on her own two daughters will carry on through generations.
“Essentially their whole life I’ve worked on this podcast. One is six, one is four. I’m very open about my mom’s story. There’s really sad things about my mom’s past. I try as much as possible to be honest about it, but also to tell it in a way that’s understandable to a kid. I was trying to interview my mom to understand. I will never understand what she’s gone through. I have her stories now. I have her telling her own story. So that’s like a gift I can give to my daughters.”
Phu is excited about how ‘Before Me’ is inspiring others to tell their stories.
“A pervasive theme when people hear this is they talk about how they want to do the same thing. They want to interview a family member or they want to tell a story of a family member. We don’t get the chance to really listen to our family members or sit down with our parents and ask them questions. Sometimes it gets too late.”
Self Evident Media created an oral history training and archiving program for those inspired.
Phu said creating her podcast took a huge team effort.
“First off, I interviewed my mom and my cousin. They both live in New York. That’s where I’m originally from. Much thanks to them for trusting me with their stories. I also interviewed a professor from Yale University, his name is Ben Kiernan. He gave me his time and expertise. He’s a scholar of Cambodia and of genocide. He provided so much information and background. Then I interviewed another professor and also a current journalist, his name is Nayan Chanda. He was a correspondent based in Vietnam during a lot of the conflict that was going on in Southeast Asia. I worked on this project for five years and brought it to a finished product at the end of 2021. And to do that I worked with Dave Waldron, who’s an audio engineer based out of Anchorage, I worked with Christine Carpenter, who’s a graphic artist, and my friend, who’s based in Juneau. I worked with Avery Stewart who’s a Juneau musician. Most of this year was spent trying to find a home for the project. And that home ended up being Self Evident Media. They tell and support Asian American stories of storytellers.”
Phu is a featured speaker at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center’s Fireside Chats on January 13th. She’ll play clips of ‘Before Me’ and share more about her process.
Phu is an award-winning journalist who has reported on issues from politics to language revitalization.
To make ‘Before Me’, she was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council and did a residency at Alderworks Alaska Writers & Artists Retreat.
Above: Lisa Phu’s two daughters, Lisa, and her mom Lan smile in a family photo. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Phu)
