'Seeing Ghosts' Across Generations

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kat Chow was 13 when her mother died, and with that loss came profound and lasting questions about identity, family and history. In her memoir, Seeing Ghosts, the author and former Code Switch reporter explores how her mother's death has haunted her through the years, in ways that are profound, tragic and, sometimes, darkly hilarious.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Kat. Hi.
0:02.8	I know who you are, but for the audience who may not know you, can you introduce yourself?
0:08.8	My name is Kat Chao. I am a writer and author of the book, Seeing Ghosts.
0:14.3	And you might recognize my voice from being a Code Switch reporter.
0:18.8	Kat, Jean and I started a Code Switch at the same time.
0:21.8	Way back in 2013, when the podcast was just a twinkle in our eyes,
0:26.3	she left after a few years to write a memoir, Seeing Ghosts. It's about many things.
0:31.8	One of which is how her immediate family, that's Kat, her two older sisters, and her father,
0:37.6	grieved the loss of her mother. Kat was only 13 when she died.
0:42.8	It's not incorrect to say that for years, the way my family grieved my mother,
0:48.3	was to avoid acknowledging her altogether.
0:51.1	It's not incorrect to say that we hardly invoked her name or told stories about her.
0:59.2	Not only does Seeing Ghosts acknowledge Kat's mother and invoke all of her names,
1:04.2	in a way that's funny, and irreverent, and incredibly soulful.
1:08.4	It's a story about race and identity, and it's a coming-of-age story too.
1:13.6	Kat takes us into her world as a teenager. The youngest of three sisters, still living at home
1:19.2	with her immigrant dad, a very different home after her mom's death.
1:28.5	I'm Shireen Madislamaraji, and this is Code Switch from NPR.
1:33.3	I sat down with Kat Chow, or actually, we both stood separately in our respective closets
1:38.8	to talk about her new memoir. And I started by asking how she described Seeing Ghosts,
1:44.2	because as I want to say all the time on the show, it's complicated.
1:53.2	This story is about my family's loss across generations.
	...

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