5 Asian American Podcasts Worth Subscribing To Right Now
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Asian American podcasts have quietly become one of the most important ways the community is talking to itself. The form is suited to the work: long-form, conversational, allergic to the soundbite framing that traditional media often imposes on identity stories. Over the past decade, a deep shelf has built up, and then thinned out. Some of the most-cited Asian American podcasts have gone dormant in recent years, with last episodes from 2021 or 2022 still listed as “Updated Weekly” by listing platforms that don’t catch when shows have effectively ended. The five shows below are the ones that have continued to publish consistently into 2026, with verified current hosts and recent episodes, the actual rotation worth subscribing to today.
They Call Us Bruce
Hosted by journalists Jeff Yang and Phil Yu (the writer behind Angry Asian Man), They Call Us Bruce is the long-running Asian American pop culture and politics podcast that has been documenting the community since 2017. The pair have a deep institutional memory of Asian American media history that’s hard to find elsewhere. Recent episodes have covered Asian American filmmakers, the hit animated feature KPop Demon Hunters, the Hulu adaptation of Interior Chinatown, and the broader state of Asian American media. Yang and Yu are also co-authors (with Philip Wang) of the 2022 book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America, which is the natural companion read to the show.
Time to Say Goodbye
Hosted by Jay Caspian Kang (staff writer at The New Yorker) and Tyler Austin Harper (essayist and academic), Time to Say Goodbye is the weekly current-events podcast that covers politics, culture, and a notable amount of fishing and surfing with more analytical rigor than almost any other show in the space. Kang’s writing, including his book The Loneliest Americans, one of the most important recent books on Asian American identity, sets the show’s intellectual register. If you want one podcast to follow the political and cultural conversation around Asian American issues, this is the one.
Code Switch
Not exclusively Asian American, Code Switch is NPR’s flagship race and identity podcast, hosted by a rotating team of journalists of color, but the show’s Asian American coverage is consistently among the strongest in the field. When Code Switch tackles topics like the model minority myth, anti-Asian violence, or the politics of mixed-race Asian identity, the reporting holds up. The show publishes weekly, with reliably substantive episodes. Subscribe broadly to Code Switch and the Asian American episodes will surface as part of the broader race conversation, which is, in some ways, the right framing.
Add to Cart
Hosted by veteran journalist SuChin Pak, a pioneering Asian American correspondent from the early years of MTV News, and comedian, writer, and director Kulap Vilaysack, Add to Cart is the award-winning weekly comedy podcast about the things we buy, the things we buy into, and what they say about who we are. The premise is consumerism, but the real subject is everything around it: identity, family, parenting, aging, and culture, with the two longtime friends styling themselves as everyone’s Aunties. It is the lightest, funniest pick on this list, and a steady fixture in best-of comedy podcast roundups, with new episodes every week.
The Filipino American Woman Project
Hosted by Jen Amos, The Filipino American Woman Project is one of the more substantive Filipino-specific podcasts in the Asian American space, now more than 180 episodes deep. The current format, TFAW Letters, centers on Amos reading aloud letters submitted by Filipino American women about their lives, families, careers, and identities. It’s an unusual format, and an unusually intimate one. Worth subscribing if you want your Asian American podcast rotation to include the specifically Filipino American storytelling voice that broader pan-Asian framings tend to flatten.
How to Build an Asian American Podcast Subscription Rotation
If you’re starting from zero, three suggestions on building the rotation. First, subscribe to two shows of different formats, one journalistic or political (Time to Say Goodbye or Code Switch), one independent or comedic (They Call Us Bruce or Add to Cart). That gives you both substance and tone variety. Second, sample the back catalog before committing, because Asian American podcasts run on long arcs and the right entry-point episode matters. Third, give each show three episodes before deciding whether it earns a place in the rotation, and unsubscribe without guilt from the ones that don’t.
Asian American Podcasts: One More Thing
The five shows above are the ones that have remained consistently active through 2026, which is a harder filter than it sounds. The Asian American podcast ecosystem has thinned out over the past few years; several of the most-cited shows from 2020-2022 have either gone dormant or paused indefinitely (Self Evident’s last episode was June 2024; Asian Enough’s last regular episode was 2021). The shows above are the ones still publishing, with the right current hosts, and the editorial consistency to earn the subscription. If you enjoyed our list of essential Asian American memoirs or our roundup of Asian American stand-up specials worth watching, the podcasts above are the audio companion piece, a rotation built on quality rather than completeness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Asian American podcast should I start with?
For most listeners, Time to Say Goodbye is the right starting point: it’s well-produced, hosted by two writers with genuinely distinct perspectives, and covers the topics most adjacent to current events. If you prefer something less politics-heavy, They Call Us Bruce is the alternative, a culture-focused show with substantial Asian American media history baked in. Add to Cart is the right pick if you want comedy.
Where can I find these podcasts?
All five podcasts on this list are available on major podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and others. The links in this article use pod.link, a free redirect service that routes each show to whichever podcast app you prefer on iOS, Android, or web.
Why aren’t certain well-known Asian American podcasts on this list?
Several podcasts that would have been obvious picks two or three years ago, including Self Evident and Asian Enough, have gone dormant. Self Evident’s last episode was June 2024; Asian Enough’s last regular episode was 2021. We’ve focused this list on shows that are actually publishing in 2026 with verified current hosts. If you go deeper into the genre, the back catalogs of paused or ended shows are still worth exploring.
How often should I expect new episodes?
Publishing schedules vary. Code Switch and They Call Us Bruce publish roughly weekly. Time to Say Goodbye publishes about once a week. Add to Cart releases a new episode every week. The Filipino American Woman Project publishes in seasonal runs tied to heritage months rather than on a fixed weekly schedule. Most podcast apps will surface new episodes automatically once you’ve subscribed, so the exact cadence matters less than the consistency.
