Born in Pittsburgh, Michael Luo is the son of Chinese immigrants. He attended Harvard, and later became a reporter at the New York Times and today he is the Executive Editor at The New Yorker.

One rainy afternoon in 2016, he was standing on the sidewalk with his family and some friends after church, trying to decide where to go to lunch when a stranger accosted him and his family. “Go back to China,” she said.

Today, he joins us for the hour to talk about his new book on the hidden history of brutality and violence that so many Chinese Americans faced at the turn of the century.

GUEST:

• Michael Luo: Executive Editor for the New Yorker, and author of the book Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America

Where We Live is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

This episode originally aired May 20, 2025.