TODOS Podcast · TODOS Mathematics for ALL

S4E10: Asian American Math SiSTARhood with Kari Kokka

·1 hr 15 min·4 clips

Kari says Japanese American incarceration helped her understand “racism and white supremacy at a very young age.”

Teddy Chow sets the frame with TOTOS election month. He says the season is focused on visibility and hypervisibility in Asian American math, education, and identity, and he explains that Kari Koka is being featured alongside David Masunaga because both have done substantial work in the space. Sherry Kaku then shifts the format into a three-woman conversation. She welcomes Michelle Lo, a former guest and California math teacher, to help guide the discussion. The tone stays intimate from the start. The show lets personal story lead before it gets formal. Kari is invited to connect critical media literacy, civic engagement, civic discourse, and critical consciousness to her current work. She answers by returning to a simple discipline: ask who is speaking, what the source is, why the claim is being made, and who has power. That habit of questioning stays with the conversation. It keeps the episode rooted in public life as well as classroom life. Kari then looks back on her years as a high school teacher. She spent 10 years at Vanguard High School, a Title I school in New York City. She remembers principal Luis Delgado as deeply supportive. He let her take students to protests and rallies in Manhattan and Brooklyn during the school day, even with the possibility of being arrested in the background. The story lands as more than a memory. It becomes a clear example of how school leadership can make civic action possible. Later, the conversation turns toward family history. Michelle reflects on Japanese American history, including a family history rooted in Hawaii and imprisonment, and contrasts that with displacement and harsh living conditions. The closing emphasis is on accessibility and connection. The hosts want these conversations to help listeners find resources, understand their own histories, and notice the links running across communities.

As heard by us

Math teaching, Asian American identity, and organizing meet in a conversation where memory and power stay close to the work.

Kari Koka's conversation with Teddy Chow, Sherry Kaku, and Michelle Lo keeps its focus on Asian American math, education, identity, visibility, and hypervisibility without drifting away from lived experience.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want math talk tied to Asian American identity, community organizing, and family history.

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