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In our Summer 2023 issue, Julian Saporiti writes about the George Igawa Orchestra, which entertained thousands of incarcerated Japanese Americans at a World War II internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. But Saporiti, who releases music as No-No Boy, has been singing about the \u201cbest god damn band in Wyoming\u201d since 2021, when his album 1975 came out. No-No Boy\u2014named for the Japanese Americans who twice answered \u201cno\u201d on a wartime loyalty questionnaire\u2014has been releasing songs about forgotten pockets of Asian-American history for years: Burmese migrants, Cambodian kids whose parents survived the Khmer Rouge, Saigon teens, and his mother\u2019s experience as a Vietnamese refugee of an American war. We caught up with Saporiti at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where he performed a set in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Smithsonian Folkways, to talk about reciprocity, scholars by waterfalls, and how to smuggle in history with a few strummed chords.

Go beyond the episode:

• Listen to No-No Boy\u2019s previous two albums, 1975 and 1942, and pre-order the next release
• Read \u201cLast Dance,\u201d Saporiti\u2019s story of the George Igawa Orchestra
• Unfamiliar with the history of the no-no boys? Listen to our interview with Frank Abe about John Okada\u2019s seminal novel No-No Boy about a Nisei draft-resister

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.

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Have suggestions for projects you\u2019d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.

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