by Brittney Melton

July 6, 2025

Good morning. This week, President Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani national in a record-breaking takedown of health care fraud schemes, and the newest Jurassic installment hit theaters.

Inheriting

by Emily Kwong, Host of Inheriting and Co-Host of Short Wave

Tomorrow, July 7, is my dad’s birthday.

Meaning that tomorrow marks the day 邝允中 — aka “Christopher Kwong,” aka “Dad” — became a U.S. citizen. I imagine that when my grandparents held him for the first time, they were filled with hope for this country and who my father could be within its borders.

Birthright citizenship is how so many U.S. families, including my own, came to exist.

Emily Kwong’s father as a little boy, being held by his mother

Emily Kwong father and grandmother. Courtesy of Kwong family.

Since January, immigrant groups have been challenging President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, which denies citizenship to children of immigrants without legal status born in the U.S.

On June 27th, the Supreme Court ruled against lower courts’ universal injunctions that would block that order nationwide. In the hours after, immigrant rights groups moved to convert their lawsuits into class actions —– to fight Trump’s policy on a broad scale.

One of those cases, Casa v. Trump, was filed on behalf of two immigrant rights groups and five pregnant mothers. Some of these women have lived and paid taxes in the United States for decades. They include pregnant mothers with pending asylum claims, pregnant mothers on a student visa, pregnant mothers with temporary protected status, and pregnant mothers who are undocumented. Now, the amended class complaint seeks to represent all those affected by the executive order.

In reading the case, I think of my own grandmother. While she eventually became a citizen, that was not the case when she first arrived. When Japan invaded China, her life was at risk. She got out. She had a student visa, and that was all.

Immigrant families like mine know that no one fleeing conflict becomes a legal, permanent resident overnight. Paperwork does not square nicely with the chaos of war. That’s why due process under the 14th Amendment matters.

Birthright citizenship, ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, has been a cornerstone of American law since 1868. The 14th Amendment reversed the Dred Scott decision, which originally ruled that slaves had no standing before the high court to demand their freedom. Then, in 1898, the United States vs. Wong Kim Ark further affirmed that birthright citizenship is conferred to all individuals born within U.S. borders, regardless of their parents' nationality or immigration status.

Now, Trump’s order challenge a century of law.

So, I’ll be celebrating my father’s birthday — or birthright citizenship day — with an awareness that such a moment was hard won. I’ll be celebrating what an awesome father he’s been, and thinking about how the pathways to legal status are more contested than at any other point in his lifetime.

Learning this family history has taught me that the past is personal. And I wanted to develop a show entirely about this. Myself and co-creator Anjuli Sastry Krbechek created it together, with a whole team at LAist.

We think now is an especially good time to discover this show, Inheriting.

Inheriting: Season One follows seven Asian American and Pacific Islander families as they process cataclysmic change, from the U.S. invasion of Guam to September 11, 2001. Named one of “The 20 Best Podcasts of 2024" by The Atlantic, Inheriting won the 2025 Ambie Award for best society and culture podcast and the 2025 RFK Journalism Award in radio. The show is produced by LAist Studios and distributed by the NPR Network.

Inheriting: Season Two will focus on this moment in history — and how we got to this point in U.S. immigration policy. How has your family been affected by U.S. immigration policy and law? Let us know. Email inheriting@laiststudios.com with ideas, questions, or to share your story.

And subscribe to Inheriting on your app of choice here.

We want our show to spark conversation within families about the past and how the past intersects with your personal life. How did history make YOU possible?

Check out more great reads from the NPR network you may have missed:

Last Sunday, NPR’s Hannah Bloch told us all about Far-flung postcards, the weekly series that takes readers on a behind-the-scenes look at what the international team is up to. This week, Emily Feng sends greetings from the red cypress forests of Alishan, Taiwan.
NPR interviewed four former senior officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development regarding their perspectives on the agency's dismantling. USAID was designed to foster global stability through various humanitarian aid and development initiatives.
As the night sky becomes brighter each year across North America, the Big Bend area in Texas is fending off the light pollution that washes out starry nights. Astronomers and conservationists in the region have worked with local cities and counties to implement lighting ordinances aimed at reducing light pollution.
The Trump administration recently celebrated its role in helping North Carolina find a home for Alexis Ratcliff, a 19-year-old disabled woman who has lived in a hospital since she was 13. However, the Trump administration, in its budget request for the next fiscal year, eliminated the funding for the program that provided this assistance.
The Kansas River is cleaner now than it was 50 years ago, but pollution and trash continue to be an issue. Kayakers and others who enjoy the river are coming together to help improve its sandbars by removing tons of garbage. (via KCUR)

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Embedded Podcast - The Network series out now

Season's greetings from Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Welcome to summer, the sweatiest holiday season. Regardless of where the next few months take you — a faraway destination, the inside of a rental car, or just your air-conditioned living room — Pop Culture Happy Hour has a whole slate of episodes at the ready to keep you cool, whatever your clime.

From our official guide to the movies and TV we’re most excited about this summer, a chat about why we love TV weddings, the TV shows we’d like to live in, and, yes, our debate on the sweatiest movie of all time — we like to think any of our episodes are as quaffable and as seasonally appropriate as a frozen daiquiri. Drink up!

Cheers!

Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour

Podcast Club

Pien Huang/NPR

Thanks for tuning in last week to the Pop Culture Happy Hour episode, “Best Pixar Movies, Ranked.” The episode discussed the best of the best Pixar movies of all time, according to thousands of votes from PCHH listeners. Up First newsletter reader Lucia Ann France-Bryant also weighed in on the topic. In her opinion, Toy Story is the best Pixar movie.

Today, we’re listening to Short Wave. “Why weed's signature scent has changed over time” talks about how the skunky smell of cannabis could be going out of style. To truly get to the bottom of this, NPR's science correspondent Pien Huang visited the grow facility for District Cannabis, which sells weed in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. During her tour, she learned why cannabis smells the way it does and how it has evolved to incorporate notes of lavender and citrus.

Have you noticed the evolution of how cannabis smells? Let us know, and your response could be featured in next week’s newsletter.

In today’s episode of The Sunday Story from Up First, take a look at our fractured news environment. A few decades ago, most people used and trusted the same news sources. Now, that trust has eroded as Americans isolate themselves in separate ecosystems and consume conflicting depictions of reality. This episode explores when that shared media ecosystem split and if it can be sewn back together.

Anagrams for Kitchen Items

The words "Sunday Puzzle" over a white background. The name "Will Shortz" is under the Sunday Puzzle title, etched into red dice.

NPR

It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! For today's on-air challenge, every answer is something you might see in a kitchen. Identify them from their anagrams. For example, if NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz gives you the word “blow,” the answer would be “bowl.” Test your skills here. Check this page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m.

This week's online challenge consists of four parts, all focused on phonetics. First, say a letter of the alphabet out loud -- like B, C, or L. Then name something you might carry around in your pocket. Say it twice. Finally, name a variety of trees. Say these four things in order, and phonetically they'll name a nice place in the United States to vacation. What is it? Submit your answer here and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.

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Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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