Finding Pamilya Through Podcasting | This Filipino American Life Holds Strong to its Roots
Nearly 10 years in the game, TFAL amplifies 'nuanced experiences' in the community.
Written by Jamey V. Padojino
Photo Courtesy of Joe Bernardo
What happens when you put a group of Filipino friends and microphones together in a room? You may think it's time for karaoke, but in the case of four Los Angeles-based friends, it means a podcast episode's in session.
This has been a frequent situation for the hosts of This Filipino American Life: Joseph (Joe) Bernardo, Ryan Carpio, Elaine Dolalas and Michael (Mike) Nailat, who also serves as the show's producer. Since its 2016 launch, they have released nearly 300 episodes featuring academics, entrepreneurs, politicians, community organizers, creatives and more.
The variety is intentional, as seen through the show's tagline: "TFAL explores the nuanced experiences of Filipinos in the United States, at iba pa (Tagalog for "and others")."
The show's third episode on Filipino gangs in Southern California put the show on the map for Joe. Dave, a guest with expertise on the subject, gave a detailed breakdown of gangs by city and described their evolution from the '50s to the '00s.
Photo Courtesy of Joe Bernardo
"I did the podcast to archive those stories, that history, and that episode epitomized that," said Joe, a historian whose idea for the podcast surfaced after graduate school. He pitched the idea to Ryan, his "thought partner in random things." They then approached Elaine and Mike, who are married, were already running their own podcast and had the technical background to bring the show to life.
The podcast mostly grew organically as the topics resonated with the community. "We put out the content we did and some went quasiviral. People slowly started to listen to us and started to follow us and believed in the stuff that we put out there," Joe said. Currently, the podcast has about 8,800 listeners, more than 37,000 followers on Instagram and over 29,000 followers on Facebook.
Each host has their own wheelhouses when it comes to the types of guests they book for the show, utilizing their vast network, Elaine said.
"Being Filipino American is not a monolith," Elaine said. "A lot of times people just grasp onto the stereotypes of what it means to be Filipino American. That you would naturally be Catholic, you will naturally be a good singer or dancer or whatever, right? But there are people who are not that."
The camaraderie between the hosts is heard through the humor that inevitably gets injected within each episode, and at times followed up with a surprise airhorn to amplify the fun. They occasionally and jokingly switch to a Filipino accent and blurt out words like "scandalous!," all layered with laughter.
The foursome became friends in their 20s through their community work, with the exception of Ryan and Elaine, who have known each other since they were teenagers. Now in their 40s, the hosts have seen their friendship grow as TFAL has progressed.
The hosts inevitably get personal on the show, as seen through episodes on certain aspects of the culture, such as weddings, slang and gambling. The podcast has also become an audio diary of sorts, capturing chapters in the hosts' lives.
Ryan's marriage was celebrated in 2022 episode, and last month Joe and Ryan spent nearly an hour talking about their experiences as fathers, a contrast from TFAL's first episode where they interviewed friends who were parents and reflected on their own upbringing.
"Fast forward to now, we still don't know what we're doing. But we're just older," Joe said on the recent fatherhood episode.
"Yeah, we're just older, not wiser," Ryan quipped.
Photo Courtesy of Joe Bernardo
Hardships have also been an open topic on the show. Elaine has used the platform to talk about losing her father in 2020, then caring for her mother, who had dementia and passed away in 2023. "There's no way not to make it personal and share our stories and share our journey," she said of the podcast. Elaine had long been in grief, but has now entered her "healing era."
Throughout most of the show's history, one long-running storyline was how Elaine had never been to the Philippines, despite having fobby characteristics. That changed this past January, when she made the journey with Mike and captured it in an episode released earlier this year. "I don't have that as an excuse anymore, for my fobbyness. … I am just fobby. That's just how I am."
The team hasn't shied away from their political views. They have spoken out against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and the rise of current Philippine President Bongbong Marcos. They have joined calls to free Palestine, and spoken out against President Donald Trump and the Immigration Customs and Enforcement. It has led the podcast to lose conservative followers, but the team's aligned values solidifies their intended message.
"We're not in the business of trying to please everyone. We just want to disseminate very pressing and important issues in our community as much as possible," Joe said.
Photo Courtesy of Joe Bernardo
The team's consistency has paid off. They have released an episode every other week for nearly 10 years. They have also interviewed notable figures, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas and comedian Rex Navarrete. The podcast has also gone on the road to Chicago, Hawaii, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, Stockton and Washington, D.C., plus internationally to Toronto, Canada.
Episodes were regularly recorded in person before the pandemic when shutdown orders issued in March 2020 led the hosts to record remotely, a format that continues today, with the exception of three or four episodes in the last five years.
While TFAL has covered numerous issues, there's more the team would like to explore on the show. Elaine's dream guests would be writer Jessica Hagedorn and musician Joe Santiago, lead guitarist of The Pixies. Joe's interested in having more intergenerational dialogue, such as a conversation with Gen Z. Elaine lit up at his idea and came up with a title for the episode: "Help us be less old."
More Filipino American podcasts have entered the scene since TFAL's early days, when it was only one of five in the game, but the team continues to produce the show because it's their passion project. "We're not doing it for accolades," Elaine said. "We're doing it just for the love of the community."
Written by Jamey V. Padojino
COCOLAB was founded by sisters Dr. Chrystle Cu and Catherine Cu. Dr. Chrystle Cu, a dentist, is passionate about enhancing oral care products. Catherine Cu, an artist, contributes her design expertise to the business.
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