Emily Kwong

And they are so validating of that person's reality.

How is this song being received by people in her field?

Ritu Chatterjee, thank you so, truly so much for bringing this song, this message, this care onto Shortwave.

If you would like to listen to the full song or read the lyrics, check out the link in our episode notes.

Give that conversation with Ritu and I from 2021 a listen.

We've linked it too.

This episode was produced by Burleigh McCoy.

It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Tyler Jones.

Kweisi Lee was the audio engineer.

I'm Emily Kwong.

Thank you for listening to Shorewave from NPR.

Hey, everyone.

Emily Kwong here.

Just a word before today's episode.

2025 is almost over.

And at NPR and our local stations, we are excited to begin a new year.

This year was tough.

The loss of federal funding for public media, attacks on the free press.

But despite it all, we are not shying away from our jobs.

From exercising the critical right to editorial independence guaranteed by the First Amendment.