About the work: We’ve heard from immigrants on social media deeply moved by this story, therapists who have added this story to their training syllabi, and professors who have added this to their Asian American studies syllabi. The story has been featured on NPR’s Up First Sunday, and Stephanie has been interviewed numerous times for her work on this story, including on @asiansformentalhealth (Dr. Jenny Tzu-Mei Wang’s Instagram account with nearly 100k followers). The story received approximately 800,000 downloads. And Bophal Phen, the therapist featured in the story, sent us the following response: “I’ve noticed an uptick in recruitment effort. I’ve been receiving more emails asking me to work for private practices and/or other mental health organizations. But I’m happy to be stuck with Gardner. So I won’t be leaving any time soon. I’ve been getting more missed phone calls as well. But I’ve returned calls to a few so far, especially those who left me their messages. I remember a Cambodian man living in Texas. He called me to say that he had listened to NPR podcast about the Therapy Ghostbusters. He told me that he was the only one in his family to survive the Killing Fields, and he had nightmares and sleep paralysis almost every night. He eventually wrote a book called “The Last One” surviving the Killing Fields. The podcast helped him to heal and to feel normalized (that other traumatized Cambodians experience sleep paralysis like him). I guess this is what we really hoped to see, that other traumatized Cambodians would benefit from our story.” Here’s a selection of the DMs and messages we’ve received in response to this story: “I wanted to write today to thank you so much for the "Therapy Ghostbusters" episode…It absolutely broke my heart open in the best possible way. I listened to it with tears streaming down my cheeks. My mother is a first generation Filipina…She was raised in extreme poverty…BUT she doesn't talk about her childhood or early years much…And, she was extremely abusive to me and my sister throughout our childhood. This story hit so close to home for me, because I am now trying to re-process the abuse as a grown woman and mother….Hearing about the culturally-sensitive help described in your show gave me so much hope.” “Wow…I am an Iranian American immigrant in my 40s…Feeling like I’m carrying the emotional load of at least three generations worth of women who were never given a chance to make their own choices...I will be re-listening and sending to my therapist to further process. But just wanted to tell you how much that episode meant to me. THANK YOU.” @hanbae: “This episode of @NPRinvisibilia is the best radio story I've ever heard in my life. @imontheradio tells the story of incredible, culturally sensitive therapy for trauma survivors, and ties it to her own life with love and care. It gave me hope.”

Judges’ comments: “The layered, complex storytelling in this piece made for a compelling and powerful listen. We think the piece highlights voices that are rarely heard in mainstream media but also sheds light on important aspects of the AAPI experience including complicated and important issues such as intergenerational trauma, therapy and mental health.”

RUNNER-UP: James Boo, Lisa Phu, Julia Shu, Harsha Nahata, Tiffany Bui, Timothy Lou Ly, Ken Ikeda, Rekha Radhakrishnan, Cathy Erway and Dave Waldron, “Before Me,” Self-Evident