While listening to the interviews given by the Yangs, I was shocked by how similar the Yellow Rain story is to instances of public skepticism toward other genocides. In order to fully understand the emotional mindset of Kao Kalia Yang (because the way the story was framed, I was initially inclined to be skeptical myself), I tried to place myself into her shoes: I am Jewish, and many of my family members were killed during the Holocaust several decades before I was born. I have encountered Holocaust deniers, including several who claimed that Jews were not killed by Nazis but rather by other unspecified forces, making it seem as if several million people could spontaneously cease existing without explanation. To me, this claim seems absurd and offensive, and I do suspect that Holocaust deniers have some kind of agenda to push. By considering the reporters’ questioning from a Jew’s perspective, I can see why Yang was so emotionally affected by the way that the RadioLab reporters treated her uncle’s story; she felt as if the suffering of her people was being negated by what the journalists saw as a lack of specific evidence.

With that being said, a story can only be considered as legitimate as its evidence. However, in Yang’s defense, one of the articles mentioned that she had brought physical evidence with her to the interview, but RadioLab dismissed it as insufficient. This was one of their mistakes; they did not present all sides of the story, and thus were terribly insensitive to their subjects regarding an already-delicate topic. The lack of gentleness was what really ruined the interview; Yang did the journalists a favor by making herself available for a podcast interview, and the callousness of their regard was inhumane and incredibly ungrateful. In the journalism classes I’ve taken, emphasis has always been placed on treating interviewees with respect and kindness. None of those measures were taken here. Skepticism is undeniably integral to a journalist’s job, but there are ways to conduct interviews without causing emotional harm to the subjects. When questioning Yang, reporters could have been kinder with their phrasing instead of making it seem like Yang owed them answers. Pursuit of the truth can be best achieved through gentleness, but due to the lack of concern for Yang’s emotional experience, the interview ended prematurely.

There is a great deal of evidence for most of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, but the fact that the Hmong people have been tragically marginalized limits their ability to come forward with evidence. In other words, for whatever reason – be it lack of resources, number of people, etc. – the story of the Hmong people was not told often or well enough, leaving them without the same somewhat-comforting legacy that Holocaust survivors and their descendants have. The journalists had an opportunity to make a sad story known – but because of the unkindness of the RadioLab podcasters, no clear story emerged here, and both the mystery of the Yellow Rain and the story of the Hmong people remain untold.