Let's Grab Coffee

Episode Notes While We Were Burning is a domestic thriller set in Memphis examining the intersection of race, class, and female friendship, and the devastating consequences of everyday actions. On today's show I'm joined by Memphis native and author, Sara Koffi, to discuss her debut novel.   Sara Koffi is a writer and editor from Memphis, Tennessee, with a BA in English from Whittier College. As a writer, she strives to explore the nuances of “unlikable” female characters and humanize Black women by giving them space on the page to breathe.    Other episodes mentioned:   Ep129 Special Feature: Black is America episode highlighting Tom Lee

Episode Notes When was the first time you saw yourself represented on screen? An actor or actress who looked like you? For better or worse, media shapes how we think about ourselves and others and often fills in the gap when we don't have first-hand experience with certain situations, circumstances, or groups of people. For me, as an Asian American woman growing up in the 90s, Asian Americans weren't completely invisible but we had limited and often stereotypical roles. I wonder what it would have been like to grow up with an Asian American actress to look up to. Today we're delving into the life of our first Asian American movie star, the opportunities she seized, the challenges she faced, and the legacy she left. I'm joined by Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong.   In addition to writing Not Your China Doll, Katie's work has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Believer, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in 2021 and gave the TED Talk “As American as Chop Suey.” Katie also writes the newsletter Half-Caste Woman. A fifth-generation Chinese American who hails from Southern California, she now lives in Brooklyn.

Episode Notes Currently there are over 22 million Asians across the US representing a range of ethnic groups originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Yet, oftentimes, the ways we think of Asian American history is tethered to the East and West Coasts. But Asians in America have a long history in the Deep South, a history that has garnered growing attention. Documentaries like “Far East, Deep South” and “Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South” follow the filmmakers as they explore their personal family histories. How does knowing these histories help us have a fuller and richer understanding not only of Asian Americans but also the South? And how might these histories be shaping our shared present and future? Today I sit down with Dr. Shaolu Yu, whose work examines these questions and more.   Dr. Shaolu Yu is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and the Chair of Asian Studies at Rhodes College. Trained as an urban geographer in an interdisciplinary background and participating in projects in urban studies in China, the U.S., and Canada, she has developed a comparative and global perspective and a mixed method approach in her research on cities. Her papers have been published in the journals Annals of Association of American Geographers, The Professional Geographer, Urban Geography, Geographical Review, and The Journal of Transport Geography.

Episode Notes A key part of Memphis history is its role in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly with the Sanitation Workers Strike that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to Memphis and his untimely death. Like the city itself, the story of Civil Rights activism is often presented through a Black-White lens. Yet, Asians and Asian Americans have been in the South since at least the late 1700s and in Memphis since the late 1800s. How then do Asian Americans fit into the history of civil rights? And how does knowing that history then change how we think about race, rights, Asian Americans, and the South? To answer these questions and more, today I'm joined by Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz, author of A Different Shade of Justice: Asian American Civil Rights in the South. She shares some of the complexities of Asian American legal cases during the 1880s to late twentieth century and reflects on some of the cases that didn't make it into the book but still offer important insights into civil rights.     Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz is an Assistant Professor of Security and Military Studies at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. She is the author of Race, Religion, and Civil Rights: Asian Students on the West Coast, 1900-1968 (Rutgers University Press), A Different Shade of Justice: Asian American Civil Rights in the South (UNC Press), which won the Silver Nautilus Award for Journalism and Investigative Reporting, and Japanese American Incarceration: The Camps and Coerced Labor in World War II (University of Pennsylvania Press), which won the Philip Taft Labor History Award from the Labor and Working Class History Association and Cornell University Labor Relations School.

Episode Notes Episode Notes We spend a lot of our time on the road, commuting to work, running errands, meeting up with friends and family. In fact, maybe you'll listen to this episode while you're on the road. For all the possibilities that roads open up for us, it's not without a cost. To talk more about how roads impact our lives – and the lives around us – for better and for worse, today I'm joined by Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet. Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist. He's the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet, which the New York Times named one of the best books of 2023. His previous book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, was the winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Ben's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Science, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and The New York Times, among others.

Episode Notes Memphis goes by many names – Home of the Blues, BBQ Capital, and the Bluff City. The last one a reference to our location on the Bluffs of the Mighty Mississippi River. But how much do you know about the muddy waters flowing in our backyard? Today I'm joined by Boyce Upholt, author of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi. We talk about our own personal relationships to the water, some of the people and events that have shaped the river, and what the future may hold for the communities and ecosystems along its banks. Boyce Upholt is a “nature critic” whose writing probes the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. His work has been published in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications, and was awarded the 2019 James Beard Award for investigative journalism. He is the founder of Southlands, a newsletter field guide to Southern nature. Previous episodes mentioned: Ep 112 Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement with Bobby J Smith II Ep 121 Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet with Ben Goldfarb

Episode Notes “Boys don't cry.” “Man up.” “Emotions are a sign of weakness.” These common sayings shape how we think about emotions, who can have them, and what type of emotional displays are acceptable. Although 1 in 5 adults experience a mental health problem each year, men are less likely than women to seek mental health services due to societal norms, traditional gender roles, stigma, and limited awareness or understanding about the specific mental health challenges that men face.   June is Men's Mental Health Month, and to help us learn more today I welcome back Dr. Justin K Dodson.   Dr. Justin K Dodson is a licensed professional counselor and the owner of Navigating Courage Counseling & Consultation. For more information, to schedule your initial consultation, or to invite Dr. Dodson to speak with your organization or community group, visit https://www.navigatingcouragecac.com/   Like this episode? Check out my previous conversations with Dr. Dodson:   Ep 122 New Year Check In Ep 87 Tis the Season Ep 72 The Gift of Vulnerability

Episode Notes I love a good cup of coffee, but if I'm being honest, I never really gave much thought to where my coffee came from or the history of this delicious beverage itself. That was until I learned about Cxffeeblack, a Memphis-owned coffee company, and its associated Anti-Gentrification Coffee Club. Founded in 2019, by husband and wife team, Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson, Cxffeeblack is a community-oriented, multi-disciplinary, education-based coffee company that's centered around reclaiming coffee's Black roots. Coffee originates in Ethiopia, but because of trade and colonialism, there are now coffees that we've come to associate with various parts of the world, like Moka from Yemen or Java from the Indonesian island of Java. Although each of those countries or regions have their own coffee histories, we lose something when we only know history in part. We become disconnected from ourselves and one another. Today I'm excited to share a very special episode of the Cxffeeblack podcast where host Bartholomew Jones sat down with Martin Mayorga of Mayorga Coffee & Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply to discuss how they honor their roots through their coffee enterprises. As a bonus, I'm including a few snippets from previous Let's Grab Coffee episodes with Bartholomew Jones (Ep 108) and Renata Henderson (Ep 131). Watch the award-winning "Cxffeeblack to Africa: documentary and the video episode of The Cxffeeblack Podcast on Bartholomew Jones' Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bartholomewjones5450

Episode Notes May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a nationally recognized heritage month established in 1992 to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Asians in America. Currently there are over 22 million Asians across the US representing a range of ethnic groups originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Yet, oftentimes, the ways we think of Asian American history is tethered to the East and West Coasts. But Asians in America have a long history in the Deep South, a history that has garnered growing attention. Documentaries like “Far East, Deep South” and “Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South” follow the filmmakers as they explore their personal family histories. How does knowing these histories help us have a fuller and richer understanding not only of Asian Americans but also the South? And how might these histories be shaping our shared present and future? Today I sit down with Dr. Shaolu Yu, whose work examines these questions and more.   Dr. Shaolu Yu is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and the Chair of Asian Studies at Rhodes College. Trained as an urban geographer in an interdisciplinary background and participating in projects in urban studies in China, the U.S., and Canada, she has developed a comparative and global perspective and a mixed method approach in her research on cities. Her papers have been published in the journals Annals of Association of American Geographers, The Professional Geographer, Urban Geography, Geographical Review, and The Journal of Transport Geography.

Episode Notes This year I had the honor of moderating a panel conversation at SXSW featuring Dominic Lawson, Leta McCollough Seletzky, and Chassidy Jade. You may remember Dominic from our February feature of his multi-award winning podcast, Black is America. Leta was a previous guest (Ep 97) discussing her book The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today I'm sharing our conversation with you! Telling It Like It Is, Was, and Could Be Whether it's uncovering hidden narratives or reinventing the familiar, this panel will inspire you to rethink how stories can captivate, challenge, and resonate in fresh and impactful ways. Join creatives representing film, podcasting, and creative writing as they delve into the techniques of narrative design that they use to push the conventional expectations of their fields, inviting audiences to find new meaning in the stories that shape our world. They'll also explore the intentional choices and potential challenges to prepare for when offering new perspectives on well-known stories.

Episode Notes Around the world, coffee is part of countless cultures' daily routine. Perhaps your day starts with brewing a cup at home or grabbing your daily fix on the way to work. In fact, coffee is a global industry worth $495 billion per year but less than 1% of this revenue returns to people of African descent, who are the originators of coffee, or to African countries, where the majority of our coffee is imported from, highlighting the ongoing inequalities in the coffee trade. One local Memphis coffee company is on a mission to change how we understand coffee's Black history and its Black future - Cxffeeblack. Today I am joined by Cxffeeblack co-founder, Renata Henderson. As the lead roaster for Cxffeeblack, Renata Henderson is Memphis, TN's first Black female roaster, continuing the tradition of Black women roasters in Ethiopia, where coffee originates. In addition to creating an entirely all Black coffee supply chain from Ethiopia to Memphis, TN – the first of its kind – Cxffeeblack also hosts the Barista Exchange Program which took 4 Black American baristas from the US to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya and which will bring African baristas to Memphis, in a cultural and coffee educational exchange. Cxffeeblack was honored as the 2024 Global Notable Roaster of the Year by Sprudge Media Network, a renowned international authority on coffee and its culture. You can learn more about cxffeeblack at cxffeeblack.com or if you're in the Memphis area, stop by the Anti-Gentrification Cxffee Club.

Episode Notes Today is a special feature - a panel conversation I organized for SXSW featuring creatives discussing how to maintain your creative voice and vision. Social media turned creativity into content and artists into content creators. But, what if you have something more to say beyond recycling trends and presenting a carefully curated social media feed? How do you tell an entertaining, informative, and/or educational story reflective of your community in an industry that often limits representation to tired tropes? Culture critic, Dr. Saida Grundy sits down with three creatives spanning the media landscape - Munirah Jones, creator of The Mound, OWN Network's first animated series, Dominic Lawson, host of award-winning podcast Black is America, and documentary producer, Enora Moss - to uncover how they leveraged everyday technology to carve out their own creative lanes to tell the stories they wanted to tell without sacrificing their soul.

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Dominic Lawson, host and creator of the award-winning Black Is America podcast. On today's show, Dominic and I talk about the importance of storytelling - how we tell stories and the stories we tell. We listen to a very special award-winning episode of Black Is America highlighting Memphis's own, Tom Lee: The Everyday American Hero. The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Dominic Lawson, host and creator of the award-winning Black Is America podcast. On today's show, Dominic and I reflect on how the past is ever present - on an individual and society level - but we can only connect the dots looking backwards. We also listen to a jaw-dropping episode of Black Is America highlighting Doris Miller: The American Defender. The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Dominic Lawson, host and creator of the award-winning Black Is America podcast. On today's show, Dominic and I talk about the importance of courage. Dominic also drops some invaluable tips for current and future podcasters. We also listen to absolutely captivating Black Is America episode about Henry Johnson: The First American Hero of World War I. The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Dominic Lawson, host and creator of the award-winning Black Is America podcast. On today's show, Dominic and I talk about Black Is America and the importance of storytelling. We also listen to the Black Is America episode about Sylvia Robinson: The Godmother of Hip Hop.   The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com

Episode Notes Today's episode of Let's Grab Coffee is a special show featuring the Conversation Piece podcast with Patrick Armstrong. I'm sitting on the other side of the microphone while Patrick interviews me about my new book, Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants. While I'm normally the one interviewing authors about their books and what they know about the world around us, I wanted to share with you what the experiences of Korean adoptee immigrants tell us about race, family, and belonging. It was an absolute honor to be interviewed by a fellow Korean adoptee and to give you a glimpse into the lives of Korean adoptees. Over 150,000 Korean children have been adopted into U.S. families – typically white families – and while Korean adoption is often heralded as a type of “forever family” evidencing multiculturalism, in Out of Place I examine the policy failures and attitudes about race, immigration, and citizenship that made Korean children adoptable orphans and then later deportable adults.   Patrick Armstrong (he/him) is a transracial Asian American adoptee, podcaster, speaker, and community facilitator. He is the host of the award-winning podcast Conversation Piece with Patrick Armstrong, a show about the missing pieces of the conversations we're already having. He is also one of the hosts of the award-winning podcast Janchi Show, a show that explores and celebrates the experiences and stories of Korean adoptees everywhere. He is a cofounder of the Asian Adoptees of Indiana, a group dedicated to creating a safe, engaging community for all Asian adoptees who need it.  Episode mentioned: Ep 122. New Year Check In with Dr. Justin K Dodson

Episode Notes How is it that seemingly everyone – from liberals to conservatives, to celebrities, social media trolls, and your least favorite family member – has a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr quote or Civil Rights Movement reference at the ready? How is it that such disparate groups with various interests find meaning and support for their causes in Dr. King's words? How is it that they can lay claim to his dream for their own visions of the future? Today I'm joined by Dr. Hajar Yazdiha to dig into how the Civil Rights Movement has become a readily available collective memory. She shares how groups reshape memory to make and contest political claims and the consequences of this reshaping. She also talks about how collective memory can be reworked to restore pieces of the past through processes of truth and reconciliation.   Hajar Yazdiha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, faculty affiliate of the USC Equity Research Institute, and a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar (2023-2025). Hajar researches the politics of inclusion and exclusion, examining the forces that bring us together and keep us apart as we work to forge collective futures. In addition to being the author of The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement, she is also a public scholar whose writing and research has been featured in outlets including The New York Times, LA Times, ABC News, The Hill, and The Grio.   Other episodes mentioned: Episode 112 Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement with Bobby J. Smith II

Episode Notes It's the start of a new year, and unsurprisingly one of the most reported New Year Resolutions is fitness-related. According to a survey from Forbes Health/One Poll, respondents most frequently cited improved fitness as a goal. Every day we are bombarded with messaging from media, advertisers, friends, and family about what our bodies should look like and how we can take control of our bodies. Many of these messages are inaccurate and harmful, but how can we break free especially during the New Year when ads for new gym memberships seem to be everywhere? And, what is at the root of all of this focus on body management? Today I'm joined by Chrissy King, author of The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom. We discuss how we can detach from society's obsession with controlling our bodies and not just for our own personal well-being but as a component of collective liberation. If you've ever found yourself hating your body, believing that losing a few more pounds would lead to happiness, or frustrated that you can't attain the latest body goals, then this is the conversation you've been waiting for. ** ** Chrissy King is a writer, speaker, strength coach, and educator with a passion for creating a diverse and inclusive wellness industry. She holds degrees in Social Justice and Sociology from Marquette University and has been featured in SELF, SHAPE, Health, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, Muscle and Fitness, and Livestrong, among others.

Episode Notes Let's Grab Coffee kicks off the new year with friend of the show, Dr. Justin K Dodson. As always, he gives us insightful questions to consider and prompts to help us get curious about our wants, needs, and feelings. Looking to make a change this year? Justin offers some practical strategies for following through on your new year goals.   Be sure to check out our previous conversations: Episode 72 The Gift of Vulnerability Episode 87 Tis the Season   Dr. Justin K Dodson is the owner of Navigating Courage Counseling & Consultation, L.L.C. He is a licensed therapist who specializes in helping adult males through individual therapy, 1:1 coaching, and group coaching. He also provides tailored consultation for organizations who are looking to improve their understanding and strategies related to neuropsychology and mental health issues. Learn more at https://www.navigatingcouragecac.com/ or connect with Dr. Dodson on Instagram and TikTok @itsdrjkeith

Episode Notes We spend a lot of our time on the road, commuting to work, running errands, meeting up with friends and family. In fact, maybe you'll listen to this episode while you're on the road. For all the possibilities that roads open up for us, it's not without a cost. To talk more about how roads impact our lives – and the lives around us – for better and for worse, today I'm joined by Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet. _ _ Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist. He's the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet, which the New York Times named one of the best books of 2023. His previous book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, was the winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Ben's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Science, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and The New York Times, among others.

Episode Notes Have you ever expensed a lunch that wasn't solely a business meeting or maybe added a little extra time on your timesheet? If so, that's fraud. Fraud is not just identity theft, ponzi schemes, or embezzling millions of dollars. Fraud is all around us and maybe even happening to us without our knowledge. On today's show, I sit down with Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope author of Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry. Kelly Richmond Pope is the Dr. Barry Jay Epstein Endowed Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Her research on executive misconduct culminated in directing and producing the award-winning documentary, All the Queen's Horses which explores the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Her TED Talk entitled "How Whistle-blowers Shape History” has been viewed over 1.6 million times, translated into 20 languages, and serves as a resource to help organizations and individuals embrace internal whistleblowing.

Episode Notes In the U.S., we consume about 1 billion gallons of wine annually. Whether you prefer reds, whites, pinks, or bubbles, do you know what's really in your go-to glass of wine? Wine's history is filled with tales of deception, and today I sit down with Rebecca Gibb to dive into her latest book, Vintage Crime: A Short History of Wine Fraud. We'll talk about some of the surprising additions to wine throughout time, including some rather deadly (though tasty!) ingredients, and why and how wine fraud continues to happen. Our chat ends with Rebecca's wine picks for a variety of occasions.   Rebecca Gibb is a Master of Wine, business owner, and award-winning wine journalist. She is currently an editor for Vinous, an online wine publication, which has subscribers in more than 100 countries, publishing in-depth wine coverage and reviews. In 2015, Rebecca became the 384th Master of Wine in the world. In a record class of 24 graduates, she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award and the Bollinger Medal in recognition of outstanding tasting ability.

Episode Notes November is National Adoption Month, which adoptees have reclaimed as National Adoptee Awareness Month (NAAM). In honor of NAAM, this month on Let's Grab Coffee, I'm featuring conversations with authors of books that center adoptee voices. Who are you and how do you know? Much of our identity begins with our name and our family origin stories, but what happens when the stories you thought you knew begin to unravel? Questions of identity, family, and truth are at the center of Shannon Gibney's latest novel - The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption. On today's show I sit down with Shannon to discuss her book, some of the primary themes around adoption, race, and what we know or think we know, and how she's creating new stories about herself and adoption. Shannon Gibney is an award winning author and university professor. Her previous novels include See No Color and Dream Country. She is co-editor with Nicole Chung of When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology.

Episode Notes November is National Adoption Month, which adoptees have reclaimed as National Adoptee Awareness Month (NAAM). In honor of NAAM, this month on Let's Grab Coffee, I'm featuring conversations with authors of books that center adoptee voices. According to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, everyone has the right to identity, the right to know one's history and origins. Everyone, including children adopted transnationally out of a war. But how can these adoptees begin to know their history and origins, if their nations of origin deny their existence? On today's show, I'm joined by Dr. Elizabeth Barnert, the author of Reunion: Finding the Disappeared Children of El Salvador. In this book, she provides a firsthand account that reveals the impact of forced family separations and reunifications in communities affected by El Salvador's civil war. We discuss her work with Pro-Búsqueda, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the search of children who were disappeared during the Salvadoran Civil War, and the importance of adoptees' own agency in the process of reunion. Elizabeth Barnert is a pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research, grounded in human rights and social action, examines children affected by violence, family separation, and incarceration.

Episode Notes November is National Adoption Month, which adoptees have reclaimed as National Adoptee Awareness Month (NAAM). In honor of NAAM, this month on Let's Grab Coffee, I'm featuring conversations with authors of books that center adoptee voices. Child welfare services, including adoption and foster care, are often framed around the “best interests of the child,” but who gets to decide what's best and who's best for the child? What happens in cases of adoptive parent and foster parent abuse, neglect, and murder? On this episode, I sit down with Roxanna Asgarian, author of We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. Through her investigative journalism, she challenges some of the assumptions around child welfare and adoption, centers the birth families whose children were murdered by their adoptive parents in a highly-publicized 2018 murder-suicide, and exposes the harms baked into the child welfare system. Roxanna Asgarian was the law and courts reporter for the Texas Tribune. Previously, she covered the child welfare and criminal justice systems as an independent reporter in Houston. Roxanna received her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and her master's degree from the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

Episode Notes November is National Adoption Month, which adoptees have reclaimed as National Adoptee Awareness Month (NAAM). In honor of NAAM, this month on Let's Grab Coffee, I'm featuring conversations with authors of books that center adoptee voices. In the last few years, loss and grief have become a shared collective experience, particularly in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. This period has also put the inequities in the U.S. healthcare system front and center along with the ways that what has been “normal” has often been harmful or unsustainable. In A Living Remedy: A Memoir, Nicole Chung shares her personal experience of loss and grief and connects it to the broader systemic failures that countless Americans have encountered and are one emergency away from encountering. Nicole Chung is the author the national bestseller All You Can Ever Know, which was named a Best Book of the Year by over twenty outlets, including NPR, The Washington Post, and Time. She is currently a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a Time contributor, and a Slate columnist. In 2021, she was named to the Good Morning America AAPI Inspiration List honoring those “making Asian American history right now.”

Episode Notes What does it mean to be trans? Cisgender? And why should we all use our pronouns as part of how we introduce ourselves? Isn't gender biological? Many of us have questions like these yet we don't know who to ask or how to have these conversations. On today's show, I'm joined by Schulyer Bailar. He's the author of He/She/They: How We Talk about Gender and Why It Matters, a book that is part personal story, part primer on how to talk about gender, and part resource for understanding terminology, history, and science behind our society's views on sex, gender, and identity. Schuyler Bailar (he/him) is the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men's team. His story has appeared everywhere from 60 Minutes to The Washington Post. Schuyler's tireless advocacy has earned him numerous honors including LGBTQ Nation's Instagram Advocate for 2020, a GLAAD MEDIA Award nomination, the Out Magazine's 2017 OUT100 list, and the prestigious Harvard Athletics Director's Award, which is not granted annually – but only when an athlete demonstrates outstanding contribution to Athletics through education. He is only the 7th recipient of the award. In 2021, Schuyler also released his first middle-grade novel, Obie Is Man Enough. And in 2022, Schuyler created LaneChanger.com making gender literacy education accessible to every team, school, and company.

Episode Notes The desire for success and achievement are part of our culture, a culture that tells us ambition is a virtue – to do more, to be the best, to work hard, so we can play even harder. But what does all that ambition ultimately get us? Are we healthier, happier, more fulfilled? With burnout at an all-time high, according to a recent study by the Future Forum, is it time to rethink ambition and our definition of success? That's the center of today's conversation with Rainesford Stauffer, author of All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive.   Rainesford Stauffer is a freelance writer, reporter, and Kentuckian. She's also the author of An Ordinary Age, which was named one of Esquire's Best Nonfiction Books of 2021. Rainesford writes the Work in Progress column at Teen Vogue, and wrote a column at Catapult, Gold Stars. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Scalawag, Vox, DAME Magazine, ELLE, The New York Times, and other outlets. She was featured on PBS's Brief But Spectacular in 2023. Rainesford is a 2022-2023 Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism, focusing on youth mental health in the South.

Episode Notes There's more to food than just what's on your plate. Food can be a weapon of suppression and a tool of resistance. In fact, food was one contested site of freedom during the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Bobby J. Smith II details this story in Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. Today we discuss the 1962-1963 Greenwood, Mississippi Food Blockade and the subsequent Food for Freedom program. This is just one part of the broader food justice movement from the Civil Rights era to present-day that Dr. Smith examines in Food Power Politics.   Dr. Bobby J. Smith II is an interdisciplinary scholar of the African American agricultural and food experience. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with affiliations in the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition and the Center for Social & Behavioral Science. His work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, among others.

Episode Notes In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal civil rights law banning discrimination against people with disabilities in many areas of life. However, despite the ADA and more precisely the work of the disability rights movement in bringing public visibility to the injustices faced by disabled folks, the law doesn't cover accessibility or inclusion in every area of life nor does it change ableist attitudes. And because ableism is ubiquitous in our social world, we must be active in challenging our bias. Today I'm chatting with Dr. Ashley Shew, author of Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement. We discuss ableism, disability, technology, and accessibility.   Ashely Shew is an Associate Professor in Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. She is co-editor-in-chief of Techné, the journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. Ashley is a grateful participant with her local disability advocacy and activist community in the Disability Alliance and Caucus at Virginia Tech and the New River Valley Disability Resource Center.

Episode Notes According to the US Census, the United States is home to more than 45 million immigrants, about 14% of the total US population. And while this country's origin story is one of immigration, there have almost always been anti-immigration attitudes, deep misconceptions about the immigration process, and biases about who is worthy of belonging. On today's show I'm joined by Alejandra Oliva, author of Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration. We'll talk about experience of immigration and interpreting at the US-Mexico border and at an asylum application clinic.   Alejandra Oliva is an essayist, embroiderer and translator.  Her book, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith and Migration, received a Whiting Nonfiction Grant. In Spring 2022, Alejandra was the Yale Whitney Humanities Center Franke Visiting Fellow. She holds a master's degree from Harvard's Divinity School.

Episode Notes Child welfare services, including adoption and foster care, are often framed around the “best interests of the child,” but who gets to decide what's best and who's best for the child? What happens in cases of adoptive parent and foster parent abuse, neglect, and murder? On this episode, I sit down with Roxanna Asgarian, author of _We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. _Through her investigative journalism, she challenges some of the assumptions around child welfare and adoption, centers the birth families whose children were murdered by their adoptive parents in a highly-publicized 2018 murder-suicide, and exposes the harms baked into the child welfare system.   Roxanna Asgarian was the law and courts reporter for the Texas Tribune. Previously, she covered the child welfare and criminal justice systems as an independent reporter in Houston. Roxanna received her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and her master's degree from the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

Episode Notes In the U.S. coffee is commonly associated with Starbucks, a daily pick-me-up taken on the go, or a fancy specialty coffee shop often located in a gentrified neighborhood. However coffee has a deeply Black and deeply communal history. What would it mean to understand coffee's Black history and its Black future? Cxffeeblack is on a mission to find out. On this episode, I'm joined by Bartholomew Jones, a Memphis-born entrepreneur who in late 2018 co-founded Cxffeeblack, a Black social enterprise alongside his wife, Renata Henderson, Memphis' first Black female coffee roaster.

Episode Notes Doctors are trained to save the lives of countless patients but what happens when the person who needs saving is themselves? On today's show I'm joined by Dr. Anthony Chin-Quee, author of I Can't Save You. In this memoir, Anthony gives us an intimate look at one doctor's journey into and out of medicine. Anthony Chin-Quee, M.D., is a board-certified otolaryngologist with degrees from Harvard University and Emory University School of Medicine. An award-winning storyteller with The Moth, he has been on the writing staff of FOX's The Resident and a medical adviser for, none other than, ABC's Grey's Anatomy. He has published opinions in Forbes and been interviewed by NPR on the topic of systemic racism in medical education.

Episode Notes Have you ever expensed a lunch that wasn't solely a business meeting or maybe added a little extra time on your timesheet? If so, that's fraud. Fraud is not just identity theft, ponzi schemes, or embezzling millions of dollars. Fraud is all around us and maybe even happening to us without our knowledge. On today's show, I sit down with Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope author of Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry. Kelly Richmond Pope is the Dr. Barry Jay Epstein Endowed Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Her research on executive misconduct culminated in directing and producing the award-winning documentary, All the Queen's Horses which explores the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Her TED Talk entitled "How Whistle-blowers Shape History” has been viewed over 1.6 million times, translated into 20 languages, and serves as a resource to help organizations and individuals embrace internal whistleblowing.

Episode Notes In the last few years, loss and grief have become a shared collective experience, particularly in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. This period has also put the inequities in the U.S. healthcare system front and center along with the ways that what has been “normal” has often been harmful or unsustainable. In _A Living Remedy: A Memoir, _Nicole Chung shares her personal experience of loss and grief and connects it to the broader systemic failures that countless Americans have encountered and are one emergency away from encountering.  Nicole Chung is the author the national bestseller All You Can Ever Know, _which was named a Best Book of the Year by over twenty outlets, including NPR, _The Washington Post, _and _Time. She is currently a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a Time contributor, and a _Slate _columnist.

Episode Notes Recent acts of racial violence are often explained aways as isolated incidents yet a longer view of our nation's history provides much-needed context to understand our present moment and what may lay ahead. In his latest book, American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress, Wesley Lowery brings together insights from history, interviews, data, and a close examination of six cases of white racial violence that occurred in the decade following Obama's election. He demonstrates how periods of white racist backlash have occurred after moments of social progress.   _Wesley Lowery is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and one of the nation's leading reporters on issues of race and justice. He is the executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in Washington DC. He is also the author of the New York Times best-selling book, _They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement.

Episode Notes SunAh revisits her conversation with Dr. Victor Ray about his book On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care. Dr. Victor Ray, Associate Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and and a Nonresident Fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution.. Over the past couple years, we've seen a moral panic around “critical race theory” resulting in changes to K-12 curriculum and legislation around divisive concepts in higher education. But, what exactly is critical race theory? Dr. Ray breaks it down in easy-to-understand language with real world applications.

Episode Notes What does it feel like to be visible and invisible, American and presumed foreigner, neither Black nor White? What does it feel like to be Asian in America? In Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America, Julia Lee takes readers on a personal journey of finding her place in the U.S. It is a journey of rage, shame, and grace, a journey that will be familiar to many marginalized folks in the U.S.   Julia Lee is a Korean American writer, scholar, and teacher. She holds a PhD in English and American Language and Literature and is currently an associate professor of English at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches Black and Asian American literature.

Episode Notes Children often feel pressured to live up to their parents' dreams, but for the children of immigrants this pressure is particularly acute. So, what happens when who you are and what you desire conflicts with your parents' visions of success that are constrained within heteronormative constructions of family, children, and career? On this episode, SunAh chats with Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo whose latest book is titled _Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons._Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo is a Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and the co-host of the podcast Professor-ing.

Episode Notes What are some key events, places, or people in Asian American history? If you struggle to come up with an answer, you're not alone. Asian American history is a history of erasure and not-knowing. On this episode, SunAh is joined by Dr. Catherine Ceniza Choy, whose latest book, Asian American Histories of the United States, brings to the forefront the many stories of Asian American history – past and present. Through skillful storytelling, Dr. Choy connects historical moments to present events while weaving in vignettes of Asian American activists, artists, entrepreneurs, trailblazers, and everyday people. Dr. Choy is Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice in the University of California, Berkeley's Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society.

Episode Notes Have you ever felt like you don't have enough energy, care, or motivation to continue with your daily tasks? That's burnout and it's becoming more and more common. On today's show I'm joined by Amelia Nagoski, co-author of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. She talks about why burnout is so common, especially among women, and what we can do to overcome it.   Amelia Nagoski holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and was an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music at Western New England University. Alongside her twin sister, Emily Nagoski, she is the co-author of Burnout.

Episode Notes Every day we are bombarded with messaging from media, advertisers, friends, and family about what our bodies should look like and how we can take control of our bodies. Many of these messages are inaccurate and harmful, but how can we break free? And, what is at the root of all of this focus on body management? Today I'm joined by Chrissy King, author of The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom. We discuss how we can detach from society's obsession with controlling our bodies and not just for our own personal well-being but as a component of collective liberation. If you've ever found yourself hating your body, believing that losing a few more pounds would lead to happiness, or frustrated that you can't attain the latest body goals, then this is the conversation you've been waiting for.   Chrissy King is a writer, speaker, strength coach, and educator with a passion for creating a diverse and inclusive wellness industry. She holds degrees in Social Justice and Sociology from Marquette University and has been featured in SELF, SHAPE, Health, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, Muscle and Fitness, and Livestrong, among others.

Episode Notes “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced,” wrote James Baldwin.   In THE KNEELING MAN, Leta McCollough Seletzky takes us on her personal journey of investigating her father's life as a spy within Civil Rights organizations. Questioning her father's life reopened her family's wounds, yet it is through her exploration that she comes to a fuller understanding of her father and herself. On today's show, I sit down with Leta to discuss her book and the insights it provides to broader questions about society's structural conditions, racial inequality, and the possibilities for social change.   Leta McCollough Seletzky is a National Endowment for the Arts 2022 Creative Writing Fellow. A litigator turned essayist and memoirist, her essay "The Man in the Picture," published in O, The Oprah Magazine, was selected as a Notable Essay in BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2019.

Episode Notes According to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, everyone has the right to identity, the right to know one's history and origins. Everyone, including children adopted transnationally out of a war. But how can these adoptees begin to know their history and origins, if their nations of origin deny their existence? On today's show, I'm joined by Dr. Elizabeth Barnert, the author of Reunion: Finding the Disappeared Children of El Salvador. In this book, she provides a firsthand account that reveals the impact of forced family separations and reunifications in communities affected by El Salvador's civil war. We discuss her work with Pro-Búsqueda, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the search of children who were disappeared during the Salvadoran Civil War, and the importance of adoptees' own agency in the process of reunion.   Elizabeth Barnert is a pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research, grounded in human rights and social action, examines children affected by violence, family separation, and incarceration.

Episode Notes “Anyone with an internet connection can be a propagandist.” Yes, that means you and me. If you don't believe it – and trust me, I didn't either – you will once you learn more about Dr. Samuel Woolley's research on propaganda in the social media age. In today's show, I sit down with Sam to talk about the conditions of social media that make propaganda easy create and circulate and who is behind social media propaganda. We also talk about the implications for manufacturing illusions of political consensus and importantly the consensus of feeling – feelings like apathy, anger, and polarization. Dr. Samuel Woolley is a faculty member in the School of Journalism & Media at the University of Texas at Austin, the program director of the Propaganda Research Lab, and a Knight Foundation faculty fellow at the Center for Media Engagement.

Episode Notes We all want to be believed, yet not everyone is believable. Criteria for credibility reflect cultural norms and our own desires to leave what we already know unquestioned, but how do these biases affect what we hear and the choices we make? In her latest book, Who Gets Believed? When the Truth Isn't Enough, _Dina Nayeri uncovers how we listen, who we believe, and the tragic consequences of not believing others. Dina joins me in conversation as we wrestle with how we believe and how we can become better at hearing the stories that people like us and not like us tell. Dina is a winner of the UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship. Her previous book, _The Ungrateful Refugee, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Kirkus Prize.

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Black Is America host and creator, Dominic Lawson. On today's show, Dominic and I reflect on our time together this month before listening to Part 2 of the Black is America episode about Marian Anderson.   The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Black Is America host and creator, Dominic Lawson. On today's show, Dominic and I talk about the importance of trailblazers, like one on today's featured Black is America episode - Marian Anderson. Before listening to the episode together, we talk about the importance of community support in achieving our dreams. And, like Marian, we also talk about times we were denied an opportunity only to have that opportunity come looking for us later.   The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com

Episode Notes This month Let's Grab Coffee features conversation with Black Is America host and creator, Dominic Lawson. On today's show, Dominic and I discuss the ongoing connection between past and present focusing on the fight for Civil Rights. One objective of the Civil Rights Movement was desegregation of leisure spaces and today's featured Black Is America episode highlights the lengths one man went to draw attention to this part of the fight for racial equality. Tune in to learn more about Ledger “Roller Man” Smith's unique journey to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.   The Black Is America podcast highlights little-known African-American figures and stories. This award-winning podcast helps tell the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. For more about Black Is America, visit blackisamericapodcast.com   Listen to Martin Luther King, Jr's speech from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom here: https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety