Roads Less Taken

Since the onset of coronavirus, anti-asian racism the senseless assaults on Asian American women and elder have put millions of Asian Americans in fear, for our lives and our families. This week I'm talking to Tiffany Yu, founder of Modem, the first comprehensive and holistic wellness telehealth company for Asian Americans. What started as an op-ed on her outrage about the lack of attention on attacks on the AAPI community turned into a realization for a resounding need for Asian American mental health support. In this episode Tiffany & I be discussing our experiences as Asian American women, and how we can better advocate for Asian American mental health within our communities.

Academia seems like a niche path, but recognizing the fundamental commonalities of what you love can help identify incredible alternative paths. Zakiya Whatley is the co-creator and host of Dope Labs, a science & pop culture Spotify podcast. Having a PhD in genetics and genomics, Zakiya went from being on a tenure track at Gettysburg to pursuing her passions in science elsewhere, starting Dope Labs with her best friend Titi through the Spotify Sound Up accelerator. In this episode, we'll be diving into why Zakiya left the academia track, and how she's grown the podcast to what it is today.

Films have become a pivotal part of not only my journey growing up, but cultural markers of generations and eras. From opening up societal commentary to providing comedic relief, filmmakers have the unique ability to create widespread impact in mass media through the power of storytelling. Robin Wang is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and current MFA candidate at USC. Having been an amateur filmmaker since high school, Robin realized he couldn't leave behind his passions for film, dropping his Statistics major at Duke. Soon after, he launched his first narrative short film, which garnered international recognition from thirteen film festivals. In this episode, we'll be diving into why Robin couldn't abandon film, and how to get started in filmmaking.

To many, working at Google is a "dream job," but when they get there, few find that their idealistic perspectives are reflected. As the tech industry as a whole keeps inflating in size, both Goliath corporations and the millions being funneled into startups have been exposed for their harmless philosophies and questionable practices. Wendy Liu is a former startup CTO and published author of Abolish Silicon Valley. After graduating from McGill in 2013, Wendy abandoned a full-time role at Google to lead technology at her startup Macromeasures, but came out of the experience with key insights on how tech exacerbates inequality and illusion. Since then, Wendy got a masters in Economics and recently took on a role at Open Door Legal, a nonprofit providing legal support for the underprivileged. In this episode, we'll be diving into Wendy's takeaways from the tech industry, and why it drew her away.

Racial justice and addressing social inequalities is a priority for many, but few are able to make it a central part of their jobs, especially in engineering. We've especially seen in the past year how tech companies struggle to adjust to their employees' growing political involvement or frustration, and such mission-aligned work is largely ignored or seldom found. Archana Ahlawat is a founding engineer at Color of Change, a racial justice nonprofit focused on activating people and campaigning digitally. After graduating from Duke in 2019, Archana found herself at Microsoft as a Software Engineer, but after a year she found herself drawn to joining a mission-aligned nonprofit, building up their team and technology to further social good. In this episode, we'll be uncovering the intersection of tech and racial justice, and how to pursue innovation in nonprofit work.

The power of technology to create social impact in every industries, from politics to education to healthcare, draws a lot of people in to studying Computer Science, but many get swept away by big tech, spending their time tweaking buttons and optimizing performance instead of making real impact. Carolyn Macleod is a computer science teacher at a charter school in New York. After interning at a tech company two years ago, Carolyn abandoned the Silicon Valley to build software for a Rape Crisis nonprofit in South Africa, and after graduating from Duke in 2020 with a bachelors in Computer Science, Carolyn found an interest in edtech, starting as a teacher. In this episode, we'll be uncovering why she turned down big tech, and how she hopes to unconventionally leverage her skills to make impact.

Most of us complain about some aspect of the U.S government, but very few go out and try to impact the political process. Especially for the 2020 election, heated campaigns called for action across the nation, up and down the ballot, and of any year, this year was the one to get involved. Alexis Salcedo left her job in communications in DC, packing her bags and drove to Iowa to help Warren for President in the caucuses before joining Mark Kelly in Arizona. As a regional organizing director, managing several field organizers in getting out the vote for Senate, Alexis successfully helped flip Arizona blue for the first time in over 20 years. In this interview, I'll be diving into how she found a path in politics, and what making political progress means to her.

Many of us loved the arts as a kid, from hours of dance recitals videos to countless paintings hung up around the house as evidence. However, for some reason very few of us actually see artistic output as something more than just a hobby, much less something that could be developed into a career. Mary Yuan is the published author of "Where is Home," a memoir about her solo travels to find home after her parents' divorce. Growing up in Beijing, China, Mary has been traveling by herself since the age of seven, and after attained a bachelors from Emory and a masters in Public Policy from Duke, she's now pursuing storytelling full-time. In this episode, we'll be uncovering how she found her path in writing and where she's going from here.

For many ambitious individuals, going to college and getting a degree is an unquestioned given in life, a common right of passage into success. However, sometimes it felt like this illusion of worth actually prevented me from going after my true passions and pursuing things I really wanted to be doing. Helena Merk is the founder and CEO of Glimpse, a community engagement startup. Since dropping out of Duke University after her sophomore year, she's joined Y Combinator with her cofounder and grown her company to host over 100,000 video chats. In this interview, I'll be diving into how she made her decision to drop out, her life as an entrepreneur, and pursuing a path very few take action on.