Podcasts about asians

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2026 59:59

APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. This Thursday APEX Express proudly presents “South Asians and The Labor Justice Movement.” This episode highlights Sandhya Jha, a pastor, founder and former Executive Director of the Oakland Peace Center, and racial, housing, and labor justice activist. In the first half of the episode, we discuss Sandhya's life, their path into organizing, and what they're up to now. The second half is dedicated to their recent project with the South Asian American Digital Archive's Archival Creators Fellowship Program. This episode was interviewed, produced, and edited by Swati Rayasam Follow @Sandhya Jha on Facebook and check out Sandhya's website https://sandhyajha.com/ APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Listen to the episode live on KPFA 94.1 in San Francisco, 89.3 in Berkeley, and online at KPFA.org. References throughout the Show and Links: Without Fear Consulting Interfaith Alliance Oakland Peace Center Book – Blueprint for a Revolution Book – The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad Podcast – Bending Toward Justice: Avatar the Last Airbender for the Global Majority The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action – ASATA Bay Area Solidarity Summer South Asian American Digital Archive Archival Creators Fellowship Program Sandhya Jha's project, you can listen to all of the oral histories here. Solidarity Forever Online Exhibit Arab Resource and Organizing Center Block the Boat No Tech for Apartheid University of California Labor Center Equality Labs California Trade Justice Coalition NAFCON – National Alliance for Filipino Concerns Filipino Community Center Madhvi Trivedi Patak Transcript [00:00:00] Miata Tan: Hello and welcome! You are tuning in to APEX Express—a weekly radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I'm your host, Miata Tan. Tonight we're revisiting an episode from our archives, first aired January 5th, 2023. We're bringing it back this week in honor of South Asian American Heritage Month. This one centers Sandhya Jha — a pastor, organizer, and founder of the Oakland Peace Center — in conversation with APEX producer Swati Rayasam. The first half traces Sandhya's path into organizing, from a labor campaign at Johns Hopkins to two decades of interfaith and racial justice work. The second half digs into Sandhya's project with the South Asian American Digital Archive, where she spent a year interviewing South Asian workers inside the labor movement — collecting stories that don't usually make it into the archive. Here's Swati Rayasam in conversation with Sandhya Jha. [00:01:00] Swati Rayasam: I'm really excited actually today to talk to Sandhya Jha, who is a really close friend of mine. Hi Sandhya. Hi there. Sandhya is, a Pastor is a consultant and has been working on this really amazing project with the South Asian American Digital Archive that will get into later in the episode. But yeah, Sandhya I'm just really excited to learn more about you and to hear more of your story and, let's just dive in. [00:01:26] Swati Rayasam: Absolutely. [00:01:27] Swati Rayasam: We should first talk a little bit about how we know each other, you have this long organizing background. I've been in the Bay Area for the past seven years and I would be totally lying if I said I have not historically been, or I'm not even currently an active fangirl of yours. You are literally a pastor. You are a movement worker, how did you get involved in organizing? [00:01:53] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. So I am the product of my parents who were generous, compassionate [00:02:00] people who thought about the world beyond themselves, but were never involved in organizing or activism or anything like that. I think for anybody who comes from immigrant backgrounds, it's hard to tell our stories without naming who we come from. Right. And so my father was Sunil Kumar Jha from the village of Tildanga in West Bengal. My mother, who is still alive is Jeanette Campbell Jha. She is from Glasgow. So I come from a mixed religion and mixed race home. My parents chose not to name me Sandhya Campbell Jha not to give me that kind of grounding, but I was called Sandhya Rani Jha, which is a lot to live up to, well, yes, Rani does mean Queen. But it was actually handed down to me, part of the reason they wanted that middle name was it was my aunt's name, Durga Rani Upadhyay and she was the one who really [00:03:00] brokered my mother's acceptance into the Indian family and I think that there was something about being accepted on the Indian side of the family and not for many, many years on the Scottish side. That caused my parents and particularly my mother to double down on making sure I knew who I came from and who I came from was my people in the village of Tildanga. [00:03:23] Sandhya Jha: I grew up in Akron, Ohio, so we immigrated to this country when I was a toddler, in the late 1970s, which was a complicated time for Asian immigrants to be in the Midwest because it was a time that the rust belt was rusting and there was a growing sense that we were the reason. But also I grew up alongside folks who were trying to figure out how to put food on the table. So I think that landscape shaped me in a lot of ways. And I also come from people who grew up in poor working communities. And[00:04:00] when I went off to college, there was an organizing campaign. The board of directors of the university had created a for-profit corporation with the exact same board. [00:04:15] Swati Rayasam: Oh wow. [00:04:16] Sandhya Jha: So that the universities could subcontract all of their catering, all of their custodial work to this… basically Shell corporation. [00:04:28] Swati Rayasam: Are we telling on the university? [00:04:29] Sandhya Jha: Mm, Yeah. Why not? It was Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and I think that's relevant because the tension between Black communities next to Johns Hopkins Medical School and the school itself were very real because this was part of a very long history of exploiting community members. So the workers were organizing, and you know, I had read about activism, I cared about it. I paid as much attention as I could for a high school student. But when I got to college, this organizing [00:05:00] campaign was going, and the workers were really clear, Hey, college kids who are excited about this, we do have a role for you. It's to fill the crowd. It's to cheer us on. It's to when we ask you communicate to the university that our well-being matters to you because they will listen to you in different ways. But the campaign centered the workers and was really clear with us about what our role was because we were the folks with all the privilege by getting to be there, right? We had tons of privilege and it was a really good lesson for me. I am so grateful. The first organizing campaign I was a part of was a labor campaign that understood what it meant to center the people who were the most impacted by injustice and I think that shaped the rest of my career. [00:05:46] Swati Rayasam: And that's so special too because I think for many people who come into organizing, and I will definitely cop to this myself, like coming up and organizing through high school and college level organizing. When you are a student, nobody ever [00:06:00] tells you that actually you are the least useful kind of organizer that exists. Right. You are in this incredibly enclaved community. Your oppressor, the university, all they have to do is wait for you to graduate institutional memory will not keep you. Yeah. Right. And I think that it is, it's this perfect storm of, you have actually sometimes cool ideas, sometimes very rudimentary ideas, but you also have this turnover issue and you have this sense of self import, which often comes with your teens, early twenties. Yep. As you're just figuring all of that out. So Yeah, self differentiation, right? It's a narcissistic phase in our development. . [00:06:46] Swati Rayasam: It absolutely is and I think that's so important, and I can't imagine how my life would be shaped if I didn't have to spend a lot of time unlearning the self import and narcissism that I had gained through student [00:07:00] organizing. [00:07:00] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. No, I am really, really grateful for it. [00:07:02] Sandhya Jha: My first job outta college was working for a member of Congress, which sounds super fancy and pretentious, but, a member of congress from Akron, Ohio. So put that all in perspective. His name, believe it or not, was Tom Sawyer. Oh, wow. What I loved about Tom was back in those days, he believed very strongly that 80% of legislation was nonpartisan and that was the part that he spent most of his time on. He would weigh in with his party, when they were dealing with that 20% pretty consistently. But he was more interested in the stuff that everybody could agree on and I remember for about 15 years after I worked for him, I looked back and found myself thinking that was so naive. How did he not understand where we were about to head with the divisions between the political parties? But at this point in my life, I realize the people I respect most in organizing work keep pointing out that the binary of [00:08:00] left and right actually doesn't serve us very well. One of my biggest heroes in the movement right now is the Reverend Dr. William Barber, [00:08:07] Swati Rayasam: Hometown hero of mine. Yes. [00:08:09] Sandhya Jha: Poor People's campaign from North Carolina. And he always talks about how it's not about right and left. It's about right and wrong. And it turns out that when we engage in organizing with the awareness that there are huge swaths of things that most of us are well served by, we can do better organizing. And that was actually how Tom was legislating. And at a certain point I realized that my deep passion was around racial justice, but the distinct experience I had in a multi religious household was an awareness of how religion was being used as a weapon. I had an obsession. Every paper in college I wrote was about the Christian coalition, this right wing, organizing body in the nineties. So a friend of mine [00:09:00] said, You know, there's an interfaith organization working against the Christian Coalition. And it was called the Interfaith Alliance. Her mom had been a superintendent in Washington state in eastern Washington and was a pretty conservative person by my standards. [00:09:18] Sandhya Jha: But, Dr. Chow believed in multiculturalism and believed in teaching evolution. And the Christian coalition had organized to push her out of her position as superintendent and the Interfaith Alliance of Washington State had supported her in that time. [00:09:38] Sandhya Jha: And so Liz said, you know, they've got a national chapter, a national office. And that's where I ended up, cutting my adult organizing teeth which was great because talk about learning lessons for our current moment where religion is being weaponized in ways that are anti-trans, that are anti-queer, that are anti-women, that [00:10:00] are anti reproductive rights, that are anti-immigrant and refugee. I am really grateful to have experienced the power of multi-faith organizing, around a lot of those same issues. So that was what I did in the early two thousands and then I went to seminary and public policy school, and then I ended up out here pastoring a congregation of 10 people in a building of 40,000 square feet. [00:10:29] Sandhya Jha: And long story short, that's how the Oakland Peace Center was born, was out of this dream of cultivating deeper collaboration among nonprofits who were dedicated to a shared cause. The Oakland Peace Center, which is a collective of 40 different nonprofits committed to dismantling the root causes of violence in our community. I was the founder of that organization and it was when I was pastoring First Christian Church of Oakland that I asked the handful of folks who were members of that church, what they wanted to [00:11:00] contribute to the community, and they said they wanted to contribute peace in the midst of violence. And for a dozen folks to have given birth to a space that in non pandemic years, saw over a hundred thousand people do things like the Lawyers for Black Lives Conference and to do Kingian non-violence training and to be a part of food and clothing distribution, to participate in all the very diverse ways that we can create peace is pretty impressive. [00:11:30] Sandhya Jha: And a couple of years ago, I left the Oakland Peace Center because a colleague of mine said, Anybody can run a non-profit. We need you to do what you're actually good at, and what she meant by that was we need more people of color doing diversity, equity, and inclusion work that is actually grounded in power analysis. That isn't just how do we be nicer to each other in the workplace, but how do we recognize the ways that systems of white supremacy [00:12:00] unconsciously often shape the culture of our workplaces? And what do we do to dismantle that white supremacy culture so that we can be building nonprofits and institutions of higher education and faith organizations, and even corporations that are dedicated to our full liberation, our liberation, the lands liberation. [00:12:23] Swati Rayasam: I mean coming, especially from the place that you come in grassroots organizing and in faith based organizing, what is it actually to transition into this kind of consulting space around racial justice and really interface with a lot of people that I feel like as organizers, we don't really talk to? [00:12:42] Sandhya Jha: One of my favorite things about this shift in my work is I love getting to work with folks who don't think of themselves as organizers, who, it turns out are organizers, Right. I think we sometimes create a cult of here's what an organizer looks like, you [00:13:00] have to be a Martin Luther King or a Cesar Chavez and what I love is getting to work with moms and with teenagers and with folks who think of themselves as caring, compassionate, individuals, and when I go into an organization and work with their handful of folks who care about this issue, the DEI team, I get to teach them how to strategically organize. I get to teach them how do you create culture shift over time? I get to teach them how do you figure out who your allies are? How do you figure out how to move people who are neutral? It turns out that there are a lot more organizers out there than we realize if we don't create one definition of what an organizer needs to look like. [00:13:45] Swati Rayasam: I have been reading this political scholar Eqbal Ahmed, who really talks about the way the burden is on those of us who are deeply committed to movement work, narrow definition people, the burden is really on us to try and [00:14:00] create a liberatory future that feels both achievable. Mm-hmm. and safe for everybody. Because when people engage in mass struggle and in revolution, there are people who are a hundred percent willing to put their lives on the line. People who are willing to die for the cause. And we absolutely need those people. And there are many people along the spectrum who, if you can create a future that feels like it's within their grasp, they will come with you. [00:14:30] Sandhya Jha: Yep. I teach a lot of organizing classes and have gotten a chance to teach alongside my beloved colleague BK Woodson at Allen Temple Baptist Church, they have a leadership institute there. And one of the books we use is Blueprint for a Revolution by Srđa Popović. And I feel like I learned a lot as we read that book together and thought about how to apply it to the work we're doing in Oakland. They talked about how by engaging in nonviolent direct action, [00:15:00] they created space for elders to be a part of their work and youth to be a part of their work and families to be a part of their work. By making the movement playful. They gave people hope and gave people courage because dictators are terrified of being mocked. [00:15:17] Swati Rayasam: Yeah, exactly. And I think by being really restrictive or narrow about who we view as actually valuable organizers. And I think labor movements teach us this a lot, right? We really cut ourselves off at the knees on our ability to build a network or to be in touch with the general population, many of whom are more connected than we ever give them credit for. [00:15:41] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. Yep. it's part of why I love labor organizing. I talk with a lot of people who are disenchanted with organizing who ask me how I can have stayed involved for the past 25 years. And why I've been able to stay in it is cuz I'm organizing alongside workers and they have [00:16:00] full lives. And the work that they're doing in the movement is so that they can live their full lives. And there's something about having that perspective and recognizing the why all the time instead of getting lost in the weeds of the what. Is so important in this work. I think that has been a big theme of my organizing life is how do we build to the greatest common denominator? As my friend BK often says how do we build towards those shared values that often get erased when we are engaged in the right versus left debate. [00:16:39] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I think that it is so important and I also think that it's really hard in this moment of what feels like constant trauma and re trauma. [00:16:51] Swati Rayasam: And to some extent especially when we're talking about the left right dichotomy there are real concerns [00:17:00] about safety. Yep. And there are real concerns about security and who you are in community with and who you can find even the smallest level of acceptance from to ensure that you won't have violence visited upon you. And I think that these conversations of united front organizing, Right. trying to bridge across difference mm-hmm. for a shared goal, for a shared liberatory future Yep. Are really important. And they feel kind of impossible to achieve right now. [00:17:31] Sandhya Jha: It's interesting cuz I think that in many ways that is true. There are a lot of conversations that I think people with privilege expect, people who are marginalized to engage in. And those expectations are unfair, what I found very frustrating was the number of people with a lot of privilege who would be like, Ugh, I just can't talk to those people. And I'm like, Then who's going to? Exactly. and so I do think that some of this is about being willing to have [00:18:00] hard conversations in the places where we have privilege and recognizing who's at actual risk and showing up in ways that are protective of who is at risk. But that doesn't mean walking away from people who aren't where we are. Right. Because the fact of the matter is everybody's on a journey. And I have watched at the same time some of the disposability culture in movements write off people without giving them any way to address harm, repair harm, and find a pathway back into community. [00:18:41] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. And I think that's why, at least I am feeling really hopeful about, what I've seen over the past couple of years, this really important track into transformative justice and restorative justice, to acknowledge that there is harm that has happened, there are harms that happen every day between people. [00:19:00] And also we are all on our own journey to unlearn the things that we have been taught either directly or indirectly by our upbringing, by our environment and that you cannot easily dispose of people and that people are able to come back into community. Now that comes with a very important caveat that like they recognize the harm. Mm-hmm. that. They have done or how they've been party to it, that they acknowledge that there is healing work that needs to be done both with the person that they harmed and also probably in internally. [00:19:35] Sandhya Jha: Well, and the community, folks who don't do RJ on a regular basis tend to skip the community aspect. Yeah. That there is actually repair that needs to be done with community and there's work community needs to do to figure out how to re-embrace reabsorb people who have done harm in ways that still protect the person who's been harmed. [00:19:55] Swati Rayasam: Exactly. In ways that do not erase the harm that has happened, but [00:20:00] acknowledge, contextualize it and say, Okay, we are patching this and we are working to move forward in step with each other. Absolutely. [00:20:09] Sandhya Jha: Can I just say that one of the other things that I think you and I have in common is a real passion for bringing joy back into the work of Justice I quote Fabiana Rodriguez a lot on this particular thing, because I was at an event she was doing eons ago, and she looked out at us and most of us were activists and she said, Listen, y ‘all you keep inviting people to a struggle. I'm on your side and I don't wanna join a struggle. I want to join a party. And that was like a call to arms for me when I heard her say that. I was like, Oh my gosh, you're right. We are so much more fun. Like, I've hung out with people who are anti-trans and anti queer and anti-immigrant and anti refugee. They are not fun people. No, no. We have all of the best parties. So I don't know why we don't [00:21:00] capitalize on that more. So I think the role of joy and justice is so important. And this is why I was so excited to have you on the podcast that I launched recently. [00:21:11] Sandhya Jha: Right. Bending Towards Justice Avatar the last Airbender for the Global Majority. [00:21:15] Swati Rayasam: So literally like bringing it together. Two of my favorite things right, is like TV shows, wholesome TV shows like Avatar, The Last Airbender that I deeply love and organizing. Yes. All the work that I love. And I think it's true You know, what is actually really the important work is to work to build toward a future that is desirable Yep. That people want to be a part of. Yeah. That people can see happen. Yeah. And I think that is a lot of the difficulty that I have seen in some organizing circles. We are so well versed in what we are against and all of the things that are bad that so many people have a really hard time seeing or visioning or communicating [00:22:00] what it is that we are fighting for. Yeah. Right. And it's not enough to say, I'm fighting for a world where we can all be safe. Right. Yeah. I'm not, I'm fighting for a world where we can all take long naps in the middle of the day if we'd like to do that. Right. Yeah. But like really building and visioning that future of like, in this world in which we are all safe, there will be harm that happens. How do we deal with that? Yeah. What do we do with that? How do we make sure that it is able to keep everybody safe and also able to account for the times in which it is not able to keep everybody safe. [00:22:38] Sandhya Jha: Visionary does not have to mean naive. And we need it to be visionary. And sometimes I forget to do the visionary stuff. I've got a colleague, Dave Bell, he's a farmer who is also an anti-racism trainer and we do a lot of work together. He's a white guy who lives in White Swan, Washington, on the reservation and I remember being at a training with him and I [00:23:00] was all fired up and I was so excited about the conversations we were having and the people were really ready to do the hard work and roll up their sleeves. And Dave says to them, I would like to not have to do this work. And I'm like, What is he talking about? This is amazing. We're doing such good work. And he says, I would like for us not to have to talk about racism all the time. I would rather be farming. I would rather be, taking care of the cows in my field. [00:23:26] Sandhya Jha: I would rather be talking about my pottery work that I'm doing badly but learning how to do, I would rather be doing anything than have this conversation. But I don't get to be on the farm with the wheat, with the cows, with my bad pottery until we figured out how to do this anti-racism work. And it was a really humbling moment for me because I also get into that like I'm an organizer, that's my identity space. And it was this reminder of Dave's doing this. So he gets to live in a world where he gets to hang out in the fields and he [00:24:00] gets to, love on the cows. There's something about being reminded that we're doing this so that eventually we don't have to do it. That I think is actually visionary in its own way and it's important. [00:24:12] Swati Rayasam: Moving into a little bit more of the grit of like why I asked you to be on the show today. I met you originally when I moved to the Bay Area when you were the executive director of the Oakland Peace Center because At that time I was doing organizing work with the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, which is a 20 year old bay area based organization, that was really founded around the Laki Reddy Bali Reddy sex trafficking. Yep. Caste and labor exploitation case that happened in Berkeley in 1999. And I was just so thrilled to be around and have in community so many rad desis. And you also did work with ASATA, right. Historically and are actively doing work with us. [00:24:56] Sandhya Jha: Absolutely. One of the places I think I invested the most [00:25:00] energy in where we got to spend a lot of quality time in the kitchen was one of the projects, Bay Area Solidarity Summer, an organizing institute, camp, however you wanna refer to it. [00:25:10] Swati Rayasam: Political education, Summer camp. [00:25:12] Swati Rayasam: Yeah, exactly. For young South Asian Americans who are committed to activism. What I think was the most beautiful part of that program when I was involved in it, and it's still the case today, is for young South Asians who think that they're the only ones who care about justice issues, who haven't met other people, who are South Asian, and identify as justice seekers first to meet each other and realize that there are people just like them. Then to look around and realize that those of us who are usually 10, 15, 20 years older than them are also committed to the work and have been doing it for decades. And then for them to get exposed to the long history of radical visionary organizing and activism of South [00:26:00] Asians here in the US and also in the homelands of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and diasporic countries all over the world. [00:26:13] Sandhya Jha: There's something about realizing, Oh, you have contemporaries, oh, you have elders, oh, you have ancestors. Mm-hmm. Especially in the face of the model minority lie that so many of us have had imposed on us, this lie that all we are all we're supposed to be is cogs in this larger capitalist machine that are non disruptive, which is why we're allowed to survive. And if we are non disruptive enough, we might even be able to be comfortable. And to discover that there's more to our story than that is so exciting and I love, love, love being a part of that. [00:26:52] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I think that is like fundamentally one of the most important kind of activities that [00:27:00] happens in the ASATA universe, I was a kid who also grew up thinking that there were no other South Asians like me, or there were no other folks who were interested in justice. I spent a lot of time doing, reproductive and queer justice in the south; I always think about what would it have meant if I came in, BASS for 18 to 24 year olds. Yep. what would it have meant if I had come in at a fresh 18 and been able to basically be apprised of the fact that I have this history Yeah. That it's not just me. And that actually, immigration and white supremacy and neo-colonial culture has created this project of assimilation that all of our parents have been in on, in a way to survive Yeah. And to be safe. And I tell my, I tell my mom that a lot because she's always a little surprised about the organizing work that I do. And I was just like, Your job was to survive. My job is to liberate. Yeah. [00:28:00] You know? Yeah. And I could not do that if you were not so focused on creating that environment for me. [00:28:07] Swati Rayasam: I love that. [00:28:07] Swati Rayasam: we'll drop in the show notes, but, BASS – Bay Area Solidarity Summer is solidaritysummer.org. So we'll put that in the show notes as well as ASATA, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action is ASATA.org. And yeah, I think that is a really good segue into how we got involved in this amazing project. [00:28:31] Swati Rayasam: You're tuned in to APEX express at 94.1 KPFA and 89.3, KPFB in Berkeley. And online@kpfa.org. [00:28:43] Swati Rayasam: I think it was Fall 2021 that you and I were talking. Yep. And you were telling me that you were involved in this amazing archival fellowship project. Is run by the South Asian American Digital Archive and [00:29:00] that you were going to do your project about labor. Mm-hmm. and South Asians. Yep. And my immediate, incredibly naive response was, how many South Asians are there in labor? [00:29:12] Sandhya Jha: Exactly. And it's not naive. It's interesting cuz I think that this project actually emerged out of my favorite part of BASS, which was when the young adults would ask what their opportunities were in the world of justice. And I would say, you know, there's a place for us in labor justice. It had never crossed most of their minds. Right. We don't think of ourselves as having a role especially in formalized unions. And so SAADA, the South Asian American Digital Archives has an archival fellows project. And the whole purpose of it is to diversify their archives and collect the stories that are usually overlooked in the telling of South Asian American stories. [00:29:56] Sandhya Jha: And they have done a great job over the years of collecting the [00:30:00] stories of informal organizing, like the Punjabi Taxi Drivers campaign, the Bangladeshi Nail Workers Campaign. Those were informal labor organizing campaigns. That have been really well archived and they're amazing stories. I wanted to make sure that the next generation of South Asian activists knew about the South Asians who were actually part of the formal organized labor movement. [00:30:30] Sandhya Jha: And so I spent this past year interviewing, maybe a half a dozen or so South Asian American workers. Generally, not always, but mostly what would be classified as low wage workers who found a pathway into formal organizing bodies, unite here or the building trades or any number of the formal unions that keep [00:31:00] the labor movement alive across the country today. And I'm really proud of the fact that we do have South Asian workers who have moved up the ranks to be official organizers or to be at negotiating tables. And so that's part of the story I thought it was worth us telling. [00:31:19] Swati Rayasam: And I am, I'm so excited that we get to dive deeper into this project and I really love your framing too, around the three large bins that you have, solidarity, spirit and struggle. [00:31:34] Swati Rayasam: Right? Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:35] Sandhya Jha: I started out with certain assumptions about what I was going to learn, partly because I've been doing labor solidarity work for 25 years at this point. I really thought I knew what I was gonna hear. And what I discovered was there were these consistent themes across, the interviews. that there were these notions of, Oh, what's meaningful to me is [00:32:00] getting to organize across cultures, getting to organize with people who, on the surface and even deep down are very different than me, but we share this vision of what our lives can be. And so that solidarity message I found really powerful. Also, and admittedly because I come out of a spiritual background, was probably looking for it. I was really struck by how many of the interviews ended up talking about the role of spirituality and shaping people's values. And in a couple of instances, organizers said, what my religion taught me was that religion needs to be challenged. And building up that muscle was what helped me challenge systems of injustice in other places. But others said that their journey with their faith tradition was what guided them into the work of labor organizing. [00:32:52] Sandhya Jha: And then that third bucket of struggle, I think is the lived experience of how [00:33:00] hard it is to take on oppressive systems of capitalism, how hard it is to take on decks that are stacked against us and what it means to have somewhere to turn in the midst of those struggles. I will say there were also a couple of lessons I was surprised by because my South Asian identity is so central to my organizing work, I was expecting to collect stories of people who were proud South Asians, who were also proud to be involved in the labor movement. And I assumed that they would see connections between those things because I certainly do. But what I discovered is for the most part, they were like, Yeah, I'm South Asian. I'm not saying that doesn't matter, but it's not super relevant to my organizing work. My organizing work is about [00:34:00] our cross-cultural solidarity. And that was something I hadn't been expecting that emerged as I did those interviews. Interesting. And I'm really grateful that the South Asian American Digital Archives likes telling all of the stories because I think I promised them that what they were going to get was, we're proud to be South Asian organizers. And what I got was, yeah, we're South Asian, we're proud to be organizers. And the that SAADA is like, yeah, that's part of our story too. [00:34:28] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. And I think that's, that I think is incredibly important. We have this really, amazing series of audio clips from your SAADA interviews that really represent a lot of the themes that you were highlighting about solidarity, spirit, and struggle. And I'm just really excited to play them as we talk through these larger themes in your larger project and the experience of South Asian labor organizers. [00:34:55] Swati Rayasam: This clip is from somebody that you and I both know, which [00:35:00] is Prem Pariyar. I was so thrilled that Prem was a part of your project. I think Prem is an incredible organizer, so yeah tell our listeners a little bit about Prem. Prem [00:35:09] Sandhya Jha: It was pretty exciting to get to work with him you know, he moved here from Nepal and in Nepal he had been a Dalit activist and he came to the United States and had this notion that in the United States there is no caste and he was disabused of that notion very quickly as a restaurant worker dealing with anti Nepali bias in Indian restaurants, dealing with caste bias in Nepali restaurants, well dealing with Caste bias in all the restaurants. [00:35:35] Swati Rayasam: Hey, everyone, Narrator Swati here, I just wanted to put in an explanatory comma, a la W Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu to talk about some terms you just heard. Sandhya referenced that Prem was a Dalit activist and also talked about Caste bias. For those of you who don't know, Caste is a violent system of oppression and exclusion, which governs social status in many south Asian countries, although it is [00:36:00] most commonly associated with India. It works on an axis of purity and pollution, and it's hereditary. At the top of the caste system are Brahmins, by the way Sandhya and I are both Brahmin, and not even at the bottom, but completely outside of the system are Dalits who were previously referred to by the slur untouchable and Adivasis who are indigenous to South Asia. [00:36:25] Swati Rayasam: Despite being “illegal” Caste bias, Caste Oppression, Caste apartheid, are still prevalent, both in South Asia and as Sandhya references, in the United States. It manifests in many ways that people experience racial injustice, via socioeconomic inequality, systemic and interpersonal violence, occupation, and through the determination of marriage and other relationships. You can learn more at EqualityLabs.org and APEX currently has a show in the works that delves into this more deeply. Now. Back to Sandhya [00:36:58] Sandhya Jha: What is [00:37:00] delightful to me is Prem went on to get an MSW and is building out amazing mental health resources for Dalit communities for the Nepali community. Seeking to build out a program where there are more and more people in Nepal who are trained with MSW skills. [00:37:21] Sandhya Jha: I met with one of his professors from CSU East Bay where he got his degree and she said, You know, that the entire Cal State system is adding caste to its anti-discrimination policies thanks to the work he started at CSU East Bay. And it was really beautiful to hear that because the focus of my conversations with him were more around how his experiences in the restaurants led him into the solidarity work with nail salon workers. [00:37:53] Swati Rayasam: To just, kick back to the caste abolition work that Prem has been doing, that caste abolition work [00:38:00] at CSU East Bay has been such critical work in these ongoing conversations around caste that have been in the South Asian community primarily, but have been percolating elsewhere. [00:38:13] Swati Rayasam: You know, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Cisco systems Yep. For caste discrimination in their workplace and there have been all these conversations around caste and tech work and interplay that with the no tech for apartheid work. Right. That has been happening in Palestinian liberation circles. Yeah. And really building that solidarity movement. So I think that Prem is an absolute powerhouse Yeah. In that regard. But yeah, let's listen to this clip. [00:38:42] Prem: During that time, I got connected with other community organizer, like workers group. I got connected and so I was connected with nail salon workers, who were exploited at their workplace and with them, [00:39:00] I got to go to the capital in Sacramento. And so I thought I need to advocate for the restaurant workers. that was my first experience, like working with other workers and with the assembly members and like other other policy makers I shared what is happening what kinds of discrimination happening at the workplace. So I advocated for the restaurant workers at that time. I shared my stories and I supported the rights of nail salon workers. I was there to support them and they supported me as well, and it was wonderful. And finally that advocacy worked. And the bill was drafted and it was passed finally. And so it was huge achievement at that time. [00:39:49] Swati Rayasam: I love that. I think that is such a perfect story of when you win, we all win. [00:39:56] Sandhya Jha: And what I also love about it is he goes on [00:40:00] to talk about how he has remained in relationship with those nail salon workers. That they show up for each other, that they take each other food, that they show up to each other's baby showers and birthday parties, and there's this sense of community that emerges out of this shared struggle. And so that's a cross-cultural campaign. They were mostly Vietnamese. There were some Bangladeshi nail salon workers, but it was mostly people from a different culture than his. [00:40:27] Sandhya Jha: But somebody at the Asian Health Services program that he was at, saw his gifts, saw his passion, and he really responded to that in exactly, the most powerful way. I can imagine. [00:40:38] Swati Rayasam: And I think one of the nice things as well about that is that person at Asian Health Services connected Prem in and the Nail Salon Worker group, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, Prem came from Nepal, I'm not sure, but the extent to which his organizing background and how comfortable he was in the US organizing space around labor [00:41:00] issues was probably significantly less that worker group took it upon themselves when they saw Prem come in to say, Oh, you are advocating on behalf of restaurant workers. Great. Why don't you join us? Let's help support and so the nail salon workers saw Prem, saw solidarity with Prem and said, It is our responsibility mm-hmm to bring you into this space to connect you in and to move in, struggle together. Yeah. Toward our shared goals of safety, of health, of rights. Yep. [00:41:35] Sandhya Jha: Exactly. [00:41:36] Swati Rayasam: So, we have this clip from Daljit, tell me a little bit about Daljit. Daljit [00:41:42] Sandhya Jha: Yeah. Daljit was an attorney who now reads tarot for people because she needed a break from the toxicity of that career and how it was taking her away from her family. Daljit is a deeply spiritual person and, [00:42:00] as I mentioned before, this theme of spirit showed up in some really beautiful ways in some of the interviews. I loved the way she understood her Sikh tradition as foundationally being connected with the land and foundationally connected with the people who work the land. [00:42:15] Daljit: Agriculture is our culture and the religion that I was born into, Siki, the founder of that faith was a farmer. And so a lot of the scripture, the analogies, the metaphors, the poetry, the music, the songs, the boon, the traditional folk songs, that can be taunting and teasing banter, all that stuff the land is the framework for that. And my most favorite line from the Guru Granth Sahib, our holy book, is, [speaks Punjabi] and that basically means that, the waters our guru, the airs our father, but our mother is Earth. And that's the greatest of all , and that's adherence to ecosystem. That's the [00:43:00] indigenous Cosmo vision that should be paramount. And that's what I try to teach my children. And so I think that's what I was taught as a kid without necessarily being able to pinpoint it, but it was just infused throughout our songs, our music, our food, the Harvest, there's two times a year that our celebrations, whether it Baisakhi or Lohri. It's so connected to the harvest and what is coming out of the soil or not. And you're connected to the cycles of nature. [00:43:28] Swati Rayasam: The connection between nature land, spirituality the way that it shows up in so many faith backgrounds and so many faith organizers, I think is really, really beautiful. [00:43:41] Sandhya Jha: And I love that Daljit Kaursoni who was raised in this tradition, has found her way to Buddhism and is raising her kids with those connections, but without ever losing this grounding in the liberation of the land, the liberation of the [00:44:00] people. [00:44:00] Sandhya Jha: And for that to be a key element of her spirituality, even as her spirituality evolves, I think it's pretty powerful. Tafadar [00:44:08] Sandhya Jha: One of the other people I got to interview ,Tafadar, he's a Bangladeshi American in the building trades and is a deeply committed Marxist. For me, this was a particularly exciting interview because I'm Bengali, so from West Bengal, before partition, Bangladesh and what's now West Bengal, were one state. And so it was fun to get to talk with him and to say, Hey, this is our legacy as Bengalis is radical worker organizing. [00:44:40] Sandhya Jha: And I remember saying to him, Some people in the building trades are not super excited to be working with brown people. And some people in the building trades are a little biased against women. And as a very, very progressive South Asian? How do you navigate that [00:45:00] space? [00:45:00] Sandhya Jha: And he said, Here's the thing is, yeah, I organize alongside some moderate to conservative white folks from New Jersey and he said, but in the building trades, if that moderate to conservative white guy from New Jersey decides he doesn't like my feminist politics, or he doesn't like my brown skin, if he decides that's a reason not to train me, he might die. And it was really interesting because even though I've been doing labor justice work for a long time, it was one of those moments I was like, Oh, right. Your work is very dangerous and you all have to rely on each other whether you like each other or not. That is the magic of organizing that no one ever talks about. This is why we can do cross class, cross-cultural work because literally you have to trust each other with your lives. Right. That was a really clarifying moment for me. And it was one of those interesting moments where I was like, [00:46:00] Solidarity is not a romantic thing. Uh, it is very much a matter of life and death. [00:46:05] Sandhya Jha: And I think that is really important and that exact thing that you brought up, you don't even have to necessarily trust somebody. Right. But you do need them. Yep. Right. And like that really clear understanding that like your fates are intertwined and it is truly in everybody's best interest. If you are trained well, irrespective of whether or not at lunch, I'm interested in sitting anywhere near you. I think that's really great. [00:46:32] Sandhya Jha: One of the things that was really exciting about talking with Tafadar was the reminder that labor organizing and formal union organizing at its best can be in solidarity with other movements really worker justice and housing justice and racial justice are inseparable, on some level. And so, one of the most inspiring stories I got to hear across all of these interviews [00:47:00] was a campaign that brought together folks across the anti- gentrification, the immigrant rights, and the labor justice movement. [00:47:14] Tafadar: It's ironic, building affordable housing with deadly exploitation. And, um, to do this, the de blassio administration, they embark on massive major rezonings of poor areas to relax the local zoning laws to be able to bring in these developments. And a couple of years ago, my, my union in local 79's. Took a very sharp turn towards a community organizing approach because labor can't win on our own, and that's the perspective that all of labor should adopt. In order to fight against the sweatshops in our industry. We united with a lot of community organizations in the South Bronx. [00:47:53] Tafadar: We formed the South Bronx, Safe Southern Boulevard Coalition. And along with these groups, we [00:48:00] protested and did a whole lot of activism, lobbying, community organizing to stop the rezoning of Southern Boulevard, which is a massive stretch in the South Bronx, while the De Blassio administration had succeeded in another part of the Bronx where there's like massive displacement still underway right now. And we were determined to stop it there. And it was a beautiful thing that we can unite because on our end as labor, we had to prevent all these trash companies from coming in and exploiting workers. And we were working with these tenants who are afraid of being displaced. And people generally, we do need revitalization of our neighborhoods. We do need investment. We do need things to be changed and made better. For us. If it's not for us, if it's done without us, then eventually we're not even gonna be here anymore. So we had that alliance going on and not only did we manage to stop that rezoning, we also educated the local city councilman on why his position was wrong and supporting the rezoning. And he eventually completely flipped this [00:49:00] position. And now chairs the land use committee of the city council from the perspective that we educated him on, which it's just been a very interesting dynamic. But, there's a lot of rezoning battles all over the city that's like the main front of anti gentrification struggles. And I've been watching those kinds of campaigns go on since I began organizing about 15, 16. I've seen very different approaches to them, but I've never seen any model really work until that one kicked in where Labor and the community came together. So that was one of my favorite campaigns because of that lesson that we were able to concretely put into practice and set as an example for not only for community movements all over New York City, but also for Labor. [00:49:43] Sandhya Jha: I think this hit me in particular because I've done so much work around antis displacement in Oakland, and my experience has been. [00:49:53] Sandhya Jha: That while for most of us on the ground, the connection between housing justice and labor justice is really clear. When you [00:50:00] start getting into the technical policy issues and the funding issues, the folks who are running labor and housing justice or affordable housing, struggle to find ways to collaborate. And it's been one of my consistent heartbreaks for at least a decade at this point because I work at the intersection of those things and sometimes I despair of us being able to find ways to move forward together. And so to hear a story like this one and to be reminded at core, those justice issues can and must be we already knew, must be, but actually can function together to build a better community. That was actually really life giving for me to hear. [00:50:45] Swati Rayasam: Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. And I think the point that Tafadar as well brings in the clip of just saying we knew that we could do this, but we knew we couldn't do this without community organizing. Right? Yeah. That labor couldn't do this alone. Yeah. [00:51:00] And I think that is a lot of what, when we talk about solidarity politics, it's not just a backdoor way of inclusion for inclusion's sake, we have to all do this. Actually, it is integral that all of us are involved in any of these campaigns because it impacts all of us. And because we are not going to win with only a single constituency and in the very same way that, Tafadar was identifying that labor couldn't do that alone. in community organizing spaces that you and I have been in mm-hmm. , like we are constantly talking about how we cannot do any of this without labor. Yep. And I think a beautiful example of that is the Block the Boat campaign yeah that the Arab Resource Organizing Center, started back in 2014 and then again during 2021 to block the Zim ship from the port of Oakland. And like this community organization [00:52:00] AROC could not do that without working with the longshoreman to collaborate with the port workers. And I think that when we see the marriage of community organizing and labor organizing, that is when we get the power of grassroots organizing. [00:52:16] Sandhya Jha: Something I wanna mention about the SAADA Fellowship that I was really grateful for: two things. First off, they did a really good job of making sure we got trained in grassroots oral history. So they took really seriously what it meant for this to be justice work. And they made sure we had exposure to methodology that was gonna lift up and honor and foster the voices of people whose stories don't get heard often enough. And that was a really big deal to me. The other thing is they made sure that we had an advisory board, people who are in this [00:53:00] work who could help us, figure out who to talk with, who could help us build out an event strategy. And you helped me build out my advisory committee. Anibel Ferris-Comelo who is with the University of California Labor Center, [00:53:14] Swati Rayasam: Prem Pariyar, a Nepali Dalit restaurant worker, organizer pushing for Caste as a protected category with Equality Labs, a Dalit feminist organization, and a social worker supporting the mental health needs of his and many other South Asian communities in Alameda county. [00:53:31] Swati Rayasam: Will Jamil Wiltchko with the California Trade Justice Coalition, Terry Valen who I did a lot of organizing with at the beginning of the pandemic, around the struggles that seafarers were facing with the onset of COVID-19. And he's the organizational director of the Filipino Community Center in San Francisco. The president of NAFCON which is the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and just an all in all amazing organizer [00:53:57] Sandhya Jha: the last thing I wanna mention [00:54:00] is SAADA also helped me set up a digital exhibit with Art by Madhvi Trivedi Patak and I wanted to give them a shoutout because they're an incredible artist, but also they grew up in a working class family and didn't get exposed to what it looks like to do labor justice. And so as they developed the artwork to go with the digital exhibit, they got to experience the possibilities of labor solidarity that they hadn't gotten to experience as a child. And so I really loved that Madhvi was a part of this project as well [00:54:38] Swati Rayasam: All of the clips that you shared really identifying, again, these like huge fundamental pillars of solidarity and spirit and struggle. these clips were amazing. They are so rich and so layered with all of these people's varying and different experiences. Really showing in [00:55:00] all of these different walks of life at all of these ages with all of these experiences, that all of these people have this unified and shared identity in struggle, in spirit, and in solidarity for liberation. [00:55:14] Sandhya Jha: And one of the things that I think is worth celebrating is whether they see it as part of their South Asian identity or not. People who do identify as South Asian now have this resource that says there's a home for you in the labor movement. Yes, there are. There is a value to your voice. There is a value to your wisdom, there's a value to your experience in the labor movement. [00:55:36] Swati Rayasam: I think it's a beautiful project. Sandhya, I think it has been an amazing amount of work I've watched you do over the past year. These stories are so wonderful. I really encourage people to check it out. Where can they find your project? [00:55:49] Sandhya Jha: The website's www.saada.org/acfp [00:56:00] /exhibit/solidarity-forever. We'll put that in the notes. We'll definitely put that in the show notes. [00:56:05] Swati Rayasam: I just wanna make sure that we replug your podcast Bending Toward Justice Avatar, The Last Air Bender for the Global Majority and you can find that at tinyurl.com slash ATLA podcast, Capital P (tinyurl.com/ATLAPodcast). And then the last thing that I also wanna make sure that we plug is Without Fear Consulting. [00:56:27] Sandhya Jha: I love working with folks who know that their organization could be a little more liberative, and are, just not quite sure where to start. I love working with a team of folks who want to be about the work of incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into the DNA of their organization and I love setting them up so that they can keep doing that long after I'm working with them. So please do find me withoutfearconsulting.com. If you're interested in that. [00:56:58] Swati Rayasam: Amazing. Sandhya [00:57:00] Jha, Pastor, Racial Justice consultant, podcast host, archivist, singer songwriter, amazing cook. You can do it all. I think you deserve a nap. it has been amazing talking to you. I am so glad to be able to hear about your project and also to hear a lot more about your life. [00:57:23] Sandhya Jha: Yay. Thank you so much. [00:57:25] Miata Tan: That was Swati Rayasam in conversation with Sandhya Jha. As Swati mentioned, you can learn more about her work in the show notes at kpfa.org/program/apex-express. Speaking of Swati — she's currently working on an episode marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, out in early September. It'll cover the work of the South Asian Coalition, a national network of organizations working together on South Asian American movement building. Keep an eye out for that one. This episode originally aired January 5th, 2023 — we're re-airing it this week in honor of South Asian American Heritage Month. This is APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, airing every Thursday evening at 7pm. Thank you for tuning in tonight. APEX Express is a proud member of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality. A network focused on long-term movement building, capacity infrastructure, and leadership support for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders committed to social justice. Learn more at AACRE.org This program produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's episode was produced by Swati Rayasam. Get some rest y'all. The post APEX Express – 7.16.26 – South Asians and The Labor Justice Movement appeared first on KPFA.

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July 2026 Uncensored

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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2026 72:31

This episode might be the most uncensored to ever uncensored. We hope you enjoy us fangirling over Kelsey Pfendler's solo, record-breaking row from California to Hawaii, our anticipation of upcoming dramas, and an unexpected discussion about...burial at sea? You never know what you're gonna get when the noonas just let 'er rip! Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Intracerebral Hemorrhage With Drs. Wendy Ziai & Vishank Shah

Continuum Audio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2026 25:51

Intracerebral hemorrhage carries high morbidity and mortality, but growing evidence highlights meaningful opportunities for prevention, risk reduction, and long-term recovery. This episode covers key strategies, including blood pressure management, interpretation of neuroimaging markers, and individualized decisions around antithrombotic therapy. It also emphasizes the prolonged recovery timeline and the importance of a holistic, patient-centered approach to improving outcomes. In this episode, Casey S. Albin, MD, FAAN, speaks with Wendy C. Ziai, MD, and Vishank A. Shah, MD, coauthors of the article "Intracerebral Hemorrhage" in the Continuum® June 2026 Cerebrovascular Disease issue. Dr. Albin is a Continuum® Audio interviewer, associate editor of media engagement, and an assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Ziai is a professor of neurology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Shah is an assistant professor of neurology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Additional Resources Read the article: Intracerebral Hemorrhage Subscribe to Continuum®: shop.lww.com/Continuum Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @caseyalbin Guest: @VishankShah3 Full episode transcript available here Dr Albin: A patient has suffered an intracerebral hemorrhage. They're taken to the neuro ICU, and they fortunately survive. But the journey does not end there. In fact, in some ways, the journey has just begun. Join us today as we unpack holistic care for ICH patients. Dr Jones: This is Dr. Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio. Be sure to visit the links in the episode notes for information about earning CME, subscribing to the journal, and exclusive access to interviews not featured on the podcast. Dr Albin: Hello to our audience. This is Dr. Casey Albin. Today, I'm interviewing Dr. Wendy Ziai and Dr. Vishank Shah about their article on intracerebral hemorrhage. This article appears in the April 2026 Continuum issue on cerebrovascular disease. Welcome to the podcast. I am so delighted that both of you are joining. To begin, let's just do a brief introduction of who you are and, and a little bit of how you got interested in the topic. Dr Ziai: Hi, I'm Wendy Ziai. Thank you for having me on this podcast. I am a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins. I am a neurointensivist, and I think I got primarily interested in this topic through clinical trials that I have been a part of since my fellowship days. Dr Shah: Hi, everyone. I'm, uh, Vishank Shah. I am also, uh, very thankful for being invited to be a part of this podcast. I'm also a neurointensivist at Hopkins and the fellowship program director here for neurocritical care, and I'm interested in recovery after ICH, and that's why I'm a part of this work. Dr Albin: Welcome to you both. It is such a treat for me to get to interview fellow neurointensivist, particularly those who have such a wealth of experience. So, I am delighted to dive into this. All right. So, to set the stage for our audience, intracerebral hemorrhage has long been approached with pessimism. But your article really highlights that there are meaningful advantages in prevention and risk stratification and long-term recovery for these patients. Though you both are neurointensivist, this article really emphasizes primary prevention and the holistic long-term care for the survivors. And so, to begin, Dr. Shah, can you just lay out a little bit for our listeners the scope of intracerebral hemorrhage and its community impact? Dr Shah: Yeah. So, you know, ICH is the second most common type of stroke. There are more than three million new cases of ICH globally each year, and it accounts for thirty percent of all stroke types, but it is the one that has the highest mortality, with more than forty to fifty percent of the patients dying in the first thirty days, and then continued long-term impact on both functional as well as outcomes, as well as survivorship after the early period. And it also disproportionately impacts lower socioeconomic, and then minority races like Blacks, Asians, as well as Hispanic ethnicity. And so, there's a lot of work that needs to be done to reduce the burden of this disease. Dr Albin: Absolutely. I mean, these can really be devastating for families, and I really am appreciative of your highlighting that there's a lot of disparities, and there's a lot of work to be done to really increase equity to these patients. I think a lot of this goes into really the AAN's focus on brain health and trying to improve some of what we're doing to maintain brain health. And I really wanted to kind of drill down on this because for ICH, there's a lot that can be done upfront as we think about how do we counsel patients who may walk into the office about strategies to prevent ever becoming an intracerebral hemorrhage patient. So, Dr. Shah, can you walk us through a little bit about what neurologists in the community need to be doing to make sure that no one ends up with us in the neurointensive care unit? Dr Shah: Yeah, sure. So, I think, you know, one of the most important risk factors is, of course, hypertension and long-standing uncontrolled hypertension. And so really recognizing the need for early onset screening with regular blood pressure monitoring at a very early age, particularly in the races that I discussed earlier. And then I think another big part, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type two diabetes. And I think there's a lot of interesting new work that with the GLP-1 agonist, you know, in a large multicenter cohort studies showing that patients receiving these had a significantly lower reduction risk of ICH. And so, this might be a really important part that, you know, clinicians need to start increasingly recognizing and using in their practice. And then, of course, other risk factors that are common include smoking, diet high in sodium, exposure to air pollution, both indoor as well as outdoor. And so, mitigating all of these risk factors can also reduce the burden of ICH. Dr Albin: Absolutely. And I really want to highlight that hypertension plays such an important role and that we as neurointensivist, as community neurologists, really need to be creative about ways that we can help people meet those blood pressure target and meeting people in the community where they are, making sure that they're not suffering from side effects from their medication that would prevent them from sticking with it long term. Dr. Ziai, anything else to add about what we can do in the community? Dr Ziai: So, we really want to emphasize, even in the acute phase, that patients moving forward need to have targeted interventions to reduce blood pressure, smoking, enhance their physical activity, have a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables and low in alcohol and salt, and then promoting weight loss, of course. Dr Albin: And Dr. Ziai, I'm gonna ask you a little bit about one of the things that maybe not all of our listeners have heard about is this APOE2, APOE4 genetic risk for intracerebral hemorrhage. What's going on there and, and should clinicians be testing for that? Dr Ziai: That's a great question, and it is not one that we currently test people for at least acute ICH presentation. APOE2 and A4- E4 alleles, these give patients a two to three times higher risk of ICH by increasing cerebral amyloid deposition. And if you happen to have APOE2 carrier ship status, then along with other risk factors like white matter disease and vascular risk factors, these predict the onset of new microbleeds even during very short follow-up periods of about two years. And as we know, having cerebral microbleeds are associated with an increased risk of all strokes, ischemic and ICH, but they are one of many MRI markers of small vessel disease, which along with cortical superficial siderosis, does significantly increase future ICH risk. And so even in people who've never had an ICH, if they happen to have an MRI, it may be reasonable to look at the MRI and incorporate this burden of small vessel disease, and especially these hemorrhagic markers into, uh, decision-making about interventions. Dr Albin: That's a really excellent point. And so, I think that your article did a really beautiful job of thinking holistically about the patient, incorporating clinical markers of their risk for having ICH, but also those radiographic markers. I'm just gonna ask you to summarize those again one more time because not everyone will be familiar with these. So, when you're looking at an MRI, what are the things that you're particularly clued in on that would increase the patient's risk of future ICH? Dr Ziai: In the past, what we're looking for really is markers of cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which significantly increase a person's risk for lobar hemorrhage in particular. And so, we have a set of criteria called the Boston Criteria, and there's a new version of these, version 2.0. And these, um, incorporate a number of imaging markers that provide a very high sensitivity and specificity to diagnose CAA after an ICH. But even if someone's never had an ICH, and they evaluate that risk-benefit ratio for different cardiovascular prevention strategies. And so, the markers that we're specifically interested in are, of course, microbleeds. But not just having microbleeds, but are they lobar or are they deep? Lobar having a higher risk for lobar ICH. How many microbleeds are there? Is it greater than five, or is it just one or two? Also, cortical superficial siderosis is a marker, a hemorrhagic marker, that does portend a significant increased risk of recurrent ICH, along with having a lobar ICH. And now we have these new markers, which are the white matter hyperintensity multi spot pattern, which requires these hyperintensities on flare imaging in the subcortical area, having greater than at least ten of these multi spots, and also having enlarged perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale, and having at least twenty of those. And finally, white matter hyperintensities, which can be measured with the physica score or just by visualizing them. We can look at white matter hyperintensities as well as being a measure of small vessel disease. Dr Albin: Got it. And so just to summarize, we're looking for small vessel disease markers because that puts our patients at higher risk of ongoing future bleeds. And then we're also looking for markers of particularly small vessel disease that's caused by cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which again, because it's having that protein deposition, that puts the patient at risk of those leptomeningeal very small vessels, putting the patient at risk of lobar ICH. Just confirming I've summarized this all correctly. Dr Ziai: Yes. That was perfect. Dr Albin: Amazing. Dr. Shah, I'm gonna go back to you. Let's say we have a patient. Let's say this is a sixty-five-year-old man who comes in and they want follow-up and they're... And you're trying to think about they've had an ICH in the past, and they are also at risk for ischemic disease. Let's say they, they have hypertension, they've had a smoking history. They have some risk for ischemic events. And you're trying to think about how do you balance those. Let's say the patient needs to be on aspirin but does have some of those high-risk features on their MRI. Is there any guidance on how we think through preventing them from having a recurrent bleed if they're a high-risk patient, also preventing them from having an ischemic event, which they might be at high risk for as well? Dr Shah: Yes. So, I think, you know, the first step is of course trying to understand what was the type of bleed. I think that has a very important role, like you mentioned. If it's a lobar hemorrhage versus a deep hemorrhage, the risk of recurrent ICH and ischemic events is very variable. So lobar hemorrhages, there's obviously a higher risk of recurrent hemorrhage events, whereas deep hemorrhage is actually at or behaves sort of like small vessel ischemic strokes and have a higher risk of recurrent arterial ischemic events. So that distinction in itself can help you gauge which patients would be safe and would benefit from these therapies. To begin, and of course, looking for some of these markers on MRI that were mentioned by Dr. Ziai for recurrence of hemorrhage risk. In terms of antiplatelet, the, there is a lot more data now to guide treatment, and we have the RESTART as well as the ESTART trial that showed that starting an, a single antiplatelet after intracerebral hemorrhage did not increase the risk of hemorrhage recurrence. They were very variable in the timing when aspirin was started, and so that remains still a question about what is the safest time point to start aspirin. For example, in the ESTART trial, they started them very early, within the first three days, whereas in the RESTART it was all the way up to two months after the hemorrhage. And so... But in general, the risk of recurrent ICH was very low with a single antiplatelet agent. And so, if it's needed for ischemic prevention, it's relatively safe broadly across all types of hemorrhages. Dr Ziai: Yeah. I would just mention that there was also a subgroup analysis of the RESTART trial using MRI. And so, this more than likely included patients with CAA, since 40% of the hemorrhages were lobar in that study, and therefore seeing that there was no increased risk of recurrent ICH in RESTART, it is thought that putting patients back on their antiplatelet therapy is safe. Dr Albin: That's a really huge takeaway pearl for our listeners, that regardless of whether it's a lobar bleed or a deep bleed, if there is a strong indication, you know, this is not just, oh, because someone gave them aspirin 81, but truly that there is a reason that they need to be on a single antiplatelet agent, it probably benefits them to be on that agent, and there's good data that there's not a huge increase in risk. Summarizing all of that? Dr Ziai: Great. Dr Albin: Now, things are gonna get a little bit tricky here, because what if the patient, what if they need to be on dual antiplatelet therapy? Or what if they need to be on anticoagulation? Dr. Ziai, I'll, I'll throw that to you. How do you tackle that patient population? Dr Ziai: Yeah, the safety of dual antiplatelet therapy hasn't really been studied in patients who've had a prior ICH. Although, in people who've had previous strokes, putting them on dual antiplatelets doesn't seem to increase the risk of ICH, but it does increase extracranial hemorrhage. And so there may be other reasons not to put patients on dual antiplatelet agents. Patients who have cancer and also cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, putting them on dual antiplatelet therapy does seem to increase the risk for intracranial hemorrhage. So, I think there is enough of a bias against DAPT therapy in patients who have had an ICH that we would not recommend DAPT for patients with a prior ICH. Dr Albin: Absolutely. And, and then what about, let's say they have atrial fibrillation, and you know that they have a high CHA2DS2-VASc score, and they are at very high risk of ischemic events, but they've also had a prior intracerebral hemorrhage. Walk us through a little bit, how should we approach that patient? Dr. Ziai, I'm gonna start with you again. Dr Ziai: Sure. So again, looking at the MRI, which all patients with ICH should have nowadays. If patients do have these hemorrhagic findings, a lobar ICH, evidence of CSS, cortical superficial siderosis, especially if it's disseminated, and also lobar microbleeds, especially if there are greater than five, if they're multiple, then anticoagulation should really be avoided in those patients. Dr Albin: Absolutely. So, I'm really hearing that when we have a patient with ICH, it is just critically important that we understand is this a hypertensive bleed or is this a lobar bleed that is probably related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy? And getting to that distinction is going to play a major role in our deciding whether or not the patient can be on DAPT or can be on anticoagulation. And then what are some of the strategies for patients that you're referring them to if they really cannot tolerate being on anticoagulation, but they have atrial fibrillation, and they do need some sort of ischemic stroke prevention? Dr Shah: There's still a lot of controversy, even in non-lobar hemorrhages, about resuming anticoagulation and when that would be safe. HAF trial, there was a reduction in ischemic stroke recurrence, uh, but a significantly higher increase in hemorrhage recurrences. I think that trial included both deep and lobar hemorrhages. So, we still need more data, and I think the ASPIRE trial and maybe a meta-analysis would answer that eventually. But in the meantime, if a, specifically for lobar hemorrhages, which are, uh, thought to be CAA related, if they, uh, and the patient has AFib, you know, where anticoagulation would be contraindicated, a watchman device or, you know, AFib ablation may be some of the other strategies that can be looked into for those patients specifically. Dr Albin: Right. I think that's a really important point to emphasize, that we don't just don't give up and say, "Oh, you're not a candidate for anticoagulation," but we really reach out to our cardiovascular friends and say, "Hey, what other procedures can you offer that will minimize the risk of recurrence?" You know, we don't want them to have an ischemic event, but we also know long-term that there would be a real risk of anticoagulation. Just reminder to our listeners that there are new procedures, and our cardiology colleagues are always doing new trials and new devices, and so we should really leverage their expertise here. I am in the final minutes gonna just switch gears a little bit from talking about sort of the nitty-gritty of secondary ischemic prevention and secondary hemorrhagic stroke prevention and thinking about there has been this degree of pessimism around ICH patients, and that, you know, they have a much more severe outcome than our patients with ischemic strokes. I think that that is probably a myth that we need to do some debunking around, and I think maybe we need to reframe in terms of thinking about just the trajectory. So, Dr. Shah, walk us through a little bit about what we can expect about the recovery trajectory in ICH compared to those patients who have an ischemic stroke. Dr Shah: Yes. From some newer data and studies, it is becoming clear that recovery after ICH is much slower than we expect. In general, for ischemic stroke, recovery is measured within the first few weeks to up to 90 days. But in ICH, we now know that patients can keep recovering all the way up to six months and even beyond. In general, from just a, a study of heart recovery that occurs after ischemic stroke, there's a steep recovery in the first seven days, and then sort of after that, patients still continue to recover, but it, it starts plateauing where up to 90 days. Whereas with ICH, there is not much recovery in the first 7 to 30 days, but after that, there is a recovery that occurs significantly between day 30 and day 180, and then some patients continue to recover all the way up to one year. The more severe the hemorrhage, the slower the recovery, but there's still some evidence to suggest that even severe hemorrhage patients can recover all the way up to one year out and beyond. This is, of course, in terms of functional recovery. Dr Albin: I think that's a really important point for our audience. Many of the listeners are residents, they're fellows, they're seeing these patients in the hospital, and they may not see a whole lot of improvement over even 30 days. But to keep in mind that just because the patient has not had a dramatic recovery within that first month that they may be in the ICU and then on the floor does not mean that that patient will never have recovery, and that we reset our expectations that recovery is possible, it's just gonna be slower. And I think that that's not only important for the healthcare team to take in mind, but also for patients and their families to know there is hope here. It's just gonna be slower. Dr. Ziai, looking ahead, what developments in this are you most excited about that you think will move the needle for care for the long-term outcomes and the prevention for these patients? What's ahead in, in ICH? Dr Ziai: Yeah, I think the research that's going on is very exciting at the moment. We just saw the presentation at the World Stroke Organization conference in the fall of the TRIDENT trial, Triple therapy prevention of Recurrent intracerebral Disease events, meaning strokes. And these investigators found that a single pill, a fixed dose of three blood pressure-lowering agents actually was successful in significantly reducing the risk of recurrent stroke in patients who have had a history of ICH and have just normal or low-grade hypertension. So rather than having patients on multiple antihypertensive agents, it may be possible to have them on a single pill, and may dramatically reduce their stroke risk. So that's exciting. There is also a trial ongoing, ASPIRING, testing whether antiplatelet monotherapy after 24 hours only can reduce the risk of all serious vascular events in ICH survivors. So very early antiplatelets. The SATURN trial, we didn't talk about statins yet, but it is comparing continuation versus discontinuation of statin therapy in ICH patients. And then we have ongoing epidemiological studies that are really needed to understand this interaction between the cardiovascular prevention strategies, the antithrombotic use, the blood pressure targets, and these high-risk neuroimaging markers for ICH. And I think that's gonna be key, personalizing the interventions for these patients. Dr Albin: So, I love that. And what I'm hearing is that it's really important to think about the personalized approach as well as how do we simplify things. We know that blood pressure control is critically important to the primary and secondary prevention of ICH, but we have to make it easy for patients to do so. Dr. Shah, I want to end with kind of understanding, you know, this was an unusual topic for neurointensivists to talk about. This was really about prevention. It was about long-term survivorship. It was about not what's happening in the neuro ICU. How did you guys get interested in sort of that aspect of care? Dr Shah: Yeah, so that's a great question. Dr. Ziai has been my mentor since I was in fellowship, so now about eight years that I've been working with her, and this was a project that I started in fellowship with under her mentorship, looking at long-term recovery in ICH patients, and specifically severe patients. Happy that work has received a lot of recognition. It was published in JAMA Neurology. We looked at patients with severe intracerebral and intraventricular hemorrhage, those that survived with an mRS of four and five at day 30, and what happened to them over the course of the year. There was really not much data on recovery after ICH. And we were very surprised to see that up to 40% of patients that were an mRS of four and five, so really, really severely disabled at day 30, recovered to an mRS of zero to three by one year. About one-third of that group that recovered actually achieved functional independence with an mRS of zero to two, which was very surprising, really breaking the myths around the pessimism with ICH. We found that a lot of the baseline comorbidities like diabetes, white matter disease, as well as what happens to them during the acute hospitalization, were adding all of that information to the severity of the hemorrhage significantly improved our ability to predict long-term recovery after ICH. And so that's kind of how we got interested in this work, looking at how factors in the care that we provide in the ICU, as well as what the patients come in with, how all of that could be modified to promote recovery in these patients that are often been forgotten. Dr Albin: I think that there's one takeaway to our listeners is that this is really a place where there's a lot of hope for recovery, and that the nihilism that has really surrounded ICH is a thing of the past, and we have to move forward with thinking about how do we proactively impact the recovery and counsel the patients and give them hope. Because just as your research shows, there really is the ability that they can attain that functional independence, which is absolutely astounding. It's really amazing. Again, today I've been interviewing Dr. Wendy Ziai and Dr. Vishank Shah about their article on intracerebral hemorrhage. This article appears in the April 2026 Continuum issue on cerebrovascular disease. Please be sure to check out Continuum Audio episodes from this and other issues. Please go and check out. They have a wonderful article with lots of tables and figures, so much data. And again, thank you to our listeners for joining us today. Thank you, Dr. Ziai and Dr. Shah. Dr Ziai: Thanks very much. Dr Shah: Thank you. Dr Monteith: This is Dr. Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio. If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth and clinically relevant information important for neurology practitioners. Use the link in the episode notes to learn more and subscribe. AAN members, you can get CME for listening to this interview by completing the evaluation at continpub.com/audioCME. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

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The Mystery of Christ

Center Christian Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2026 37:25

1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 4 Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. 27 When the seven days were almost completed,…

APEX Express – 7.9.26 – Connie Wun & Think Twice

express apex asians pacific islanders think twice kpfa

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2026 41:17

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Host Miko Lee speaks with Dr. Connie Wun and we get to hear her new podcast Think Twice. The post APEX Express – 7.9.26 – Connie Wun & Think Twice appeared first on KPFA.

K-Drama Scenes We Never Skip

spotify world conversations olympic games logo bay area asian americans asians olympic gold medalists winter games kristi yamaguchi

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2026 65:31

Sometimes, our social media algorithm knows what it's doing, and delivers us classic Kdrama scenes. So these are the scenes we never skip when they show up on our feeds--ones that make us cry, get our blood pumping, or make us cringe with second-hand embarrassment.CLOY Border Scene: https://youtu.be/qiHfMceiKg8?si=85rPJLWWs7SEPhfuScenes That Make Us CryGoblin Rooftop: https://youtu.be/5JteB30DAN4?si=BK65sIk5TZBt04ReEun Tak Remembering Kim Shin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI7dByRuw5kEun Tak Going Up the Stairs: https://youtube.com/shorts/mtgoQvhFQv8?si=PUyUT3_faCfHXCRmI Am Not A Robot Reset Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSCT9tkpB14My Dearest auction scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW5XKIq_P64Scenes That Make Us LaughCondom Shower: https://youtube.com/shorts/V1eV67YPr4Y?si=Y9B4pyrduqExi8LnDokkaebi Underwear Song: https://youtu.be/UZ72CNde3h4?si=X6O0093qx6rsspoPDeath of Sebastian and Elizabeth (fish) https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8awuJTBNZAcSamantha and Rachel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KpE_IhZ1aEAction Scenes That Never Get OldLee Gon on Horse: https://youtu.be/yaZkYUUVZG4?si=lljxHs_MEEhuzSwNCaptain Ri Motorcycle Scene: https://vimeo.com/381918963Flaming bookbag from Study Group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD3UINhqQFIK2 shower scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HexDL4OinoYSexy Scenes that Make Our Hearts RaceCoffee Prince Door Kiss: https://youtu.be/O4YZ8NHu0uQ?si=h1u2ES2WWeg3reEgDestined With You Cotton Candy: https://www.tiktok.com/@rowoon__tr/video/7290185127324421381Bad and Crazy kiss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbJqz9kRBIScenes That Give Us Second-Hand EmbarrassmentI Am Not A Robot Disguisehttps://www.dramabeans.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Robot17-00005-copy.jpgFight for My Way aegyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFu3Hufti5EBadass ScenesJang Uk emerging from the funeral pyre:https://drive.google.com/file/d/15LilRRk1xDZ4OdWqrN-U_un4Bu5h3oI0/view?usp=sharingBallerina action scene with a can of pineapples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D32dnh6lF1MHonorable Mention Scenes We Will Never ForgetEnd of Train to Busan: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYSBfIOsW27/Gyeongseong Creature monster mother: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gUS_SU9L2kReady to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Ep 227 A Conversation Olympic Gold Medalist Kristi Yamaguchi

The Infatu Asian Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2026 51:21

It was a dream come true to speak with Kristi on the podcast. The whole point of this show is to celebrate Asians who bring us joy. In the 2020s, there have been many great gold medal performances by Asian Americans at both the summer and winter Olympics. But in 1992, Kristi's gold was only the 2nd gold medal won by an Asian American woman ever (first in the Winter Games)! The joy and pride of seeing a fellow Asian American (and a Bay Area kid) on top of the podium was really indescribable. Off the ice, Kristi has helped countless others pursue their education and passions with Kristi Yamaguchi's Always Dream, https://alwaysdream.org . She is, and always has been, a great ambassador for the sport of figure skating and the Bay Area. It was a real treat to speak with her! Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or find us at infatuasian.com Our Theme: “Super Happy J-Pop Fun-Time” by Prismic Studios was arranged and performed by All Arms Around, with a cold open by @conerclubofficial Cover Art and Logo designed by Justin Chuan @w.a.h.w (We Are Half the World) #asianpodcast #infatuasian #aapi #representationmatters

Episode 515: Crushing Records and Making Milestones

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2026 63:00

We're sliding into the All-Star Break, but first, what's going on in the world of Asians in Baseball??3:20 - Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Corbin Carroll make it into the All-Star game, but Lee Jung Hoo was snubbed; vote Barbara Hahn - "balldudette" at Oracle Park for the All-Star ball crew; and Dave Roberts becomes the fastest manager to win 1000 games.13:28 - In position player news, Mune is set to begin a rehab assignment, the Rookie Report features a new Asian in Baseball Josh Kuroda Grauer, and Seiya Suzuki becomes the 4th Japanese-born pitcher in MLB history to hit 100 homers (and the first RHH, he'd like to add).28:04 - Happy birthday, Ohtani! Sorry about your bicep?!?!38:50 - In pitching, Naomi's cousin Go Woo Suk becomes a Twin twice over, Bryan Woo and Yamamoto keep representing, everybody wants to leave the Mets, and Roki "didn't cry" ... alright.

APEX Express – 7.2.26 – International Youth Movements

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2026 59:58

APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. Over the past few years, a series of popular uprisings across the world have been described by mainstream media as “Gen-Z Uprisings” – movements led by young people and described in western media as generally being against government corruption. These movements have been most notably visible in our own media due to their use of technology, including platforms like Discord and TikTok, and internationally consistent adoption of pop culture symbolism, like the flag of the “straw hat pirates,” a black flag depicting a grinning jolly roger wearing a straw hat. The flag is the banner of the protagonists of the long-running hit anime series One Piece whose adventures often find them coming to the defense of marginalized communities around their world. But these movements didn't come out of nowhere (or the internet for that matter). Understanding their origins – and the elections that have resulted from their successes – can shed light both onto the international struggle against authoritarianism and the challenges we face building an alternative. In this episode we are looking at two countries, Nepal and Bangladesh, where popular uprisings in the summer of 2024 and fall of 2025 have led to elections this year. In this episode, we are joined by two US based organizers, Sharmin Hossain and Samir Shrestha, whose work as part of South Asian diasporas has rooted them in movement work here in the US while maintaining relationships and solidarity abroad. Sharmin Hossain is a Bangladeshi Muslim organizer from Queens, New York, who is currently the Organizing Director for 18 Million Rising. To learn more about 18 Million Rising, check out their site at www.18millionrising.org. Follow Sharmin on all platforms at @sharminultra Samir Shrestha belongs to the indigenous Newari tribe of Nepal, where he was born. He has spent the last 18 years involved in movement work here in the US. To learn more about The Ruckus Society and request a training, visit: www.ruckus.org/training-action-support/training-requests/ To learn more about Convergence Magazine and the Block and Build Podcast, follow them at @_convergencemag and @blockandbuildpod. Check out Covergence's work at www.convergencemag.com. Transcript Swati Rayasam: [00:00:00] welcome fellow travelers to Apex Express. It's been a minute, but in case you don't remember, my name is Swati Rayasam, and I'm gonna be your conductor tonight. I have been very excited about this week's episode for a few months because tonight Apex is featuring Convergence Magazine's Block and Build podcast. Block and Build is creating a roadmap for the movement that's working to block the impacts of [00:01:00] rising authoritarianism while building the strength and resilience of the broad front that we need to win. And both the team at Convergence and the guests for tonight's show are close comrades and friends of Apex. On this episode, Cayden Mak, podcast host and editor-in-chief of Convergence, is joined by Samir Shrestha and Sharmin Hossain, two US-based organizers from the South Asian diaspora, Nepal and Bangladesh respectively. Sharmin and Samir will talk about the history and continued struggles of the international Gen Z uprisings, which have only really made a blip in Western media coverage. They'll discuss the history of those movements and the political conditions which created them, as well as help us understand how Americans can be in meaningful solidarity with people's movements abroad. Without further ado, I'll hand it over to Cayden. Cayden: Over the past few years, a series of popular uprisings across the world have been described by mainstream media as the Gen Z uprisings, movements led by young people and described in Western media as [00:02:00] generally being against government corruption. These movements have been most notably visible in our own media due to their use of technology, including platforms like Discord and TikTok, and internationally consistent adoption of pop culture symbolism. but these movements didn't come out of nowhere, or out of just the internet, for that matter. Understanding their origins and the elections that have resulted from their successes can shed light both onto the international struggle against authoritarianism and the challenges that we face building an alternative. In this episode, we're looking at two countries in particular, Nepal and Bangladesh, where popular uprisings in the summer of 2024 and fall of 2025 have led to elections this year. I was recently joined by two US-based organizers, Sharmin Hossain and Samir Shrestha, whose work as part of the South Asian diaspora has rooted them in movement work here in the US while maintaining relationships and solidarity abroad. Sharmin Hossain is a Bangladeshi Muslim organizer from Queens, New York, who's currently the organizing director for 18 Million Rising. Sharmin, thanks so much for joining us today Sharmin: Thank you for having me. I love Convergence. Cayden: Thank you. [00:03:00] And, Samir Shrestha belongs to the indigenous Newari tribe of Nepal, where he was born. He spent the past 18 years involved in movement work here in the US, and Samir, it's really good to see you this morning. Samir: So good to see you too, Cayden. Cayden: Well, to start us off, let's try and set some context Sharmin. I'm wondering if you can give us kind of a quick gloss of the 2024 uprisings in Bangladesh, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party were ousted from power. What are the sort of themes of the protests, and then the way that the state responded, and where are we kind of now? Sharmin: Wow, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to talk about my country and all the amazing things that happened, because I think the Global South really forges, like, new possibilities as far as, like, what we can do and, and consolidate as far as power goes. So today is actually March 26th, and it's Bangladeshi Independence Day, coincidentally. Cayden: Happy independence Day. Sharmin: Happy Independence Day. I find it very serendipitous for us to delve into this layered and complex history, um, of the student movement. So [00:04:00] the Bangladesh student protests of July 2024, were deeply rooted in systemic inequalities that the young working class and the poor faced. Nearly 32 million young people were actually out of the workforce, or education in a population of a country of 170 million. So that's a pretty significant number. And so that issue was a focal point for widespread discontent in the country. In July of 2024, the High Court of Bangladesh actually reinstated a quota system for government jobs after an appeal was made when the then-ruling Hasina government abolished the quota system, um because in 2018 she faced a lot of pressure from student protesters. But this quota system is really interesting, and it represents a lot. It reserved 30% of government jobs for descendants of freedom fighters. And in Bangladeshi history, that's a very complex and layered identity. Millions of our [00:05:00] ancestors actually fought in the liberation war against the US-backed Pakistani military, and the Bangladeshi Liberation War, and genocide in Bangladesh actually resulted in the death of over three million people who sacrificed for the birth of our nation. And so for the Hasina government, the quota system was actually what she used to appoint a lot of her loyalists and her supporters to high levels of government, the military, and it basically created the political ecosystem for the Awami League, her party, to maintain dominance. And the Awami League actually was the party that once led the liberation struggle, and over the course of 15 years, we actually saw how much they consolidated power through political repression, the Digital Security Acts that was surveilling and targeting freedom of speech, as well as the corruption and fear that they [00:06:00] stoked against their opposition. And these government jobs, like most of us, it represents many things. It represents the government's responsibility to take care of poor people, um, economic and political opportunity, and it also represents, like, the corruption and the authoritarian rule of the Awami League, and how they were rigging elections, and how the court systems, and even entrance exams for the Bangladeshi civil service, were actually regularly leaked and compromised. And so -within that background, that's when you have the Students Against Discrimination movement take the streets in July demanding fair access to government jobs. And things actually got violent really fast. Within seven days, nearly 174 people were murdered, and thousands were injured. There was an indefinite curfew, social media blackouts, and then a military occupation with shoot on sight orders. And of course, the bullets that were raining upon, Bangladeshis were US, [00:07:00] arms. So students were terrorized by these vigilante groups that were collaborating with the Bangladeshi police. And these student groups were actually organized by the Bangladeshi Awami League. These student groups were notorious for repressing student elections, sexually assaulting students, um really threatening people that were running for student elections. And so there's already this, like, vigilante ecosystem that exists within the campuses that was weaponized during the student protests. And then you have a climax moment on July 14th. Sheikh Hasina went on television accusing the students of being Razakars, and Razakars are collaborators of the Pakistani army, and it's a very derogatory term in Bangladesh, and it refers to people who support the Pakistani military's operation to suppress the Bangladeshi Liberation War. They're also accused of heinous crimes. And so when students were accused of being Razakars, it, like, [00:08:00] lit a fire. Millions took the streets that day, and they were like, “Oh, hell no.” Like, “How dare she disrespect us?” While there's thousands of people who are on the streets, blood, everywhere. Rickshaw wallas are having to pull students into hospitals. There's just so much violence happening on the ground. And so on that National Day of Action, July 15th, clashes happen. Multiple deaths are live-streamed, and one of them, Abu Sayeed, he was a university student at Rangpur University in northwest Bangladesh, really galvanized the country because we watched this student, who is not armed, surrender and get sh- shot, by the Bangladeshi police. And we know what these spontaneous moments of violence do to the public, right? It usually always sets fire to another wave of social protests and action. And so then millions start marching to Sheikh Hasina's home, and [00:09:00] really, her brutal and arrogant response sealed her fate. And the protesters, and at this point, this is a populist movement, millions of people that are rickshaw wallas, working-class people, students, teachers, are taking the streets, marching towards her house. And they demand her resignation. And on August 5th, within 36 days of the movement, she resigns and flees to India, our neighboring country. Over 1,400 people have been killed, under her brutal repression. And so that's some of the background of the student movement, and we can talk more about some of the dynamics of it. Cayden: Yeah, that's super helpful, and I think reflecting on the ways in which also the sort of, like, escalation on the part of the government is, I think, a really important story here, for sure. Samir, I'll also now turn it to you. What should our listeners know about last fall's uprisings in Nepal, which also ousted the sitting government of, K.P. Oli and his, his party and how they led to [00:10:00] elections, earlier this month, in March of this year? Samir: Thanks, Cayden, and Happy Independence Day to you, Sharmin. I am somebody who was born and raised in Nepal, and am spending most of my life in the diaspora now, and I wanna name the limitations of, uh, my understanding of what's going on in Nepal because of me not being on the ground organizing with the masses. And, I wanna honor the work that's been happening in Nepal, on the ground one of the big things that, that's really n- is important to name is, like, it's only been 20 years since we abolished monarchy. Uh- Mm-hmm. … uh, 2006, right? That is a big thing for us to understand. And the party that was in power, and has been in power since, was the party that has been organizing our movements, and that is the organized left in Nepal, and, like, really betrayed our people once we, once they got into power, right? And, like, started kind of veering towards the right once they got in power. So 20 years later The economic conditions of our people on the ground are really dire. There's no jobs available. People are migrating. A lot of our folks, one of the biggest source of economy and source of money for our, [00:11:00] our people back home is, like, migrant work, uh, in Dubai and, traveling to Dubai, Qatar, and working under very bad conditions. So one- that's one of the big things that's also been informing,, lot of the consciousness of the- our young people in Nepal, right? And then one of the other things that's named really important is, so since the election, since 2006, the Communist Party, the Congress Party, and the Maoist Party have been, they're the only ones who have been in power for the last 20 years, and these are all old upper caste men, even though they were the ones who were leading the movement and were organizing at left. But these were s- the representation and the leaders in these parties were all upper caste, caste Arya people, which is the dominant caste in Nepal, right? And that's a very important layer to name. And that really informed, I think, a lot of the ways they showed up after we won. And, and that's one, one big question that we always have in the left, right? What do we do after we- Yeah … abolish monarchy? What do we do after we win? And we haven't figured that out too, as does any other movements, right? And 20 years later, the frustration is on the very high, against the status quo. And then we, and there [00:12:00] was a lot of, like, obviously there was a lot of inspiration from Bangladesh, like Indonesia, and, like, the uprisings there. And, like, this one, uh, thing started trending the young people started organizing around Nepo babies. There's like, you know, “Yeah, you don't have access to we do, you're gonna take our access away from social media while your kids, and people who have connections to you and have, access to you are just posting about the life, the lavish life they're living abroad and in my homelands,” right? So that's one of the places where it started. And once that started, there was online campaign. And there was already conversations around banning social media in Nepal, and they were- Hmm … finding, like, different ways around it, and that really escalated the way people really responded to the situation, is like once they started organizing around Nepo babies and how they were, like, getting momentum around that, that's when exactly the social media ban went into effect, right? And that's a really important name because, like, one of the biggest pet peeves for me as a diaspora person has been this idea of people only started the uprising and took the streets because of the social media ban. [00:13:00] But just- Hmm. Mm-hmm … all these other things really added up to it. That was just the, just the point of escalation, right? So fast-forward, people started organizing on Discord. Uh, also the irony of it is that was one of the apps that was banned, uh, in Nepal as, uh… And people started organizing in Discord. And also wanna name the reality of, like, the only people who had access to Discord are also, like, privileged folks like us- Sure like younger, upper middle class people. So we were not really getting folks from outside Kathmandu and from our villages and from rural areas, right? So they didn't really have any say in what the organizing would look like. So it happened very, organically, very decentralized. So there was a call for people to show up at Maitighar which has been a popular protest space in Nepal, for a very long time. And it was like at the, at the center of Kathmandu. So there was a call out september 8. A lot of folks came out, and then people from outside Kathmandu that couldn't make it to Kathmandu started coming in big numbers. And the goal of the protest was peaceful protest, right? [00:14:00] And one of the things that happened, don't quote me on this, but my understanding of it from, talking to people there is, like, a lot of political parties who had, who were the opposition from the Communist Party at that time started infiltrating the protest, and the protest started becoming, quote-unquote, “violent,”, which was not, uh, what the young people wanted. So fast-forward, that led to 19 deaths on the first day of the protest, which led to the home minister resigning, at the end of the day. But Oli, the prime minister, is so arrogant and really didn't figure out the power of young people and, like, how they could keep mobilizing and organizing. He decided to just downplay them and say, “I'm not resigning,” which led to more heightened escalated protests the second day, where people started marching to the parliament buildings and started burning down buildings. And people started, people got to a lot of, like, the political parties' political party leader home and started burning them, and, really started, holding them accountable. And also , there was videos of clips of, like, people torching into people's homes and, like, [00:15:00] Sher Bahadur Deuba, who has been in power for the last 20 years in different, ways, who's one of the, considered one of the most corrupt leader in Nepal, from Nepali Congress party, got attacked by the protesters. So fast-forward, more escalation led to, like, 52 more deaths, and the Oli party finally decided to resign at the end of that night, and that's, that's when curfew was impo- imposed by, the army. So that led to, like, a total of 72 deaths. I wanna name, like, in just the two days of mobilization, two days of organizing, because sometimes in the left we don't understand. We talk about the similarities of our struggles but we don't really talk about the conditions that led to it and, like, the level for the risk that our folks leveraged, to be able to topple the government, right? So I just wanna name that out loud and honor that part of, like, how the, how people, like, really leveraged risk. And then fast-forward, people started organizing. The conversation kept going on on Discord, and then there was, like, a town hall style meetings happening on Discord where, like, I think 7 to 8,000 people were on it. And also I still wanna name again, the people who didn't have access to the internet and [00:16:00] phones were not able to part- participate in that. And decided Susila Karki, who was a chief justice 10 years ago, a woman, who also joined protesters during the first day of them mobilizing in the street. They decided, they voted, to hold her as the interim prime minister for now. And There was also one other layer is like a lot of people wanted Balen Sah, who is our prime minister now, but constitutionally if he was part of the interim government, he wouldn't be able to run for prime minister. So that was like a strategic decision that, uh, like he made, and the movement made around not electing him as part of the interim government. So one of the big responsibilities of the interim government was to hold elections in six months, which honestly I was not very- Cayden: That's hugely ambitious. Samir: It is hugely ambitious, right? And also the reality is it happened, and also there are questions around, yeah, were we able to hold elections in a way where everybody had access to it, right? And that is a big question that I'm still asking, I'm still sitting with. But there were like record numbers that showed up to the polls, but [00:17:00] we haven't really, like we still really don't have answers around what accessibility looked like for people to show up at the polls. And fast-forward now, the Rastriya Swatantra Party which emerged at like a, at a very popular party in 2022, won with majority. And we just sworn in our new Prime Minister Balen Sah yesterday, we can talk about more later. Cayden: Well, thank you for summing up, both of you for summing up- Pretty long, complex histories fairly quickly for us. I've been thinking about the way that, like, Western media largely reports on these kinds of uprisings as if they come out of nowhere. And, like, we know as movement people that rarely, if ever, like, do they truly come out of nowhere. So, like, yeah, I wanna dig into what the longer arc of these stories really is. And I, I really wanna talk about, I guess, like, the specific texture in both Bangladesh and Nepal about how these protest movements position themselves against the government, against, like, other social forces, and, like, how kind of, like, other social phenomena acted on and shaped [00:18:00] these movements as well. Sharmin: I love that question 'cause it allows us to see, like, also the rich history of our, like, respective areas, and how much, like, young people have always been at the forefront of so many revolutionary struggles. And we often, um, you know, uh, post social media era like to make generalizations that this never existed before. But actually, you know, in Bangladesh, students are the most incredibly organized force that has shaped much of our history since 1947. The 1969 uprisings against Ayub Khan, the 1971 Liberation War, and then the , 1987 protests against the military dictator Ershad. And then later, our return to democratic governance in 1990 and the road safety protests of 2018, which actually laid the groundwork for so much of the student, frustration with the government not being able to keep students safe because of road safety issues and [00:19:00] just, the general mismanagement of transportation and, public resources. And so the campus has always been a key space for the pulse of the nation. But it's also a key space for goons and vigilante groups to organize their forces. So the Bangladesh Awami League has their faction, the Chhatra League, and then there's, you know, the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is the right-wing Islamist group of Bangladesh that has been growing, has their faction, the Chhatra Shibir. And then the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which, you know, has been in opposition to the Awami League, also has their goons on campuses. And so one of the major, trends you'll see during these moments is how these factions are actually weaponized to make sure that the violent state apparatus is deployed within public spaces. And, you know, you asked about, like, missteps and some of the things that political formations, might forget to plan for or think [00:20:00] about. And, you know, one of the things that I, I'm sure Samir can relate a little bit is, like, a lot of these student organizations, you know, students against discrimination, there was a group of men who claimed leadership of the student movement and formed, a party, the National Citizens Party. And you notice quickly the contradictions of their formation. All the women leaders were either asked to leave or they left because of what an undemocratic, unfeminist space it was. And then you noticed quickly that the National Citizen Party started allying itself with the right-wing forces to gain a populist base. And that, to me, is the, one of the biggest contradictions of what do leftists do when we gain power? And also, like, the sober conversation is, are these leaders leftists? Or did- Cayden: Yeah, were they ever? Were they ever? Sharmin: Or did we project our leftist dreams onto them and I think one of the things that [00:21:00] we've been doing for many generations, and I think Vincent Bevins' work really synopsizes this well, in looking at the last decade of popular uprisings, is that we've been doing politics without ideology, right? Mm-hmm. That these political for- formations actually don't have a coherent theory of change when they're contesting for power. And so you notice quickly the National Citizens Party was very reactionary, and it was very anti-fascist by, their vernacular, but what anti-fascism meant was that we hate the Awami League, we're gonna ban the Awami League, and the Awami League is no longer going to exist. And then we're- Yes … gonna fight for Sheikh Hasina to be hanged, right? And so that became their populist slogan. Cayden: Hmm. Sharmin: And so, you know, there is no left force in Bangladesh, and that's something that we have to name, that for sure there are garment workers that are organizing a party. There's a communist league that does not actually grow in their base. Um- Hmm … and that is why coming out of [00:22:00] the July uprisings, you notice this leadership actually turned center right really fast because they didn't have a, a vision that was rooted in economic and political struggles of the working-class students who made up majority of the base of people that were on the streets. Um, and you know, it was surprising, Cayden, I'll just say, like, after the, the NCP was getting ready for elections that just happened this past February, they joined a coalition with the largest Islamist force of Bangladesh, and this is such a misstep, right? To join forces. W- your enemy of your enemy is not your friend, right? Like, wh- where, like, where, when has that gotten us anywhere? It falls into the traps of organizing without a clear, coherent ideology, and then the post-uprising impact is weakened. And so a lot of that groundwork of, like, theoretical work, we actually have to do that to be able to be ready for fights that take power in the way that [00:23:00] feel, restorative and generative, instead of what we're seeing now, which is a populist right-wing growth in Bangladesh. Cayden: That feels like such an important lesson that we need to learn, unfortunately, over and over again, and I feel like this theme of, the enemy of my enemy is sometimes still my enemy has been coming up on this show a lot lately. That like, it, I, uh, you know, we see it happening in our movement politics here too, especially in, in this sort of moment of authoritarian retrenchment in our own government, that like, there are, there are challenges around that, and there's like ways that I think, yeah, it makes sense that it feels good in the moment to be like, “Yeah, there's more of us than there are of them.” But it's like, well, who, who are us? Like, what is the us that we're talking about? Samir, I will pass it to you to talk about, I guess, some of the texture that we should know about the protest movement in Nepal, and like what are the ways that, other social forces also outside the state have shaped the way that the protests have played out there. Samir: I was listening to Sharmin, and I was like, “Oh, there's so many similarities,” [00:24:00] like in a lot of the political forces that led our movements and also like talking about K.P. Oli, there's so many similarities of like how they were the face of the movement. And as somebody who really admired K.P. Oli because, you know, he was part of the social movement left. He was part of , like the first people's movement struggles, uh, that happened in the '90s that got rid of absolute monarchy. He was the face of the Communist Party. He did take up arms, right? So all of the tools that our revolutionary histories have used to, find liberation, right? So he used a diversity of tactics. Like, he started as somebody who believed in picking up arms. And then he led a people's movement in the '90s of, like with other political parties to get rid of the Panchayat system, which was a system of absolute monarchy and where all the political parties were dissolved right by the king from the 1960 to 1990, right? But one of the big things that I think we didn't think about when our movements were being led, when our movement ancestors were organizing and like really thinking about is like what does identity mean for our movements. There's political forces, [00:25:00] the social movement parties that are leading our people and organizing our people, and they did the organizing that happened in Nepal, the door-to-door, the base building that happened, if that was done by political parties, right? Which is true, and we need to name that layer, too. And I think one of the things that we're missing in this moment right now is we have been so, so frustrated by the last 20 years of governance by these forces. We wanna forget the political history of how we got here, right? Mm-hmm. And that has been one of my big critique of the young people in Nepal, right? And for me, I also think about as somebody who's getting older and also had access to my dad who was part of this movement, right? He was a big force as part of the Communist Party, and now he's heavily traumatized because of the way he got betrayed by his comrades, right? And I think one of the forces I was talking about identity is, like, all of these political forces were led by upper caste Brahmin men, and there was no indigenous representation. So finally, the 1990, we were able to get rid of absolute [00:26:00] monarchy. By '96, we still don't have full democracy in Nepal, so, you know, the Maoists decided to wage a civil war where they really organized the masses, and really created conditions for the monarchy, to bow down, right? And the Maoist party came out of this forest and, like, built a coalition with the Communist Party and the Congress Party to take the streets again. In 2006, we finally were able to get rid of monarchy, but 2006 to 2014 was a struggle to, like, really, draft a new constitution for us, where we made some progress and where we also did some things where it took us back around, like, women's rights, right? And so there was a big feminist movement that really created, like, organizing conditions of 2026 in so many ways, right? And one of the things that we were seeing during the last 20 years is what's happening is all the communist parties, the people who led our movements and uprisings were veering towards the right, right? Hmm. Because they consolidated more power, like, you know, exactly what happened with, uh, Bangladesh. They consolidated more power where, you know, they could stay in power [00:27:00] for long. The indigenous folks were part of the struggles and the uprisings in the 100 years of our movement struggles. But once we won and they got, the Communist Party got into power, they started, like, pushing policies that would not benefit indigenous peoples, right? And then one of the big things that Nepal wanted is federalism in terms of, like, one of the big critiques of Nepal has been the government is so centralized in Kathmandu. Other people outside of Kathmandu really don't get to take part in politics. And, so federalism was one of the big things that we pushed for, right? At Indigenous Struggles, that is the one thing that we pushed for so that we can govern our homelands, and that was the one thing that Oli was, like, against too, and that was also one of the reasons why he started becoming less and less popular, right? But one of the things that's 2026 was, I think it's also really important to understand, is the 2026 uprisings were led by youth who I believe, I dare to say, didn't have, the full understanding, the political understanding of our political histories in that way. And there's this, like, disconnect in terms of, like… it's hard for me to bridge the 100 years of left in Nepal [00:28:00] and like, you know, this youth uprising that's happening in Nepal that has no connection because it's not an organized group, right? It's very decentralized. Right. It happened on Discord. And that is one of the big questions we have now is, like, how do we as young people, the young people who led this uprisings, how do they stay organized, right? And that is a big question we still don't, we don't have answers to, right? The movement histories and, you know, the last 20 years has been very traumatizing, but there's also so many lessons and so many beautiful things that happened during the organizing, right? So how do we make those connections? How do we ask those questions? How do we talk to this feminist group? How do we talk to, like, workers, right? We need to figure that out. And I think one of the big things, like Sharmin talked about too, is like the student protest student movements were a big part of how we got liberation in Nepal, and the student movements are like directly connected to political parties because they have the student wing. But that also doesn't mean they are not organized. Yes, they were organized, and they really figured it out, but they have gotten corrupt. There's goons there, there's only men there. [00:29:00] And, like, how do we really ask those questions as a movement now and start building on some of our social movement histories? And that is a big question. And I haven't heard anything, and I'm very curious what's gonna happen on that, and I've been sitting with that a lot, too. Cayden: Yeah. No, I, I mean, I feel like thinking about the challenges in remembering and then sometimes, like, having movement history misremembered to us by people with motivations. I can see how in that way for these young people who are getting organized, who are, like, trying to figure out what they want from the government in the future . there's some real, delicate territory for them to negotiate around, like, understanding themselves in a lot of ways as political and historic actors, which is really interesting. Swati Rayasam: You are tuned in to Apex Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org. Cayden: One of the other trends that [00:30:00] I would love to talk about is this, sort Western media trend where, an uprising happens somewhere, a protest movement happens somewhere, and they're like, “Oh, there's an interim government. Great.” And then, like, in the US, we don't hear anymore the establishment of interim government is, first of all, deeply informed by the social movements and social forces that are already moving on the ground and also glosses over the way politics is done in a particular place. I'm wondering if there's stuff that you've noticed that has really been lost from the international media discourse about the politics of both Bangladesh and Nepal since the sort of student uprising moment. And if there's stuff that you've been seeing in the like, interim government moments that you're like, “Oh, this is something to watch out for.” Like, “This is something that we can draw some lessons from.” Sharmin: Yeah. Well, in Bangladesh we had a United States favorite Nobel Laureate, you know, Muhammad Yunus- Mm-hmm as our interim government. And, and I think what's so fascinating is that, you know, he is the world's sweetheart because he created [00:31:00] this, like, you know, microfinancing program that is, a program that they say, you know, empowers the poor people. And, we know that in practice it actually did not reverse poverty, and it actually left millions of people in more debt, than, they or- originally were projected to gain. And so I think what's very fascinating about having such a pro-capitalist, figure that is, a sweetheart of empire, it spoke to his legacy in office, you know? During his time, he also signed one of the most devastating US-Bangladesh trade agreements with Trump- Hmm … which actually, further isolates China from the Bangladeshi trade market and, forces Bangladesh to do all of our trade deals with the US. And it's a non-binding agreement. And so it is, deeply unlawful and also devastating to the economy of this area of Southeast Asia that actually needs China as, an ally, as a country that has, contributed a lot to the development of [00:32:00] our, transportation systems and, so for us it- it's also about how much of this interim government was, you know, representing the interests of the global elite and what he was willing to do to be able to s- to, to squash, revolutionary energy within the country. The Women's Commission was one of the most powerful consolidation of feminist leaders under the interim government that were looking to reform land laws for women. And similar to what, Samir was saying, right? Women's rights just are the first thing that these governments throw under the bus and that- women's commission report that was looking to really examine land laws and inheritance laws and and the rights of women economically like actually triggered one of the largest anti-feminist rallies in the country's history- Wow … where millions, millions of Jamaat-e-Islami men and their supporters took the streets in [00:33:00] protest of women having rights. And that was something you did not see the Western media touch, even- Cayden: No … Sharmin: even though the Western media was, like, so excited for this revolution, right? You know, on the ground too, you have those people that are like, “This is a CIA-backed, like, uprising,” right? And then on the ground you see, like, oh yeah, people actually don't want to touch the complexities of this country because it is layered within, like, religious nationalisms- Mm-hmm ethnic nationalisms, and caste. And so in my experience, I would just say that people know very little of the political forces within this, greater West Asian political landscape and how it connects to US imperialism here and abroad, you know? Pakistan was once the CIA's closest ally in the Cold War, and they continue to be during the war on terror right now, right? Mm-hmm. The United States provided Pakistan with military, diplomatic, and economic support because a [00:34:00] pro-US military dictatorship in this region that was a staunch anti-communist ally created a buffer between the axis of the USSR, China. Cayden: Hmm. Sharmin: And then I'll say at the same time, on the ground, there were dozens of reports of mobs that were attacking temples and Hindu leaders. Hindus are a minority in Bangladesh that have been historically, marginalized, and these contradictions were, were getting highlighted, right? Because that violence was eerily similar, right? The partition of South Asia- Yeah … Cayden: excluded Sharmin: Hindu-Muslim communalism, and there were tensions and divides that fell across class lines. And for Western and, hegemonic media outlets, this looked like, oh, the Muslims are attacking the Hindus again. Samir: Right. Sharmin: And so for me, like, the being able to reckon Islamophobia, communal violence, identity and class politics, but also the way nationalism operates in South Asia, it, it's a tricky dance [00:35:00] And I've been learning how to really convey this complex history because the country's, uh like, beautiful history of, like, using guerrilla warfare to defeat US-backed forces in the region, it also represents something different from its neighbors, India and Pakistan. Mm-hmm. And within that, you know, we have Bangladesh joining the PLO in Lebanon to fight on behalf of Palestinian liberation. We have the fact that the country's actually i- inception was based on a socialist vision, right? And it's now one of the fastest-growing economies in the world with the fast fashion garment industry that's also ravaged by climate crisis and mass displacement. And so for me, it always just comes back to anti-war and anti-imperialism, like all the nodes of my brain, because I'm like, “Here's this US global death-making machine and this defense industry that sells tear gas shells to my country and [00:36:00] sells Israeli surveillance technology to my country.” And then there's this Bangladesh trade agreement that Trump was able to wager during this vulnerable moment for our country and it's at the core of all the political and economic violence within my country. And so the neoliberalization of our campuses and what these students are facing is because of the war economy. And so, so I just, like, zoom out in those moments, and I'm like, “Oh, this, this feels very much so like Cold War politics and the aftermath.” Cayden: Yeah, like the politics of the Cold War have just simply never left us. Like, they're still here, and it's like we've sort of swapped in China as the big bad in a lot of ways. Sharmin: Right. Cayden: Samir, I wonder if there's, stuff that you've been seeing about the interim government in Nepal that you think are worth our sort of examination as kind of like lessons that we can draw from what happens after the protest, and yeah, like how that has been part of the electoral moment also we're in in Nepal right now. Samir: Yeah, [00:37:00] well, the interim government was, what was it, about five months. I think we didn't really see a lot of work that happened from the interim government, but obviously one of the big wins of the interim government was they were successfully able to hold elections. And the Western media has only focused on Balen Saha, this, quote-unquote, “rapper,” this charismatic guy who is gonna, who's 35 years old and is gonna lead. And then like Sushila Karki, I mean, one of the big things that everybody is like, “Oh, she's the first woman prime minister of Nepal, and what does that mean for us?” And, you know, this identity politics of like, “Oh, we finally got a woman president.” And for us it's like when we talk about it, that's the only thing we see in the discourse. But the reality is she was also a woman prime minister in an interim government that she knew was gonna last for six months, right? And also one of the things that a lot of people don't think about and realize is like the youth really didn't know who she was. And I think that's one of the big things that Sarmin talked about too, is like how do our youth have the consciousness? And do we have a left, social movement left, that's actually supporting them to really understand, you know, the conditions [00:38:00] of our people and who we're electing and, like, how we're organizing and what that means for us, right? But one of the big popularities about her was, like, she was not a career, jurist as she was appointed, was a lawyer that was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009 by the Judicial Council, and she had this reputation of pushing back against some of the political parties and some of the establishments in that time. So that was, like, one of the big things that really lured our folks, there was this one interview of her that went really viral about how she talks about, you know, establishment parties and how she challenged, some of the status quo while she was… Because a lot of times what happens with some of these appointments are people who are loyal to the to the parties, right? That was the one big thing that really attracted a lot of our young folks, to mobilize around her being the prime minister. And it's just, like, a lot of unknowns around, like, we still don't know because with the older parties, it was very clear to us that the Communist Party was, like, more loyal to China, right? And the Congress party was more loyal to India. And then one of the things a lot that we don't see in the discourse even in left spaces, right? Even [00:39:00] in, like, media spaces is, more than US imperialism, India and China is also waging some form of imperialism in our homelands, right? And that we don't wanna name that layer because in the US, as, us being in the belly of the beast, our only responsibility is to fight US imperialism. And then for me, as somebody from the Global South, I understand that how that impacts our movement and how that is dangerous and harmful to our people in our, back in our homeland. Because China and India are bullying Nepal in a lot of different ways politically, right? Because nothing happens in Nepal without the consent of India and China, right? And India obviously has more power, and they're, like, fighting over that power in Nepal right now. And the other thing that I wanted to name is, I was hoping K.P. Oli, during our interim prime ministership, during that interim government, would be held accountable, which didn't happen. And we're not talking about that, right? And also she [Karki] had a lot of limitations, and we still are figuring out what, like, what kind of power she held, right? But the hope was for me was, like, that she would hold the people who were responsible for our people's deaths accountable during the six months she was there, which [00:40:00] really didn't happen and really moved. And that's one of the things that hasn't been talked about, and I think that was a big political opportunity for her to do some of that work to push K.P. Oli out of power because he, after doing all of this, was still able to contest the elections and lost really badly. But one of the things for me, the inspiration was, like, how Sheikh Hasina was pushed out of the country, right? Like, that was one of the hopes and dreams, and that didn't really happen, during this interim government. Cayden: Hmm. That's interesting that there's, like, a possibility that he might be back. Well, I wanna turn a little bit to thinking about this history that's been unfolding and, like, what it is like to be observing, talking to comrades and loved ones as an organizer who's based here in the US as part of your diasporic community. One of the things I think a lot about is, like- When we talk about solidarity with people's movements internationally in the US, sometimes we forget that, like, people from those diasporas are our comrades. They are here. And that we have a lot to, [00:41:00] like, learn from them. What has it been like watching the sort of, like, social movements in Bangladesh and Nepal respectively, and what has it been like to have that consciousness as an organizer here in the US dealing with all of the political stuff that we've been dealing with here? Samir: I love that you asked that question, Cayden, and also, like, yes, I just wanna start with, like, this layer of like, oh, yes, we have comrades here who are from these diasporic communities who actually can inform us in this. And to add another layer to that, even with, with my, you know, my history of being born and raised in Nepal and, like, being connected to our movements there and, like, living here for the last 20 years now, right? That also creates another layer where I don't have access to everything, and that also creates a layer of, like, that I don't have to know everything, right? And I wish our left- Mm-hmm … Western left understood that layer sometimes because – In our movements, I'm gonna go be a little– I'm gonna little shit about our movements here, you know? Because one of the things that happens is, like, the romanticization of what's going on in our homelands without understanding, and this idea- Mm-hmm of, like-like, we have to know the answers to every… It's okay to not have answers. I think that's a big thing that I reflect on a lot as somebody here, [00:42:00] right? And also, the reality is I have access to my father, who is, for me, the only revolutionary that I know who was part of, like, social movements and who, like, really spent his whole life to the movement and is now still doing things after being betrayed by his party, right? So I think that's one of the big things. I think it's okay to know that. I think the second thing for me as somebody in the diaspora, it's my role in the diaspora. It's also what is my role in the diaspora to inform my comrades. If you're an upper-caste person, it is your responsibility to name that in the movement spaces that you hold and name that layer- Mm … and inform people about that layer. I think about that a lot. I sit up, I sit with that and reflect on that a lot, and that really informs the way I show up as somebody in the diaspora. And my responsibility, one of the things that we saw when all of this was happening you know, the movements, the social movement left was so fast, got into this train of, like, it's a Color Revolution [i.e., the revolution is backed by the US government/is a US-led intervention], as if our peoples don't have the capacity to organize. Yes, there was infiltrations. Yes, India was involved. But yes, there was also uprising where 70 people died, right? So just, bringing it down to, like, it's not really being complex and, like, [00:43:00] being nuance about that. And that really is harmful to our people back home, right? Because that, in that, when we're doing that, we're taking away, like, access from our people in terms of, like, how they are doing things. And also, like, really, I think invalidating the fact that our, the governments that was being oppressing against the uprisings are oppressive. So that just, like, invisibilizes, uh, what the state is doing, right? Because it is a Color Revolution, you know. The, it is not led by the people. We're, there was even sign, things like they said, like, “Oh, there were signs in English.” Like, can you just think about, you know, the, the orientalist, uh, you know- Cayden: Yeah … Samir: orientalist way that you are thinking even as somebody who considers yourself a social movement left. So that's, I think, one my, that, for me, that is a big responsibility. And- And that is where I can also make an impact as somebody in the diaspora. I am not on the ground, that is the reality of it, and knowing where I can make impact and how I can make impact, and knowing very clearly that I don't have all the answers, and I'm not– I'm an outsider in so many… I go back home every time I go home for a couple of months, the way I show up in these movement spaces [00:44:00] is I'm here to listen and I'm an outsider, and I'm trying to figure out how I can support you, right? And that is, for me, a role as a diasporic person, and I'm very clear on that. And I think it's also because I have access to my dad who grounds me in that, and it's like- Mm-hmm “Samir, you don't live here anymore.” He will remind me very clearly. He's like, “You don't live here anymore.” And you need to understand that, and that's okay.” And he will ground me in that, and that really helps me in terms of thinking of how I wanna show up as a diasporic person. Cayden: Yeah. No, that's, that's really helpful, and I think that, like, this thing that you're describing about the sort of like in some ways, like, healthy, but in other ways sort of, like, overblown skepticism that US observers can have about uprisings, revolutions in other countries just because, like… The, the word that came to mind as you were describing it was, like, infantilizing, right? That it's, like, as if people can't independently form their own political opinions without the intervention of the, like, global superpower is just sort of, like, baffling to me. You hit on something that, like, I think about a lot [00:45:00] also as somebody who is, like, a generation removed from the immigrant generation in my family. I don't have a ton of relationships with my family who are in Hong Kong and China, but, like, how do I, like how do I relate to that? It's very challenging, and it's- and I, I think that there's so much in, like, US like left social movement discourse that I'm just kind of like, “I actually don't know how to relate to this as a diasporic person sometimes.” Sharmin, I'm also interested to hear from you on this. Sharmin: Yeah. Yeah, similarly, I feel, I feel like there is this, like, uh, relationality that it's pushing people that are here to really think about more clearly. I feel like some of the early '70s through the '90s was a very, like, symbolic type of solidarity that we had- Mm-hmm where, where, you know, we would do the cultural attire, the cultural associations, you know, the melas, which are, like, big fairs that we have in these hubs of, like, immigrant communities. And now I think the politics are coming back. Like, I think after the July uprising, [00:46:00] you actually saw solidarity actions popping up across hubs in, you know, New York and California where people were like, “Actually, this impacts me and I wanna talk about what this means. I wanna talk about the cultural and political organizations that run this local community.” And one thing that I really took back from the last two visits to Bangladesh is really learning the skills of talking to somebody who disagrees with me because- Cayden: Hmm … Sharmin: I think in the United States the left does not practice, being able to engage, talk, even, like, be in relationship with people that might be politically opposed to you. And so when I go to Bangladesh, I'm actually surrounded by a lot of homophobes. I'm surrounded by a lot of men who, like, support the Awami League, and I've had to kind of, like, sit in this in between of being like, “Oh, yeah, like, I actually have to learn how to debate better. I have to learn how to, like, you know, be that person that's, like, holding humanity but also holding the, the critical left analysis that I, I believed in to be right because I [00:47:00] know I'm right.” Right? And I know that, like, this is a hill that's worth dying on. And I think with Mamdani's win in, in New York, like, there's so many examples of how that, like, South Asian left politic that's actually talking about class exists- Mm-hmm. Cayden: Yeah … Sharmin: within the geography of our communities. And, you know, especially for, you know, Samir and I are, like, the minority South Asians, so we're not the Indian upper caste. And so for us, we're like, “This has always been the reality of our people.” They are working-class organizers. They're people who know how to talk about the intricacies of domestic labor, about the unorganized labor forces, about the people that are left out of the political agenda of our government. And so for me, like, I really take some of the lessons that DRUM [ Desis Rising Up and Moving] is doing on the ground in New York around what it means to actually build a member base that's rooted in relationship, but also towards a North Star. And that North Star, it looks a little socialist. It looks a little working class. It looks [00:48:00] very deeply rooted in a feminist, anti-oppressive politic. And I think for someone in diaspora, that's been the biggest growth area for me, where I'm like, “How do I hold this vision and not lose hope that my people are not, like, all right-wing people that are out to, like, you know, destroy me and my people?” But we are in this center-right populous moment that will require us to do cultural shift. It will require us to do that, like, slow work of tilling the land, like Ella Baker spade work. And you know, a comrade of mine, Nafiz, who's a brilliant writer at Jamhor, when I was talking to him about processing the February elections, he was just like, “You know, I actually think, like, I'm seeing a lot of possibility right now because I saw what happened to Egypt after Tahrir Square, and I saw where Egypt went and what a military dictatorship did to that country.” And he was like, “And Bangladesh, that's not what happened to us.” And, and he was like, “And this is important for us to really reckon with how… Not to [00:49:00] say, like, ‘Oh, it could be so much more worse,' but it could be so much more worse.” And we have to work within these, like, terrains in a way that's, like, really reckoning with why are people wanting to find comfort in these right-wing religious social groups, because they are the only organized groups of people that are providing shelter and food. And so unless the left fills that gap, we are gonna see right-wing populism, and we've seen it within white supremacy here, but it translates to every Global South country, from Brazil to, you know, um, obviously South Asia. And so yeah, I just am trying to be more, like, relative in that way, where I'm like- Cayden: Hmm Sharmin: “Oh, we're a lot more relative than we think we are.” Cayden: Yeah. That is such a good insight about, like, having to context switch Across geography, across political context, like builds a, like a really important muscle for us as organizers. This has been an absolutely fantastic [00:50:00] conversation and I've learned so much from both of you. My one sort of like, well I have two outgoing questions and they're sort of related to one another. One is thinking about like as a monolingual English speaker, as somebody who's like in the US, I think one of the things that I've often felt a challenge around is like where do I look to for news, for updates, and for analysis about what's going on in the Global South, especially for places where I have no cultural or language connection. And like when you're assessing news and information that's coming out about movement politics. What do you consider, what do you think about, what are the questions you ask yourself when you're like seeing headlines, kinda day-to-day that you think would be useful for other folks to start thinking about? Sharmin: Yeah. I, I really think about, like, multiple nationalisms right now, that there's, like, these competing forces of, like, who gets to tell the story. And I always, like to think about, like, how, uh, US [00:51:00] interests, Chinese interests, or even, like, Indian interests are determining the news landscape right now. And I don't like to think about it, but I, I've been looking at so much coverage that feels very much like, yikes, like what is going on, with our, like, news ecosystem? And unfortunately, I think we need to get back on Facebook. Like, I think that the fact that- … progressives and the left have left Facebook, like, I get it. Fuck Meta, and Facebook is the main place for so much like organizing. And we- Cayden: Contest every space. Sharmin: Get back on Facebook. Who cares if there are right-wing trolls on it? You we have to create alternative like information systems that are, like, really amplifying to these networks and groups of people that are getting inundated with that information. And I think we're really lucky because there's a lot of leftist South Asian publications now, Himal South Asian, Jumphore, you could become Patreon supporter and really be a part of these legacy, South Asian [00:52:00] left, thinkers that are actually thinking about, like, the long-term arc, and they, they're contending with socialism. They're contending with the communist, like, legacies of our organizations. And so, I just really appreciate that they're doing political analysis with politics and not just focusing on, like, symbolic forms of, like, political analysis. So shout-out to them and, and their hard work because yeah, they, they're English media that is getting translated for this day and age, you know? Cayden: Yeah. I… It was really exciting to me to, like, do a lot of the sort of, like, background for this conversation and find, like, English language movement media coming out of South Asia. I was like, “This is so exciting.” Like, this is… I feel like in some ways the thing that they're trying to do is, like they're kind of our comrades- Mm-hmm in a sense, right? Like, they're trying to do a similar thing to the thing that we're trying to do at Convergence, and I was like, “Ooh, this is really cool. Like, I'm bookmarking this.” Yeah. So I don't know. Samir, do you have, do you have other thoughts about, like, what things [00:53:00] US people should be thinking about as they're kind of assessing news and developments? Samir: Yeah, big ups Himal Magazine. I think that is a big source of information for me too. And also as somebody who struggles with reading Nepali now, which I'm very embarrassed of it's really hard for me to get access. to. I have to sit with my dad to, like, really go through some of the news articles, which, you know, my dad gracefully agrees. Uh, I think one of the big things is, like, I do benefit a lot from his free labor. I'll just name that on this podcast. But I think, and one of the things I would say is like- Thanks, Cayden: dad … Samir: really, like, figuring out, like, I don't know, like, pushing through the binary of, like, what US imperialism means for Nepal and what also there's, there could be other forms of imperialism that I named earlier, that Sharmin named too. And also right now, I think there's a lot of unknowns for us too, right? We have this party that was not part of the political establishment that came into picture in 2024. So we are still grappling with the idea of, like, what does this mean for us? Who are they gonna be loyal to, and how does, what does this mean for geopolitics in Nepal, right? So we are still sitting with that question. And there is some clarity around, I think one of the things I would say is there's a [00:54:00] lot of excitement, even in diaspora community, and my role in the diaspora also has been talking to some of my friends who are stoked about this prime minister right now because we haven't built a left that is informing them of the nuances and, like, how we can actually figure out the critique of this person, right? Because for me, I think it's really important the social movement left to understand because even my friend, my comrades are sending me, “Oh, this rapper is a prime minister now.” It's somebody that I trust a lot, right? Yeah. And I have to do the work of like, “Hey, this person has this history of governing in this way when he became the mayor of Kathmandu, where he was against poor people,” right? He did some changes, structural changes that helped, upper middle class people. And using that as a way to, like, really assess what he's gonna do for Nepal, and I'm actually skeptical, right? He is somebody from the Madhesi movement, which is a indigenous group that is very marginalized in Nepal, but he also comes from a very upper class background, right? And that's also real. We have to name that. His party's ideology is to push us away from federalism in some sense, right? And also the reality is they had a majority, they won a majority because we didn't have a social movement left outside of political parties that would help us assess him, right? [00:55:00] So that's, I think that's the question. Those are some of the questions I would love people to ask, because I am asking those questions as somebody who is from Nepal and from the diaspora, and I check myself every time. And yeah, I will end it with, like, it's okay to not have all the answers, and just, yeah, do some of that work of, like, reflecting on, like, asking yourself how you are taking in some of the information that you're seeing. And obviously, Himal Magazine is a big source, and one of the Substacks that I would highly recommend too is, I think we could put it in the links later, it's called Kalam Weekly, which is on Substack. I have some critiques of their writing too, but that's really been helping me understand what's going on in Nepal right now. Cayden: You both have been so incredibly generous with your time, and this has been such a rich conversation. I don't know if there are places also where if our listeners want to follow your work, I don't know, if there's organizations or places where you are publishing thoughts, either your own or organizationally that you wanna share. Sharmin, is there any place people can find you online? Sharmin: Yeah, for sure. We're building the Asian American left at 18 Million Rising, so you could follow us there, and I'm @sharminultra [00:56:00] on all social media. Cayden: And Samir, is there a place people can find you? Samir: Uh, yeah, I am a very quiet person. Uh, but direct action has been a big part of our struggles in the last few years, and we are really thinking about, like, how we can escalate strategically, so I am part of a network of direct action trainers called the Ruckus Society. Hit us up. We do trainings, go to our website, request a training if you need any direct action support. We love nerding out on action design and thinking about action curriculum and how we train our people to do action safely. And follow Ruckus Society, and I don't really have a social that's public, so… Cayden: that's so fair. I respect your choice not to be perceived. Samir: I mean, also, I'm not Sharmin, I feel I learn from her so much, from Sharmin, so I just wanna name that, and also just from how I- And Sharmin: we're friends. Like, we, we've done direct actions together. Like, we've been arrested together. Like- Cayden: Yeah. … Sharmin: we're comrades, so it's just so fun to be able to talk about this- Well, I really- Cayden: Yeah … Yeah. Thanks again, Sharmin, Samir. Absolutely a pleasure to talk, and I'm, I'm sure we'll talk again soon. Sharmin: Talk soon. [00:57:00] Thank you, guys. Samir:

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Dr. Noonas Prescription Service

The Word Café Podcast with Amax

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2026 57:40

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? Technically, no, but if it's K-Drama woes that ail you, we have the remedy with Dr. Noonas Prescription Service. We asked listeners to write in with their drama related ailments so we could prescribe the perfect medicine. Whether it's a light and fluffy romcom you can watch with the kiddos or a thoughtful drama to help you through hard times, the doctors are at your service. And if you're bummed you missed out on getting your prescription filled, have no fear! The doctors will be back with future segments. All you have to do is fill out THIS FORM to let us know what you need! Also, if you want to see the sport Lia spent a year playing, here's a look at Underwater Hockey. Ready to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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S5 Ep. 291 Breaking The Cycle Of Afrophobia In Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2026 20:07 Transcription Available

Send us Fan MailHate can feel natural when you grow up around it, but that's the lie we challenge today. We're looking straight at xenophobia and afrophobia in Africa and asking the question most people avoid: if we keep repeating the same cycle, what kind of future are we building for the next generation? This conversation is candid, emotional, and rooted in a clear belief that hate is learned, which means it can also be unlearned. We walk through a timeline of major anti-foreigner incidents across Africa, including Ghana's 1969 Aliens Compliance Order, Uganda's 1972 expulsion of Asians, Nigeria's mass expulsions in the 1980s, and the political identity battles that shaped Côte d'Ivoire. From there, we zoom in on post-apartheid South Africa and the repeated waves of xenophobic violence, from early attacks in the late 1990s to the horrific 2008 outbreak, later eruptions in 2015, tensions targeting Nigerian-owned businesses, and the rise of Operation Dudula-style anti-migrant campaigns. Along the way we ask what these patterns reveal about power, economics, scapegoating, and the stories people are taught to believe about “outsiders.” But this isn't just history. We connect it to everyday choices, including how quickly resentment shows up in something as simple as football support, and we wrestle with the cost of revenge logic. If “an eye for an eye” leaves everyone blind, what does it look like to be the better person in the room, to reach out, and to refuse the self-destruct button? If you care about African unity, immigration, social cohesion, and breaking cycles of violence, listen through to the end and share this with someone who needs it. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what you think is the first step to stopping this pattern.Support the showYou can support this show via the link below;https://www.buzzsprout.com/1718587/supporters/new

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World Cup Vibes

miseducAsian Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2026 37:08

In this episode, the three of us catch up on:All things World Cup, the incredible vibes from all around, but especially from Korean and Mexican fans, and some history on Asians in Mexico (0:24)Is this the Asian in sports golden age? (9:00)A trip to Asia, Jazz Fest, a month in Mexico, and other recent happenings (17:38)Why we love sports (31:59)

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Keiko Shimosato Carreiro of the San Francisco Mime Troupe (S8E21)

Storied: San Francisco

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2026 30:12

Keiko Shimosato Carreiro was born in the Bay Area … the Boston Bay Area. In Part 1 of this episode, meet Keiko. Today, she's a longtime member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe collective. But her story goes back to her parents' migration to the US from Japan after World War II. Keiko's dad got a Fulbright scholarship to come to this country. He studied medicine. Her mom came to visit the US for one year, but in that time, met Keiko's dad at a Japan Society picnic in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two weeks after they met, her dad proposed, and roughly a year later, they had their first child—Keiko, named thusly because she was conceived on Cape Cod. Because her dad was doing his residency in Boston, Keiko was born in Cambridge, just across the Charles River. She spent the first 15 years of her life in the Boston area, frequently going to protests of the war in Vietnam with her parents. Keiko also attended "Burn Your Bra" rallies in Harvard Square. Her family comprised the only Asians in Lexington, where they lived. Keiko and her sister were the only Japanese school kids in the district. Perhaps because of that dubious distinction, reporters approached Keiko when she was very young to ask her what she thought of the US war in Vietnam. On the other hand, there were white Americans who welcomed Keiko and her family. Her mom had a sponsor, an American woman who had been a journalist in Japan during WWII. And her dad came here on a Fulbright scholarship, after all. Both had plans to return to their home country, but meeting and considering that Japan was still something of a war-torn country, they decided to settle in Massachusetts. Before they knew it, they had three daughters. We shift the conversation to talk about Keiko and her sisters and their sibling relationships. Keiko sees the demands from her parents on her, as the oldest child, being the highest. Going younger in age among her sisters, the demands lessen. I know this all too well, being the youngest of three boys myself. Keiko and her youngest sister didn't get along when they were young. Maybe it was the seven-year gap in age. But through the experience of Keiko caring for her aging and dying parents, and then losing their middle sister after their parents' passing, the two became and remain close as adults. Midway through her time in high school, Keiko's dad moved his family from the Boston area to Iowa. There was a job opportunity there, but the main reason to leave went back to racism. Her dad didn't feel that he was appreciated at the Boston area hospital where he worked. Going from afternoons in Harvard Square to her parents' new house amid corn fields and barns was a shock, to put it mildly. Keiko also had to say goodbye to her boyfriend back home, which, at 15, was of course devastating. In her new city, the only place Keiko felt comfortable and welcomed was in high school band. She'd been playing flute for some time and wanted to go on to study music in college. There were no Asian grocery stores in Iowa City at the time. Keiko's parents helped to open the first of those. Later, folks from Vietnam, Korea, and some Southeast Asian countries arrived. And when they got there, there were food shopping options available to them. Keiko graduated high school a year early and went to the University of Iowa. Fueled by a desire to escape a cruel world in school, she also started taking college-level courses before graduating high school. The university gave Keiko a full music scholarship to study there, in fact. For fun, she took an acting class amid her music studies at UI. That acting class flipped a switch for Keiko. It felt more like what she wanted to do, more than music did. Eventually, she changed her major to interdisciplinary arts, which freed her up to take classes like dance and creative writing. I take us on a sidebar here, mentioning that I believe it's more important to find something you enjoy doing than it is being quote/unquote good at it. Then Keiko shares the story of how she transported herself from the corn fields of Iowa to the best city in the world—San Francisco. It involves a theater company in Canada. Keiko had married her clown teacher while still in college. He was Canadian, and the theater company called for him. But he wasn't home and so they asked about her. They told her they didn't like to separate couples, so they invited both of them to join. Keiko and her now-ex met this horse-drawn theater company in the middle of its tour (where else?) in California. For the next year-and-a-half, she and her husband traveled with this theater company doing shows of a political nature, mostly around climate issues. That caravan stage company ended up staying in the Bay Area. For Keiko, the thought of returning to Iowa to finish her master's program, especially in the winter, was not attractive at all. She got a job here as an actor in a children's theater company and decided to stay in The City. In 1986, the San Francisco Mime Troupe held auditions for The Dragon Lady's Revenge. Keiko tried out and joined the collective that year. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of our SF Mime Troupe episode. In it, you'll meet Keiko's friend and fellow collective member Michael Gene Sullivan. We recorded this podcast at the SF Mime Troupe studio in the The Mission in June 2026. Photography by Marcella Sanchez

Episode 514: Feelings and Emotions

New Books in American Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2026 59:55

This week on Asians in Baseball, we get deep into the feels! 2:23 - All Star Game voting update: Ohtani is a shoo-in, but Kazuma Okamoto is the only other Asian who makes it to the second round?!?! Be sure to vote until this Thursday 7/2 at 12pm ET! 13:25 - In position player news, Tommy Pham signs with the Phillies which can't end well, the Asians on the Red Sox are contributing to their upswing, and Hao Yu Lee has been hot at the plate for the Tigers and has lunch with his new bestie Kai Wei Teng. 26:04 - Ohtani keeps crushing the ball and manages to stay dominant on the mound, despite communication issues with his catcher.34:19 - Kodai Senga is sent to the bullpen where he pitches more innings in relief than as a starter, Detroit has Kai Wei Teng's number but Tatsuya Imai has back to back double digit strikeout starts, Joey Cantillo could use a little help from the offense, and Brennan Bernadino and Orion Kerkering have been lights out. 44:00 - HOT TOPIC: Is there crying in baseball? (Yes.)

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Ranita Ray, "Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

New Books Network

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2026 47:11

A powerful exposé of the American public education system's indifference toward marginalized children and the "slow violence" that fashions schools into hostile work and learning environments.In 2017, sociologist Ranita Ray stepped inside a fourth-grade classroom in one of the nation's largest majority-minority districts in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was there to conduct research on the lack of resources and budget cuts that regularly face public schools. However, a few months into her immersion, a disturbed Ray recognized that that greatest impediment to students was the “slow violence” that preys on their minds, bodies, and spirits at the hands of teachers and administrators who are charged with their care.Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom (St. Martin's Press, 2025) lays bare the routine indifference, racism, and verbal and emotional abuse and harassment that teachers and administrators perpetrate routinely against the most vulnerable children in our schools. We meet Nazli, a bright, funny Black girl, and math wiz, who loses her baby brother, and is told that “grit” will enable her to rise above her grief. Reggie is a devoted student and curious scholar, but his path to success is derailed when teachers fashion him as a predator after they find him looking at two inappropriate photos on his iPad. There's Nalin, a shy and determined Filipina who has just arrived in the US, but is ignored based on her educator's assumption that “Asians” are “good at math.” Her entire journey through school is darkened by this stereotype. And there's Miguel, a sharp, distracted Latino boy who can't overcome his teachers' urge to incorrectly diagnose him with autism.Bolstered by an empathetic and passionate voice as well as the latest breaking research in the social sciences, Ray goes beyond timeworn discussions about the school-to-prison pipeline, funding, and achievement gaps to directly address what happens behind the closed doors of classrooms, introducing a compelling—and crucial—new perspective into the conversation about our education system.In the warm, luminous spirit of character-driven books like Invisible Child, Slow Violence allows us to see that the way we've tried to make a start in education reform is wrong. To forge new approaches that foster young minds and flourishing generations we have to start with how children experience the classroom. Unflinchingly, Slow Violence tells us—and shows us where to begin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

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Ranita Ray, "Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

New Books in Sociology

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2026 47:11

american black las vegas press nevada truths ipads latino confronting asians st martin filipina bolstered nalin invisible child nazli slow violence american classroom

Ranita Ray, "Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2026 47:11

american black las vegas press nevada truths ipads latino confronting asians st martin filipina bolstered nalin invisible child nazli slow violence american classroom

Ranita Ray, "Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

New Books in Education

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2026 49:11

american black las vegas press nevada truths ipads latino confronting asians st martin filipina bolstered nalin invisible child nazli slow violence american classroom

Ranita Ray, "Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

New Books in Politics

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2026 47:11

american black las vegas press nevada truths ipads latino confronting asians st martin filipina bolstered nalin invisible child nazli slow violence american classroom

APEX Express – 6.25.26 – Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2026 59:57

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Host Miko Lee checks in with Dr. Robyn Rodriguez and we get to check out her podcast Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks. SHOW TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:00:34] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee, and tonight I'm so excited to talk to my lovely colleague, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez. Robyn is such a powerful leader. She's often called the people's professor. She was a professor of Asian studies at UC Davis, and now runs the Reimagination Lab. She has created a farm that is a collective action space, and she is really thinking about new ways to reimagine our world. I'm so excited for you to learn more about Dr. Robyn and you're gonna get to hear from her new podcast, which is called appropriately, Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks. And I just love this, 'cause spitting fire is this term for women that can speak out and share their stories, and Robyn has so much to tell. So I'm gonna interview her, and then you're gonna get to listen to her new podcast, Spitting Fire. Thanks so much for joining us on Apex Express. [00:01:36] Welcome back Dr. Robyn Rodriguez to Apex Express. [00:01:41] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Oh, thank you so much for having me. [00:01:44] Miko Lee: I'm so happy to have you with us once again. And I have asked you this before, but sometimes things change in the amount of years we've spoken to each other. So I'm gonna ask again, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:02:00] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, who are my people? I think about folks of color broadly as my people. Whenever I refer to my people, I really do think about those of us who share intertwined and yet also distinct histories of colonization, empire, War, Violence. I think of all of us who've descend from peoples who've survived, fought back thrived, in spite of all that as my people and the legacy I hope to leave is lessons on continuing to not just dismantle the systems that caused harm on our ancestors and continue to cause harm for us now, but to offer also lessons on liberation and what it can look like and feel like so that we can continue to not just again, dismantle, but also build out the worlds we want. [00:03:15] Miko Lee: Speaking of lessons, you have a brand new podcast series called Spitting Fire Doc. Robyn Speaks, and I wonder if you can talk to me about how this podcast came to be. [00:03:27] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : You're gonna laugh. Well, there are a couple of things I think that lead to the podcast. I've always wanted to do a podcast. I did college radio when I was an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara. I had a co-host for a show called WAR Women in the Act of Resistance, and we used to love to always say, we declare war on. [00:03:53] Miko Lee: I love that. [00:03:53] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Whatever it is that we, yeah, [00:03:58] Miko Lee: that's so good. [00:03:59] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I, I, yeah. So I, I love doing college radio and have always, you know, people would joke or I don't know if it was a joke, but compliment me on having a kind of good radio voice. I don't know how true that is. [00:04:16] Miko Lee: Very true, true. [00:04:16] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : But I've always had a, an interest in, podcasting as a platform. I think in general I prefer the long form platform. I prefer storytelling and, uh, there's something really powerful about podcasts is I think for me, really connected to radio programming. I don't see them, I guess, in very different ways. So I'd always wanted to do podcasts even when I was still teaching at, uc Davis, in Asian American Studies. I always thought podcasts are a really, really powerful way to share the knowledges of ethnic studies beyond the classroom. So I'd actually clipped on a recorder while I was lecturing and had uploaded a bunch of a raw unedited audio to what used to be iTunes University. So in some ways that might have been like the first podcast in a way. And then the funny thing about, uh, Spitting Fire it was kind of launched a little sooner than I was ready to be honest. I basically messed up on what was supposed to be a Zoom video. I don't know exactly what happened, but we only had audio and I thought, you know what? We're slapping that together, editing it and putting it out there, because I thought that the conversation that we had over Zoom was so, just really powerful and informative, and I didn't want to not have it circulate in the world. And so I've sort of tried to proceed in that way. I, I guess I see podcasting alongside YouTube videos and other long form and even just more written essays as the sets of long form digital media that I tend to prefer and also recognize as an educator that people learn in so many different ways. Some people are able to learn better, by listening closing their eyes and listening and are able to kind of absorb knowledge differently in that way. Others respond better to a kind of visual medium. Others like to read. And as an educator too, I feel like each of the mediums can be really effective in terms of conveying and transmitting knowledge. But again, I have a preference if I have to use digital media for the long form. I do worry that the sort of clipped, abbreviated, kind of versions of digital media that is social media, whether it's TikTok or Instagram and other sorts, or just, I don't know that they serve us in the way that, especially as an educator, that I [00:07:08] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. I'm wondering how you ended up selecting this lovely title. You went from WAR in college to Spitting Fire. Tell me about where this title comes from. [00:07:19] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : You know, I think it must have been a student, honestly, who had said, oh, look at Dr. Rob Spitting Fire after some talk. And I, I was sort of drawn to that. I think too, honestly, as an Asian American woman I think I was kind of playing a little bit with these stereotypes of Asian American women as kind of dragon ladies. And, but trying to kind of remake that in a way to kind of paint a picture of sort of fierce Asian American woman who is unafraid to speak truth to power. I think I've been feeling as and in my interactions with younger generations of women, I do feel as if younger Asian American women, and again, maybe it has to do with social media maybe the permanency of that. The circulation of media and how rapidly it spreads. Cancel culture. I feel that there is a kind of timidness that I'm encountering with younger Asian American women who are a little bit reluctant to speak up and speak out without really taking a moment to first compose themselves. Edit and then maybe post or share. And I guess I, I had hoped that image of spitting fire might conjure up a different way of being, as a kind of Asian American, woman, and activist, and organizer. And that's even why I think I was really drawn to just not over editing any of the content. You know, if there were was content that I could pull from other conversations I was having, that might have been like originally a Zoom for instance, but might you know, be conveyed better to somebody who Is more of a listener than a a watcher or a viewer that could invite, people or women in particular feeling like it's okay to not be perfect. It's okay to be able to stand by a thought and recognize that are the things that we, we say in a particular moment have history and context and need to be understood in that way. So it plays with that image of, I think the dragon lady, Asian American woman, dragon leader lady. And also, you know, I always talk about my middle name. It's such an important part of who I am and my identity, but my middle name, which I get from my mother. Was my mother's maiden name means to be angry in Filipino, and I've always loved it because it was actually a made up name. It was a name that my great-great-grandfather claimed for himself. Changing his name from De Los Reyes, which means of the kings to Magalit to be angry because he was a revolutionary against the Spanish. And I'm so fiercely proud of this revolutionary lineage that I hold. And I think in a way, Spitting Fire also reflects that lineage of ancestors who've never been afraid to stand up, speak out and again, speak truth to power. [00:10:54] Miko Lee: Ooh, that was such a lovely answer. I really appreciate reclaiming the dragon Lady is furious and powerful and a revolutionary figure. I think that's so lovely because usually we just think of the dragon lady as this evil villain, but dragons in Asian culture are creatures that are to be revered and are powerful and lucky too. [00:11:19] So, I so appreciate that. I really, I wonder, [00:11:21] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : you know, that too. [00:11:23] Miko Lee: I'm wondering, you, you said that you feel like young women are timid today and I was like deep sigh of that because I feel like still really now with, I don't know, I just, that's that. Um, do you find that in the students that you're working with now, that they're still Asian, young women are still being timid? [00:11:46] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I mean, honestly, I don't think that this is a uni. You know, this is certainly not true for all of the young women I encounter. No, that would be unfair, but I also feel as if the boldness that might be out there I feel is often highly curated. A lot of it is expressed through social media. And again, if we understand social media, the reality of Instagram is it's never so instant. There is a much time and effort put into filters, into kind of visualizations aimed to draw a more attention. Really careful framings, and accompanying captions. I mean, I, you know, even for posts, 'cause I think a lot of, I think political conversation and discourse is happening, I would say on Instagram, I've decided to opt out of TikTok. I know that's also a place, but that's all to say that I think that these become a kind of shield or crutch. And then I've found and often been surprised. When I meet people in person, such a disconnect between a persona and, how one actually moves in the world with other people. And, that's where I've seen some surprising timidness and caution. And it does worry me a bit. I mean, I, and 'cause I think that there are maybe competing notions. I think some people in my generation feel this generation to be very brave. And I'm not, you know, I hate to say this, I'm not a hundred percent certain that's true sometimes, at least in sometimes the young people that I've encountered. I think social media has. I guess I'm not convinced that social media is the modality or the mechanism by which change will happen. And we make change in our relationships with actual, kind of, with everyday people. With people. And in relation to the land and kind of the resources of the earth. And yeah, that's where I feel like that kind of boldness and bravery needs, you know, makes more lasting impact than the kind of illusory, fleeting, and very superficial for me trade and visuals and words over social media. So, yeah, I do, I do worry about it. I, I feel like I've seen it too often, a hesitance to speak up. [00:14:32] Miko Lee: This is so interesting. I just did an interview uh, with NAKASEC about the new study that they released on Asian American men and the Manosphere, and how more and more Asian American men are being persuaded by right wing media in the Manosphere. But I wonder about Asian American women as you bring this up. And I, I think back to that many years ago, that documentary film that. Slaying the dragon. Do you remember that from years past [00:14:58] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : that? Oh my gosh, yeah. It's a while. [00:15:00] Miko Lee: Yeah. That was all on the, you know, the on representation of Asian American women and that, and that was maybe 20 years ago. So I wonder how much that's changed [00:15:10] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : maybe more. Yeah, [00:15:11] Miko Lee: maybe more. Right? So, but I wonder how that's changed with, because that was pre-social media and if Asian American men are being pulled in the manosphere, what are Asian American women being pulled into? [00:15:24] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, I do worry. I worry again, just, I mean, my goodness, you know, the proliferation of just the growth of the beauty industry. [00:15:35] Miko Lee: Yeah. [00:15:35] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Um, the casualness, by what I mean, just in terms of cosmetic surgery becoming so even normalized [00:15:45] Miko Lee: for young people very young people . [00:15:48] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Absolutely. Absolutely. And our kind of television series through streaming platforms you know, even movies. I mean, it's, it's clear that there are, you know, real investments in cosmetic surgery by many of the women that we hold up, across race. And yeah, this sort of, it's just, it's, I've been shocked by how, how, I mean, just the other day, I, I'm like a very loyal client. Well, when it comes to my hairstylist, I go, I travel two hours to Sacramento from our farm to get my hair cut every six months from one woman. I, I just, I could not believe just the conversations I was hearing women including Asian American women in the seats next to me around injections, fillers, I remember seeing flyers posted all around the salon. For a session being held by a, a cosmetic, I don't even know the terms, but there's now a proliferation of job titles even associated what is it? Medical aesthetician. But yeah, I, I do worry. Right. Trading in the visual. Maybe that's why too, the podcast feels like a way where people can. Especially if I, you know, am in conversation with others or for myself even to just kind of show up without having to worry about you know, what I look like or what others look like. Or there's, you know, people don't have to worry about, the talking heads and kind of can pay attention more to the knowledges or the stories being shared. But I feel like that is a pull, I mean, if there was, if we've always, I think as as Asian American women, our bodies, right? Subject to just, these representations, right? The hypersexualization of Asian American women, which is really at the core of, I can recall of slaying the dragon. I think that has gotten worse. And we're being more actively recruited into our own participation in this kind of hypersexualization on one hand, or being recruited into participating in these what are ultimately white aesthetics and remaking our bodies. To conform to notions of beauty and it's all being cast as if it's empowering and liberating somehow. And I, I've heard that and, and witnessed that, that somehow, no, these are not aesthetic choices that have to do with whiteness. I just wanna look pretty. Without any interrogation around what are the standards of beauty based on and even why, like, what is it about you know, desirability, youthfulness and all of that. That I think is definitely a co a concern I have and why I've pulled away from social media. I don't know that I've looked on Instagram for I don't know how many months. It's been quite a bit of time, so much so that, Instagram is now sending me emails to remind me of all the messages and posts I'm missing. Facebook was doing that as well. But. I get troubled by the things that I am seeing. And I do worry for not just kind of younger generations of Asian American women, I think this is also a worry for all younger women of color. [00:19:20] Miko Lee: It's interesting they cast it almost as colorblindness in terms of the beauty standards, but it's laced in white supremacy because the whole, the very basic of the standard of beauty is based in whiteness. That's quite powerful and interesting. [00:19:40] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. And it's also deeply rooted in kind of capitalist consumption, right? The notion that the only thing that is of value is a thing that is new and novel. Anything else has zero value. And we're seeing that right where women are terrified. Terrified of getting older. I mean, I was in conversation with a few women, you know, in, in my circles, not even 30. Who are being policed by their peers about their frown lines, watching how they express themselves because they're approaching 30 and another woman in her early thirties you know, just commenting too that, well, the procedures now are so good. They've gotten so good at it that you can't even tell. But you know, just this, that it's happening at such a young age and, and you know, women, we already have to deal with all of these demands on our bodies, right? Some that are external, some that we internalize around, reproduction if we're straight or if we desire children, even if we're not, you know, just these pressures around that. And I mean, I feel like what woman is, especially younger women, you know, really, really worried about whether they've met certain milestones at at every age. I mean, I hear it with young women. Oh my god, I'm 25 now. I'm a quarter century. This is huge, right? Oh, I'm 30, three decades in, where am I at? So there are all these other demands around achievement, professional achievement. Scholastic achievement, nevermind, you know, your body, whether it comports to the thing that is di desirable and is doing the thing it needs to do, that it's athletic and that it's light, that it's, it can make babies. So it just it's a lot. And I feel like if we were went through it as, as younger women the intensity is, even greater. and I noticed it myself. It's probably part of the reason why I've, I had to pull away from social media, you know, I'm 53, you know, and feeling like I don't see many representations of myself too in social media. That is, I don't know that it's a space for me either. And you can't help when you're in these spaces. Even the most, kind of radical critical of us you know, can fall prey to, the intrusive thoughts of patriarchy around our bodies and aging and our utility. So yeah, it's worrying, it's really worrying to me. [00:22:05] Miko Lee: So I wanna flip the switch on that and ask you, as a 53-year-old, what do you feel most powerful about? [00:22:13] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I personally have experienced so much personal loss of people, beloved people. I've also witnessed too many people who have not had the opportunity and privilege to reach this age. I think what makes me powerful or what, what makes me feel powerful, or maybe less the term, I don't know if powerful is the term, but just I feel deep gratitude that my body has, allowed me to live in this form, to this age to have the range of experiences that I've been able to experience in this body. Looking at the world through these eyes experiencing it, you know, with this skin. And I just, that is, I guess, a source of power because of the wisdom that it offers. The I think empathy, you know, and compassion that it makes possible. Because you've experienced and witnessed so much. I think that there's a lot that I have also, let go of. I think there were so many kind of insecurities that I think I struggled with as a younger woman that I no longer experience and that feels very empowering. To come to a place. And, and it really comes with life experience, I think. And that you are able to get perspective on things that might've, felt as personal failures in the past, but then you can look at differently as just lessons. Along this journey, in life. And I think I've just also been blessed with elder women in my life who you know, just are so, unapologetic about who they are, what they think, and how they move in the world. And so I have really great models. That make me excited about the prospects of continuing to, to get older and and being able to kind of experience and learn new things along the way. There's a power there. [00:24:26] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. Yeah. As somebody who's 60 this year, I feel like it's lessons that I've learned, but also I don't care. I don't care as much I don't obsess over the little things. I just, and I say what I feel because why not? We're at a phase in life where, you know, I've done a lot of things. I've experienced hardship, and I'm just gonna say how I feel where I'm at what's going on right now? So there's a freedom to that, that I think is very different from being young. What would you like your podcast audiences to understand? [00:25:01] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. You know, I think my podcast audiences need to understand that I am really approaching the podcast from a place of embracing my role as a elder or a young elder. I think it's a role that, I was struggling a bit with and again, I'm not immune to as much as I feel empowered by being older, I also am not immune to all of the, the messages around youthfulness and value that I think we're constantly being barraged. But I do recognize that there is a really special role to be played by women in middle age, which I am. And I think that's what I want audiences to understand, that I am coming into this podcast, doing this podcast from a very specific vantage point. A vantage point that offers insights that on, you know, and of course I'm coming in as me, right? Somebody who still considers herself a scholar, if not necessarily one based at a university. Somebody who's been a really sort of radical thing and shift by becoming a farmer and doing land based work. That, yeah that they're going to be hearing, a perspective, you know, from somebody who has been an organizer, continues to do that work, but is also experimenting and risk taking in different ways. They get the chances to hear from a yelder who's lived a little. Who has a very unique perspective, not just from a particular vantage point in terms of age, but also somebody who's you know, done the work, studied the thing when it comes to kind of the Asian American experience done the thing it, and when it comes to Asian American, organizing. It's continued to grow by stepping away from previous ways of being, uh, by doing this work on our farm. You know, I feel like it's a unique set of perspectives that I'm hoping can offer inspiration or lessons for the moment. But yeah. [00:27:33] Miko Lee: So last time we talked was a few years ago and you were just getting your farm set up and now you actually have this whole farm. Can you share a little bit more about your connection to the land and what it's like being a farmer now? [00:27:48] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, no, thank you. You're right. I recall, I think we had literally just moved in when I was in conversation with you, and now we're at the start of season four. It has been an amazing journey. I'm actually right now and I hope to be able to talk about it on the podcast. I've come, I'm in the process of finishing, a book, reflecting on my experiences over the last four years in this transition from university professor to farmer. there's so much that I've learned. One of the major things I've, learned especially as an organizer, to differently appreciate all of the metaphors we use in organizing. cause we use them a lot, right? How do we describe certain kinds of organizing? We, we describe it as grassroots. How do we talk about the ways we might be building our, you know, struggles of resistance? We think about ourselves as sowing seeds. More and more people talk about, you know, mycchorizal networks. There are all of these metaphors that proliferate when we're thinking about, struggles for justice. And there is something that shifts when you do land-based work and really understand and learn at the knee of mother nature around all the things that are required for cultivating life, which for me, I think is what activism and, organizing really is about. You know, we live in a system that ultimately thrives on death. I mean, war, empire, capitalism, disposability, you know, all of that is, is a system that thrives actually on, on death. And I think that when we're organizing as folks who are activists, social justice activists, ecological and environmental justice activists and organizers, what we're doing is we're in the business, so to speak, of cultivating life. But how best to learn about how to cultivate life, if not at the knee of of Mother Nature. And so I've learned a lot about that. Learned about you know, how long it can take. In fact for, plant sowing a seed a seed can only germinate, you know, and there's the right kinds of conditions and even the right kind of conditions can't be fully predicted. You tend to that ground, that soil anyhow, you know, seeds being so small and nearly invisible to the eye and yet, we know them to be there and we, we support their growth. Seeds when under the right conditions germinate and grow can become these healthy, mature plants. One singular plant can feed so many, I mean, all of those lessons when you understand them in deeply embodied ways, I think allow you to approach organizing and activism differently. I think especially now, there seems to be an urgency to everything. Everything feels urgent. Um. Something needs to be responded to, you know, immediately it feels like all the time. and that not responding somehow is being complacent or enabling. But I think what I've learned as a farmer is that transformation in life takes time and we need to tend to that. And I mean, I feel like I think organizers would benefit a lot from, doing land-based work. Not only because the earth needs us to do this work of regeneration and restoration, but I think we would have better perspective around, what liberation would look like and require, from these systems of domination and power if we, you know, humbled ourselves a bit and learned from. Mother Nature, and the ways that, you know, she's endured through it all and, you know, adapted through it all. I think, I think there are important lessons there, but lessons that I think that really require a work of embodied learning and knowledge. [00:31:56] Miko Lee: So you speak of your farm as this, as a place that's cultivating growth, and can you talk a little bit more about that, cultivating the mind? Because I know you're also doing work on your farm with organizers, with nonprofits, with students. So can you talk a little bit more about the cultivation of people on your farm? [00:32:15] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, so much of what we do isn't just about the food that we grow, which we do, and I shouldn't name that, you know, a lot of. our aim with food growing is not just to feed, you know, sort of a community of people who've opted in to get food from us, which, you know, we do have a CSA, a Community sourced agricultural program, but we're also working with native communities here to support in addressing their food needs. So that's. Important, piece of what we do that I wanna name in terms of food and plant production. But yes, in terms of cultivating people, I think a lot of what we do here is about facilitating this reconnection to land. I grew up a very urban, suburban existence. I think it always as an organizer and activist, valued ecological and, environmental justice. But I don't know that I centered it in the way that I do now, in part because I didn't. Have a relationship with the land in the way that we do now. I really think that our work is to help cultivate that relationship. I think we need that relationship to fully appreciate what's at stake when we talk about climate change. It's one thing to kind of know the facts. It's another thing to be in relation to the land, and I think it takes a certain set of conditions to be able to, to be in relation to the land. So yeah, we, we hold space for lots of organizations, educational institutions, nonprofits, community-based organizations, other folks, who also are feeling that there is a need to be in relation to the land. Not only to be in a relationship, but to be in a right relationship with the land. So we, we hold space for a lot of that. And of course that process is also deeply healing. There is something really healing about learning from the land. just understanding there's something really magical like, for example, when you come out of winter and you start to see new growth, I think that cycle of growth offers a kind of hope and reassurance when we're feeling especially despairing, which I think a lot of people feel tremendous despair now. And yet, you know, being bearing witness to that is it can be super just powerful and can kind of keep and sustain the fight. [00:34:37] Miko Lee: And lastly, can you share more about your school for Liberating education? [00:34:42] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Sure. So the School for Liberating Education is an online platform through which I share all of the ethnic studies knowledge that I was teaching at the university. Most recently at the University of California Davis, you know, always believed ethnic studies was never intended to be just another academic field like anthropology, sociology, political science. But that, it is a form of knowledge that is meant to raise our consciousness to inspire and to provide us real skillsets and pathways to taking that knowledge and doing the work of changing our world for the better. And so, you know, the School for Liberating Education I set up so that people can have access to that knowledge without having to go through. All of the, the, hoops that are required for, you know, getting into a four year university, even all of the kind of bureaucracy it takes to get even to a community college, which is not as easy as one would think. But also a very unapologetic, form of ethnic studies. I think part of what's happening at colleges and universities now is, these are battlegrounds. The, right wing has taken it upon itself to really attack ethnic studies in various institutions. They've been very successful in gaining, Support. University administrations have also been very easily bent not only kind of grassroots right wing movements because they're really organized at the grasses, but certainly the series of executive orders that Trump passed, you know, within days after inauguration. Effectively illegalizing ethnic studies and of course we know what he's trying to do in terms of, the Department of Education and, its, effective dismantlement. But this is meant as a place to offer the knowledge that our forebearers and fought really hard for the university, but can't really fully thrive there either. And so, I wanted to make sure that there was a place where this knowledge can be accessed, to anybody with the interest and desire. [00:36:55] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for chatting with us today. I'm wondering if there's anything you would like podcast listeners to prepare themselves for before they bust out Spotify and listen to Spitting Fire. [00:37:10] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Well, it's just, you know, to, you're gonna get a lot of raw, unedited audio. And so, um, you're gonna kind of get just, you know, as the, the host of the, show me in a very unedited, very unfiltered form, which can be, I hope enjoyable for folks. But, you know, I think people will, will learn a lot, and a lot of the topics are rooted in the things that I care about. Certainly social justice issues certainly even, you know, the work we're doing at the farm. So, you know, I, I mean, it's broadly, uh, the podcast is around social and ecological justice. But very much from the lens of somebody who, again, is a yelder, somebody who's taught ethnic studies, continues to teach, although not at the university. Um, somebody who does the work of kind of social and ecological justice organizing and is doing land-based work. So, you're getting all of the, the things that connect to all of the ways that I, I'm moving in the world right now. [00:38:15] Miko Lee: Thank you so much Dr. Robyn for joining us today on Apex Express. [00:38:20] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Thank you so much again for having me. [00:38:38] Welcome everybody, to Resistance, Defiant Love, and Radical Care. Today we are launching, uh, the pre-registration for my new activism course, my course on Asian American activism, and it will be drawing on my book, co-edited with Diane Fujino, uh, Professor Diane Fujino, entitled Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation. [00:39:09] I'm really, really excited that the book is coming out, but probably even more excited that I'll be able to launch a mini course that draws from that book, as well as other work on Asian American activism, and that I'll be able to offer a mini course that really looks at Asian American activism in the coming months. [00:39:30] And I'm very, very, very, very pleased to be joined by Artnelson Concordia. Artnelson and I actually hopped on earlier and we went back to, to just recollect when we met and how long ago, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But, um, oh, I guess I might as well just say, Art and I have known each other for exa- almost exactly half of our lives. [00:39:54] Um- So we first met when we were only 12. Just kidding. We met when we were 25 years old. We, uh, so that was half of our lives. You do the math. Um, and, uh, it, it's just so wonderful, uh, to, to be able to reconnect, uh, with Artnelson in this way. But we go back, and as we'll talk about later on, we go back, um, 25 years ago, uh, where we, when we first met, uh, through, uh, our work, uh, in, in activist spaces. [00:40:27] But Artnelson Concordia was born and raised in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The son of working class Filipino immigrants, he earned BAs in political science and history at the University of California in Los Angeles, so UCLA. Artnelson is a longtime educator who got his start in San Francisco and was a founding teacher of the San Francisco Unified School District's Ethnic Studies program that was the focus of a 2014 Stanford University study that highlighted the academic benefits of the district's ninth grade ethnic studies course. [00:41:02] That's Artnelson. Currently, he coordinates Santa Barbara Unified School District's ethnic studies program. Artnelson is the father of four Brown boys, four beautiful Brown boys, and is in cahoots with his wife to raise them to have deep knowledge and love of self and community, as well as to be active disruptors of the white supremacist, patriarchal, heteronormative, imperialist hegemony. [00:41:29] Yeah. He and his family have the great privilege to live in the beautiful town of Oxnard, California, which is unceded Chumash territory. And this fall marks the beginning of his 23rd year in education. And as I was saying before, Art and I go way, way back. We met right after we had both graduated from college. [00:41:52] And yeah, as… Art and I are here to talk story a little bit about our shared activist path, because really, uh, it ma- it seems it's so appropriate to talk about our shared path as activists and educators because this pivot for me to offering, uh, courses through the School for Liberating Education has everything to do with my activism and everything to do with my deep, deep belief that education, uh, and a critical education, uh, can be so vital for, uh, movement building, for building the world that we want. [00:42:29] So I'm gonna just hand it over to you, Art. And we can just start. But it's so great to see you and have this chance to chat. [00:42:37] Artnelson Concordia: Right on. What a, what an introduction, uh, hearing that coming from you. Um, and- Reflecting on the time and how quickly that really does fly. And I think it's actually more than 25. [00:42:50] We've known each other more than 25 years. Um, and I think, yeah, that's more than half of our lives. But I think the moment that we, we met each other, we were already on our journey to, to really committing ourselves to figuring out, you know, what the hell is going on with this world. I mean, beginning with our own lived experiences and what's, what was happening with our communities. [00:43:18] Um, but yeah, education has always been central, and I think my, my path to really focusing in on that was in, in organizing spaces before I became a teacher. It was so key in bringing people to to support and be a part of whatever issue. Like, it was, well, how do we move people? Well, w- we tell them the truth. [00:43:47] We, we tell them the… an all-rounded kind of breakdown of how it will impact them and why they should get involved. And the, the, the think, um, really that is, was my introduction to organizing. Um, I think in community college, uh, I got to meet, um, a long time Filipino American, uh, organizer-activist, Royal Morales, was really my first introduction to Filipino American history and identity. [00:44:23] And from there, it just really took off. Like, so much of the suffering, struggling, and questions I had about my own life was answered. I mean, of course over time, but it kept, it kept, it kept, uh, bringing me along, bringing me along, and I was hooked. I was hooked after that. Um, yeah, the power of education to really transform lives is, has been a theme throughout. [00:44:53] Uh, and I'm sure for you as well. I, I- Yeah … the, the spaces that we, we shared were always about, like, getting to root problems and how everything is related inside. [00:45:06] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. No, absolutely. It's funny, I was just thinking, I don't… You know, I think we might have first encountered each other indirectly around the, the fight against Proposition 209. [00:45:19] Oh. Uh, you know, right? And maybe even before that, around Proposition 187. 187. Y- yeah. And so for people who don't know, and actually I end up writing… I ended up writing a chapter on, uh, student organizing, specifically around 187 and 209, in this book. So, you know, the book itself, um, so, you know, Professor Fujino, who happened to, happened to be my professor as an undergrad, so she's now my collaborator. [00:45:47] But, um, Diane, uh, and I kind of pulled a, a whole range of organizers together to contribute to this anthology, but I also ended up contributing a separate chapter to it, and it was a reflection on the '90s, and specifically our campus organizing across the UC system- Mm-hmm … around first 187 and 209. And for people who aren't familiar with it, you know, 187 was this, uh, this terrible, um, voter initiative that ended up being passed by the state of California that would essentially criminalize, um, undocumented Californians. [00:46:24] And not just that, it was really going to, uh, m- make- teachers and, uh, and social workers and anybody who worked for the state of California stand in as border agents. [00:46:37] Artnelson Concordia: Right. ‘ [00:46:38] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Cause basically it would be their, their responsibility as employees of the state of California to report on anybody seeking out service or that they're encountering in the space of their jobs, to report them if they were, if, if they suspected that these individuals, if they suspected these individuals- Yeah, yeah [00:46:58] were, um, undocumented. And so, you know, uh, Art and I and so many other UC students, uh, were, you know, going, um, were organizing in, in, in partnership with community organizations to, of course, try to stop Californians from, from, from voting for 187. W- they did, and of course that ended up not becoming law because it got, you know, challenged in, in the courts. [00:47:24] Right. But nevertheless, we were part of the resistance movement. And then, uh, after 187 was Proposition 209, which essentially eliminated affirmative action programs, um, in, in, uh, the University of California system. And, you know, I know, you know, that was also something that was also meaningful for, for us. [00:47:45] Artnelson Concordia: Yeah. [00:47:45] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : You know, uh, as, as, as young people who were also very much recipients of affirmative action programs. Yeah. Um, some of our ethnic studies knowledge was not even necessarily coming through ethnic studies courses, but oftentimes through the counselors and, and other staff who worked in these affirmative action programs. [00:48:06] And so, you know, that was, that was going to happen. Right. And it did, right? Had such a deep impact on us. Yeah. And we knew that, um, by making affirmative action, um, by eliminating affirmative action, it was going to have a major impact. Which it did, right? Mm-hmm. The Filipino, at least for Filipino Americans, our numbers at the UC system plum- plummeted after that. [00:48:25] Plummeted. But I think that's when we first met, and then, but it was really afterwards where, where we really connected more, right? When- Hmm … um, I think you and I both, because we, we, uh, found ourselves, uh, with the, the, the, the opportunity to connect with, uh, people who were really active in the anti-martial ma- law, the anti-martial law movement, right? [00:48:48] Um, for both of us. Yeah, [00:48:49] Artnelson Concordia: in the Philippines. Yeah. [00:48:50] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : Yeah. They were people who, uh, were already active in, um, the movement against the dictatorship- had come to the United States fleeing the tyranny of the Marcos dictatorship. Mm-hmm. And then were really responsible in, uh, growing the, uh, anti-martial law movement in the US, and I think, you know, at the time we met, of course martial law had ended, but, but the conditions in the Philippines hadn't changed. Still haven't changed. [00:49:17] Artnelson Concordia: Yeah. [00:49:17] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : And so our elders saw us, we saw them, right? I think. I mean, I can't even remember how I [00:49:24] Artnelson Concordia: first met some of them. Looking for each other, I really feel. [00:49:25] Dr Robyn Rodriguez : I think, you know, we, we end up gravitating to the same- Yeah … spaces, right? And we knew that that was something, you know, we wanted to be part of. T- maybe tell me about your story. How did you kind of find your way into that work and, and how did it resonate with you? But I know that that was really where we built together was- yeah … in the work around the Filipino, um, you know, liberation struggle. [00:49:47] Artnelson Concordia: Yeah. Our, our paths definitely, um, crossed then, and my, my journey to that point really was through the Black liberation movement- Yeah where I, in undergrad, um, was exposed to the history of the Panthers, and I… And it was immediate, like in terms of the truth they were telling and how they resonated with me. I just swallowed text after text after text. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, To Die for the People, uh, uh, Huey's Revolutionary Suicide, Elaine Brown's, uh, Taste of Power- Mm-hmm [00:50:25] Bobby Se- Seize the Time. I, I, I was so, um, I don't know, kind of- Absolutely, like, fascinated and inspired and wanting to find, well, what's the equivalent for, for Filipinos? Yes. And that was, that of course leads me from, um, Uncle Roy or Royal Morales, who's really talking about Filipino-American activism in History. [00:50:55] Mm-hmm. And I got a lot of the really incredible, um, participation and organizing with the farm workers, but it kind of just would stop, and I, and I was curious about, well, what is existing now? And it was my meeting, um, it was a, a brother mentor, Ed- Edwin Ha- Habaquan. Edwin. And he, uh- I went with Edwin at the same time. [00:51:25] Yeah. He was the, the founder of this Filipino apparel company, right? Tribal Pinoy. Oh my gosh. And I, um, I worked for the Filipino American newspaper for Samahang Pilipino at UCLA, Tan- Tanawin, and I only wrote one, maybe, maybe two articles. But the one article I, I, I very much remember, and I, I, I need to go find that article now, was an interview with Edwin, um, about Filipino-American activism. And he was like, “Look, it didn't just end with the farm workers. It continues today through this national liberation movement in the Philippines.” [00:52:15] Ayame Keane-Lee: You just listened to a clip from Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks from tonight's guest, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez. This episode is called Resistance, Defiant Love, and Radical Care: Asian American Activism Course Launch with Artnelson Concordia. You can check it out in our show notes. Thank you so much for listening [00:52:36] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night The post APEX Express – 6.25.26 – Spitting Fire: Doktora Robyn Speaks appeared first on KPFA.

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Fan Fic That Kiss

Shadow Warrior by Rajeev Srinivasan

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2026 60:07

Just in case you were ever to forget: Megan, Lia and Amy all do write romance novels. Today we take on the second part of our kissing challenge by writing fan fic kissing scenes... did you ever expect a Doona and Mister Sunshine mashup? Neither did we. Also keep an eye out for Weak Hero Class and My Youth, Romantics Anonymous (kinda), and What Comes After Love...Ready to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Ep. 193: "Trump to India: Drop Dead"?

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2026 20:20

A version of this essay was published by firstpost at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/from-indo-pacific-to-pacific-delhi-must-prepare-for-strategic-loneliness-14024528.htmlI refer, of course, to the (in)famous newspaper headline which said, “Ford to City: Drop Dead” in 1975 when then-POTUS Gerald Ford refused to bail out New York City during a financial crisis.It appears to be the same sentiment now with POTUS Trump regarding India. The end of India's fond hopes of a strategic alliance came not with a bang, but with a whimper: the Pentagon announcement, right in the middle of the G7 conclave in France, that the US has reverted its Indo-Pacific Command to the “Pacific Command”, which had been the name before Trump changed it in 2018.What this means is clear: the US has turned its back on the Indian Ocean, on India, and on the vaunted “strategic partnership” that Indian policymakers had long assumed would be a corollary of that presumed bedrock of Indo-US relations: the mutual need to contain a rampaging China.Coming on top of the remarkable cavalierness about the murders of three Indian merchant-navy sailors, and numerous other slights, we see a pattern of indifference at best, or disdain at worst. The US is signalling that they don't need India. India, in other words, has no leverage. I am not amazed, to be honest: I wrote in 2023 that in an era of relative decline, it made sense for the US to downgrade its aspirations from sole hyperpower to first among equals: that is, a “G2 condominium” with China. This is, in principle, the same as the Vatican-brokered Treaty of Torsedillas in 1494 that divided the world into Portuguese and a Spanish spheres of influence. Interestingly, that didn't end up well for either party, but we shall let that pass. Let us connect the dots: there is a ‘Donroe Doctrine' whereby the US is asserting its hegemony in the Americas, its sphere of influence. Trump has ejected China from Venezuela, and is in the process of kicking them out of the Panama Canal zone; although the Pacific-to-Atlantic railway project in the Brazilian rainforest, and its terminus, the deep-water Port Chancay in Peru, remain.The disastrous Trump foray into Iran was predicated on denying China easy access to that country's hydrocarbons. But the MoU after 100+ days of war suggests that the US has received a bloody nose, and is withdrawing, retired hurt. The shrinking of ambitions away from the Indian Ocean as in the reversion to the ‘Pacific Command' suggests that the US is ceding the continent, including West Asia, to China.America-watchers have noticed this strange attitude to Asia before. Evan A. Feigenbaum, a former advisor to US Secretaries of State, wrote about this in 2011:For Washington, the problem is at once intellectual, strategic, and bureaucratic. Intellectually, the United States still has three separate foreign policies in Asia—one for East Asia, another for South Asia, and a third for Central Asia (which it scarcely regards as a part of Asia at all). As Asia reintegrates, then, the United States is too often stuck in an outdated mode of thinking ...Asia is being reborn, and remade. Yet, the United States is badly prepared for this momentous rebirth, which is at once stitching Asia back together and making the United States less relevant in each of Asia's constituent parts. Asians are, in various ways, passing America by, restoring ancient ties and repairing long-broken strategic and economic links.Well, this is also the end of the “pivot to Asia”, even though it was probably half-hearted at the best of times. Then-POTUS Obama started using the term in 2011, but was himself guilty of ‘awarding' “South Asia” to Chinese overlordship on a visit to that country. Now that the US is dumping its European allies, it should not be surprising, in view of the ‘Fortress America' tone of the National Security Strategy of 2025, that India is also being thrown under the bus.A US official, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said this bluntly in Delhi at the Raisina Dialog 2026: India should understand that we're not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago in terms of saying oh you know we're going to let you develop all these markets and then the next thing we know you're beating us in a lot of commercial things.Landau is right from a short-term US perspective. The US blundered, presumably taken in by Chinese propaganda, and allowed itself to be stripped of its industrial prowess. They have learned a lesson: squash potential competitors when you can. This is a back-handed compliment: it suggests that the US is aware that India can be a challenger, and make the G2 a G3. India is literally the only power that's large enough to make it to Great Power status: Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, etc. have too many problems.No incumbent power wants an insurgent power to challenge its hegemony. The so-called “Thucydides Trap” predicts that chances are that they will go to war: a kinetic war or an economic war or both. India is simultaneously facing Thucydides Traps from both the US and China, those G2 buddies. I wrote about this as an “Abhimanyu Syndrome” for India: splendid isolation. I hasten to add that though Abhimanyu died, his side did win convincingly.So it's time for India to be pragmatic, and develop its own self-reliance, both in military power and economic/trade power. The existing G2 are looking for vassals, not allies. The equation between them is also interesting. It is clear that the US is in gentle relative decline; but it does have deep resources, and can survive as a continent sized economy, even if it turns its back on the rest of the world, as it has done several times in its 250-year history. But Trump did kowtow to Xi on his May trip to China: he looked like a supplicant paying tribute to the emperor.China, if you look at its 3000-year-long history, is volatile and unstable. A pattern repeats, again and again: there are periods of prosperity and power under a strong imperial center, followed by collapse and utter chaos. An unwinding of the Chinese empire, much like the implosion of the Soviet empire, is probably only a matter of time.If you look at Indian history, the nation was mostly stable, though its prosperity invited invaders. As far back as 3000 years ago, India was the center of a lucrative Indian Ocean trade, based on Pax Indica in the region. With a deep water navy, a massive manufacturing push, and self-reliance, India can regain its past glory. Military power breeds respect from others. Economic power makes others want to trade.1100 words, 18 Jun 2026AI-generated slideshow courtesy notebookLM.google.com: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

united states america new york city donald trump china france state european chinese spanish brazil south africa iran indian military atlantic venezuela nigeria peru economic pacific brazilian americas pentagon portuguese soviet vatican xi g7 delhi treaty asians south asia central asia indian ocean east asia great powers panama canal mou g2 deputy secretary landau notebooklm intellectually g3 national security strategy drop dead west asia thucydides trap abhimanyu htmli potus trump pacific command indo pacific command fortress america indo us evan a feigenbaum

Dan Hess: the end of Asians and humanity going to the retirement home

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2026 84:48

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib has a wide-ranging conversation, again, with Dan Hess, the man behind the More Births account on social media. An engineer with a large family in the DC area, Hess' essays on topics like Israelis' high birth rate have gained the attention of X. He has an account that has come from a few hundred followers to more than 45,000 in less than 4 years. His tweets have been boosted by Elon. Today Razib and Hess start the conversation talking about East Asia, and its massive fertility crisis. Hess makes the case against urban density, observing how low fertility is in some of these Asian cities in particular. Razib also brings up economic and cultural creativity, as he and Hess ruminate on the consequences of reduced dynamism due to an aging population. Hess also argues that we cannot rely on evolution to fix our demographic imbalances; the source nations of immigrants are experiencing demographic collapse as well.

elon musk dc asian humanity israelis asians hess east asia retirement home razib

APEX Express – 6.18.26 Talk Story with Thao Nguyen

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026 59:58

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on Apex Express, Host Miko Lee talk story with singer-songwriter Thao Nguyen. Hear about her new album Fossil, her short documentary, and about her artistic inspirations. Thao's tour starts this week in North Carolina, so listen in to hear from the brilliant Thao, and then check out her website to catch a live show. SHOW TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:00:35] Miko Lee: Tonight on Apex Express, we talk story with singer-songwriter Thao Nguyen. Join me, your host, Miko Lee, as I talk with this multi-hyphenated artist. We get to hear about her new album, chat about her short documentary, and hear about her artistic inspirations. Thao's tour starts this week in North Carolina, so listen in to hear from the brilliant Thao, and then check out her website to catch a live show. [00:01:05] Ayame Keane-Lee: In today's show, you'll be listening to some songs from Thao & The Get Down Stay Down's 2020 album, Temple. First off, let's listen to “Pure Cinema.” MUSIC [00:05:44] That was “Pure Cinema” by today's guest, Thao Nguyen. Let's get to the interview. [00:05:50] Miko Lee: Welcome Thao Nguyen to Apex Express. [00:05:54] Thao Nguyen: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. [00:05:57] Miko Lee: I love talking with creative people and you're such an amazingly talented singer and songwriter and imagination creator. I'm wanna start with the first question I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:06:16] Thao Nguyen: Who are my people? Some of them include the family I was born into. I'm from Virginia. I was born and raised in Virginia. but I'm the daughter of Vietnamese refugees of war. And, I moved out to the Bay in 2006 after my first US tour. And, I'm so fortunate to have such a robust community here in the bay and all of my chosen family here. [00:06:40] Miko Lee: And what legacy do you carry with you? [00:06:43] Thao Nguyen: What legacy? I think the legacy I prioritize. I think, you know, [laughs] we inherit a lot and as time goes on and we get older, we realize everything is finite and you have to choose which legacies you choose to continue, and perpetuate and honor and what you have to leave by the wayside. And so the things I choose to continue and celebrate are that of a real ability to be very present and in the moment and available to joy and I think the people I come from are really good at metabolizing joy because they know the flip side of it so well. [00:07:23] Miko Lee: Ooh, that's so interesting. Can you speak more about what it means to metabolize joy? [00:07:30] Thao Nguyen: [Laughs] uh, an ongoing practice? I think it is to be truly present and I believe, of course gratitude goes a long way, but I to fully metabolize it is to allow yourself to feel embodied in it. And, you know, there's more somatic practice I think that to actually feel it course through your body, you are allowing it, you're honoring it as completely as possible. And, do you have to acknowledge that it's happening as it's happening? You know, I think that's having true presence with it. [00:08:08] Miko Lee: Can you roll back with me in time and talk about your earliest childhood memories of being a singer or songwriting? What came first? [00:08:18] Thao Nguyen: I loved music from a very early age, but I didn't have a lot of access to it, to making it, it was more as a listener. The soundscape that I grew up with, there was a series called Paris by Night, which probably you've heard of within Vietnamese diaspora, uh, community and Culture. And it was this variety show that was, created by, people who had to flee Vietnam. And originally it was in Paris and it showcased A lot of singers and performers, who had fled, either before, during, or right after the fall of Saigon. And, it was this one gathering wherein. entertainers from the different generations, from my grandmother's generation, from my parents were able to coalesce and exist together. And there was just this sampler platter of a lot of different sonic influences. And then you had the younger generation, which was reinterpreting what American pop music was at the time. So you'd have my grandmother who [sang] cải lương which was this incredibly, it's like, almost like folk operatic, very dramatic, theatrical singing with a lot of pitch bending and, which I didn't understand that I was absorbing it in such a way that I would recreate it later on in my playing, but I would go on to credit it to being from Virginia and saying it was more of like an Appalachian influence, which it was as well. But the origins, the true origins were within my soundscape before I understood what that was. You know, so you have that and then you have, an artist named Lynette who's. basically in reinterpreting, like the latest Madonna song and has a cone bra on, so everyone's existing act after act in the same, um, sorry for that ramble. Did I answer that question? [00:10:13] Miko Lee: Yeah. Uh, I, so what was, do you remember the age or you just grew up hearing all these different kinds of sounds? [00:10:20] Thao Nguyen: I mean, that was from before I knew what age I was, you know, that was just like, and that was such, um. For the community and within my family it was such an event every time one of these, you know, double VHS things were issued that people would be making copies, someone would drop it off at the house. You know, there, there was always one or two in circulation, but it was this. Event that you'd, [00:10:43] Miko Lee: are these like bootleg copies? [00:10:45] Thao Nguyen: Yeah, there's like, wow, there's bootleg. There's also, there was one book in music store in Eden Shopping Center, which was like the hub of, of the Vietnamese community in, in, uh, Northern Virginia. And so someone would buy the original and then go and bootleg it. You don't know how you ended up with what, but just like they would drop off some citrus and and Hennessy or whatever, and then the Paris By Night thing. And um, [00:11:11] Miko Lee: I love that the combo citrus, Hennessy and some music. [00:11:16] Thao Nguyen: Everything is a digestif, you know? And, um, so I would have that. But then of course, I, you know, I, I listened to the radio. That was what, that was my main resource and I listened to the oldie station the most, and I loved Motown. And I remember, in this I was like five or six, we had these large speakers that's sat on the floor either side of, of this cassette deck, radio unit. And I would lay down and, every time Smokey Robinson came on, “You really got a hold of me” that was like my favorite song and I would tape it and then so either I would listen to it live or I would play the cassette and I would just lay down and get as close to the speakers as I could. But at that point, I hadn't seen who Smokey Robinson was, and I imagined, because I also am a child of eighties and nineties. I imagined it was Crystal who was Roseanne's best friend from the Roseanne show. You know, I didn't know anything, but I felt all of it. [00:12:20] Miko Lee: Wow. Yeah. I love that. So, I love that. And I was really wondering, I heard this story about you, that you actually did a rap for on Charlotte's Web when you were in elementary school. [00:12:33] Thao Nguyen: Okay. Okay. This is a deep cut. You've done some research. [00:12:39] Miko Lee: Tell me about how that came to be. So you must have been introduced to rap pretty young to be doing that. [00:12:44] Thao Nguyen: Oh, absolutely. This, so this was another, and this, I'm so glad you brought that up, because all of this is, every genre, every kind of music I, at this point is so vital to me, and it actually goes on to reflect the kind of music I make. And so I have an older brother who's almost eight years older, and around this same time, he's a huge hip hop fan, or that's one of the things he loves, he loves like Duran Duran and like the Fat Boys, you know? And , when I saved money, the first cassette I ever bought was Salt-n-Pepa. And I, yeah, so I was listento the Fat Boys and Queen Latifah. And I loved, I loved every, I loved to hear the flow, the different cadences and in third grade I was voted best rapper. This, and, you know, not coincidentally. This is the year I, I do the book report, the Charlotte's Web, you know, and they gave me the option. You can either write it or you can write a song or whatever. And so I wrote a rap about Charlotte's Web, but I was too shy. I had recorded it and just played it in my presentation. I didn't perform it live. [00:13:51] Miko Lee: And how was it received? [00:13:54] Thao Nguyen: I mean, I can still hear the roar. yeah, everyone, [laughs] I think the teachers [00:14:01] Miko Lee: The crowd roared. The third graders roared. [00:14:03] Thao Nguyen: Yeah. I mean, everyone's standing on their desks. It's rickety, you know, teachers are worried about child safety, it doesn't matter. They're like, Encore. I'm like, I don't have anything else. Uh, you know, uh, [00:14:15] Miko Lee: Wait for real? [00:14:17] Thao Nguyen: No, no. [laughs] the teachers thought it was cute. Probably the kids thought it was funny. I actually don't know because I was so nervous I even pressing play. I was so nervous. I don't know if I registered what, how it was received. [00:14:34] Miko Lee: That's so sweet. Given your eclectic music knowledge and the music that was around you at the time as a musician, now you've been described with so many different categories, country tinge, indie folk, pop, blues. How would you describe your music? [00:14:54] Thao Nguyen: I would describe it as. What's embarrassing is I've been doing this a long time now and I've never figured out a way to describe it. I would, I, I generally just say it's, you know, it's under the umbrella of indie rock, but influenced by jazz and hip hop. And because I learned to play guitar by picking out country blues songs. And because I grew up in Virginia, there, there are these, like old time, Country blues picking patterns that I've used. I, you know, it's, yeah. So that, I've never figured out a way to say it succinctly and I continue [00:15:29] Miko Lee: and you don't need to. That's okay. [00:15:31] Thao Nguyen: Thank you. [00:15:31] Miko Lee: Is there a big Vietnamese population in Virginia? [00:15:35] Thao Nguyen: Yeah, I, I think there is a very healthy population there. And it was one of the first places that people were settling when they were being resettled. And my parents met, in a refugee camp in Guam. And then they were sent to Arkansas. And then from there sponsored out to North Carolina. And then from there of a few friends that they had made, had found work with Metro, which is the public transportation train system in DC and found my dad work there. So that's why people resettle, that's why we ended up in Virginia. [00:16:16] Miko Lee: So Thao & The Get Down Stay Down you released five studio albums and now you're working primarily as a solo artist. Right? [00:16:25] Thao Nguyen: Yes. Yeah. I will say I still work record and perform with a band. And a lot of the people who worked and performed with me in that iteration are still with me. it was more I wanted to, just use my name and move beyond what the get down stay down was, which I was never really sure. With things that you choose when you're 22. As time goes, you know, it starts to, and you're lucky if you can kind of shed things and not, not stay beholden too much. [00:16:57] Miko Lee: Ah, what have you learned to shed? [00:17:02] Thao Nguyen: Oh my gosh. Thankfully a great deal and it's an ongoing exercise, but. I used to be so much heavier with the weight of what I thought a serious artist was what I thought a serious songwriter should be, who I thought, where I thought my, you know, different benchmarks of what success were. What I should be making versus what people wanted to hear versus what I wanted to hear. I actually never I wasn't always all the way sure about what I wanted. You know, I, I think a lot of people encounter that, but I've thankfully been able to shed as much as I can. It's an ongoing practice, but I, you know, one thing it. Is that I used to think, I can't believe I've been doing this this long. And it's, not necessarily, I didn't understand what I was working towards, but only that I had not gotten there yet. And then, you know, I think pandemic and on, I've been just so and as I get older, the transition into being so sincerely grateful that I'm still here and I get to do this. this is what my job is, and however I can, and whatever I can do to sustain, being able to, to do this for my livelihood and maintain my integrity within it is the greatest gift. So as when I made that switch a a lot of things, a lot of the darkness left me. [00:18:39] Miko Lee: Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing. [00:18:42] Ayame Keane-Lee: Next, let's listen to Temple, the first track off of Thao's album of the same name. MUSIC [00:22:56] That was Temple by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. Back to her interview with Miko. [00:23:01] Miko Lee: I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the 2017 documentary Nobody Dies, a film about a musician, her mom in Vietnam. How did that, and that's a documentary that follows you and your mom as you go to Vietnam. I'm wondering how that project came about. [00:23:17] Thao Nguyen: Yes, I'm happy to tell you about it. in 2015 I was invited by concert promoters in conjunction with the US Embassy based in Hanoi, to come perform for the, I guess at that point it was the 25th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the US and Vietnam, and I was able to bring my band and I was able to bring my mom, and she hadn't been back in 43 years, and she used to work for the South Vietnamese embassy and was stationed in Lao, when Saigon fell. So she actually left Vietnam in 73, assuming she would go back after her time abroad and then was never able to return. So I was able to bring her, the struggle was would she actually come, you know, and we had, I had, a bear of the time initially convincing her it would be okay. And, it was like, just begging her to come. She's like freaking out. She hangs up on me. I call back. She hangs up. You know, it was a back and forth that I'm trying to convince her of things that I'm not sure of where she's like, I'm still on a list. I'm like, no, you're not. But I don't know that, you know who, how would I know that? But I told her she wasn't on the list. Anyway, my, a friend of mine who's a filmmaker, as this all was happening, he asked if he could come along and document all of it. And he and, his DP traveled with us and it was an incredibly intense trip, and it was beautiful and I am so glad it was documented. And then somewhere along the way I had a performance and, this was all in editing. And then I ran into Don Young at CAAM Center for Asian American Media. Oh, I know what it was. It was something for Sundance and Don Young and I were just in the same shuttle going to the airport and we were talking and I told him a little bit about this and then I sent him some footage and you know, and then CAAM and PBS were gracious enough to co-produce and, Make it so it could be, you know, a a half hour documentary that aired on PBS. Um, [00:25:21] Miko Lee: so that that was on a bus ride. [00:25:23] Thao Nguyen: That was on an airport shuttle. [00:25:25] Miko Lee: Airport shuttle. I love it. [00:25:26] Thao Nguyen: Yeah [laughs]. [00:25:28] Miko Lee: So was it hard to convince your mom, I know it was hard to convince her to go to Vietnam. Was it hard to convince her also then to be on film? What was her response to that? [00:25:37] Thao Nguyen: Well, luckily for all of us, my mom loves to be on film and is, um, a total flirt and ham and. Oh, [00:25:48] Miko Lee: so that was a bonus. That was like a, [00:25:49] Thao Nguyen: that was a bonus. The camera loves her. As did the film director, my friend Todd, she loved it. And she just, she comes alive and she's a true performer. And, it was really beautiful to see her in this element that I, I didn't know if I'd ever, I actually. Never thought I'd get to see her this way. You know, I grew up, both my brother and I grew up translating for her, it is sort of at every, at every level. And, we'd go out to restaurants and it's not that she, you know, it's like she would get shy and then it would just easier, it always just became easier if we just did it for her. But, so we'd order for restaurants and, and to see her. not to say that she doesn't I mean, she was a small business owner. She owned a laundromat, dry cleaners in Virginia and totally is the reason why everybody is alive, you know? But, to see her move so seamlessly and easily, I'm sorry, it's emotional in the world was this, such a gift I didn't know I'd get. And, You see her haggling with people, you know, and, and she's directing as she's pointing out. Yeah. It was just a really, no matter how long someone has been away from the place they were born, you know, to see them back there is, um, it was, yeah, it was just such a beautiful gift and I'm glad we have it on film. [00:27:17] Miko Lee: Did you discuss that with your mom? How different that was for you to see her in a different way? [00:27:22] Thao Nguyen: You know, not, not, um, not directly. I've written about it, but I've not, we don't have the kind of, Yeah. That, that's never come up in those ways. You know, we talk a lot. I basically, I try to call her at least, uh, almost every day, just 'cause she lives across the country. So I wanna just be sure that, you know, I'm just doing these like, casual wellness checks, but we don't often get into those more philosophical conversations. Um, but she did, you know, the, the song Temple, Which would become the lead single of the album Temple was, inspired by this moment of candor that I had never experienced before and I would never experience again. It happened one night when we were in Vietnam and she just said outta nowhere. You have to understand what freedom is and you have to understand why a million people would risk their lives at sea, and I can't. I can't teach you that. I can't help you with it. You have to know for yourself. And that's what became, the song Temple where wherein she's speaking to me about her life before, during, and after war. [00:28:35] Miko Lee: That's so powerful. Thank you for sharing. I, I appreciate that about your music, the personal, visions and dreams and pain that you experience putting that in. Is there another song of yours that really stands out to you? [00:28:51] Thao Nguyen: Another one. Aside from that? [00:28:53] Miko Lee: Aside from that. [00:28:54] Thao Nguyen: There's. You know, yes, there's a, there's definitely a few from this new album that is, that I just finished and it's releasing in September. From that same album Temple there's, the song Marrow. there's a few. That album is as much, it was, it was this, I just had this, I knew that I had to make it both about, what my Vietnamese identity is and what it is to be queer in Vietnamese and stay in the culture, which is not something that I thought I could do. So yeah, I would say both Temple and Marrow encapsulate, this effort to fully align myself in ways that I hadn't been able to. [00:29:40] Miko Lee: And what is Marrow about? [00:29:42] Thao Nguyen: Marrow is about what it means to fully accept yourself so that you could offer yourself to the rest of your life. You know, it's, it's like. [00:29:54] Miko Lee: That's all. [00:29:56] Thao Nguyen: That's all. And it's, and it was against the backdrop of getting married. but it was more about me coming to terms with not even coming to terms, like even that language is so, disparaging. It's, it was just about claiming myself and saying to my family, I need to be, you know, I, I need to be my full self and I believe I can be with you still. But you know, the lines are, It's so funny. I sing it all the time and I can't do that. The line I'm thinking of in particular is, at that point I'm apologizing to my partner at the time and saying, you know, I am basically, I couldn't claim us because of this barrier, but I'm sorry to you and I'm sorry to me, and the, you know. I have grief in my marrow. Will you marry me still? So is it, that's a roundabout way of explaining what that, what that song is. [00:30:54] MUSIC [00:34:24] Ayame Keane-Lee: You just listened to “Marrow” by tonight's guest, Thao Nguyen. [00:34:28] Miko Lee: You talk about Temple and how that was based on this trip you took in 2015, right? 2016. How long does it generally take you for a song to germinate? [00:34:41] Thao Nguyen: You know, that one, um, that's, that is an example of a, a longer, uh, gestation period because it was such an intense, because Vietnam was such an intense time. Uh, it was months, maybe it was two years before I could even think about it, honestly. And there are other things that happen. I wish things happened more instantaneously. It's very rare that a whole song will just present itself. You know, temple, that song in particular, when I started writing it, it took maybe two hours, but it took me two years to get to the point where I could [00:35:20] Miko Lee: And it just came to you in two hours? [00:35:22] Thao Nguyen: Yeah. It just came, just the vision. All those, the imagery, everything that I'd wanted to say. It just, I understood how. To present it. And I think I had tried in other forms over that time, but it just wasn't ready. Other songs, um, yeah, anywhere from it's, it's like the chorus or a hook or a verse will come very quickly, and then the time, the more arduous stuff is building around it to make sure that it, it, you know, it's properly bolstered. Like I, if I believe in a hook, then I'll, I'll try to build the house around it. [00:36:02] Miko Lee: And how, what do you do? Do you just record it straight up right when you get the hook, like on a small device or what's your process? [00:36:09] Thao Nguyen: It um, typically I'm playing an instrument, either guitar or piano or I've written, you know, sometimes I get bored, I write on other instruments, but primarily it's guitar, piano, and, um. It'll be the melodic hook only on the instrument, and then I'll put words. But yeah, it's, I, I just use voice memos and then as I'm building it, then I'll move into pro tools and, and, and record a more proper demo. [00:36:40] Miko Lee: And do you have a set working process or you just vibe it whenever you're feeling it? And I ask because I always ask this of artists. Because I think it's so interesting, what is the discipline it takes for your art form? And I remember I interviewed Isabel Allende years ago and she said, yes, I make myself go in my studio at 8:00 AM every day. And even if I can't write, I sit there from this time to this time. So what, what is your process like? Or do you have a set process? [00:37:05] Thao Nguyen: Yes. Absolutely. And it's taken me so many years to figure out what my set process is and to have the discipline to really, really, um, I do believe it is a daily practice and it is a daily discipline and I'm so afraid of what happens when I slip out of it because I know what happens. I've tumbled into this very dark, deep well of despair and I don't know. You, you start to question what your whole purpose is. It gets bad very quickly, right? So I'm always trying to stay on the side of not completely sliding down. Not to say it isn't very joyful and I mean this a very lucky position to be in. One of the things that's been going on for the last few years is I have multiple projects going on at once and I do have to figure out, I had an, um, the album is just finished thankfully, but I am developing a musical and I'm also writing a book. And so I have to figure out, I divvy out the days. I would like to say that I can work on all three in one day, not possible. So I have to choose, um. And it's always, the morning time is the best for generating something from nothing. And then I try not to edit or revise or question it until that afternoon or later. Actually, you don't question it within that same day. Like the main, I think the main priority for me is maintaining momentum and optimism. So I need to do whatever it is to thwart whatever part of me is trying to take it down. Um, so I'll work in the morning for a few hours and then leave it, you know, and as writers say, leave it no matter if it's songwriting or whatever, like leave it at a place where you, when you start again, you feel good about it and you know what the next step is. [00:39:08] Miko Lee: Do you have a set time? It's like just the morning from this time to this time. And then do you say musical today? Book today. Album today. How do you do that? [00:39:17] Thao Nguyen: Well, it depends on the deadlines. [00:39:21] Miko Lee: Of course. [00:39:22] Thao Nguyen: I, yeah, I, I work to the deadline. 'cause there's always, thankfully, there's always at least one happening and yeah, I. I love this by the way, because I actually, when I'm stuck, I just look up different routines for writers and artists. It's like my favorite thing to do. So I love to participate in this conversation. Um, but I wake up, I meditate, I try to do a little stretching, and then I do a walk. It depends on where I'm working. Okay? Here's the thing. If I'm working on music, I have to work at home. If I can write, then I'm gonna go to a coffee shop or the library or my friends just opened up local economy, uh, that, that, so I've been going there and because writing is so lonely and miserable that I cannot be in the house, I, I, there's no way I have to be in public. Um, and just at least feeling the energy of other life [00:40:18] Miko Lee: With songwriting also? [00:40:19] Thao Nguyen: With songwriting, I have to be home 'cause I'm making all this noise. So what? Yeah, with songwriting I'll be at home, but that's way less miserable 'cause I can just play guitar or piano or something and then, or I'll be in studio with my friends that I'm making the album with. Um, now that I've finished the album and I'm moving and I'm more squarely in the book writing, um, I try to do two hours. You know, not, not solid. I will try, like, for a while, um, I was doing the timer with the, you know, 25 minutes at a time. And then that wasn't, I wasn't getting enough done and then, yeah, and then more than two hours. I, I just can't, it's not sustainable. Um, for me, I feel like I get a solid hour to two. Or maybe you hit like a two page, two or three page, um, quota or something, and then just don't even look at it and then go, and then I go exercise and I need to be outside and, or go on a hike or something. [00:41:34] Miko Lee: Okay. Tell us about this book. What is it about, what's the timeline? No pressure. [00:41:41] Thao Nguyen: I would love to tell you what it was about, if I knew better. Um, what it was. It's, it's a collection of essays and I'm calling it, so it's, it's, uh, it'll be out on Gray Wolf, um, into, in spring of 27. And so it is due relatively soon 'cause they, it's a longer lead time. I'm calling it a community memoir, um, because it's a collection of essays from different, it's all through my lens, but it's to celebrate these characters that I grew up with in Foster Virginia, within my family, within the community that I, they're so vivid to me and. Their stories. The quieter sides, the quieter moments of what it means to live in diaspora or what I wanna capture. And also what, you know, part of it is what shaped my musical life. And, and there are all these influences and elements that I, that I just wanted to celebrate and honor and. These people that I remember, but I, I'm, we're all, you know, I'm, I'm turning 42. I'm like, I, we're close to lo I'm close to losing the Hi-Fi detail of them, you know, and, and I don't know who else, is in a position to capture it. You know, and, and also it's this amazing opportunity to talk to my mom's, brothers and sisters. You know, there are tales. There's, of course, you grow up with, I think it's really different to, I was raised, you know, in Virginia by my, primarily by my mom. My grandmother and my aunt didn't come till I was five, but the stories that I heard. Mostly were from my mom who fled in, who left in 73, and her experience is so different than my grandmother, my aunt, all of my mom's siblings who stayed, who had to stay through the fall and, and live in a different regime, you know? And so to get to hear those stories of just like the more quotidian indignities of what is life after you've lost your. To them they've lost their country, but they're still in it. You know, like, what is it to, with what were the rice rations like? Yeah. So, 50 years on what stays with people, you know, against the backdrop of the most devastating thing that can happen is that like the rice was so broken and it was so rationed and the quality of it was so infuriating and that they and my uncle talks about just for the 50th anniversary, I went back, I had an event, um, I think at the Smithsonian, and I went and I was staying with my uncle, and so I was able to ask them questions and he remembers buying meat on the black market. But you, you'd go to this market, you'd make eye contact with the person. They, you follow them to a behind the stall. They give you this meat wrapped in newspaper. You don't even know what it is. You don't, you can't unwrap it till you get home, you know? Anyway, those are the things that I, I just am so fascinated by, and I, there's just this kind of humanity and life in them that I wanna help. Um, record and if nothing else, just so that I know that it gives me an opportunity to ask these questions. Um, there's stuff about, you know, I'm estranged from my father and I have a lot there, there are things that I, you know, it just, these essays are helping me, better understand and, and process. these open-ended. storylines that, that, have punctuated and haunted me. [00:45:38] Miko Lee: And this is your first book, right? [00:45:40] Thao Nguyen: It is, yes. [00:45:42] Miko Lee: What made you decide to do a book format and also essays, I heard you say? Mm-hmm. Um, as opposed to another album or a series of songs. [00:45:52] Thao Nguyen: Um, I've always wanted to be a writer. Bef I wanted to be a writer before I was a songwriter, before I wanted to do anything. And I think it scares me the most in my life. And, and it was time to, you know, the opportunity came up, um, very fortunately to get to write a book for Gray Wolf, which of which I'm a huge fan, you know, and, uh, it's a true honor to be affiliated with them. And. Uh, I wanted to do it because it's a lifelong goal and dream, that actually is way scarier to me than making music and performing music. So I, I kind of just needed to see that I, I needed to try. [00:46:38] Miko Lee: And why an essay format? [00:46:40] Thao Nguyen: Um, I think that's what naturally. For this, for the first go, it, it, it is what naturally I'm drawn to and what happens most easily. Uh, and I think they're similar to songs in that way. And I, I am very much as a writer, as a songwriter or any or prose writer, I want to try and just capture the, a moment and a feeling and I. Um, that's my main prerogative and my main compulsion when I write. And so for this first go, I'm hoping that there will be more, but this, yeah. Is, is just the, the easiest way to package it. [00:47:28] Miko Lee: I'm absolutely looking forward to reading it. Now share about a musical. Tell me more [00:47:34] Thao Nguyen: Musical. I don't know how much I can say besides, uh, it's not been announced yet, but I do, I have been in, I do spend a lot of time in New York, um, and it's an adaptation. Um, I. I shouldn't have. I, I just wanted to mention that it was happening, but I know now that I sh I can't actually say. [00:47:56] Miko Lee: Okay. That's okay. It's secret, So how can our audiences find out more about you and your work? We'll put a link to your website absolutely. On their webs, on our, program page. But are there other ways that folks can find out more and keep up to date with what you're doing? [00:48:11] Thao Nguyen: For sure there's, um, well, all the social media, um, outlets were on there @thaogetstaydown. And um, I have a substack called THAO For The Record, which actually was just me sort of documenting my process of making this next record. Um, but that is my preferred way to be in touch in a more long form, um, less harried way. And the new album is coming out in mid to late September. And so I'm really excited about that. And we're, we are gearing up for more touring, starting the summertime. [00:48:54] Miko Lee: Excellent. Can't wait to listen to you more and hear the new, piece. And thank you so much for joining us on Apex Express. [00:49:02] Thao Nguyen: Thank you so much for having me. It was such a joy to speak with you. [00:49:05] Ayame Keane-Lee: The last song we're playing tonight is also the last on the album Temple. It's called “I've Got Something.” MUSIC [00:53:51] That was “I've Got Something” by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. [00:53:55] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for listening tonight. Remember to reconnect to your ancestral technologies and hold in the power of tenderness. Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night. The post APEX Express – 6.18.26 Talk Story with Thao Nguyen appeared first on KPFA.

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The “Miracle” Rice

The Asianometry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026

Rice is Asia's single most important food crop. And in the 1950s and 1960s, the fear was that Asians would not get enough of it. In the 1950s, Asia was adding 11 million new people each year. All those people needed calories. They needed rice. But those countries faced a brutal equation: The only way to produce more rice was to make more rice paddies. Then in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new generation of high-yield rice hybrids forever changed the rice production equation. In today's video, we return (yet again!) to my favorite carb and wolf down the Miracle Rices.

rice asians xa

The “Miracle” Rice

The Asianometry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026

rice asians xa

TWPS Scary Talk with SYDNEY PARK (Scary Movie, The Walking Dead)

That Was Pretty Scary

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2026 68:12

JLB's 'Seoul Sister' SYDNEY PARK joins TWPS for a conversation about Asian representation and identity. And Sydney talks about how leaning into her comedy roots led to her latest role in Scary Movie. Follow That Was Pretty Scary on Instagram and TikTokFollow Jon Lee Brody on Instagram Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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How Have K-Dramas Changed Our Lives?

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2026 88:43

After 51/2 years on our K-Drama journey, we reflect on how K-Dramas have changed our lives. From how we participate in fandoms, to what has changed in our writing, to the community we're so grateful to have found, watching dramas has truly been a life-altering experience. Ready to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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The Vanishing Black Family: Delano Squires on Marriage, Moynihan, and the Crisis in Black America

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2026 52:14

“Second wave feminism taught women that femininity was weak, masculinity was toxic, marriage was oppressive, the home was a prison, and children are a burden.” — Delano Squires Sixty years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, which was immediately attacked by the left as victim-blaming and by the right as an admission of state responsibility. In 1965, 25% of black children were born to unmarried parents. Today the figure is 70%. So is the black American family vanishing? Delano Squires — director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at the Heritage Foundation — certainly thinks so. In his controversial new book, The Vanishing Black Family, Squires argues that “welfare” and “feminism” have made black marriage optional and children vulnerable. Squires identifies what he calls the “sinister six” forces that have dismantled the black family: slavery's legacy, the welfare state, second wave feminism, popular culture, the failure of the black church, and the indifference of black progressive leadership. Perhaps his most controversial claim is that the second wave feminism of Betty Friedan did specific damage in black communities by weakening the social norms that survived slavery and Jim Crow. His prescription is a Heritage Foundation-style free market revolution led by black institutions rather than by Daniel Patrick Moynihan's federal government. The church, HBCUs and black media should all embrace education, work, marriage and family. Give her a ring before she gives you a baby, Squires advises young black men. But leave Betty Friedan literature off the wedding gift list. Five Takeaways • From 25% to 70%: The Statistics Behind the Book: In 1965, when Moynihan wrote his report, 25% of black children were born to unmarried parents — a figure Moynihan regarded as a national crisis requiring urgent political response. The national average was 7%. Today, 70% of black children are born to unmarried parents. The national average has risen to 40%. Squires' argument: the gap has widened, the scale has changed, and the Moynihan consensus — that this is a serious problem requiring serious attention — has been largely abandoned by black progressive leadership. Only 33% of black adults are married, compared to 48% of Hispanics, 57% of whites, and 63% of Asians. • The Second Wave Feminism Argument: Squires' Most Contested Claim: Squires devotes an entire chapter to second wave feminism and its specific damage in black communities. His top-line claim: that second wave feminism — from Betty Friedan's characterisation of the suburban home as a “comfortable concentration camp”, to Gloria Steinem's description of married women as “hostesses” — taught women that femininity was weak, masculinity was toxic, marriage was oppressive, the home was a prison, and children a burden. He is careful to distinguish this from the franchise and access to credit. He argues this ideological framework did particular damage in communities where family structures had already been weakened by slavery and segregation. • The Success Sequence: Finish School, Get a Job, Get Married, Then Have Children: Squires' prescribed alternative to the cultural norms he critiques: the “success sequence,” a term drawn from social science research. If you finish high school, get a job, get married, and then have children — in that order — your chances of living in poverty are in the single digits, approximately 3%. His slogan: give her a ring before she gives you a baby. He advocates for government awareness campaigns in cities like Baltimore, Memphis, and Detroit, but argues that 90% of the required change has to happen in the culture, led by black institutions: the black church, HBCUs, and black media. • Black Leadership's Failure: Far More Invested in the White House Than the Black Family: Squires' sharpest political observation: black progressive leaders today are, in his view, far more invested in retaking the White House than rebuilding the black family. He argues that the institutions of black civil society — the church, the HBCU, the cultural and media establishment — have collectively failed to make family formation a priority, and that this failure is traceable to an ideological commitment to progressive politics that makes marriage advocacy feel retrograde. He does not spare conservatives: the government policies of the right have often failed black families too. • Advice to Ambitious Black Women: The Cornerstone vs the Capstone Marriage: Andrew asks what Squires would say to a highly ambitious young black woman. His answer: he would give it “in a fatherly tone.” Women, he argues, naturally seek partners who match or exceed their social status — a Bloomberg analysis of married couples by occupation confirmed this. The higher a woman's earnings, the smaller her pool of eligible partners. His recommendation: prioritise marriage earlier rather than later. The median age of first marriage in 1980 was 24 for men and 22 for women; today it is 31 and 29. He distinguishes between the “cornerstone marriage” — where two people build together from a young age — and the “capstone marriage,” where people wait until all individual goals are achieved, often leaving the biological clock behind. About the Guest Delano Squires is the director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at the Heritage Foundation, where he studies the impact of marriage and family structure on social outcomes. He worked for fifteen years in local government in Washington, D.C. before joining Heritage. He is the author of The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable (Sentinel/Penguin Random House, June 16, 2026). His writing has appeared in the New York Post, Newsweek, National Review, and Compact. References: • The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable by Delano Squires (Sentinel/Penguin Random House, June 16, 2026). • Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (1965) — the foundational text Squires explicitly updates. • Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963) — referenced extensively in Squires' chapter on second wave feminism. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting dail...

Episode 512: Looking Good

australia debate new zealand asians pauline hanson

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2026 63:48

Asians in Baseball is back, baby, and our guys are looking good!4:33 - All Star Game voting is already open?!? Vote 5x daily until 6/25, guide coming soon! Also, Tommy Pham is released by the Orioles, and Kim is NOT talking about trade rumors until at least July!! 8:48 - Lars Nootbaar is finally activated for the first time this year, Steven Kwan and Bo Bichette are on the up and up, and Seiya Suzuki was hot at the plate and in the field...until he tweaked his bad knee again. 21:30 - We're skipping Ohtani this week because his ERA is over 1 now, so he's washed!!!!! (jk, we talk about him in our hot topic)23:18 - Sean Manaea and Tomoyuki Sugano are crushing it, Tatsuya Imai and Roki Sasaki have great starts before returning to the disaster zone, Bryan Woo is "just tired of sucking," and Yoshinobu Yamamoto flirts with perfection and a no no and settles for an insanely impressive June. 45:06 - This week's HOT TOPIC, inspired by a post on Dodgers Nation -- “The question I have is, is it really worth it for Shohei Ohtani to go all-in on a Cy Young that right now the odds will say he's not going to win?”

The Late Debate | 16 June

The Late Debate

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2026 49:29 Transcription Available

The prime minister questions Pauline Hanson's ability to relate to Asians presumably because of something she said 30 years ago. Plus, Lincraft announce they'll close all their physical stores in Australia and New Zealand.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BTS Uncensored: Arirang Tour Recap

Afternoona Army: Thinky and Thirsty BTS Takes

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 72:09

We made it, ya'll. Your hosts Megan & Lia saw BTS PTD Las Vegas in 2022...and here we are 4 years, and 3,402 experiences later, catching them again on the Arirang Tour. Join us for an unscripted, unedited, uncensored chat about life, Stanford, Bay 2 Breakers, the universe, and Park Jimin's braids.DJ Spin That Shit!And remember--keep listening to Arirang top to bottom on your favorite streaming platform! And Come Over is now out on all platforms. Make sure to grab your copy on the iTunes Store and kkkkAre your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Check out our sister pod www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest members of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Want to find more great BTS content? Head over to Afternoona Army for more takes on Bangtan life and links to our social media.

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APEX Express – 6.11.26 – Pride, Power, and Queer AAPI Voices

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026

APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. This Pride Month—queer and trans AAPI community strength. On this episode, host Miata Tan is joined by guests from three organizations building queer AAPI community on their own terms. They explore what it's like to find joy, organize together, and show up for each other in this moment. QTViệt Cafe Collective Learn more about QTViệt Cafe Collective and their new documentary Đồng Quê: Of the Same Womb Website | Instagram | Join the Collective Catch the film at an upcoming screening: June 14 — World Premiere | 22nd Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival | Presidio Theater, San Francisco June 20 — Screening + Q&A with filmmaker Sage Tran | Hosted by the Q Corner | San Jose Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride (QHIP) Learn more about QHIP and their upcoming workshops, events, and campaigns Instagram | Website | 5th Annual Elk Grove Pride Lavender Phoenix (LavNix) Learn more about Lavender Phoenix and their Leadership Exchange program Website | Instagram | Leadership Exchange Program Previous Episodes A Conversation with Lavender Phoenix: The Next Chapter — March 26, 2026 Trans & Queer Hmong Rise: Organizing in Central California — October 24, 2024 8 Years of QTViệt Cafe! — August 22, 2024 Transcript [00:00:00] Miata Tan : Hello and welcome. You're tuning in to APEX Express, a weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I'm your host, Miata Tan. We're nearly halfway through June, and Pride Month is in full swing. Pride is a time to celebrate, honor, and dig into the deep political history of queer and trans communities. And tonight, [00:01:00] we're zooming into a few distinct queer Asian American communities right here in Northern California. First, we'll hear from a collective of queer and trans Vietnamese artists, activists, and organizers based in the Bay Area, who have a brand-new documentary out this weekend. Then we'll dive into the political organizing of queer and trans Hmong communities in Fresno and Sacramento. And we'll close out the show with a queer Asian American community leader and some different ways that you can get involved this summer. Okay, let's get into it. First up, my conversation with QTViet Cafe Collective. And before you ask, no, QTViet Cafe is not a brick-and-mortar cafe that serves coffee. They are a Bay Area-based creative cultural hub for queer and trans Vietnamese liberation through gatherings, art showcases, cultural programming, and more. QTViet Cafe is a part of Asian Refugees United, [00:02:00] and tonight we'll be discussing their new documentary, Dong Hoi: Of the Same Womb. It is premiering this Sunday, June 14, as part of the 22nd Annual International Queer Women of Color Film Festival in San Francisco. Dong Hoi asks viewers what it means to return to a homeland, to a community, to yourself. Here's my conversation with the QTViet Cafe Collective. Miata Tan: Thank you all so much for joining me today on APEX Express. Sage, perhaps you can start us off. would you be able to introduce yourself and share a little bit about what the QTViet Cafe Collective is? Sage Tran: My name is Sage. I use they/them pronouns. One of filmmakers/digital archivists for QTViet Cafe Collective. we are a cultural hub where we focus on, diasporic themes around intergenerational Vietnamese and identity and queerness. We do a lot our [00:03:00] events and workshops and gatherings around food, remembrance, and, our gay and they selves. Miata Tan: Lovely. Jessie, who are you and what brought you to QTViet? Jessie Nguyen: Sure, my name is Jessie, and my pronouns are they or Jessie, and I've been part of the collective since, 2018. I think I found the collective in a place in my life when I was really searching for ways to, bring an intersection to all parts of my identities, QTViet Cafe Just like Sage said, it's a creative hub, it's a cultural hub that is really dedicated to uplifting queer and trans Viet liberation through ancestral practices , different, forms of art and intergenerational connection. yeah, I just really appreciate the ways that QTViet Cafe has just been so dedicated to our, art and then also uplifting our art to really, bring forth community, organizing work, solidarity [00:04:00] work and our own, like, queer and trans Viet excellence Miata Tan: Love that. Jean, could you share a little bit about yourself as well? Jean Pham: Thanks for having us here. my name is Jean Pham. I use they/them pronouns. i've also been a part of QTViet Cafe since 2018 when I had first moved here to the Bay Area. Like Sage and Jessie had shared, QTViet Cafe is, it's a really special space. I think as d- diasporic Vietnamese, speaking broadly, like culturally we experience being displaced on many different levels. Um, when people say that it's a cultural hub, really tangible in a, in a lot of the activities and things that we do. we've hosted like art residencies. We cultural dinners. We have language groups. QTViet Cafe, it really exists to fill a need. and I think part of that need brought us, to the culmination of this specific project, to bring us back into Vietnam Miata Tan: Yeah, lovely. And we can pick up from there your trip to Vietnam. this, was captured by Sage recently in a documentary. Sage, could you speak more about what, this new doco is about? where did this project come [00:05:00] from? Sage Tran: this project emerged from a collective hunger for wanting to return back to the motherland. for years of doing a lot of gathering here, specifically in the Bay Area, we've been able to stay rooted in the territories here. And, we all came to a consensus like , what would it be like to gather a bunch of us and connect with our siblings, brother, sisters, family, chosen fam out in the motherland? that became a seed that we cultivated, planted, tend to, and we fundraised with a lot of community support to get about 13 of us out uh, Vietnam. maybe Jessie can talk a little bit more about this, but Hai and Ma are the, folks who founded QTViet Cafe Collective [00:06:00] Jessie, Ma, and Hai. They all three went to Vietnam in 2022 and built a lot of beautiful connections of like local drag artists, queer trans collectives out there. That's kind of what birthed Dong Khoi. Miata Tan: so I've been lucky enough to, watch the film already. Donghui is the name of the documentary, but it's also the name of the performance that came together Jesse, perhaps you can speak to this this journey more and I know QTViet C- Cafe's been around since 2016, this project goes back, a few years as well Jessie Nguyen: Yeah, sure. I can speak a little bit about that and just chiming into, like, what Sage already shared. there was a small group of collective members that that came up with the idea of, like, what would it be like for us as, queer and trans Viet diasporic folks to go to the homeland. the original intent was for that trip to happen in 2020. And it [00:07:00] actually, because of the pandemic, I think obviously things were, logistically it just didn't work, but that, dream, like, surfaced again, so the question came up about, like, what would it be like for us to travel together to the homeland as a collective and also share our art, to , connect with other Viets in Saigon. You know, when we're in the Bay, so much of our work is really centered around gathering communities around our food, our art, and our stories. And so it really made sense for us to think about what would that look like in Vietnam. And so in 2022, as Sage was mentioning, me, Hai, and Ma,, went to Saigon and just kind of explored, like, what is the creative scene like and were able to connect queer and trans Viet artists who are doing insanely inspiring creative work. we connected with folks from the Baxiu Collective, and they're a group of, queer and trans Viet artists who are doing drag in different, performance spaces in queer bars in Saigon. And then I think in that moment we're like, “Wait, we would love to [00:08:00] collaborate with you.” from that unfolded, a, a year-long , like, planning of, what would it look like for us to do a shared showcase together. And so we identified built relationships with a queer bar in Saigon. and then so leading up to the homeland trip, we planned this showcase where it would be a mix artists from our collective and artists from their collective, and then a whole, a whole performance that unfolded. And I think in the year of 2023, that year I think we ended up fundraising, about 50K in order to really subsidize and support the whole journey of getting us to Vietnam. Like, stipending artists and creatives that we were collaborating with. it was, one of the biggest projects I think that QTViet has ever been a part of and really undertaken, and I think it definitely is, like, a huge highlight for, like, my time with QTViet. Miata Tan: Lovely, and it's so beautiful to see it all come together in the documentary. Jean, could you speak to your experience? I understand this was [00:09:00] your first time ever visiting Vietnam Jean Pham: Yes, it was my first time visiting Vietnam. so I had a well of emotions in terms of the lead-up to it. Like Jesse was sharing, you know, originally the plan was we were gonna go in 2020. That had to shift, you know, shelter in place and everything. A lot of the work that we do is reconnection, right? as diasporic Vietnamese being displaced from our ancestral land, as queer and trans people, um, a big rallying point for many of us is feeling displaced from our own families. And so part of, like, returning back together is fighting against it. It's like, what if we reconnect ? You know, what if we re- reunite? You know, w- if we're traveling together as queer community, we can really see and understand what it's like to be uh, Vietnam for ourselves. And so it was really, like h- it had this like gravity around it, and I think it made me really nervous but also excited. that being said, you know, a lot of other folks who are part of our cohort, even though they had gone to Vietnam before, a lot of them had also shared this is their [00:10:00] first time going without family, And we're going specifically towards, queer and trans community in Vietnam, which is also a departure from their other experiences too. Jessie Nguyen: Can I just add something? Because I just really loved what Gene shared. I just think that, yeah, I think that you really spoke to something there about how we can spend our whole lives, like, having this understanding of homeland that is actually quite disconnected from our queerness and our transness. And similar to, like, many other folks in the collective, like, I have been to Vietnam, multiple times before, but never in the context of centering my queerness and transness because I just wasn't sure, like, what felt safe. You know, without having, like, fluency in the language or even knowing, like, how to express my queerness in Vietnam. Oftentimes it just felt… I felt pretty invisibilized there, you know, because, like, being there with family, I just show up as, like, a, a family member, There's so much that is a part of me that is expressed through my queerness and my transness that [00:11:00] is that isn't as visible. And so I think that being in a space as a collective gave us permission to do and to feel deeply woven into our cultural experience was, like, in- in- incredibly liberating. Miata Tan: Yeah. That's really beautiful, Jessie. I also noticed in the film your aunt was also, part of it as well, so you were able to hold that familial side of yourself as well as the queer side. Could you speak more to that? Jessie Nguyen: Yeah. I was just watching the documentary yesterday too, and I was like, oh my gosh, I– it was so sweet that my aunt had a moment in that documentary. the thing that I was really interested in was trying to weave my connection with my family to, like, my connection with, like, my chosen queer family, And I think that became very possible when, we did the homeland trip. I'm, I'm not fluent in Vietnamese, and I'm especially not fluent in trying to articulate what it means to be queer and [00:12:00] Vietnamese. And so the idea of inviting QTViets to my aunt's home was, like, a way to be like, “Hey, this is who I and here are my– here's my community.” And maybe if I can't actually, like, articulate that, like, I I want my aunt to, like, feel that sense of, like, care and connection of my community. And then to me that felt like a way of inviting my Vietnamese family to this part of my life. I think that it's, it's oftentimes hard to even do that here in the Bay. You know? Like, the connection that I have to my blood family and then my connection to my chosen family here in the Bay, like, can feel quite separate. keeps me coming back to QTViet is that we always make space for that intergenerational connection that doesn't invisibilize our queerness and our gender identity . Miata Tan: Sage, could you speak more to this theme of family? It seemed to be really core to the documentary tell us about how that felt as the director, like being behind the [00:13:00] camera but also part of the QTViet team on this trip? Sage Tran: directing and being behind the camera had a lot of challenges. I think there's something where I'm not sure if y- like folks can relate to this, but when you are filming something with your iPhone or on your camera, there's a connection and a disconnection that happens at the same time. You're not able to fully present, but you are. I was straddling the line of like is this shot looking beautiful and also crying I think there was a moment where we were in a taxi or Grab car, and it was Hai, Jesse, and Jesse's aunt, she was dropping some heavy moments, and I just remember we're all crying in the car while the Grab driver is like blasting music, and it's like a super bumpy road. People are honking at us, and it was just like such a funny and rocky, symbolic, memory I just was like, “Wow, I can't [00:14:00] believe I'm getting to document this” like historical moment, not only for Jesse, but just like for the collective and what does it mean for folks who are queer and trans that can't have moments like this. It's just like kind of a reminder to slow down and being like, ” Okay,” am I getting to embody this moment while holding the stabilization of the camera?” And I think still I find that to be a challenge, but a, a really fun dance of filmmaking, directing and being there. Miata Tan: Yeah, definitely. I can't imagine trying to keep the camera still while you're bawling your eyes out. Sage Tran: Yes. Miata Tan: Jean, we've talked a now about this connection of blood family and found family as well. could you speak a bit to the QTViet Cafe family that sort of came together on the trip, but also this wider, Vietnamese, queer community you were able to find over there in Saigon? Jean Pham: Every step of the way it felt really [00:15:00] good because when, like, you know, we were traveling together as this, this giant mass of just gay people. and so I always felt like, oh, I could kinda be off guard, I understand that, like, for a lot of Korean trans people, w- when traveling we're on high alert, there's just a lot of unpredictability. There is safety in numbers. There's safety in communities. I felt like, you know, the QTViets have my back. There was a bigger group that came together in SFO, and we just t- all booked the same flights. And then there were some people who were coming, like, a little bit later. I had been with QTViets at that point for about six or seven years, and so there was a lot of trust already built. With the Saigonese Viets, it, it was like a, just a natural kinship. You know? It was like, it was also as if like we were just friends off the bat or there was just this shared understanding. We had a gathering, and I think this is featured in the documentary. after gathering, people were just kind of, getting to know each other in in their flat, and they were teaching us how to walk in heels, and it was so lovely. And I remember thinking like, “Oh gosh, what music do I play here? How do I set the mood?” But the, th- I think the reality is, [00:16:00] you know, Rihanna is like a common language, like among gay people. Everyone under like … It was, it was funny 'cause like, you know, I would, you know, I would play music that I would just listen to. Like, they're just, pop girlies that would play in the States. And, yeah, gay people, like, they, they just love a diva no matter where you are. And so that that was really nice. But r- truly, like, the DIY drag scene in Saigon is huge, and it c- it's, like, so varied. And, I do wanna shout out, like, all the queens and the Baxio Collective and all the trans artists who really helped, make our show and, like, really helped hone in our craft. And they were pr- they were strict, you know? They were like, “You have to come here early, and you have to come in, like, days before. And we're gonna have to practice over and over again.” And they had, like, really specific notes on how to make the show better. And so it was interesting as a culture exchange they were learning, how we were operating in terms of how we organize and a- I think a lot of the spoken word, slam poetry style that, like, some of our members were bringing. And from them, we were [00:17:00] learning a lot of the theatrics on really how to, like, have a show and really think, holistically about all the different components. Miata Tan: Jessie, could you speak more to the show? Uh, what did it look like? How did it feel? Jessie Nguyen: So back in 2022 was when we discovered that there is actually one queer bar in Saigon, and it's in District 4. this bar called Bar Zinga. And it's, like, in this alleyway. It's pretty divey. And so when we were there in 2022, we actually spent uh, New Year's there, and we got to know the owner, and we got to know, like, what they envisioned for the space, which is they've been using it as a space for, drag, drag performances, music sets, and things like that. And we're like, “Oh, wait. Maybe this could be a good spot for us to do something for QTViet.” And So essentially the vision for the show was for us to collaborate with, Babel and Yat, who are the co-founders of Bạc Xỉu Collective, they are incredible, like, production artists and drag artists. we [00:18:00] invited folks from the collective, if they wanted to share some of their art as well. And so we had… Let's see. I remember Irene, who is one of the poets and also, like, OG QTViets, shared, some poetry, and then we had also Hai sharing some erotica. Me, Hai, and Lan did a ao dai fashion runway show. and then there was, Oh, Judy and Hiroshi who did, like, a whole, like, lô tô, so that was, like, based off of, like, like a Vietnamese game, and they did a whole performance on that. yeah. So it was kind of, like, cool to be in this space and inviting folks from the community to come in, and it was a full house. people were feeling so nervous, but the, also the energy of, like, I can't believe this is happening. You know? that the art that we've created in the Bay, that we get to share it in Saigon. Miata Tan: So beautiful. yeah, it's really nice to see this, cross-cultural, international, connection that you've built with, the folks in Vietnam. Sage, could you speak more to, the [00:19:00] documentary itself, what you hope viewers will take away from the film, and especially seeing depiction of, of queer joy in the performance? Sage Tran: I think what I hope viewers take is like the power of remembering and the power of remembering with community. Cause I think like also editing this film, I'm like, I remember exactly what y'all said word for word. It's like ingrained in my head. I think there was something that, Jean, you said in… You said something where like it doesn't matter if you're Vietnamese, it doesn't matter where you were born. It matters and it doesn't, but also like there's so many cross-cultural connections and parallels that, tie us all together. And I think, on the theme of remembering and leaning into our joy and our creativity, there's so much that can unlock with, just living our truths. I think, yeah, I think that's what I hope viewers take away with Miata Tan: Beautiful. and the documentary will be premiering, this [00:20:00] June, as part of QSMAP here in the city in San Francisco. We have A little bit of time here, so I'd love to talk about, uh, what else QTViet has on the horizon, campaigns, workshops, other performances. Jean, Jessie, would either one of you be able to speak to this? Jessie Nguyen: The only thing that is really on my mind around QTViet is that we are celebrating our 10-year anniversary in September. And I don't know what that's gonna look like, but I think that it definitely is gonna be a invite and just a opportunity for us to reflect on everything that we've been able to cultivate as a collective, and also just to notice, like, how much we've evolved. I think that when so many of us joined in 2016 to 2018, we were, younger queers who were really looking for community and maybe felt pretty isolated. And I know that, like, where I am today, my connection to my Vietness and my queerness, like, feels so deeply ingrained. And a [00:21:00] huge part of that is because of having a container like QTViet. I was also gonna talk about Ordinary People, because it's actually a show that we're doing a audio visual storytelling performance that is led by one of the QTViet members, Jop, uh, Nguyen. And it's gonna include, several other QTViet members that are gonna be, contributing as, like, a band. there have been music and songs and videos and animations and, yeah, lots of different elements to really bring to life, like, what it feels like for our parents to, experience their homeland, their escape, their journey here, and then also how we really, how we connect to that story. Miata Tan: Thank you for sharing, Jessie. Sadly, this interview is airing after the Ordinary People performance, but I'll play a little snippet in a bit. Jean, final question. with this 10-year anniversary of QTViet Cafe, how do you see your recent [00:22:00] adventures informing your work? How you organize, how you gather Jean Pham: I think after the trip, there was, like, a re-invigoration of, purpose honestly, like, a new wave of renewed energy and also new people who were joining the space. we started practicing a lot more solidarity work. I think almo- almost immediately after returning, there were a few events that was in solidarity with, Palestine. And as we were returning from the trip, last year was also the 50th anniversary of the war in Vietnam ending, and so we used that as an opportunity to draw connections between how, the conditions of the Vietnam War was truly, like, politically activating for a lot of young people in the '60s, similarly to um, the genocide uh, Palestine was politically activating for people now, uh, and how, like, have a shared struggle. with 10 years of QTViet Cafe, I think it's more evident that QTViet is an, like, entity, a group that needs to exist. and we always invite people to join us. if anyone's listening who is diaspora queer and trans Vietnamese, is looking [00:23:00] for community, you know, looking for language classes or, like, just, uh, ways to build, you know, we're always more than happy to join people. You know, last year, Jessie and a a couple other friends organized this amazing trip to New York. there was really this big energy around uniting all the different scattered parts of QTViets all over and coming together and understanding that, you know, we, we all, um, um, have a lot in common. and so I, I do think that was really uplifted and highlighted in our trip, this feeling of, like, you know, we're not- we're actually not so alone, and there's so many of us, and we're, like, we're all so powerful. Miata Tan: Beautiful. I think that's a perfect place to end. Thank you all so much for joining me today Jessie Nguyen: Yay. Thank you so much Sage Tran: Thank you so much. Thank you. Jean Pham: I know, this is so lovely. Thank you. Miata Tan : That was Sage Tran, Jean Pham, and Jessie Nguyen with the QTViet Cafe Collective. Their new documentary, Dong Hue: Of the Same Womb, premieres this Sunday, June 14th at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco. That's part of the 22nd Annual International Queer Women of Color [00:24:00] Film Festival, this year featuring 47 films, 10 world premieres, all totally free and open to the public. so if you're in the Bay, this is well worth your time. You can also catch QTViet Cafe's new documentary in San Jose on Saturday, June 20th at a screening hosted by the Q Corner, followed by a Q&A with Sage Tran, the filmmaker that you just heard from. For links to these events and more about QTViet Cafe and how you can get involved in the collective, check out the show notes for this episode. That's on our website at kpfa.org/program/APEXexpress Coming up next, queer and trans Hmong communities in California's Central Valley. But first, here's a taste of Ordinary People, a recent live performance by QTViet Cafe recorded in Oakland last month. Miata Tan : [00:25:00] [00:26:00] [00:27:00] That was a live recording from Ordinary People by the QTViet Cafe Collective, in Oakland last month. This is APEX Express, a weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Tonight, in honor of Pride Month, we're turning our attention to queer Asian American communities right here in Northern California: who they are, how they organize, and the future they are fighting for. Miata Tan: My next guests are Shai Chang and Christine Thao from Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride, also known as QHIP. QHIP grows out of Hmong Innovating Politics, a grassroots advocacy group based [00:28:00] in Fresno and Sacramento, and focuses on building community and political power for queer and trans Hmong communities in California's Central Valley. Here's my conversation with Shai and Christine. Miata Tan : You both so much for joining me today on APEX Express. Could you share a little bit about yourself? Who are you, and what is your work with Hmong Innovating Politics? Shai Chang: Hi, my name is Shai, pronouns are they and them. I'm trans, non-binary, also Hmong, located in Yokuts Valley, Fresno, California. the work that I do in Hmong Innovating Politics is that I am a community organizer. I'm the Fresno Trans and Queer Community Organizer, I work specifically in the program called Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride, or QHIP, Q-H-I-P. And we do a lot of really great work with our trans and queer, in particular, like, intersectional folks, people of color within our, our communities and our members and our base to organize to fight, fascism, racism, also, like, transphobia and forms [00:29:00] of hate, moving us towards social justice and liberation. Miata Tan : It's really important work, and I'm excited to get into more of what, Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride looks like, Christine, could you share a little bit about yourself? who are you, and how long have you been with, HIP and QHIP? Christine Thao : Thank you so much for inviting my name is Christine Thao. I use she/they pronouns, and I am currently here on Nisenan, occupied Nisenan land here in the South Sacramento area. my role is the Sacramento, Trans Queer Community Organizer. And so I came into HIP, back in 2020, so during the COVID pandemic, and, um, I came on board as the administrative assistant. um, in 2024, I transitioned into the community organizer role. Miata Tan : Lovely. Yeah. Can't wait to get into the work that you do and the campaigns. to ground us in the history of, Hmong communities in America, Shai, could you speak to, who [00:30:00] the Hmong Americans are? I know that Fresno and Sacramento is home to some of the largest populations of Hmong people in the States. Shai Chang: Yeah, definitely. so the Hmong communities are from Southeast Asia, very much like indigenous folks that live within the mountain ranges and the hills. and the reason why we came to America was because of the Secret War the war that happened in Southeast Asia. one of our community members General Vang Pao was involved within this war and then pulled in the rest of the Hmong community to be part of this it is to say that, like many of our young men during that time was pulled into the war, and they were 13, maybe even 14, 15, and younger who were, pulled into the war to fight for America, um, with the promise of that America was going to give them a place that they could call home it was in 1975 where the war ended and, that's when the military went ahead and was able to, because of Ronald Reagan signed, um, a letter for immigration for, [00:31:00] these Hmong folks and refugees to come into the United States. Miata Tan : Yeah, perhaps you can take us back to then, 2018 when, QHIP sort of came to life. what was the need that you were seeing for, queer and trans Hmong people in, in specifically Fresno and, and Sacramento where you all are based? Shai Chang: the way Hmong communities have always existed was very much to be lay low, you know, not be sticking your head out. And so to be very clear, it's that we are still struggling, economically. we are still very much struggling racially. The ICE attacks definitely impacted our communities we are still very much immigrants and still very much not necessarily having a place of home. But internally is that the Hmong community still very much holds on to, like, the, the traditions. And so they're very patriarchal, um, very strict gender roles, and because of these things have then developed into, gender-based violence [00:32:00] as, like, trans and queer folks, it's that we definitely do experience another deeper layer of the oppressions, especially also in our community because there isn't actually any language in Hmong to talk about what trans or queerness is, where there's no exact word to describe, like, gay or lesbian and things like that. So there is definitely, like, an erasure that also has happened, and in the Hmong community is actually very conservative. Uh, But HIP was already a very progressive organization. And so it was in 2018 because of Hmong innovating politics coming to Fresno. it was at the Hmong New Years, I saw them. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I know who you are. I love you. Like, if there's anything I can do, please let me know,” ‘ Mai Thao was able to pull me in. It was like, “Hey, I want you to do something with us.” and with- was then funded three thousand dollars through HIP, to be able to go ahead and organize for whatever it means for me to trans queer Hmong work. during that time, it grew from, like, me, three people to having, like, fifteen people, [00:33:00] meet, once a week for three hours, and then another three hours we would go out and hang out. and so it really became this place for a social space for particularly, and, and I will name it, it's that majority of the folks in that space was gay cis Hmong men. And it wasn't until a year later from that first time that we first met in 2018 to we had a really hard conversation about our future, about the political work that that we should be doing. and so I've been with HIP for four years, and we've officialized during that time QTPIP to be a program, within HIP, and yeah, it's been really good. I don't have to worry about funding and things and organizing around that front end, and HIP has been able to be s- very supportive in being able to see that, and we can really work on the ends of what does it mean for us to organize around liberation and being on the ground with our community Miata Tan : Yeah, definitely. It's interesting to hear about the progression from [00:34:00] perhaps a group that was maybe more apolitical moving into that political space. Shai Chang: we've also been, struggling still even now to land on what it means for us to fight more intersectionally. that's where, like, QHIP and Queer Hmong and intersectional pride comes from, right? Is this word intersectional, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, is that We do have these cross identities that exist within ourselves. And so would love to have Christine talk more about what actually this issue is within not just Hmong communities, Hmong and trans queer communities. Christine Thao : Thank you, Shy. so Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride, we officially launched the program back in 2024. our QHIP program, It is open to young people between ages, 18 to 25. uh, young trans queer folks. Some go to college. Some, currently looking to be employed. Young people who are impacted, [00:35:00] young people who want to get involved, right, who, who do care about, this work, and who care about social justice, it's a eight-month program And our gatherings are, we call them our huddles, our QHIP huddles. And they're, we do them about biweekly, I can speak a little bit for Sacramento. we've been meeting up at a cafe. We also use our office space. And, this is just a really a moment in time for our members to, bring up and have critical conversations about things that are happening in their lives or things that they're seeing in their community. Miata Tan : Perhaps you could speak more to the organizing piece. What does this look like? Um, what sort of work are y'all up to? Shai Chang: Some of the ways in which we have organized, in our community is through the framework of BBB. It's our belong, believe, become, and it sounds really cheesy, but this is really how we mobilize our people, we know as trans and queer people, especially as a person of color, we don't know and have enough spaces of [00:36:00] belonging. we actually have a, such a hard time believing in ourselves, and because of that, we have such a hard time in becoming. And this sounds like the story of literally just transitioning. when you Transition is that you really need to have a space of, believing in yourself. You need to have a space in which you can belong, where you are safe, and then through that you can actually become and this person that you have always wanted to be. This is how we mobilize and organize our members and our community because once they start practicing this ability to be able to believe in themselves, have the spaces for them to organize and organize with other people. and to figure out, like, , what is our campaign strategy? What is the ways in which we wanna win in our community, right? And Uh, in gender-affirming care in Fresno and the Central Valley was very, very hard. many of the times folks will have to go to, like, the bigger cities like LA SF to get their care that they needed. We need actual, like, [00:37:00] materialistic wins for our communities so that way they can get to where they need to be. when I'm talking about Materialistic things, it's that, we need them to be housed. We need them to have the affordable, uh, care. We need them to have, the affirming care that they are needing, we know how hard it is for, in particular, trans and queer people to be able to afford literally anything. and it's so much more harder for them to find a career or a job, in a place where they actually also can live and exist through their identities. we've seen the, impacts of, ICE and immigration on our own communities these were, like, the works that were coming out constantly for our communities to fight for, these kind of justice issues, through these ways, we've been able mobilize and move our people to what does it mean for us to actually start thinking about a campaign strategy for us to win some kind of materialistic need and, of course, we work with youths a lot, right? So where is our youth justice at? And this is literally our youth justice, right? We're having our young people share their voices. We [00:38:00] have our young adults organizing in the community, um, doing protestings, and fighting against the system. in particular, more recently, this, board of supervisor in Fresno County banned and denied, LBGTQ books in the Fresno County libraries. and we've organized to get people to show up to write letters and to really be there, and hundreds of people shown up and yet they still continue to, not hear their own constituency and their own community They continuously vote against us. that's why HIP is political, right? Is that we have our civic engagement side, is that, okay, well, it sounds like we need to vote them out, right? And that's what is it mean, and that's what it's about now. Miata Tan : Yeah, I hear you. It sounds like you're really helping to build political power within Hmong communities in, in Fresno and Sacramento. I'm curious, what has wins look like, uh, for your groups there? how have, you perhaps helped to show those material, changes [00:39:00] for your young people? Shai Chang: Uh, to be honest, it's not much, We're still very new into formed more as a social group in 2018, and just finally became, you know what? Let's be political as f***. Let's be authentic as f***, you know? y'all really wanna make trans and queer identities political, Then let's be political. and we've just started mobilizing, moving around those kind of things and identities only just more recently, right? As Christine mentioned, in But the wins that we can really claim a name is that we have a 100% retention rate for our members. yeah. Um, we have tripled the amount of members that we had since then. and we are so excited for us to be able to, like, move and mobilize with our people intentionally and not just like, “Oh, we just need to be here for critical mass,” it is a two-part, right? It's that, one, we need critical mass. We And the other part of this is that we [00:40:00] people to come in intentionally to be a part of this movement work. I actually went to present about QHIP more recently, and they asked, “Oh my gosh, is there any, like, open meetings that you have flyers about? Like, when do y'all meet? And then, like, do you have a flyer for that? And I can share it with, my members.” And I was like, “Actually, we do meet, and it– we do meet biweekly on Fridays. The members themselves are holding the space for the meeting. and so I can ask them about that, but I also wanna let you know that it's not necessarily an open invitation for folks to just come in whenever they want.” We want people to come in intentional, and we want people to engage intentionally. And this is how we want us to move away from this autopilot into being able actively making changes and fights for our communities that will win us materialistic wins. Obviously in this administration, in the Trump administration, um, it has not been easy. just two years ago, they actually closed, the only LGBTQ [00:41:00] homeless shelter in Fresno, and a lot of folks now have, like, a hard time understanding where to go and what and how to navigate it. the Fresno, like, LGBTQ center also closed their doors for, like, the first time in, like, a long And so there is a lot of different impacts as impacting our community, from, like, LGBTQ centers closing, LGBTQ-serving organizations slowing down, And the way that our members and our community and our base have been organizing is As a community resource with one another is that like, ” Hey, I have an extra bed. Y'all can come sleep and crash ” there.” you hungry?” Let's go get food.” Right? Really checking with each other and also being able to ask our community for funding as So HIP, we were able to organize and did a fundraiser back in March 50K. That's huge we also know there are impacts that also is beyond us, too. it was with this past, like, Hmong New Year [00:42:00] that we did, that we wanted to do a Hmong New Year action, an action to really fundraise for our families who were detained by ICE. And so we did a mutual aid fundraiser, asking our community members to donate money, and we were able to raise… we only did it for, like, three hours, and we were able to raise $700. So we're like, ” What if we kept going?” Right? And that's where our fundraiser for 50K came from. so there is, like, ways in which we are trying to organize and mobilize our communities. And, to be very honest is that HIP and, QVIP is not necessarily a direct service organization and not necessarily in that way. I think many of the times people see HIP as like, “Oh, you're here to save us,” we're not that, right? We're really here to mobilize with our community, uh, we have our youth organization over in Edison High School, they were pushed into a small classroom, storage room, actually, for band and also, sports as well. And so it, it was being disruptive a lot. one of our [00:43:00] previous, like, young adult members recognized that, and they were like, ” Sh-uh, Shy and HIP, Please, can y'all do something about this issue?” And we're like, “No.” But we'll do it with you, right? and so we came in, we taught them about organizing, and literally those youths were able to organize themselves to have a classroom now, they remember that. They hold onto that, right? Regardless if we were here or not, they will still be able to know that and hold onto And so it's very much like that as well with our members, is that we want them to be able to organize within among themselves without having the need of, of HIP and entities being able to, have the, have the solution for them Miata Tan : mm, that makes a lot of sense. Really being able to work with community and give them tools so then they can continue to build is something really powerful that, you do at both HIP and QHIP. I'm curious, with this very challenging political moment that we're living through, not only for queer and trans folks, but immigrant communities as [00:44:00] well, how are you holding this, this pain alongside, trying to also celebrate and honor your communities, um, and especially your queer and trans community members? Shai or Christine, Christine Thao : At HIP we have what is called third spaces, and third spaces are heart spaces. these are, spaces where our young people, they continue to, build their organizing. They get to organize with one another and with HIP, to hold space to build community, to build belongingness, To show up, be present, make connections. is also a space where our young people, they get to decompress as well, in a world where it feels so chaotic, we do a lot of, the hard stuff with organizing, but then organizing can be so fun. and our young people, they get to see both sides, right, get to experience that. What I'm holding onto is being [00:45:00] engaged and getting involved, it is, Um, How can we connect our young people, to our community partners, right? To make those connections, to build deeper, this year it looks like us, being more intentional about our capacity and who we are, building out with, um… I'm on, I'm currently on the planning community for Elk Grove Pride, and so, uh, our young people are also a part of that, where they get to lead a role, and create, spaces of celebration, right? there's A lot of different opportunities our young people are also involved in, and, it, it is that wanting our young people to, feel empowered to get involved in these spaces as well. Miata Tan : Yeah. Lovely. Thank you so much, Christine. It sounds like you're really able to create, a beautiful space and community for your young people. Shy, uh, to close out, I'd love to know what's on the horizon for QHIP. It's Pride Month. unfortunately this episode is airing after Fresno Pride, but, perhaps you could [00:46:00] speak a little bit to that and what else is on the horizon. Shai Chang: Sure thing. the first thing I need to say is Happy Pride Month. so Happy Pride Month, everyone. Fresno always hosts their Pride parade, always the first Saturday of, of the Pride month it is On Saturday, June 6. Pride parade over at Tower District in Fresno. it's gonna be very fun. It's super exciting. We will be marching in there all together, and the theme for this year is, Pride Without Border. we're gonna be Extra powerful in calling out all of the different, struggles that our intersectional folks are all facing and being able to march together in liberation. what's also coming up next is, I- I'm foreseeing it to happen probably next month or in August, is that we will have a third space event to really celebrate Pride. we spend all our energy to be part of the Pride parade preparing our members and supporting them, but we haven't necessarily celebrated QHIP's [00:47:00] own Pride, you know, we work very politically in election works, and so we always have a bunch of these like, door hangers, Vote yes on Prop 3,” things like that, right? And so we have so much of those paper, and so what we usually do during this, like, Pride event that we do in QHIP is that we- we use these as an opportunity for us to do trash drag. it's an opportunity for us to get glammed out everyone gets to participate creating this, like, image through the trash drag. And so we're excited to be able to do that, so please keep on the lookout. Miata Tan : Sorry, why is it called trash drag? I'd love to know. Shai Chang: It's because, like, we had s- you know, this much f- okay, we, we have a lot of flyers from the our elections, And especially this year. You know how in, in the mail you'll get so much, like, ” Vote for this person, vote for this person.” all of this is all paper that is then thrown away without any second thought. and we will make them, and we'll make, like, thousands of copies , right? But we never are able to pass it all out. what we do is that we will go ahead and reuse them one last time for [00:48:00] them to have an opportunity for them to shine, We'll have them split up into teams, and then use all the different trash that they can gather and use, and glue them, tape them , staple them to make a dress, to make an outfit for this one person that they're gonna designate to be the drag mother for their team. Miata Tan : I love that. That sounds like so much fun. Shai Chang: Yeah. We're gonna be doing it in Fresno and also in Sacramento, so we'll figure out a ways for everyone to be involved. Miata Tan : Oh, how wonderful. Christine, could you speak to what events are coming up in Sacramento for us? Christine Thao : We are also having, um, Elk Grove Pride on June 20th. It's from 5:00 to 9:00. it's gonna be at the Elk Grove Laguna Town Hall. And so community is very welcome to attend. It is a free event. Think of it like, kind of like a resource gathering with, um, some really amazing performances we have, a lot of like, BIPOC TQ, artistes, and then also vendors [00:49:00] as well. So please show up and, would love to, to meet folks and connect with folks in these spaces. Miata Tan : Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing, Christine, and we'll be sharing all the details of how you can get involved and learn more about QHIP and HIP at the end of this episode as well. Thank you both so much for joining me today. Shai Chang: Thank you so much for having me. Miata Tan: That was my conversation with Shai Chang and Christine Thao at Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride, also known as QHIP Miata Tan : this is APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, a weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. To close out tonight's show, I have one final guest. Cynthia Fong is the lead organizer at Lavender Phoenix, also known as LavNix, A Bay Area organization building power for queer and trans Asian and Pacific Islander communities. You may have heard of them. Their new executive director joined us on [00:50:00] air just a few months ago. Here's a short conversation with Cynthia Fong on Queer Joy, community power, and what LavNix has coming up this summer Cynthia Fong: Thank you so much for having us. My name is Cynthia. I use they/them pronouns, and I'm here with Lavender Phoenix. Lavender Phoenix, we build trans, non-binary, queer API power through organizing in the Bay Area. We work with our members to demand true solutions to care and safety, and we're excited to be here with you all. Miata Tan : I'm so excited to close out the episode with you. And as we're in Pride Month, I hoped you might be able to share a little bit about queer joy and how Lavender Phoenix is celebrating that at the moment, honoring each other. Cynthia Fong: Yeah, absolutely. Especially in times like this, times of escalated violence against our communities, we know that queer joy, queer resistance, and queer power are truly antidotes to the systems that are making us sick. For us, that means in our work, we fight for care not cops, [00:51:00] we fight for budgets that truly reflect the needs of our people, we fight for a free Palestine, and we fight to abolish ICE. If you agree with all of the things that I just said we also do a lot of leadership exchange programs, and that is where we really cultivate that belonging and community in our trans and queer API community. Miata Tan : Oh, I love that. Could you share a little bit more about the leadership exchange with our listeners? Cynthia Fong: Yeah, absolutely. This is one of our time-honored traditions. It's called the Queer Leadership Exchange, it's also known as LEX. And this program will run for two weekends in July. we aim to provide training on fundamental organizing skills, trans and queer history in the Bay Area, and really to provide an opportunity for trans and queer Asian and Pacific Islanders to connect with, with each other in a space that's made by and for us. We invite you to apply if you are trans or queer [00:52:00] and if you identify as Asian or Pacific Islander. Our deadline is July 1st. And in these two weekends, we usually gather with about 20 to 30 folks, and it's really interactive. We have a mix of activities that we invite people to, to skill up on and, and really to become the leaders that our movements need. Miata Tan : Love that. Could you share a little bit about some leaders you've seen come out of these programs? Like, what does that look like? How are they, helping to, to organize community? Cynthia Fong: the folks who graduate from our LEX program, it, it's really a wide range of people, whether it's trans and queer APIs at work in other nonprofit sectors. It's also our folks who may be supporting our community in other ways, like as artists, as students, educators, as therapists. We see a lot of people take these skills and translate them into a variety of different sectors that we know trans and queer API people… we're everywhere, more and more so now. And we would [00:53:00] love every single one of us to be grounded in our histories when we do that work. And not only our histories, but also in a firm sense of belonging with one another, to know that we're not alone, to know that there are other trans and queer Asians and Pacific Islanders here in the Bay Area, all of whom share these values of wanting to build working class power. Miata Tan : that's so nice, a more multi-generational, multi-sector, Cynthia Fong: And, you know, we take it as an opportunity, too, for us to build with other organizations and people who, who are like-minded. We don't take it for granted. We know the Bay Area is a place where it's very diverse, where We are actively fighting for what values we believe in and whose agenda we are willing to put in power. And so we really welcome a wide range of people. No matter where you are, the real important thing is you, you share our values. you believe in true solutions to care and safety that are not rooted in systems of policing or incarceration Miata Tan : [00:54:00] That's really powerful. to close this out , Could you share a little bit more about what's on the horizon for Lavender Phoenix later in the year? You mentioned a few of the campaigns, Care Not Cops. perhaps if you wanna dive into some of those. Cynthia Fong: Yeah, absolutely. Um, we are joining a really big coalition of people from Alameda to Sacramento to San Francisco, all of whom are paying a lot of attention to our budgets, when you say Care Not Cops, we see our budgets to really be that moral document that show us where our priorities are. For us, June is Pride Month, but it's also budget season, Um, it gives us a really big opportunity to be as loud as we can about what we believe. and in San Francisco with $16 billion, it's quite shameful that we have our community partners like the San Francisco Community Health Center, Lyric, our youth programs being defunded, all the while new jails are being opened, all the while the police are getting new toys, they're [00:55:00] showing us that the money exists but it's not for us. And so we join the voices that are demanding for a people's budget, and we know that that's gonna be an ongoing fight. We've been in it for a few years now, and we plan to continue. In terms of our organization, we're actually super excited to say we have 100% of our membership really diving into what the next five years looks like for us. Folks may remember we came onto APAICS to announce a name change a few years ago. We were formerly known as API Equality Northern California. We came on APAICS a few years ago to share that we've changed to Lavender Phoenix, and we anticipate some new changes on the horizon being announced at the end of the year as well, hopefully with deeper clarity about what the next five years will look like for us. Miata Tan : Ooh. Interesting. It's not a new name change, is it? Cynthia Fong: No, no. We, we're gonna stay… We're keeping the t- we're keeping our name. We love our name. We love the history in our name. But it's really just the theory of [00:56:00] change, you know? I think our moment today is very unique, very different, very politically tumultuous, and we wanna be sharp. We wanna know what we're organizing for, what we're organizing against, and, and what it means for us to build power. Our last theory of change process is what resulted in us focusing on leadership programs, leadership development. It is also where we decided that healing is really important for our people. It's also where we decided that safety is really important for our people. And so I anticipate that it's gonna be a deepening not, not a change, but a deepening of how we orient to this bigger picture of our movement for liberation and justice. Miata Tan : So beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing, Cynthia. Um, it was really lovely to speak with you. Cynthia Fong: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I, hope to come Back soon. Miata Tan : That was Cynthia Fong with Lavender Phoenix. If you want to learn more about LavNix, we sat down with their team earlier in the year. Find that episode and their leadership exchange program in the show notes. Tonight, we also heard [00:57:00] from the QTViet Cafe Collective and Queer Hmong Intersectional Pride. Links to all of these organizations and their upcoming work are at kpfa.org/program/APEXexpress. This is APEX Express KPFA, airing every Thursday evening at 7:00 PM. Thank you for tuning in tonight APEX Express is a proud member of the Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, a network focused on long-term movement building, capacity infrastructure, and leadership support for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders committed to social justice. Learn more at aacre.org. This program produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me, Miata Tan. Get some rest y'all. The post APEX Express – 6.11.26 – Pride, Power, and Queer AAPI Voices appeared first on KPFA.

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What Makes a Great Kiss Scene?

Everyday Conversations on Race for Everyday People

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2026 55:37

We never get tired of talking about kissing, whether it's writing it in our novels, reading it in romance books, or watching it on screen in a Kdrama. Today, we discuss writing kiss scenes, from the challenges to the triumphs. We also dissect some of our favorite Kdrama kisses, from the tropes to the leadup and how that makes them great.Ready to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Dion Lim: The Anti-Asian Hate Story America Forgot

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2026 49:43

In this powerful episode of Everyday Conversations on Race, host Simma the Inclusionist sits down with Emmy award-winning journalist and author Dion Lim to confront a question too many are avoiding: "Why has the conversation about anti-Asian hate gone silent"? Dion takes us behind the headline-making DM that changed her career — an anonymous video of an elderly Asian man being brutally beaten in San Francisco — and reveals what it took to bring stories like his to light when her own newsroom resisted. From the murder of Vincent Chin to COVID-era scapegoating, she traces the deep historical roots of anti-Asian racism in America. She explains why the silence after the peak of BLM and Stop AAPI Hate is not just disappointing — it's dangerous. Topics in This Episode: Why anti-Asian hate is "as old as the Gold Rush" — and why we're erasing that history The cultural shame that keeps Asian American victims from speaking out The death threats and hit pieces Dion faced for reporting the truth How DEI rollbacks are affecting communities right now What Black-Asian solidarity actually looks like on the ground The role food, music, and pop culture play in bridging racial divides Dion's new book Amplify: My Fight for Asian America (foreword by Olivia Munn) You'll hear: The anonymous 12-second DM that changed everything — a video of an elderly Asian man being attacked while collecting cans in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood Why Asian American victims often don't come forward: cultural conditioning, family shame, distrust of media, and generational silence Anti-Asian hate isn't new — from the Gold Rush to Vincent Chin to Yik Oi Huang and Vishal Ratanapakdee How COVID gave people permission to blame Asians — and how "kung flu" and "China virus" language fueled violenc The backlash Dion faced: a Washington Post hit piece orchestrated by a former DA's team, death threats from people who denied anti-Asian hate was real Why the Asian American community isn't monolithic — income inequality, cultural differences, and the "model minority" myth The connection between Black and Asian communities — shared history, manufactured division, and what solidarity actually looks like on the ground Grassroots response: patrol groups, the Blue Angels in Oakland, and the role of everyday people showing up for each other Simma's own history with the original Rainbow Coalition — The Young Patriots, the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and Asian groups working together in the late '60s and '70s The immigrant parent dynamic: silence as survival, pride as a long time coming, and what it meant when Dion's father finally expressed pride after her 20/20 appearance What Dion wants for the next generation: be loud, find your community, take care of your mental health, and don't be afraid to take up space TV recommendation: Warrior — the series about the rise of the Tongs and how Chinese workers were treated in California The ask: get Amplify on the New York Times bestseller list — and why it matters beyond sales Key Learnings: Silence is not safety. When institutions stop talking about race, hate doesn't disappear — it goes underground and grows. The rollback of DEI programs and race coverage in newsrooms makes communities more vulnerable, not more comfortable. Anti-Asian hate has deep American roots. This isn't a COVID story. It goes back to the Gold Rush, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the murder of Vincent Chin. Understanding that history is the first step to not repeating it. Cultural conditioning keeps people quiet. Many Asian Americans are raised to not cause a fuss, not draw attention, not inconvenience others. That silence protects no one — it protects the people doing harm. Division between communities is often manufactured. The tension between Black and Asian communities didn't come from nowhere. It was seeded deliberately, and it dissolves quickly when people actually get to know each other. You don't have to share someone's experience to show up for them. The people who moved Dion most weren't Asian — they were people from every background who said "I didn't know, and now I do." Timestamps: 1:08 – Who is Dion Lim and why she's fighting for Asian America 2:51 – "It feels like crickets" — DEI rollbacks and the dangerous silence 4:05 – The 12-second video that changed Dion's career forever 5:50 – Anti-Asian hate didn't start with COVID — it goes back to the Gold Rush 8:43 – From fluff pieces to death threats: how Dion's journalism transformed 10:15 – The shameful cultural silence keeping Asian victims from speaking out 13:58 – The Washington Post hit piece, orchestrated by a DA's team 16:15 – Why people deny anti-Asian hate even exists 21:25 – "It was okay to blame Asians for COVID" — how a pandemic became a weapon 24:14 – Dion's own mother told her to stop reporting. Here's why. 27:42 – Are newsrooms giving up on covering race? 31:00 – The "model minority" myth that erases Asian poverty 39:22 – What real Black-Asian solidarity actually looks like 46:01 – The history America buried: forced labor, exclusion laws & the show Warrior 51:01 – Dion's call to action + her book Amplify Guest Bio: Dion is a beloved Emmy Award-winning journalist, two-time author, and international keynote speaker. For over 20 years, she has transformed complex, high-stakes issues into clear, compelling stories that resonate with millions. A trusted expert in media presence, Dion now helps executives and changemakers communicate with the same clarity, confidence, and impact. Her work amplifying underrepresented voices has built bridges across diverse communities and sparked lasting change. Connect with Dion Lim: Website: dionlim.com Instagram & Facebook: @dionlimtv LinkedIn: Dion Lim Get the book: Amplify: My Fight for Asian America — available now! If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Subscribe, leave a review, and help us get these conversations heard across the globe. Click here to DONATE and support our podcast All donations are tax deductible through Fractured Atlas. Simma Lieberman, The Inclusionist, helps leaders create inclusive cultures. She is a consultant, speaker, and facilitator. Simma is the creator and host of the podcast, Everyday Conversations on Race. Contact Simma@SimmaLieberman.com to get more information, book her as a speaker for your next event, help you become a more inclusive leader, or facilitate dialogues across differences. Go to www.simmalieberman.com and www.raceconvo.com for more information Simma is a member of and inspired by the global organization IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Tiktok Website Previous Episodes Frank Carbajal on Latino Leadership: From Migrant Farmworker Son to Silicon Valley Voice Dr. Gina Paige on African Ancestry: How DNA Reconnects Black Americans to Their African Roots From Black Panther to Corporate America: Elmer Dixon on Race, Revolution, and Why DEI Is Not Dead Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating

covid-19 america tv american black china san francisco new york times race chinese dm revolution asian cultural washington post warrior black panther blm emmy awards oakland dei asian americans forgot grassroots amplify asians gold rush blue angels bayview tongs chinese exclusion act asian america anti asian hate simma stop aapi hate young lords everyday conversations vincent chin black asian how dei fractured atlas hate story inclusionist simma lieberman

TWPS Scary Talk - Pioneer Asian Filmmaker QUENTIN LEE Talks Queer Narratives and Asian Representation

That Was Pretty Scary

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2026 54:24

JLB is joined by Asian filmmaker QUENTIN LEE. Quentin is a pioneer when it comes to Asian and Queer representation on screen and preserving the history of Asians in film. Follow That Was Pretty Scary on Instagram and TikTokFollow Jon Lee Brody on Instagram Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

movies horror asian narrative scary queer filmmakers pioneer asians simplecast asian representation jlb

G-Pow CRUSHED on Kill Tony

Fishing with David Lucas

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2026 68:45

Thank you to my sponsor: BlueChew BlueChew - Right now, when you buy two months of BlueChew Gold, you get the third for FREE with promo code DAVID at https://bluechew.com More G-Pow IG: https://www.instagram.com/gpowcomedy/ Kill Tony appearance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVUj4LrlPEU David Lucas Tour Dates: https://www.davidlucascomedy.com/tour Portland, OR: June 5-6 Seattle, WA: June 7 0:00 Older women, Grocery stores, Being biracial 9:13 Asians, G-Pow's girlfriend, Angry fans 23:26 Eating better, Kill Tony, Sheryl Underwood 27:58 Guns, America, Different cultures 34:45 G-Pow's dad, Acres of land, Dating preferences 47:34 David's Grandpa, Finances 57:09 Starting out in comedy NEW MERCH AVAILABLE https://shopdavidlucas.com/ Connect with David Lucas Website: https://www.davidlucascomedy.com Merch: https://shopdavidlucas.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidlucasfunny Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnydavidlucas Youtube: ⁠@DavidLucasComedian David Lucas was born in Macon, GA. He started acting an early age, performing in numerous stage plays at the Macon Little Theatre. He relocated to Hollywood where he was a contestant on, “MTV Yo Momma”. He has since written for several television shows and continues to perform stand up all over the country (for such comedians as Louis CK, Erik Griffin, Joe Rogan, Brendan Schaub, Tony Hinchcliffe, Bert Kreisher, DL Hughley and many more). David is a Kill Tony Hall of Famer and currently headlining his own tour! A 7EQUIS Network Show https://www.instagram.com/7equis https://www.7equis.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

APEX Express – 6.4.26 – Food Justice

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2026 59:57

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight's APEX Express show is focused on food justice and Asian America. First, Host Miko Lee talks with artist Macy Tran about their work on food as a form of resistance, and then she speaks with researcher Dr. Milkie Vu around her work on food insecurity and Asian American communities. Show TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express. [00:00:30] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee, and tonight we're talking about food justice and Asian America. First, we talk with artist Macy Tran about their work on food as a form of resistance, and then we speak with researcher Dr. Milkie Vu around her work on food insecurity and Asian American communities. Join us tonight as we delve into food justice. Welcome to Apex Express, Macy Tran, I'm so happy to meet you. [00:01:03] Macy Tran: I'm happy to meet you as well, Miko. Thanks for having me. [00:01:06] Miko Lee: I just wanna start with the question I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:01:13] Macy Tran: I come from a legacy of powerful Vietnamese people who were born and raised in Vietnam and now are part of the diaspora in Minnesota. I come from food peoples and healers and chefs and creatives of all sorts who have learned how to make ends meet and to adapt and to work with what they have. I come from a long line of people who have loved through food and who have used food as a means of cultural preservation and education and survival, which has now been passed on to me. There's so much to say about who I come from. My grandparents have stories of survival and resilience throughout the American War in Vietnam. And it's only because of just their love and the decisions they've made on behalf of their love that I am here today. My parents own a restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Vietnamese restaurant called Pho 79/Caravelle That has a 40 plus year legacy of serving Chinese and Vietnamese food to the Minneapolis community. It started with my grandma's brother, and then it passed down to my grandma. And now my grandma has since passed and has passed it down to my father and my mother. And so I like to say that it's restaurant people who raised me. I grew up sleeping in the booths and all of the aunties, even though they weren't blood aunties were my aunties. Because our survival was just so foundationally just predicated on food and what we served and shared with others, and also what we ate at home and the celebrations that we would have both at the restaurant and at home. This is really what makes me. [00:03:20] Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing. Do you wanna talk more about the legacy part? [00:03:24] Macy Tran: I carry a legacy of peoples who really know the importance of food and the way we use food to care and support each other. Even in the most hard of times when my family was. On a boat with 200 other people and didn't know if they were going to survive when they kind of landed abroad. The shores of Indonesia, food has been with them throughout it all, and it is how I was raised to love and care for people. I see the ways that food is not just a means for sustenance, but also as joy, as creativity, as love, and I carry all of those, decisions and skills with me. [00:04:19] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. I learned first about your book when I read a piece that you wrote for 18 million Rising, and I'm wondering if you could just talk about how that piece around food as a form of resistance, how did that come about? [00:04:33] Macy Tran: I have a friend who works with 18 million Rising, and since the federal occupation in Minneapolis, I've been doing a lot of food justice organizing here. And it has been a way in which I have seen and expressed just the skills and love that I give to my community. I was just feeling compelled to give food. That was what I knew. In the past two months as my friends have been going out on the streets following ICE agents around legally observing, I have felt that my role in this movement is to feed frontline folks who are out doing the work and also feeding our community during a time in which it's very scary and difficult to leave your home without fear of being abducted. In Minneapolis we have created systems of, food resource sharing that have been really powerful to witness and experience and to get engaged with. And so one way that I've been doing it is I've been cooking community meals most Sundays, sometimes Saturdays that feed 200 plus people. [00:05:47] I am providing delicious food for my friends who are out on the streets and coming home and hungry and cold. And I also helped facilitate and organize a food distribution at my parents' restaurant after the murder of Alex Preti I really wanted to not just be involved in like acting and responding to what was happening but as an artist, as a creative, I felt the need for also remembering and preserving and reflecting about what's been going on in Minneapolis. I kept being pulled in all these different directions and was organizing over here and supporting this community and doing this. And then when my friend reached out to me at 18 million Rising,. It was such a great opportunity for me to really reflect on my practice of food as resistance and food as justice. I've been a food writer in the Twin Cities for about the past three years. Food, events, I mostly cover restaurant stories and festivals and theater and all that sort of stuff in the BIPOC community here in the Twin Cities. And I realized writing this piece that this was the first time in a while, that I had written something actually for myself from my heart that was in my voice. Without an editor saying, no, you have to say it this way. No, we have to cut that part out. No, you use too many words here, and so I really took this piece as an opportunity to share what my life was like here in my own words and my own experiences. And just use it as a moment to really reflect and share the things that I'm learning and the way that I am practicing and using food as a bridge to healing and transformation during this time in which we are ripe for needing that. [00:07:47] Miko Lee: Can you roll back a little bit and talk to me about how you got started as an organizer? What, when you first learned about social justice work and what pulled you in? [00:07:56] Macy Tran: It definitely wasn't the way that I was raised. I was born in the us my parents were born in Vietnam and then came over to the US and they really raised me with the mentality of you just put your head down and you work hard and you don't really get involved. And like, yeah, you care for others, but mostly you care for your family. I was actually someone who was always butting heads with my family because I was like, do you not see all of these issues that are happening in the world? Like the issue, the systems that were implicated in. We have to care beyond just ourselves, and we would always butt heads about that. [00:08:33] Miko Lee: At what age did that start? [00:08:35] Macy Tran: Oh, probably when I was a teenager. around that time I was finding my voice. and it wasn't until college that I really started putting words and frameworks and theory into what I have already witnessed in my family and my community, which is just community care and the ways that facilitates justice and transformation I would say since college that I really started actively organizing primarily on campus. I went to a smaller liberal arts school. So organizing and just getting involved in our community in that way was pretty easy. And like after I graduated college, I spent five years in Southeast Asia, one year in Vietnam, and then four years in Thailand where I was primarily working at the intersections of education and refugee justice and environmental justice. I got to meet all sorts of organizers and activists from across the region who have taught me. Really everything, a lot of what I know about organizing and what it means to show up specifically within a Southeast Asian context and how to use kind of my feet in both worlds, both my American political identity and my Southeast Asian political identity. [00:09:59] And to merge those for the better and for my community. So I would say that. I've always had a big heart ever since I was little. And actually my parents were always like, you are too trusting. You people are gonna take advantage of you in the world. And I was like, I just wanna live in this world with so much love. And the way that they taught me to do that was. Through food and through reliability and just what it means to show up consistently for my people. And so in some ways it was all baked into me, even though they might not see that and they might not have raised me in that way. I see the ways in which they have sacrificed for love and nourished their families through food and made incredibly scary risks for the freedom of their family and for their people, and for a new life. And I just feel like I'm walking in their footsteps, doing the same even if they might not feel that way. [00:11:09] Miko Lee: So did you have to talk your family and the restaurant into getting involved in the food support work for activists in Minnesota? [00:11:18] Macy Tran: it wasn't a challenging conversation to have and I was surprised by that. [00:11:22] Miko Lee: Oh, great. [00:11:23] Macy Tran: Um, yeah, my parents have been, actually, this is the most politically active and vocal I have seen them. It's really incredible. I would say that for a lot of actually the Vietnamese community that I've been witnessing in Minneapolis, like they're saying things that I never thought that they would say. They're putting analysis like what together? The Vietnamese community is, I would say, skews at least the older generation, I should say. The older generation of Viet folks skews pretty right wing, conservative Republican, Trump supporting. And I'm just seeing dissent for the first time. It's not always like that explicit, but it is, I would say in the past what I've seen is just like. When kind of rightwing or more Republican opinions come up, if people disagree with that, it's just like you're just quiet. But now I'm seeing a way in which like people are responding, commenting on social media, like posting publicly about it. It's just been really, really powerful. When I first started organizing in response to the federal occupation, my parents were really quite worried and they did not want me to get involved. And they didn't really understand why I felt compelled to do this. And then when Alex Prety was murdered, I. It was actually my auntie, my mom's youngest sister that brought up the idea of a food distribution because she was feeling like I just wanna do something and like, what is an avenue in which we can do something? Well, we have this restaurant. Mm-hmm. And so she proposed it to my parents first, which Oh [00:13:05] Miko Lee: wow. [00:13:06] Macy Tran: Love, shout out to her because [00:13:09] Miko Lee: Thank you, auntie. [00:13:10] Macy Tran: She did right. She did the hard work for me. I think I would've been a little more hesitant or would've taken a little bit more time to just process, like how to go about asking them, because there's just a different power dynamic there. Sure. But because my auntie is more of a peer mm-hmm. And she had this idea and she has also worked at the restaurant mm-hmm. For many, many years of her life. I think it really spoke to my parents and I think it really was a moment for them to connect the ways that this restaurant is so important to not only our family and how we show up in community, but also to our community in Minneapolis. Mm-hmm. I have traveled all across the world and have met people who have eaten at Pho 79 and have told me stories of getting engaged there, of getting a tattoo of the, like restaurant on their, on their arm. The, the logo. Yeah, the logo. It's crazy, you know, like people, and I've also heard generations of families like growing up on my parents' food. Mm-hmm. As we share food with people and they support our business, it's only because of our community that we've been able to survive this far you know?. My parents came to Minnesota with nothing, and it's only because of the kindness of other Minnesotans and other Vietnamese Minnesotans that we were able to get anywhere. [00:14:35] In this moment they saw that and they saw that. We can, we have these resources. This won't be hard for us. We have everything here that we need. This is the channel in which we can work in. And yeah, they were just ready to do it. I think also my parents were ready to take a risk because the business was not doing well, we weren't, there were not people coming out to eat. Everyone was scared to go out to eat. People were not really spending money. And this was really ever since the pandemic and the way that has impacted the restaurant industry and particularly immigrant businesses, and then also the George Floyd uprisings and the way that just the, violence and also the transformation that happened to the street that we were on Eat Street. It just really changed the ways people saw that corridor, that business corridor. And it was a really big business impact. And so my dad was just, I think, in a place where he was really willing to take a risk and a stand for what he believed in. And my mom as well. As a way to also just like. Really be present in community and show that, hey, like we are out here and we believe in loving our community and seeing the ways that people are showing up for our community as and for our business as well. And honestly, since the food distribution business has been steady and I think. My parents are, I mean, they're definitely feeling relieved, but I'm just feeling so grateful that they stood on their values, you know, and they stood grounded in that. And as a result, like the community is reciprocating. and that is such a beautiful thing that I don't, I think my dad took a risk not knowing what would happen, because more exposure is not always good. And I've been telling him that, you know, especially with the Vietnamese community being, of, of his genera generation being more right wing and more conservative. He recognizes that and he recognizes that we had to do something. So I feel so proud of them for just being really chill and okay, and actually impassioned and compelled to do something. [00:16:57] Miko Lee: It sounds like it brought you a little bit closer with your family too. [00:17:00] Macy Tran: Definitely. Definitely did. Yeah. I feel like me and my family have never really been able to sit at a table and talk about politics and what's going on in the world without one of us just like getting activated or feeling defensive or not seeing each other. It is a terrible thing what has happened and what continues to happen in our city, under federal occupation and so much beauty and creativity and love has come from it. And I even feel that at the most micro scale between me and my parents. [00:17:39] Miko Lee: Can you, share with us that are not located in Minnesota, what the experience is like of this federal occupation on a day to day? Like, we're talking today on March 2nd, and I say that because our world, everything's changing every day and this is gonna air on a separate day. So I wanna name that. So right now, what is it like when you're just walking through the streets in downtown Minneapolis ? [00:18:01] Macy Tran: Yeah. It's interesting because when you ask me this, I think about my experience like a month ago and how different it was and it felt to walk around a month ago compared to now. A month ago. It. I was seeing a neighbor on every corner of major streets, like looking for ice. You know, I was seeing car caravans, honking and following ICE agents. It's interesting 'cause like I actually just had a friend visit from Milwaukee and. She was nervous about ice. She's Asian American as well, and she was like, should I be scared? What's actually going on? And I told her, actually, yes, what's going on is scary and violent. And I feel so safe because I am meeting neighbors I have never met before. I'm making small talk with people who are just. Out on the streets walking their dog in a way that they would not normally, I'm talking to business owners, we're talking about the impacts of this occupation. Everywhere I go, there were eyes and that felt really powerful and strong. And now that operation Metro Surge is technically over they are supposed to be withdrawing ICE agents from the city. I would say there is definitely a decrease in the number of ICE agents in our city. Activity is much slower. However I would say out in the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, they are seeing action and enforcement from ICE agents. That is. Either at the, kind of the same amount that we were receiving or escalated. The concentration is higher out in the suburbs And so even though things were quieter in the city, they were elsewhere. And [00:19:57] Miko Lee: yeah, I just saw videos this morning of protesters that were peacefully marching that just got tackled. Actually by Minnesota Sheriff's department working in conjunction with ice. I know every state in every region is a little bit different. But I thought that was something that Governor Waltz was working on right? [00:20:15] Macy Tran: So actually the city ordinance that you are talking about is actually on a Minneapolis City level. So that was a decision made by Mayor Fray. Oh, that's only city. So it's only MPD, Minneapolis Police Department, who is not supposed to assist in, federal and right. Federal enforcement. However, on a county level, that's different. I see. So sheriffs might be working with, I know it's like, so complic, what a mess complicated. I [00:20:41] Miko Lee: know. This is the same, I mean, this is the same everywhere, right? Mm-hmm. It's all broken down. Okay. So, so I think I hear you saying that ICE has kind of moved on with the targeted big city approach and they're going out into the suburbs instead. Is that right? [00:20:57] Macy Tran: Yes. There are still protestors, and observers going every day to the Whipple building. The Whipple building is where ICE agents are coming from, and so they have definitely recorded a decrease in the number of ICE vehicles. So the volume isn't as high, but the cars are still coming and we're still seeing enforcement and violence in our neighborhoods. Just the other day, just a few streets down, a person was abducted in our neighborhood in Minneapolis. And because the volume isn't as high, they're not as easily able to track. And so they're working a lot more under the radar. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And their tactics have become just a lot more. Under the radar as well. In the early days in January, it was really easy to identify ICE out-of-state license plate, tinted windows. Big vehicles like super easy. Nowadays they're putting like coexist bumper stickers and little things on their dashboards and like, you know, driving little sedans and it's definitely not as easy and they're moving a lot more covertly. And because Operation Metro Surge has technically decreased and because many of our frontline activists have been working at this for months and are getting tired. Mm-hmm. There is a really interesting transition period happening here. Mm-hmm. Where I think we're all trying to align on what is the next. [00:22:31] What's the next step? Mm-hmm. How? How are we, what is the best way to move given that this is the way that ICE is operating now? Yeah, [00:22:40] Miko Lee: right. Just [00:22:41] Macy Tran: under reflection. Mm-hmm. [00:22:42] Miko Lee: Under such sneaky circumstances, like what they recently did in New York at Columbia, showing up at Columbia University with a missing child picture of a little kid. And that's how they got entry into the dorms, which is so wrong to terrible get a student. So that's actually illegal to like misrepresent being a police officer when they're not, they're a nice officer and [00:23:05] Macy Tran: mm-hmm. [00:23:06] Miko Lee: Showing a photo, I mean, it's so awful. [00:23:08] Macy Tran: Mm-hmm. [00:23:09] Miko Lee: I'm wondering how people that don't live in Minnesota can get involved. [00:23:14] Macy Tran: Hmm. The, greatest frontier currently that is in need of support is rent support. There are, probably hundreds of maybe thousands of people who are likely at risk of eviction in the Twin Cities, because they have not been able to work for the past two months without fear of being abducted. We're calling on Governor Waltz for an eviction moratorium, which would prevent folks from being evicted. Governor Waltz is the only person who really has jurisdiction to implement an immediate rental moratorium, and he's done that before during the pandemic, and so we're trying to make arguments that this is. A state of emergency people are like not able, they weren't able to work. Like people are going to get evicted putting calls to his office, sending emails. So that's one way to get involved from abroad, uh, or not abroad outside of Minnesota, but also abroad if you're abroad And listening to this. The other way was, is that there's a lot of hyper-local organizing that is happening within Minneapolis that I can speak to every. Neighborhood and corner, I feel like, of Minneapolis is being accounted for usually by a team of just volunteer mutual aid groups who are fundraising for rent, who are fundraising for groceries who are fundraising for utilities. [00:24:45] And these are all like live fundraising pages on the internet. And if you have even just 10, $20 to spare to help a Minneapolis resident, um, not get evicted in the next month. Um, every dollar matters. In this moment, rent is due. Soon, we're just at the beginning of March. And if folks aren't able to pay rent now and they haven't been able to pay rent in the last couple of months, like this is only going to have a snowball effect. We cannot risk vulnerable neighbors migrants, immigrants being, like more of them being unhoused at this moment. We already in our city have so many unhoused people who are not being cared for by our city officials, who are having their encampments being taken down and who are already not receiving adequate support. Our system cannot handle an influx of more unhoused people and we can prevent this. I would say that is kind of the biggest frontier at the moment in terms of what I'm seeing organizing on the ground. [00:26:01] Miko Lee: Would you have links that you could share with us definitely for rent support. That would be really great if, and I'll definitely, I'll add them to the Apex Express show notes so folks that wanna get involved can contribute and help support community. You wrote in your piece about books, lovely books and podcasts and things that inspired you, which I always love hearing about those things. And one of the books you wrote about was Rice and Baguette, A History of Food in Vietnam. Can you talk a little bit about it, how it deepened your understanding of food legacies and resistance? [00:26:33] Macy Tran: Mm So I read that book while I was living in Vietnam actually. So it was really cool for me to, what I love about that book, it's a little like academic. I will say that it is a food history like you are reading history, you know, it's a little bit like dense at some points, um, for [00:26:49] Miko Lee: the real foodie audience. [00:26:51] Macy Tran: For real. I'm like, if, yeah, exactly. And luckily that's me. I was into it. What I loved about it were, the legends, like there were some what I, so in Vietnam when I was living there, something that I loved and was learning more was that like Vietnamese people have so many legends about folk legends about food, like the origins of the watermelon,, the origins of our bunte cake, which is the cake that we eat, the sticky rice cake we eat during, lunar New Year. There are so many Food origin stories that I just did not grow up being raised on. And so, this book talked about some of like, how did pho even get started, you know, is pho even truly Vietnamese? It's, that's a debate I'm not gonna have right now. But. I loved just hearing the greater context in which all of this existed, especially not growing up with those stories and being, [00:27:55] Miko Lee: Hey, wait, what is the origin of watermelon? [00:27:58] Macy Tran: So it's this like funny little. Story where, this prince essentially gets banished to an island with his wife. And then on this random island, he finds this like incredible fruit, the watermelon, and he's like, whoa, this is so delicious. I want I must show this to the people back at home, but they won't have me because I'm banished. And then he basically floats the watermelon back to the mainland and they find it and they're like, oh my gosh, this is so incredible. We must, invite this man back to the mainland. [00:28:38] Miko Lee: How did they know it was from him? Did he like carve his name in the watermelon? [00:28:43] Macy Tran: I don't know. It's actually been a while since I've heard this story, so I could be just like. You know, I don't know all the details. That's [00:28:50] Miko Lee: okay. That's always better anyway. [00:28:53] Macy Tran: just stories like that. I love to hear them. I also learned about what it was like to eat and cook during foreign occupation when, oh, you know, the French were colonizers mm-hmm. When the Chinese were colonizers. Mm-hmm. And just the incredible Vietnamese food ways that emerged from those periods of colonization. Mm-hmm. They were both brutal and violent and also full of adaptation and creativity and survival foods. And so the book just talked about all of that, and I just love knowing those stories that help me know the ways in which our people have been able to survive for this long and are now free under, foreign occupation. [00:29:40] Miko Lee: Speaking of, you mentioned creativity and adaptability, and you are a multihyphenate person, as an artist, as an organizer, as a writer, as a visual artist, collage maker, I'm wondering how your artistry impacts your organizing and vice versa. How do they speak to each other? How do they influence each other? [00:30:01] Macy Tran: Hmm. I am someone who, when there is an issue or a problem that arises, I'm often just confronting it with what can I do? What can I like feasibly do? How can I show up? And I think my artistic practices actually help me slow down. Even the ways that I can show up in community and do things in community, I'm very responsive. I'm always like, okay let's do a thing. Let's organize it. Let's get our hands dirty. I am out there, I am organizing people, you know, like tangibly. And I think the ways that my artistic practices partner with that is that my artistic practices help me reflect and remember and deepen and find spiritual grounding and purpose. my art is a way that I bridge conversations with my ancestors and I bridge what it means to know myself and be a person, a community member, a Vietnamese American daughter in this moment, right? And it reminds me of the skills that I have and wanna bring to the world. It also helps me create different narratives for understanding what's happening and. For finding creative solutions and for collaborating with others. So I think I would honestly be so burnt out and exhausted and sad if it were not for my artistic practices. I think it's because of my artistic practices that I find energy, that I find belonging, that I find meaning in the work that I'm doing. [00:31:51] Miko Lee: I love that answer. Can you share, because you brought this up, can you share about a conversation or an interaction you've had with an ancestor and how that's influenced you recently? [00:32:03] Macy Tran: Hmm. That's such a great question. I'm going to tie this answer into Lunar New Year because, lunar New Year is a time in which our material world and the spiritual world really can converge in a meaningful way, at least for me. And every year when I celebrate Lunar New Year, I will do something different. I deepen my practices. I just kind of deepen what I know about. Folk tradition and ancestor worship. And every year I learned new things and I wanna try new things. And so this year was the first year that I built a public altar space in my living room. Usually I just have it in my bedroom or in a small corner of my home somewhere that's like usually private. But I built like. It wasn't like a tiny little altar, like it was big, you know, like I had photos of all my relatives on there. I had flowers, I had five kinds of fruits. I had, you know, little, every time I ate a meal, I was putting a meal aside for my family to eat with me. And, Some cultures you don't eat the food that you leave on the altar, but in my family we do. And the reason for that is because we get to become one with our ancestors. We get to embody what our ancestors are and eat as well and their spirits, and so this past Lunar New Year, I actually threw a, I had celebrations on both sides of the family. And then I organized a new year party for my chosen family who came from all walks of life. And the prompt for the party, it was a potluck. The prompt for the potluck was cook something or bring something that your ancestors would be just delighted to eat on the altar. And so we [00:34:00] Miko Lee: love that. [00:34:01] Macy Tran: Oh yeah. It was so sweet. People came out with their best work, I should say, like the food was fantastic. Our ancestors were eating well, and I was sitting there. And this altar was full of tiny little plates of food, beautiful flowers. I also asked people to bring pictures, photos of their ancestors or people that they wanna honor. Incense were lit. The room was filled with incense smoke, and I was just, there was a moment where I was just, kinda in the corner of the room just watching, you know, and I had a feeling like, wow, all of our ancestors are hanging out right now. Not only are me and my chosen family, you know, building a community and belonging for ourselves but also like. I could have never, and probably they could have never predicted that my friend's like Jewish grandpa was hanging out with my Vietnamese grandmother and grandfather, you know, or yeah, my friends like grandparents from Antigua are now hanging out with like my family members and it's, it was just a moment where I just felt not just the joy. [00:35:16] And love in the space of connecting with my real, like my friends in that moment. But also just the miraculousness of what it meant to hold all of our ancestors in that space. And so, after that I ended up writing a piece on my substack, actually as a letter to my ancestors. I, I kept the altar up for a week, a week and a half. And on the last day I was ready to take it down and move it back upstairs into my room. But on the last day, I thought, I'm gonna light the incense one more time. And have my ancestors in the space as I write this piece to them. There were so many things I wanted to say to them. And also at the same time, I felt like as I was writing, they were saying things to me, this is what I have to teach you in this moment, is kind of what they were saying to me. This is like, this is what it's like to celebrate that under occupation. This is what it was like when we thought it wasn't even possible to celebrate Tet. Like we had literally nothing but rice and water and yet we still did, and my grandma recently passed a I mean, it's not so recent anymore, but it's been just over a year now. And she was like, One of the first like major deaths of the elder generation in my family. And Tet was the time that I could commune with her and share love with her. And, I could just feel her presence in the space and I would even, memories felt like a way that she was talking to me. The memory of just the crackle of her sesame balls, like she made the best sesame balls. They were like. Thin and crispy and fluffy, but also like so like they were not skimping on the mung bean on the inside. It was fantastic. So I'm just like, I haven't had a sesame ball from her in over a year, but I can remember how it tastes and feels, and my mouth and that memory itself is a message from her. To remember what has fed me through so many years, and how important it is to just remember the, not only just the foods that we eat, but the people that have loved that food into existence. And now me, you know, [00:37:38] Miko Lee: have you made it the dish, the sesame balls. [00:37:43] Macy Tran: I actually have her recipe books, so I planned to I just didn't have time, this past Tet, but me and my brother were going to, and then I think we decided we wanted to do it on just like on a lower key day, like instead of like in the midst of just like so much family celebration, there was so much to prepare and we were like, let's just plan a low key weekend where it's just me and you and there's no timeline and we don't have to get this anywhere and they don't have to be perfect. Like [00:38:14] Miko Lee: that sounds lovely. So it's personal and it's family and Exactly. And if for a one year anniversary, death anniversary is coming up, that might be a great time to honor her. [00:38:22] Macy Tran: Exactly. Exactly. [00:38:24] Miko Lee: I'm wondering what was like some standout dishes from that lovely event to you? [00:38:29] Macy Tran: Ooh. I mean, I will talk about the dish I made. [00:38:33] Miko Lee: Okay. [00:38:36] Macy Tran: Which I thought was fantastic and I think my friends also thought were delicious. Was delicious. Um, but a dish that is commonly eaten during the lunar new year for Vietnamese people is a tit ka, which is a caramelized, braised pork belly. This caramelized, braised pork was stewing for probably three hours. Wow. And so, yeah, and I used coconut water with it. I didn't like, straight up coconut water and it [00:39:04] Miko Lee: no Coca-Cola. [00:39:06] Macy Tran: No Coca-Cola not in this one. And I just made a huge, huge pot and it was basically almost all gone by the end of the night. So that was like a really good feeling. Um, my brother made an incredible duck heart lap. He works at Diane's Place, actually, it's a famous Hmong restaurant in Minneapolis. And they processed duck on the menu. And so he had like access to all these duck organs and he made an incredible loup that he brought to the party. And my, one of my little sisters, Iris, she's Puerto Rican and she made like tostones, like fried plantains and then she also made Puerto Rican rice, and she, she made like three or four dishes. So like, people really went above and beyond for their ancestors. I could really, I mean, it was probably like 20 people who came to this party, so there were so many dishes and they were all. So good. So I, I don't wanna, once I get into it, I'm gonna go into it, so I'm not gonna chat your ear off. [00:40:13] Miko Lee: Sounds lovely. Sounds yummy. Mm-hmm. And my last question is, I'm wondering what manifestation for the year of the horse you have for yourself. [00:40:23] Macy Tran: The 18 million rising essay that I wrote came, it was right before the lunar new year that it got published. And it came during a time where I was already thinking a lot about my creative practice and how in, in relationship my creative practice in relationship with also the ways that I organize and the ways that I cook and, organize around food. And when this opportunity for this essay emerged and just the way it has been received has been such an honor, like, because I haven't written for myself, you know, in so long and like really with my own voice I just didn't realize that people were going to resonate with it so much and find like an invitation to engage in food justice themselves and their own ancestry. And also the ways that it made them think about food and their relationship to food. And it was such a blessing for me to receive that resonance from people, you know, and to receive, just the stories that I've heard and the way it spoke to them. And I felt like that has been a blessing for me to just really expand my creative practice and be more public with it. I'm like, dang, if this little thing that I wrote impacted people in the way that they think about the world, like. I have so many more ideas I wanna share and like be in partnership with others about. [00:41:57] And I just launched my Substack, right after the Lunar New Year and I was like, all right, you're the fire horse. Let's freaking go. I am ready, I am running. So, I just wanna be creating so much and like act manifesting and actualizing a lot of the dreams that I have, my creative dreams that I have continued to put on the back burner. Things about hosting supper clubs and doing more work around my parents' restaurant, like helping them create narrative around the restaurant and sharing our restaurant story with people. And just using my words and experiences as a way to connect with the world and also be open to the ways that people wanna connect with me. So that's kind of the ways that I'm, I'm seeing this year unfold already, and it's already started with a bang. I also wanna add that year of the fire horse for me is just a lot about movement and progress. And so in this sense movement, I think of social movements and the ways that social this particular social movement against ICE in our city will fundamentally. Impact us for the next lunar year. It happened right at the beginning of the lunar New Year and it's going to have deep effects into the year, and we will forever be changed by this. And I am so excited to see the ways in which we harness this energy for transformation, for care into something that's really meaningful. [00:43:37] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining us on Apex Express. It was a delight to talk with you. [00:43:42] Macy Tran: Thank you, Miko. This was so great. Thanks for having me. [00:43:45] Miko Lee: Next up, listen to researcher professor, Dr. Milkie Vu, speak on her exploration on Asian Americans and food insecurities. Welcome, Dr. Milkie Vu, assistant professor at Northwestern. Welcome so much to Apex Express. [00:44:04] Dr. Milkie Vu: Thank you. I'm delighted to be here. [00:44:07] Miko Lee: Dr. Milkie is a mixed methods researcher focusing on community engagement and health issues, and I'm excited to talk with you today. I wanna start by first asking the question that I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:44:24] Dr. Milkie Vu: My people are the Vietnamese community, and when I think of my people, the first word that comes to my mind is resilience. I was raised in Vietnam. I speak Vietnamese fluently and I embrace my culture very deeply. I carry the memory of my parents and grandparents who have lived to colonization multiple world. And the challenge of post-war poverty and the ability to, endure all these hardship is the legacy that I bring with me and in my day to day life it acts as a personal life of hope for me and then professionally in the. Work that I do is really a foundation and it drives my dedication and commitment to working on health solution with Asian American and immigrant communities who have similar stories of hardship, but also perseverance. [00:45:19] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. I really appreciate how your background has informed the work that you're doing, and I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about this study, this scoping review on food insecurity among Asian Americans. Can you one first start off by breaking down what a scoping review is. [00:45:37] Dr. Milkie Vu: Yeah, I'm happy to talk about that. So a scoping review is essentially a methodology that we use to be able to summarize existing scientific literature and try to understand how this literature. Answer research questions that we have. [00:45:56] Miko Lee: Can you tell me what inspired this study? [00:45:59] Dr. Milkie Vu: I've done community engaged research with, Asian American population for over a decade. In doing so, I have come to realize , as an anecdotal evidence, how food insecurity is a issue in the community. And yet that's very little that has been, done in terms of research or policy that target this problem., So for example, the US Department of Agriculture, will publish annually a report on food insecurity in America and it will include several, racial and ethnic populations, but Asian Americans are frequently ommitted from that report. So, you know, at the national level, that data doesn't exist, which then, makes it very difficult to understand what is the severity of the problem and what are some of the solutions that could be done to address them. So that's why we were interested in doing a deeper dive into summarizing the literature too be able to see what has been done about this problem and what are some of the barriers that exist, towards food security for community members, and what are some of the literature gaps? Our review was published in 2024 was the first scientific review of the literature on food insecurity among Asian Americans. [00:47:27] Miko Lee: And what did your study uncover? [00:47:31] Dr. Milkie Vu: We documented several important findings. There is a lack of existing data on this problem. Due to this myth of Asian Americans being the model minority. Assuming that Asian Americans are uniformly successful socioeconomically and thus not experiencing, any challenge including food insecurity. One of the things that we found is the importance of data disaggregation and looking at food insecurity in different Asian origin groups. We found that food insecurity really varied. So for example, if you look at some groups like Japanese Americans, we found the prevalence of between two to 11% of the population reporting food insecurity. But then if you look at some of the Southeast Asian groups, for example, Filipinos or Hmong American or Vietnamese, the rates are much higher. So the studies that we found report, between eight to 41% of food insecurity and among Filipino population. Close to 48% for more Hmong American, and then between 14 or 28% for Vietnamese Americans, so much higher than the rates for other groups. [00:48:48] Data Dion is important and there shouldn't be this grouping of different Asian groups in research because then it really erased like the struggles specific communities with food insecurity. I think the other finding that was really important is looking at more systemic or structural barriers that prevent people from being food secure. Our review found that limited English proficiency is a important driver of food insecurity. The lack of appropriate language services, whether that's food pantry or for things like snap navigation. These could be important target point infusion policy or interventions that could help address food insecurity, community members. We also look at a couple of qualitative studies that found really interesting things. So for example, even when Asian American community members do use food assistance programs like snap, the benefits are often not sufficient. And they have a negative experience. There's also fear of how that might negatively impact the immigration status or application. Those are important barriers that should be acknowledge. [00:50:08] Miko Lee: Some of these numbers are so high. You mentioned 48% with Hmong folks with, it's just so surprising, and I wonder if there's a sense of the why some of these communities have a higher food insecurity than others. [00:50:21] Dr. Milkie Vu: Yeah, one of the things that we did point out in the conclusion was the need for just more studies focusing on these, smaller Asian groups or smaller Asian population that are done in like the appropriate language to be. From some of the experience I've had, part of it is probably shaped by, the historical conditions to which some of these, communities might have come to the us. For example, thinking about my community Vietnamese, coming to America as refugees, fleeing persecution or free fleeing war and how that, historical conditions might create structural and socioeconomic challenge in Britain, in the community. I am also curious about is the availability of service and program that are linguistically appropriate or, providing culturally relevant food for these communities. So those are important points that we can hypothesize, but obviously more research is needed to understand, the root cause of these challenge and how to address them. [00:51:28] Miko Lee: And were you focused on specific regions or this was national? [00:51:34] Dr. Milkie Vu: I'm really glad that you asked about this. So the review itself is, summarizing all published literature focusing on Asian Americans. All of the studies take place in the us. A lot of the, studies probably focus on data that are from the coast. So either on Asian American, on the east coast or the west coast. , But we looked at the study like from a nationwide angle and I'm also happy to talk about some of the new committee organizations in Chicago looking at food insecurity and community-based solutions to address that among Asian Americans. Part of the motivation for the follow-up study was just thinking about the lack of data focusing on the Midwest or Chicago where I live. [00:52:20] Miko Lee: Please, I'd love to hear more about that . [00:52:23] Dr. Milkie Vu: The COVID pandemic, had brought a lot challenges for food insecurity. For people nationwide in general, but then for Asian American, there's also this, so what I call like the double, almost like a double pandemic, like the waves of entire Asian violence and hate crimes. And so thinking about how that impact food insecurity in general among, Asian American community members. About two years ago, we interviewed around, 13 organizations in Chicago. All of them are either community based organizations, social services or food pantry, working with, primarily with Asian American community members, from diverse groups: korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, south Asian, Mongolian, et cetera throughout Chicago. And the question that we asked them was, thinking about what programs they have offered during the COVID pandemic that aim at reducing food insecurity among community members. How did they implement this program? Who are some of the vulnerable populations served by the program? How did the pandemic as far as anti-Asian racism impact the program organization? That was the first study that looked at how community organization in Chicago help address this issue of insecurity on this, the COVID pandemic. [00:53:57] Miko Lee: And so what is the next step for this study or what is the next piece that you're working on as connected to this? [00:54:05] Dr. Milkie Vu: Yeah. Think about the role of the community organization as grassroots organizations that work from the ground up , as opposed to more top down program structure. They're doing a lot of the heavy lifting to help community members address food insecurity, because they know the community very well. They are able to provide the in language service that community members need. They're also trusted by community members. So a lot of the time,, certain populations especially say if those with limited their English proficiency or, more newly arrived immigrants, might feel more comfortable going here as opposed to going to this organization as opposed to, another one that are more generic and don't have the staff that speak the right language. I think the other thing is, staff with the similar cultural backgrounds are able to understand. There was one quote from the study that I did in Chicago. That stuck with me. When we tell them you could go to the food bank, the American food is not quite tailored to their taste. So they will get a big chunk of cheese and they will be like, what is this? Nobody wants to eat this. Again, thinking about the role of committee organization as so important in knowing the language, knowing the cultural preferences. And then just thinking of ways that we can further support, the programs and operations that they do. This is a really challenging time for nonprofits, social service organization, both in terms of providing food as well as other social service to Asian American and immigrant communities. How can research from a place like, researchers, from academia like me, are able to partner with them to further the service that they do and be able to find the funding that support them and community members. I think that's the important step for me. [00:56:02] Miko Lee: Dr. Vu, how can folks find out more about your work? [00:56:06] Dr. Milkie Vu: Yeah, In order to understand more about the work that we do, so we have a website, for our lab that frequently include, you know, like our current projects as well as publications. So you can go to site, so SI ts.northwestern.edu/vu group. and you'll be able to find more information about the research that we published. We've also recently, in the beginning of the year start, to find ways to disseminate research on social media. So we also have a Facebook group for our lab that disseminates our research findings as well as include information about the community members and partners Other trainees in the lab that make this work possible. The labs Facebook group is at facebook.com/maybe give research. and then you can always reach out to me via my email milkie.vu@northwestern.edu So I'm glad to connect with people who have similar research interests or would like to learn more about the work that we do. [00:57:06] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your information about your important work that you're doing on research with Asian American community. Appreciate hearing from you. [00:57:15] Dr. Milkie Vu: Thank you so much. [00:57:18] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night. The post APEX Express – 6.4.26 – Food Justice appeared first on KPFA.

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Rub-a-Dub-Scrub: Showers in K-Dramas

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2026 72:09

K-Dramas don't often do us dirty. But look, we here at Afternoona Delight Inc. love a good shower scene. Lots of F words can happen in a shower. Fighting. Friction. Flirting. Forlorn. Fu----n. What can we say? We appreciate good hygiene. Hope you do too!Skip first 20 minutes if you don't want banter about BTS concerts.Ready to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Episode 510: The Underdogs Are Crushing It

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2026 71:35

Happy Pride and welcome to June, where the Asians in Baseball underdogs are CRUSHING IT.3:45 - First up in position player news, some big moves this week that include Munetaka Murakami going on the 10-day IL, Jung Hoo Lee is ELITE elite (like, hitting 517 in his last 7 games elite), and the Red Sox Asians -- Yoshida, Wong, and Kiner-Falefa -- are HOT at the plate...even if their team is not. 20:45 - Ohtani the hitter is back to his old form, giving himself run support and generally just being the GOAT. And Naomi has a word for Brewers fans (hint: it's the same one that Ohtani uses when he's frustrated on the mound...)26:40 - Ohtani the pitcher is NOT satisfied with 6 innings of no-hit ball!!34:36 - In pitching news, Imai tosses the bulk of a combined Astros no-hitter, Kai Wei Teng seems quite comfortable in his new role as a starter, and we don't know what the heck is going on over at the Mets, but we do know that Jonah Tong and Sean Manaea are up for the task of righting the ship. 50:42 - This week's hot topic: What are we going to do with Hyeseong Kim and the Dodgers???

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How Route 66 got its kicks

Here & Now

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2026 19:33

Route 66, known as “America's Main Street” is not the longest or most-travelled American highway. Fully paved in the 1930s, it became a Depression-era migration route for poor farming families fleeing the Dust Bowl for a new start in California. It's been featured in popular media for decades. Kathleen Franz, lead curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, unpacks more of the road's history.And, the 1973 album “A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle of Asians in America” was one of the first recognized musical albums expressing Asian American identity. It's often considered a blend of political statements within a collective art project. Sojin Kim, curator of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, details the album's legacy.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

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May 2026 Uncensored!

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2026 48:28

The technology gods and goddesses were not on our side today, but we persevered! Join us for this month's Uncensored where we discuss the dramas we've just finished watching, what we're queuing up on our streaming platforms, and what our patrons think we should watch next. Also, what's a squelch meter? Listen and find out!Ready to download your first audiobook? Don't forget to click HERE for your free Audible trial.*Audible is a sponsor of Afternoona Delight Podcast*Are your family and friends sick of you talking about K-drama? We get it...and have an answer. Join our AfterNoona Delight Patreon and find community among folks who get your obsession. And check out www.afternoonadelight.com for more episodes, book recs and social media goodness. And don't forget about the newest member of our network: Afternoona Asks where diaspora Asians living in the West find ways to reconnect to Asian culture via Asian/KDramas.Last but CERTAINLY not least....love BTS? Or curious what all the fuss is about? Check out our sister pod Afternoona Army for takes on Bangtan life. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

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Dr. Felice Chan Teaches Us Eastern Medicine

Fun With Dumb

Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2026 56:35

Today we bring you a very informative episode with an expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine (aka TCM). Dr. Felice Chan -- respect that DOCTORAL DEGREE -- has a neuroscience background and leads a global community of over 700,000 people who look to her for guidance on skin health and nervous system regulation. We talk about heartbreak manifesting as cold sores, big breakfast >>> late night sugar cravings, and cold plunges being bad for Asians. We also explored what true emotional balance looks like, the monetization of Eastern Medicine online, and if we should be taking more dr*gs (the fun ones, but also the not fun ones). Plus, we had her check Jonnie's tongue and Steffie's pulse for ailments!! Follow the IG: https://www.instagram.com/homeroom.show Follow the TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@homeroomshow Subscribe to our Substack: https://substack.com/@homeroomshow Dr. Felice Chan: https://www.instagram.com/drfelicechan/ Hosted by: Jonnie Park: https://www.instagram.com/dumbfoundead https://www.tiktok.com/@dumbfoundead Steffie Baik: https://www.instagram.com/steffiebaik https://www.tiktok.com/@steffiebaik Podcast Producer: Caroline Y Choi Audio: Johnny Chay Podcast Media Team: GGEZ Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Mining Stock Monkey: ‘No End In Sight’ for Fiat Crisis, Fertilizers, Oil & Gold

Palisade Radio

Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2026 57:28

Stijn Schmitz welcomes Mining Stock Monkey to the show. The discussion centers on navigating the current commodity cycle with a disciplined, downside-protection-first approach. He emphasizes that while structural tailwinds like electrification, AI infrastructure, and global poverty reduction support a broad commodities bull market, selectivity is critical. He starts by identifying historically cheap commodities—where low prices eventually cure low prices by curbing supply and boosting demand—and then evaluates individual companies on their risk-reward profiles. Nickel tops his list, but he exclusively seeks high-grade nickel-sulfide deposits, avoiding laterite projects due to severe environmental and human rights concerns in Indonesia. Potash also appears cheap, with BHP's delayed and over-budget Jansen mine potentially discouraging new supply; he notes producers like Nutrien and Mosaic, though he favors royalty exposure through Altius Minerals. In oil and gas, equities are undervalued at spot prices, but the futures curve points to a sharp decline, making him cautious. He prioritizes protecting against large losses, explaining that avoiding a 75% drop is far more valuable than chasing outsized gains. On precious metals, he views the gold bull market as mature after a decade-long run, yet acknowledges that endless money printing and the weaponization of the dollar could drive prices infinitely higher. He is reducing exposure to riskier gold miners and favors royalty companies like Royal Gold, citing its superior margins, built-in growth, relative undervaluation, and potential S&P 500 inclusion as key downside protections. Silver, however, raises concerns: a parabolic chart pattern and the fact that over a billion rural Asians hold silver as savings could trigger massive selling if they cash in on recent price spikes, potentially flooding the market. He also briefly notes that thermal coal's chart resembles a classic bottoming pattern worth investigating. Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:06 – Commodities Bull Market Outlook 00:03:40 – Identifying Cheap Commodities 00:06:37 – Attractive Commodities Nickel Oil 00:08:08 – Oil Equities and Supply Risks 00:09:50 – Downside Protection Strategy 00:16:03 – Potash Market Analysis 00:21:44 – Nickel Sulphide Deposits 00:25:40 – Gold Markets Currently 00:30:52 – Miners & Risk/Reward 00:36:12 – Finding Value In Miners 00:42:07 – Junior Explorers & Developers 00:47:05 – Silver Market Thoughts 00:53:57 – Thermal Coal 00:54:48 – Concluding Thoughts Guest Links: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@MiningStockMonkey Website: https://miningstockmonkey.com/products/vip X: https://x.com/miningstockguy Substack: https://miningstockmonkey.substack.com Jordan is an independent resource investor and the founder of Mining Stock Monkey. He shares his personal portfolio, dynamic valuation models, and in-depth research with a growing audience of serious investors. His approach is uncompromisingly independent: no corporate sponsors, no investment banking fees, and no hidden agendas. Jordan invests his own capital and transparently shares exactly what he is buying and selling, along with the proprietary valuation models and research that drive his decisions. If you're an asset manager, family office, or high-net-worth investor looking for authentic, high-conviction resource opportunities, you can access Jordan's real-time portfolio and join a private community of like-minded investors here: https://miningstockmonkey.com/products/vip

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Ick IRL, But Love it in a Kdrama