Podcasts about Chinatown

Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠⁠Join The Normandy For Ad-Free NME, Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠⁠ In this Notorious Mass Effect segment, Analytic Dreamz breaks down PARTYNEXTDOOR's “Some of Your Love,” the 2016 OVO demo officially released August 21, 2026 on P3 (10-Year Edition). Produced by G. Ry and sampling Wild Nothing's “Chinatown,” the late-night R&B cut about conflicted lust converted a decade of leaks, 400K+ TikTok creations and 756K Shazams into ~1.72M first-day Spotify streams (Global No. 64), 11.7M early streams, plus chart peaks of No. 22 New Zealand, No. 32 Australia and No. 41 UK.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/analytic-dreamz-notorious-mass-effect/exclusive-contentPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Recessions, trade wars, labor unrest — in moments of societal crisis in the United States, Asian-Americans have been perennially targeted, from the destruction of Chinatowns by white mobs, to the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2, to attacks against Asians during Covid. Historian Scott Kurashige reflects on more than 175 years of anti-Asian violence and its connection to U.S. empire abroad and a divided working class at home. (Encore presentation.) Scott Kurashige, American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism UC Press, 2026 Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash The post U.S. Capitalism, Empire, and Anti-Asian Violence appeared first on KPFA.

Good morning. Many times in the past few years, including the dark times of 2020, I have thought how easy it is to turn your face to the sun, if you remember it is there and if you choose to. I watched the sunrise just before I recorded this for you. My mother had died two days earlier, there is always a lot to do in the wake of someone's death, and it was the first time I was alone and thinking of her, and also how much she would have liked the hot tub I was in at that moment and which we bought the year before, how she for sure would have been getting in and out of it and insisting on doing so naked and not caring who saw her. Mom, she had a thing for being naked, to wit:Mom [around 1998]: Nancy, I am going to a nudist camp, why don't you come with me?Me: Oh my god mom, no…Mom: It will be fun! You can write about it.I declined, with prejudice. Mom of course went. She never flagged in her commitment to walking around without her clothes on.Anyone following along here knows my mom has been leaving us for several years, what I have come to think of as the long linger. At least a half-dozen times I drove away from the property thinking, that is the last time I will see her… But it never was, she was the unsinkable Kathy Hayes until this past Monday. As my friend Deb later said, “She found her way home.” I am taking a lot of comfort from that.As you will hear in the audio, I was given a sign the day before…This one's a freebie. Subscribe for weekly Pie Talks, Smoking Diaries, and all other Smoke ‘Em episodes and nicetiesI started seeing hawks as messengers just after Tim's dad died. We were with him when he passed, in a hospital in Houston, which I wrote about in a “Modern Love” essay. I would be running in, say, Griffith Park, thinking about something difficult, and there a hawk would be, circling above me. Since Tim's death in 2019, he's taken over the messengering. At least that's what I think. Anyway, this hawk was going at it all day last Sunday. There are a gazillion birds upstate but a hawk's cry is very distinct.On Monday afternoon, I was just coming back from a visit with Jon Ronson—whose latest book, The Castle: Adventures in the World of Unraveling Me, drops next week so go get that—when I pulled into the driveway and saw the hawk sitting there. It was a red-tailed hawk, in no hurry to move. It eventually did, keening as it flew north, then came back in the early evening, while I was sitting on the front steps soon after learning about my mom's death. Cooking for me is comfort and a solace. I don't think it was that way for Mom, she was too hyper, a get-'er-done cook as opposed to a lingerer, read all about it, and her.I gave you all the recipe for her red sauce on Pie Talk #4, in March 2023. Many changes since, including the featured image of the Melania painting now hanging in the studio where The Fifth Column guys record, and the Chinatown apartment being no more, or no more for me, though it has passed on to someone in the extended chosen family, which makes us all happy, it's a rad pad with very, very good juju. For now, I leave you with Mom's Red Sauce. Please do make it, her gift to you. Let me know how it turns out xx “Your Mom's Red Sauce”I'm calling it this because that's how people always ask me for it. You are making a lot of sauce here, enough for several meals and several quarts for the freezer. This is also enough for one honkin' big lasagna, and about that: When making lasagna, go for full-fat ricotta and mozzarella. How you make lasagna, you say? Like this: In a very large baking pan, layer sauce, al dente cooked lasagna noodles, egg-size globs of ricotta, slices of mozzarella, repeat and repeat. The finished product will weigh about 8 pounds. Bake it at 350, loosely covered with foil, for about an hour, then remove foil and bake another 30 minutes, until top layer of cheese is all melty and browning. This will feed at least 10 - 12 people, who as the years go by will ask you please to make it again x* Olive oil, 4 - 6 T.* 2 large yellow onions, chopped* 2 cloves garlic, chopped* 2 pounds hamburger meat, 80/20% fat* 5 cans (29-ounce) Hunt's Tomato Sauce. Yes, I know some of you want to use an Italian brand, or something organic. You do you but that's not the sauce, and if I had a nickel for every person I've given this recipe to who later said,”It didn't taste like yours...” and then admitted they did not, as specifically instructed, use the Hunt's, I'd have about 65-cents. Try it this way first and then go fancify!* 2 T. dried oregano, 1 T. dried basil if you have some, 2 bay leavesIn a large heavy-bottom sauce pot (not “sauce pan” as I repeatedly said in the audio), heat the olive oil over medium-heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent and with some brown bits, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook about a minute, stirring. Try not to burn the garlic (... she writes, often doing so herself.)Break up hamburger with your fingers and drop into the cooking onions. Don't break it up too much; you want some hunks the size of whole walnuts, and don't stir too much. Cook until the meat loses its pink and there are some brown bits.Pour in the sauce, crunch in the oregano and basil between your fingers, and add bay leaves. Stir the meat up from the bottom and bring the sauce to a simmer. Once it simmers, turn the flame as low as it will go, cover the pot but leave a tiny crack for steam to escape, and simmer, at least two hours, stirring from the bottom every 20 minutes or so, to avoid meat sticking to the bottom and scorching. Depending on your burner, a flame-tamer may be in order. The sauce originally called for three hours of simmering and by all means, go for it, but two hours is also fine.Remove from heat, eat some right away on hot pasta, let the rest cool and freeze or otherwise save for another day.Things people have added to good effect: Italian sausages for last hour of cooking (my mom), a splash of red wine and red pepper flakes (my former husband).Things people have put this sauce on other than pasta: bread in a bowl (everyone), salad (my late stepfather). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

This week we're in Chinatown chowing down at 00 Pie & Pub and talking to Erica Bell. Also: Al previews next week's long conversations with Paymon Raoff and David Wondrich. You'll also hear from Jean Francoise Blais of Lester's Deli at its grand opening. Chefs Matt Silverman and Matt Piearski give us an audio tour of the construction on their new spot, Significant Other. And of course, a Happy Hour Report from Andrew, some news and some restaurant reports.

This episode is from the live event we did back in May as part of KALW's celebration of AAPI Heritage Month with all around brilliant delightful human Bonnie Tsui, author of American Chinatown, On Muscle, and Why We Swim.  Bonnie shares her experiences growing up in Long Island, what it was like having an endless supply of imperfect fortune cookies (and their schoolyard trading value!) and her continued trek back to family in Queens.  She shares about her natural (or nurtured?) affinity for Chinatowns, how it led her to write her book, and Freesia and Sam share their own (sometimes overlapping) experiences with two of the Chinatowns in Bonnie's book. We also talk about Bonnie's semi-successful experience making fortune cookies at home, about what the best type of fortune cookie is, and some audience members share their fortunes! We hope they came true!  Special thanks to: Charles Lighthouse for hosting and recording Michelle Liu for taking photos Sara Corbett for additional assistance

  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. Hosts Miko Lee & Guest Host Mia Nakano celebrate Bayanihan in Ballhalla. Bayanihan is a core Filipino cultural value of community unity, and Balhalla is the home arena of the Golden State Valkyries. Apex Express was invited to join Filipino Heritage Night at the Valkyries game. We speak with the community behind this cultural celebration. That includes Al Perez, artists Venazir Martinez and Kristian Kabuay, and coach Carolyn Sideco about the history of Philippines and basketball. Links for more information: More information on our guests: Golden State Valkyries Al Perez, President of the Filipino American Arts Exposition Artist Venazir Martinez DJ P-LO Cultural Practitioner Kristian Kabuay Carolyn Sideco Coaching Kapwa Raquel Redondiez SOMA Pilpinas     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. [00:01:13] Miko Lee: Welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee, and tonight is Bayanihan in Ballhalla. Bayanihan is a core Filipino cultural value of community unity, and Balhalla is the home arena of the Golden State Valkyries. Apex Express was invited to join Filipino Heritage Night at the Valkyries game. Tonight, please join me and my guest host, Mia Nakano, as we speak with the community behind this cultural celebration. That includes Al Perez, artists Venazir Martinez and Kristian Kabuay, and coach Carolyn Sideco about the history of Philippines and basketball. Join us. Today I have the honor of having my bestie with me who's gonna co-host Welcome to Apex, Mia Nakano.  [00:01:59] Mia Nakano: Hi, Miko. Thank you for having me.  [00:02:01] Miko Lee: I was invited to a Valkyries game, and I said, “Oh, my gosh, I need somebody with me that can speak basketball.” And so I thought of you.  [00:02:10] Mia Nakano: And here we are. And the Valkyries do put on a show. That's one of the things that makes them so great.  [00:02:15] Miko Lee: Yeah, it was super fun. It was Filipino Heritage Night, and so we got a chance to talk with the different artists that are there, what is the night about, what's the cultural celebration. What were some of the things that stood out to you?  [00:02:28] Mia Nakano: I think that it really got to the roots of, one, what a great sports city San Francisco and then just the broader Bay Area is, and two, the deep connections to the Filipino community that exists within the Bay Area. When you look at how historically the Warriors really came up and the fan shots from when they were at Oracle Arena, the huge fan base that was there initially was the Filipino community. To see that translate in a very different way as the Valkyries are coming up in the WNBA as this incredible team, second year, on their way to probably making the playoffs for the second year in a row, bringing that community back, particularly with all the connections of the artists, the activations, and even the food that they have in Chase Arena brings it full circle. [00:03:26] Miko Lee: Having Natalie Nakase as the coach there is so powerful and important representation for Asian Americans as well. The other thing that stood out to me was I did not know there was this history of basketball in the Philippines, and then to talk to the different guests on our show tonight about what that history represents, where it comes from, the connection to colonization, and then also how it's really developed into its own cultural phenomena in the Philippines. [00:03:55] Mia Nakano: I played basketball- All throughout junior high and high school and was very immersed in it in Southern California, but I had no idea that basketball was the national sport of the Philippines. After we came back from the game, I did a little a bit of a deep dive, and it was really wonderful to see that it actually started in the Philippines as a women's sport? And it was making sports more accessible to folks, and also very clearly connected to,, roots of colonization and religion. But to still have that anchor and connection there, and then this interesting juxtaposition where right now there has still never been a Filipina player in the WNBA. There are folks who people really thought were almost gonna make it. So there's still that one last phase that they need to break into this sport that is their national sport, but in the United States they're not quite there yet in terms of representation.  [00:04:55] Miko Lee: And talking with Coach Caroline, which people can hear later in the episode, about that history and how it was intended to be this women's sport in the Philippines because it was easier. They thought they'd give it to the women to play. But the men were watching going like, “Oh, this looks fun. This looks more fun than baseball. So it really just took off. I love that transition for that it went and across the country. A few of our guests talked about tenement basketball courts. It's just so wildly different from this country.  [00:05:25] Mia Nakano: I think that that is contextually just how sports are played in a lot of different countries in the world where they don't have access. When you think about people playing football, right, like soccer, in different areas where they are playing barefoot. They are playing in dirt or, like, fields that are not necessarily fields. I think that in the context of playing basketball differently in the Philippines versus the United States or even in European leagues, when the United States goes to play in the Olympics, even though you have the USA women's team, USA men's teams who are supposed to be the best of the best in the world, the way that the game is played at that particular level and arena is quite different. And so they all have to adjust to the physicality, to how calls are called just slightly differently. With smaller players in the WNBA what I find really incredible, and this is what Carolyn talks about a little bit, is like the layup packages? When you get close to the rim, you don't have a Filipino who just goes up and makes a regular layup. They do it with flair, right? There's a part of that maybe is a little bit of showmanship, but also it's a part of trying to sneak your way around bigger players so that you can get the basket. And anybody that you play against, even in a league that is familiar to you, you're gonna have to change your game up, and play to your strength, and also just know what you can't do in the game, and go to another person who has more of those strengths  [00:07:03] Miko Lee: One of the other things that stood out to me in talking with one of the artists, Christian, who was there in the outside, in the cultural area, and he was doing, pre-Filipino writing with folks, and we'll interview him later in the episode. He was saying how he does this activity at a lot of different games, but it was very different. That was the first time at the Valkyries, and he said the crowd was so different, that it felt like back in the day. It felt like community. There weren't tech bros. You feel like it, The audience was way more women, As someone that goes to Warriors' and Valkyries' games, do you notice a difference in the audience?    [00:07:41] Mia Nakano: The first Valkyries game that I had the opportunity to go to last year was their Pride Night, and that is the game that my wife and I always go to for the Warriors. It's a special feeling there. I noticed there was a whole parking lot area for strollers on different levels. There was such great energy, and people just talking about the game, people cheering or rooting for players on the other team. There was not a lot of negative energy going around. When Christian mentions, the tech bro energy, the people rolling around with Patagonia shirts, and sweatshirts, that is so true. You truly feel this family environment that's also very queer friendly. There's so many folks of color, and they're not just there because the team's winning, because last year we didn't know if the team was gonna win or not. They were just showing up. The Valkyries have really created such a strong culture that is team based. That's what you see with the Valkyries, but I also think that that's a testament to the coach, to the players, who really trust in one another, and to the community that we have in the Bay Area. I think even the players did not understand when they came here what they were stepping into, and they talk about talking to other players on opposing teams who are like, “Is it always like this? Is it every night?” They're like, “Every single night, this is how our fans are, and we love it.”  [00:09:14] Miko Lee: So it's in different WNBA hometowns it's not like that? [00:09:18] Mia Nakano: Absolutely not. The Valkyries have sold out every single game from day one. They are the first WNBA team, and I think the first women's professional sports team, to reach $100 billion in valuation. then you see other teams, like the Atlantic Dream, who are playing in arenas of 3,500, or the Dallas Wings, who are playing in much smaller arenas, even though they have all these franchise players like Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers and AZ Fudd. The Dallas Wings are actually moving to the same arena that the Mavericks are gonna play in next year. It's an interesting juxtaposition given where the context of our world is at, who's in office right now, the battles that we're having to fight to keep women's rights, queer rights, trans rights in the forefront and not have them stripped away. Yet on the other side of this, we have this huge, meteoric rise of women's sports, and it's not just basketball. It's baseball. It's hockey. It's all these different leagues that are starting to emerge and have huge fan bases where you can watch women's professional sports all year round. They're nationally televised games. [00:10:31] Miko Lee: Thank you for the history lesson and current events of women's sports. I love it. One of the other things that was really special for this Filipino heritage night was the halftime show where they had DJ P-Lo playing. And then they brought onto the court, the director of SOMA Pilipinas, Raquel Redondiez, and she runs San Francisco's Filipino Cultural Heritage District. She got her name on a Valkyries jersey, and was announced in the halftime moment as a big show. [00:11:05] Mia Nakano: I had a conversation with her said, ” the work that you are doing, particularly in this moment, bringing together the artists, the culture of Filipinos and Filipino history is so critical right now because so many of our communities, cultures, and stories are getting erased, that we are the culture bearers and culture keepers, and so thank you for doing that work.” [00:11:31] Miko Lee: SOMA Pilipinas, for those that don't know, was established as a Filipino cultural heritage district in 2016 and was one of the first in the state designated as an arts district by California Arts Council in 2017. So they do so much great work, they host great things from the, United States of Asian America Festival every year. Self-defense workshops for women. I've taken those in Kapwa Gardens that were amazing. They do mental health services for Filipino folks and provided groceries and COVID education and, Filipino language training, and then artists, as you were saying. They pulled together all these different folks, for this wonderful night to introduce a sense of heritage and a sense of pride that was really powerful. [00:12:19] Mia Nakano: , It's a really lovely connection back to the Filipinos banding together with Chinese American folks in Chinatown that really helped create the broader Asian American movement and what that word and power even means. [00:12:38] Miko Lee: From the I-Hotel to today [00:12:40] Mia Nakano: exactly, and all of that being really anchored and rooted in San Francisco, as well as everything that Larry Itliong did with union organizing that I think has just recently started to get recognized in the broader social justice movement.  [00:12:58] Miko Lee: I'll put links to past shows that we've done on the I-Hotel, on Larry Itliong, because folks, if they don't know about either of those movement le- leaders and huge moments in our Asian American history, they should. It's powerful part of our labor and housing rights history. Were there other things that stood out to you at this Valkyries game? [00:13:20] Mia Nakano: I know that this is probably not gonna be a surprise to you, but the fact that we honestly just got to go behind the scenes and see the inner workings of what the Valkyries, the tunnels and getting lost and trying to figure out where we're going. [00:13:34] Miko Lee: It was a maze down there, by the way. It was like, which direction? Go to this press room. No, this press room. This place. It was very much kind of, in theater-wise, it's like going backstage and seeing how the tech is done.  [00:13:46] Mia Nakano: The thing that was the most exciting about this unique experience was being able to see Natalie Nakase talk after the game, and the snippet in here is really incredible because it shed light into not just who she is as a coach and how she approached the game, but her investment in people, and the importance of seeing people for their full selves, and the importance of the whole WNBA as a league, as a business. They have a lot of money and power, so who are we gonna lift up? It's a always a very intentional choice of what is happening at Chase Arena, at the Valkyries nights, these heritage nights that really uplift so many wonderful communities that are doing incredible work.  [00:14:36] Miko Lee: We're gonna get a chance to do an interview with Coach Natalie in a different episode, so stay tuned for that. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience?  [00:14:45] Mia Nakano: Go see a Valkyries game. Go to Balhalla. It will change your life.  [00:14:50] Miko Lee: Experience Balhalla. Okay. Thank you for joining me, and hopefully you'll join me back when we do an interview with Coach Natalie too.  [00:14:59] Mia Nakano: Oh, absolutely.  [00:15:00] Miko Lee: To frame the conversation, we start with Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American woman to coach a WNBA team. Last year, she was named WNBA Coach of the Year, and at the post-game presser, a reporter asked her, “Tonight is Filipino National Heritage Night, so can you talk a little bit about what it means for fans to be seen around the league?” This is her response. [00:15:25] Natalie Nakase: Yeah. It's huge. I love the fact that we can celebrate and acknowledge different cultures. I'm really big on that. I think it gives people almost like a superpower or a confidence for, you know, the day to be recognized like that and to be celebrated for everything that their, their culture brings. it also, I think, educates people about different cultures. And so I love the fact that we're super intentional about that because I think we have to do that more than not. And, it's exciting. I think this world needs more celebration. I think this world needs more love, more care, especially when some people are not seen as much. [00:16:01] Miko Lee: In the very loud outdoor Chase Arena area, we spoke with several of the folks involved in Filipino Heritage Night at the Valkyries. Please note that the sound quality is due to the nature of being outside a really excited fan base at the game. First off, listen in as we hear from Al Perez, who helped to curate this community celebration. [00:16:23] Al Perez: Hello, my name is Al Perez. I am a community organizer. I'm serving as president of a nonprofit called the Filipino American Arts Exposition, and we partnered with the Valkyries to help curate their cultural activation for Filipino Heritage Night tonight. [00:16:41] Miko Lee: Since the Valkyries are named after women warriors, is there a Filipina version of a woman warrior? [00:16:48] Al Perez: Absolutely. We have one that's local. Her name is Victoria Manalo Draves. She was the first American woman to win two Olympic golds in the Olympics in nine- 1928. She happens to be Filipina-American. So yeah, she was born and raised here in, in San Francisco Bay Area, so we're very proud of her to be, to represent us and be the warrior and an inspiration for all of us.  [00:17:11] Miko Lee: Excellent. And since Valhalla or Valhalla is the space that we want to get to, what is the Filipino version of that place you want to see? [00:17:19] Al Perez: Wow. [00:17:20] Miko Lee: That perfect world you wanna get to. [00:17:21] Al Perez: I think for us, we have this tradition called bayanihan. That's when we help each other towards a common goal. Yes. No matter how Herculean that task is, it's just coming together to help each other. So it's not necessarily a destination. It's more like an attitude of, coming together as a community towards a common goal, towards a cultural pride and community empowerment. [00:17:46] Miko Lee: Great. And tell us what you're doing here today with all these groups. [00:17:47] Al Perez: So we have an outreach table here because we're part of the organizing committee to curate tonight's event. So we actually have an event next weekend called the Pistahan Parade and Festival. It's the largest Filipino cultural celebration in the country, happening August 8th and 9th at the Yerba Buena Gardens, so please come check us out. There's a big parade down Market Street on Saturday to kick off the festival weekend, and then the festival's at the Yerba Buena Gardens, 11 to 5. We're here to promote that event as well as all our other upcoming events in the fall. We're also curating the Filipino Heritage Night with the Golden State Warriors, with the Giants, San Jose Sharks, and San Jose Earthquakes. And then one more. October is Filipino American History Month in the country. So we also produce official celebration proclamation by the mayor at City Hall. So we have a reception, we have entertainment, and we light the City Hall building with Philippine flag colors.  [00:18:42] Miko Lee: And when folks are coming out to these Filipino nights, what should they expect? What's happening?  [00:18:47] Al Perez: Our goal is to be here to be in community, to help showcase our beautiful culture, our traditions. So when these events happen, we usually have, cultural performances, either a pre-game or a halftime. Tonight you're gonna see, P-Lo, a Filipino rapper and a hip hop singer. Here in the plaza we have some basketball hoops, because basketball is a big thing in the Philippines, our national sport. There's also, Sarap Shop is a concession inside. They have Filipino food there. Our goal is to get people a little taste of our Filipino culture, so hopefully they'll be inspired to, to learn more about our community and our culture. [00:19:29] Miko Lee: And what's your dream for the game tonight?  [00:19:31] Al Perez: Of course, to win, right? Number, yeah, number one, Valkyries to win. And also, I hope that people will come and learn about our culture, and to appreciate it more. Maybe it will inspire them to try some Filipino food, or even come to our Pistahan Festival next weekend. Also Señor Sisig is right here in the plaza. They also do fusion Filipino food. I'm hoping that, by being here, people can get to be a little bit more familiar and curious about Filipino culture and community. We have such a, vibrant and diverse culture, we love to be in community. Our food's delicious, and entertainment's fantastic. So come check us out wherever and whenever you can.  [00:20:14] Mia Nakano: I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the artists who are here and the community organizations that are here tonight.  [00:20:19] Al Perez: So there's several of us nonprofit organizations here. Our group's the Filipino American Arts Exposition, our mission is more about broadening awareness and deepening understanding of Filipino culture and traditions by doing these cultural events. There's another group here called Young Filipino Professionals Association, or YFPA. They're more about, , uplifting young entrepreneurs, young career-minded, individuals to help them on their path to being more successful. There's also SoMa Pilipinas Cultural District is here. That's a new, relatively new, neighborhood in San Francisco. You know, there's Chinatown, there's Japantown, there's North Beach, so now we also have a Filipino community. It's called SoMa Pilipinas, they're also celebrating their 10th anniversary this year as being, designated as a cultural district. There's also Venazir is a visual artist. She's doing live art mural here inspired by Filipino culture and the intersection of culture and basketball. So it's a great way for people to kind of learn about our fine arts, our visual arts, and our he- heritage. Kristian Cabuay is doing script writing of traditional pre-colonial Philippine script. You know, Chinese and Japanese have their own script writing. The Phi- Filipino community also did before we were colonized by Spain. It's kind of almost forgotten and almost wiped out, so there's a few people now that's trying to revive that, that old tradition of writing .. It's called Baybayin.    [00:21:42] Mia Nakano: Can you talk a little bit about the history or why basketball is the national sport of the Philippines?   [00:21:48] Al Perez: Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah, why is basketball the national sport? I'm not sure exactly, but I think it has to do when after the Philippines was colonized by Spain, and then it, the country became, a commonwealth of the United States, right? And during that time, a lot of Americans came to the Philippines, to establish educational institutions, and one of them is sports. It just got introduced to us, and somehow it clicked. Everybody loves basketball. No matter where you are in the Philippines, in every little barrio, every little town, there's always a game happening [00:22:21] Miko Lee: So are people playing in school, like they start in elementary school, or is it more community based?  [00:22:26] Al Perez: I think it's both. It's just kinda grow, ingrown when you're just a kid growing up in your community. There's always basketball around you, surrounded by basketball. And then of course in more, elementary, high school, it became more teams dynamic, and you got competitions , intramural games. Even between little neighborhoods and little towns, they also have competitions. It's really a big deal. In fact, they love NBA. All the American basketball players are so popular. Everybody knows who they are. [00:22:54] Miko Lee: Al mentioned artist Venazir Martinez, and we pulled her away from the beautiful mural she was creating to talk with us. Again, this is outside, so the sound is quite loud. Venazir is a muralist and a visual anthropreneur. She weaves a tapestry of narratives that explore the connections between human traditions and the ever-changing landscapes that shape them. Listen as she tells us about her work and how she utilizes a symbolic red thread [00:23:25] Venazir Martinez: I'm Venazir Martinez. I am a muralist and a visual entrepreneur, and I am invited to create a live painting for the Golden State Valkyries. [00:23:36] Miko Lee: What has inspired you to create this work of art? [00:23:39] Venazir Martinez: So first and foremost, of course, women empowerment, and we have a lot of very talented Filipino Americans who play basketball. In the Philippines, because I grew up in the Philippines, basketball is such a huge deal. Everywhere in the most promote areas in the Philippines, basketball is their way of enjoying themselves and just pretty much having a time of their life. Basketball tenements are everywhere in the most remote areas in the Philippines. There's this concept of Filipino resiliency that I wanted to incorporate in my work, there are basketball hoops that is made out of wood scraps and like discarded metals. I wanted to highlight that part of Philippine ingenuity. That's why I'm here is to just shed light on that beautiful concept of Filipino ingenuity that we have.  [00:24:40] Miko Lee: I love that. Thank you for sharing. Can you break down what a basketball tenement is?  [00:24:44] Venazir Martinez: Oh, basketball tenement. So tenement courts, these are,.. How do I say this? In America, there's basketball courts that is, like, roofed. Okay. With a roof, and-  [00:24:54] Miko Lee: Like in a gymnasium.  [00:24:56] Venazir Martinez: In a gymnasium, yes. But in the Philippines, anywhere can be a basketball tenement court. They'll just put up a basketball hoop in a pole, like an electricity pole, and they can already play basketball in that area. [00:25:12] Miko Lee: So their court's just made up anywhere. Yeah. Anywhere in the community.  [00:25:14] Venazir Martinez: Anywhere in the community, in the most remote areas in the Philippines, they do that all the time. I grew up in the Philippines, so, it's that really is an immersive experience of having to see basketball really change lives for young people in our community. [00:25:32] Miko Lee: So we're at a WNBA game, and I'm wondering if there was a woman basketball player that you looked up to when you were growing up.  [00:25:39] Venazir Martinez: Growing up, my dad plays basketball. That's the only experience I know that, remembering what basketball is like. ‘Cause I'm mostly in martial arts. But here I am trying to experience a different, like, more empowering way of sports. And it's when I came to America that I experienced this kind of really, it's kind of empowering.  [00:26:01] Miko Lee: And since the Valkyries are women warriors, is there a Filipina equivalent of the woman warrior? Is there a Filipina equivalent of a woman warrior? [00:26:01] Venazir Martinez: There's a lot. There's a lot of very empowering Filipina. First and foremost, it's the Filipina community leaders that I know of in the Bay Area. They are my women warriors. They helped me from the ground up. They created a home for me. They, you know, so they welcomed me. The filipina community in the Bay Area welcomed me. They're all women.  [00:26:31] Miko Lee: Who would you say are some of those folks, some of those women?  [00:26:34] Venazir Martinez: Sonia Villarin, she wears so many hats. She's president of Filipina Food Movement, founder of summer camp in the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in San Francisco. She was the, senior vice president for Bank of America Global Leasing, and she welcomed her home to me and, pretty much, helped me establish my life here as an artist. So those are my women warriors. [00:27:00] Miko Lee: And when people see your beautiful work, what do you want them to walk away with feeling? [00:27:05] Venazir Martinez: I want them to take a second look again in my work, because these, my work pretty much talks about Filipino immigrants, and immigration at large, and pretty much our contributions and the harvested hopes that we have contributed in this cultural landscape,  [00:27:28] Miko Lee: this show is a pop-up tonight, so where can folks find out more about your work or see your work in the community? [00:27:34] Venazir Martinez: I have a huge, huge mural, 2,500 square feet mural in 5th and Folsom in San Francisco, downtown San Francisco in SoMa. It's called Ani, meaning to harvest. There's one in downtown Santa Cruz. There is one in Yuba City. There are multiple murals in Michigan, in New York, mostly in Queens. It's pretty much everywhere, but if you follow the red thread, which is my signature, my artist signature, you'll know that it's my work.  [00:28:08] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. Thank you so very much. Appreciate you taking the time. Another artist presenting their work was Kristian Kabuay working on pre-Philippines calligraphy. His line was so long that we ended up interviewing him separately. Christian is an artist, entrepreneur, futurist who specializes in endangered writing systems and tattoos from the Philippines. Hello, and welcome to Apex Express. Can you tell me your name, your background and what you were doing at the Valkyries Filipino Heritage Night? [00:28:40] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. My name is Kristian Kabuay. I'm a cultural practitioner specializing in our old, uh, pre-colonial, I say pre-Philippine, writing system and tattooing traditions. I was at the Valkyries, Filipino Heritage Night to interact with the community. I've done a lot of work with the Warriors, you know, going back to Oracle for these cultural nights, the Giants, as well. So most of the teams in the Bay Area, but it was my first time with the Valkyries, and it was quite different. [00:29:16] Miko Lee: How was it different?  [00:29:17] Kristian Kabuay: The vibe was, um… I'm telling everybody that it was my first Valkyries game, too. So the vibe was different. It reminds me of the old Oracle, it wasn't full of, like, tech money that are, you know, Patagonia vests watching the game. It felt very homegrown and it just brought me back to those days in old Oakland A's and when the Warriors were in Oracle. [00:29:42] Miko Lee: What does that evoke for you? What is that feeling like?  [00:29:46] Kristian Kabuay: It gives me a stronger sense of community and the audience is different. The demographics is different. There isn't that toxic male energy. I don't have to worry about someone being drunk and going off and, it was very homey and welcoming. It brings back, as a kid, when I used to watch A's games in the bleachers, watching at Oracle, the community, and not everyone was there to be seen. They were really there for the team.  [00:30:15] Miko Lee: Oh, I love that. I actually do feel like it is, it's such a we're together community vibe. [00:30:20] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. They even had the wave. I know some snooty teams, they don't have the wave, so-  [00:30:26] Miko Lee: That wave went on for a long time, too.  [00:30:29] Kristian Kabuay: Exactly. I've been to a lot of games. They're, “Oh, I don't wanna look stupid,” or whatever? So that's a big part of my childhood.  [00:30:36] Miko Lee: So I was gonna try and talk with you at the game like I did the other artists, but you had a huge line waiting to see you and talk to you. Talk with me a little bit more about your art form and this pre-clo colonization form of writing.  [00:30:52] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. Most civilizations had a writing system. It was prior to the land alphabet when the Spanish came and colonized the Philippines in the 1500s. We have this writing. There's only one ethnolinguistic group left in the Philippines that writes it. I come from a background of calligraphy, graffiti and abstract art. When I started to practice it, I incorporated those things. Later I found that I had to become an educator. Then starting to do the cultural festivals. Then you make your parents proud. It wasn't until I started to interact with the community that, there was this responsibility. I didn't come from a highly academic background, but I was being invited to Stanford and Berkeley to give talks about this. So, you know, that imposter syndrome kicked in. Because of the efforts that I've started in, 2010s, the idea of education around this specific writing system, my service isn't really needed. It's out there. Wikipedia, even AI can do it now, and there's a lot of influencers on TikTok that are, building on the stuff that I did 10 years ago. It goes in line with my idea of putting myself out of business. ‘Cause if it's a cultural practice, then you shouldn't be this gatekeeper, this apex of this this knowledge or this practice. It needs to be spread  [00:32:15] Miko Lee: What is the writing system called?  [00:32:17] Kristian Kabuay: A couple names. One of the popular names is Baybayin, and that literally means to spell. It's an adverb, but then it became a noun. So there's many different names depending on the languages in the Philippines.  [00:32:30] Miko Lee: And you said that there's a village of folks that still utilize it. Have you been there?  [00:32:34] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, I was there in 2016 with a research trip. I stayed with them for a few days to learn, a bit about more about the culture and to donate some time and volunteer, 'cause there's the Mangyan Heritage Foundation. I did some technology work with them. But then also meet with the elders that were there. The village elder did an interview for a film project that I'm doing, but also met the heirs, the daughters in the family that ultimately inherited this practice. [00:33:02] Miko Lee: And so they know that you're teaching this cultural practice around the world, and what is their opinion of that? What do they think?  [00:33:09] Kristian Kabuay: They like it, because it's a different perspective, and a lot of questions. When I go home they go, “Oh, why are you interested in this?” It's a totally different perspective. ‘Cause out here, we have our identity, and the diaspora issues. But back home, because of circumstances, colonization, et cetera, then, the priority is to eat, to live, not to preserve these cultural practices. I've had some indigenous elders tell me that when People come over there, to do their dissertation and they need to figure out their paper to get their PhD. They ask them, “What are you doing to preserve this?” It's kind of extractive or, like, information gathering. Honestly, it really is you strip it down, it is, survival: food, clothing, and shelter.  [00:33:52] Miko Lee: When people were standing in line for you at the actual Valkyrie's game, what were they asking you to write? Were they asking you to write notes or their name, or what was the request?  [00:34:03] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. Yeah, the line… I was telling people I've never had a line that long when I've done the Warriors. So- … you know, it's kind of different.  [00:34:10] Miko Lee: That's interesting. Just saying [00:34:11] Kristian Kabuay: Yes. I was writing mainly people's names- Mm um, and some words. Maybe a, a good third were non-Filipino, some were there just curious and asking and cultural sharing. Someone knows a Filipino and they go, “Oh, can you write mahal kita?” Like, I love you. And so, we pick up things, just here in the Bay Area. I have conversations with people wanna hear a family name that I never heard about. I say, “Whoa, where's your family from?” Kids learn the stories on how they combine names and some of the origins. It's always interesting when I do this with folks. [00:34:44] Miko Lee: I love that. And you're also a tattoo artist. Do you use some of this writing in your tattoo artistry?  [00:34:51] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, I do. And that's where the separation between the art and the cultural practice is. Where the writing wasn't tattooed traditionally, but that's where I kind of balance the art. And I separate those two where art is my expression, my personal expression on paper or maybe even on a body, but a cultural practice is more about them and their lineage. So I have to be clear to make those two distinctions.  [00:35:20] Miko Lee: So a question I've asked all the different people that have been involved in this night is that the Valkyries are based on women warriors, and I wonder if there's a Filipina woman warrior that comes to mind to you? [00:35:32] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, there is. There's one that, part of the lore. Where my dad's from, in his area called Pangasinan, the land of the salt. There's a princess warrior named Princess Urduja that was thought of as a great warrior. This specific Princess Urduja has that Valkyrie's spirit. All the artwork that you see and Academics will say, “Oh, it's you're romanticizing,” and things like that. But you know what? We need a little romance in our lives, right? And romance leads to action.  [00:36:03] Miko Lee: Ah, we certainly do. I'm wondering, with all those people, the long line that stood waiting for you, and you're having these conversations, what would you like them to walk away with after interacting with you?  [00:36:14] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah. That's why there was a sign, and I took a picture of it. It doesn't say, Philippine writing. So it says pre-Philippine calligraphy. I made that term up in 2007 as a way to jolt someone's idea of what pre-Hispanic, pre-colonial is. ‘Cause those things kinda just fly overhead. But if I said pre-Philippines, people, they take a step back and they, “What's that mean?” Or they try to have a smart comeback, “Well, what were we before then?” And my question's always then, “Well, I don't know. Let's talk about it.” That gray area, that being uncomfortable, leads to more curiosity, and ultimately, that's what I want folks to go ahead and, you know… oh, I have this banana leaf. I ran out of index cards. I brought 100 of them. I had these banana leaves that I just meant to decorate the table. I said, “You know what? Let me write on these banana leaves like how our ancestors did.” People are asking, “Oh, what, we wrote on banana leaves?” I'm all, “Yeah, we wrote on, organic materials.” So this thing is probably gonna wilt away in a few weeks or a month or so, but that's how it is. So it's a metaphor for our physical selves, but then also, the message. Maybe they can go ahead and learn how to write it themselves or until we reconnect again. [00:37:31] Miko Lee: Hmm. That's beautiful. And how can our audience find out more about you and your work?  [00:37:36] Kristian Kabuay: Yeah, you can just search for me online. My last name's K-A-B-U-A-Y. First name's Kristian, both with a K. All over the internets and the socials, pretty easy to find.  [00:37:46] Miko Lee: Thank you. And we'll put links to your website in our show notes, so thank you so much for chatting with me today. [00:37:52] Kristian Kabuay: Thanks, Miko [00:37:54] Miko Lee: I honestly didn't know that basketball was such a revered sport in the Philippines. So wanting to find out more, I reached out to a bunch of community folks, and multiple people said, “Reach out to Coach Carolyn Sudeco. She's the one. She's in the know.” So talking to me from her vacation spot halfway around the world is Coaching Kapwa's Carolyn Sudeco. Welcome, Carolyn Sideco, to Apex Express. I'm so happy to have you here.  [00:38:19] Carolyn Sideco: Thank you for having me.  [00:38:21] Miko Lee: Can you first start by telling me who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? [00:38:27] Carolyn Sideco: Oh my gosh, my people are, collectively, folks who identify as, Philippinics, Filipina, Filipino, and American, and, migratory, and those who claim blood relation and those who I'm still looking for. I live in San Francisco, California, Ohlone land, and also in the land of Choctaw Bulbancha, which is New Orleans, Louisiana. Those are the two places I reside.  [00:39:04] Miko Lee: Can you share about your work with Coaching Kapwa?  [00:39:08] Carolyn Sideco: Coaching Kapwa is what I love to do, and my background professionally is as a certified athletic administrator. I'm a physical educator at the high school level by profession, by certification, by training. But really what I love to do, and so what I do in my consultancy, is I explore and I examine and I think about and learn about everything related to sports cultures and how the culture of sports in all its various ways affect our societies. Specifically, I geek out over learning about my own Filipino American histories and other peoples. Learning that through the concept or the constructs of culture and how sports really is, for me, the funnest way to investigate who I am and who we are to each other. I call myself a sports relationship coach. I am a sports cultures consultant. I also like to identify as a sports liberator. [00:40:16] Miko Lee: Ooh, can you break down what a sports liberator is? [00:40:20] Carolyn Sideco: Miko, I took that from a friend of mine, Danya Cabello, also from the East Bay. Played at Cal, played professionally, and when I first met her years ago, she identified as such, and I said, “That is exactly the kind of person that I wanna be, like, in sports.” I wanted sports to be a way that I could share with people who we are to one another. I wanted to teach young people that they can express themselves in a way that helps make them feel free. With my background in sports administration, I was feeling like the sports industrial complex was really the antithesis of that. And what a lot of people in my profession were striving for was this success that was not defined in the same way that I was defining what my liberation was, and what I felt through sports. So I adopted that. I asked Dania, “Can I call myself a sports liberator too?” And she said, “Girl, you call yourself whatever you want.” So that's what I go by.  [00:41:37] Miko Lee: Ooh, thank you for sharing. That's so interesting in the midst of our kind of capitalization of sports, how corporate it has become. Interesting. Thanks. I also wanted to thank you for sharing with me, Rafe Bartholomew's Hoop Nation and Cassidy Hubbard's, Hoop's Paradise. So those, along with your YouTubes, really gave me a grounding in the connection to between basketball and the Philippines. I'll put a link to those in the show notes for other people that like to do deep dives like me. But can you just give our audience a sense of why basketball is so popular in the Philippines?  [00:42:10] Carolyn Sideco: I learned about the history of basketball and Filipino culture in the Philippines through various people, Rafe Bartholomew one of them, and his book Pacific Rims. A friend of mine here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kevin Santos, was doing his master's thesis on the history of basketball in the Philippines, and putting an ethnic studies frame on it, so he was the one who actually, practiced his thesis and presentation with me, and I learned a lot through him, and through other people as I was learning about this myself, and how basketball when it was initially, or as we, the modern game of basketball was invented, by Dr. Naismith in Massachusetts with the peach tree basket. Most of us are familiar with that history, but also that was around the time of the Philippine-American War, and US colonization was at its beginning. And so what did the United States export, was its culture, and a lot of that was through sports, mainly baseball, 'cause baseball was already the national pastime. Basketball was relatively new, and basketball was taught in the Philippines also, like in conjunction with the American education system by teachers, by the Thomasites, and by others who were using that form of colonization. They gave basketball to the women and the girls, because it was the lesser sport. It was the newer sport, so it was the lesser sport. They gave it to the women. The men were supposed to play baseball. The Philippines is a collective society- Baseball is a spread out sport, and people aren't close to one another. You're out on a field, it's hella hot, and it's boring. [00:44:17] Miko Lee: Agree. Totally agree …  [00:44:19] Carolyn Sideco: it's easy, to make this assumption that these people playing baseball were watching the girls and women play basketball, and it's faster. Close to one another. It's easy to make a space. So they started playing basketball.  [00:44:39] Miko Lee: Also, you don't need all the things. You need a ball. [00:44:41] Carolyn Sideco: Exactly. In the early days, you didn't even need shoes. Yeah. So it took off in that way because basketball already itself was an activity that Filipino people, kinda took hold of already, and they made it their own. Trained teams started forming and the Philippines had national teams that were already very successful in Asian context, so Asian tournaments they were dominating. In 1975, the Philippine Basketball Association became the first men's, basketball league in Asia, and the first after the NBA in America. So the Philippines has had a long history of relationship with the sport of basketball, but because it's been so long, the sport itself was formed in response to all the cultural aspects that were already existing, right? a lot of town squares had basketball courts 'cause it was so easy to put there. So the same plazas, meeting spaces where people would have their town gatherings, social places, were also courts  [00:45:56] Miko Lee: And why do you think or just surmise that basketball has taken off more than, football or American term soccer, which is developed so much in other countries, which is also a little bit more communal? [00:46:08] Carolyn Sideco: My opinion is that American colonization, in the United States dictated, much more the United States cannot dictate because football or soccer is a more global sport, and the US didn't have as much stake in guiding that as a colonization tool as they did basketball. [00:46:29] Miko Lee: Hmm. Interesting. Speaking of the colonization and politics, I'm wondering about the connection between basketball and politics. In, Cassidy's podcast, they were talking about a politician who released their own basketball shoe, which is wild to me. Yes. So I wonder if there's other connections between basketball or politics, and if that's generally somebody who's more on the colonizer's viewpoint or more conservative viewpoint. Hmm.  [00:46:58] Carolyn Sideco: Hmm. Interesting. I, hmm, I go back and forth with this a lot, Miko, the colonizing tool that is sports, especially the capitalistic sort of, extraction, of sports, right? Of its players, who I like to think of as workers. They're also workers, right? The professional, Philippine Basketball Association is not much different than even professional sports in America with the way they're set up, right? You have owning groups or companies, and so you have these ways that exploitation and that workers' rights are… how do I say it? Because it's at the professional level, these concepts are very much at play, excuse the pun. The Philippines also has a governmental arm related to sports. So sports in and of itself is recognized, right? It doesn't have as much of this sort of altruistic thing as, as we say in the United States, like the sports is like the good of mankind, like that sort of thing. Like, I think, you know-  [00:48:08] Miko Lee: The kind of Olympic idea of unity, it brings us all together. [00:48:11] Carolyn Sideco: Right, like that, those conceptual sorts of virtues.  [00:48:15] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.  [00:48:15] Carolyn Sideco: Yeah. So in the Philippines, I think it's so much more practical because it's fun, and you could get in a game anywhere, and it's accessible. Mm-hmm. It's accessible to all strata, economic strata, right? You see basketball courts everywhere, in rural areas in cities. Everywhere you'll see basketball courts. The Philippines itself as a country- I think that relationship to sports is something different than the American relationship to professional sports, where dominance and, winning and, beating others and making as much money as possible in that is at the forefront. In the United States even with youth sports now. I do some consulting work, especially in youth sports spaces, and the privatization and the extraction of the youth sports space is, is… We could go on all day about that. I think, this is obviously from a Filipino American perspective. For sure. I've never lived in the Philippines. I was born in the Philippines, but my relationship to the Philippines is also, being mitigated by how I experience American sports, right? So when I think about how I've experienced basketball when I've gone to the Philippines, , and it's the same as any aspect of that culture, right? It's warm, it's welcoming, it's friendly, and those are the cultural aspects that kind of, , supersede the fact that basketball… Basketball has its place, but it's in service to the cultural needs, right? To the need to be social, to participate in a town gathering. It's so sociopolitical.- And because it is, it's still a colonizing tool, right? But it's still mitigated in a way that I think just like Filipino basketball players are so, like, quick. They're known for quickness, agility, and finesse, and, like, drama, right? I used to joke around, like, you can always tell where a Filipino basketball player is in the United States 'cause no Filipino who has Filipino blood in them can do a regular layup. Like they have to make it all fancy. I think that, those sorts of aspects that are not tangible, that bring to light, the way a culture of people affect the sport. it enables a culture to push out through the boundaries of that sport what was given to them. What was given to them is, “This is how you play. These are the rules,” and all that kinda stuff, and that's great, but Filipino history of basketball is always, like, how do you integrate all the really cool things about your culture? It's something that's very different, and it emerges as something that's not quite American. [00:51:36] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. I'm wondering how our audience can find out more about you and your work.  [00:51:43] Carolyn Sideco: They can, follow me on Instagram at coachingkapwa, K-A-P-W-A. Kapwa is the Filipino word for the concept of interrelationship, interconnectedness. And so everything I learned about being, being a person really is through being a good teammate, and sports is the funnest way, like I've said before to practice being a good teammate  [00:52:12] Miko Lee: Thank you so much, Coach, for sharing with me about Sports Liberation and your work, and I'll put links to all that in our show notes. And I thank you so much for joining us on Apex Express.  [00:52:23] Carolyn Sideco: Thank you, Miko [00:52:25] 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 – 8.13.26 – Bayanihan in Ballhalla appeared first on KPFA.

Len Davis was a New Orleans police officer known in the Desire projects as Robocop and the Desire Terrorist. In 1994 he ordered the murder of Kim Groves, a 32-year-old mother of three who had filed a brutality complaint against him — and he's since been called the most corrupt cop in the city's history. What brought him down was Operation Shattered Shield, and at the center of it was an undercover FBI agent posing as a high-level drug dealer, known only as J.J.His name is Juan Jackson. He was one of roughly 300 Black agents in an FBI of 11,000 when he entered the Academy in 1983, trained under Joe Pistone of Donnie Brasco fame, and spent two decades undercover — as a hitman for hire in Chinatown, an arms dealer, a money launderer, and a drug kingpin in Waterbury, Connecticut. He tells us how he got Len Davis to strip to his underwear in a wired hotel room at the New Orleans Hilton, and why, testifying for two and a half weeks, he couldn't stop smiling.Subscribe to our newsletter: ⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠ Connect with Jed Lipinski:⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/

Kail and Becky are officially in their London era. They recap soccer games, Chinatown, Camden Market, questionable Indian food, Jamaican beef patties, Becky's chaotic train ride, and why London might actually be one of their favorite cities yet.Kail also gives an update on the confusing back-and-forth surrounding her celiac testing, while the conversation somehow spirals into drunk cigarettes, souvenir guilt, vintage shopping, DNA results, carbonated coffee, and whether either of them is British enough to claim citizenship. Then Elliott joins in for a very questionable lesson in English history before everyone gets ready for the London live show and starts plotting where Karma & Chaos should go next.Get your Fatherless Behaviour Tour Tickets hereFor full videos head to patreon.com/kaillowry Follow Becky at Hayter25 and subscribe to For The HaytersThank you for supporting the show by checking out our sponsors! Quince: Go to quince.com/karma for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. RO: Go to ro.co/karma for your free insurance check. That's ro.co/karma to see if your insurance covers GLP-1s for free.Zenni: That scratched up pair has done its job. Upgrade today with Zenni! Go to zenni.com/podcast and use code PODCAST15 for 15% off your first order, plus free shipping on all US orders over $65. Progressive: Try Progressive's AutoQuote Explorer® today at progressive.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On the August 11 edition: A Dekalb County teacher died saving a young child from drowning; Mike Collins is on the campaign trail; And as cyclospora continues to worry people, doctors have some extra advice to avoid food-borne illnesses.  

For the first time since the 1990s, Chinese immigrants have surpassed Dominicans as New York City's largest foreign born population. CUNY Baruch College professor Kenneth Guest explains what is driving that growth, how Chinese communities are expanding beyond Manhattan's Chinatown and what the shift could mean for services, political influence and the future of immigrant New York. -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at NYCNow@WNYC.org Photo Cred: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the Best of What On Earth – Wildfire smoke has choked Canadians across the country this summer. Air purifiers are expensive, but there's a cheaper way to clean your air indoors. We visit a workshop teaching seniors in Vancouver's Chinatown to build DIY air cleaners, and get some tips for how you can make one yourself.

Federal prosecutors are seeking to detain Maui Police Lt. Michael Vaituulala without bail, arguing he is a danger to the community following his arrest by FBI agents on charges that he accepted bribes to protect drug traffickers, illegal chicken fighters, and illegal fireworks distributors. Meanwhile, a 72-year-old woman who spent years living on the streets of Chinatown now has her own room at the Leahi Behavioral and Medical Respite center in Kaimuki — one of the first positive outcomes tied to Hawaii’s new MH-3 program.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Suffolk County prosecutors collected 23 voluntary DNA samples in Manhattan's Chinatown as part of a new effort to identify “Asian Doe,” an unidentified murder victim whose remains were discovered near the Gilgo Beach killings in 2011 and whose death has not been charged to Rex Heuermann. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Description: Julian Mu, who goes by Mubereats on social media, has hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers and millions of TikTok likes, and he pays for every single meal he reviews. He joins us to talk about how he got started, why he only covers small and local businesses, and to play a game of “NYC Chow”, picking his favorite spot in each borough. Follow Julian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mubereats -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at NYCNow@WNYC.org Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Chris Hawkins sits down with hard dance pioneer Rob Tissera to look back on more than 35 years behind the decks. Rob recalls arriving in Manchester at the height of the acid house explosion, practising in a tiny room in Chinatown and getting an early break DJing at the Haçienda before going on to become a fixture at some of the biggest clubs and raves of the era. He also tells the story of the illegal warehouse rave that ended in a mass arrest, after Rob took to the microphone and urged the crowd to fight the police — ultimately leading to a three-month prison sentence. Rob and Chris discuss his rise from pirate radio and the Blackburn rave scene to international DJing, his approach to selecting records, embracing new DJ technology and why, after more than three decades, he's still chasing new music, making records and loving life behind the decks. How to DJ is a Listening Dog Media production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gov. Joe Lombardo says he can't control Nevada's affordability crisis, but is that actually true, or is he ducking responsibility? Then, Clark County commissioners are considering an ordinance that would prohibit platforms like Airbnb and VRBO from processing bookings for unlicensed short-term rentals, a move that could significantly reduce the number of problem properties in the valley. Chinatown is also finally getting its first direct county investment through a $1.5 million corridor improvement grant program for local businesses, which got us thinking about our favorite spots to eat in Chinatown. Host Jesse Merrick breaks it all down with Nevada Current reporter Michael "MJ" Lyle and local filmmaker and food correspondent Jason Harris. Learn more about the sponsors of this Thursday, August 6th episode: Touching Hearts Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719. For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter. Learn more about becoming a City Cast Las Vegas Neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

In this episode we welcome Venus Moore from the New York City Problem Gambling Resource Center and Amanda Pham from the Chinatown 360 Prevention Community Coalition to discuss the connection between gambling harm and the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.What is the experience of working in the Harmony Task Force?What misconceptions might people have when it comes to AAPI communities and gambling harm?How do we avoid stigma as it relates to the AAPI community when we're discussing gambling harms?How do organizations make prevention, education and treatment of gambling harms more welcoming and culturally responsive?How can communities make it easier to ask for support?How can community members help praise awareness of gaming harms and resources?What is the most important takeaway for the listeners working with the AAPI communities?If you find yourself struggling with gambling harm, or if you suspect someone you know is facing such challenges, don't hesitate to seek help. For 24/7 support, call the NYS OASAS HOPEline at 1-877-846-7369 or text 467369. Or choose your county using our interactive map on our NYProblemGamblingHELP.org HOME PAGE to see the contact information for the Problem Gambling Resource Center (PGRC) in your region.

The Las Vegas community remembers an officer, veteran and husband who was killed in the line of duty, Donald Trump promotes his tax policies at Red Rock Resorts, Chinatown is now getting $1.5 million in improvements and more on 7@7. Tune in to 7@7 weekdays on streaming platforms like Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and YouTube.

Welcome to The DMF — Discovering Meaning in Film and Acting. I'm Justin Younts, and in this episode I sit down with Mel Mack for part three of our conversation.This one gets into the things actors don't always talk about openly, starting with crying on cue. We get into the different ways actors get there, from external aids like menthol to genuinely tapping into real emotion, and why it's worth being honest with yourself about which one you're actually using.We also talk routines, morning and night, and how much they shape a performance. Meditation, fitness, the small habits that keep you grounded before you step in front of a camera. From there it's special skills and the risk of overstating them on a resume, audition prep, and a detour into the music and movies that shaped us — Taylor Swift, Jack Nicholson, Chinatown, and Uncut Gems.In this episode we discuss:Crying on cue and the techniques actors use to get thereMorning and night routines, meditation, and fitnessSpecial skills and the risk of overstating themAudition preparationJack Nicholson, Chinatown, and Uncut GemsHow to reach Mel Mack Acting StudioMel Mack Acting Studio: https://melmackactingstudio.com/00:00:00 - Crying on Cue 00:01:57 - Daily Routines, Meditation, and Fitness 00:06:26 - Special Skills and the Risks of Exaggerating 00:09:37 - Books, New York, and Audition Preparation 00:11:42 - Music and Taylor Swift's Influence 00:16:10 - What Mel's Watching 00:16:31 - Jack Nicholson, Movie Legends, and Being an Extra 00:19:28 - Chinatown, Marty Supreme, and Uncut Gems 00:20:51 - How to Reach Mel Mack Acting Studio#ActingTips #CryingOnCue #JackNicholson #TaylorSwift #AuditionPrep #ActingPodcast

Trudie Mason is joined by political analyst Karim Boulos, and Akil Alleyne, reporter, commentator, and manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program. The Parliamentary Budget Officer will investigate potential cost overruns and revenue-sharing changes in the Gordie Howe Bridge agreement. Montreal unveiled a Chinatown revitalization strategy featuring dedicated cleaning brigades and infrastructure upgrades to boost local investment. Conservative MP Kyle Seeback defended opposition scrutiny, arguing that criticizing the Liberal government should not be labeled "Trumpian." A Canadian Taxpayers Federation report revealed Canadian provincial politicians earn significantly higher average salaries than US state legislators. Jetstar airline announced plans to charge fees for overhead cabin baggage space starting in February 2027.

There were anxious whispers behind the scenes ahead of the Bake Club July recipe reveal. Concerns floated around that it might have been a bit too esoteric. Sweet corn in a cake? And not just any cake but a delightfully bouncy butter mochi made with sweet rice flour. Senior Test Kitchen editors Shilpa Uskokovic and Jesse Szweczyk were bracing for the reactions in the comments section when Shilpa's Sweet Corn Butter Mochi With Coconut Crunch recipe finally dropped. “We were not slightly worried. I was like, "This is gonna flop." This is it for us,” recalls Jesse on the BA Bake Club Podcast. But, the Bake Club community once again proved themselves to be the confident, curious bakers we know and love. The cake is a hit! “I hope you guys know how much it means to us,” says Shilpa. “I'm very touched every month when you guys bake our recipes, and we see you in the Substack chat and you post these pictures. So, this is very heartwarming for me.” The love fest continues as we award Baker of the Month to one bake clubber who dared to pair his Sweet Corn Butter Mochi with dinner, not dessert.  Plus, we (virtually) jetted off to Hawaii to catch up with Katherine Yang, who ran the incredibly successful by-order cake bakery, Gigi Blue, and is currently executive pastry chef at Mille Fête in Honolulu's Chinatown. To learn about the dessert scene in Hawaii and pick up a few tips for the perfect butter mochi cake, give the episode a listen.  You can find Katherine Yang on social media at GigiBlueNYC and millefete. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new documentary short “YU & ME” follows Lucy Yu, the owner of Yu & Me Books, as she rebuilds her Chinatown bookstore with the help of her community following a fire. Yu and filmmaker Esther Chan discuss the short, which makes its New York premiere at the Asian American International Film Festival this Friday. Photo by user Horizon206 (CC BY-SA 3.0) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

To kick off our 10th anniversary micro-series celebrating the Asian American Center at Fuller Seminary, we sit down with Dr. Tim Tseng, Asian American church historian and director of the Asian American Christian History Institute (AACHI). Tim takes us back to 1972 and the founding of PACTS (the Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies), tracing a lineage of Asian American Christian leadership that runs decades deeper than any single institution's anniversary can capture. The origins of PACTS: a 1972 gathering of Bay Area pastors trained in mainline Protestant seminaries who began questioning assimilation and erasure within their denominations The newly republished PACTS Reader, edited by Roy Sano and now available through Claremont Press—the story behind bringing this out-of-print, historically significant text back into circulation AACHI's mission and the "pearl divers" metaphor for surfacing hard-to-find Asian American Christian stories The Third World Liberation Front strikes at San Francisco State (1968) and the birth of ethnic studies as a backdrop to the Asian American Christian movement How the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power shaped Asian American Christian consciousness, and PACTS' relationship to (and distinction from) liberation theology The story of Mabel Lee, a pioneering unordained church leader and suffrage advocate in New York's Chinatown at the turn of the century The danger of "Columbusing"—claiming to discover ideas and movements that our elders were already engaging with over fifty years ago Tim's reflection on being forced out of theological academia in 2005, and what nearly 20 years in local church ministry taught him about listening to God's people at the grassroots We hope you enjoy this series! Tim Tseng https://aac.fuller.edu/post/person/timothy-tseng-phd/ The PACTS Reader (Claremont Press) https://claremontpress.com/uploads/3/4/8/4/34846481/theologies_of_asian_americans_and_pacific_peoples_final_.pdf https://claremontpress.com/theologies-of-asian-americans-and-pacific-peoples.html PACTS Archive https://cdm15837.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15837coll16 AACHI www.pearldive.net Sign up to receive more updates from the AAC: https://aac.fuller.edu/newsletter/ If you appreciate the work we do at the Asian American Center at Fuller Seminary, please consider supporting us! Your monetary support sustains our vital work and expands Asian American research, leadership development, and pastoral formation for the Church in the year ahead. Donate here: fuller.edu/giveaac.

San Francisco police have successfully broken up a persistent pickpocket crew operating within the city's historic Chinatown neighborhood, utilizing departmental drones to track and apprehend the suspects. FOX On Tech has the details on how aerial surveillance is changing urban law enforcement tactics and helping crack down on street-level crime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sideya Sherman, director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission, talks about the department's new report on the demographic makeup of New York City's immigrants, which found that China has caught up to the Dominican Republic as the two leading places where immigrants to the city come from. Photo: NEW YORK, NY - JULY 23: Tom Ellis films on set for the TV show "CIA" in the Chinatown neighborhood of Queens on July 23, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeff and Phil welcome Alice Chu, President of the legendary Great Star Theater in San Francisco's Chinatown -- the oldest Chinese theater in North America -- and David Chiu, City Attorney of San Francisco, to talk about the rich history, legacy and future of the Great Star and Chinatown at large. They talk about the mission to preserve and revitalize the century-old performing arts venue to serve the community; the continuing resilience of Chinatown businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond; and the Great Star's interesting connection to this podcast's namesake, Bruce Lee. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of San Francisco Chinatown's historic legacy.

Another mind bending podcast. Just prior to going on the air, I happened upon a quote from John McCain's daughter that I thought was silly, hostile - misplaced anger. But as sometimes happens in my world, my reaction included feeling as if John McCain wanted to respond to my reaction - and I actually said "I don't want to talk about this." Which is pretty funny.  (And perhaps happens more than we know with folks stopping by?)   But Luana brought him in - Jennifer mentioned his named, literally minutes after I had this conversation (albeit a brief one.)  I couldn't make it up if I tried. He brought #AmeliaEarhart with him. For fans of the podcast they know she's a frequent visitor - and the book SHE WAS NEVER LOST: The Amelia Earhart Saga is filled with data, research and conversations we've had since I first met Jennifer (12 years ago.) Her story hasn't changed. The research hasn't changed.  Read the book, don't read the book - it's not an argument. Amelia's plane was found on June 18, 1944.  See this podcast (or search for "Electra" "Hacking the Afterlife" for some clips).  https://youtu.be/Idh35NFrZwc?si=9MKG2obiVuP0IIdY Then it gets interesting. My old boss, Oscar winning writer Robert Towne shows up with his dog Hira talking about the #ChristopherNolan film #TheOdyssey - I have seen it twice, I do recommend it, and we've heard before that our loved ones on the flipside can watch a movie alongside of us - (and their tickets are free!) So Robert talks about HIS FAVORITE SCENE IN THE MOVIE which Jennifer Shaffer has not seen. Let me say it again. Jennifer gives a review of The Odyssey from Robert Towne, Oscar winning writer of Chinatown, for a film SHE HAS NEVER SEEN and she talks specifically about the scene with the dog, and the scene when the son recognizes his father. For those who've seen the movie - they know what this refers to. For those who've read the book - they know what this refers to. For those who haven't seen the movie - when they see this scene they will know what Robert is referring to. Everyone is available. Life goes on. They're not gone; they're just not here. Something to wake up to the facts of. Happy to share the footage, data, research that shows consciousness continues, that we can access them, as demonstrated in my 14 books, including FLIPSIDE, ARCHITECTURE OF THE AFTERLIFE, DIVINE COUNCILS IN THE AFTERLIFE, the lates AI AND THE FLIPSIDE... and the documentaries on Amazon Prime or Gaia FLIPSIDE, TALKING TO BILL PAXTON and HACKING THE AFTERLIFE. Enjoy another mind bending podcast. Please subscribe, like, share!!!  (Not with Christopher Nolan, he doesn't own a smart phone.) But his pals do.

After more than three decades, San Francisco prosecutors have charged Ricky Dawson in the 1992 rape and strangulation of Nancy Hernandez, a 45-year-old woman found dead in a Chinatown alley. Dawson, already serving life for a 1996 Denver murder and previously convicted in a Florida killing, has now been linked by DNA to at least four deaths spanning California, Colorado, Florida, and possibly Washington. This episode examines how cold-case DNA technology connected the crimes, the pattern investigators see across state lines, and what the charges mean for a case that sat unsolved for 34 years.

A beloved dim sum restaurant in Seattle's Chinatown-International District is scaling back to weekend-only service after ten years — and owner Vince Zhao isn't mincing words: crime drove this. His restaurant sits blocks from 12th and South Jackson, the city's most notorious open-air drug corridor. Seattle scrubbed its downtown for the FIFA World Cup but never touched the International District, and the businesses that stayed through all of it are now paying the price.Sean walks through what Zhao documented firsthand: drug dealing in front of the restaurant while he was out with his son during the World Cup, a homeless complex nearby feeding the street market, and a neighborhood the city has quietly decided can absorb whatever gets pushed out of everywhere else. The contrast with Bellevue — where Sean works commercial appraisal and restaurants are thriving — is impossible to ignore.The pattern Sean keeps returning to: if this were happening in any other ethnic neighborhood, there would be outrage. Instead, Seattle's Chinatown gets a racism framing from city hall instead of a law enforcement response. Katie Wilson and the city council are passing the hot potato while a ten-year institution winds down and China Harbor sits empty up the street.CHAPTERS0:00 Popular dim sum spot in Chinatown…1:23 Chinatown Restaurant Curtails Hours…2:21 Crime at 12th and Jackson Closes…2:53 International District Crime Drives…4:13 Open-Air Drug Market Ruins Chinatown…5:16 Owner Vince Zhao Cuts Weekday…7:23 Filming Drug Dealing During the World…8:10 Crime Killed This Restaurant, Not the…9:05 Daniel Lurie Cleans Up San Francisco…10:05 Seattle Made Chinatown Its Crime…11:10 Empty Dining Rooms Force Weekday…13:17 Bellevue Restaurants Booming While…14:27 Katie Wilson Faces Seattle's Law…16:11 City Fines Businesses While Chinatown…18:36 Seattle's Neglect of Chinatown Is RacismSubscribe to @reasonablenews for daily Pacific Northwest coverage the local media won't touch — hit the notification bell so you don't miss an episode.#NFRP #SeattleChinatown #InternationalDistrictGO PREMIUM WITH REASONABLE+ FOR UNCENSORED ACCESS

Seattle's downtown is emptying out — and the bill is landing on homeowners. Office vacancy in the city has hit crisis levels, and as commercial property values crater, the tax base quietly shifts onto residential owners already stretched thin. It's a textbook doom loop: businesses leave, assessments fall, and the people who stayed get to pay more.Katie Wilson and the progressive coalition running Seattle have no credible answer. Their policy response has been more regulation, more spending, and more rhetoric about equity — none of which fills empty office towers or halts the death spiral of a city that can't get out of its own way. The tax shift is the inevitable consequence of chasing out the businesses that were supposed to fund it all.Sean breaks down the vacancy numbers, the political deflection, and what this means for homeowners trying to hold on in a city that keeps making it harder to stay.CHAPTERS0:00 Seattle office vacancy crisis shifts…1:30 Seattle Office Vacancy Shifts Tax Burden2:19 Seattle's Payroll Tax Shed 30,000 Jobs3:46 Half of Downtown Seattle Now Vacant5:22 Seattle Eyes Capital Gains Tax Hike6:51 John Scholes on Seattle's Tax Problem8:25 What Seattle Must Do to Recover9:18 Bellevue Up 7% While Seattle Plummets10:43 Oklahoma City Plans America's Tallest…11:57 Amazon and Starbucks Leaving Seattle13:31 Mayor Wilson's Policies Drive…15:55 Empty Offices Push Seattle Rent Higher19:22 Oklahoma City's Affordable American…22:26 Crime Overruns Seattle's Chinatown…25:35 Defund Police and the Rent ReckoningSubscribe to @reasonablenews for daily conservative and libertarian news commentary from the Pacific Northwest. New episodes every weekday.#NFRP #Seattle #KatieWilsonGO PREMIUM WITH REASONABLE+ FOR UNCENSORED ACCESS

In May 1992, the body of unhoused 45-year-old Nancy Hernandez was found beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled in a utility corridor off Hang Ah Alley in San Francisco's Chinatown. More than three decades later, DNA evidence linked the crime to Ricky Dawson, a man already convicted or connected to similar sexual-assault murders in Florida, Colorado, and Washington. This episode examines the Hernandez case, the pattern of violence that stretched across four states, and how modern forensic work finally brought charges in the California cold case.

Informele handel in Namibië kan binnekort meer georganiseerd raak namate gemeenskapsaktiviste voorberei om die Street Vendors & Micro-Importers Association of Namibia te stig. Die stap volg op Stad Windhoek se besluit om planne om verkopers uit China Town te verwyder, om te keer. Terwyl handelaars vir eers daar kan werk, sê die munisipaliteit dat verkope langs besige paaie en kruisings 'n veiligheidsrisiko bly. Gemeenskapsaktivis Michael Amushelelo sê aan Kosmos 94.1 Nuus dat die vereniging informele handelaars 'n sterker stem sal gee in toekomstige onderhandelinge met owerhede.

New York City is a food mecca, and the neighborhood of Flushing in Queens has become a hot spot for Asian cuisine. With the largest concentration of Chinese-born people in America, Flushing is home to hundreds of authentic and delicious Asian restaurants.This quick guide will cover:Where Flushing is located & how to get thereInteresting history in FlushingOur favorite restaurants in Flushing, QueensFlushing is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens and is most easily accessible via the furthest stop on the 7 train.Flushing's DemographicsToday, there are over 70,000 Chinese residents in Flushing, of whom more than 30,000 were born in China. New York City has the largest population of Chinese people outside of China, and Flushing is seen as the epicenter of NYC's Chinese culture.Flushing has the highest population of Chinese-born people outside of China in the entire world, and roughly 70% of Flushing's population is Asian.History & Museums in FlushingWhile we most often go to Flushing for the food experience, there are some unique historical homes and museums in the neighborhood.Lewis Latimer House MuseumLewis Latimer was an African American inventor who made improvements to the lightbulb, air conditioner, bathrooms on trains, and many other inventions and patents. His historical home has been turned into a museum, free for self-guided visits or guided tours for $15 (as of July 2026).Bowne MuseumBowne House is a family's historical home built in 1661 in Flushing. The Bowne family fought for religious freedom in early America, abolition, and participated in the Underground Railroad.The museum offers tours for $10 (as of July 2026).The Flushing Queens Food Scene, Top PicksBeyond the area's history lies a bustling food scene with hundreds of options covering numerous Asian cuisines. Many restaurants on our favorites list are cash only, so plan accordingly.While there are hundreds of food options, here are some of our favorite restaurants in Flushing:Nan Xian Soup DumplingsWhite Bear Peking Duck Sandwich StallHappy Lamb Hot Pot Xing Fu TangChung MooNew World MallYou can find all of these, with notes, in our handy Ramen, Sushi & Asian Food Google Maps list. Access this and dozens more curated lists for loads of cuisines and locations in NYC when you sign up for our newsletter.You'll Have to Check It Out - MalaparteHigh-quality dishes in a no-frills, non-pretentious setting in the West Village• Large selection of outdoor seating• Watermelon salad, great bread with high-quality olive oil, cappellacci were all deliciousCheck out Malaparte in the West Village.

We disappeared for a while, and when we finally hit record again we knew we had to come back with something that actually means something. This drop is that lost conversation we filmed with BC, a true Southeast skateboarding original with stories that stretch from Louisiana flatground to Pensacola indoor parks to the Jacksonville scene and Kona Skatepark energy.BC breaks down the early days in a place where you had to push forever, then the moment everything changes when you see an ollie and can't stop chasing it. We get into classic parking lot skate demos, building ramps way too big when you're way too young, and why the best skate sessions feel like you stepped out of real life for a minute. He also gives his own definition of “Search For Animal Chin” that hits harder than any trivia: it's the feeling of being fully locked in with your friends and your board, and spending the rest of your life trying to find that feeling again.From there we bounce through skate travel and skate history, including San Francisco routes, Chinatown, and skating the China Banks, plus the behind-the-scenes reality of keeping scenes alive before social media. BC talks SCU TV and South Coast Uprising, trading tapes, highlighting skaters with real stoke, and the way skateboarding can hand you friendships, work, purpose, and even your family. There are also some wild stunt stories, tour miles, and a few throwback gifts that'll make any skater nostalgic.If you care about skateboarding culture, DIY skateparks, Florida skate history, Gulf Coast scenes, and what keeps older skaters rolling, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a skate friend, and leave us a review with the most “Animal Chin” moment you've ever had.

Any time Trump or one of his supporters brings up the 2020 election, insisting he didn't lose it, we hear the usual chorus of groans: why can't he get over it? He lost. Move on. The thing is, I can't get over it either. 2020 was the year everything changed. My entire world was turned upside down because I could see, for the first time, that I was in a bubble, a feedback loop that had shaped my perception of reality. It's just that it wasn't actual reality. It was a curated, hysteria-inducing delusion. It wasn't just me. Go on YouTube, and you'll find hundreds, if not thousands, of people whose lives were fundamentally transformed that year in one way or another. COVID made them quit their job and move into a van. COVID made them decide to divorce. COVID made them learn how to bake sourdough. And a lot of us were red-pilled. It was as though someone pressed the pause button and all of us froze in place for a time. Like in the movie Weapons where the kids suddenly wake up one day…Isolated and shut in, we all turned to social media and the internet, which meant more people were connected than ever before at a time when there were more people alive than ever before. We've never really fully processed what happened to all of us that year.It was the year we stopped trusting the science, the schools, Hollywood, the legacy media, and the government. Children were locked down and staring at their screens, with many of the lost boys finding their way into the dark corners of the internet and would emerge years later fumbling their way toward a rifle and a rooftop.That isn't all of it, or even half of it. None of us would emerge from that year unscathed. We can't talk about it as a country or a people because we are still so divided. The big things divide us, like the vaccine, the masks, the lockdowns, and most especially, the 2020 election.We were stepping into something we did not understand and weren't prepared for. Things have changed enough now that it will be hard to remember just how bad things got after Trump won in 2016. I remember because I was on the inside. I lived it with the Democrats and what would become a Doomsday Cult.We called ourselves “the resistance” even though we had all of the power. Trump and MAGA, they were the real resistance, or at least the revolutionaries going up against the most powerful machine in American history, maybe ever.All I knew was that I had to fight for my side. I woke up every day like a good soldier for the cause and went to battle online, wasting precious time with my daughter, or doing anything else except sitting and staring at a screen and fighting with people I didn't even know over issues that didn't matter with arguments that had no end and went nowhere.Inside the Doomsday Cult, we were awash with mass hysteria because every single day, every time Trump tweeted, the legacy media sent out more waves of hysteria that pulsed through the hive mind and kept reinfecting anyone who scrolled Twitter or Facebook. It was a new emergency every day. We were stuck in an unending state of trauma.The legacy media desperately wants to forget what happened, how they lied and gaslit the public. The consequences for these moral crimes have been minimal. A slap on the wrist for ignoring Joe Biden's cognitive decline, but there has never been a reckoning for what they did to all of us, people who trusted them, in 2020.What Happened to MeMy daughter had to leave her senior year at college to have her graduation on my balcony, but we did it because we were doing our part to help save the country during this once-in-a-generation pandemic.Mobilizing for the cause meant sewing our own masks, displaying them proudly on Instagram. It meant mixing our own hand sanitizer because it was all out at the drug store. Some people were wearing face shields. We were living in fear. We were cowed into silence. Half the country fell into Mass Formation Psychosis. We weren't allowed to attend weddings, churches, or schools, but somehow on Memorial Day, the George Floyd protests became the most important thing in America for months.Systemic racism, they told us, was more urgent than COVID. Really? Bringing the whole country — the whole world — to its knees was less serious than George Floyd dying at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis? Yes. That's what they were telling us, and everyone was mandated to go along with everything that came next.These were our idols, we were told. It was the new state religion, even if Trump was still the president. This is the ideology we're allowed to gather for. This is worth tear ing down statues, burning buildings, carving out “autonomous zones” and demanding everyone put a black square on Instagram, capitalize the word Black and raise their fists to Black Lives Matter. The madness unfolding on the streets meant Democrats could actually lose in November, I believed. So why wasn't anyone trying to stop them? Why were the Democrats encouraging them? I started wondering what the hell was going on. It felt like unseen hands were manipulating events behind the scenes, and we were all expected to just go along with it.As I began to speak out and ask questions, I was turned into an enemy. “You've changed,” wrote Neera Tanden on Twitter. She was right. I had. By the time Twitter pressured the New York Times to back off their Tom Cotton essay, Send in the Troops, I was done. Maybe I was naive. I didn't understand the assignment. I'd seen too many Frank Capra movies. I'd begun to believe politics was like an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. I thought we were the good guys. We are the side with ethics and decency and fairness.I was like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 when Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up, and she thinks he's a bad guy, but when he says, “Come with me if you want to live, she realizes that everything is backward. The people she thought were the good guys weren't. The guy she thought was there to kill her was actually there to save her. By the end of 2020, I was as black-pilled as Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, disillusioned and wide awake. Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.But what I saw them do - how we were all manipulated, how they rigged the election to be too big to fail - I could see for the first time that my side had too much power. So much power that American democracy was now beside the point.It didn't matter how the people voted, because we would decide who was allowed to win and who would become an existential threat to the world we were building, the utopia we were building online.When I left the party, I knew I couldn't be fully honest about what I believed happened, though I did say that the election had been rigged. I also couldn't be honest about what I knew about January 6th, at least not in the beginning. When I saw the riot break out, my first thought was, that's not MAGA. They don't do that.And anyway, even if they did, why couldn't the Democrats chalk it up to months of lockdowns and highly enraged, radicalized people on the Right just as there were on the Left that Summer. Why couldn't they? Because it was all still part of the long con, the mass delusion. These ideas were dangerous to hold for anyone in America but especially someone of the Left, and yet, I could not stop it. The truth began knocking. I ignored it as long as I could, but eventually, the knocking became a banging, and I had no choice but to open the door.How to Rig An ElectionOnce you start tugging on the question of why Twitter and Facebook censored the Hunter Biden laptop, you begin to unravel the bigger picture of just how deep the conspiracy went. But you don't need the whole story. You just need to know this: The FBI and the CIA worked against the sitting president to lie to the public that the laptop was “Russian Disinformation.” It was just a standard run-of-the-mill October surprise, timed to help ignite a scandal before the election. But it was also information the public had a right to know, as we would find out later. So anyone who shames Trump for calling the election rigged and denying it was legit will have to answer for this. But if you keep pulling on that string, you'll find the why of it. They were trying to fix all of the problems they believed caused Hillary Clinton's loss. This would be payback for the email scandal that hit her campaign, which she called “Russian Disinformation.” That would also turn out to be untrue.But there were other problems that needed correcting, like lazy voters who assumed Hillary would win because she was so far ahead in the polls and didn't bother turning out. They would fix this problem using COVID as the pretext to change everything about how people vote and how those votes are collected.They knew they had Pennsylvania won long before Election Day and it would only be a matter of convincing the public not to get too excited about a “red mirage.” To all of them, that's the right way to win an election.Trump won Iowa, Ohio and Florida, not to mention the bellwether counties that have decided our elections. The only other time anything like this happened was in 1960, when JFK won in a squeaker. Compare that to 2020, and you can see that something was very off about the numbers. Since the Democrats believed Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook had handed Trump the win in 2016 by using their marketing machine (the Clinton campaign refused their help), it was time for Zuckerberg to undo that damage, which came in the form of a $400 million slush fund used to “fortify” the election but mostly in the heavily blue districts. Had all of this been shared with the whole country as a way to improve our elections overall, that would have been one thing. But it was all done behind the scenes, in the shadows, far from the reach of anyone who might dissent. It was anything but ethical and anything but fair.It was all part of a grand scheme to stay one step ahead of Trump. If they already knew he would claim it was rigged, why not just rig it? Who would the people believe? Trump or the “bipartisan cabal” of unelected bureaucrats hiding in the shadows?The truth is that Trump was pulling ahead because the Left was losing its mind, and Trump picked up on it. He changed his campaign; no matter how many ways they tried to keep him from his rallies, he got the word out anyway. That would explain why he won those key states but lost so much in the popular vote. Our elections should not be decided months before Election Day. Candidates should have to make their case to the people, not hide in the basement and let the system do the work. It's the candidate's job to inspire the voters to vote for the kind of government they want, and it's the voters responsibility to be motivated enough to turn out to the polls and cast their vote. But with an easily manipulated hive mind like the Democrats had cultivated for ten years they didn't need any of it.The Year That Broke AmericaI've never been able to convince anyone of what I believed happened in 2020. If you were on the Left, chances are, you wouldn't be able to see it either. You would have trusted the same people I used to trust: CNN, New York Times, MSNBC, your social media feed.You would have come out of that year thinking Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square and that Donald Trump refused to lose, so he led a dangerous assault on the Capitol, putting our democracy under threat. Yet, after everything they did to Trump that year and for the four years prior, what else could he have done except protest? It was just a little too convenient that there happened to be a riot at the same time, a Reichstag Fire that handed absolute power to Team Blue.If you were still trapped inside the Doomsday Cult, you'd have been primed and ready to go to war on your fellow Americans because Vice President Kamala Harris would tell you January 6th was like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. You would have thought Liz Cheney and the Prime Time Show Trial was legit. What an easy mark you'd be.If you never escaped, as I did, you'd still be trapped inside the Doomsday Cult and never have any idea that none of this is your fault. You were put into a kind of trance in 2020, even before, like the kids in the movie Weapons, frozen in place and used as an army to do the bidding of the Democratic Party.They made you believe, like they made me believe, that every day really was the end of the world as long as Donald Trump was in power. But it was never true, none of it. All the Democrats ever had to do was offer the people something better. If everything Molly Ball wrote about the election the “Secret Bi-Partisan Cabal” supposedly saved, how did Trump win again? In Weapons, the children are put under a spell and aimed at the enemies of the witch. Once the spell is broken, the children wake up and realize the person they should be mad at isn't the one she made them attack, but instead the witch herself for robbing them of their ability to think for themselves. And so it goes with the Democrats.// This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe

It's a full house at Aroma Latin American Cocina. Al, Gemini, Bob Barnes and Andrew Morgan pay a visit to sample chef Steve Kestler's cuisine, and chat with him about his recent move from Henderson to just outside of Chinatown. We also check in with Ceselia Berumen and Chef Keris Kuwana at the new monthly Soiree event in Liam's Den at The Palazzo, get a beer report from Bob and a happy hour report from Andrew, and chat with Sam Facchini about the new Sliceteria by Metro Pizza.

The popcorn courtroom is back in session. Last week we proved Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the lost third film of the Chinatown trilogy. This week the defense calls its star witness: Gary K. Wolf, the man who wrote Who Censored Roger Rabbit and invented the very word Toon. He rules on our theory (denied!), endorses a few others (Doom shot Bambi's mother, confirmed), spills the secret history of the six-frame gags Disney hunted down and destroyed, promises justice for the Red Shoe, and tells the story of the blue cow Spielberg hid in Toontown just for him. Court is adjourned. The jury is you. Do you like what we do? You can support us at Patreon and get access to exclusive behind the scenes outtakes: https://www.patreon.com/thepopcornisntreal

In today's episode, Norris and I hit pause on the doomscroll and talk about simple joys and summer adventures around Detroit. We talk about everything from Belle Isle walks and Southwest soccer nights to Chinatown block parties, rooftop bars, and getting lost on the scenic route instead of the freeway. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get shows! If you've got feedback, including what you plan on doing this summer, let us know - dailydetroit@gmail.com or 313-789-3211

Send us Fan MailWell, as promised, we're fully in the era of neo – noir. And not just any neo – noir; this example will take some explaining. We chose it for specific reasons. Is it the greatest neo – noir ever? No --- its progenitor would likely take the prize there. But it's fun, fills the bill, and is a great watch. We saw it in a theater on original release and it stuck with us. As we will highlight in boring detail… We're going to untangle a true example of neo – noir --- in living color, set in the classic period of post – WWII LA, with a fantastic voice – over, femmes fatale to spare, a MacGuffin, twisted psychology, echoes of a tortured past, fate coming out of nowhere to step in and upset multiple carts. And a cast that's nearly unmatched. It's 1990's production of The Two Jakes, shot for Paramount Pictures, a long - time home for film noir. Those in the know will say --- hey, why highlight Jakes? What about its direct forerunner and possibly the greatest neo – noir ever, Chinatown? Huh? What film has a more killer final line than Chinatown? Huh? Well, in that lies a tale… Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.comBluesky: @wonderfulpeople.bsky.social

Forty years ago this summer, genre master John Carpenter (The Thing, Halloween, They Live) directed this big budget (for the time) extravaganza blending various genres including martial arts, fantasy, and crime drama.  Starring Kurt Russell in one of his more iconic roles as truckdriver Jack Burton, it was fast, funny, and phrenetically entertaining!  And yet no one really saw it in theaters. :( Fortunately this film did eventually find its audience on cable and video, becoming a cult classic and is now often looked upon as one of Carpenter's most believed movies.  It also features a STELLAR cast beyond Russell including Dennis Dun, Kim Cattrall, James Hong, and Victor Wong.  So let's hop on the Pork Chop Express and head to Chinatown!Host & Editor: Geoff GershonProducer: Marlene Gershon Send us Fan MailSupport the showhttps://livingforthecinema.com/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Living-for-the-Cinema-Podcast-101167838847578Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecinema/Letterboxd:https://letterboxd.com/Living4Cinema/ 

Jean Kwok ventured into writing fantasy after her own divorce, which we discuss, in addition to how she grew up working in sweatshops in Chinatown and ended up at Harvard. Jean, a Read with Jenna pick, is one of the most effusive, lovely authors who is constantly lifting others up. ** Want more? Become a part of my community! Sign up for Zibby's Highlights, which includes a free weekly newsletter, event livestreams, most anticipated book lists, personal essays, and a new essay platform with stories from all of you about what chapters you're in (inspired by my upcoming book Between Chapters: How I Started Over, Took Some Chances, and Found the Plot, 9/22/26). And follow me on Instagram @zibbyowens. But really, keep listening here. If you love my show, please tell a friend! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In what was supposed to be a quick episode, I talk about my third trip to New York City with my wife and a couple friends where we went to a Bon Jovi concert saw Hamilton and Wicked had the best food in Chinatown and Little Italy and toured some of Manhattan I end the show talking about the return of The Daily Rios podcast and what I thought of the Supergirl movie. Links: https://www.circleline.com/ https://ahoynewyorkfoodtours.com/ https://thedailyrios.com/ LBR Merch! Feedback! longboxreview@gmail.com 208-953-1841 Bluesky longboxreview.com Thanks for listening! episode 51

We're taking a break from True Sunlight this week, but we hope you enjoy this episode of 'Wherever It Leads... Milan' Follow the show at staypes.ky/wherever Tourists sprint to Rome and Florence while one of Europe's most alive cities hums quietly in the north — and that's exactly what makes Milan extraordinary.  This week, writer, author, and Milanese insider Marta Mondelli pulls back the curtain on a city of hidden courtyards, wooden streetcars, world-class aperitivo, and jasmine-soaked springs.  She explains why cappuccino after 11am is a “crime”, why the Milanese party as hard as they work, and why spring open days unlock palaces most visitors never see.  Journalist Mandy Matney and producer David Moses share their own Milan memories — late-night dumplings in Chinatown, a train through the Alps, streets packed on a Tuesday like it was Saturday — while Marta weighs in on Lee Gilley's asylum claim in nearby Turin and Italy's growing conversation around feminicide.  Plus: Lake Como, Turin, and the art of spending your tourism money where it actually matters. Learn More about Marta Mondelli: @martamondelli Reset Stories Podcast @resetstoriespodcast Episode Resources: Festina Lente Milano — Marta's handcrafted candle shop in the Isola neighborhood

Seattle police move in to make arrests in Chinatown. Meanwhile, notorious drug market resurfaces days after World Cup. Income tax supporters are making their case with bots. What would you put in a time capsule to memorialize this moment in history? 

Whether it's the sensory joy of homemade gelato or the privacy risks baked into AI-powered apps, the conversation spotlights how technology is transforming even the simplest moments—and why it's not always for the better. OpenAI gets permission to roll out GPT-5.6 to the public on July 9 Beijing is looking at curbing overseas access to China's top AI models, sources say OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom Mark Zuckerberg tells staff that AI agents haven't progressed as quickly as he'd hoped Meta money grab is a plea to investors: Stick with us Meta just launched a new AI generator, Muse Image, and users are already pushing back over use of their photos Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that can capture every moment Google's AI buildout drove 37% increase in electricity use in 2025 Nvidia's Kyber AI rack slips to 2028, and one circuit board is to blame Cloudflare will filter out web crawlers that serve AI companies A Twist in This Year's Strangest Literary AI Scandal Midjourney wants Hollywood studios to reveal the details of their AI usage Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat Reid Hoffman: Introducing Tokens to the Future: Token Grants to AI Builders Tilly Norwood to Lead New Movie 'Misaligned,' Marking Feature Debut for AI 'Actor' MaximeRivest/riddle: The diary of Tom Riddle for the reMarkable Paper Pro — write with your pen, the page drinks your ink and answers in a flowing hand lfnovo/open-notebook: An Open Source implementation of Notebook LM with more flexibility and features GuideAlong Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ian Bogost Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: blackhat.com/us-26 and use code TWIT helixsleep.com/machines gusto.com/machines

Whether it's the sensory joy of homemade gelato or the privacy risks baked into AI-powered apps, the conversation spotlights how technology is transforming even the simplest moments—and why it's not always for the better. OpenAI gets permission to roll out GPT-5.6 to the public on July 9 Beijing is looking at curbing overseas access to China's top AI models, sources say OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom Mark Zuckerberg tells staff that AI agents haven't progressed as quickly as he'd hoped Meta money grab is a plea to investors: Stick with us Meta just launched a new AI generator, Muse Image, and users are already pushing back over use of their photos Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that can capture every moment Google's AI buildout drove 37% increase in electricity use in 2025 Nvidia's Kyber AI rack slips to 2028, and one circuit board is to blame Cloudflare will filter out web crawlers that serve AI companies A Twist in This Year's Strangest Literary AI Scandal Midjourney wants Hollywood studios to reveal the details of their AI usage Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat Reid Hoffman: Introducing Tokens to the Future: Token Grants to AI Builders Tilly Norwood to Lead New Movie 'Misaligned,' Marking Feature Debut for AI 'Actor' MaximeRivest/riddle: The diary of Tom Riddle for the reMarkable Paper Pro — write with your pen, the page drinks your ink and answers in a flowing hand lfnovo/open-notebook: An Open Source implementation of Notebook LM with more flexibility and features GuideAlong Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ian Bogost Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: blackhat.com/us-26 and use code TWIT helixsleep.com/machines gusto.com/machines

Whether it's the sensory joy of homemade gelato or the privacy risks baked into AI-powered apps, the conversation spotlights how technology is transforming even the simplest moments—and why it's not always for the better. OpenAI gets permission to roll out GPT-5.6 to the public on July 9 Beijing is looking at curbing overseas access to China's top AI models, sources say OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom Mark Zuckerberg tells staff that AI agents haven't progressed as quickly as he'd hoped Meta money grab is a plea to investors: Stick with us Meta just launched a new AI generator, Muse Image, and users are already pushing back over use of their photos Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that can capture every moment Google's AI buildout drove 37% increase in electricity use in 2025 Nvidia's Kyber AI rack slips to 2028, and one circuit board is to blame Cloudflare will filter out web crawlers that serve AI companies A Twist in This Year's Strangest Literary AI Scandal Midjourney wants Hollywood studios to reveal the details of their AI usage Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat Reid Hoffman: Introducing Tokens to the Future: Token Grants to AI Builders Tilly Norwood to Lead New Movie 'Misaligned,' Marking Feature Debut for AI 'Actor' MaximeRivest/riddle: The diary of Tom Riddle for the reMarkable Paper Pro — write with your pen, the page drinks your ink and answers in a flowing hand lfnovo/open-notebook: An Open Source implementation of Notebook LM with more flexibility and features GuideAlong Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ian Bogost Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: blackhat.com/us-26 and use code TWIT helixsleep.com/machines gusto.com/machines

Seattle will not scrap its failed homeless authority. Turn-in day for income tax repeal. Elected leaders get raises during budget crisis. Chinatown accuses Seattle leaders of racism. Are “all gender” bathrooms really a big deal?