Podcasts about korean american

What if the darkest moments of your life aren't sent to make you miserable, but to show you how to experience more joy in the face of tragedy?Join Matt O'Neill and New York Times bestselling author Angie Kim as they explore the revolutionary concept that suffering can actually enhance your capacity for happiness. Through her gripping novel "Happiness Falls," Angie reveals how tragedy, uncertainty, and even crisis can become unexpected pathways to deeper joy and meaning.This isn't your typical happiness advice. This is about understanding the relativity of happiness—why lottery winners and accident victims end up at the same happiness level, and how your baseline expectations shape everything you experience. You'll discover why comfort might be killing your joy, how adversity builds resilience, and the counterintuitive truth that wanting what you already have is the secret to lasting happiness.Whether you're facing your own crisis or simply wondering why all your comforts haven't made you happier, this conversation will transform how you think about joy, suffering, and what it really means to live a fulfilled life.0:00 Introduction1:43 How tragedy inspired a happiness story5:49 The mystery of always appearing happy8:04 What people get wrong about happiness11:21 The backpacking happiness experiment14:15 The lottery winner vs. paralysis study17:59 Why tragedy can make you more grateful20:04 How early adversity builds resilience21:05 Learning to live with uncertainty25:07 When characters take on a life of their own27:46 Protecting vs. building resilience in children28:39 Finding joy in the midst of despair30:48 The secret to lasting happinessResources Mentioned:

Rebecca Rose is a Korean-American singer, writer and actress. She's best known for voicing Mai Shiranui in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Street Fighter 6. In this episode Rebecca and I discuss Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Street Fighter 6, avoiding vocal damage, Mai Shiranui, conventions, fan interactions, and the best and worst advice she's ever been given as an actress. Rebecca's website and socials: https://www.rebeccarosewhite.com/https://www.instagram.com/rebeccarose.official/https://x.com/hey_rebeccarose

Today our friend Sunny joins us to talk about food in the household! We reminisce on what eating at home looked like in our childhood and any food-related habits our parents instilled into us. We explore how our families handled snacks, fast food, and sharing, as well as any phases our households went through in our eating habits. Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

Hannah Ryu is a storyteller, AI Strategist, and the co-founder of Oak Theory, a creative technology studio specializing in UX/UI, web, application design, and development. We explore: Co-founding a creative technology studio, aiming to address the lack of diversity in UX design firms.  Confronting negative self-talk/narratives when building a business The role of perfectionism in Korean culture The exciting utility of AI in creating tailored educational information for children, increasing accessibility to education Use of AI for self-reflection and as a starting point to engage in therapy How to maintain being human through curiosity, accepting that we make mistakes, and unconditional love ========================================== Hannah's full bio: Hannah is a storyteller, AI Strategist, and the co-founder of Oak Theory, a creative technology studio specializing in UX/UI, web, application design, and development. With over a decade of experience across branding, UX/UI, and digital strategy, she partners with organizations navigating transformation, helping them turn complexity into clear, scalable experiences.  As a first-generation Korean American and mother of two, Hannah brings a layered lens to leadership, blending creative instinct, cultural awareness, and operational know-how, especially during times of growth, change, or reinvention. Her expertise has been trusted by industry leaders and universities like Google, Optum, Columbia University, and Vanderbilt University. She's been featured at the Women in Tech Global Conference, on the top 0.5% business podcast The UpFlip Podcast, and in outlets such as Forbes, Success Magazine, and Entrepreneur. The company's websites are oaktheory.co and undertheoak.co. Under the Oak is a media company that seeks to discuss how to be more human. Socials: https://www.instagram.com/oaktheory.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahryu/ 

Gary Shteyngart's new novel, "Vera, or Faith," tells the story of an anxiety-ridden Korean American girl growing up in a dystopian America.

The Mada & Hugh Piano Duo, composed of Romanian-born pianist Mădălina Dănilă and Korean-American pianist Hugh Sung, captivates audiences worldwide with their innovative 4-hand piano performances. Their award-winning collaboration brings a dynamic range of music, from unique classical pieces to dazzling arrangements of popular tunes. They are proud to be official Petrof Artists, representing the esteemed Czech piano brand known for its warm, romantic tone and exceptional craftsmanship. Mădălina, an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, has triumphed in prestigious competitions such as the International Piano Competition in Vigo and the Charleston 20th Century Music Competition. She was personally invited by renowned violinist Anne Sophie Mutter to perform a solo recital at the prestigious Ruhr Klavierfestival in Germany, marking a significant milestone in her career. Hugh Sung, renowned as one of the finest collaborative pianists of his generation, has performed with eminent musicians and worked extensively with the Philadelphia and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. As a former faculty member of The Curtis Institute of Music, co-founder of AirTurn, and an educator at ArtistWorks, Hugh has significantly influenced the music community. Currently, he serves as the Vice President of Cunningham Piano Company. Together, Mădălina and Hugh create unforgettable concert experiences, blending their exceptional talents and shared passion for music to inspire and delight audiences around the globe.   https://madahugh.com https://patreon.com/madahughpianoduo   Thanks for joining me on Crushing Classical!  Theme music by DreamVance. You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode! I help people to lean into their creative careers and start or grow their income streams.  You can read more or hop onto a short discovery call from my website. I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!    

Join Courn and Chase for a special episode comparing autism and adhd! From bonding over disabled couple compromises and shared executive dysfunction to contrasts in driving, volume preferences, planners, and more!Watch us on YouTube!Instagram: @neurotakespod Contact us: Hello@neurotakespod.comEpisode Transcripts: www.neurotakespod.com

Episode Summary: In this week's episode of your favorite Korean (& Asian) Adoptee podcast, the Janchi Boys sit down Mei Tomko and talk about growing up in the age of OG Youtube and embracing your asianness, doing the most with what you've got, and building things that last.Later we get into some Bibim Chips by Paldo…did they just make this to promote their sauce?!Meet Mei!On Instagram as @postnostalgia!Buy her artwork @postnostalgiaprints!Check out her Adoptee Resource Database!---// Support the Show!Online at janchishow.com / @janchishowSupport the show at janchishow.com/supportJoin our Facebook Group! janchishow.com/afterpartyWatch our Youtube VideosLeave a voicemail! 972-677-8867Write us a note: janchishow@gmail.comThe Janchi Show Quick BioThe Janchi Show focuses on exploring intersectional identities and current events through the lens of adoption, race, lived experience and more. Sometimes we have guests, and sometimes it's just the three of us. Either way, it's always a janchi!// Meet the Janchi Boys!Nathan NowackNathan (he/him) is a transracial Korean American adoptee who was born in Seoul in the 1970s. He was adopted at the age of 5 months old and raised in a small town in Oklahoma along with a non-biological Korean adopted sister.  After going to college in Colorado he later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a digital media career and eventually started 2 photography companies.  He loves spending time with his wife and 3 kids, playing golf, and collecting Lego. He is in reunion with his biological family as the youngest of 7 and has been in contact since 2015.  He currently serves on the Advisory Council for KAAN and helps with the planning of their annual adoptee conference.  In 2021, Nathan and his family moved back to Colorado to be closer to family and start a new chapter in their lives.  Connect with Nathan!Website: http://www.coverve.comInstagram: http://instagram.com/nnowackPatrick ArmstrongPatrick Armstrong (he/him) is a transracial Korean American adoptee, podcaster, speaker, and community facilitator. He is one of the hosts of the Janchi Show, a podcast that explores and celebrates the experiences and stories of Korean adoptees everywhere. He also is host of Conversation Piece with Patrick Armstrong, a podcast where he discusses the missing pieces of the conversations we're already having. He is a cofounder of the Asian Adoptees of Indiana, a group dedicated to creating a safe, engaging community for all Asian adoptees who need it. He is currently based in Indianapolis with his wife and cat. Connect with Patrick!Website: http://patrickintheworld.meLinkedIn: http://linkedin/in/patrickintheworldInstagram: http://instagram.com/patrickintheworldK.J. Roelke (@kjroelke)KJ (he/him) was adopted from Daegu and raised in Dallas, Texas with his two biological, older siblings and his younger sister, adopted from Russia. After spending a decade in the Midwest for college and career, he and his wife are back in Dallas and living large! He has been on his journey of discovery since 2015 and spends his days as a web developer for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.Connect with K.J.!Website: https://kjroelke.online/LinkedIn: https://linkedin/in/kjroelkeInstagram: https://instagram.com/kjroelke// Listen to/Watch The Janchi Show on all major platforms:Apple: http://janchishow.com/appleSpotify: http://janchishow.com/spotifyYoutube: http://janchishow.com/youtubeGratitude & CreditsMichelle Nam for our logo and brandingJerry Won for bring us togetherThis show is created and produced by Patrick, Nathan and KJ and is the sole property of the Janchi Show, LLC.

In this insightful workshop from the 2024 Rooted Conference in Dallas, Dr. Danny Kwon explores how to cultivate a youth ministry culture that embraces intergenerational integration. He unpacks why connecting generations within the church is vital to discipling students for a lifelong faith in Jesus, and offers practical steps for how you can implement intergenerational ministry in your unique context.Danny Kwon, Ph.D., is the Senior Director of Youth Ministry Content and Cross-Cultural Initiatives at Rooted Ministry. Prior to joining Rooted, Danny served for 29 years as the Youth and Family Pastor at Yuong Sang Church, a bicultural and bilingual Korean-American congregation outside Philadelphia. He is married to Monica, a Christian counselor and psychologist, and together they have three children.Rooted Resources:Book Review ‘Faith Beyond Youth Group' by Kara Powell, Brad M. Griffin, and Jen Bradbury by Danny KwonWhen Intergenerational Integration Feels Impossible by Skyler FlowersFollow @therootedministry on Instagram for more updates Register for Rooted 2025 Conference in Chicago Follow @therootedministry on Instagram for more updates andSubscribe to Youth Ministry Unscripted wherever you listen to podcasts

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Dave starts off by walking through the career path of today's returning guest, Chef Edward Lee. He is then joined by Edward, and they talk about Edward's new role as a celebrity chef in Korea; his new restaurant, SHIA; being a Korean American; bourbon, and much more. Dave closes by answering an Ask Dave question about fruit leftovers. Learn more about Edward's restaurant SHIA here: https://shiarestaurant.org/ Read the OpenTable article on SHIA's sustainability here: https://www.opentable.com/restaurant-solutions/resources/shia-sustainable-restaurant-practices/ Watch Chef & My Fridge here: https://www.netflix.com/title/80176931 Watch the previous episode with Edward here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4yyQp9rQU&t=3364s Watch Culinary Class Wars here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81728365 Watch Dave in Mexico City for NASCAR here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrMYc23DFrg Learn more about Pujol here: https://pujol.com.mx Follow @littlemeg on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/little_meg_siu_meg/?hl=en Watch the DCS episode with Sean Gray of Sergeantsville Inn here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QqnKhLO5Cs Send in your questions to https://forms.gle/wdPsZBXXx48Zq4vu8 or askdave@majordomomedia.com. Subscribe to the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedavechangshow. Subscribe to Recipe Club on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@recipeclubofficial. Submit your favorite food moments in your favorite movies to majorfoodporn.com. Join our community Discord on majordomo.com.  Hosts: Dave Chang Guest: Edward Lee Majordomo Media Producers: Kelsey Rearden and David Meyer Engineer: Chris Thomas Editor: Stefano Sanchez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today our friend Jimmy joins us to discuss the various ways we approach our meetings - from pre-meeting chitchat to miming reactions on camera. We talk about taking on roles in meetings, like being a note taker or the jokester. Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

The director Celine Song won over audiences and critics alike with her first feature film, “Past Lives,” the semi-autobiographical tale of a married Korean American woman meeting up with her former childhood sweetheart. Now Song is back with another story about love called “Materialists.” This time the main character is a matchmaker, a job that Song did briefly in her early 20s.On this episode of “Modern Love,” Song reads Louise Rafkin's Modern Love essay “My View From the Margins,” about a relationship columnist who can't figure out love in her own life. And Song tells us how neither falling in love at age 24 nor making a career of writing about love has brought her any closer to understanding it. “It's the one thing that makes me feel like a fool,” Song says.For more Modern Love, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday.  Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 21 Andy's spirits are lifted by an old friend. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Chapter 36 Half an hour later, his phone rang and Andy glanced down to see it was Phil calling, a picture of him with the words "Phil The Elder" superimposed over part of it. The poker group actually had two Phils in it,  Phil Marcos and Phil Pak. The two men were dramatically different from one another, but also remarkably similar in others. They shared the same first name, so the group had given them nicknames when they were talking about them if it could've been either of them. Phil Marcos a.k.a. Phil The Elder a.k.a. Greater Phil was 34, Filipino and worked for Boeing with the Air Force at a base in the East Bay, and was certainly the closer friend to Andy. They'd met at a local comic book store just after Andy had moved out to the West Coast, and had hit it off immediately. When Andy had started his poker group up a few years later, Phil was one of the first people Andy had called. Phil Pak, a.k.a. Phil The Younger a.k.a. Lesser Phil was 32, Korean and worked for the NSA out of San Francisco, and not someone they'd seen as often as they liked. For the last couple of years, Lesser Phil had been trying to convince Andy to come work as a data analyst for the NSA in terms of interpretation and extrapolation. Lesser Phil had been a college friend of Eric's, and had been introduced to Andy only a few months after he'd met Greater Phil. While Andy still typically thought of them as Greater and Lesser Phil, he tried not to call them that out loud, and had them as Phil The Elder and Phil The Younger in his phone. Andy asked if it was a common name, and Eric remarked that he knew at least a couple more Phils but none he knew that well. Andy told him he'd had a similar problem with Jennys in high school. "Talk to me, Phil," Andy said to his friend. "You heard the recording. Should I be worried?" "Concerned, yes. Worried, no," Phil sighed. He sounded exhausted on the other end of the line, but as of late, Phil had always sounded exhausted. Whatever he was doing over at the base, it was certainly taking a toll on his friend. "So the good news is that in the long run, it shouldn't make too much of a difference. But that reaction means that Lexi had been infected with the Orange Variant of the DuoHalo virus before we introduced the serum to her body." "The 'Orange Variant?'" "We started naming them after colors, working our way through the spectrum. The Red Variant was first but it died off very quickly, so this is the second one," he grumbled. "But she isn't our first exposure to it, so we know how the serum's going to generally react to it, and what it's going to do to her. There are only two real major differences you're going to need to worry about." "Is she going to be okay?" "I told you, in the long run, it shouldn't make too much of a difference. The two differences you need to pay attention to are this,  first, her margin of error for recursion is far less forgiving. That means don't ever make her go more than a week without getting some Rook juice, if you know what I mean, otherwise she see temporary cognitive decline set in pretty fast, and she'll be ripping your clothes off no matter where you are, so keep that in mind." "Every seven days minimum," Andy repeated, writing it down on a notepad in his writing office. "What's the other major difference I need to worry about?" "It shouldn't even be a concern, but you should still know about it. You know how other men's semen will typically make an imprinted woman ill?" "Sure?" "Those who've been exposed to the Orange Variant, if they come in contact with the semen of a man other than those they're imprinted with, they go into a violent fit of rage, attacking anyone other than their imprinted man on sight. Those rage fits tend to be relatively short lived,  only a hour at most,  but they're still incredibly dangerous and not the kind of thing you want sprung on you as a surprise." "And this is my bodyguard who has this," Andy sighed. "Oh it's fine," Phil chuckled. "She won't harm you, and you know how to protect your family better than anyone. I think anyone who tried to use it as a weakness against Lexi would probably not live to regret it. She'll also be imprinting for longer than normal, so if she's sleeping for like a day and a half, don't worry about it. That's to be expected." "You doing okay, Phil?" Andy asked. "You look like shit, and I'm more worried about you now than I am Lexi." Phil sighed then laughed a little bit. "You know me. I'll sleep when I'm dead. Lots of long days in the office turning into long nights, and on top of that, Audrey and Linda are making sure that I have several partners as well, so that my immunity to DuoHalo continues to be strong. We're not entirely sure of the science of it yet, but it looks like the more people inside a particular polypod, the stronger the internal herd immunity the male at the center get is. Once we knew that for certain, my two queens made sure I had a good litter of partners in our household. So I'm up to eleven myself now." "I still can't believe I'm a level five and you're not, Phil," Andy said, deliberately testing a theory by trying to bait it out of his friend. "Okay, Andy, you got me," Phil said with amusement. "I'm also a level five. I was lying to you earlier, for security reasons. In fact, I think technically I was one of the first level fives. I've also technically had DuoHalo, but I can't really get into the details of that all that much. Let's just say that when we're finally through this whole pandemic, I'm going to have a bunch of stories to tell you that will blow your mind. I probably have to get clearance for you so that I can tell you some of them, but it'll be worth it." "I've always known you were up to something over there, Phil," Andy laughed. "I just couldn't figure out what it was." "Greater Phil, International Man of Mystery. It's got a nice ring to it." "Speaking of Mystery. Poker, this week. Let's do it." "Yeah, sure," Phil said. "I could use a break, so you call everyone else, and I'll make a point of coming over with as much of the family as I can convince to come out, although it has that weird side effect of making every poker night feel like a giant party where we're all hiding from our wives. Maybe we should see if there's enough interest to set up a second table and we can mix and match, so you can spend a bit more time meeting my partners and vice versa." "Well, you see Niko all the time, what with her being at your work, so you probably know her about as well as I do." "That girl's got secrets upon secrets, Andy." That caught him a little off guard. He wasn't bothered by it, but he was amused at the idea of her trying to hide something from him. "Niko? My Niko? I can't see it. She's open and transparent about everything with me." "Sure, okay. Didn't you feel that way about Erin?" "That was different?" "Was it though?" Phil said in a tone that immediately conjured the Smug Thor meme to his mind. "I mean, sure, Niko's secrets are probably being kept from you for the right reasons, as opposed to Erin's, but secrets are secrets." "The last thing I need is you making me more paranoid, Phil." "Forget I said anything. Oh, one last bit of news for you. Maya won't be there until tomorrow midday. Turns out she's also got the Orange Variant, so we're making sure the serum is getting a good foothold before we send her over to you. It's all just safety precautions, but it'll be over soon enough." "Great. We can do poker night on the 20th, so we can all watch the President's speech and the 60 Minutes story together." "Sounds like fun," Phil agreed. "Hopefully Katie Couric's team caught my good side. See you on Friday." As Andy hung up the phone, he noticed that Whitney was lingering in the doorway. She was dressed impeccably in a white button up shirt and a black pencil skirt with black pantyhose on beneath, and the shirt was just barely thin enough that he could see hints of her red bra on underneath. "Have you got a moment, sir?" "Sure thing, Whitney, what's up?" "Just wanted to go over the set up work I've done for the house so you know what's going on, and to ask you a few questions so I can start the process of replacing your laptop for you," she said, her hands folded together in front of her, her eyes mostly lowered. "Sounds great, but Whitney, you don't have to look down all the time. I know you're more used to a stern hand than I am, and I'll do my best to be what you like when we're intimate, but when you're acting in your duties as the house IT manager, you need to relax a little more and try to fit in." Whitney smirked a little bit, those dark red lips perked up as she lifted her head, nodding at him with a little smile. "Oh, I know, sir. I think I mostly just wanted to see if you would notice. Shall we?" For the next half an hour, Whitney explained to him in good detail all the changes she'd gone about to the house in the last day, getting all the rooms configured to work within the house's larger intranet. As it turned out, there were multiple LAN ports in the walls of every room in the house, it seemed like, and once again, Andy found himself wondering who this house had been built for originally. In addition to making sure all the ports were working, Whitney had also set up wireless hubs and repeaters all throughout the house, enough so that no matter where a person was in the house, they should always have a good signal to the internet. The house's security systems ran on an entirely separate network, one with minimal external connectivity, and Whitney said that she would work with Lexi to make sure the system was up to whatever standards his new head of security had in mind. They walked while they talked, and outside in the back, Andy could see Katie astride her riding lawn mower, zipping in lines across the monstrous amount of green grass in his back yard, making sure to get all of it cut even and levelly. He could also see Tala hauling things into the back house with the help of Nicolette, who had ditched the maid outfit for the time being for a more practical set of blue jeans and a baggy t shirt covered in paint splotches. All of the changes, Whitney assured him, had been done with minimal disruption to anyone's work in the house, and she'd been trying to get as much of it today, as it was a Sunday. The last thing they talked about was his replacement laptop, something that Andy was remarkably picky about. Oh, he didn't care about the things most people cared about,  when it came to processors and memory, Andy insisted none of that mattered to him,  but the thing he was adamant about was that the keyboard feel as close to the one on the laptop he was currently using, an eight year old IBM ThinkPad. Too many keyboards were difficult to use for long periods at a time, and considering how many words Andy found himself putting into his laptop on a daily basis, if the keyboard was unwieldy, the laptop might as well be non existent. Whitney made a special note that "keyboard feel" was of the utmost import, and she insisted to him, she would do her best to get him a good replacement within a week or so. She had already begun backing up all the files from his existing laptop to the house's master network, as well as to a backup kept in a fire safe, so that even if disaster struck, he would still have his work in a safe location. Andy did tell her that she didn't have to work full time on the weekends, and that she should make a point of getting settled into her own room, and spending some time catching up with her friend Nicolette who had brought her here. Whitney had smiled at that, and agreed to go get changed so she could help Tala move in, and then they could all help Whitney get moved in afterwards. He was starting to walk back towards his office when he ran into Lauren, clearly just back from a jog around the neighborhood, sweaty and out of breath, a big smile on her face. "Hey there, fella, just the bloke I was lookin' to have a moment with. Got a snip?" He grinned, leaning against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sure, what's up?" "I've been thinking, and I think maybe we should let Taylor off the hook now," she said, looking down at her feet for a second. "I know, I know, I was the one who set the whole month punishment in place but, strewth, seeing her walking around naked all the time is starting to make me feel bad. I'm thinking she's learned her lesson, and she knows she's got lots of trust to earn back from me, so I'm only keeping her from getting to spend time learning more about all the other amazing sheilas you have in this house, and that's not fair of me." "I agree," Andy chuckled, "but I didn't want to be the one to tell you, seeing how fire and brimstone you were about the whole thing when you set the rules in place." "Strewth," she muttered. "Was it really that much a dunnybrook?" "I was a little worried the heavens were going to part and you were going to call down lightning bolts from the skies," he said, the smile wide on his face. "Real wrath of god type shit." "Bugger. Anyway, you should tell'er that you've talked me down, and that you laid down the law, and you decided, and eventually I relented, that she is done with that punishment and should just join the family like all the other birds. Make it clear you decided, not me, so I still get to keep a bit of that big scary reputation." Andy rolled his eyes but nodded. "Sure sure, you'll look mean. You'll look really scary. Anyway, I'll go find her and tell her while you're hopping into the shower." "Stink that bad, do I?" "Your sweatstains have got sweatstains, Lauren," he said with a laugh as he was backing away from her, while she mimed punching motions in his direction. He wasn't certain where he'd find Taylor in the house, so he decided just to go wandering the halls and see where he stumbled into her. He found her in Hannah's room, where she, Asha and Hannah were sitting on the bed, gossiping. Asha and Hannah hadn't bothered to change out of their pajamas, enjoying a lazy Sunday, while Taylor sat nude with her back against the wall. One of his two cats, Muninn, the Russian blue, was sitting on the bed near Asha, who was petting him idly. All three girls tensed a little bit when he entered the room,  Taylor wasn't supposed to be sitting up on furniture unless Lauren or himself had told her to do so, but Andy hadn't really followed the rules at all, and had made it clear multiple times that Taylor's 'punishment,' such as it was, was mostly for Lauren's mollification, and that if Taylor slipped on the rules from time to time while she wasn't around, he didn't particularly care. "No no, don't get up, Taylor, it's fine," he said, coming into the room. "In fact, it's what I came to talk to you about." "You need to get Nicolette to turn up the house furnace, babe," Asha said to him. "If I'd ta walk around all day in me skivvies, I know I'd be freezin'." "Totally, Daddy," Hannah said. He'd repeatedly told her that she didn't have to call him that (in fact, going so far as to hint that it made him a little uncomfortable when she did) but she had repeatedly answered that she liked calling him that, so she wasn't going to stop any time soon. At least she knew enough not to do it when other people were around the house. "We're just talkin' anyway, so I told her to hop up here, so if you gotta punish someone, it should be me." "You look far too eager when you suggest that, Hannah," he told the Asian teenager. "Anyway, I had a talk with Lauren just a little bit ago. I told her this is my house, and I'm in charge, and that I've decided you've served this part of your punishment long enough. You're free to get dressed, wear clothes around the house, sleep wherever you want, sit wherever you want. You can get your phone back, and you can start working with Lauren at the 49ers camp whenever you feel like you're ready. You're a full member of the household now, and there's no reason for this silly punishment to go on any further. And you can certainly take off that ridiculous dog collar." Taylor's bright blue eyes had been focused on him the entire time he'd been talking, and she slipped off the bed quickly to throw her arms around him, pressing those impressive tits of hers against his chest as she hugged him very tightly, clinging to him, even as he could hear her sniffling back some tears. "Thank you, Andy," she said quietly. "I know Lauren's still mad at me, but this has been really hard, being made to feel like less than a person." He wrapped his arms around her, patting her bare back. "I know, and I get that, but you also have to realize that cheating on her hurt her in a way she'd never been hurt before, and that won't go away fully for a long long time. Just because you're done with all of this doesn't mean you're done with all of that. I know you know that, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded that you're going to be repairing that damage between you two for years to come. You screwed up, but there's a way back from that, as long as you're willing to put in the work and learn from your mistakes." Taylor pulled back, looking at him as something just dawned on her. "So, wait, all the rules have been lifted? Like all all of them?" He tilted his head a little. "Yyyyes? Why, is there one in particular you're asking about?" "So, like, next time, y'know, when me and you, then we can,” He bit back a smile and nodded. "Yes, yes we can. And if you want to masturbate again, you're welcome to start doing that too." She shook her head over dramatically once then leaned in to kiss him. "After we've had our first time together, our first real time together, then I will, but I want the first thing inside of my cunt after all this time to be your cock. If that's okay," she said, biting her lip nervously. "Of course it's okay. I think your next day in the rotation was going to be the 20th, but if you want, we can try and find some time before then instead. It can even be just the two of us, without Lauren around, if that's what you want." She pouted again for a moment. "Anything I want?" "Well, within my usual limits, but sure." She slipped her arms away from him, and turned back to look at Asha and Hannah, extending a hand to each of them. "I want the four of us together, for my first time normally with you, Andy," she said, as Asha took one hand and Hannah took the other. "Oh rrrrreally?" Asha said, dragging the sound out, her London accent dripping through the word. "All four of us together? Sounds like a spot of fun. I'm game if you are, Whiskers," she said, looking over at Hannah with a smile. "Anything you can throw at me, I can totally handle, Goldfish," Hannah shot back at her friend. Clearly the girls had developed nicknames for each other when he wasn't around. "I was supposed to have tomorrow night, Daddy, so instead of it just being me, it'll be all three of us, if that's totally cool and shit." "Yeah, that's, ahem, totally cool. And shit." He leaned in to give Taylor a quick kiss, but she kissed him back harder than expected, and it lasted longer than he'd planned, not that he minded. "And you, young lady, should get some clothes on, and maybe unpack your stuff, whether that's in your own room or in Lauren's room, that's up to you." "Oh it totally all goes in with Lauren," Taylor said. "I don't even want my own room. Either I'm in her bed or yours. You want to come help me move in, girls?" "You couldn't stop us, love," Asha said. "Last one there has a smelly cunt!" Hannah said as she bolted towards the door, Asha and Taylor just a step or two behind her. "Y'know," Andy said to himself and the cat, "I feel like I should've yelled that there's no running in the house after them, but I just know it wouldn't have done any good." "Meow," Muninn said to him in response. "Oh hush," Andy said. "What the hell do you know?" "Meow," Muninn agreed. "Damn straight." After leaving Hannah's room, he was halfway down the hall when he ran into Sarah, who was wearing one of his t shirts, one for a band called Stereophonics, and sweatpants beneath it, her hair done up in the least stylish ponytail he'd ever seen from her, as if she'd just put her red mane up to get it out of the way for a while. "Hey you," she said, her pearly white smile beaming at him. "Maya should be here any minute, and I know you're just gonna love her." "I actually spoke to Phil a little bit ago, and she's not going to be here until tomorrow, but she's still coming, don't you worry." He explained the Orange Variant to her, and while she was a little disappointed that her friend's arrival would be delayed, she understood that Maya's health was the most important thing, and the base didn't want to let her out of their sight until she was ready. "What've you been up to today?" She rolled her oceanic blue eyes at him with a big harumph. "Reading screenplays that my agent sent over, trying to pick my next project. It's looking like everyone's going to want to do serialized television right now, because they can get more content out of smaller budgets, but so many of these stories are just so boring," she groaned. "It's like my agent's only sending me the same stuff." "Well," he said, taking her hand in his as they walked down the hallway, "tell your agent what you want then, whether that's more drama, more action, more comedy, more whatever it is you want more of. They only know what you want when you tell them. I had to learn the same lesson with my literary agent early on." She squeezed his hand thankfully. "My agent really should know better, but you're right. I can get her on the hunt for the kinds of things I want to be doing. You know there aren't really any good spy stories on television right now? I should see if she can get me something like that. I'll give her a call tomorrow, see if maybe she can reach out to the production companies, see who's already got projects winding up I can try and piggyback onto." They walked past the door of Emily and Sarah's workspace, and Andy noticed it was closed. He pointed with his other hand at the closed door as they kept on walking. "Em in some kind of meeting?" Sarah nodded. "London based production company wanted to reach out to her, so she's taking the call today, but she should be out in an hour or so." The doorbell rang, and Sarah arched an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought you said Maya wouldn't be here until tomorrow." "That's what Phil told me," he said, as the two of them started to head downstairs, although Andy could hear someone answering the door, followed by a loud squeal of recognition. When they came down the stairs, Andy could see it was Piper who'd answered the door, and she had her arms wrapped around a short blonde girl, hugging her tightly. "Andy! Sarah! Brooke's here!" Piper said to them, swinging the shorter girl around a bit. "That's great, but I thought she was  " "Surprise, man!" Xander said as he stepped in through the doorway. Andy let go of Sarah's hand and rushed down the rest of the stairs, suddenly stopping about six feet away from the door. "Are you...?" "Paired with three people this morning, so I'm 100% safe as houses," his tattooed friend said. Once he'd gotten the word 'paired' out, Andy had continued rushing his best friend, wrapping his arms around the burly guy, giving him a hell of a hug. "Oh Jesus, it's good to know you're safe, man," Andy sighed. "And it's so fucking good to see you. I know we hung out last December, but fuck, these eleven months have felt like five fucking years,” "Glad to see my mouth's rubbing off on you," Sarah laughed, closing the distance to meet them. "Xander, these are my partners Piper Brown and Sarah Washington, both of whom you've talked to a bit through FaceTime. Piper, Sarah, this is my best and oldest friend, Xander Baker, whom I've known since we were both, like, what, 6?" Xander laughed, nodding. "6, 7, something like that. However old we were in kindergarten." "Not very," Andy said. "Not enough!" Xander replied. "Anyway, Andy, Sarah, this is my soon to be partner Brooke Maloney, whom I have your partner Piper to thank for." "Well," Piper laughed, "I'd originally pitched her to come here and be Andy's partner, but he realized she'd be a much better fit for you, considering how much you both love classic cars, although really, I think it was just so he didn't have to hear her singing Vince Gill songs around the house all the time, 'cause she does that a lot, and I hope they warned you about that, Xander." "She can be singing Vince Gill while I'm singing Wu Tang Clan, and somewhere in the middle, over the engine of a Dodge Charger, I think we can make it work," Xander said. "Honestly, Pipes," Brooke said to her, "the only reason he said soon to be is because I wanted to come over and say thank you to y'all, and let Xander have a bit of time with his friend before we got to bumpin' uglies. But all the other gals in his house have just been so sweet, y'all, I can't wait for you to meet'em." "Why don't Piper and I give you a tour of the place, Brooke," Sarah said, "and the boys can do a little bit of catching up. You want me to have Jenny bring drinks to you out on the patio, hun?" "Yeah," Andy said, "I'll take a pina colada. Xander?" "Just a Corona." Sarah nodded. "Drinks coming up! This way ladies!" she said, marching them down towards the kitchen first. "Jesus Andy," Xander said quietly. "You really bagged Sarah Washington. I mean, I know I've talked to her vidchat, but seeing her in person like this,” "Seriously, I don't deserve this much luck," Andy said with a chuckle as he started to lead his best friend towards the back patio. "Oh fuck you," Xander teased. "You deserve exactly this much luck. Our entire lives, I've been watching you do good things for people left and right and never asking for so much as a thank you in return, and this is what karma has brought you, dude, so live a little. Enjoy it." As they moved out onto the patio, Xander shook his head. "I will say, however, that my house isn't quite as big as yours is. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fucking palace compared to that one bedroom shithole I lived in back in Ohio, but I'm just saying,” Andy rolled his eyes with a smirk. "You know I didn't pick the places myself, right jackass?" "I guess so," Xander said, as the two men moved to sit down on deck chairs near the pool. It was cool for November but not so cold that either man felt like they needed to add layers, both having grown up in the Midwest, where California winters would be considered nice spring days. "God, I'm really here. It's wild, man." "It's great having you out here, Xander. Jesus, the stories I have to tell you. You're here early, though. I didn't expect you out here for at least a few more days." "Turns out these DuoHalo Variants are pretty intense," Xander sighed, "and since they were pairing me up with someone in the military, they wanted to make sure I got hooked into the system as quickly as they could, so everything got very rush rush rush. When you told me to be ready to go at a moment's notice, you weren't kidding. As soon as we finished up that conversation, I started packing, and just barely got done before they showed up to cart me away. They're even taking care of selling my house for me, although I suspect it's just going to become government housing or something." "Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me," Andy agreed. "God, it's good to have you here, man." "Well if it isn't my favorite hoodrat," Fiona said, carrying out a tray with three drinks on it, setting it down on a table as Xander immediately got up and hugged him hard. "How you been, lunkhead?" "Better now that I know you made it here okay, muckraker," he teased back. "How the hell you been Fi?" "Better now that I know you ditched that crazy ex of yours," she laughed. "Can I say it?" "Oh I think you've earned it." "I told you that girl was no good." "You did indeed tell me that," Xander agreed, taking his bottle of Corona from the drinks tray, as Andy grabbed his pina colada and Fi grabbed a tall glass of wine. "Hey hey hey, the gang's all back," Fi said with a smile. "To old friends and new flames." "To life, liberty and us getting through this fucking plague together," Xander toasted. "To family," Andy corrected. "To family!" they all toasted together, clinking glasses. Piper has a confession to make.. Chapter 37 The conversation had gone far into the evening, with members of the household coming in and out several times, joining for a while before leaving the trio to their own devices once more, mostly anyway, a couple of Andy's partners choosing to remain longer. Sarah and Aisling in particular were intent on getting as many stories about Andy's youth as they could, and he felt a little like they hoped either Xander or Fiona would tell them embarrassing tales from their college years. While Fi had been mostly coy about the years they'd spent at university, Xander, by contrast, had been eager to tell at least a handful of hilarious and ridiculous stories about the troubles they'd found themselves in during their misspent youth. Despite how flustered he got a couple of times, it was a wonderful night of reminiscing, and a chance for the girls to see Andy in a different light. A piece of advice Andy had never let go of was that as you got older, it was almost important to keep people around you who knew you when you were young and fearless. At least a few times, he'd managed to deflect the conversation off himself and onto other people, a detour letting both Sarah and Emily talk about their experiences making movies, and Xander talking about the process of being relocated from Ohio out to California. Xander's trip had been surprisingly surreal, and he told the group about it in explicit detail. He'd been loaded into an isolation chamber on a cargo plane along with twenty other men, each in their own little plastic bubble tent, although each of the tent also had curtains that could be dropped for privacy. Xander told them he'd found that odd but understood why eventually. The plane had been mostly full of men when it picked Xander up in Ohio. The little isolation chamber was like a emergency field hospital's clean room, with a mattress on the floor as well as a few days of rations, both food and water, and a little sealable chemical toilet. Nearly everything was ziptied to weights to keep it steady. There was also a little headset that connected to a series of voice chat channels all the men could use to talk to one another. The main channel had been too hectic for Xander to stay in for more than a handful of minutes, but he'd eventually peeled off a couple of the men in the plane into a separate channel, and was able to both give them some information and get some on his own. All of the men on the plane had been gathered from cities in the central and eastern United States, and were being ferried out to partners, generally military but some in other branches of the government, and they weren't being let out of their isolation chambers until they'd been paired up with at least one woman, thus, the beds and the privacy curtains. At least a couple of the pods had not only men in them, but also a woman in the middle of the imprinting process . The government didn't want to risk the life of any man, so this was an emergency plan decided to keep as many people as they could safe. The two men Xander spent the afternoon talking with were Klaus, a 26 year old Master Sergeant from Georgia that Xander felt like was probably in special ops of some kind, and Bill, a 34 year old schoolteacher from Tennessee who was being paired up with a prominent Silicon Valley businesswoman he'd dated back in high school. Klaus clearly knew far more than he wanted to share with Xander and Bill, but he'd done his best to give the two men some information to make their journey a little less panic stricken. There were two women in the isolation chamber with Klaus, a twenty year old blonde named Olivia and a twenty two year old Korean American named Naya, or so Klaus told them, as both women were still in the middle of the imprinting process. The man was part of the security forces for the flying hospital that was transporting men and women around the country. He knew what he could and couldn't tell Xander and Bill, and just having a conversation with Klaus had made Xander feel more safe in their travels. He had a calm and casual demeanor to him while discussing how everything had been carefully planned, even if it all felt pretty slapdash. He couldn't answer all of their questions, for security reasons, but he told the two men that the airplane had basically been in motion nonstop for the last three weeks, doing its best to ferry people around the nation. Xander had asked him if it was truly necessary, only to be told how high the casualty rate was for men around the nation. Klaus had seen the stacks of bodies, and the man sounded rattled when he described the hundreds of empty apartments he'd seen in his native Queens, as the corpses had filled up dump trucks, and they'd had to conceal the bodies as they were taking them out in the dead of night. Klaus told them he'd been in a biohazard suit for most of the last week, but now that he had two partners, he would be able to go out and provide an escort for everyone going to and from the plane, although he planned to return to his isolation room with his two partners in between each stop they made. From Ohio they flew down to Nebraska, stopping at Offut Air Force Base, where they picked up a handful of soldiers and dropped off a handful of women. Bill had asked Klaus how long they'd been running these routes. Klaus said they'd been running for a few weeks now, and they were only one of five planes that were crisscrossing the nation. Olivia and Naya had both been brought into the inoculation center in Denver earlier and then swapped planes to meet up with him in New York, where they'd met up after he'd returned bringing in another stable of surviving men. All privacy had basically gone out the window. Klaus told him that most of the men had the option to wait until they were in a house or an apartment or something, but Klaus had been told by his commanding officer that they couldn't spare him that much time, so he needed to just get on with his business on the plane so he could get back to work as soon as he was done. By the time they'd touched down at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Bill had been just about ready to break out into full fledged panic, between the constant shift in air pressure, the take offs and landings done without proper seatbelts and his inability to go anywhere that wasn't his little sealed off compartment, but a quick talking to from Xander had gotten the man to cool down at least a little bit. They were barely on the ground in Nevada an hour, taking people off and bringing new people on, as well as refueling the plan, before taking off again, landing at Oakland airport a few hours later under the cover of night. Their cellphones had been taken from them when they'd arrived at the plane, so Xander had been forced to guess at the time, but he would've placed their arrival in Oakland at something around 2 a.m. or so, although the lock in had made it impossible to use traffic as a gauge. In Oakland, everyone had been taken from their individual compartments and loaded onto a large troop transport truck, with no caution given to cross contamination or infection, as they were all told they would be getting paired up within a few hours, so even if they caught DuoHalo now, it wouldn't matter. Xander had been concerned by that but he had decided to go along with it, because Klaus seemed to consider the whole thing fine, and he was the one loading people onto the trucks. The trucks had ferried them from Oakland up to a staging area next to the lab near Mount Diablo, just adjacent to New Eden, and once there, they'd been introduced to their new partners and from there, sorted into where they were going to go. The building they were using as a staging area felt like a converted aircraft hangar, with a high curved metal ceiling and big fluorescent lights hanging high above them. Although there were some tented parts of the space, similar to what had been inside the cargo hold of the airplane that had brought him here, most of the space was open, with long painted striped lines on the ground, leading people through the processing. Men weren't being given any injections, something Xander had thought was odd, until all the men were given a five minute lecture on "Your New Reality," something that the men were told to take deadly seriously. The lecture included basic things like how they would be receiving their vaccinations (sexually transmitted from their new partners), how their partners would need sexual satisfaction about once a week or so, how their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, and how if they ever felt like they were coming down with the symptoms of DuoHalo they should have sex with one of their partners immediately, which would resolve them. At the point when the men had been told that their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, a handful of the men had quietly jeered and rolled their eyes, but the next slide in the presentation showed a wound on a woman's arm that had silenced all that nonsense quickly. The end of the lecture included a video message from President Pelosi, urging the men to consider fatherhood like a new version of the World War 2 draft,  every man needed to do his service to help save the country. Extensive tax breaks and financial aid would be provided to families with multiple children, it was stressed. The country needed to be rebuilt. As soon as the lecture was done, they'd been marched single file to a series of processing windows, over a dozen clerks taking people's names and social security numbers before assigning them a holding area to head over to, where they would meet their partners. A sticker was placed on their chest before they were sent on their way. It had all felt very assembly line, as if there wasn't time for kindness or courtesies, and people were simply being pushed through the grinder as quickly as possible. Klaus had joked around with them on the ride over that while it might seem rough, it was being done for optimal performance in getting people in and through the system and into their new lives, wherever they may be. Xander had heard several different locations mentioned,  the San Jose highrises, the Stanford campus, the Berkeley campus, the SF towers, the Altamont sprawl, the Tracy ghosttown,  but when it came time for him to be told where to go, he was told he wouldn't need to go far, as he was being assigned to Dos Eden, the first expansion zone to New Eden. He'd been given four partners on site, with one more to be waiting for him at the location. They'd been waiting for him in the holding area assigned to him, each having arrived sometime over the previous day, so they'd all had a chance to get to know one another. Letting the women have some time to bond in advance of the man's arrival seemed smart to Xander, as they could size each other up without having to worry about keeping their new mate's attention. The women had also been given their injections in the holding area, and so Xander assumed the spaces had also doubled as observation areas, making sure none of the women had suffered any adverse reactions to their injections the day before. Captain Betsy Ross had turned out to be a complete knockout, a blonde pint size pocket rocket dynamo who was training men nearly twice her size in hand to hand close quarters combat, and they had clicked immediately, almost as if they were custom made for each other. She'd kissed him hard enough to nearly knock him off his feet before he'd even been able to say hello. The second woman had been Serena Ortiz, a Latina woman in her late twenties who was a U.S. Marshall, and had built a career out of tracking down fugitives. Tall and statuesque, she had a certain grace to how she'd moved, he'd noticed immediately. She'd spent the past few hours talking with Betsy before Xander's arrival, and the two already had a friendly relationship, having bonded over the fact that they could both kick Xander's ass if needed. The third was a slender blonde woman in her late 30s who had looked hauntingly familiar before her introduction, but Xander had struggled to place her, even after she identified herself as Alicia Geller. When she'd told Xander that he would likely know the role she'd played in her youth, Rascal Rachel, that had made it all come together immediately. Alicia was a child actress who had been the star of a popular kids show until she'd grown out of it and the show had been canceled. Instead of continuing acting, she had retired from show business and gone into education, teaching history to high school students. She seemed a little shy, but had assured him that once they'd had time to get to know one another, she would come out of her shell. The final one on site had been Brooke, and she'd detailed the story to him how her friend Piper was paired up with Andy, and that they had recommended Brooke pair up with Xander, so she had. She'd been wearing a Shelby GT Cobra necklace when they met, and Xander had known it was going to work out just fine. A second sticker was placed on his chest and the girls were told to stay with him, as everyone was sorted into lines and sent towards trucks. Most of the trucks were large troop transports, but Xander had been surprised to see that the vehicle he and his partners were set to was much smaller, and they were the only group loaded up onto it. He'd felt a little bad, since really they could've just been loaded up into an Escalade, him, his four new partners and the MP driving them over to their new home. On the way over, the MP delivered the final set of instructions to Xander, as to why his fifth partner hadn't been waiting for him at the base and was, instead, at the new home. Her name was KC Kadrey, and she was a 20 year old Vietnamese American student over at Stanford, studying mechanical engineering. She'd needed to get her injections a couple of days prior, and there had been some concerns that she might simply just grab the first man she saw and go after him, so she'd been taken to their new home and allowed to settle in. But, the MP warned him, it meant that she might be a bit intense when they arrived. She'd also brought her golden retriever with her, and keeping the large dog at the staging area had seemed problematic. Xander, like all the men who'd been on the airplane, had been forced to travel light, a single wheelie suitcase all he'd been allowed to bring with him. All of his things that had been picked up in Ohio would show up at some point within the next few weeks as the truck conveying them drove cross country, but until they, he would have to make due with the things he had. Xander had been forced to argue with the people picking him up that the one car he'd been restoring, a black 1970 Barracuda, would be part of the things taken to his new home, and while the discussion had gotten a little heated, eventually the people picking him up had relented and loaded it into the truck with the rest of his stuff. Each of the women had a similar amount of things with them, and when they arrived at their new home, they all felt woefully unprepared. Dos Eden was technically part of New Eden, but it was an expansion to the original enclave, and the dwellings there were much more of nice houses than they were the sorts of mansions and manors that made up New Eden itself. The MP driving them over had said she lived in Dos Eden, and she was incredibly thankful, as it meant having a family was a distinct possibility, while the people in many of the other locations were going to be doing lots of relocating and readjusting over the next few years. Those in the tower condo buildings were generally being given an entire floor to themselves, and as needed walls would be knocked down and units combined as families expanded. The views were nice, the MP told them, but it just didn't feel like a home. When they pulled up to the house just around dawn, Xander was a little surprised by it. They had told him not to expect a grandiose mansion, but the home was far nicer than any place he'd ever lived in before, a two story building with five bedrooms and four bathrooms, so not enough that each person had their own bedroom, but they would make it work, all of them agreed. It was mostly glass walls, and Xander found himself thankful for the ring of trees, and the high fences, that would provide him with at least a little privacy from his neighbors, who were only a short walk away on either side. It had a three car garage, and Xander was told there were new Teslas charging inside for them. (Xander immediately planned to turn one of the three garage spaces into his own little workshop where he'd continue restoring the Barracuda.) The driveway was long enough that they would be able to comfortably fit at least four more cars out front if needed. The place had its own pool with hot tub, however, something Xander was astonished to find. He'd never lived in a place with a pool before, and now his home had one. They'd barely gotten in the door before KC had rushed Xander, practically mauling him with love in the entry way to the home. She'd been coherent enough to talk with him, the two of them moving into the master bedroom before he'd had sex with her and she'd fallen into her imprinting process. The other girls had moved into the bedroom somewhere in the middle of their tryst and Betsy had immediately insisted on going second, having stripped down while watching Xander and KC. Alicia had gone third, leaving him with only Serena and Brooke conscious. The three of them had taken a shower together, and somewhere in the middle of the shower, Serena had decided she couldn't wait any further, and had gone through part of the process in the shower and the rest bent over the bathroom countertop. As much as he wanted to, he told Brooke that he was going to need a while before he could imprint her, his entire body more than a little exhausted, as the chemicals from the four women had been flowing through his bloodstream, giving him immunity from DuoHalo and doing some rather significant changes to his body. Brooke had laughed and just suggested they go over to visit Andy and Piper, which brought them up to now. "Fuckin' hell," Andy laughed. "No fucking wonder you look exhausted, Xan. How much have you slept in the last two days?" "Oh, we took a nap after we settled into the house, and I slept a bit on the plane while it was hauling our asses through the skies," his best friend said with a chuckle. "So yeah not as much as I should but more than I do some days. Was your experience similar, Fi?" Fiona's journey had been very similar, with her and Moira catching an earlier flight out of Washington a few days ago, although their plane had made only one additional stop before landing in Oakland, their plane having gone straight from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, where many of the men in the chambers had been unloaded and several women had been loaded on board. Because Fi and Moira had been traveling together, they'd had each other to talk with and neither had felt especially lonely during the voyage. Fi even admitted they had spent much of the time talking about Andy, speculating how much he might or might not have changed over the years. As the hour grew late, Brooke returned to the main room with Piper, suggesting she and Xander head home, reminding the two old friends that they now lived less than fifteen minutes apart, and could see each other as often as they wanted to, but Andy and Xander still hugged for a long minute, thankful to have reconnected on the other side of the disaster, before they walked the two to the door and sent them home. Several of the girls had peeled off and gone to bed over the course of the evening, and at the end of the night, the only people still awake were Andy, Piper and Sarah. Aisling had been the very last to go to bed before reminding Sarah not to stay up too late, otherwise she would be too tired to talk to Maya when she arrived tomorrow, but Sarah had laughed it off and dismissed it. After closing the door behind Xander, he walked back down stairs, intending to clean up the remaining empty beer bottles and glasses left behind in the living room, only to find that Nicolette had beaten him to it, having cleaned it all up and then disappearing into her room for the night, so he couldn't even say thank you to her. "I swear, we've got a ninja for a French maid around this house," he muttered to himself with amusement. Huginn, his black cat, stood up from his perch on the back of one of the couches, stretched by arching his back, then moved to sit back down exactly where he was. "I feel ya, bud," he agreed with the cat. "We should probably see about getting to bed, don't you think, ladies?" Piper shook her head, pushing Andy back to sit down on the couch. "Not for a bit. You can sleep when you're dead," she said with a grin. "Don't you agree, Sarah?" "Oh totally," the tall redhead said, moving to slide in to one side of Andy on the couch. "You lose one third of your life sleeping, well, I mean I guess you don't really lose it since you have to sleep otherwise you'll go insane, but it's, like, a lot a lot of time to be spending doing just one thing." "Besides, I have to say thank you for making sure you brought my best friend to be nearby so I didn't feel so lonely all the time," Piper said, peeling her shirt up and over her head, tossing it aside, leaving her in a sports bra and tight fitted blue jeans, her toned stomach bared to the cool night air. "We've been kinda dancing around each other for the last few weeks, Andy, and I don't want you to think I'm not grateful, because I'm very thankful for all the things you've done for me since we've met." "Piper, you don't have  " he started before she lifted her hand up to cover his mouth, "Andy, enough," she giggled. "You can just say 'you're welcome' when you're being thanked for something, you know. You don't have to try and play down the work that went into it." He smirked a little bit, as she pulled her hand back. "I just don't want you to feel like you owe me anything." "Oh, but Andy, I do owe you," she said, bending down to press a kiss to his lips, just a soft and quick one. "You got me away from that asshole Covington. When I couldn't think straight, you did everything you could to bring me back to being me again, and that's not something anyone would do." She inhaled the scent of him, and he could swear he saw her pupils dilate a little in response. "You remember how I told you I could smell you from far away? I still can, but the raw musk of you is even more intense up close, and I fucking love how you smell, you sexy bastard. It makes me feel warm and safe and gooey and sticky and protected all at once. And I know that at least some of that is just the chemicals flowing through my brain bonding me to you, but you know what?" She leaned in and nibbled on his earlobe a little bit. "I've decided that I don't fucking care why I feel how I feel. I feel how I feel and that's all that fucking matters. You've kept me safe. You've given me space when I wanted it, and been happy to talk with me when I needed that. You helped me get my friend here and kept her safe, and as soon as you thought it was time, you pushed my ass to get back to work and reminded me not to give up on my dreams. So don't you dare fucking tell me I don't have to repay you, because even if you don't think that I do, I do, and I want to." "You're the only one of the girls who says she can smell me anywhere in the house, Piper," he told her. "I hope that's not a sign that anything's wrong because Covington held off so long on letting you get imprinted after the injections." "Oh, there's nothing wrong with me, Andy," she purred, unbuttoning her jeans before pushing them down to her ankles, not having bothered to put shoes on earlier, stepping out of them and her panties, leaving her in just the sports bra. She had such an athletic body that it had a tendency to make Andy feel a little ashamed of how out of shape he was. "I'm just different, that's all. Being able to smell you when you're in the house? I consider that a benefit, not a side effect. I get a little anxious when you leave and I can't smell you, not so much that it bothers me, but just enough that I notice the feeling of longing I have that you aren't on hand. And I've reread that letter you left me over a dozen times, because each time, I think I fall for you a little more." She grinned, grabbing her sports bra, pulling it up over her head, tossing it aside. "So yeah, I was scared of saying that, but I'm definitely falling for you, Andrew Rook. Falling in love with you. That's why I was so deep in thought the other morning. You didn't do anything to make me upset or angry. I just was worried about how to tell you." "Piper, Why would you be worried?" Andy said with a kind smile. "You've got so many beautiful women here, Andy," she said, gesturing back to the house. "I mean, shit, you've got Sarah Fucking Washington with her arm around you right now! I know I'm fit, but I'm not beautiful like she and Em are." At that, he raised a single finger, pointing at her. "How dare you," he said, his tone evening a little bit. "You are fucking stunning, I mean beautiful like you cannot even imagine and I do not want to hear you saying you're not beautiful ever again, okay? Because whatever dumb ass boyfriend or athlete you met who said you weren't pretty was the biggest fucking moron you ever met, and you shouldn't give whatever that prick said another thought ever again. Tell her I'm right, Sarah," he said with a soft laugh, shaking his head. "Yep yep yep," Sarah said with a giggle. "Stop being fucking stupid because you're not just pretty, you're fucking hot, and every girl in this house who likes girls thinks so. Shit, I heard Katie telling Jenny that if she wanted to give her a hall pass for her birthday, she'd want to use it on you over all the other girls in the house." Piper giggled, shaking her head, her dark hair covering her eyes for a minute. "You're fucking lying, Sarah." "Cross my fucking heart, swear to fucking God, may she strike me the fuck down if I'm lying. Katie thinks you're the hottest bitch in the house, so you need to shut the fuck up about saying you aren't fucking pretty because that's the stupidest fucking thing anyone's said today, and people talk, like, the worst amount of shit in this house when they think people aren't listening," Sarah said, rolling her eyes, as if she found the whole thing hilariously sad. "Well, that's something I wouldn't have believed if you hadn't told me," Piper replied with a smile. "And I was talking about us dancing around each other, Andy, and I want to apologize for that. I know we've had a handful of encounters, but I've been, guarded, and I'm sorry for how guarded I've been emotionally. I think maybe I was a little hurt that you didn't want to bring Brooke into this house, even though I know you said you thought she'd be a better match with Xander. I thought maybe that was a polite way of you trying to duck out of meeting her,” She looked down at her feet. "I feel a bit guilty about that right now, having spent a bunch of the evening talking with her. I have known that girl almost half a de

In this episode, Norwegian artist and director Morten Traavik and cultural mediator Sun Kim discuss their new documentary “North South Man Woman.” The film explores the emotional complexities of North Korean defectors trying to build lives — and relationships — in South Korea, with a special focus on matchmaking between DPRK women and ROK men. Traavik and Kim reflect on the documentary's five-year production process, the personal journeys of their protagonists and how issues of cultural identity, trauma, gender roles and social integration shape life after defection. They also unpack how the film balances moments of lightness and pain, and how storytelling can illuminate the human costs of geopolitical division. Norwegian artist and director Morten Traavik has undertaken several provocative and boundary-pushing art and film projects involving North Korea. His work often explores themes of cultural exchange, propaganda and the role of art in politically charged environments. He previously appeared on epsiode 103 of the podcast.  His collaborator Sun Kim is a Korean American and Belgian producer and cultural mediator for a number of Morten's exchanges with North Korean authorities for over a decade.  About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists. NK News subscribers can listen to this and other exclusive episodes from their preferred podcast player by accessing the private podcast feed. For more detailed instructions, please see the step-by-step guide at nknews.org/private-feed.

Join Chase and Courn as we close out pride month to chat about our own queer experiences, terminology, and the connection between trans and disability liberation all year round!Watch on Youtube! Instagram: @neurotakespod Contact us: Hello@neurotakespod.comEpisode Transcripts: www.neurotakespod.com

This week Jun and Daniel conclude their three-part series commemorating their 100th episode milestone by reflecting on episodes 67-99 of their podcast journey. They explore the evolution of their show from deep cultural discussions to more structured formats including regular news episodes, listener comment segments, and media reviews. The hosts discuss memorable episodes covering topics like Korean food debates (Jjik or Treat), MBTI personality types and their cultural significance in Korea, Korean cinema through films like Lady Vengeance, and various cultural phenomena from Korean masculinity terminology to strawberry quality comparisons between countries. They also reflect on how their podcast found its groove through consistent episode formats and regular guest appearances, making content creation more sustainable while maintaining freshness.If you're interested in understanding how a podcast evolves over time, learning about the cultural significance of personality typing in Korean society, exploring Korean food debates that reveal deeper cultural identity patterns, or hearing nostalgic reflections on two years of cross-cultural conversations between Korea and America, tune in to hear Daniel and Jun discuss all this and more! This episode also features their thoughts on podcast longevity, the importance of structured content formats, and appreciation for their growing community of listeners and Patreon supporters.A heartfelt thank you to all our incredible listeners for joining us on this amazing journey through 100 episodes! From our very first recording with just one microphone between us to this milestone moment, your support, thoughtful engagement, and wonderful comments in our Discord community have truly made this podcast what it is today. Whether you've been with us since episode one or just discovered us recently, knowing that you're out there listening, learning, and sharing in these cross-cultural conversations has meant the world to us. We'll be taking a temporary summer break to recharge and plan for the next chapter of our conversations. Until we meet again!Support the showAs a reminder, we record one episode a week in-person from Seoul, South Korea. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, and we're so excited to have you following us on this journey!Support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/user?u=99211862Follow us on socials: https://www.instagram.com/koreanamericanpodcast/https://twitter.com/korampodcasthttps://www.tiktok.com/@koreanamericanpodcastQuestions/Comments/Feedback? Email us at: koreanamericanpodcast@gmail.com

The director Celine Song won over audiences and critics alike with her first feature film, “Past Lives,” the semi-autobiographical tale of a married Korean American woman meeting up with her former childhood sweetheart. Now Song is back with another story about love called “The Materialists.” This time the main character is a matchmaker, a job that Song did briefly in her early 20s.Today on the show, Song reads Louise Rafkin's Modern Love essay “My View From the Margins,” about a relationship columnist who can't figure out love in her own life. And Song tells us how neither falling in love at age 24 nor making a career of writing about love has brought her any closer to understanding it. “It's the one thing that makes me feel like a fool,” Song says.Here's how to submit a Modern Love essay to The New York Times.Here's how to submit a Tiny Love Story. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Today we talk about our hormonal health and periods! We discuss the process of going off a long-term birth control and getting reintroduced to the hormonal cycle. We talk about how to work with the different phases of the cycle and changes we notice in our body and mood. We also share what we personally like to do during our periods.Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

This week Jun and Daniel continue their milestone celebration by tackling episodes 34-66 in the second part of their three-part series honoring 100 episodes. From exploring the N-Po Generation's societal pressures to diving deep into Korean concepts like jeong and han, our hosts reflect on their middle third of episodes that covered some of their most meaningful cultural discussions. They revisit topics ranging from the unique Korean rental system to daily life observations, guest interviews with former coworkers and visitors, and media reviews of trending K-dramas and films. The conversation spans cultural phenomena like sports day (운동회), hygiene differences, food debates, and the evolution of Korean-American identity, while the hosts note how this period represented their "sweet spot" with deeper guest perspectives and more challenging topics.If you're interested in hearing Daniel and Jun's reflections on covering major Korean cultural concepts, their experiences with viral social media content and reaching #1 on Korean podcast charts, insights into the evolution of their episode formats, or simply enjoying their nostalgic journey through episodes covering everything from trending words to Netflix shows, tune in to hear them discuss all this and more! This episode also features discussions about their growth during this golden era of the podcast, memorable interactions with listeners, and how their understanding of Korean culture deepened.Support the showAs a reminder, we record one episode a week in-person from Seoul, South Korea. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, and we're so excited to have you following us on this journey!Support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/user?u=99211862Follow us on socials: https://www.instagram.com/koreanamericanpodcast/https://twitter.com/korampodcasthttps://www.tiktok.com/@koreanamericanpodcastQuestions/Comments/Feedback? Email us at: koreanamericanpodcast@gmail.com

It is a pleasure to welcome Maya Kuriel as a guest to The Jake's Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast.  Born and raised in Seattle and now based in Los Angeles, Maya is a first-generation Korean American artist redefining the landscape of pop music. She's a sonic architect crafting a world where eerie synths, raw emotion, and grungy production collide. Maya embraces the underrepresented, carving out a space for Asian voices in a genre that's long overdue for a shake-up. Her music drips with moody textures and cinematic tension, luring listeners into a hypnotic haze of haunting melodies and pulsating beats.  Since her debut in 2020, Maya has amassed over 2.5 million streams across all platforms, captivating audiences worldwide with her powerful vocal melodies and introspective lyrics. With a voice that floats between ethereal beauty and unfiltered grit, she's the storm brewing on the edge of pop's horizon—one that refuses to be ignored.  Her diverse discography has attracted the attention of Stardust, Ones to Watch, and Medium.In March 2023, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Songwriting and Music Production from the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. With her degree in hand, Maya is poised to take her career to the next level.   On this episode of The Jake's Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Maya Kuriel spoke about the stories behind some of her songs, including “Dead Weight,” “Bittersweet,” and her latest single, “Alibi,” and her dream collaborators.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.

In this interview, I chat with Renée Ahdieh about Park Avenue, crafting the Park siblings, exploring the Korean American immigrant experience, writing her first adult novel and how it differed from writing YA, the symbolism of the Birkin bag for Jia, the story of her stunning cover, and much more. Renée's recommended reads are: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean Looking for some great summer reads? Check out my printable 18-page Summer Reading Guide  ⁠here⁠⁠⁠ with over 60 new titles vetted by me that will provide great entertainment this summer - books you will not see on other guides. I also include mystery series recommendations, new releases in a next-in-the-series section and fiction and nonfiction pairings. Donate to the podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠on Venmo⁠⁠. Want to know which new titles are publishing in June - October of 2025? Check out our fourth ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Literary Lookbook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠which contains a comprehensive but not exhaustive list all in one place so you can plan ahead.     Park Avenue⁠⁠ can be purchased at my Bookshop storefront.  Looking for something new to read? Here is my monthly ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buzz Reads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ column with five new recommendations each month. Link to my article about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠older protagonists in fiction⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.     Connect with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Jun and Daniel celebrate reaching their 100th episode milestone by embarking on a comprehensive journey through their podcast's first 33 episodes. From their humble pilot episode recorded with a single microphone to exploring major cultural topics like food, healthcare, education, and social relationships, our hosts reflect on their evolution as podcasters and their deepening understanding of Korean and American cultures. They share nostalgic memories of their early recordings, discuss how their perspectives have changed over two years of living in Korea, and highlight key revelations and takeaways from each episode. The conversation also includes updates from recent listener visits, including a thoughtful Portuguese couple who brought gifts and sparked discussions about colonization, slavery, and European cultural sophistication.If you're interested in hearing Daniel and Jun's personal reflections on their podcasting journey, learning which episodes stood out most to them, understanding how their cultural perspectives have evolved since starting the show, or simply enjoying a nostalgic trip through topics ranging from Korean pizza and wedding culture to beauty standards and workplace dynamics, tune in to hear them discuss all this and more! This episode also features discussions about their early technical challenges, memorable guest interactions, viral social media moments, and the unexpected ways this podcast has helped them track the passage of time while living abroad.Support the showAs a reminder, we record one episode a week in-person from Seoul, South Korea. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, and we're so excited to have you following us on this journey!Support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/user?u=99211862Follow us on socials: https://www.instagram.com/koreanamericanpodcast/https://twitter.com/korampodcasthttps://www.tiktok.com/@koreanamericanpodcastQuestions/Comments/Feedback? Email us at: koreanamericanpodcast@gmail.com

From reminiscing on childhood games and iconic franchises to problematic political ideologies, Chase and Courn are chatting about nostalgia this week! Were things actually better?Instagram: @neurotakespod Contact us: Hello@neurotakespod.comEpisode Transcripts: www.neurotakespod.com

For our final episode of the season, we're covering a Korean-American superstar. Starting out on The Walking Dead, Steven Yeun has gone from strength to strength on both sides of the Pacific. He's made indie action horrors like Joe Lynch's Mayhem, while also collaborating with South Korean auteurs like Bong Joon-ho on Okja and Mickey 17 and Lee Chang-dong on Burning. Yeun has transitioned easily between film and TV with roles in the Prime Video animated superhero show Invincible and on Netflix's series Beef. The actor was Oscar-nominated for his role in 2020's Minari and has consistently worked with interesting directors, such as Jordan Peele on Nope and Boots Riley on Sorry to Bother You. Andrew Twitter: @Andrew_Carroll0 Stephen Twitter: @StephenPorzio I Know That Face Twitter: @IKnowThatFaceP1 / Instagram: @iknowthatface / Facebook: @iknowthatfacepod Edited by Andrew Carroll and Stephen Porzio Intro and Outro Music: No Boundaries (motorik groove) by Keshco. Licence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about how we balance our personal independence with our romantic relationships! We chat about our ideal balance of solo time vs. time with our partners. We also talk about signs that alert us that we need more independence when in a relationship.Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

he first major wave of Koreans to the United States was in 1903. Later, thousands of Koreans fled the country to escape famine and political turmoil. This is just the beginning of over 100 years of migration of the Korean diaspora to places like the U.S., China, South America and more. Reset gets a brief history on Korean migration, activism and organizing in the Chicago area and beyond with the executive director of the HANA Center Danae Kovak, executive director of the Asian American Advancing Justice Chicago Grace Pai, and associate professor of Asian American History at Northwestern Ji-Yion Yuh, author of the book “Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Korean Military Brides in America.” For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

May 28, 2025 - Young adult literature is rapidly becoming one of the most popular genres in publishing today. Also increasingly visible are YA novels featuring Asian American and Pacific Islander characters at the forefront, providing insight into the expectations and identity issues many members of the AAPI community experience and offering a unique perspective on these universal themes. Catherine Hong will moderate a discussion between YA authors Claire Ahn and Kat Cho about their latest books, the growing popularity of YA novels with Korean and Korean-American characters, and the shifting views surrounding Asian-American YA novels among both readers and the publishing industry. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/literature/1998-writing-ya-novels-with-claire-ahn-and-kat-cho

In today’s deepdive, a profile of the Korean American professor who helped create the Asian American history curriculum taught in Illinois public schools.

Dr. Jeffrey Soo Kim is an accomplished educator with over 23 years of experience in schools, having served as an instructional coach, administrator, civic lead, teacher educator, and curriculum author. He created the first high school Korean American Studies course for Anaheim Union High School District and currently teaches future education leaders as an adjunct professor at CSU Fullerton and Vanguard University. A National Board Certified Teacher, Dr. Kim earned his doctorate from USC while working full-time in education. His civic and educational contributions have earned him several honors, including the 2022 Roy Erickson Civic Education Leadership Award, the 2023 Outstanding Ethnic Studies Community Partner Award, and recognition on the City of Irvine Wall of Recognition in 2024. He is a board member of the Irvine Unified School District and founder of the EdFamily YouTube Channel, which empowers students to discover their strengths and use them for good. He and his wife, Dr. Stephanie Kim of Saddleback Church, have five third-generation Korean American children.

From discussing their complicated relationships with food as mixed AAPI folks to dealing with sensory issues and cooking struggles as AuDHD folks, it's all about food this week!PS- if you love the podcast and wanna show support, we'd really appreciate a 5-star review and let us know your favorite episode!

Today we chat about our latest dreams and ambitions and explore how they have changed over the years. We chat about the various pressures around dreams, whether it's having The Dream or comparing our dreams to what we see on LinkedIn or those around us. We discuss ways to keep the D&A (dreams & ambitions) alive in the day to day!Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

R. O. Kwon is the author of the two best selling books —The Incendiaries and Exhibit, the second of which received a New York Times Editors' Choice award. Kwon's writing has appeared in The New York Times, New Yorker, Time, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, and beyond — often writing about abortion rights, being childfree, as well as her identities as an Asian American and queer woman. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States. You can find more info on ordering her books here.We have two long weekend trips to:Mexico City Weekend 1: Oct 9 - 12Mexico City Weekend 2: Oct. 16 - 19 (GIRLS TRIP)The Dinky Patreon is officially live! Join now to support the show + gain access to weekly, ad-free episodes, chat with us & other childfree pals in the Dinky Discord, join our virtual book club, and more! Dinky is now on Substack — free of charge! Subscribe now to access exclusive content, unhinged memes, guest articles, and stay up to date on the podcast. Wanna connect with us on social media? You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and BlueSky at @dinkypod. Follow us on YouTube.If you have a question or comment, email us at dinky@dinkypod.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dinky--5953015/support.

What happens when you reach the top—and realize it's not what you wanted? Angela Hwang had the résumé, the accolades, and the paycheck, but behind the scenes, her health was deteriorating and her happiness was nowhere to be found. In this honest and eye-opening episode, Angela shares how a health scare, motherhood, and burnout collided to spark a total life reset. If you've ever wondered whether there's more to life than climbing the next rung, this conversation is for you.Guest Bio Angela Hwang has more than 18 years of experience in marketing and business development. Angela has helped to raise more than $150M in direct investments for real estate fund managers since 2020 and contributed to significant revenue growth for various tech startups since 2016. She has a wide array of experience across multiple industries including financial services, real estate, legal and technology. In 2021, Angela was selected as one of 40 under 40 by Silicon Valley Business Journal for her marketing leadership. Angela graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Mass Communications and a B.A. in Sociology and earned her M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.Turning 40 and unlearning the American DreamAngela Hwang checked every box on the “successful life” checklist her parents handed her, and then realized none of it was making her happy. Born in South Korea and raised in the U.S., Angela spent decades chasing stability, prestige, and approval—especially from her parents, who had sacrificed everything for the American Dream. She climbed through the corporate ranks, earned accolades like Silicon Valley's 40 Under 40, and reached the coveted C-suite. But behind the scenes, she was unraveling. It wasn't until a terrifying health scare and the sobering clarity of new motherhood that Angela finally began to question the life she had built—and discovered the strength to redefine it.Episode Highlights:Angela's upbringing as a first-generation Korean-American and internalizing a success script rooted in her parents' fear, thus the immense pressure to achieve “safe” success.Climbing the corporate ladder—and the personal cost of doing so while hiding burnout and physical symptoms.The turning point: how becoming a mother and experiencing a health crisis forced Angela to reevaluate her priorities.Breaking generational narratives around work, safety, and entrepreneurship.The shift from external validation (titles, salaries, luxury goods) to internal fulfillment and presence.Selling off her designer wardrobe, trading Silicon Valley hustle for quiet comfort—and finding her true self in the process.How sleep, stillness, and finally listening to her own voice laid the foundation for shedding her parents' fears and starting her own business.In this deeply honest conversation, Angela Hwang shares what it's like to reach the top of the ladder your parents built for you—and realize it's leaning against the wrong wall. Her story is an invitation to question the narratives we inherit, especially when they're rooted in fear, sacrifice, and survival. If you've ever wondered whose life you're really living, this episode will leave you thinking—and maybe even reimagining what your next chapter could be.If this episode resonated with you, please take a moment to rate, follow, and share The Big Four Oh with a friend who might need a little inspiration of their own.Guest ResourcesAngela is offering TBFO listeners a FREE Complementary Strategy SessionDo you have the Midlife Ick? Download Stephanie's guide to the Ick to diagnose whether you or someone you love is suffering from this insidious midlife malaise.

Scholar Dr. Anne Soon Choi has just written L.A. Coroner:Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood, the first-ever biography of Dr. Tsunetomi "Thomas" Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner of the County of Los Angeles from 1967 to 1982. Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Noguchi conducted autopsies on some of the most high profile and controversial figures in American history, including Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate and other victims of the Manson Family, Janis Joplin, John Belushi, and Natalie Wood. His elaborate press conferences, which often generated more controversy than they did answers, catapulted him into the public eye and made him a celebrity in his own right. He was the inspiration for the popular television drama Quincy, M.E. starring Jack Klugman, and penned the bestselling 1983 book Coroner.

May 15, 2025 - There are many Korean American voices within food media nowadays, and many more women on editorial mastheads. But, what is it like to navigate this system of reporting and contributing to food culture as a Korean-American woman? What are the challenges, and what difference do they make in the industry? Chef and writer Caroline Choe sits down with three women with longstanding careers in the food editorial and media landscape–Christina Chaey, Myo Quinn, and Caroline Shin–to discuss the importance of diverse voices in food media, sharing their own experiences in their work, and what they hope will be the best way forward to allow for more voices and stories to be heard. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1990-women-in-food-media

Judy Joo is a classically trained chef, entrepreneur, and television personality whose unconventional journey spans engineering, Wall Street, and the world's top kitchens. She is an Iron Chef, cookbook author, and dynamic force in the food world, celebrated for modernizing and globalizing Korean cuisine.Judy is the founder of Seoul Bird, a Korean fast-casual fried chicken concept with locations in London, New York, Las Vegas, and beyond.Seoul Bird merges bold Korean street food flavors with the speed and scale of modern dining, combining Judy's culinary heritage and operational expertise.Before launching her restaurant empire, Judy trained at the French Culinary Institute, worked in Michelin-starred restaurants like The French Laundry and Gordon Ramsay's empire, and became a recognizable face on Food Network. Seoul Bird is expanding through a strategic mix of franchising and licensing, including high-traffic venues like Citi Field and Edinburgh Airport.Judy left Wall Street to pursue her passion for food, trading finance for the kitchen with zero expectations—just love for cooking.Her engineering and banking backgrounds continue to shape how she designs restaurants and runs operations at scale.As a Korean-American woman in male-dominated fields—finance, engineering, and restaurants—Judy forged ahead with “fearlessness or I just don't care” confidence.She believes “today's invention is tomorrow's tradition,” especially in defining authenticity in global cuisines like Korean fried chicken.Seoul Bird thrives in arenas and airports, offering high-volume, high-flavor experiences with a focus on simplicity, quality, and cultural storytelling.She emphasizes the power of brand building—through books, TV, and food—as key to her business success.Judy finds inspiration everywhere, from grocery store aisles to international travel, always absorbing and evolving her culinary creativity.She's proud to see Korean food embraced globally, transforming from a source of school-lunch embarrassment into a pop-culture phenomenon. QUOTES “I love creating experiences. I love creating meals. I love food. I love the language of food. It is a language of love for me.” (Judy)“I’m going to downgrade my life in every way possible and work weekends and evenings and much longer hours and get paid a fraction of what I was getting paid.” (Judy)“I remember hesitating. Like, which one do I want to do? I was like, oh, math and science is easy for me. I’ll go to engineering school.” (Judy)“If I want to be in these industries where I am the one and only minority, the one and only female, I don't care. I’m going to do it.” (Judy)“A restaurant is a business at the end of the day. You have to know cost control, maximize profits, and understand finance.” (Judy)“I know so many chefs who can't even get their way around an Excel spreadsheet.” (Judy)“Koreans are obsessed with fried chicken. Obsessed. Obsessed.” (Judy)“Today's invention is tomorrow's tradition. Korean fried chicken came from war and evolved. Is it authentic? I think so.” (Judy)“I've gone from being embarrassed about my lunchbox to everybody spamming me, asking, ‘What are they eating? What are they drinking?'” (Judy)“As long as the DNA is there—that makes it Korean.” (Judy)“Television cheffing is much easier. You’re in a nice air-conditioned studio versus burning yourself and dealing with employees.” (Judy)“Every single time I’m in a grocery store, whenever I travel, you’re constantly seeing new things. That’s a huge source of inspiration.” (Judy) 

Korean-American writer is a surgeon and poet and combines science and art as a daily practice. From a harsh life, a child, during the Korean war, he now heals others.

Episode Summary: In this week's episode of your favorite Korean Adoptee podcast, the Janchi Boys sit down and react to the news of South Korea admitting to adoption fraud. It's not a light topic, but it is the Janchi Show so there's still a fair amount of laughs!Later, we get into HBAF Flavored Popcorn! Can someone tell us what the heck a “New York Cheeseburger” is?!Resources:The New York Times articleReddit Post with NYT article text (in comment)---// Support the Show!Online at janchishow.com / @janchishowSupport the show at janchishow.com/supportJoin our Facebook Group! janchishow.com/afterpartyWatch our Youtube VideosLeave a voicemail! 972-677-8867Write us a note: janchishow@gmail.comThe Janchi Show Quick BioThe Janchi Show focuses on exploring intersectional identities and current events through the lens of adoption, race, lived experience and more. Sometimes we have guests, and sometimes it's just the three of us. Either way, it's always a janchi!// Meet the Janchi Boys!Nathan NowackNathan (he/him) is a transracial Korean American adoptee who was born in Seoul in the 1970s. He was adopted at the age of 5 months old and raised in a small town in Oklahoma along with a non-biological Korean adopted sister.  After going to college in Colorado he later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a digital media career and eventually started 2 photography companies.  He loves spending time with his wife and 3 kids, playing golf, and collecting Lego. He is in reunion with his biological family as the youngest of 7 and has been in contact since 2015.  He currently serves on the Advisory Council for KAAN and helps with the planning of their annual adoptee conference.  In 2021, Nathan and his family moved back to Colorado to be closer to family and start a new chapter in their lives.  Connect with Nathan!Website: http://www.coverve.comInstagram: http://instagram.com/nnowackPatrick ArmstrongPatrick Armstrong (he/him) is a transracial Korean American adoptee, podcaster, speaker, and community facilitator. He is one of the hosts of the Janchi Show, a podcast that explores and celebrates the experiences and stories of Korean adoptees everywhere. He also is host of Conversation Piece with Patrick Armstrong, a podcast where he discusses the missing pieces of the conversations we're already having. He is a cofounder of the Asian Adoptees of Indiana, a group dedicated to creating a safe, engaging community for all Asian adoptees who need it. He is currently based in Indianapolis with his wife and cat. Connect with Patrick!Website: http://patrickintheworld.meLinkedIn: http://linkedin/in/patrickintheworldInstagram: http://instagram.com/patrickintheworldK.J. Roelke (@kjroelke)KJ (he/him) was adopted from Daegu and raised in Dallas, Texas with his two biological, older siblings and his younger sister, adopted from Russia. After spending a decade in the Midwest for college and career, he and his wife are back in Dallas and living large! He has been on his journey of discovery since 2015 and spends his days as a web developer for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.Connect with K.J.!Website: https://kjroelke.online/LinkedIn: https://linkedin/in/kjroelkeInstagram: https://instagram.com/kjroelke// Listen to/Watch The Janchi Show on all major platforms:Apple: http://janchishow.com/appleSpotify: http://janchishow.com/spotifyYoutube: http://janchishow.com/youtubeGratitude & CreditsMichelle Nam for our logo and brandingJerry Won for bring us togetherThis show is created and produced by Patrick, Nathan and KJ and is the sole property of the Janchi Show, LLC.

Send us a text“The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.” - Ralph Waldo EmersonYou ever feel like you're stuck between worlds?Too Asian for America, but too American for your Asian family?Like your face tells one story, but your heart is somewhere else entirely?I know that feeling. If you're part of the Asian diaspora — whether you grew up in NYC, Sydney, London, or somewhere in the Midwest — you've probably felt it too. Not quite at home in your skin. Not quite at peace with your place.But what if I told you that a Roman emperor from 2,000 years ago already understood this struggle — and had answers for it?In this episode, I share how Marcus Aurelius' Meditations — the personal journal of one of history's greatest philosopher-kings — offers timeless wisdom for the modern identity crisis. Especially for Asian diaspora youth navigating inherited trauma, cultural confusion, and feelings of not belonging.Marcus ruled an empire, buried children, endured plagues, and still chose humility, compassion, and self-discipline. And through it all, he came back to this:Live in accordance with Nature. Do your duty. Be good. Do good. That's enough.As members of the diaspora, we've inherited so much — the good, the bad, the beautiful, the broken. But we don't have to throw away our heritage to belong. We don't have to hide our pain to be strong. We get to shape our identity with purpose and virtue.Whether you're lost, angry, disconnected, or searching — this is for you.TL;DR - Delve into the rabbit hole of Stoic philosophy so it can change your life and help you reframe your Asian identity (struggle) in a positive meaningful way. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO START:Why You Need to Read Meditations by Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius - Meditations narrated by Vox StoicaABSOLUTE GOLDEN LECTURE: Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: The Stoic IdealSupport the show

Welcome to Season 5, Episode 19! Health and wellbeing are so important to people who want to live a more productive and fulfilling life. So it's such a thrill that today's guest is Michelle Jungmin Bang who is an award-winning eco-entrepreneur, Chivas Venture Social Impact Fellow, and Harvard Business School graduate who spent 16 years living in Asia as a Korean-American from New York City. She is the author of the recently published Sun & Ssukgat, a wellness guide covering her research, interviews, and personal eco-conscious journey in writing about centuries-old well-being traditions she learned about during her time throughout Asia in general and Korea specifically. Ssukgat, or Chrysanthemum greens, are treasured in Korean culture for their healing abilities. In our conversation, Michelle shares some of the healthy habits of Koreans and Asians that are helping them not just live longer, but thrive in the years that many would consider more advanced. She also talks about her own personal journey, some tips for helping us all be more mindful and slow down, and so many other things. Sun & Ssukgat is a great book that's a blend of memoir, recipes, self-help, research, and more. You can find places to buy Sun & Ssukgat on Michelle's website. You can also follow Michelle on Instagram or subscribe to her Substack.  If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or our links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com.

Even though New Jersey freshman Senator Andy Kim has already served three terms in the House of Representatives, he still primarily sees himself as a life-long public servant rather than a politician. Prior to becoming a member of Congress, Kim served at USAID, the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan as an advisor to Generals Petraeus and Allen. The proud son of South Korean immigrants, Senator Kim also has the distinction of being the first Asian American that New Jersey has elected to the Senate, and the first American of Korean ancestry to be a senator. Many people in the world first came to know about him when a photo of him cleaning up the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, went viral.

In this week's Celebrate Your Story, I'm thrilled to hand the mic to my colleague, MiChaela Barker, for a conversation with Hali Lee, a remarkable philanthropist, author, and the founder of the Asian Women Giving Circle. Through her dynamic storytelling and rich cultural perspective, Hali shares how growing up as a Korean American in Kansas City and learning from generations of strong women shaped her commitment to community, generosity, and justice. Hali Lee is a seasoned nonprofit leader and a pioneer in the giving circle movement. As the founder of the Asian Women Giving Circle, she has helped raise and distribute over $1.5 million to support Asian American women, girls, and gender-expansive artists in New York City. Her debut book, The Big We, published by Sweet July Books, challenges top-down philanthropy and invites readers to embrace collective care, mutual aid, and everyday activism. Hali and MiChaela discuss the power of giving circles, the legacy of kitchen-table activism, and the urgent need to shift from a mindset of “me” to “we.” From her grandmother's quiet resistance in colonial Korea to her mother-in-law flipping a local election at 93, Hali draws a powerful throughline between personal story and civic impact. She reminds us that meaningful change doesn't require wealth or fame; it just requires community, intention, and the courage to act.

Today our friend Jessica joins us to talk about one of our favorite pastimes…karaoke! We discuss the optimal karaoke set-up and dissect what draws us in. We dive into hidden etiquette and tips and tricks we've learned over the years to curate a *perfect* karaoke session. We also confess our personal karaoke sins!Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

This week's guest on this special edition Bruce Lee Foundation takeover of the Bruce Lee Podcast for AANHPI and Mental Health Awareness month is chef and entrepreneur Judy Joo! Judy Joo is a Korean-American chef, author, and TV personality whose path to culinary success took a sharp left turn from Wall Street to the world's finest kitchens. From an engineering degree at Columbia to becoming the only female Iron Chef UK, Judy has built a career rooted in bold decisions, fearless creativity, and a deep love for the flavors of her heritage. Shannon kicks off this May season celebrating her friend Judy's powerful story of reinvention and perseverance. Together they talk about the importance of work ethic, kindness, celebrating one's culture, mentorship of the next generation, and following your heart as Judy prepares to launch her newest cookbook, K-Quick: Korean Food in 30 Minutes or Less (available May 6, 2025). And listen in as Shannon reveals a bucket list wish of her own around food! Make sure to catch Judy doing her thing right now as a judge on the new Food Network show House of Knives or visit one of her wildly popular restaurants Seoul Bird to get down with some Korean fried chicken at several locations and stadiums around the world. Or maybe you need to follow Judy to discover what disco fries are! Whatever the case, sit back and enjoy this conversation with the inspiring Judy Joo as we celebrate the importance of representation and wellbeing this May on the Bruce Lee Podcast BLF edition! Show notes and more episodes at Brucelee.com/Podcast  Connect with Judy…. Get Judy's new book:  K-Quick: Korean Food in 30 Minutes or Less  – Available: May 6, 2025. See Judy on Food Network's House of Knives Website: https://www.judyjoo.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judyjoochef/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudyJooChef/ X: https://twitter.com/judyjoochef

Our guest for today's podcast is Sandor Hau, Managing Director and President of Charlesbank Credit. Sandor oversees the firm's opportunistic Credit team and investing strategy.  Sandor joined Charlesbank in 2016 from Nomura Securities, where he was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Credit and Special Situations. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Head of Credit Investing and Private Equity within the principal strategies group.   Sandor was born and grew up in rural Lancaster, PA, and is a big Philadelphia sports fan. He currently lives in Rye, NY, and is actively involved with community and sports activities with his four kids. He likes running, basketball and racquet sports. He is actively involved with the Korean American community as co–chairman of The Korea Finance Society. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Sandor Hau.

Today on Vermont Edition, the celebrated cartoonist Harry Bliss discusses his new graphic memoir, You Can Never Die. It's about his life, his relationship with his dog Penny, and his grief over her death. We'll learn about his successful cartooning career with the New Yorker and collaborating with the comedian Steve Martin.Plus: April is National Poetry Month. For the final installment of our April poetry series, we'll talk with Sarah Audsley of Johnson. Her poetry often reflects her experiences as a Korean American adoptee living in Vermont.

Jimmy sat down with famed Sesame Street puppeteer Kathleen Kim! Kathleen is the voice/puppeteer for the first Asian-American puppet on Sesame Street, Ji-young. They talked about how she got into puppetry, her early love of muppets, working with Awkwafina, how she finds her character voices, growing up Korean-American, fave foods, K-pop and so much more! A delightful, fun and laid back conversation. Thanks to Kathy for taking the time!  Also, get a hold of us! Thanks for listening!  

Today we sit down and talk about big fears that we have - from heights, to natural disasters, airplane turbulence, and more! We chat through things make our fears better or worse. We also discuss a couple of conspiracy theories *puts on tinfoil hat* and get a little silly with it!Support the showFollow us on social media @eatyourcrustpod

Sarah Ahn is America's Test Kitchen's social media manager and the creator of the Ahnest Kitchen website (www.ahnestkitchen.com). She records her experiences on Instagram and Tik Tok of living with her Korean immgrant parents, chronicling her mother's cooking, grocery shopping trips, and more. Many of Sarah's posts have gone viral with 10+ million views and they have sold grocery stores out of product. She has been featured on NBC News, ABC News, Yahoo News, and Good Morning America.  Nam Soon Ahn, her mother, is a former restauranteur whose culinary wisdom and recipes from the foundation of Sarah's book Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom & 100 Family Recipes. Together, they honor their heritage with love, flavor, and authenticity. You can follow Sarah @ahnestkitchen.