Podcasts about Popo

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight's show is June 19th. We are all connected. We are talking with Asian and Asian American Children's book authors. PowerLeeGirls host Miko Lee talks with Chi Thai and Livia Blackburne about the power of storytelling, maternal heritage, generational trauma, and much more. Title:  We Are All Connected Show Transcripts Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   Ayame Keane-Lee: [00:01:17] Welcome to Apex Express. Tonight's show is June 19th. We are all connected. We are talking with Asian and Asian American Children's book authors. PowerLeeGirls host Miko Lee talks with Chi Thai and Livia Blackburne about the power of storytelling, maternal heritage, generational trauma, and much more. First, we want to start by wishing everyone a happy Juneteenth, Juneteenth commemorates, an end to slavery and the emancipation of Black Americans after the Civil War. In 1865, 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally learned of their freedom. Juneteenth marks the day the last enslaved people learned of their freedom. Though outright slavery became illegal, the systematic oppression of African Americans continues to this day. We see that show up in almost every aspect of American culture, from the high rate of infant mortality to the over punishing of Black children in schools, to police brutality, to incarceration. We must continue to recognize the importance of championing Black lives and lifting up Black voices. We are all connected. June 19th is also an important day in Asian American history. In 1982 in Detroit, Vincent Chin was at a bar celebrating his bachelor party prior to his wedding the next day. Ronald Ebens, a white auto worker, and his stepson Michael Nitz taunted Vincent with racial epithets. They thought he was Japanese and were angry about the Japanese rise in the auto industry. When Vincent left the bar later, the two men attacked and killed Vincent with a baseball bat. He was 27 years old. Ronald Ebens never did time for this murder. Ronald Ebens is 85 years old now. Ebens not only skirted prosecution, he has used bankruptcy and homesteading laws in Nevada to avoid a wrongful death civil suit settlement. Ordered by the court in 1987 to pay $1.5 million to Chin's family, the Chin estate has received nothing. Lily Chin, Vincent's mom could have stayed silent about the racist attack on her son. Instead she spoke out. She took a courageous stance to highlight this most painful moment in her life. In doing so, she helped ignite a new generation of Asian American activists working for civil rights and social justice. We find ourselves in a new wave of activism as our communities band together to work against the injustices of the current regime. And what does this have to do with children's books? It is all connected. We highlight children's books by Asian and Asian American authors because we want our next generation of children to know and appreciate their own heritage. We want them to proudly represent who they are so that they can work in solidarity with other peoples. Our struggle is interwoven. As Grace Lee Boggs said, “History is a story not only of the past, but of the future.” Thank you for joining us on apex express. Enjoy the show.   Miko Lee: [00:04:24] First off. Let's take a listen to one of Byron Au Young's compositions called “Know Your Rights” This is part of the trilogy of the Activist Songbook. This multi-lingual rap, give steps to know what to do when ICE officers come to your door.    MUSIC   That was “Know Your Rights” performed by Jason Chu with lyrics by Aaron Jeffries and composed by Byron Au Yong Welcome, Chi Thai to Apex Express.    Chi Thai: [00:07:13] Hello. I'm really happy to be joining you, Miko.  Miko Lee: [00:07:16] I'm really happy to meet you and learn about you as an artist, as a filmmaker, as a children's book author. And I wanna first start with a personal question, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Chi Thai: [00:07:30] Ooh, what a great question. You know what? I love being asked stuff that hasn't been asked kind of before. I mean, there's a kinda really kinda natural answer to that, which is, you know, family are my people. Of course. 100%. And certainly, you know, the reason why I'm talking to you today, you know, in regard to the, to the book, you know, it's about my family's journey. But I found, and I don't know if this is. Somewhat to do with, you know, being a child of two cultures and you know, being a child of the diaspora that you really have to kind of find your own family too. 'cause I suppose I grew up feeling, I didn't quite relate to maybe my parents in a way that, you know, you normally would if you weren't part of the diaspora. And I felt estranged from my birth country and I didn't really feel like British either a lot of the time. So in terms of like, who are my people? I've gathered those people as I've kind of grown up and it's, it's a kind of strange feeling too. I feel like it's taken me a really long to grow up and to figure out who I am. And I suppose that's why, you know, the people that I have a really, a lot of people that have come, kinda later in my life, I actually have no friends in my childhood as an example of that. I've had to kind of find these people as I've grown up, but it's taken me a long time to grow up because growing up in the UK there wasn't any literature to read about what it was like to be Asian. And British, to be a refugee and things like that. So it just took me longer and I then, as a result, it just took me longer to find my tribe. but I have it now, but it's still work in progress. That was a very convoluted answer. I'm very sorry Miko.    Miko Lee: [00:09:15] No, it wasn't. No worries. It's fine. And what legacy do you carry with you?   Chi Thai: [00:09:19] Kind of an extension to that answer, I think when you're an artist, practicing your voice, figuring out your voice, can take a while. And I think I've only really started maybe the last like five to 10 years at the most really figured out what I want my legacy to be. The things I wanna talk about are really about s tories from the diaspora, certainly, and about community and healing. These are the things I think that are really important to me, especially when we talk about maybe coming from struggle. I don't feel it's enough to be an artist today and just talk about struggle. I want to talk about justice as well. And justice really is about healing, you know?    Miko Lee: [00:10:00] Oh, that's beautiful. Can you talk a little bit more about that healing and what that means to you and how that shows up in your work?    Chi Thai: [00:10:07] A couple years ago, no, not even that long ago, I produced a, a feature film. This is probably the best example for it, but I produced a feature film called Raging Grace, which we called it Horror with a small H and it. Basically took the story of what it was like to be, undocumented Filipina in the uk who was also a mother. And I think if that film had been made 10 years ago, it would just shown how hard her life was, and unrelentingly. So, and I think the reason why Raising Grace is so special is it goes beyond the trauma, it takes us to a place of justice, of being able to speak out for someone who has felt invisible, to be visible for someone who's not. Had a voice, to have a voice and to begin that kind of healing process of sticking up for herself, making a change transforming herself from maybe the good immigrant to the bad immigrant and things like that. I think that's a really great example and I think I read a really wonderful thing. It might have been in a Guardian article where we, so a lot of my work is around, inclusion representation of like diasporic stories. And I think when you have, when you exist in the poverty of like representation, I. the solution to that is plentitude. I think that Viet Thanh Nguyen probably said that, so I don't wanna take credit for it. He comes up with so many wonderful things, and that's a wonderful thing to be able to move from poverty, like to plentitude and that be the solution, is kinda really wonderful. So I enjoy being really prolific. I enjoy supporting artists to be able to do their work. So as a community, we can also be prolific and I wanna support, narratives that. Take us beyond a place of struggle and trauma to a place of like healing and justice and so forth.    Miko Lee: [00:11:57] Your work crosses so many genres. You were just mentioning how that film was kind of a horror film and, and then you've done these kind of dreamy animation pieces and then now this children's book. Do you select the genre and the format and the medium, or does it select you?   Chi Thai: [00:12:16] Oh, I think the story chooses it. I like 100% believe that. I just actually was thinking about this 'cause I was doing an interview on something else, people, often ask about the creative process and I, can only speak for my own. But usually when I get an idea for a story, the general shape of it comes almost like really well formed. There's a sense of a lready kinda what genre it'll be. There's a sense of the character, there's a sense of the journey and all these things. I felt the same about, writing The Endless Sea I knew it would be from the voice of a child. This probably sounds like my creative process is terrible, but it was just. This is how it was going to be. That kind of part was writing itself, or at least I feel that it'd been writing itself like that in my subconscious for many, many years before it kind of surfacing and writing. Like the writing bit is just the tip of the iceberg at the end of the day. there wasn't like a kind of decision about that. the story in that sense was quite intact. So I often feel like the story is demanding something about kind genre and for, for Raging Grace 'cause I've talked about this a lot, not just in listen to me, but other things. But we always said like if you are an an undocumented person, every breath you take is taken in a hostile environment. It's so natural for it to be a horror. So there's not a sense that you kinda decide that it's like that is the very reality of someone who's going, you know, that's their lived experience. And if you're going to represent that truthfully, it will be through the prism of horror. And I suppose that's how I think about genre. the story is kind of telling you what it needs to tell its emotional truth. and I felt that way, with The Endless Sea same thing with the Raging Grace, with Lullaby. And I think you talked about The Promise, I suppose I, with The Promise, which is an adaptation I had less choice about that because that was a book and it was a adapted into an animation. I've heard Nicola, who's the author of the book, talk about that and she talks about like the story coming to her in a dream and tiptoeing down her arm coming onto the page, she like describes it really beautifully. so maybe our processes are the same. It feels that way. there's not long deliberations. I mean, that's not to say the writing process isn't difficult. It is. But that, I've never found the, [genre] the difficulty or the bit that's required a lot of, I don't know soul searching with it.    Miko Lee: [00:14:28] So with that being said, how did Endless Sea your latest children's book? How did that tiptoe into your imagination?    Chi Thai: [00:14:36] This is a strange one because this is probably the closest thing to like, almost autobiographical work. What I can say is like, it's the true story o f how I and my family, which would've been at the time my mom and dad, my older sister, me, how we fled Vietnam after the fall of an Saigon. we actually left quite late we left in 1979 w hen things were tr were getting truly, truly, truly, quite terrible. And, this was very much a last resort. I think my parents would try to make things work, but realized that they couldn't. This journey that we took on these, boats that were made badly, made poorly, that many of which sank has become almost like the genesis story of our family. It's like it's a big, it has a long shadow, right? Ever since you know I, it is like the first story that I can remember. It's one of the few stories my mom would tell me again and again when we, when they see their old friends, it's something they talk about. So it's something that has happened to it to us, but it's such a big thing that it's just, echoed In my life growing up, as I've you know, got older and older, and the wonderful thing about having a story kinda live with you eventually it's in your blood and in your bones, but also if it's a thing that's kinda shared with you again and again, you actually build up this, there's something about the repetition of it, and then every time you hear it told from an uncle or a family friend or from your mom, a new little detail is embroidered that someone adds. So I've kinda lived with this story for 40 plus years and I've been collecting all these little things about it all this time and all that time it was, I think, kind of just writing itself, you know? You know, it was doing all that work before I actually put like pen to paper. Um, yeah.    Miko Lee: [00:16:31] Was there a catalyst or something that made you actually put the pen to paper?   Chi Thai: [00:16:36] That's really interesting. You know, I probably don't mind it is probably something really banal like. I think I probably wrote it during Covid and I had more time. Um, I think there are probably be some bigger forces in place. And you know what, I can tell you what it is actually if I'm, I'm forcing myself to think and examine a bit closer so when this is totally true. So I remember hearing the news about Viet Thanh Nguyen win winning the Pulitzer for The Sympathizer. And it made such a mark on me and I kind of felt, wow, someone from our community has achieved this incredible thing. And I thought, why? Why now? Like, and I was like, well, you know what? It's probably taken our community certain amount of time to come of age, to develop not just the abilities to write, to create, to make art, but also to have possibly the relationships or networks in place to be able to then make the art and get it out into the world. And I kind of felt when he was able to do that and came of age, I kind of felt there was going to be like other people from the kind of diasporic Vietnamese community that would also start to flourish. And that made me feel really good. About probably being a bit older than the average kind of artist, like making their, kinda like their pieces and everything and saying, you know what? My time can be now. It's okay. And I just find it just really inspiring that, you know our community was kind of growing, growing up, coming of age and being able to do these, these things And I kind of felt like it had given me the permission, I suppose the, the confidence to go, “Oh this story that I've been carrying my whole life, which I don't really see a version of out there I can write that and now I can write it and I'm the right person to write it.” And I had just done The Promise so I had a relationship with Walker. I was like, I have a, you know, a relationship with the publisher. I feel my writing is matured. Like I can do this. And so it was like a culmination and, you know, convergence of those things. And, but I do remember having that thought thinking, “This is a good time to be alive in our community 'cause we're actually able to make our art and get it out there now.” I, I felt it was like a real watershed moment really.   Miko Lee: [00:19:11] What made you decide to do it in this format as a Little Kid's Children's Illustrated book? We were talking earlier about how to, to me, this is the first more realistic version of a boat people experience in a very little kid's voice. What made you decide to do it in this style?    Chi Thai: [00:19:33] So interesting. At the same time, I was writing The Endless Sea. I was writing also the script for a short film, which is called Lullaby, which is takes an incident that happened on my boat but expresses it as a film, as a little kinda horror kinda drama, but a kid cannot watch that. It's like too terrifying. Um, and I wrote, you know, The Endless Sea at the same time. And again, I can't, it's really hard for me to articulate. I just knew it was gonna be a kid's book, like, and I knew it'd be written from the voice of a kid, and I didn't actually, can I say I didn't even ascribe a particular kind of value to that. It wasn't until I had started conversations with the publisher they're like, you know, we see like there's a really high, like this is really great that it's written in the voice of the kid. It somehow gives it something else. Something more is something kind of special. I didn't set out to like, overthink, like what was the most effective way to tell this story? I, I think I just told the story as honestly as I could, you know, with the words that I felt that, you know, I had in me to de, you know, to describe it. In the most authentic way to, to me. And like I say, at the same time, I knew, like I knew that was a kid's book. There was another part of that I wanted to express that was really important to me and that was survivor's guilt. But that I felt was like, that was a horror, so that was really not gonna be suitable for kids. So I was definitely thinking about lots of things to do with the same subject of the same time, but they were definitely being expressed in different ways. And again, Lullaby came to me very kind of quickly, almost fully formed. And I knew, you know, it would be a ghost story. I knew it would be the story of a mother and things like that. And I often maybe, you know, I should, I, I should interrogate more, but I kinda, I take these kinda. These ideas, which are quite well shaped and, and then I just like lean into them more and more and more. But they, the way they arrive it, I've kinda, I, I can see a lot of what is already about to unfold.   Miko Lee: [00:21:43] And do you still dream about that experience of being on the boat as a kid?    Chi Thai: [00:21:52] It's, it's a really difficult thing to explain because you know that that happened now so long ago, and I've probably heard the story thousands of times. I've watched all the terrible Hollywood movies, I've seen all the news clippings, I've watched all the archive. I've listened to, you know, people talk, and I have my own memories and I look at photographs and I have memories of looking at photographs. I feel like, you know, my memory is really unreliable, but what it is instead is it's this, this kind of, kind of tapestry of, you know, of the story of memories, of, you know, images as I grow up of hearing the story, like all coming together. One of the things I did when I wrote, I wrote The Endless Sea, is I then went back to my mom and I did a recorded interview with her 'cause I was really worried about how unreliable my memory might be. And I interviewed her and I asked a lot of questions and I said, and I, it was like, you know, in the way I would've just like listened to the story quite passively before this time I interviewed her and I asked a lot of questions about details and all sorts of things. 'cause I really wanted to be able to represent things, you know, as factually as I could. And that was kinda one of my kinda kind of fact checking kinda exercises I did 'cause I was, I was much quite worried about how unreliable my memory was about it all. And you know, what is, what is a memory of a memory of memory, like, you know, especially when it comes to thinking about that time on the boat and the feelings I had. Yeah. So, you know,    Miko Lee: [00:23:34] and you were so young also to    Chi Thai: [00:23:37] Totally 100%. And sometimes, I don't know, you know, is it a memory of a memory? Is it a dream of a dream?   Miko Lee: [00:23:44] Mm-hmm.    Chi Thai: [00:23:44] Or just some, yeah.   Miko Lee: [00:23:46] Was there anything that your mom said that surprised you?    Chi Thai: [00:23:50] Yeah. Um, she didn't realize how bad it was gonna be and she was like, “God, if it, I'd known how terrifying it was I dunno if I, we could have done it.” I think there's a certain amount of naivety involved and I suppose that surprised me. You know? 'cause we know already now how bad it was. Um, so things like that surprised me.    Miko Lee: [00:24:15] and your mom, the dedication of the book is to your mom. What does she think when she first read it?    Chi Thai: [00:24:22] I've got a funny story. My parents, you know, they, we left, they were in their early twenties and I think it was, you know, the escape was hard for them, but settling in new country was really hard for them. That's. That's been kind of their struggle. They had to work so hard, so many hours to kind of, you know, give us a great life. And, I think a lot of that meant they weren't people that could go out, enjoy, enjoy movies, look at art, read lots of literature and things like that. They're very, very simple, very working class. Simple life or working class kinda life. Very much all about, uh, the work. Um, and I remember when I had a, the publisher had made like a mockup of the book and I gave it to my mum to read 'cause I wanted her to be happy about it too, and she's probably been my toughest critic. I think everything I've done, she hasn't really liked, to be honest. Um, and when I gave her the mockup to read. She went, “Yeah,” but she said it in such a way I knew what she meant was Yeah, that's right. You know, that's the truth. That's the, you know, the book isn't the testimony, but it felt like she was saying yeah. It was like the simple kind of approval. It wasn't like a lot    Miko Lee: [00:25:50] That is the most Asian mom's approval ever.    Chi Thai: [00:25:54] It's so funny, like people say to me, oh Chi, it's such a beautiful book. Oh, the writing so lit, like lyrical. It's stripped back, it's elegant. Like, you know, Viet Thanh Nguyen , like God bless his like consults, gave me a comment to put in the book, said these wonderful things, and my mom goes, “yeah.”. You know, it made me laugh at the time, but I knew what it meant. And I also was old enough, I was mature enough, you know, God, if she'd given me that, if I'd been 20 written that I might have cried and my heart might have broken. Right. But I, I knew I had, I've so much compassion, you know, for my parents. Mm-hmm. And people like my parents, what they've been through and, you know, but    Miko Lee: [00:26:38] That was incredibly high praise for her.    Chi Thai: [00:26:40] It was, I couldn't have asked more.   Miko Lee: [00:26:47] Oh, I totally get that. I think that's such an Asian thing. That is so funny.    Chi Thai: [00:26:53] It is, it is. I didn't feel bad. I, I remember showing her Lullaby, um, and she didn't like it at all.    Miko Lee: [00:27:02] What did she say? What is her not like voice? What did she say to that?    Chi Thai: [00:27:05] Oh, she. Well, firstly, she, well, the, the film is almost silent because basically it tells a story. It's inspired by a mother that was on our boat who lost her baby on the border crossing, and I was very much ever, for as long as I knew about this woman's story, I was like, I was very much haunted by it, and I was haunted by, you know, the fact that that's how she felt and her guilt. Over losing her baby on this journey. And I knew, I knew I wanted to tell her story. 'cause one of the things I feel very strongly about is when you are on the losing side. So I'm from South Vietnam, like that's not the, you know, that's not the story that's told, the story is told of who triumphs at the end of the day. And I was just like all those people that we lost at sea, this mother, her baby. The stories kind of aren't told. So I kind of felt really strongly that this was somehow a very creative way to put down like a, an historical record like this happened. And actually I found out after making the film that five babies were lost in our boat, not just one.   Miko Lee: [00:28:24] Wow. So what did she say, your mom say?   Chi Thai: [00:28:28] Yes. So I made this film, which was for the most part, a silent film. This is a woman that's shut down. She barely speaks anymore. She is living with the guilt ever. You know, when she was on the boat before her baby died, she sang a lullaby, and ever since then, she hasn't been able to speak again. And then we find out that she has been haunted by the ghost of her child that she lost. And then a bit too, you know, to kind of free herself from that. She, she actually sings, you know, the, the film culminates in her singing the Luby one last time. S saying Goodbye finally being able to move beyond her Gild and I Griffin, saying goodbye and hoping she's able to, you know, progress. So I made a film about that was largely silence except for this lullaby, and my mum watched it. She went, next time you make a film, you know you need more words. I was just like, oh, I think my heart probably did crumple off a bit a bit at that point.    Miko Lee: [00:29:30] Aw.    Chi Thai: [00:29:31] You know? Um, but yeah. But yeah, it's okay. It's okay because you know what? My mom doesn't get to see stuff like that very often. So sometimes she doesn't have the wider, and this is why, I mean, like, the life that she's had, you know, hasn't been one where she's been able to surround herself with, oh, I'm so lucky. You know, my life has been so different, but it's been different. Different because of, you know what she's, what she's done for us, so it's okay. I can take it on the chin when she says my film doesn't have enough dialogue in it.    Miko Lee: [00:30:04] I love that. For you, have you had conversations with your mom about your life as an artist, and what are her thoughts on that?   Chi Thai: [00:30:16] Well say. So I, so my mom, I don't really like, you know, she's probably not that into it. I'll be honest about being an artist. I can understand why she wants you to have a good life. And I would say for the most part, being an artist is, is a, is a tough life because it's hard to make, you know, the, the pennies work, right?   Miko Lee: [00:30:44] She wants stability for you, right?    Chi Thai: [00:30:45] Yeah, exactly. But she's made a peace with it. And basically what happened, I think all the best story is gonna be about my mom, right? Is that she basically, I, I, um, I have a partner, we've been together for 15 years. Um, he's a really nice guy and he has a reliable job and we have two kids together and i,    Miko Lee: [00:31:08] So that makes it okay.   Chi Thai: [00:31:10] So yeah, this is what I was saying. So she said to me like. It doesn't really matter what you do now. 'cause she, you are already peaked. You're somebody's wife. We're not married. But she told everyone in Vietnam we were married 'cause she couldn't cope with this not being like having kids out of wedlock. In her head. She's rewritten that we are married. Right. She's like, you are married, you're somebody's wife and you mother, it doesn't get better than that. So if you are an artist or if you're a filmmaker, whatever, it doesn't matter. 'cause nothing can be better than that. Right. So she's accepted on the basis that I've already fulfilled, kind of my promise.   Miko Lee: [00:31:46] Wow. Interesting.    Chi Thai: [00:31:50] And she means that in the nicest possible way.    Miko Lee: [00:31:52] Yeah.    Chi Thai: [00:31:52] That she feels like you have a home, you have stability, you have someone who loves you, you know, you have a, a purpose in life, but really her value, you know, the way, I think, the way she measures my value is like, that's how she looks at it. The, the art is something else.    Miko Lee: [00:32:10] Well, I really appreciate you sharing your art with us in the world and your various, um, genres and styles. And I'm wondering how our audience can find out more about your work. Clearly we'll put links to where people can buy the book and let's see, but how do they find out more about your films?   Chi Thai: [00:32:28] Um, so that like, because it is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in 2025. Actually the very anniversary of that is the tomorrow, the 30th, April, right? Um, you can watch Lullaby on Altar, which is a YouTube channel. Um, and I can give you the link for it. Rating Grace is on Paramount Plus if you want to, if you've got Paramount Plus, but you can also buy it from all the usual kind of places too. Um, and you know, and we'll see us from all great book stockists, I imagine in, in the us.   Miko Lee: [00:33:07] Thank you so much. Um, I'd love to get, I'd love for you to send me the link so I could put 'em in the show notes. I really appreciate chatting with you today. Um, is there anything else you'd like to share?    Chi Thai: [00:33:19] Um, no, I think, I think that's good. Your, your questions are so good. Mika, I'm already like, kinda like processing them all. Uh, yes.    Miko Lee: [00:33:30] Well, it was a delight to chat with you and to learn more about your artistic vision, and my wishes are that you continue to grow and feel blessed no matter what your mama says, because deep down, she's still proud of you. Even if she doesn't say it out loud.    Chi Thai: [00:33:47] I believe it. I totally believe it.    Miko Lee: [00:33:50] Yay. Thank you so much for spending time with us on Apex Express.Next up, listen to stay, go from dark heart, a concert narrative by singer and songwriter Golda Sargento.   MUSIC   That was the voice of Golda Sargento from the new Filipino futurism punk rock sci-fi dark heart. Welcome, Livia Blackburne Children's book, author of Nainai's Mountain. Welcome to Apex Express.    Livia Blackburne: [00:38:56] Thank you so much for having me.    Miko Lee: [00:38:58] I wanna start with a personal question, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?    Livia Blackburne: [00:39:05] I am Chinese American, and so I carry the stories of my grandparents who fled China to Taiwan, fled that war. And I also carry the stories of my parents and myself who immigrated. To America, and I am, I grew up in New Mexico, so I have fond memories of green chili and new Mexican food. I went to college, Harvard and MIT on the east coast. So I've got a bit of that kind of ivory tower. And now I'm in LA and, you know, my people are, my family and my community, the writing community here. So I, I'm a big mix. Yes.    Miko Lee: [00:39:44] What legacy do you carry with you?    Livia Blackburne: [00:39:47] I mentioned a bit of my grandparents and my parents. What they went through in the war in China, and then my parents and me coming here. the experience of being here in two worlds, coming from Taiwan having that cultural background and also, growing up in the United States. The culture I've been surrounded with here as well.    Miko Lee: [00:40:06] Thank you so much for sharing. Can you tell us about your new illustrated children's book? Nainai's Mountain. What inspired this work?    Livia Blackburne: [00:40:14] The story of this book actually started with another book that is coming out in a couple years that actually I can't share too much about. My grandparents fled the war in China and then my. Parents grew up in Taiwan and I wanted to preserve that family story. My parents are getting older. So I started doing oral interviews with my parents about their childhood, what it was like, growing up. I wouldn't say they weren't refugees in Taiwan. It's a very complicated political situation, but they were transplants to Taiwan, and what it was like growing up there, their daily life. What kind of things they did when they were a child, their pastimes, I wanted to preserve their stories and I got a lot of great material., A lot of that is going into a novel that I'm currently working on. But also as I worked on it, there were so many great details that I thought would be really good in a picture book as well. Also, I'm a mother now. I have an 8-year-old daughter, and she is half Caucasian, half Asian. She has never gone to Taiwan before and I. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking, it would be really great to, I do want to share Taiwan and, my own childhood, home with her at some point. And so I start imagining what would it be like to bring her back to Taiwan and show her everything. And that became the seed for Nainai's Mountain, which is a. Story of a girl visiting Taiwan for the first time with her grandmother. And her grandmother shows her around and tells her stories about her childhood, and the girl through her grandmother's eyes, sees Taiwan, you know, for the beautiful place that it is.    Miko Lee: [00:41:56] You also wrote the book I Dream of Popo. How are these companions to each other and also for audiences that might not speak Chinese. One is a grandmother on the mother's side, and the other is the grandmother on the father's side. Can you talk about how I dream of Popo is linked to Nainai's Mountain?   Livia Blackburne: [00:42:15] Thank you for pointing that out. Yes. So Popo is maternal grandmother, and Nainai is a paternal grandmother. And that is a fantastic question. So I dream of popo is kind of my story. So it's about a little girl who moves from Taiwan , to the United States and it's about her relationship with her grandmother who stays in Taiwan. And it talks about, how a close relationship, navigating long geographical distances about the language barrier that comes up. And that was very much me, Nainai's Mountain. It's kind of like Popo in reverse, you know, it's now it's someone going back to Taiwan and kind of getting in touch with those roots. That, as I mentioned, that's inspired by my daughter. And you'll see in Nainai's Mountain, I specified that the child should be, half Asian, half Caucasian. Because, I wanted more of that representation in the children's literature.    Miko Lee: [00:43:07] Thank you. I, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the artistic style. So you are the author, but you had different illustrators for both of the books and the style is really different. The in, when I look at Nainai's Mountain, which I'm holding here, it's sort of collage and really vibrant colors. Where I Dream of Popo has a different, more. I'm almost realistic, kind of look to it. And I'm wondering what your process was like in collaborating with illustrators.    Livia Blackburne: [00:43:37] That's one of the best things about being a picture book author, is that you get to collaborate with so many illustrators and they all have such different styles, such different visions. Most of the time it's the publisher who chooses the illustrator, although they. Consult me usually. My editor for I Dream of Popo picked Julia Kuo. And she sent me samples and I loved it. And, it was great. I'm friends with Julia now and that book did really well. It was very well known, especially in kind of Taiwanese American, Asian American circles. And so when I did, Nainai's mountain, that was with a different publishing house and my editor. He very consciously said, you know, because it's also a book about Taiwan and a grandmother. We don't want to get it confused with I dream of Popo. So, we made a conscious decision to pick an artist with a very different style and Joey Chou is fantastic. He's very well known for his Disney art. You can see his art in a lot of the hotels and cruise ships. And, he, very bright, vibrant, and I, he's also from Taiwan. I think he did a fantastic job.   Miko Lee: [00:44:41] And have the artistic work ever surprised you as being really different from your imagination while you were writing?    Livia Blackburne: [00:44:48] That's a great question. I don't think they've ever surprised me. By being different. They surprised me in the specifics that they've chosen. For example, I dream of Popo. Julia, spent a lot of time in Taiwan and she put in these great, Taiwan details that, you know, if you're from Taiwan, you would know for sure. There's like a specific brand of rice cooker called the rice cooker, and she has one there and like the giant bag of rice in the corner, and the calendar on the wall.   Miko Lee: [00:45:16] Even the specificities of the food and the trays and everything is quite lovely.    Livia Blackburne: [00:45:20] Yeah, yeah. You know, every time I read that, I look at that spread, I get hungry. So surprise there. And, with Joey, I, I love how he does the different, there's kind of flashback pictures and there's, pictures now and. The thing about him, his color, I just love the color that he put in from the greens, of Taiwan to kind of the bright fluorescent lights, neon lights of Taipei, and then there's kind of the slight sepia tones of the past and he just, you know, brings it so to life so well.   Miko Lee: [00:45:49] I didn't know he was a Disney animator, but it totally makes sense because it feels very layered. It does feel animated in a way and kind of alive. So I appreciate that.   Livia Blackburne: [00:45:59] I'm not sure. If he's an animator. He does a lot of art for the theme parks and like products and the cruise ships and stuff. I'm not sure.    Miko Lee: [00:46:07] Oh, interesting.   Livia Blackburne: [00:46:07] He does like movies and  stuff.    Miko Lee: [00:46:08] Interesting. It looks like animation though. Your book.    Livia Blackburne: [00:46:13] It does look very, yeah. Lively. Mm-hmm.    Miko Lee: [00:46:16] That I'm looking forward to that series. That would be so cute. The grandmother series as a whole little mini series traveling to different places. can you tell us about your new book, Dreams to Ashes? Has that been released yet?   Livia Blackburne: [00:46:29] Dreams to Ashes? That has been released that, released about a month before Nainai's Mountain. Yeah, that one's quite a bit different. So that one is a nonfiction book and it's a picture book, and it's about the Los Angeles massacre of 1871. Whenever people, I tell people about that, they're like, wait, you wrote a picture book about a massacre? Which is slightly counterintuitive. So I never knew about the Los Angeles massacre growing up. And, and, given that I am a Chinese person in Los Angeles, that is kind of weird. Basically, it was a race massacre that occurred. One of the biggest mass lynchings in history, uh, where there was a between two rival Chinese organizations and a white bystander was killed. And because of that, , a mob formed and they rounded the Chinese population up basically. And. Blame them for that death. In the end, 18 Chinese men were killed and only one of them were involved in the original gunfight. It was a horrible tragedy. And unfortunately, as often happened with these kind of historical tragedies in our country, nobody was really punished for it. A few men were indicted and convicted, but their convictions were overturned and it just kind of disappeared into history. And it really struck me that, you know, nobody knew about this. I wanted to kind of bring this to light and unfortunately when I was writing it, it was also, during the Covid pandemic and, I was seeing a lot of anti-Asian rhetoric, anti-Asian hate crimes were going up. And I saw so many parallels between what happened. Back then, because, you know, Chinese people specifically were being vilified , they were being called immoral, stealing people's jobs. And you can see in the years before the massacre the newspapers were saying horrible things and, you know, the hate was just becoming very strong and all that exploded one night into an unspeakable tragedy. Unfortunately as an author, you want your work to be relevant, but sometimes you don't want your work to be relevant in this way. Right. Nowadays I'm seeing so much rhetoric again against immigrants and not of many ethnicities. And in some ways I'm sad. That, this is happening now. And I also hope that this book will contribute to the conversation and show how the danger of racism and xenophobia and hate and what, what can happen because of that.   Miko Lee: [00:48:55] So this occurred in the late 1800s, right? Was it before the Chinese Exclusion Act?    Livia Blackburne: [00:49:03] Yes, it was before the Chinese Exclusion Act. So you'd hope that people kinda learn from these things. And it was just kind of one of the, one of the horrible things that happened on the way to the Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese immigrants being excluded basically Chinese laborers at least.   Miko Lee: [00:49:23] Oh wow. Okay. I'm looking this up now. And 1882 we know was the Chinese Exclusion Act and this incident actually happened in 1871. Yes. A decade beforehand, Helen Zia always talks about these moments that are missing. MIH missing in history and this is clearly another one of, another time of just wiping out a population.I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit more about how Children's Books can make a difference in the world that we're currently living in, where our government is banning books and you know that there's a narratives that they want to align with a certain kind of conservative ideology. Can you talk about the power of being a Children's Book author in this time that we're living in right now? . I'm really thinking about dreams to Ashes and even I dream of Popo and even Nainai's Mountain, which you would think, oh, they're, you, they're visiting their grandparent, their grandmothers, that would not be controversial. But now when even words like inclusion and diversity are threatened and books are being banned, I'm just wondering if you could. Share a little bit more about your superpower as a children's book author?    Livia Blackburne: [00:50:31] Yeah, that's a fantastic question. We live in a time right now, there's, a lot of hate, a lot of intolerance, a lot of fear of different people groups. And a lot of that I think is because people are unfamiliar with people unlike themselves. They see. People who are different, look differently, act differently, speak differently, and it scares them. And I think the best way to get around that is to actually get to know people of other backgrounds, to see them as human. And I think that's where children's books come in. ‘Cause we don't, children are not born. With this hate of the other. They learn it. But, if they grow up being familiar with people of different backgrounds seeing their stories seeing them as, normal human beings, which, should be obvious, but sometimes it's hard, for adults to realize. Then, I'm hoping, as a children's book author that it will lead to a more empathetic world. And perhaps that's why the government sometimes in certain groups are wanting to, censor this and control the flow of children's books because, children are the most their minds are still open. They're still able to learn.    Miko Lee: [00:51:48] And Livia, tell us what you're working on next.   Livia Blackburne: [00:51:53] So right now I am. Working on a historical middle grade. We haven't quite announced it yet, so I can't say the title or too many details, but it is based on my family history of my parents and grandparents who moved from China to Taiwan after the civil War.   Miko Lee: [00:52:12] Please check out our website, kpfa.org. To find out more about our show tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is created by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preti Mangala-Shekar, Swati Rayasam, Aisa Villarosa, Estella Owoimaha-Church, Gabriel Tanglao, Cheryl Truong and Ayame Keane-Lee.   The post APEX Express – 6.19.25 We Are All Connected appeared first on KPFA.

"Może III wojna światowa już trwa. Na pewno mamy do czynienia z przesileniem w globalnej polityce. Płyty tektoniczne globalnej polityki się przesuwają" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Radosław Pyffel, ekspert ds. międzynarodowych z Instytutu Sobieskiego. "To wszystko są naczynia połączone. Europa zostanie sam na sam z Federacją Rosyjską, jeśli Stany Zjednoczone się zaangażują (w konflikt na Bliskim Wschodzie - przyp. red.)" - ostrzegał.

"Nie jest tak, że prezydent Nawrocki będzie sterowany. Jest człowiekiem, który sam kształtuje swoją kancelarię" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM wiceprezes Prawa i Sprawiedliwości Mariusz Błaszczak. Dodał, że prezydentura Karola Nawrockiego to będzie "w większości kontynuacja prezydentury Andrzeja Dudy".

"To, co się dzieje dzisiaj na świecie, jest bardzo blisko każdego polskiego domu. Jesteśmy na progu kolejnej światowej wojny. Nie mam co do tego wątpliwości" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Paweł Kowal. "Jest tylko pytanie, który z bardzo głębokich i bardzo gorących konfliktów się rozleje. Mam nadzieję, że opatrzność nas uchroni" - dodał poseł Koalicji Obywatelskiej.

W Polsce nie będzie dwuwładzy, bo mamy system parlamentarno-gabinetowy – zapewnił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM poseł PiS Marcin Ociepa. "Mamy taki system i będziemy tego prawa przestrzegać. Natomiast prezydent ma ogromną rolę - myślę, że w Polsce niedocenianą" - dodał. Polityk skrytykował także kandydaturę Bogdana Klicha na ambasadora w Waszyngtonie. Odpowiadał także na pytanie, czy jest możliwa koalicja PiS-u z Konfederacją i Grzegorzem Braunem.

Słyszałam lepsze przemówienia niż expose Donalda Tuska - mówiła w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM posłanka Polski 2050-Trzeciej Drogi Aleksandra Leo. Jej zdaniem w wystąpieniu zabrakło pomysłów programowych koalicji rządzącej. Posłanka mówiła też, że jej zdaniem projekt Trzeciej Drogi "jakoś się wyczerpał" i konieczne są rozmowy, czy powinien być kontynuowany.

Posłanka Lewicy Anna Maria Żukowska w Popołudniowej rozmowie RMF FM odniosła się do kwestii renegocjowania umowy koalicyjnej, co proponuje m.in. marszałek Sejmu. "Szymon Hołownia jest trochę w niekonsekwencji z samym sobą, bo wielokrotnie oznajmiał, że dochowa tej umowy i zrezygnuje z fotela marszałka. Nie wiem, co teraz się stało, że próbuje się z tego wycofać" - stwierdziła.

"Moim zdaniem to jest koniec Roberta Lewandowskiego w kadrze. Trudno odwrócić to, co się wydarzyło. Trudno zapomnieć o wypowiedzianych słowach. Nie wyobrażam sobie, żeby Michał Probierz powołał Roberta i wszystko będzie w porządku" – powiedział Cezary Kucharski w Popołudniowej rozmowie RMF FM.

"Teraz również byśmy go poparli" – powiedział w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM wiceprezes PiS Mateusz Morawiecki pytany o możliwość objęcia urzędu premiera przez Władysława Kosiniaka-Kamysza. Polityk nie potwierdził jednak, że trwają jakieś rozmowy na linii PiS-PSL. Zdaniem byłego szefa rządu, gabinet Donalda Tuska jest "skrajnie leniwy". Morawiecki uważa, że Karol Nawrocki będzie asertywnym prezydentem.

Musi się zmienić sposób rządzenia przez Donalda Tuska - przyznał w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski. Senator PSL-Trzeciej Drogi nie szczędził słów krytyki pod adresem Rady Ministrów. "W rządzie nie ma najlepszych ludzi z koalicji" - powiedział, dodając, że gdyby w latach 90. XX wieku doszło do sformowania takiego rządu, to Polska w tamtym czasie nie podołałaby "elementarnym zadaniom".

"Dla nas stabilność jest wyrazem odpowiedzialności za państwo, w związku z tym będziemy głosowali za wotum zaufania dla rządu" - zapewnił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Paweł Zalewski. Wiceszef MON, poseł Polski 2050-Trzeciej Drogi stwierdził jednak, że nie rozumie propozycji premiera Donalda Tuska. Dodał, że jest to "propozycja, która właściwie niczym nie jest ugruntowana".

"Moim zdaniem Donald Tusk dostanie wotum zaufania" - stwierdził w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM prof. Antoni Dudek. Politolog dodał jednak, że - jego zdaniem - premier jest w błędzie, myśląc, iż to rozwiąże problem "kryzysu, jaki właśnie się zaczął". Ekspert stwierdził, że ta cała sytuacja sugeruje zmierzch Donalda Tuska.

"Myślę, że wszyscy się tego spodziewają" – powiedziała w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM wiceminister rodziny, pracy i polityki społecznej Aleksandra Gajewska, pytana, czy będzie rekonstrukcja rządu. Polityk wskazała, że jej resort jest jednym z najaktywniejszych w rządzie. Rozmówczyni Marka Tejchmana mówiła też o działaniach na rzecz zwiększenia dzietności – chęci zmienienia negatywnego wizerunku bycia matką czy współpracy z ministerstwem zdrowia nad przepisami służącymi zapewnieniu bezpieczeństwa matkom.

"Bardzo mi się podoba, że młody człowiek dorośleje, staje się człowiekiem dojrzałym. Ma dystans do tego, co robił w młodości, nawet jeżeli była burzliwa" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Wojciech Kolarski, szef Biura Polityki Międzynarodowej Kancelarii Prezydenta RP, odnosząc się do Karola Nawrockiego. Za sukces popieranego przez Prawo i Sprawiedliwość kandydata na prezydenta uznał fakt, że Sławomir Mentzen w apelu do swoich wyborców krytycznie ocenił Rafała Trzaskowskiego.

La Finlande a restitué le 13 mai dernier au Bénin un siège royal tripode nommé Kataklè. Un moment marquant que vous avez pu suivre sur les antennes de RFI. Ce que l'on sait moins, c'est que ce pays nordique dispose dans le pays d'un institut culturel, le seul sur le continent. Villa Karo, c'est son nom, est située en bord d'océan à Grand-Popo, à deux heures de route de Cotonou, juste à côté de la frontière togolaise. Cet institut fête en ce mois de mai 2025 ses 25 ans. Le lieu a su se faire une place. Il est aujourd'hui très apprécié des habitants. C'est un lieu à part que nous fait visiter en ce mercredi de mai, Kristiina Utriainen, une jeune finlandaise en stage ici depuis janvier : « On accueille des résidents du secteur de la culture et aussi des chercheurs. »Villa Karo, c'est d'abord une résidence pour artistes en recherche d'inspiration. Le projet est né il y a 25 ans, porté par un écrivain finlandais passionné par le voyage, Juha Vakkuri. Julia Ojanen est la directrice exécutive de l'institut : « Il est vraiment tombé amoureux de ce lieu. La paix, les cultures vaudoues qui sont très inspirantes. Il s'est dit "c'est ici que je vais rester pour le reste de mes jours et je vais emmener les autres écrivains ici à Grand-Popo et on va rester ensemble et on va faire notre travail". »La résidence est baptisée Karo en mémoire du fils du fondateur, disparu tragiquement. Au fil du temps, le lieu évolue pour se transformer en un grand centre culturel, financé aujourd'hui à 55 % par l'état finlandais : « On fait beaucoup de services, par exemple des ateliers aux enfants, une dizaine de concerts par an, on a deux musées, un ethnographique et un second d'art contemporain. On a 14 000 visiteurs par an, à peu près. »Des visiteurs qui viennent également assister à la projection de films ou participer à la création de spectacles. Des ateliers de lecture sont également proposés aux enfants et aux adolescents. Georgette Singbé est manager culturelle à la Villa : « Beaucoup n'ont pas accès aux manuels et au programme. La Villa Karo les achète et invite les encadrants de lecture à venir les aider à mieux comprendre les livres au programme. »Les enfants sont également initiés à la création : « À chaque fois que je viens ici, il y a toujours une répétition avec les enfants de Grand-Popo. Je suis sûre que beaucoup d'artistes vont émerger d'ici. »Sika da Silveira a noué un lien particulier avec ce lieu. Cette artiste plasticienne béninoise expose en ce moment dans un des musées : « Quand je suis là, je n'ai pas envie de partir parce que c'est inspirant. Il y a tout ce qu'il faut pour travailler sur place. La nature, le calme pour se ressourcer. »La résidence, elle, existe toujours. Elle s'ouvre désormais aux artistes ouest-africains. Objectif à terme, selon la directrice : accueillir autant d'artistes de Finlande qu'en provenance d'Afrique de l'Ouest.À lire aussiBénin : le «kataklè», 27e pièce du trésor royal d'Abomey, de retour 133 ans après avoir été pillé

EP 116 of But I Know the DJ is a special one! DJ SNAX and DJ CAMMMYV sit down with the legendary Scratch Master DJ PoPo—a Brooklyn-born, Panamanian turntablist with over 21 years of experience in the game. From his early days spinning records as a toddler to becoming a top 8 VERZUZ DJ World Competitor and BBB9 Champion, DJ PoPo shares his journey, wild stories from behind the decks, and what it truly takes to master the craft. If you're into DJ culture, scratching, and real conversations with OGs, this episode is a must-watch!Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0OmufZJ...Search “But I Know THE DJ” for all other audio listening platformsFollow BIKTDJ on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@butiknowthedjFollow BIKTDJ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/butiknowthedj/Follow DJ GimmeSnax:IG: https://www.instagram.com/gimmesnax/Follow DJ FINGAZ:IG: https://www.instagram.com/fingazlive/Follow DJ Cammmy V:IG: https://www.instagram.com/cammmy_v/Follow DJ PoPo:https://www.instagram.com/djpopo01/Follow Dope Entertainment on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dopeentertainmentofficialBUT I KNOW THE DJ is a podcast discussing all things DJing, music, nightlife, business, and pop culture through the unfiltered opinions from the hosts, SNAX, FINGAZ, CAMMY V and various other guests.

"Zmiana polityki Platformy Obywatelskiej w antyukraińską, antymigracyjną niejako zalegalizowała politykę nacjonalistyczną i zmieniła całe społeczeństwo" - ocenił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM były minister spraw zagranicznych Jacek Czaputowicz. "To, co było wstydliwe, stało się zalegalizowane. Nie mamy żadnych oporów, by mówić rzeczy, których kiedyś nie wypadało mówić. Egoistycznie chcemy wycisnąć z Ukrainy jakieś deklaracje, jakieś zobowiązania, zrealizować interesy w czasie, kiedy oni są cały czas pod bombami" - dodał gość Piotra Salaka.

Ben and Nathan investigate income-debt ratios for average law students. Their findings paint a sobering picture for the average law school graduate. In many cases, students are paying champagne prices for beer salaries. Paying full price at even top schools can disrupt personal financial stability for a decade or longer. Then, they review the newly released 2025/2026 LSAT schedule, flag another price increase, and take on two flawed pieces of LSAT advice in a double round of Pearls vs. Turds. The guys help one listener struggling with timed sections and a reapplicant focusing on the wrong priorities in their résumé. JoJo the PoPo takes their shot at the Personal Statement Gong Show, and “normative” is the word of the week.Study with our Free PlanDownload our iOS appWatch Episode 508 on YouTube0:30 – Champagne Prices. Beer Salaries.Ben and Nathan highlight how poorly students understand the long-term impact of taking on massive student loans. The federal government considers the average law grad to be in financial hardship, and income-to-debt ratios back that up. Graduates from top schools like Yale typically spend about 10% of their gross monthly income on loan payments, while some graduates spend over 50%. To make matters worse, top students who secure scholarships and consequently have little to no debt often land the best jobs, while those borrowing median debt levels earn significantly less. Scoring high on the LSAT and attending law school for free remains the safest path.Check your school's median debt and income levels at Lawhub.com27:10 – 2025/2026 LSAT Schedule ReleasedThe LSAT schedule for 2025/2026 shows no significant changes, but the official test cost increased again. Ben and Nathan encourage students not to waste money and wait until their practice test scores show they're ready before signing up.28:55 – Pearls vs. Turds Double HeaderThis episode's Pearls vs. Turds features two submissions. First: “Avoid the obvious answer.” Verdict: turd. If the answer does what the question is asking, it's correct. If it feels easy, it's because the LSAT is genuinely easy. Second: “If the passage doesn't include the word ‘should,' avoid answer choices that do.” Verdict: also a turd. While it hints at something valid—normative conclusions need support—rigid rules like this replace real understanding with memorization and lead to errors.37:20 – Not Improving on Timed SectionsDexter reports that although his untimed drilling has improved, his timed section scores remain flat. Ben and Nathan recommend treating timed sections the same way as drilling. Rather than rushing to finish, focus on solving each problem completely and accurately.42:15 – Law School RésuméAP is applying again after improving their LSAT score and wants feedback on résumé content. Ben and Nathan advise that résumés and soft skills are secondary when the LSAT score isn't competitive. Application materials like the résumé can stay largely the same, but they must be polished and error-free.48:29 – Personal Statement Gong ShowJoJo the PoPo enters the ring as the latest Personal Statement Gong Show contestant. Ben and Nathan read their personal statement and hit the gong when something goes wrong. The standing record to beat is ten lines, held by Greta.1:18:54 - Word of the Week - Normative“Sciences, however, are by definition non-normative: they describe but they do not prescribe.”

TWO GANGSTAS AND THE PO PO PT 5Follow me on TikTok:@dointimewithjoeFollow me on YouTube:www.youtube.com/@dointimewithjoe4641CashApp:@dointimewithjoe1

"Takiego rządu sobie nie wyobrażam, chyba, że to będzie tylko rząd stołków, a nie jakichś idei czy chęci zrobienia czegoś dobrego dla Polski" - stwierdziła w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Joanna Senyszyn pytana o hipotetyczny sojusz Koalicji Obywatelskiej i Konfederacji. Była posłanka oceniła, że Konfederacja jest bardziej niebezpieczna od Prawa i Sprawiedliwości. "Tam są narodowcy, którzy mają poglądy absolutnie skrajnie prawicowe, kontakty z neonazistami. To jest bardzo niebezpieczne" - tłumaczyła. "PiS przez 8 lat - za drugiego "kaczyzmu" - także pokazał, co potrafi" - dodała.

TWO GANGSTAS AND THE PO PO PT 4Follow me on TikTok:@dointimewithjoeFollow me on YouTube:www.youtube.com/@dointimewithjoe4641CashApp:@dointimewithjoe1

TWO GANGSTAS AND THE PO PO PT 3Follow me on TikTok:@dointimewithjoeFollow me on YouTube:www.youtube.com/@dointimewithjoe4641CashApp:@dointimewithjoe1

TWO GANGSTAS AND THE PO PO PT 2Follow me on TikTok:@dointimewithjoeFollow me on YouTube:www.youtube.com/@dointimewithjoe4641CashApp:@dointimewithjoe1

TWO GANGSTAS AND THE PO PO PT 1Follow me on TikTok:@dointimewithjoeFollow me on YouTube:www.youtube.com/@dointimewithjoe4641CashApp:@dointimewithjoe1

"Po wyborach pan premier chce podejść do zmian organizacyjnych, zrekonstruować część rządu, aby sprawniej działał. Ja się z tym zgadzam. Ministrowie to nie żubry, żeby trzymać ich pod ochroną. Ja także nie jestem pod ochroną, natomiast sam siebie nie będę oceniał" - powiedział w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM minister infrastruktury Dariusz Klimczak z Polskiego Stronnictwa Ludowego. Gość Marka Tejchmana odniósł się ostro m.in. do ostatniej wypowiedzi Ryszarda Petru, a także zapowiedział, że wkrótce będzie połączenie kolejowe do Lipska.

"Napisaliśmy o tym, że te kampanie zostały zablokowane przez Metę, a następnie konta znowu stały się dostępne, ale kampanie stały się nieaktywne, a następnie kilka dni później dostaliśmy wyjaśnienie od Mety mówiące o tym, że to nie Meta zadziałała w tej kwestii pomimo naszego zgłoszenia" – tłumaczył w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Radosław Nielek, szef NASK. Jak zaznaczył z analizy danych dostępnych dla instytucji wynika, że kampanie były finansowane z zagranicy.

"Sebastian M. zostanie zatrzymany. Wtedy, kiedy to się stanie, niezwłocznie go przejmiemy. Ponieważ był w tej procedurze ekstradycji w trybie wolnościowym, to muszą go teraz zatrzymać. Tego nie mogą wykonać polskie organy ścigania, tylko służby Emiratów" - powiedział w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Czesław Mroczek, wiceszef MSWiA.

"Na pewno pójdę na wybory i zagłosuję w II turze. Teraz przyglądam się temu, co zrobią kandydaci" – mówiła Paulina Matysiak w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM. Podkreśliła: "Dopuszczam głosowanie na Karola Nawrockiego".

"To na pewno jest przygotowanie jakiegoś ataku, który nastąpi" - tak o zarzutach dotyczących wspierania kampanii Rafała Trzaskowskiego przez zagraniczną organizację mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Grzegorz Schetyna. "Trzaskowski jest w drugiej turze. Wiadomo, że będzie w niej Nawrocki. Uważam, że to jest przygotowanie przez tych, którzy źle życzą Trzaskowskiemu. Nie zdziwi mnie żaden atak" - podkreślał senator Koalicji Obywatelskiej.

"Myślę, że od 2000 roku to są chyba wybory obarczone najmniejszą liczbą znaków zapytania" – mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM prof. Rafał Chwedoruk, politolog z Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. "W chwili obecnej faworytem jest Rafał Trzaskowski, nawet jeśli jego kampania nie sprawia wrażenia najbardziej błyskotliwej w dziejach Polskiej demokracji. Nawet gdyby w tej kampanii pojawiły się jakieś strukturalne problemy, to Rafał Trzaskowski będzie silny słabością swoich kontrkandydatów" – dodał gość Grzegorza Sroczyńskiego.

"Jest wstępna decyzja Komisji Europejskiej. Będziemy nad nią pracować. Mamy kalendarz zamknięcia rynków europejskich dla rosyjskich paliw kopalnych, dla surowców energetycznych właśnie z Rosji" – powiedziała minister klimatu i środowiska Paulina Hennig-Kloska w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM. Zaznaczyła, że nawet jeśli Donald Trump odkupiłby udziały od Rosji w gazociągu, nie będzie mógł tego paliwa sprzedać w Europie.

"Czas traktatów dwustronnych i ich znaczenia minął. Od czasu, kiedy jesteśmy członkiem Unii Europejskiej i NATO, podstawowe ramy prawne naszego bezpieczeństwa, naszej współpracy gospodarczej są natowski i unijne. Traktaty dwustronne mają dla nas znaczenie przede wszystkim z państwami spoza UE. Natomiast nie będę jakoś bardzo krytykował tego, że się zawiera traktat z dużym państwem. Natomiast patrzyłem i tam w treści wiele takich nowości, które by Polsce coś przynosiły, nie ma" – tak Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk skomentował w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM polsko-francuski traktat zawarty w zeszłym tygodniu w Nancy.

"Bezpiecznie nie jest i Putin próbuje szkodzić Polsce. Ma obsesję na punkcie Polski. Polsko-francuski pakt będzie pokazywać, że jesteśmy po "zachodniej stronie" i nie jesteśmy sami" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Paweł Kowal.

"Pomijając aspekt duchowy Kościoła - watykańska dyplomacja odgrywa ogromną rolę w balansowaniu stosunków międzynarodowych na świecie. Prezydent Zełenski dziękował watykańskiej dyplomacji za umożliwienie wymiany jeńców między Rosją a Ukrainą" - powiedział w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Michał Kłosowski. "Poza tym kwestia relacji międzyreligijnych w świecie, w którym Vladimir Volkoff napisał, że religia będzie używana jako broń, co widzimy chociażby po islamskim terroryzmie, ale nie tylko, to jest to wszystko, co wskazuje, że konklawe 2025 jest ważne nie tylko dla katolików, ale i dla świata" - dodał wicenaczelny magazynu "Wszystko Co Najważniejsze" i autor książki "Dekada Franciszka".

"Za dwa dni 80. rocznica zakończenia II wojny światowej. Właśnie z tego powodu rusza nasz projekt 'Wytwórnia pamięci'. Jest on adresowany do każdej osoby, która ma ochotę ściągnąć aplikację na swój telefon i nagrać relację, rozmowę z kimś, kto pamięta II wojnę światową, kto ma jakieś żywe wspomnienia z nią związane. To projekt ogólnopolski" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM dyrektor Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego Jan Ołdakowski. Utrwalone mają zostać reminiscencje tych, którzy w czasach wojny byli dziećmi.

Do referenduma o dodatkih k pokojnini za izjemne umetniške dosežke je še 6 dni, kampanja se konča v petek opolnoči. Doslej ni bilo pestrega predreferendumskega dogajanja, organizatorji kampanje so najbolj dejavni na družbenih omrežjih. Na Radiu Slovenija bo predreferendumsko soočenje v sredo. To je tudi dan, do katerega morajo vsi, ki želijo na dan glasovanja glasovati na volišču v drugem okraju oziroma tako imenovanem volišču Omnia, to sporočiti okrajni volilni komisiji, na območju katere so vpisani v volilni imenik. V Ljubljani bo predčasno glasovanje - to bo od torka do četrtka - ter volišče Omnia tokrat v veliki dvorani hale Tivoli. V Državni volilni komisiji opozarjajo na časovno stisko za izvedbo volilnih opravil, kar je posledica velikonočnih in prvomajskih praznikov. Izziv je tudi popolnitev volilnih odborov, ki na voliščih skrbijo za izvedbo glasovanja. V oddaji tudi: - Izraelski varnostni kabinet odobril postopno širjenje ofenzive v Gazi. Netanjahu napovedal tudi odločno ukrepanje proti hutijevcem. - Romunija bo dobila novega predsednika v drugem krogu volitev, ki bo čez dva tedna. - Končalo se je devetdnevno žalovanje za papežem Frančiškom; pred sredinim začetkom konklava kardinali še dva dni na kongregacijah.

"To, że Trump zdenerwował się na Putina, nie oznacza, że przejrzał na oczy. Jego sentyment do niego jest długofalową historią. W mojej ocenie dąsy na Putina i zapowiedź Amerykanów dotycząca wycofania się z mediacji ws. zakończenia wojny w Ukrainie to taktyka negocjacyjna" - powiedziała w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM dr Agnieszka Bryc z Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu. "Ukraina jest kartą przetargową, a te rozmowy to są 'tak zwane' rozmowy pokojowe, negocjacyjne" - dodała politolożka, ekspertka w dziedzinie stosunków międzynarodowych.

"Muszę się temu przyjrzeć" - stwierdził w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Piotr Borys - wiceminister sportu i turystyki, pytany o wyjątkowo wysokie ceny biletów kolejowych tuż przed rozpoczęciem długiego weekendu. Zapowiedział, że spotka się w tej sprawie z ministrem infrastruktury.

"Kampania prezydencka straciła na powadze" - mówiła w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Elżbieta Jakubiak - w przeszłości bliska współpracowniczka braci Kaczyńskich. Przyznała, że nudziła się, oglądając poniedziałkową debatę kandydatów na prezydenta. "Słyszymy nieistotne rzeczy" - oceniła. Stwierdziła też, że w przypadku wyborczej wygranej Rafała Trzaskowskiego wewnątrz Platformy Obywatelskiej rozpoczną się "wojny na noże i pistolety".

"W Polsce jest ultrasusza. To efekt zmian klimatycznych" - mówił w Popołudniowej rozmowie w RMF FM Mikołaj Dorożała - wiceminister klimatu. Jednocześnie zapewnił, że jego resort nie planuje wprowadzania zakazu wejścia do lasów w długi majowy weekend.