Podcasts about Vietnam War

Everyone's still talking about Bob Vylan, and rightly so. A crowd full of westerners happily being led through a chant of “Death, death to the IDF” at the 2025 Glastonbury Festival was a historical landmark moment for the 21st century, and the group's persecution at the hands of western governments is once again highlighting the way our society's purported values of free thought and free expression go right out the window wherever Israel is concerned. But one thing that's not getting enough attention is the fact that many, many other acts also spoke out in support of Palestine at that same festival, and that the crowd was full of attendees waving Palestinian flags. Supporting Palestine and opposing Israel's genocidal atrocities is just what's cool now. This is a massive cultural development, because it means we are seeing the emergence of actual, meaningful rebellion in western counterculture for the first time arguably since the Vietnam War. The artists and their fans aren't just talking the talk of sticking it to the establishment anymore. Reading by Tim Foley.

DataQ is designed to correct mistakes in safety reporting – but truckers see a need for reform. Also, a small group of soldiers drove some specially modified vehicles during the Vietnam War. Then, a trucker driving to a delivery suddenly found himself on truck-restricted routes – and it cost him big. And the spot market has seen a big jump in reefer freight during week 25. 0:00 – DataQ reforms could make a big difference for truckers 09:55 – Gun Trucks and their drivers play key role in Vietnam 24:15 – Town's missing signs cost trucker a big fine 38:43 – Reefer freight a bright spot in freight market this week

Alex and Rhiannon are very moved in today's episode, stuffed with Glastonbury, the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Rhiannon explores the hidden role of women in warfare, specifically the Vietnam War in Kristin Hannah's The Women. Alex dives into folklore and sapphic relationships in Song of the Huntress. Rhiannon is thinking about the abuse and use of psychedelics in treating trauma in Nine Perfect Strangers and Alex is crying about Hunter Gatherers. A great episode! Show NotesSelf Esteem at Glastonbury and Truck FestSelf Esteem on Off Menu PodcastThe Falmouth BooksellerRubicund BooksSong of the Huntress by Lucy HollandBreaking the Glass SlipperThe Buried Giant by Kazuo IshiguroThe Women by Kristin HannahThis Is UsThe Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction by Ursula Le GuinNine Perfect Strangers by Liane MoriartyThe Goop LabDouglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

When Father Dennis Lewis was assigned to St. Michael’s parish in Milwaukee, he discovered a growing number of Hmong and Laotians seeking refuge from the Vietnam War. Many were subjected to a terrible slumlord and so Father decided to start a homebuying ministry that helped coach them through the process. 33 years later, Acts Housing has helped 4,000 low-income families purchase homes!Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Father Dennis Lewis was assigned to St. Michael’s parish in Milwaukee, he discovered a growing number of Hmong and Laotians seeking refuge from the Vietnam War. Many were subjected to a terrible slumlord and so Father decided to start a homebuying ministry that helped coach them through the process. 33 years later, Acts Housing has helped 4,000 low-income families purchase homes!Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Season 5, Episode 26! With the fall of Saigon happening about 50 years ago, it's important to recognize related additional moments in the history of Asians and Asian Americans. We're talking about the Secret War in Laos which was closely tied to the Vietnam War. This will be Part 1 of 2 on the topic. Laos is in Southeast Asia, a key region that the U.S. worried about during the Cold War. The Secret War in Laos was led by the CIA and fought predominantly by the Hmong, an ethnic minority in the country, and it's a major reason so many Hmong and Laotian people became refugees after the Fall of Saigon and retreat of U.S. forces. So in this episode, we dig into the geopolitical situation that was present in Southeast Asia, the U.S. role in battling the spread of communism there, the key local soldiers recruited by the CIA, and the amount of damage the U.S. did to the area.  We begin the episode by catching up on current events, including celebrating newly elected mayor of San Antonio Gina Ortiz Jones as well as all the Tony winners of Asian Pacific descent. We also give our thoughts on the push for Asian American History in Arizona. We end the episode with the recurring segment What are We Watching? In this installment, we talk about the streaming show Deli Boys and the feature film Sinners.  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. Segments 00:25 Introduction and Current Events 04:59 The History of the Secret War in Laos 14:40 What are We Watching? Deli Boys and Sinners

In this episode of All in the Delivery, the hosts discuss various topics ranging from personal experiences with family and birthdays to the challenges of working in extreme weather conditions. They delve into the importance of air conditioning in delivery trucks, share competitive stories from softball games, and recount harrowing dog encounters during deliveries. The conversation also touches on environmental issues like underground fires, the use of explicit language by public figures, and the impact of spoilers in movies and TV shows. The episode concludes with a lively discussion on listener responses to the question of the week about dog interactions. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Technical Difficulties 02:54 Celebrating Birthdays and Family Life 06:00 Weather Woes and Hydration Strategies 09:05 The Debate on Truck AC and Heat Management 11:57 Softball Stories and Competitive Spirit 23:57 Underground Fires and Environmental Concerns 30:04 Political Commentary and Language in Media 36:13 Presidential Tapes and Historical Context 39:53 The Vietnam War and Its Consequences 43:20 Pop Culture References: Stranger Things and Squid Game 51:10 Dog Encounters: Scary Stories from the Delivery World www.patreon.com/aitdpod https://discord.gg/hm8WMUKVF8 THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED OR VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THIS PODCAST ARE THOSE OF THE HOSTS AND GUESTS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT ANY DELIVERY COMPANY  

By the time The Beatles released their twelfth and final studio album, Let It Be, the ban had already broken up.  Their official break-up was in April 1970, and this album was released in May.Much of the recording dates back over a year, and a project that Paul McCartney developed in an attempt to save the band.  The Beatles went into the studio in January 1969 to begin an album, document the development on film, and showcase the band as they return both to a simpler rock 'n' roll style and to live performance.  They started in Twickenham Film Studios, but quickly began fighting.  George Harrison left the group, only returning after they agreed to returning to Apple Studios and to bringing keyboardist Billy Preston in to assist in the process.Originally entitled "Get Back," the album was delayed multiple times as the group considered aligning with potential televised performances, and eventually postponing the release in favor of the studio album "Abbey Road."  As the demise of the group became more clear, Engineer Glyn Johns and producer Phil Spector were brought in to turn the pieces from the "Get Back" sessions into a complete album.These sessions were also the ones which included the final Beatles live performance, the "Rooftop Concert" recorded from the roof of Apple Studios on the afternoon of January 30, 1969.  This concert proceeded for 42 minutes until the police arrived and instructed the group to turn the sound down.Contemporary reviews of the album were more negative than previous Beatles albums, but those critiques have been revised upwards over time.Bruce presents this album marking the end of an era for this week's podcast.Two of UsPaul McCartney wrote most of this song which is credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership.  The original idea was inspired by McCartney's travel adventures with Linda Eastman (to whom he was married in March 1969), but it took on more meaning as a gesture of affection to John Lennon after the group broke up.  I Me MineOne of the few non Lennon-McCartney songs on the album, this track was written by George Harrison.  It was their last new track recorded before their official break-up in April 1970.  The lyrics are a cry against the self-centeredness of mankind.  The Beatles recorded it in January 1970, by which time Lennon has privately left the group, so the three remaining members recorded it.  I've Got a FeelingThis song is actually a medley of two unfinished songs.  Paul McCartney wrote "I've Got a Feeling," and John Lennon wrote "Everybody Had a Hard Year." and the two were put together.  This was recorded during the Beatles' rooftop concert in January 1969 with Billy Preston on electric piano.Get BackThe concluding song from the album is unusual. because almost every moment of the song's development was recorded from the first riff to final mixing.  The concluding quip from John Lennon regarding hope that "we passed the audition," was taken from the Rooftop Concert and worked in by Phil Spector.  It was originally released as a single a year before in April 1969, and credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:"Burning Bridges" (Main theme from the action comedy film Kelly's Heroes)This World War II comedy stars Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas revolves around a gold heist as the war draws to a close.   STAFF PICKS:Question by The Moody BluesLynch brings us a song in multiple movements.  The frantic phase represents the question of why we must go to war, while the more subdued section represents love and peace.  Guitarist Justin Hayward wrote this song as a mashup of two unfinished songs which came together after observing the anxiety young US fans were experiencing regarding the draft and the Vietnam War.Proper Stranger by The Guess WhoRob features a deeper cut from the Canadian band off their "American Woman" album.  The lyrics depict the feelings of being alone in a big city where "Nobody knows my face or knows my name.  Nobody knows where I'm going or how I came.  Lost and found, no one claimed me. Alone with a million others."50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain by by Ten Years AfterWayne takes us on another deep cut.  This one is a psychedelic journey with the group that gets its name from their being founded ten years after Elvis's start.  We noticed the similarity between this song and the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," with which it shares a similar chord progression.Baby Hold On by The Grass RootsBruce closes the staff picks with a group that was big from 1965-1985.  The Grass Roots originated in 1965 as a project between the duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri.  This song went to number 35 and was included on their compilation album, "More Golden Grass," released in the fall of 1970.   INSTRUMENTAL TRACK:Genesis by Tangerine DreamWe close out this week's podcast with an early industrial track from the future jazz fusion giants. Thanks for listening to “What the Riff?!?” NOTE: To adjust the loudness of the music or voices, you may adjust the balance on your device. VOICES are stronger in the LEFT channel, and MUSIC is stronger on the RIGHT channel.Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whattheriffpodcast/, and message or email us with what you'd like to hear, what you think of the show, and any rock-worthy memes we can share.Of course we'd love for you to rate the show in your podcast platform!**NOTE: What the Riff?!? does not own the rights to any of these songs and we neither sell, nor profit from them. We share them so you can learn about them and purchase them for your own collections.

Sandi DuBowski discusses the one-year anniversary of his film Sabbath Queen, which he spent 21 years making. He reflects on the journey of the 21st-century radical rabbi and how it has shaped their life. He discusses the inspiration behind his film, Tomboychik, the concept of which was developed after conversations with his grandmother. The film is a living video memorial to her spirit; it won several awards, including the Golden Gate award at the San Francisco Film Festival and the Whitney Museum program, and launched Sandi into the film world. Documentary Films and Festivals  Sandi talks about his work as an associate director of the New York Lesbian/Gay Experimental Film Video festival, MIX. He initially worked on a feature film called Fresh Kill and later worked for Planned Parenthood as a researcher and producing videos. After working for Planned Parenthood, he started filming the major feature documentary, Trembling Before G-d, about Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are lesbian or gay. The film had a World Premiere at Sundance, and won two prizes at the Berlin Film Festival. It screened in cinemas and festivals worldwide, and Sandi went on the road for three years, doing outreach and engagement. Sandi concludes by expressing gratitude for the support and funding he received from the Steven Spielberg Righteous Persons Foundation. He also mentions that his film Sabbath Queen has been a significant moment in his life, as he reconnects with classmates from Harvard, high school, elementary school, film, queer, Jewish, and activist circles. The film has been a testament to the power of storytelling and the transformative power of time. Breaking from Traditional Religious Conventions Sandi fell into the world of filmmaking by accident. He worked with great people, including cinematographers and editors, to create a team of creatives. The film "Trembling Before G-d" was a significant leap forward in technical craft and embraced the lives of people who were not in the public realm. The first Orthodox gay Rabbi came out in the film, and the first person from a Hasidic world to come out as lesbian was featured. The film also convinced Orthodox rabbis to speak publicly on the issue, which was a tipping point in the culture. The filmmaker met with Amichai, who was already post-denominational and pushing the boundaries of Orthodoxy. Sandi talks about the film's concept and how it inspired a Muslim man to make a movie on Islam and homosexuality. Filming the Documentary Sabbath Queen Sandi shares the journey of filming Sabbath Queen, which involved following Rabbi Amichai over 21 years. The film took six years to edit due to multiple storylines, nearly 3000 hours of footage, and time spent exploring Amichai's complex identity and his numerous worlds within his rabbinic family. The film was a complicated project, but Sandi and Amichai have remained close friends. The film is Biblical in many ways, as it is a coming of age and a paradigm shift from a thousands-year-old faith to the present. The film aims to address the challenges faced by religion, as well as the rise of authoritarianism and fascism. Sandi believes that creating a film that looks at time and how values can be manifested in our lives, communities, families, houses of worship, and nations is crucial for upholding values and morals. A Documentary Filmmaker's Journey Sandi shares his experiences and lessons learned from his journey as a documentary filmmaker. He explains that his life has been unexpected and doesn't fit neatly into boxes. He also shares his experience with Good Pitch, a platform that focuses on social issue documentaries and collaborations with filmmakers. He has built a strong community around films and the film movement, which has been translated into his work with Sabbath Queen. He believes that film communities intersect with many other communities, creating an outpouring of connection and networks. One of the ways Sabbath Queen is promoting community is through live rituals and gatherings. In Berlin, he hosted a Sabbath Queen Friday night feast with Rabbi Amichai, which encouraged togetherness, peacemaking, and reflection. In San Francisco, they hosted a SoulSpa and in Chicago a Saturday night Let the Light In. Sandi also talks about expanded cinema and the importance of gathering, him co-founding a progressive group called The Creative Resistance with media makers and a Queens Food Caravan. Sandi discusses the importance of having creative collaborators who provide feedback and help in the process of creating a character-driven film. He mentions that it is crucial to have test screenings and feedback screenings to help filmmakers work on their work over time. Influential Harvard Professors and Courses Sandi mentions a History and Literature course on the Vietnam War. The course focused on the interdisciplinary nature of storytelling and history, which helped Sandi understand how we process our lives, stories, wounds, and traumas.  Timestamps: 03:28: Early Film Projects and Personal Exploration  12:34: Transition to Long-Term Documentary Filmmaking 22:01: Challenges and Rewards of Long-term Filmmaking  22:23: Personal Life and Community Building  22:41: Advice for Long-term Documentary Filmmakers  41:35: Impact of Sabbath Queen and Future Plans Featured Non-profit: The featured non-profit of this episode of The 92 Report is recommended by Mark Jacobstein, class of ‘92, who reports: “Hi. I'm Mark Jacobstein, class of 1992. The feature nonprofit of this episode of The 92 Report is The Friends of Cancer Research. The Friends of Cancer Research powers advances in science and policy that speed life saving treatments to patients. I'm proud to have worked with them during my time at Garden Health and found that they were by far the most important and effective 501, C3, in the world of cancer research. You can learn more about their work at Friends of Research, friends of cancer research.org, and now here's Will Bachman with this week's episode.” To learn more about their work, visit: FriendsofCancerResearch.org.  

This Day in Legal History: 26th AmendmentOn June 30, 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. This change was largely driven by the political and social pressures of the Vietnam War era, when young Americans were being drafted to fight at 18 but could not vote. The rallying cry “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” captured the public's attention and galvanized a national movement. Though proposals to lower the voting age had circulated for decades, the urgency escalated in the 1960s and early 1970s as anti-war sentiment intensified.Congress passed the amendment with overwhelming support, and it achieved ratification at an unprecedented pace—taking just over three months, the fastest in U.S. history. This amendment added a new section to the Constitution, explicitly prohibiting federal and state governments from denying the right to vote to citizens aged 18 or older based on age. The swift ratification reflected broad bipartisan consensus and mounting public pressure to align civic duties and rights.The legal shift represented a significant expansion of suffrage in the United States, enfranchising millions of young people. It was also a notable example of constitutional change in response to contemporary social conditions and activism. States were subsequently required to amend their laws and election systems to accommodate the younger electorate, which has since played a key role in shaping political outcomes.Global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first half of 2025 grew in value, despite fewer overall deals, thanks to a surge in megadeals—particularly in Asia. Market uncertainties tied to President Trump's tariff initiatives, high interest rates, and geopolitical tension initially dampened expectations. However, confidence among bankers is rising, with many believing that the worst of the turbulence has passed. The U.S. equity markets, bolstered by record highs in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, have helped restore optimism for stronger M&A activity in the second half of the year.Preliminary data show $2.14 trillion in global deals from January through June 27, a 26% increase year-over-year, driven in part by Asia's doubling in activity to nearly $584 billion. North America saw a 17% rise in deal value to over $1 trillion. Large deals, such as Toyota's $33 billion supplier buyout and ADNOC's $18.7 billion acquisition of Santos, helped drive Asia-Pacific's share of global M&A to over 27%. Meanwhile, fewer total deals—down to 17,528 from over 20,000 last year—were offset by a 62% rise in transactions worth over $10 billion.Eased antitrust policies in the U.S. and a drop in market volatility contributed to a more favorable environment. Investment bankers are now more optimistic, citing a strong pipeline for the second half and renewed IPO activity. Institutional investors are re-engaging, further fueling expectations of continued M&A momentum.Global M&A powered by larger deals in first half, bankers show appetite for megadeals | ReutersThe U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled to curtail the use of “universal” injunctions—orders that block government policies nationwide—marking a major legal victory for President Donald Trump. This decision limits the ability of individual judges to halt federal actions across the entire country, reinforcing that relief should generally only apply to the plaintiffs involved. The ruling, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, aimed to rein in what some conservatives see as judicial overreach.However, this legal win may not help Trump implement one of his most controversial policies: an executive order seeking to deny birthright citizenship to U.S.-born children of non-citizen parents. Three lower court judges had already blocked the order, citing likely violations of the 14th Amendment. Although the Supreme Court narrowed the injunctions, it left room for opponents to pursue class-action suits or broader relief through state challenges.Legal scholars expect a wave of class-action cases and continued efforts by states and advocacy groups to block the order's implementation before the 30-day delay expires. States argue they need nationwide protection due to the administrative chaos such a policy would bring. Yet the Court declined to resolve whether states are entitled to broader injunctions, leaving that question to lower courts. If challengers fail to secure class-wide or state-level blocks, the executive order could go into effect unevenly across the country, creating legal confusion for families affected by it.Trump wins as Supreme Court curbs judges, but may yet lose on birthright citizenship | ReutersSenate Majority Leader John Thune is racing to meet President Donald Trump's July 4 deadline to pass a massive tax and spending bill, navigating deep divisions within the Republican Party. The $3.3 trillion legislation, which includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, is facing resistance from at least eight GOP senators. Key disagreements center around healthcare funding, renewable energy subsidies, and the bill's fiscal impact, including a proposed $5 trillion debt ceiling increase.Senators like Thom Tillis and Rand Paul are opposing the bill, citing concerns over Medicaid cuts and fiscal irresponsibility. Tillis, recently freed from political pressure after announcing he won't seek reelection, is expected to vote no. With a slim margin for passage, Thune can afford to lose only three Republican votes, counting on Vice President JD Vance to break a tie.Market reactions have been mixed; renewable energy stocks dropped due to proposed cuts to wind and solar tax incentives. Meanwhile, moderates are pushing to preserve Medicaid benefits and clean energy credits, warning of political fallout if millions lose health coverage. Senators like Ron Johnson are pushing for deeper Medicaid cuts to reduce the bill's overall cost.Trump has not engaged in policy details but is pressuring lawmakers to deliver the bill on time, using social media to criticize dissenters. The Senate is set for a long amendment session, with the House potentially voting on the final version by Wednesday. Whether Thune can secure the needed votes remains uncertain as the July 4 deadline approaches.Trump Tax Bill Hits Senate With GOP Torn by Competing DemandsIn the aftermath of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year, Wall Street firms are rushing to capitalize on a wave of lawsuits targeting utilities like Edison International and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. These fires, among the worst in U.S. history, destroyed over 12,000 structures and have spurred litigation that could result in tens of billions of dollars in damages. With law firms often operating on contingency fees and facing steep costs, many are turning to third-party litigation financing—a lightly regulated, fast-growing industry now valued at $16 billion in the U.S.Major financial players including Jefferies and Oppenheimer are brokering deals to provide multimillion-dollar loans to lawyers handling these complex cases. These loans, often subject to non-disclosure agreements, carry interest rates above 20% and are repaid only when the law firms recover damages. In addition to funding legal efforts, some investors are purchasing subrogation claims from insurers, betting on favorable court outcomes.California's legal doctrine of inverse condemnation makes it easier for plaintiffs to hold utilities liable without proving negligence, further enticing investors. While some attorneys refuse outside funding to preserve client interests, others argue that financing is essential for firms lacking deep capital reserves. Critics, including regulators and advocacy groups, are raising concerns about the opacity of the funding industry and the potential for conflicts of interest.Wall Street Backs Los Angeles Wildfire Lawsuits, Chasing Billions This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Psalm 90,Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty;yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.13 Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Admiral Jim Stockdale was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy — some of you have heard of him before. He was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War and he's most famous for an ordeal that began on September 9, 1965. He took off in his A-4 Skyhawk for a normal mission, but this time, on his way back, he got shot down, ejected from his plane, and landed in a village where he was captured by the enemy. They held him as a prisoner of war from 1965 to 1973 — he was kept in solitary confinement for four years, in leg irons for two years, and he was physically tortured at least 15 times.And he survived. He was later released and obviously everybody was fascinated by his story. Stockdale wrote a couple of books about his experience, but he was made most popular by a business book that includes an interview with him. In that book, the author asked him, How'd you do it? How'd you make it through that time?And Stockdale said here's the key:“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end […] with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality […].”In other words, you must hold together brutal facts and prevailing hope. This has become known as the “Stockdale Paradox” — or we could just call it the message of Psalm 90.Stockdale's answer is what we find in this psalm, which is relevant to all of us, because Psalm 90 is about life in a fallen world. The question behind this psalm is: How do you make it here? How do you do really live in this world? — that's the question. Anybody interested in that?! And this psalm shows us how in two parts: Verses 1–11 is You face the brutal facts.Verses 12–17 is You remember our prevailing hope.That's what we're gonna look at this morning. Father in heaven, thank you for your ancient words! And thank you for your Holy Spirit who is with us now. Speak to us, this morning, we pray, in Jesus's name, amen. Facing the Brutal Facts (verses 1–11)There are at least three ‘brutal' facts here, and as we look at them, I want us to think of these as facts that we would tell ourselves. So I'm gonna say them as things that you would say to yourself — #1 is this … if you want to make it in this world, face the fact that…1. God is God.Psalm 90 starts here:“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”Verse 1 shows us right away that Moses is looking up! He starts with “Lord, you” — which means he's reading his situation in light of the Lord. This is a prayer of faith. And so whatever else he might say in this psalm, we know first that he's saying it to God — he's bringing it to God. And he knows God. Verse 2:“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”God is God. And God didn't just start to be God yesterday, but he has always been God. He was God before there was anything else. Before the mountains of the earth — before even the earth itself — God was who he is. He's bigger than us; he's older than us, and he's in control. We don't need to say anything about ourselves until we first understand this: It's not our world that God is part of, but it's his world that we're part of it. It's not that we fit him into our plans, but we exist for his purposes. It's not our story that he serves, but it's his story that we find ourselves in.So before you get stuck in your own head — or if you need to get unstuck — remind yourself that God is God. I think Psalm 90:2 is a great verse to memorize. It's the foundational, barest fact of all facts. God is God!We start there. We say that to ourselves. And then, soon enough, we get to ourselves and we realize that if God is God, we are not God. We are creatures. We are created. We're made. We are not from everlasting to everlasting, but instead we're time-bound.One of the interesting things of this psalm is the prevalence of time language. Just listen to all these words used: Generations, years, morning, evening, days. These words show up 15 different times in 17 verses. And what they're doing is they're forming the confines in which we live. When it comes to us, there's a beginning and an end to our lives here …And that brings us to the second brutal fact. Face the fact that…2. You will die. This is where Moses goes next, in verse 3. He's says to God, You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”And this sounds like Genesis 3:19. The mention of dust alongside the allusion to death takes us back to the Garden of Eden and the curse of sin, and that helps make sense of Moses as the author of this psalm. Moses, perhaps more than anybody, was well acquainted with the brutal facts of the human condition. He wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, including this quote from Genesis — so he knew the story well! He knew everything from the creation of man to the fall of man to how the reality of sin played itself out in the idolatry and rebellion of the people of Israel. Moses wrote the origin story, and he had a front row seat to its implications.And Moses knew that death was the consequence of sin.That's something we don't tend to think about. We know death is certain, but we don't usually connect it to the curse. We don't think when someone dies: This person died because of God's judgment on sin. But that's where Moses goes! Look at verse 7:“For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”Verse 11:“Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?”Moses connects the dots between God's judgment and death, and he leads us to do the same. That's the point of this rhetorical question in verse 11. He says Consider this! Think about this — because you probably haven't!Do you realize how effective God's curse on sin has been? God meant what he said when he told Adam in Genesis 2:17,“You shall surely die.”And for thousands of years, for billions and billions of people — for 110 people around the world every minute of every day — God has proven what he said. Every funeral you ever been to. Every loss in your life. Every graveyard you see with rows and rows of tombstones. They all testify to at least one fact: death is the curse of sin that God said it would be — Genesis 3:19, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That is the only reason people die! Because God said that's what sin would bring. Because that's the judgment of God that sin would cost — God has never stopped paying that out. There is no escape.And for most of history, humans have been more in touch with their mortality than we are today.Today, as a society at large, we prefer to distract ourselves from it or numb ourselves to it. But that wasn't the case even 100 years ago.This Spring, Melissa and I were looking around at an antique shop, and I found this old framed print called “The Ages of Man.” It's an illustration of a man in eleven stages of life. At the center of it, there's the Garden of Eden and Adam eating the fruit — the fall of man which brought the curse — and then over to the left there's a stair climb up to a peak, and then a decline — it's goes up and then down, from cradle to grave. It's a visual reminder that you're gonna die.So I bought it … and brought it home, and put it in my study. And as I researched it, come to find out, there were countless prints like this, or iterations of it, that started circulating in the 16th century in the Western world. This particular one was published in 1906, but there are thousands and thousands of them in several different languages, and people used to have these prints hanging up in their homes and they'd see it everyday. We can hardly even think about our mortality. But brothers and sisters, friends, Psalm 90 is clear. You're going to die. Face it. Now to #3 … if you want to make it in this world, face the fact that…3. Life is hard. In case you thought death was the worst part, think again. The worst part, the brutalist fact, is that life is hard. And it's hard in part because it's so brief. That's the real contrast between God and us in Psalm 90. He is from everlasting to everlasting, and us … well … we get swept away with the rain. We're like a dream. We're like grass that's renewed in the morning, but then by evening, it's gone. Verse 9: our years come to an end like a sigh. Sigh — and we're gone.To really bring this point down for us, Moses gives a number in verse 10: Seventy years. That's the average. And this is fascinating. Think about this. Moses wrote this thousands of years ago — and there are different life expectancies in different parts of the world and there's been a little variance the past 200 years, but, altogether, 70 is about the average! Moses is right, and he's been right for a long time. Now, for some, Moses says, you might get to eighty. But you're talking that's an elite league.But 70–80 has been the standard life expectancy for most of human history — that's fascinating. Back before the flood, people lived a lot longer (I think that's the reference in verse 4). Kenan lived 910 years; Methuselah lived 969 years — that's a good run, but even that is like nothing before God. Methuselah's life to God is like yesterday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon! — that's a thousand years to God, so what about for 80 years? 70? Your life?It's a passing shadow. A vapor. And of that little vapor, that teeny little span, verse 10 says, is “but toil and trouble.”Wait, are we in Ecclesiastes? This sounds like Job on the worst day of his life (see Job 14:1–2)!No, we're in the psalms, and Psalm 90 is true. In that illustration of the stages of life — that picture now in my study — there's a caption beneath each decade that describes the decade, and the older the man gets, the bleaker the caption is (I had to use Google translate because it's in Swedish). But the caption under age 90 says, “At 90 years old, lame and bent, he has lost all memory of the joys of life.”It's kinda sad, but it's true to life under the curse. It's Psalm 90. And we need it. Now, of course, we can push back on all of this with some legitimate “whattabouts” — Whattabout this? Whattabout that? There are many blessings in this life! God's mercy is more! Amen! … but through verse 11, we need to hear Psalm 90 as it is. We find here the brutal facts about life in this world:God is God (not you).You're going to die.The brief time you have here is hard. Stockdale would say you gotta face the facts. Hold it here.But that's not the ending. Brutal facts are met with prevailing hope, and we find that in verse 12–17. Remember Our Prevailing Hope (verses 12–17)Verses 12–17 are six verses of petitions. Each verse is Moses asking God to do something surrounded by the background of these brutal facts. And we see two things here about hope.First, we see what hope does. How it drives Moses to pray a certain way.But secondly, and I think most important, we need to know what the hope actually is.We'll start with the is.What Hope IsIt's verses 13–14, and these are two verses I want to make sure you see. So everybody, do what you can to look at verse 13. Find verse 13.Moses prays: “13 Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”And the keyword here is “morning” in verse 14. It's the third time it's used in the psalm. Before I explain it, let me tell you first how I've always read this verse: I've understood it to mean that the way to rejoice and be glad all your days is to start each day, to spend each morning, getting your heart happy in Jesus.Meditate on the word of God, remember the love of God — private worship every morning. If you do that every morning, your days will be glad.That's how I've read Psalm 90:14, and that's been my practice, and guess what? I think it's true!I encourage all of you to start each morning in the word of God — be satisfied with the steadfast love of God! And, at the same time, I don't think that's what this verse is saying … because the word “morning” here is not referring to the literal morning.When “morning” is used in verses 5–6, it's symbolic of the earlier years of a person's life — it's the ascending stairs. When “morning” is used here in verse 14, it's symbolic of the new day of resurrected life. It's the reality of God doing what Moses prays in verse 13. Return, God! Come back! Fulfill your promises! Restore your people! Make all things new!In other words, “morning” in verse 14 is talking about heaven — the eternal morning.Moses is saying: if we can be satisfied with God's steadfast love in heaven — if that's our future, if God does that — then all our days here, on the way to that future, can have joy and gladness. Because we know that whatever happens here, the best yet to come! Whatever happens here, the worst thing is never the last thing. We have a future! We have a future with God! That's our hope. That's what the “morning” is referring to, and this starts to make sense. The petitions here demand this.In verse 15, Moses prays,“Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us …”He's saying, For as much time as it's been hard here, give us that same amount of joy! But look, if life itself is hard, if all of life is “toil and trouble” (which is what verses 1–11 tell us) then verse 15 requires another life.Moses is asking for a new life — that's the hope of heaven. The prevailing hope of Psalm 90 is a new heavens and new earth where we will be with God, in his fullness of joy, where at his right hand are pleasures forevermore.That's what the hope is, and now what does the hope do?What Hope DoesTwo things: work and wisdom.First, the hope of heaven means our work matters.Verse 17, Moses says:“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!”Now this is saying a lot! It means that the brutal facts of verses 1–11 are not meant to make us despair, but to make us sober. The reality of our creatureliness, the certainty of death, the brevity and hardships of life — none of those things mean that life here has no meaning if heaven is real.If this world is all we have, then sure, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry — Blah to everything!” But if heaven is real, if we have a future with God, and our lives here are consequential to that future, then our work here matters. We have things to do, and we should do them. We plant and grow and harvest and share. We design and build and steward and multiply. We are blessed to bless, saved to serve, given to that we might give. And we should be steadfast in these things, immovable, always abounding in this work because we know that because heaven is real, our work here is not in vain (see 1 Corinthians 15:58).Our work matters.Second, the hope of heaven means we need wisdom.This is verse 12: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”Now, what I'm about to say is going to be so plain and simple you're gonna be like “Duh!” Here it is: If heaven is real, and your life here matters, then it's wise to know your life here is brief.This is starting with the end in mind. Start with heaven. That's our future, church. Jesus is real and he has gone to prepare a place for us, and he's going to come again and take us to himself that where he is we may be also. Jesus said that! Heaven is as real as Jesus is!And then, you mean to tell me that my life in this world has meaning for that?! My life has consequence for that? God can use my life here to impact heaven?Sign me up! — How much time do I have?!Not a lot of time. Limited time. Your days are numbered. Now what effect does that have? It gives us wisdom. It gives us wisdom to make the most of the time we have.I have another little framed picture in my study. Melissa's late grandmother gave it to me (and I think it also came from an antique shop). But it says, Just one life, 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last.Josiah Bennett exhorted us with these words a few weeks ago. This is how we want to live. It's how I'm trying to live!We recognize the brevity of life here, and we do it full of the hope of heaven, the realness of Jesus, at the center of our minds and hearts — hold those two things together … heaven is real and life here is short … wisdom!This is our prevailing hope: Heaven is real. So our work matters and we need wisdom. So says Moses in Psalm 90 … face the brutal facts; remember our prevailing hope — which is not just a strategy for survival, this is how we thrive. This is not merely about how to make it in this world, but it's how to have joy and gladness all our days even amid the sorrows.Father, would you do that?This now brings us to the Table.The TableOne thing I want to make clear this morning is that the hope that Moses talks about here, and our hope, is not abstract, but it's personal. There's no doubt in the Psalm, anytime there's language about God returning, or the restoration of God's people, it's always pointing to the Messiah. Jesus is the person of our hope. Jesus himself says, in Revelation 22,“I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16).He is the one we hope in. He is what makes heaven heaven. We look to him this morning, and I want to invite you to do that. If you've never put your faith in Jesus, you're stuck in verses 1–11. Without Jesus, there is no hope. But you can have hope this morning. Come to Jesus. Ask him to save you. Make Jesus your hope. And for those of us who have done that — if you've trusted in Jesus — at this table we remember him and give him thanks! We want his glory to be magnified.

Viet Thanh Nguyen, Vietnam War refugee and Pulitzer Prize-winning USC professor, celebrates the 160th anniversary of “The Nation” magazine with his unique take on America's relationship with the rest of the world.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

Vietnam War vet and Guitars 4 Vets SA ambassador Jim Mavromatis. Listen live on the FIVEAA Player. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram. Subscribe on YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode with Brad Lea, Douglas Greenlaw shares his extraordinary journey from the frontlines of the Vietnam War to leading major media brands like MTV and Nickelodeon. He recounts intense combat experiences—including surviving a 15-minute clinical death—and how those moments shaped his fearless, purpose-driven leadership style.   Douglas' links https://www.douglasgreenlaw.com https://thegreenlawfoundation.org https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100016646220232

The Jack Carr Book Club June 2025 selection is POINT OF IMPACT by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stephen Hunter.POINT OF IMPACT introduces readers to legendary Marine Corps sniper Bob Lee Swagger, a war hero turned recluse who is lured out of retirement for one final mission—only to find himself framed as the patsy in a high-level assassination plot. With the country hunting him down, Swagger must rely on instinct, skill, and raw grit to uncover the truth and bring the real conspirators to justice.A modern classic of the thriller genre, the novel blends precision marksmanship, deep psychological tension, and breakneck pacing. POINT OF IMPACT was adapted for both television and film as SHOOTER.Stephen Hunter is the author of over 20 novels and was the chief film critic for The Washington Post, where he earned the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism. His fiction is known for its authentic detail, razor-sharp prose, and unflinching portrayals of American warriors.In this episode, Jack and Stephen dive into the roots of the Bob Lee Swagger character, the cultural legacy of the Vietnam War, the evolution of the modern thriller, and what it means to write with authenticity, precision, and heart.FOLLOW STEPHENWebsite - https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Stephen-Hunter/1485163 FOLLOW JACKInstagram - @JackCarrUSA X - @JackCarrUSAFacebook - @JackCarr YouTube - @JackCarrUSA SPONSORSCRY HAVOC – A Tom Reece Thriller https://www.officialjackcarr.com/books/cry-havoc/Bravo Company Manufacturing - BCM Stock MOD3:https://bravocompanyusa.com/bcm-stock-mod-3-black/  and on Instagram @BravoCompanyUSATHE SIGs of Jack Carr:Visit https://www.sigsauer.com/ and on Instagram @sigsauerinc Jack Carr Gear: Explore the gear here https://jackcarr.co/gear

Sometimes the most important thing isn't fixing someone's pain — it's simply being willing to sit with them while they endure it. As we draw near the end of National PTSD Awareness Month, we'll find out how a tragic death became a bridge between father and son, and how the work of healing trauma never really ends.

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 Producer Swati Rayasam showcases a community panel of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech.   Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – “Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us” SHOW TRANSCRIPT Swati Rayasam: You are tuned in to APEX Express on KPFA. My name is Swati Rayasam and I'm back as your special producer for this episode. Tonight we have an incredible community panel titled Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison. This panel explores the history of how discriminatory exclusion policies during times of heightened fears of national security and [00:01:00] safety have threatened our communities in the past, and how the activities of the current administration threaten our core constitutional rights, raising the specter of politicization and polarization of citizenship, immigration visas, naturalization rights, and the right to free speech. I'll pass it on to UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Professor Mike Chang to kick us off. Mike and Harvey: We're starting on Berkeley time, right on time at three 10, and I want to introduce Harvey Dong. Harvey Dong: Okay. The sponsors for today's event include, AADS- Asian American and Diaspora studies program, uc, Berkeley, Asian American Research Center, the Center for Race and Gender Department of Ethnic Studies- all part of uc, Berkeley. Off campus, we have the following community groups. Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Law Caucus, [00:02:00] Asian Prisoners Support Committee, and East Wind Books. Okay, so that's, quite a few in terms of coalition people coming together. My name is Harvey Dong and I'm also a lecturer in the AADS program and part of the ethnic studies department. I can say that I exist here as the result of birthright citizenship won by Ancestor Wong Kim Ark in 1898. Otherwise, I would not be here. We want to welcome everyone here today, for this important panel discussion titled: Deport, Exclude, Revoke, Imprison – Immigration and citizenship rights during crisis. Yes, we are in a deep crisis today. The Chinese characters for crisis is way G in Mandarin or way gay in [00:03:00] Cantonese, which means danger and opportunity. We are in a moment of danger and at the same time in a moment of opportunity. Our communities are under attack from undocumented, documented, and those with citizenship. We see urgency in coming together. In 1898, the US Supreme Court case, US versus Wong Kim Ark held that under the 14th Amendment birthright, citizenship applies to all people born in the United States. Regardless of their race or their parents' national origin or immigration status. On May 15th this year, the Supreme Court will hear a President Donald Trump's request to implement an executive order that will end birthright citizenship already before May 15th, [00:04:00] deportations of US citizen children are taking place. Recently, three US citizen children, one 2-year-old with cancer have been deported with their undocumented parents. The numbers of US citizen children are much higher being deported because it's less covered in the press. Unconstitutional. Yes, definitely. And it's taking place now. Also today, more than 2.7 million southeast Asian Americans live in the US but at least 16,000 community members have received final orders of deportation, placing their lives and families in limbo. This presents a mental health challenge and extreme economic hardship for individuals and families who do not know whether their next day in the US will be their last. Wong Kim Ark's [00:05:00] struggle and the lessons of Wong Kim Ark, continue today. His resistance provides us with a grounding for our resistance. So they say deport, exclude, revoke, imprison. We say cease and desist. You can say that every day it just seems like the system's gone amuk. There's constant attacks on people of color, on immigrants and so forth. And our only solution, or the most important solution is to resist, legally resist, but also to protest, to demand cease and desist. Today brings together campus and community people. We want you all to be informed because if you're uninformed , you can't do anything. Okay? You have to know where things are at. It's nothing new. What they're trying to do, in 1882, [00:06:00] during times of economic crisis, they scapegoated Asian Americans. Today there's economic, political crisis. And the scapegoating continues. They're not doing anything new. You know, it's old stuff, but we have to realize that, and we have to look at the past in terms of what was done to fight it and also build new solidarities today. Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. He went through, lots of obstacles. He spent three months in Angel Island he was arrested after he won his case because he was constantly being harassed wherever he went. His kids when they came over were also, spotted as being Wong Kim Ark's, children, and they too had to spend months at Angel Island. So Wong Kim Ark did not take his situation sitting down. We need to learn from him today. Our [00:07:00] next, special guest is Mr. Norman Wong, a good friend of mine. He was active here in the third world Liberation Front strike that led to ethnic studies. He did a lots of work for the development of Asian American studies and we've been out in touch for about, what, 40 years? So I'm really happy that he's able to come back to Berkeley and to talk about yourself, if you wish, maybe during the Q and a, but to talk about , the significance of your great-grandfather's case. Okay, so Norman Wong, let's give him a hand. Norman Wong: Hello, my name's Norman Wong. I'm the great grandson, Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark was [00:08:00] born in the USA, like my great-grandfather. I, too was born American in the same city, San Francisco, more than 75 years after him. We are both Americans, but unlike him, my citizenship has never been challenged. His willingness to stand up and fight made the difference for his struggles, my humble thanks. Wong Kim Ark however, was challenged more than once. In late 1889 as an American, he traveled to China in July, 1890. He returned to his birth city. He had his papers and had no problems with reentry. In 1895, after a similar trip, he was stopped from disembarking and was placed into custody for five months aboard ship in port. [00:09:00] Citizenship denied, the reason the Chinese exclusion Act 1882. He had to win this case in district court, provide $250 bail and then win again in the United States Supreme Court, March 28th, 1898. Only from these efforts, he was able to claim his citizenship granted by birthright from the 14th Amendment and gain his freedom. That would not be the last challenge to his being American. My mother suffered similar treatment. She like my great-grandfather, was born in America. In 1942, she was forced with her family and thousands of other Japanese Americans to relocation camps an experience unspoken by her family. [00:10:00] I first learned about Japanese American internment from history books. Executive order 9066 was the command. No due process, citizenship's rights stripped. She was not American enough. Now we have executive order 14160. It is an attack on birthright citizenship. We cannot let this happen. We must stand together. We are a nation of immigrants. What kind of nation are we to be with stateless children? Born to no country. To this, I say no. We as Americans need to embrace each other and [00:11:00] cherish each new life. Born in the USA. Thank you. Harvey Dong: Thank you, Norman. And Annie Lee, will moderate, the following panel, involving campus and community representatives who will be sharing their knowledge and experience. Annie Lee, Esquire is an attorney. She's also the, managing director of policy for Chinese Affirmative Action, and she's also, heavily involved in the birthright citizenship issue. Annie Lee: Thank you so much Harvey for that very warm welcome and thank you again to Norman for your remarks. I think it's incredible that you're speaking up at this moment, to preserve your ancestors' legacy because it impacts not just you and him, but all of us [00:12:00] here. So thank you. As Harvey said, my name is Annie Lee and I have this honor of working with this amazing panel of esteemed guest we have today. So I will ask each of them to introduce themselves. And I will start, because I would love to hear your name, pronouns. Title and organization as well as your personal or professional relationship with the US Immigration System. So my name's Annie. I use she her pronouns. I'm the managing Director of policy at Chinese for Affirmative Action, which is a non-profit based in San Francisco Chinatown. We provide direct services to the monolingual working class Chinese community, and also advocate for policies to benefit all Asian Americans. My relationship with the immigration system is I am the child of two Chinese immigrants who did not speak English. And so I just remember lots of time spent on the phone when I was a kid with INS, and then it became U-S-C-I-S just trying to ask them what happened to [00:13:00] a family member's application for naturalization, for visas so I was the interpreter for them growing up and even today. I will pass it to Letty. Leti Volpp: Hi everybody. Thank you so much, Annie. Thank you Harvey. Thank you, Norman. That was profoundly moving to hear your remarks and I love the way that you framed our conversation, Harvey. I'm Leti Volpp. I am the Robert d and Leslie k Raven, professor of Law and Access to Justice at the Berkeley Law, school. I'm also the director of the campus wide , center for Race and Gender, which is a legacy of the Third World Liberation Front, and the 1999, student movement, that led to the creation of the center. I work on immigration law and citizenship theory, and I am the daughter, second of four, children of my mother who was an immigrant from China, and my father who was an immigrant [00:14:00] from Germany. So I'll pass it. Thank you. Ke Lam: Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Norman. So my name's Key. I go by he, him pronouns or Nghiep “Ke” Lam, is my full name. I work for an organization called Asian Prison Support Committee. It's been around for like over two decades now, and it started behind three guys advocating for ethics study, Asian and Pacific Islander history. And then it was starting in San Quent State Prison. All three of them pushed for ethics study, hard and the result is they all was put into solitary confinement. And many years later, after all three got out, was Eddie Zang, Mike Romero and Mike no. And when they got out, Eddie came back and we pushed for ethics study again, and we actually got it started in 2013. And it's been going on to today. Then the programs is called Roots, restoring our Original True Self. So reconnecting with who we are. And one of Eddie's main, mottos that really stuck with me. He said, we need to all connect to our chi, right? And I'm like, okay, I understand what chi is, and he said no. He [00:15:00] said, you need to connect to your culture, your history, which result to equal your identity, who you are as a person. So, the more we study about our history and our culture, like, birthright citizen, it empower us to know, who we are today. Right? And also part of that is to how do we take down the veil of shame in our community, the veil of trauma that's impacting our community as well. We don't talk about issue that impact us like immigration. So I'm a 1.5 generation. So I was born in Vietnam from Chinese family that migrant from China to Vietnam started business after the fall of Vietnam War. We all got kicked out but more than that, I am directly impacted because I am a stranded deportee, somebody that got their, legal status taken away because of criminal conviction. And as of any moment now, I could actually be taken away. So I live in that, right at that threshold of like uncertainty right now. And the people I work with, which are hundreds of people, are fixing that same uncertainty.[00:16:00] Annie Lee: Thank you, Ke. I'm gonna pass it to our panelists who are joining us virtually, including Bun. Can you start and then we'll pass it to Chris after. Bun: Hey everybody, thank you for having me. My name is Bun. I'm the co-director of Asian Prison Support Committee. I'm also, 1.5 generation former incarcerated and under, direct impact of immigration. Christopher Lapinig: Hi everyone. My name is Christopher Lapinig, my pronouns are he, him and Sha. I am a senior staff attorney on the Democracy and National Initiatives Team at Asian Law Caucus, which you may know is the country's first and oldest legal aid in civil rights organization, dedicated to serving, low income immigrant and underserved AAPI communities. In terms of my connection to the immigration system, I am, I also am a beneficiary of a birthright citizenship, and my parents are both immigrants from the Philippines. I was born in New York City. My [00:17:00] extended family spans both in the US and the Philippines. After graduating law school and clerking, my fellowship project was focused on providing litigation and immigration services to, survivors of labor trafficking in the Filipino community. While working at Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles, I also was engaged in, class action litigation, challenging the first Trump administration's practices, detaining immigrants in the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Thank you Bun. Let's start off by talking about birthright citizenship since it's a big topic these days. On the very, very first day of Trump's administration, he issued a flurry of executive orders, including one that would alter birthright citizenship. But I wanna take us back to the beginning because why do we have this right? It is a very broad right? If you were born in the United States, you are an American citizen. Where does that come from? So I wanna pose the first question to Letty to talk about the [00:18:00] origins of birthright citizenship., Leti Volpp: Very happy to. So what's being fought about is a particular clause in the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, which says, all persons born are naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. Okay, so that's the text. There's been a very long understanding of what this text means, which says that regardless of the immigration status of one's parents, all children born here are entitled to birthright citizenship with three narrow exceptions, which I will explain. So the Trump administration executive order, wants to exclude from birthright citizenship, the children of undocumented immigrants, and the children of people who are here on lawful temporary visas. So for example, somebody here on an [00:19:00] F1 student visa, somebody on a H one B worker visa, somebody here is a tourist, right? And basically they're saying we've been getting this clause wrong for over a hundred years. And I will explain to you why I think they're making this very dubious argument. Essentially when you think about where the 14th amendment came from, in the United States, in the Antebellum era, about 20% of people were enslaved and there were lots of debates about citizenship. Who should be a citizen? Who could be a citizen? And in 1857, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case called Dread Scott, where they said that no person who was black, whether free or enslaved, could ever be a citizen. The Civil War gets fought, they end slavery. And then the question arose, well, what does this mean for citizenship? Who's a citizen of the United States? And in 1866, Congress [00:20:00] enacts a law called the Civil Rights Act, which basically gave rights to people that were previously denied and said that everybody born in the United States is a birthright citizen. This gets repeated in the 14th Amendment with the very important interpretation of this clause in Norman's great-grandfather's case, the case of Wong Kim Ark. So this came before the Supreme Court in 1898. If you think about the timing of this, the federal government had basically abandoned the reconstruction project, which was the project of trying to newly enfranchised, African Americans in the United States. The Supreme Court had just issued the decision, Plessy versus Ferguson, which basically legitimated the idea that, we can have separate, but equal, as a doctrine of rights. So it was a nation that was newly hostile to the goals of the Reconstruction Congress, and so they had this case come before them, whereas we heard [00:21:00] from Norman, we have his great-grandfather born in San Francisco, Chinatown, traveling back and forth to China. His parents having actually left the United States. And this was basically presented as a test case to the Supreme Court. Where the government tried to argue, similar to what the Trump administration is arguing today, that birthright citizenship, that clause does not guarantee universal birthright citizenship saying that children of immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States because their parents are also not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The Supreme Court took over a year to decide the case. They knew that it would be controversial, and the majority of the court said, this provision is clear. It uses universal language. It's intended to apply to children of all immigrants. One of the things that's interesting about [00:22:00] what the, well I'll let Chris actually talk about what the Trump administration, is trying to do, but let me just say that in the Wong Kim Ark decision, the Supreme Court makes very clear there only three narrow exceptions to who is covered by the 14th Amendment. They're children of diplomats. So for example, if the Ambassador of Germany is in the United States, and, she has a daughter, like her daughter should not become a birthright citizen, right? This is why there's diplomatic immunity. Why, for example, in New York City, there are millions of dollars apparently owed to the city, in parking tickets by ambassadors who don't bother to pay them because they're not actually subject to the jurisdiction in the United States. Okay? Second category, children of Native Americans who are seen as having a sovereign relationship of their own, where it's like a nation within a nation, kind of dynamic, a country within a country. And there were detailed conversations in the congressional debate about the [00:23:00] 14th Amendment, about both of these categories of people. The third category, were children born to a hostile invading army. Okay? So one argument you may have heard people talk about is oh, I think of undocumented immigrants as an invading army. Okay? If you look at the Wong Kim Ark decision, it is very clear that what was intended, by this category of people were a context where the hostile invading army is actually in control of that jurisdiction, right? So that the United States government is not actually governing that space so that the people living in it don't have to be obedient, to the United States. They're obedient to this foreign power. Okay? So the thread between all three of these exceptions is about are you having to be obedient to the laws of the United States? So for example, if you're an undocumented immigrant, you are subject to being criminally prosecuted if you commit a crime, right? Or [00:24:00] you are potentially subjected to deportation, right? You have to obey the law of the United States, right? You are still subject to the jurisdiction thereof. Okay? But the Trump administration, as we're about to hear, is making different arguments. Annie Lee: Thank you so much, Leti for that historical context, which I think is so important because, so many different communities of color have contributed to the rights that we have today. And so what Leti is saying here is that birthright citizenship is a direct result of black liberation and fighting for freedom in the Civil War and making sure that they were then recognized as full citizens. And then reinforced, expanded, by Wong Kim Ark. And now we are all beneficiaries and the vast majority of Americans get our citizenship through birth. Okay? That is true for white people, black people. If you're born here, you get your ci. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to go to court. You don't have to say anything. You are a US citizen. And now as Leti referenced, there's this fringe legal theory that, thankfully we've got lawyers like [00:25:00] Chris who are fighting this. So Chris, you're on the ALC team, one of many lawsuits against the Trump administration regarding this unlawful executive order. Can you tell us a little bit about the litigation and the arguments, but I actually really want you to focus on what are the harms of this executive order? Sometimes I think particularly if you are a citizen, and I am one, sometimes we take what we have for granted and you don't even realize what citizenship means or confers. So Chris, can you talk about the harms if this executive order were to go through? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. As Professor Volpp sort of explained this executive order really is an assault on a fundamental constitutional right that has existed for more than a hundred years at this point, or, well, about 125 years. And if it is allowed to be implemented, the harms would really be devastating and far reach. So first, you know, children born in the us, the [00:26:00] parents without permanent status, as permissible said, would be rendered effectively stateless, in many cases. And these are of course, children, babies who have never known any other home, yet they would be denied the basic rights of citizen. And so the order targets a vast range of families, and not just undocument immigrants, but also those with work visas, student visas, humanitarian productions like TPS, asylum seekers, fleeing persecution, DACA recipients as well. And a lot of these communities have deep ties to Asian American community. To our history, and of course are, essential part, of our social fabric. In practical terms, children born without birthright citizenship would be denied access to healthcare through Medicaid, through denied access to snap nutritional assistance, even basic IDs like social security numbers, passports. And then as they grow older, they'd be barred from voting, serving on juries and even [00:27:00] working. And then later on in life, they might be, if they, are convicted of a crime and make them deportable, they could face deportation to countries that they never stepped, foot off basically. And so this basically is this executive order threatened at risk, creating exactly what the drafters of the 14th Amendment wanted to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of people in the United States. It'll just get amplified over time. If you can imagine if there's one generation of people born without citizenship, there will be a second generation born and a third and fourth, and it'll just get amplified over time. And so it truly is just, hard to get your mind around exactly what the impact of this EO would be. Annie Lee: Thanks, Chris. And where are we in the litigation right now? Harvey referenced, a hearing at the Supreme Court on May 15th, but, tell us a little bit about the injunction and the arguments on the merits and when that can, when we can expect [00:28:00] that. Christopher Lapinig: Yeah, so there were a number of lawsuits filed immediately after, the administration issued its exec order on January 20th. Asian Law Caucus we filed with the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project. Literally we were the first lawsuit, literally hours after the executive order was issued. By early February, federal judges across the country had issued nationwide preliminary injunctions blocking implementation of the order. Our case is actually not a nationwide injunction. And so there're basically, I believe three cases that are going up to the Supreme Court. And, the Trump administration appealed to various circuit courts to try to undo these injunctions. But all circuit courts upheld the injunctive relief and and so now the Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments on May 15th. And so it has not actually ruled on whether or not the executive order is constitutional, but it's going to. I mean, it remains to be seen exactly what they're going to decide but may [00:29:00] 15th is the next date is the big date on our calendar. Annie Lee: Yeah. So the Trump administration is arguing that these judges in a particular district, it's not fair if they get to say that the entire country, is barred from receiving this executive order. Is that procedurally correct. Judges, in order to consider whether to grants an injunction, they have a whole battery of factors that they look at, including one, which is like likelihood of winning on the merits. Because if something is unconstitutional, it's not really great to say, yeah, you can let this executive order go through. And then like later when the court cases finally worked their way, like a year later, pull back from that. And so that's, it's very frustrating to see this argument. And it's also unfair and would be very messy if the states that had republican Attorneys General who did not litigate, why would you allow the executive order to go forward in those red states and not in these blue state? It really, I would say federalism run terribly amuck. Swati Rayasam: [00:30:00] You are tuned in to APEX Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley,. 88.1. KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org. Annie Lee: But anyway, let's see back off from the actual case because I think what we're really talking about and what Chris has alluded to is, these cases about birthright citizenship, all the immigration policy is essentially determining who belongs here. Who belongs here. That's what immigration policy is at its heart. And we see that the right wing is weaponizing that question, who belongs here? And they are going after very vulnerable populations, undocumented people, people who are formerly incarcerated. So Bun if you can talk about how, is the formerly incarcerated community, like targeted immigrants, targeted for deportation? What is going on with this community that I feel like most people might not know about? Thank [00:31:00] you. Bun: Yes. For our folks that are incarcerated and former incarcerated, we are the easiest target for deportation because we are in custody and in California, CDCR colludes with ICE and on the day that we are to be paroled they're at the door, cuffing us up and taking us to detention. I'm glad to hear Harvey say, this is a time of fear for us and also opportunity. Right now, our whole community, the Southeast Asian community, mainly are very effective with immigration. In the past 25 years, mostly it was the Cambodian community that was being targeted and deported. At this moment, they are targeting, all of the Southeast Asian community, which historically was never deported because of the politics and agreements, of the Vietnamese community. And now the Laos community thats more concerning, that are being targeted for deportation. Trump have opened a new opportunity for us as a community to join [00:32:00] together and understand each other's story, and understand each other's fear. Understand where we're going about immigration. From birthright to crimmagration. A lot of times folks that are under crimmigration are often not spoken about because of our cultural shame, within our own family and also some of our community member felt safe because the political agreements. Now that everybody's in danger, we could stand together and understand each other's issue and support each other because now we could see that history has repeated itself. Again, we are the scapegoat. We are here together fighting the same issue in different circumstances, but the same issue. Annie Lee: But let me follow up. What are these, historical agreements that you're talking about that used to feel like used to at least shield the community that now aren't in place anymore? Bun: Yeah. After the Clinton administration, uh, passed the IRA [immigration reform act] a lot of Southeast Asian nations were asked to [00:33:00] take their nationals back. Even though we as 1.5 generation, which are the one that's mostly impacted by this, had never even stepped into the country. Most of us were born in a refugee camp or we're too young to even remember where they came from. Countries like Cambodian folded right away because they needed the financial aid and whatever, was offering them and immediately a three with a MOU that they will take their citizens since the early two thousands. Vietnam had a stronger agreement, which, they would agree to only take folks that immigrated here after 1995 and anybody before 1995, they would not take, and Laos have just said no until just a few months ago. Laos has said no from when the, uh, the act was passed in 1995, the IRRIRA. Mm-hmm. So the big change we have now is Vietnam had signed a new MOU saying that they will take folks after 1995 [00:34:00] in the first administration and more recently, something that we never thought, happened so fast, was Laos agreeing to take their citizen back. And then the bigger issue about our Laos community is, it's not just Laos folks. It's the Hmong folks, the Myan folks, folks, folks that are still in danger of being returned back 'cause in the Vietnam War, they colluded and supported the Americans in the Vietnam War and were exiled out and kicked out, and were hunted down because of that. So, at this moment, our folks are very in fear, especially our loud folks, not knowing what's gonna happen to 'em. Ke Lam: So for folks that don't know what IRR means it means, illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It actually happened after the Oklahoma bombing, which was caused by a US citizen, a white US citizen. Yeah. But immigration law came out of it. That's what's crazy about it. Annie Lee: Can you tell us, how is APSC advocating to protect the community right now because you [00:35:00] are vulnerable? Ke Lam: So we had to censor a lot of our strategies. At first we used to use social media as a platform to show our work and then to support our community. But the government use that as a target to capture our people. So we stopped using social media. So we've been doing a lot of on the ground movement, such as trying to get local officials to do resolutions to push Governor Newsom to party more of our community members. The other thing is we hold pardon workshops, so try and get folks to get, either get a pardon or vacate their sentence. So commute their sentence to where it become misdemeanor is not deportable anymore. Support letters for our folks writing support letters to send to the governor and also to city official, to say, Hey, please help pardon our community. I think the other thing we are actually doing is solidarity work with other organizations, African American community as well as Latin communities because we've been siloed for so long and we've been banned against each other, where people kept saying like, they've taken all our job when I grew up. That's what they told us, right? [00:36:00] But we, reality that's not even true. It was just a wedge against our community. And then so it became the good versus bad narrative. So our advocacy is trying to change it it's called re-storying you know, so retelling our story from people that are impacted, not from people, not from the one percenters in our own community. Let's say like we're all good, do you, are there's parts of our community that like that's the bad people, right? But in reality, it affects us all. And so advocacy work is a lot of different, it comes in a lot of different shapes and forms, but definitely it comes from the community. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. You teed me up perfectly because there is such a good versus bad immigrant narrative that takes root and is really hard to fight against. And that's why this administration is targeting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated folks and another group that, are being targeted as people who are accused of crimes, including Venezuelan immigrants who are allegedly part of a gang. So, Leti how is the government deporting [00:37:00] people by simply accusing them of being a part of a gang? Like how is that even possible? Leti Volpp: Yeah, so one thing to think about is there is this thing called due process, right? It's guaranteed under the constitution to all persons. It's not just guaranteed to citizens. What does it mean? Procedural due process means there should be notice, there should be a hearing, there should be an impartial judge. You should have the opportunity to present evidence. You should have the opportunity to cross examinee. You should have the opportunity to provide witnesses. Right? And basically Trump and his advisors are in real time actively trying to completely eviscerate due process for everybody, right? So Trump recently said, I'm doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our country. But the courts don't seem to want me to do that. We cannot give everyone a trial because to do so would take without exaggeration, 200 years. And then Stephen Miller said the judicial process is for Americans. [00:38:00] Immediate deportation is for illegal aliens. Okay. Quote unquote. Right. So I think one thing to notice is, as we're hearing from all of our speakers are like the boxes, the categories into which people are put. And what's really disturbing is to witness how once somebody's put in the box of being quote unquote criminal gang banger terrorists, like the American public seems to be like, oh, okay you can do what you want to this person. There's a whole history of due process, which exists in the laws which was created. And all of these early cases actually involved Asian immigrants, right? And so first they were saying there's no due process. And then in a case called Yata versus Fisher, they said actually there is due process in deportation cases, there's regular immigration court proceedings, which accord with all of these measures of due process. There's also a procedure called expedited removal, [00:39:00] which Congress invented in the nineties where they wanted to come up with some kind of very quick way to summarily exclude people. It was motivated by a 60 Minutes episode where they showed people coming to Kennedy Airport, who didn't have any ID or visa or they had what seemed to be fake visas and they were let into the United States. And then they disappeared, right? According to the 60 Minutes episode. So basically Congress invented this procedure of, if you appear in the United States and you have no documents, or you have what an immigration inspector thinks are false documents, they can basically tell you, you can leave without this court hearing. And the only fail safe is what's called a credible fear screening. Where if you say, I want asylum, I fear persecution, I'm worried I might be tortured, then they're supposed to have the screening. And if you pass that screening, you get put in regular removal [00:40:00] proceedings. So before the Trump administration took office, these expedited removal proceedings were happening within a hundred miles of the border against people who could not show that they had been in the United States for more than two weeks. In one of his first executive orders. Trump extended this anywhere in the United States against people who cannot show they've been in the United States for more than two years. So people are recommending that people who potentially are in this situation to carry documentation, showing they've been physically in the United States for over two years. Trump is also using this Alien Enemies Act, which was basically a law Congress passed in 1798. It's only been used three times in US history it's a wartime law, right? So it was used in 1812, World War I, and World War II, and there's supposed to be a declared war between the United States and a foreign nation or government, or [00:41:00] there's an incursion threatened by a foreign nation or government, and the president makes public proclamation that all natives of this hostile nation, 14 and up shall be liable to be restrained and removed as alien enemies. Okay? So we're obviously not at war with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, right? They have not engaged in some kind of invasion or predatory incursion into the United States, but the Trump administration is claiming that they have and saying things like, oh, they're secretly a paramilitary wing of the Venezuelan government, even as the Venezuelan government is like cracking down on them. It's not a quasi sovereign, entity. There's no diplomatic relationships between Tren de Aragua and any other government. So these are legally and factually baseless arguments. Nonetheless, the administration has been basically taking people from Venezuela on the basis of tattoos. A tattoo of a crown of a [00:42:00] rose, right? Even when experts have said there's no relationship between what Tren de Aragua does and tattoos, right? And basically just kidnapping people and shipping them to the torture prison in El Salvador. As I'm sure you know of the case of Kimber Abrego Garcia, I'm sure we'll hear more about this from Christopher. There's a very small fraction of the persons that have been sent to this prison in El Salvador who actually have any criminal history. And I will say, even if they had a criminal history, nobody should be treated in this manner and sent to this prison, right? I mean, it's unbelievable that they've been sent to this prison allegedly indefinitely. They're paying $6 million a year to hold people there. And then the United States government is saying, oh, we don't have any power to facilitate or effectuate their return. And I think there's a struggle as to what to call this. It's not just deportation. This is like kidnapping. It's rendition. And there are people, there's like a particular person like who's completely [00:43:00] disappeared. Nobody knows if they're alive or dead. There are many people in that prison. People don't know if they're alive or dead. And I'm sure you've heard the stories of people who are gay asylum seekers, right? Who are now in this situation. There are also people that have been sent to Guantanamo, people were sent to Panama, right? And so I think there questions for us to think about like, what is this administration doing? How are they trying to do this in a spectacular fashion to instill fear? As we know as well, Trump had said oh, like I think it would be great when he met with Bukele if you build four more or five more facilities. I wanna house homegrown people in El Salvador, right? So this is all the more importance that we stick together, fight together, don't, as key was saying, don't let ourselves be split apart. Like we need a big mass coalition right? Of people working together on this. Annie Lee: So thank you leti and I think you're absolutely right. These Venezuelans were kidnapped [00:44:00] in the middle of the night. I mean, 2:00 AM 3:00 AM pulled out of bed, forced to sign documents they did not understand because these documents were only available in English and they speak Spanish, put on planes sent to El Salvador, a country they've never been to. The government didn't even have to prove anything. They did not have to prove anything, and they just snatch these people and now they're disappeared. We do have, for now the rule of law. And so Chris, there are judges saying that, Kimber Abrego Garcia has to be returned. And despite these court orders, the administration is not complying. So where does that leave us, Chris, in terms of rule of law and law in general? Christopher Lapinig: Yeah. So, I'm gonna make a little personal. So I graduated from Yale Law School in 2013, and you might know some of my classmates. One of my classmates is actually now the Vice President of the United States. Oh man. [00:45:00] Bless you. As well as the second lady, Usha Vance. And a classmate of mine, a good friend Sophia Nelson, who's a trans and queer, was recently on, I believe CNN answering a question about, I believe JD Vice President Vance, was asked about the administration's sort of refusal to comply with usual orders. Yeah. As we're talking about here and JD had said something like, well, courts, judges can't tell the president what he can't do, and sophia, to their credit, said, you know, I took constitutional law with JD, and, we definitely read Marbury Versus Madison together, and that is the semial sort of Supreme Court case that established that the US Supreme Court is the ultimate decider, arbiter, interpreter, of the US Constitution. And so is basically saying, I know JD knows better. He's lying essentially, in all of his [00:46:00] communications about, judicial orders and whether or not a presidential administration has to comply , with these orders. So, to get to your question though, it is of course unprecedented. Really. It is essentially, you know, it's not, if we not already reached. The point of a constitutional crisis. It is a constitutional crisis. I think it's become clear to many of us that, democracy in the US has operated in large part, and has relied on, on, on the good faith in norms, that people are operating good faith and that presidents will comply when, a federal judge issues an injunction or a decision. It kind of leaves us in an interesting, unprecedented situation. And it means that, lawyers, we will continue to litigate and, go to court, but we can't, lawyers will not save the country or, immigrants or communities. We need to think extensively and creatively. [00:47:00] About how to ensure, that the rule of law is preserved because, this administration is not, abiding by the longstanding norms of compliance and so we have to think about, protests, advocacy, legislatively. I don't have the answers necessarily, but we can't rely on the courts to fix these problems really. Annie Lee: Oof. That was very real, Chris. Thank you. But I will say that when there is resistance, and we've seen it from students who are speaking up and advocating for what they believe is right and just including Palestinian Liberation, that there is swift retaliation. And I think that's partly because they are scared of student speech and movement and organizing. But this is a question to all of you. So if not the courts and if the administration is being incredibly retaliatory, and discriminatory in terms of viewpoint discrimination, in people and what people are saying and they're scouring our social [00:48:00] media like, Ke warns, like what can everyday people do to fight back? That's for all of you. So I don't know who, which of you wants to take it first? Ke Lam: Oh man. I say look at history, right? Even while this new president, I wanna say like, this dude is a convicted felon, right? Don't be surprised at why we country is in the way it is, because this dude's a convicted felon, a bad business person, right? And only care about the billionaires, you know? So I'm not surprised how this country's ending up the way it is 'cause it is all about money. One way that we can stand up is definitely band together, marched on the streets. It's been effective. You look at the civil right movement, that's the greatest example. Now you don't have to look too far. We can actually, when we come together, they can't fight us all. Right? It is, and this, it's like you look at even nature in the cell. When things band together, the predators cannot attack everyone. Right? They probably could hit a few of us, but in the [00:49:00] long run, we could change the law. I think another thing is we, we, as the people can march to the courts and push the courts to do the job right, despite what's going on., We had judges that been arrested for doing the right thing, right? And so, no matter what, we have to stand strong just despite the pressure and just push back. Annie Lee: Thanks, Ke. Chris? Christopher Lapinig: What this administration is doing is you know, straight out of the fascist playbook. They're working to, as we all know, shock and awe everyone, and make Americans feel powerless. Make them feel like they have no control, make them feel overwhelmed. And so I think first and foremost, take care of yourself , in terms of your health, in terms of your physical health, your mental health. Do what you can to keep yourself safe and healthy and happy. And do the same for your community, for your loved ones, your friends and family. And then once you've done that do what you can in terms of your time, treasure, [00:50:00] talent to, to fight back. Everyone has different talents, different levels of time that they can afford. But recognize that this is a marathon and not necessarily a sprint because we need everyone, in this resistance that we can get. Annie Lee: Thank you, Chris. Leti Volpp: There was a New Yorker article called, I think it was How to Be a Dissident which said, before recently many Americans, when you ask them about dissidents, they would think of far off countries. But they interviewed a lot of people who'd been dissidents in authoritarian regimes. And there were two, two things in that article that I'm taking with me among others. One of them said that in surveying like how authoritarian regimes are broken apart, like only 3.5% of the population has to oppose what's going on. The other thing was that you should find yourself a political home where you can return to frequently. It's almost like a religious or [00:51:00] spiritual practice where you go and you get refreshed and you're with like-minded people. And so I see this event, for example as doing that, and that we all need to find and nurture and foster spaces like this. Thank you. Annie Lee: Bun, do you have any parting words? Bun: Yeah. Like Ke said, to fight back, getting together, understanding issues and really uplifting, supporting, urging our own communities, to speak Up. You know, there's folks that can't speak out right now because of fear and danger, but there are folks here that can speak out and coming here learning all our situation really give the knowledge and the power to speak out for folks that can't speak down [unclear] right now. So I appreciate y'all Annie Lee: love that bun. I was gonna say the same thing. I feel like there is a special obligation for those of us who are citizens, citizens cannot be deported. Okay? Citizens have special rights based [00:52:00] on that status. And so there's a special responsibility on those of us who can speak, and not be afraid of retaliation from this government. I would also urge you all even though it's bleak at the federal level, we have state governments, we have local governments. You have a university here who is very powerful. And you have seen, we've seen that the uni that the administration backs down, sometimes when Harvard hit back, they back down and that means that there is a way to push the administration, but it does require you all putting pressure on your schools, on your local leaders, on your state leaders to fight back. My boss actually, Vin taught me this. You know, you think that politicians, lead, politicians do not lead politicians follow. Politicians follow and you all lead when you go out further, you give them cover to do the right thing. And so the farther you push and the more you speak out against this administration, the more you give them courage to do the right thing. And so you absolutely have to do that. A pardon [00:53:00] is critical. It is critical for people who are formerly incarcerated to avoid the immigration system and deportation. And so do that. Talk to your family, talk to your friends. My parents, despite being immigrants, they're kinda old school. Okay guys, they're like, you know, birthright citizenship does seem kind of like a loophole. Why should people like get like citizenship? I'm like, mom, we, I am a birthright citizen. Like, um, And I think for Asian Americans in particular, there is such a rich history of Asian American civil rights activism that we don't talk about enough, and maybe you do at Berkeley with ethnic studies and professors like Mike Chang. But, this is totally an interracial solidarity movement. We helped bring about Wong Kim Ark and there are beneficiaries of every shade of person. There's Yik wo, and I think about this all the time, which is another part of the 14th Amendment equal protection. Which black Americans fought for that in San Francisco. [00:54:00] Chinatown made real what? What does equal protection of the laws even mean? And that case was Seminole. You've got Lao versus Nichols. Another case coming out of San Francisco. Chinatown about English learner rights, the greatest beneficiary of Lao v Nichols, our Spanish speakers, they're Spanish speaking children in schools who get access to their education regardless of the language they speak. And so there are so many moments in Asian American history that we should be talking about, that we should educate our parents and our families about, because this is our moment. Now, this is another one of those times I wanna pass it to Mike and Harvey for questions, and I'm so excited to hear about them. Mike and Harvey: Wow, thank you so much. That's a amazing, panel and thank you for facilitating annie's wanna give it of a great value in terms of that spiritual home aspect. Norm how does your great grandfather's , experience in resistance, provide help for us [00:55:00] today? Norman Wong: Well, I think he was willing to do it. It only took one, if no one did it, this, we wouldn't be having the discussion because most of us would've never been here. And we need to come together on our common interests and put aside our differences because we all have differences. And if we tried, to have it our way for everything, we'll have it no way for us. We really need to, to bond and bind together and become strong as a people. And I don't mean as a racial or a national group. Mm-hmm. I mean, we're Americans now. We're Americans here think of us as joining with all Americans to make this country the way it's supposed to be. The way [00:56:00] we grew up, the one that we remember, this is not the America I grew up believing in. I'm glad he stood up. I'm proud that he did that. He did that. Him doing that gave me something that I've never had before. A validation of my own life. And so yes, I'm proud of him. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. It's not for me to own. Yeah. Wow. Really not. Thank you so much. Wong Kim Ark is for all of us. And, and , talking about the good , that we have here and, the optimism that Harvey spoke about, the opportunity, even in a moment of substantial danger. Thank you so much everybody. Mike and Harvey: This was amazing and really appreciate sharing this space with you and, building community and solidarity. Ke Lam: But is there any, can I leave with a chant before we close off? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. So this is a chant that we use on the ground all the time. You guys probably heard it. When I said when we fight, you guys said we [00:57:00] win when we fight. We win when we fight, we win. When we fight, we win up. Swati Rayasam: Thanks so much for tuning into APEX Express. Please check out our website at kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about the show tonight and to find out how you can take direct action. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important. APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, along with Jalena Keene-Lee, Ayame Keene-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaida, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Ravi Grover, and me Swati Rayasam. Thank you so much to the team at KPFA for their support, and have a good [00:58:00] night.   The post APEX Express – 6.26.25-Deport. Exclude. Revoke. Imprison – Wong Kim Ark is for All of Us appeared first on KPFA.

24:40- Scott Brown, Former U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa and Former Senator from New Hampshire, joins Joe Piscopo to announce his bid for United States Senator in New Hampshire where he will be running for that role in 2026. Topic: His 2026 bid for Senate in New Hampshire 38:06- Tom Allon, Publisher of City & State, joins Joe Piscopo to discuss the New York City Mayoral Primary Election results and the future of the Mayoral Democratic Party and the future for Andrew Cuomo. Topic: Primary results 53:02- Col. Jack Jacobs, a retired colonel in the United States Army and a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the Vietnam War, joins Joe Piscopo to discuss the latest buzz surrounding the Israel-Iran conflict and the United States' position in that. Topic: Israel-Iran conflict 1:01:20- Jesse Arm, Executive Director of external affairs & chief of staff at the Manhattan Institute, joins Joe Piscopo to give his thoughts about the New York City Mayoral race as of the day after the end of the Primary Election. Topic: Mayoral race 1:12:17- Thomas Homan, Border Czar for the Trump administration, joins Joe Piscopo to discuss the latest going on in Iran and the current word going on around the Trump Administration about it. Topic: Iranian sleeper cells 1:24:18 - Liz Peek, Fox News contributor, columnist for Fox News and The Hill, and former partner of major Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company, joins Joe Piscopo to discuss what President Trump is doing with Iran and the left's rooting against Trump's success, calling it “pathetic”. Topic: "Trump's Iran strikes clean up Biden's mess in one big way" (Fox News op ed) 1:32:36- Rabbi Maury Kelman, Calls into the Joe Piscopo Show, who is a Rabbi in Jerusalem and originally from the Jersey Shore, where he served as a Rabbi in Bradley Beach for 9 years. 1:48:18- Gregg Jarrett, Legal and political analyst for Fox News Channel and the author of "The Trial Of The Century", joins Joe Piscopo to discuss the latest impeachment threat against President Trump. Topic: Impeachment threat against Trump 2:10:00- Michael Goodwin, Chief Political Columnist for the New York Post, joins Joe Piscopo to discuss the New York City Primary Election results and what is to come for the election in November. Topic: New York Mayoral ResultsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this podcast we are tying into our June conversations on Robert Altman with a debate about his biggest commercial success, the 1970 anti-war satire M*A*S*H. Over the course of our conversation you will hear us talk about the many ways in which Altman attempted to redefine and deconstruct the perennial genre of a war movie, how the audiences chose to respond to this over Catch-22 and how this movie spoke to a generation sick and tired of the Vietnam War... despite the fact the movie is set in Korea. We also talk about the busy nature of an Altman set, the conflicting reports on what it must have been like to work for him as an actor and a distinct possibility that a lot of the humour the movie is packed with would go on to enable movies like Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds.Tune in and enjoy!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/uncutgemspod (3$/month)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and support us by gaining access to this show in full in addition to ALL of our exclusive podcasts, such as bonus tie-ins, themed retrospectives and director marathons!Hosts: Jakub Flasz & Randy Burrows⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Head over to our website to find out more! (uncutgemspodcast.com)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Twitter (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@UncutGemsPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) and IG (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@UncutGemsPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy us a coffee over at Ko-Fi.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (ko-fi.com/uncutgemspod)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (patreon.com/uncutgemspod)

In this episode of Passing Judgment, Jessica Levinson unpacks two pressing legal issues. First, she explores whether the President can legally bomb Iran, looking at the balance of war powers between Congress and the President, the War Powers Resolution, and recent historical precedents. Then, Jessica provides an update on the legal showdown between California Governor Newsom and the Trump administration over federalizing the National Guard, analyzing a recent Ninth Circuit decision and the role of the Posse Comitatus Act. Tune in as Jessica breaks down these timely constitutional questions and their real-world implications.Here are three key takeaways you don't want to miss:Presidential War Powers Are Limited—But Vague: Under Article 2 of the Constitution, the President can order military action in response to imminent threats or sudden attacks, but only Congress can declare war. The limits of what constitutes “imminent threat” or “war in the constitutional sense” are not clearly defined, leading to ongoing legal gray areas.Congressional Oversight Remains Weak: While laws like the War Powers Resolution were intended to check the President's power, in practice Congress often cedes authority, rarely using funding powers to halt military action even in constitutionally questionable situations.Judicial Review Is Highly Deferential: Courts are reluctant to second-guess military decisions, frequently relying on the political questions doctrine and issues of legal standing. This means even if constitutional boundaries are tested, legal recourse is rare.Follow Our Host: @LevinsonJessica

Up - NO FEES OVERSEAS! Sign up now and join over 1 million Aussies regaining control of their coin with the financial revolution that's got ya back! Sign up here in under 5 minutes! Deadly sits down with his old man Alfie to find out how a kid from the North Shore of Sydney ended up selling stolen surfboards and winning a Stomp comp to avoiding Vietnam War by hightailing it to J-Bay. A walk through 1950s and 60s Australian surf culture with the old boy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On a recent trip to El Salvador, writer Viet Thanh Nguyen noticed striking parallels between the small Central American nation and his own country of origin, Vietnam. Both endured the atrocities of war, each fueled by anti-communist U.S. intervention. And both conflicts—the Vietnam War and El Salvador's civil war—triggered refugee and migrant crises whose consequences continue to reverberate today.The people of Vietnam and El Salvador – and Nguyen himself– have been caught in the crossfire of what he calls “Greater America”: a phenomenon best described as not just a place, but a project.What exactly is Greater America capable of, both abroad and domestically? What are its borders and how will it be remembered, conflict after conflict? Who will be the next victims of its imperial ambitions?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On The Other Side of Midnight, Lionel talks about people's connection to The Real Housewives of New Jersey, the inevitability of the 15-minute city and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of George Reeves. Lionel later talks about the redundancy of TV weather people, Tourette's Syndrome awareness and excessive drinking. Lionel starts the third hour chatting about the anatomy and definition of a lie. He later talks to a man who hates online banking, talks about the danger of groupthink and much more. Lionel wraps up the show talking about the travesty of the Vietnam War, the purpose of war as a whole and also the versatility of AAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lionel wraps up the show talking about the travesty of the Vietnam War, the purpose of war as a whole and also the versatility of AAA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SUPPORT THE MISSIONThis is the third episode in a special four-part series launching during Mental Health Awareness Month to support the Blue Angels Foundation, whose mission is to provide critical care and services to wounded veterans transitioning back to civilian life.Donate today  ➡️ https://blueangelsfoundation.givevirtuous.org/donate/support-our-nations-veterans-blue-angels-phantoms-fundraiserAnyone who donates $250 or more will receive a limited-edition Blue Angel Phantoms trucker hat—this hat is not available for sale.All donors, regardless of amount, will also be entered into a drawing on July 1, 2025 to receive a giveaway bundle that includes:

It's rare to meet someone who has survived a plane crash and even more rare to meet someone who has survived a helicopter crash. You could say then that meeting a pilot who has survived one plane crash and two helicopter crashes during his career, is a very rare thing and most certainly warrants an interview.Shawn Sullivan is military veteran, a former paramedic, a close friend, a brother in Christ, and a commercial airline and helicopter pilot. He is also the son of a Vietnam War veteran helicopter pilot who chalked up no less than five helicopter crashes during his service.Shawn is a professional and very safe pilot with thousands and thousands of flight-time hours. He is meticulous and I would trust him with my life and the lives of my family, but there are inherent risks when you take thousands of pounds of metal, strap an engine to it, and send it up into the atmosphere.We sat down to talk about his experiences, particularly the most recent crash that almost took his life, on the Unscripted Podcast.

A Vietnam War helicopter mechanic named Frank vanishes in 2024. Left behind: a handwritten account spanning 50 years. It starts with “foo fighters”—strange lights pacing U.S. aircraft in Vietnam—and ends in the Oregon wilderness, where similar lights appear at a remote fishing spot called Devil's Elbow. Frank returns decades later with a drone enthusiast named Chris. They pick up disturbing electromagnetic readings. Then Chris disappears too. Frank's technical eye and military background give weight to his account—he wasn't imagining things. The question is: what's watching us, and why?Story 2: The Hitchhiker Beyond the Truck StopAlong I-40, truckers keep seeing the same thing: hitchhikers who vanish without a trace. They look real, talk normal, give directions—and then disappear, often right outside a truck stop or gas station. The pattern spans states and decades. The most haunted stretch? Between New Mexico and Tennessee.Some think these phantoms are tied to sites of past trauma—accidents, lost towns, graveyards buried under asphalt. Others think something older is using the roads—and us—for something we don't yet understand.

Episode 342 of RevolutionZ reconsiders how to evaluate success in our struggles against Trumpian fascism.When someone asks how a protest went, what are we really measuring? Our feelings? Media coverage? Participation numbers? Or something more substantive? Being vague about what matters is our movement measurement problem.This episode proposes four essential metrics that truly matter: Did our actions inspire continued involvement? Did we raise consciousness among those who witnessed our efforts? Did we grow commitment and strengthen the movement? And did we communicate to power-holders that we won't back down?Via reflections on experiences during Vietnam War protests, the episode illustrates how unrealistic expectations can demoralize rather than empower. He offers practical suggestions for the upcoming July 17th demonstrations—from coordinated clothing colors to unified messaging—as possible ways to  enhance movement solidarity and impact.The episode goes beyond tactics to strategy including assessing the counterproductive dismissal of Trump supporters as simply "stupid," the strategic limitations of violence, and the false dichotomy between electoral work and direct action. The message is that diverse approaches can coexist within a unified framework if we judge each by its contribution to movement growth and effectiveness.The episode moves beyond subjective feelings toward strategic thinking to  advance progressive goals. The struggle against fascism, all kinds of inequity and injustice, and ecological collapse demands nothing less than our clearest thinking about what works, what doesn't, and how we measure the difference.Support the show

“I really loved it,” Francine Prose says of Nixon-era San Francisco in this episode of The World in Time, “but I also knew I wasn't going to live there forever. Everyone I knew was living in these group houses in Berkeley, and then in the city itself, with ten people or fifteen people. I talk about the Reno Hotel, a former nineteenth-century hotel that had been built for boxers, and the city had given it to artists and designers and said, You can live there, don't burn it down. And so they carved out these incredibly beautiful spaces for themselves. But this was before the tech revolution, when the Mission was still kind of wild and free, and it wasn't all the glass cubes and people in tech. It was a great city to live in then. There was a kind of freedom there. Certainly compared to what I'd come from. My good fortune was that I wasn't around a lot of hippies giving acid to two-year-olds. The book takes place during the Vietnam War. We went out and protested McNamara. My husband was the one who scaled the Pentagon, the walls of the Pentagon. We were very idealistic. Maybe unrealistically idealistic, but hey, I'll take it.” This week on the podcast, Donovan Hohn speaks with Francine Prose, author of 1974: A Personal History, about the San Francisco she remembers from her youth, about her relationship with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Tony Russo, about the final defeat of 1960s counterculture, and about the eerie echoes of Prose's favorite movie, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.

This journalist, historian, and Vietnam War veteran is the author of eleven books. His most recent book, The Unlikely War Hero: A Vietnam War POW's Story of Courage and Resilience […]

From communist atheist to global missionary—Fred Markert's journey is nothing short of miraculous. In this gripping episode, Fred shares his dramatic transformation from a disillusioned young man in Berlin—steeped in communism, addiction, and hopelessness—to a man set ablaze by the fire of God's love for the nations. Raised in the Catholic Church but shaken by academic skepticism, Fred lost his faith and plunged into a life of rebellion during the Vietnam War era. Facing jail time, betrayal, and rock bottom, his life was intercepted by divine mercy through an encounter with a member of Youth With A Mission (YWAM). In a moment of supernatural clarity, Fred surrendered everything—his dreams, his identity, even his ambition to become a doctor—and chose to follow Jesus into the unknown. But Fred's surrender was just the beginning. Within days, he found himself smuggling Christian calendars into communist East Germany, risking imprisonment to plant seeds of truth where the Gospel had been silenced. That bold act sparked a lifetime mission to reach the 3.4 billion souls still untouched by the message of Christ. With passion and urgency, Fred unpacks the heartbeat of true missions—not duty, not guilt, but a deep ache in God's heart for the unreached. He shares stories of miraculous breakthroughs and horrific martyrs in places like Northern India and persecuted regions in the Middle East. This episode is more than a testimony—it's a call to spiritual arms. Fred exposes the idols of comfort, digital distraction, and Western individualism, and invites us into the risky, unpredictable life of living fully for the Kingdom. Whether you're questioning your purpose or just hungry for more of God's love, this conversation will shake your soul and stir your calling. *This episode was recorded on April 8, 2025.

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.

From communist atheist to global missionary—Fred Markert's journey is nothing short of miraculous. In this gripping episode, Fred shares his dramatic transformation from a disillusioned young man in Berlin—steeped in communism, addiction, and hopelessness—to a man set ablaze by the fire of God's love for the nations. Raised in the Catholic Church but shaken by academic skepticism, Fred lost his faith and plunged into a life of rebellion during the Vietnam War era. Facing jail time, betrayal, and rock bottom, his life was intercepted by divine mercy through an encounter with a member of Youth With A Mission (YWAM). In a moment of supernatural clarity, Fred surrendered everything—his dreams, his identity, even his ambition to become a doctor—and chose to follow Jesus into the unknown. But Fred's surrender was just the beginning. Within days, he found himself smuggling Christian calendars into communist East Germany, risking imprisonment to plant seeds of truth where the Gospel had been silenced. That bold act sparked a lifetime mission to reach the 3.4 billion souls still untouched by the message of Christ. With passion and urgency, Fred unpacks the heartbeat of true missions—not duty, not guilt, but a deep ache in God's heart for the unreached. He shares stories of miraculous breakthroughs and horrific martyrs in places like Northern India and persecuted regions in the Middle East. This episode is more than a testimony—it's a call to spiritual arms. Fred exposes the idols of comfort, digital distraction, and Western individualism, and invites us into the risky, unpredictable life of living fully for the Kingdom. Whether you're questioning your purpose or just hungry for more of God's love, this conversation will shake your soul and stir your calling. *This episode was recorded on April 8, 2025.

This week on DANGER CLOSE, Jack Carr is joined by military historian and national security expert Dr. Mark Moyar.Dr. Moyar is the Director of the Center for Military History and Strategy at Hillsdale College, where he holds the William P. Harris Chair of Military History. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard with a Ph.D. from Cambridge, he served in the Trump administration as Director of Civilian–Military Cooperation at USAID and has advised across government and military institutions. He is the author of eight books, including his most recent and widely discussed work, TRIUMPH REGAINED: THE VIETNAM WAR, 1965–1968.In this episode, Dr. Moyar and Jack explore the Vietnam War through the lens of revisionist history, challenging the conventional wisdom that has shaped public perception for decades. From the early influence of French colonialism and the flawed assumptions that guided U.S. foreign policy, to the critical decisions of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, Moyar offers a clear-eyed reassessment of America's involvement.They examine the Domino Theory, the role of media figures like David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, and the controversial legacy of the Phoenix Program—often mischaracterized in pop culture and politics alike. The conversation also delves into the 1963 Buddhist protests, the assassination of President Diem, and the missed strategic opportunities that could have changed the trajectory of the war.Dr. Moyar draws compelling parallels between the U.S. exit from Vietnam and more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, connecting lessons from history to modern military and diplomatic challenges. He also speaks to the cultural forces—films like JFK and distorted media narratives—that continue to shape the American understanding of Vietnam to this day.This is a powerful discussion about the weight of history, the cost of misinformation, and the importance of revisiting the past with intellectual honesty.FOLLOW MARKX: @MarkMoyarWebsite: https://markmoyar.com/FOLLOW JACKInstagram: @JackCarrUSA X:  @JackCarrUSAFacebook:  @JackCarr YouTube:  @JackCarrUSASPONSORSCRY HAVOC – A Tom Reece Thriller https://www.officialjackcarr.com/books/cry-havoc/Bravo Company Manufacturing - BCM Stock MOD3:https://bravocompanyusa.com/bcm-stock-mod-3-black/  and on Instagram @BravoCompanyUSATHE SIGs of Jack Carr:Visit https://www.sigsauer.com/ and on Instagram @sigsauerinc Jack Carr Gear: Explore the gear here https://jackcarr.co/gear 

What if the key to understanding life after death lies within the extraordinary accounts of those who have experienced near-death phenomena? Join Simon Bown in this captivating episode of "Our Paranormal Afterlife: Finding Proof of Life After Death," as he delves into Michael Schmicker's groundbreaking book, "What Comes Next? " and uncovers the profound insights it offers on the nature of the afterlife. With a focus on near-death experiences (NDEs), Bown highlights the pioneering work of psychiatrist Bruce Grayson, who has dedicated his career to exploring the intricacies of consciousness after death.Throughout the episode, listeners will discover that the afterlife is not merely a physical realm but rather a transformative state of consciousness. A significant majority of individuals who have undergone NDEs report overwhelmingly positive encounters, including heartwarming reunions with deceased loved ones and profound moments of non-verbal communication. Bown invites you to explore these fascinating paranormal experiences that challenge our conventional understanding of life beyond death.The discussion also touches on the scientific challenges surrounding consciousness and the implications of NDE research on our perceptions of spirituality and health. As Bown navigates through the compelling evidence of the afterlife, he encourages listeners to remain open-minded while recognizing the limitations of current scientific paradigms. This episode serves as an essential journey into the paranormal, offering not just insights into consciousness but also a deeper understanding of our existence.As the episode concludes, Bown promotes his own book on verified NDEs, providing listeners with further resources to explore the afterlife research. He also invites audience engagement through Patreon and encourages reviews, fostering a community passionate about paranormal exploration and support for paranormal research. Don't miss this opportunity to expand your understanding of life after death and the intriguing world of mediumship insights. Tune in and embark on this enlightening journey into the afterlife!BioInvestigative journalist Michael Schmicker started his career as a crime reporter for a Dow-Jones suburban newspaper in Connecticut. He worked as a freelance correspondent in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and as an Op-Ed contributor to The Asian Wall Street Journal. A nationally known writer on frontier science, Michael is the co-author of The Gift, ESP: The Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People.His first book, Best Evidence, has emerged as a classic in the field of scientific anomalies reporting.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RSM8B2 https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlifeMy book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

Dr. Eric T. Karlstrom : Tavistock, Mind Control, Cults9/11 – New World OrderWebmaster, Dr. Eric T. Karlstrom: Emeritus Professor of Geography, California State University (bio)The Following Introductory Quotes Explain the Present Plight of the American Republic and the World:1) The 9/11 attacks were an inside job by the USAF (US Air Force) and the IZCS (International Zionist Criminal Syndicate). The staged Gladio-style False-Flag attack was the choice selected for the attack on the Twin Towers in NYC and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on 9-11-2001. This attack was done by the USAF, under the authority of a zionist-controlled Criminal Cabal inside the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the Secret Shadow Government (SSG).The 9/11 attack was planned, set up and run by (Jewish/dual Israeli-American citizen) NeoCon top Policy-Makers, Israeli Intel and their stateside Sayanims, utilizing a small criminal cabal inside the USAF, NORAD and the JCS. These are facts that can no longer be disputed by any reasonable person who has examined all the available evidence.And it is exceedingly clear to any reasonable person who examines the pre-announcement of WTC-7 destruction that the whole attack was pre-scripted in London and Israel, and that WTC-7 was wired in advance with conventional demolition charges.… There is now a New American War. It is inside America. It is called the “War on Terror”. The enemy is YOU! It is a staged, Phony War that has been created by the International Zionist Crime Syndicate (IZCS). This New War on Terror has an enemy. That enemy is the American People, You and Me…. This new War on Terror has been socially engineered to provide a continual stream of degradations and provocations against the average American, provoking many… to resist, and causing them to be labeled dissenters.Once they have been labeled dissenters they are put on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Main Core Terror Watch List, which top insiders know is a targeted assassination list for later eradication of all Freedom-loving Americans who want to restore the American Constitutional Republic.At present, the Main Core list has over ten million Americans on it, and it is growing every day with thousands of new additions. Get a ticket for a driving offense or any arrest (even if later proven innocent) and it is highly likely you will be placed on this Main Core Terror Watch and Assassination list…. Any and all Dissenters are now being defined as “Enemies of the State”. And anyone who wants to restore the American Republic will also be defined as a “Domestic Terrorist”.DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is a terrorist group, hand assembled by American/Israeli dual citizen Traitors and is designed to tyrannize, capture and eventually be deployed against Americans to serially mass murder them. This is why they have been called the New American Gestapo of the Neo-Bolshevik Red Cheka Terror Machine.…..The War on Terror is obviously a Phony. But it has been the greatest boon to the American Defense Complex ever, with many times more net American Taxpayer dollars spent on this war than any other war in history, including WW2 or the Vietnam War.Another way to establish a war is to create and fund so-called foreign terrorist groups. This is a costly exercise that take years and can involve as much work as fighting a war…. But enemies for necessary wars can be created if you have the technological help of a nation that has hundreds of years experience in creating its own enemies. This nation is the City of London (Financial District), a separate nation state like the Vatican, located within England.There is a reason England has been referred to as “Perfidious Albion” for centuries. They have been known for their ability to instigate chaos inside nations they want to control by their standard well-developed strategy of “Divide and Conquer”. They are experts at creating long-term provocations between different nations that have competing economic interests. They do this in order to establish a beach-head from which to control the removal of natural resources and accrued wealth.The nation state Israel was created to serve as a long-term provocation for numerous Mideast perpetual wars. This is why the Balfour Declaration was made. This is why the City of London created the New Israel and took land away from the Palestinians to set up a nation of Khazarian Judaic converts (aka “fake Hebrews”), a racially paranoid group mind-kontrolled to believe the delusion that they were of ancient Abrahamic Hebrew Blood.The IZCS believes in preemptive strikes against Goyim (non-Jews) and their institutions. Judaics have also been mind-kontrolled by zionists (many of whom are not Judaics) to believe that they must hijack the American political system to preemptively crush Christianity and American Goyim Culture.….A SERIOUS SPELL, A RACIAL DELUSION OF SUPERIORITY HAS BEEN CAST ON MANY JUDAICS NO MATTER WHERE THEY LIVE, BUT ESPECIALLY SO AMONG THOSE LIVING IN GREATER ISRAEL, WHERE THE LUCIFERIAN HEX FLAG FLIES. WHETHER TRUE OR NOT, TOP ZIONIST LEADERS BELIEVE THIS HEX FLAG SIGNIFIES THE MERGER OF DEMONIC FALLEN ANGEL BEAST-BLOODLINES FROM ABOVE, BRED WITH HUMAN FEMALE BLOODLINES BELOW. THEY BELIEVE THIS MAKES THEM THE “CHOSEN ONES” OF THEIR GOD LUCIFER, AND SUPERHUMAN OR PART GOD ALSO.Conclusion: The IZCS has hijacked America and has deployed numerous weapons against it now culminating in a phony, staged War on Terror, and if you are an American or live in America, one way or another YOU will soon become THEIR NEW ENEMY. Yes, from here on out if you live in America, you are the designated enemy of the USG and its agents of war DHS, the TSA, FEMA, the Alphabets and the US Military in this new War On Terror (which is a war against the American people who are not in the “federal Family”).If you are a member of the (IZCS-created and controlled) “federal family,” it is suggested that you read and study up on the Night of the Longknives (Operation Hummingbird) and the various purges under Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Maybe you should reconsider (following) the oath you took to UPHOLD the US Constitution from ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN and DOMESTIC.….Preston James, PH.D., 2014, YOU are THE ENEMY (Veterans Today)2) “Israel was behind all four fronts in 9/11, that momentous event in our nation´s history: 1) The actual terror attacks themselves; 2) the subsequent cover-up; and both 3) ¨the U.S.-led military invasions overseas¨ and 4) the ¨domestic security state apparatus.¨(Hugh Akins, “Synagogue Rising,” 2012)3) “We (Jews and Israel) control America, and the Americans know it.” Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister, October, 2001, in response to question about 9/114) (9/11) was a mighty operation that was prepared by the special forces of the global mafia to involve the USA in the war against the Muslim world… The global mafia carries out global politics. The USSR collapsed and the same fate has been prepared for the USA. People like the Rothschilds and the Oppenheimers and the Morgans have long term plans.…the entire system of international terrorism works for fascism. There are explosions in Spain, France, Germany, United States, South America, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and Iraq. This is worldwide. The conclusion is very simple; The people themselves will want someone like (Chilean fascist General) Augusto Pinochet to rule them… The entire system of international terrorism is pushing humanity toward the reception of a hard fascist regime.Russian General Konstantin Petrov5) “Israel has used America as a whore…. They control our government, our media, and the finances of this country…. Through their lobby, Israel has manifested total power over the Congress of the United States… We're conducting the expansionist policy of Israel and everybody's afraid to say it… They are controlling much of our foreign policy, they are influencing much of our domestic policy. They control much of the media, they control much of the commerce of the country, and they control powerfully both bodies of the Congress. They own the Congress… Israel gets billions a year from the American taxpayers, while people in my district are losing their pension benefits…. and if you open your mouth, you get targeted. I was the number one target of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee… We have investigated and found 2 separate incidents of AIPAC spying on America….My concern is the taxpayers and the citizens of the United States should control their government, not a foreign entity… But if you deal with the real problems in America, YOU GET TARGETED.”James Traficant, Jr., U.S. House of Representatives (Ohio) (1941-1941; who was expelled from the House and served 8 years in prison for representing the interests of the United States rather than those of Israel and the Jews6) Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason?For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

This summer, The Jewish Museum is examining the life and work of a local artist who dared to be different. Ben Shahn was born in present day Lithuania in 1898, but immigrated to Brooklyn as a boy after his father was exiled to Siberia. Shahn began a life of using his art to respond to historical moments with social realism, from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War. Dr. Laura Katzman, professor of art history at James Madison University, and Dr. Stephen Brown, curator at the Jewish Museum discuss, "Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity," on view through October 12.

Arts - Willa Seidenberg | Bill Short

Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, joins Paul Jay and condemns the Israeli attack on Iran as an unprovoked violation of international law—and a dangerous step toward full-scale regional war. Wilkerson argues that the U.S. is complicit, acting through Israel as a proxy.  Wilkerson analyzes the use of the military in L.A. and doesn't mince words: the Empire is collapsing into autocracy and militarism, and the consequences could be catastrophic. TranscriptListenDonateSubscribeGuestMusic Paul JayHi, welcome to theAnalysis.news. I'm Paul Jay. In just a few seconds, we'll be back with Colonel Larry Wilkerson to discuss the Israeli attack on Iran.Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu, who says this is not an attack on the Iranian people. It's an attack on the Iranian regime. But in fact, it's exactly that, an attack on the Iranian people. The sovereignty of a country is not the sovereignty of a government. It's the sovereignty of the people, and it's the sovereignty of Iran that has been illegally attacked by every piece of the UN charter and international law, an unprovoked attack on the people's sovereignty.Now, I've been very critical over the years of the Iranian government. I'm not going to call it a regime. I don't know why it's more of a regime than most of the other governments or states that call themselves governments. My guest and I, Larry Wilkerson, who will be here in just a few seconds, we've both been very critical of the Iranian government and its repression of people and opposition movements in Iran. That has nothing to do with what's going on here. This is an out-and-out, unprovoked attack on Iran. We're going to talk about the reasons for that, but let me just add one other small thing, which we'll talk about. It's maybe not that small.Critiquing this Israeli attack is not anti-Semitism. In fact, this is just like the Cold War. When people condemned the Vietnam War, they were called communists. They're being soft on communists. Well, now, if you critique the crimes of the Israeli government, and now this unprovoked war, and of course, the genocide in Gaza, the bombings in Lebanon, now you're an anti-Semite. It's being thrown around just the way it was, the anti-communist rhetoric of the Cold War.Now, joining us to talk about this current conflict is Larry Wilkerson. Thanks for joining us, Larry.Col. Lawrence WilkersonGood to be with you, Paul. Long time.Paul JayFor people who don't know, Larry was the Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, both at the Joint Chiefs and at the State Department. So, let me start by asking you, Larry, what do you make of the way the media is covering this? I was a little surprised over the last year that there were at least some reports on how Gaza was being devastated. You saw quite a few pictures of the killing of children, and there was a glimmer of legitimate reporting for a while. Now, this is so one-sided. I watch CNN, and guest after guest is essentially from the Israeli government or the Israeli ambassador, and the fact that this is a complete violation of international law is not even mentioned.Col. Lawrence WilkersonWell, this is truly a disgusting display of the Empire's degradation and profound slippage from world leadership. There's no question about that. Not only have we violated international law, consistently, we have ignored even those or punished even those who didn't want to ignore it or were trying to do something about it, like South Africa and their application to the court with regard to the genocide in Gaza. I think it's appalling that we did a Yamamoto. We did a Pearl Harbor. We did a Saddam Hussein on Kuwait attack on Iran. We, not Israel, the United States of America, using Israel as its foremost in the frontline proxy, if you will, just like we're doing with Ukraine. We said, diplomacy was going to continue. We achieved tactical surprise, an enormous advantage for an Air Force attacking,

Molly Stillman has lived the type of life that when shared, people stop in their tracks and ask, “Wait, what happened?” Molly's mother, Lynda Van Devanter Buckley served as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War and wrote the bestselling memoir, Home Before Morning. When Molly was seventeen, Lynda passed away after an eight-year battle with an autoimmune disorder due to her exposure to Agent Orange. Four years later, Molly turned twenty-one and unexpectedly inherited a quarter of a million dollars from her mother's estranged family's estate. Through “retail therapy” and a long series of grossly irresponsible financial decisions, Molly found herself broke with over $36,000 in credit card debt less than two years later. Shame, guilt, and embarrassment set in. Listen in as Molly shares her journey to faith as she worked her way out of debt and reveals how every messed up, broken story has a purpose. She now helps others through podcasting, speaking and her book, If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry: How Death, Debt and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith, Farming and Forgetting What I Came into This Room For. For show notes go to CarolRoper.org/Podcast If you enjoyed listening to Molly's story check these podcast episodes linked below: Discovering the Dad Who Raised Her Wasn't Her Biological Father with Megan Phillips and Finding Freedom from a Poverty Mindset with Kimberly Long

A table set for the service members who cannot be with us today. Every item set on the table has a very poignant  meaning. The makings and history are what we discuss this time.

What if everything you thought you knew about consciousness and the afterlife was about to change? Join us in this mind-expanding episode of "Our Paranormal Afterlife: Finding Proof of Life After Death," where host Simon Bown engages in a riveting conversation with investigative journalist Michael Schmicker, author of the groundbreaking book "What Comes Next? ". This episode dives deep into the intersection of quantum physics and the afterlife hypothesis, challenging the long-standing materialist view that has dominated scientific discourse for centuries.Schmicker argues that the rigid confines of 19th-century Newtonian science have historically dismissed the notion of an afterlife, insisting that only matter is real. However, he presents a compelling case that consciousness must also be considered material, leading to the unsettling conclusion that consciousness ceases with the brain's death. Yet, as Schmicker points out, materialists face a confounding dilemma known as 'The Hard Problem' in neuroscience—how does consciousness arise from the brain? This episode explores these profound questions and more, as Schmicker draws on evidence from quantum physics to propose that consciousness is not merely an epiphenomenon but a fundamental aspect of reality itself, opening the door to the possibility of life after death.Throughout the episode, we delve into near-death experiences, sharing fascinating personal near-death stories that suggest consciousness may indeed persist beyond physical demise. Schmicker's insights into consciousness after death challenge the conventional materialist paradigm, advocating for a broader understanding of spirituality and health. This episode is not just about the science; it's an exploration of the supernatural experiences that many have encountered, offering a treasure trove of evidence of the afterlife that could reshape our understanding of existence.Join us for a journey into the afterlife as we discuss reincarnation evidence, mediumship insights, and the implications of consciousness on our understanding of life beyond death. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, this episode promises to be an enlightening experience filled with paranormal exploration and insightful discussions on afterlife research. Don't miss this opportunity to gain new perspectives on the fascinating paranormal phenomena that surround us and the support for paranormal research that continues to grow. Tune in to "Our Paranormal Afterlife: Finding Proof of Life After Death" and embark on this transformative journey into the unknown!BioInvestigative journalist Michael Schmicker started his career as a crime reporter for a Dow-Jones suburban newspaper in Connecticut. He worked as a freelance correspondent in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and as an Op-Ed contributor to The Asian Wall Street Journal. A nationally known writer on frontier science, Michael is the co-author of The Gift, ESP: The Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People.His first book, Best Evidence, has emerged as a classic in the field of scientific anomalies reporting.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RSM8B2 https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlifeMy book 'Verified Near Death Experiences' https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXKRGDFP

Before the grunge movement of the 90's, and before the punk movement of the 70's, there was the garage band phenomenon of the 60's.  One of the forerunners of both punk and grunge from this garage band period is Tacoma Washington's The Sonics.  Their classic lineup consisted of Rob Lind on harmonica, vocals, and sax, Gerry Roslie on organ, piano, and lead vocals, Larry Parypa on lead guitar and vocals, Andy Parypa on bass, and Bob Bennett on drums.  The Sonics had a fast, hard-edged sound similar to The Kinks, and performed with a speed that would inspire punk rock.Boom is their second studio album from the band, released in February 1966.  As with many songs from the mid-60's, all the songs are short.  But with a non to the future punk movement, many songs are even shorter, clocking in at just over 2 minutes.  The Sonics take their name from Boeing, the aviation company also based in Tacoma.  The name of the album is likely a play on words for the "sonic boom," the thunderous sound produced by an aircraft exceeding the speed of sound.  The music on this album is energetic and abrasive, and while some fuzzy guitar distortion is included the overall feel is raw with little extra production.The classic lineup would fall apart by 1968, with members leaving to join other bands, attend college, or in saxophonist Rob Linds' case - become a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War.  Gerry Roslie would be the sole remaining original member with new members jumping in and out of the band until 1980.  Wayne brings us this forerunner of punk and grunge for this week's podcast. CinderellaThe lead-off song from the album was an original piece written by Gerry Roslie.  The lyrics relay a boy meeting a girl at a bar, having a great time drinking and dancing, and just when things start to get going well, the girl is gone by midnight.  He's Waitin'This song starts the B-side of the album, and was also a Gerry Roslie original.  This "boy loses girl" song is not a happy one!  The lyrics reflect the boy's thoughts on being burned by a girl.  Now he is telling her that Satan is waiting for her.  "It's too late, you lied, now you will fry." Louie, LouieRichard Berry wrote and performed this song in 1957 with The Pharaohs, and covers of this song are common with garage bands.  The Sonics' version is quite fast, and modifies the pronunciation from "Lou-ee Lou-ee" to "Lou-eye Lou-way" in the chorus.  It is hard to separate this song from the thoughts of fraternity parties and the comedy movie "Animal House." Shot DownThe song that closes out the album laments about striking out when approaching a girl.  "I play a guitar.  I even drive a brand new car.  Big man in town, I've been shot down."  ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:Theme from the motion picture "The Rare Breed"This western starred James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara and was one of the first films scored by the now-legendary composer John Williams. STAFF PICKS:Crying Time by Ray CharlesBruce leads off the staff picks with the lead single and starting track to Ray Charles' album of the same name.  The song was originally performed by Buck Owens in 1964, and Charles kept the country feel while taking the cover to number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.  He won the Grammy Awards in 1967 for Best R&B Recording and Best R&B Solo Performance for this track.It's a Man's Man's Man's World by James BrownLynch brings us a song that takes its name as a play on the name of a 1963 comedy film, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."  The minor key track has lyrics decrying the chauvinism of society where all the work of modern civilization are attributed to men, but it would all "mean nothing without a woman or a girl."  Brown recorded the song in only two takes, and it would become a staple of his live shows for the rest of his career.Secret Agent Man by Johnny RiversRob features a surf rock song originally developed as the opening intro to the U.S. spy television series "Secret Agent," which aired from 1964 to 1966. The ditty became popular, and Rivers developed it into a full single.  The song would go to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming both a signature song for Rivers and a rock standard for future bands and shows.Lies by The KnickerbockersWayne's closes out the staff picks with a song from an American band deliberately trying to mimic the sound of a British Invasion song.  The trio harmonies definitely give it a Beatles quality.  As you might expect from the band name, the Knickerbockers got their start in New Jersey as a garage band.  The track came together in about a half hour. COMEDY TRACK:The One on the Right is On the Left by Johnny CashThis comedy song about a band with incompatible political leanings amongst its members takes us out for this week's podcast. Thanks for listening to “What the Riff?!?” NOTE: To adjust the loudness of the music or voices, you may adjust the balance on your device. VOICES are stronger in the LEFT channel, and MUSIC is stronger on the RIGHT channel.Please follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/whattheriffpodcast/, and message or email us with what you'd like to hear, what you think of the show, and any rock-worthy memes we can share.Of course we'd love for you to rate the show in your podcast platform!**NOTE: What the Riff?!? does not own the rights to any of these songs and we neither sell, nor profit from them. We share them so you can learn about them and purchase them for your own collections.

Back at it with another one

First up, Georgetown law professor and former national legal director at the ACLU, David Cole, joins us to discuss the legal response to the Trump Administration's serial violations of the Constitution. Then Mike Ferner of Veterans for Peace checks in to update us halfway through his Fast for Gaza, 40 days of living on 250 calories per day, which is the average caloric intake of Palestinian survivors in Gaza. Finally, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Joe Holley, stops by to pay tribute to his mentor and colleague, the late crusading journalist, Ronnie Dugger, founder of the progressive Texas Observer.David Cole is the Honorable George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy and former National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He writes about and teaches constitutional law, freedom of speech, and constitutional criminal procedure. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and is the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation.Trump is obviously not concerned about antisemitism. He's concerned about targeting schools because they are places where people can criticize the president, where people can think independently, are taught to think independently, and often don't support what the president is doing. He's using his excuse to target a central institution of civil society.David ColeThe decision on Trump versus the United States is only about criminal liability for criminal acts, not for unconstitutional acts. And violating the Constitution is not a crime. Every president has violated the Constitution probably since George Washington. That's not a crime.David ColeMike Ferner served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and he is former National Director and current Special Projects Coordinator for Veterans for Peace. He is the author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran for Peace Reports from Iraq.Two hundred and fifty calories is technically, officially, a starvation diet, and we're doing it for 40 days. The people in Gaza have been doing it for months and months and months, and they're dying like crazy. That's the whole concern that we're trying to raise. And I'll tell you at the end of this fast, on the 40th day, we are not just going out silently. There are going to be some fireworks before we're done with this thing. So all I'm saying is: stay tuned.Mike Ferner: Special Projects Coordinator of Veterans for Peace on “FastforGaza”They're (The Veterans Administration is) being defamed, Ralph, for the same reason that those right-wing corporatists defamed public education. So they can privatize it. And that's exactly what they're trying to do with the VA. And I can tell you every single member of Veterans for Peace has got nothing but praise for the VA.Mike FernerJoe Holley was the editor of the Texas Observer in the early 1980s. A former staff writer at The Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist at the Houston Chronicle, he is the author of eight books, mostly about Texas.He would talk to people, and he would find out things going on about racial discrimination, about farm workers being mistreated, all kind of stories that the big papers weren't reporting. And this one guy, young Ronnie Dugger, would write these stories and expose things about Texas that a lot of Texans just did not know.Joe Holley on the late progressive journalist, Ronnie DuggerHe knew the dark side of Texas, but he always had an upbeat personality. I had numerous conversations with Ronnie (Dugger), and he was ferociously independent.Ralph NaderNews 6/13/251. On Monday, Israeli forces seized the Madleen, the ship carrying activist Greta Thunberg and others attempting to bring food and other supplies past the Israeli blockade into Gaza, and detained the crew. The ship was part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thunberg had been designated an “Ambassador of Conscience,” by Amnesty International. The group decried her detention, with Secretary General Agnès Callamard writing, “Israel has once again flouted its legal obligations towards civilians in the occupied Gaza Strip and demonstrated its chilling contempt for legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice.” On Tuesday, CBS reported that Israel deported Thunberg. Eight other passengers refused deportation and the Jerusalem Post reports they remain in Israeli custody. They will be represented in Israeli courts by Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. One of these detainees is Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.2. Shortly before the Madleen was intercepted, members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern for the safety of these activists, citing the deadly 2010 raid of the Mavi Marmara, which ultimately resulted in the death of ten activists, including an American. This letter continued, “any attack on the Madleen or its civilian crew is a clear and blatant violation of international law. United Nations experts have called for the ship's safe passage and warned Israel to “refrain from any act of hostility” against the Madleen and its passengers…We call on you to monitor the Madleen's journey and deter any such hostile actions.” This letter was led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and drew signatures from Congressional progressives like Reps. Summer Lee, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Greg Casar, and others.3. On the other end of the political spectrum, Trump – ever unpredictable – seemed to criticize Israel's detention of Thunberg. In a press conference, “Trump was…asked about Thunberg's claim that she had been kidnapped.” The president responded “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg…Is that what she said? She was kidnapped by Israel?” The reporter replied “Yes, sir,” to which “Trump responded by shaking his head.” This from Newsweek.4. Of course, the major Trump news this week is his response to the uprising in Los Angeles. Set off by a new wave of ICE raids, protesters have clashed with police in the streets and Trump has responded by increasingly upping the ante, including threatening to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom, per KTLA. Beyond such bluster however, Trump has moved to deploy U.S. Marines onto the streets of the nation's second-largest city. Reuters reports, “About 700 Marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 30 miles…south of Los Angeles, awaiting deployment to specific locations,” in addition to 2,100 National Guard troops. The deployment of these troops raises thorny legal questions. Per Reuters, “The Marines and National Guard troops lack the authority to makes arrests and will be charged only with protecting federal property and personnel,” but “California Attorney General Rob Bonta… [said] there was a risk that could violate an 1878 law that…forbids the U.S. military, including the National Guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.” Yet, despite all the tumult, these protests seem to have gotten the goods, so to speak: the City of Glendale announced it would, “end its agreement with…ICE to house federal immigration detainees.” All of this sets quite a scene going into Trump's military parade in DC slated for Saturday, June 14th.5. In classic fashion however, Trump's tough posture does not extend to corporate crime. Public Citizen's Rick Claypool reports, “Trump's DOJ just announced American corporations that engage in criminal bribery schemes abroad will no longer be prosecuted.” Claypool cites a June 9th memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, which reads, “Effective today, prosecutors shall…not attribute…malfeasance to corporate structures.” Claypool also cites a Wall Street Journal piece noting that “the DOJ has already ended half of its criminal investigations into corporate bribery in foreign countries and shrunk its [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] unit down to 25 employees.”6. Americans can at least take small comfort in one thing: the departure of Elon Musk from the top rungs of government. It remains to be seen what exactly precipitated his final exit and how deep his rift with Trump goes – Musk has already backed down on his harshest criticisms of the president, deleting his tweet claiming Trump was in Epstein files, per ABC. Yet, this appears to be a victory for Steve Bannon and the forces he represents within Trump's inner circle. On June 5th, the New York Times reported that Bannon, “said he was advising the president to cancel all [Musk's] contracts and… ‘initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status'.” Bannon added, “[Musk] should be deported from the country immediately.'” Bannon has even called for a special counsel probe, per the Hill. Bannon's apparent ascendency goes beyond the Oval Office as well. POLITICO Playbook reports Bannon had a 20-minute-long conversation with Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman on Monday evening – while Fetterman dined with Washington bureau chief for Breitbart, Matt Boyle – at Butterworth's, the DC MAGA “watering hole.” This also from the Hill.7. On the way out, the Daily Beast reports, “Elon Musk's goons at the Department of Government Efficiency transmitted a large amount of data—all of it undetected—using a Starlink Wi-Fi terminal they installed on top of the White House.” Sources “suggested that the [the installation of the Starlink terminal] was intended to bypass White House systems that track the transmission of data—with names and time stamps—and secure it from spies.” It is unknown exactly what data Musk and his minions absconded with, and for what purpose. We can only hope the public gets some answers.8. With Musk and Trump parting ways, other political forces are now seeking to woo the richest man in the world. Semafor reports enigmatic Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley and chaired Bernie Sanders' campaign in California, “talked with one of…Musk's ‘senior confidants' …about whether the ex-DOGE leader…might want to help the Democratic Party in the midterms.” Khanna added, “Having Elon speak out against the irrational tariff policy, against the deficit exploding Trump bill, and the anti-science and anti-immigrant agenda can help check Trump's unconstitutional administration…I look forward to Elon turning his fire against MAGA Republicans instead of Democrats in 2026.” On the other hand, the Hill reports ex-Democrat Andrew Yang is publicly appealing to Musk for an alliance following Musk's call for the establishment of an “America Party.” Yang himself founded the Forward Party in 2021. Yang indicated Musk has not responded to his overtures.9. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Democratic Party appears to be giving up entirely. In a leaked Zoom meeting, DNC Chair Ken Martin – only elected in February – said, “I don't know if I wanna do this anymore,” per POLITICO. On this call, Martin expressed frustration with DNC Vice Chair David Hogg, blaming him for, “[destroying] any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to.” Hogg meanwhile has doubled down, defying DNC leadership by “wading into another primary,” this time for the open seat left by the death of Congressman Gerry Conolly in Virginia, the Washington Post reports. The DNC is still weighing whether to void Hogg's election as Vice Chair.10. Finally, in some good news from New York City, State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani appears to have closed the gap with disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo began the race with a 40-point lead; a new Data for Progress poll shows that lead has been cut down to just two points. Moreover, that poll was conducted before Mamdani was endorsed by AOC, who is expected to bring with her substantial support from Latinos and residents of Queens, among other groups. Notably, Mamdani has racked up tremendous numbers among young men, a demographic the Democratic Party has struggled to attract in recent elections. Cuomo will not go down without a fight however. The political nepo-baby has already secured a separate ballot line for the November election, meaning he will be in the race even if he loses the Democratic primary, and he is being boosted by a new million-dollar digital ad spend by Airbnb, per POLITICO. The New York City Democratic Primary will be held on June 24th.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

On June 6, thousands of veterans, union members, VA hospital nurses, elected officials, and more gathered on the National Mall in Washington D.C. at the “Unite for Veterans, Unite for America rally” to protest the Trump administration's attacks on veteran jobs, benefits, and healthcare. In this on-the-ground edition of Working People, we report from Friday's rally and speak with veterans and VA nurses about how Trump's policies are affecting them now and how to fix the longstanding issues with the VA. Speakers: Peter Pocock, Vietnam War veteran (Navy) and retired union organizer Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees Terri Henry, Air Force veteran Ellen Barfield, Army veteran and national vice president of Veterans for Peace Lindsay Church, executive director and co-founder of Minority Veterans of America Lelaina Brandt, veteran (National Guard), 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate, and part-time illustrator and graphic designer. Eric Farmer, Navy submarine veteran Irma Westmoreland,  registered VA nurse in Augusta, GA, secretary-treasurer of National Nurses United, chair of National Nurses United Organizing Committee/NNU-VA Andrea Johnson, registered VA nurse in San Diego, CA, medical surgical unit and the NNOC/NNU director of VA Medical Center- San Diego Justin Wooden, registered VA nurse in the intensive care unit (ICU) at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, FL Cecil E. Roberts, Vietnam War veteran (Army) and president of the United Mine Workers of America Additional links/info: Tim Balk & Helene Cooper, The New York Times, “Military parade in Capital on Trump's birthday could cost $45 million, officials say” Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press, “Transgender troops face a deadline and a difficult decision: Stay or go?” Eric Umansky & Vernal Coleman, ProPublica, “Internal VA emails reveal how Trump cuts jeopardize veterans' care, including to ‘life-saving cancer trials'” Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / The Real News Network, “Trump cuts leave VA hospital nurses and veteran patients in a crisis” Featured Music: Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song Credits: Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor

Kat takes us to a remote area of Canada to cover the legend of a small Inuit village vanishing without a trace. Then Hayley covers "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" during the Vietnam War as recounted by John "Chickie" Donohue.   Still got a thirst for knowledge and parasaocial camaraderie? You're in luck! Listen to our bonus shows on our Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/nightclassy Night Classy | Linktree Produced by Parasaur Studios © 2025

Ken Burns is an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for “The Civil War,” “The Vietnam War,” "Jazz,” "Country Music," among many others. His next project, “The American Revolution,” a six-part series, will premiere November 16, 2025 on PBS.www.kenburns.com https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-revolution Try ZipRecruiter for FREE at https://ziprecruiter.com/rogan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Send us a textBruce Wasser shares his journey of losing his father at age 15 and how this profound loss shaped his decision to become a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and ultimately led to his 33-year teaching career.• Growing up in Seattle with his father Joe, a WWII veteran who instilled values of teamwork, equality, and community• Devastating loss of his father to cancer just 14 months after diagnosis when Bruce was only 15 • Becoming an overachiever in school and sports as a response to grief• Drawing the draft lottery number 90 during Vietnam and applying for conscientious objector status• Finding surrogate father figures in coaches, professors, and public figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.• Discovering his calling as a teacher where he could identify and connect with students who were hurting• Experiencing what his wife calls "post-traumatic growth" – becoming more empathetic through trauma• Suggestions for grieving on Father's Day: share grief with others, write letters to your father, find meaningful placesPlease like, subscribe and follow this podcast on your favorite platform. A glowing review is always helpful and, as a reminder, this podcast is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only.Freed.ai: We'll Do Your SOAP Notes!Freed AI converts conversations into SOAP note.Use code Steve50 for $50 off the 1st month!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showYouTube Channel For The Podcast

After the Second World War, France decided to reassert control over French Indochina. This policy met strong resistance from both Communist and right-wing political and military organizations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Resistance grew, leading to the First Indochina War (1946-1954). This conflict ended with the Geneva Agreements, in which the French agreed to depart, the country would be temporarily divided between a Communist North and a non-Commuist south, and elections would be held in 1956…or would they? Join Sean and James as they discuss this “war before the war” that is little known to westerners but is a crucial prelude to the more well-known Vietnam War.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.