They Call Us Bruce 137: They Call Us Kat Chow

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome writer and friend Kat Chow, author of Seeing Ghosts, a memoir about grief, intergenerational loss, reclaiming your family's story... and taxidermy. She talks about The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of seeing figurative and/or literal ghosts.

All The Asians On Star Trek - 16: Art Chudabala

The Podcast In Which We Interview All The Asians On Star Trek.



All The Asians On Star Trek is the podcast in which we interview all the Asians on Star Trek. In Episode 16 of All The Asians On Star Trek, we welcome actor Art Chudabala. He appeared as Lieutenant junior grade Hector Ilario in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season seven episode "Field of Fire." (Spoiler alert: he dies.) He talks about his fake best friends, playing dead, and shooting your shot with Ezri Dax. Art's other acting credits include NYPD Blue, ER, CSI, Grey's Anatomy, The West Wing, and his screen debut in the cult favorite skateboard movie Gleaming the Cube, which we also discuss.

Read These

How the Philippines' colonial legacy weighs on Filipino American mental health
What does colonialist mentality look like in the Filipino American community, and how does it affect mental health? The first in Agnes Constante's four-part series for the Los Angeles Times.

* * *
The Filipino American family behind Calif.'s new police reform laws speaks out
"It was very empowering knowing that what we have done is making a real major impact," said the sister of Angelo Quinto, a veteran who died after police allegedly knelt on his neck.

* * *
Mistakes I Made Between 7:30 and 7:55 A.M.
"When she called my name, I reacted instantly, and that immediately dispelled my illusion of obliviousness."

* * *
YouTube star Gurdeep Pandher draws on Sikh faith as he dances for joy
During a time of global despair brought on by pandemic, one grinning man charmed millions with his exuberant performance of Bhangra set against majestic Yukon backdrops.

* * *
The Psychological Reason You're Obsessed With Squid Game
Squid Game is gruesomely violent and emotionally punishing. So why can't we stop watching it?

* * *
The seedy world of private lending in 'Squid Game’ is a real temptation in South Korea
In South Korea, Squid Game's popularity has been inseparable from the country's very real crisis of mounting household debt, gaping inequality and a weak social safety net with significant blind spots.

* * *
What 'Squid Game' gets right and wrong about Pakistani migrant workers
Squid Game is currently the number one TV show in Pakistan. NPR asked Pakistanis around the world to weigh in on the character of migrant worker Ali Abdul -- and the casting of an Indian actor Anupam Tripathi in the role.

* * *
'Dear Memory' digs into the shame accompanying immigrant silence
After her mother passed away in 2015, Victoria Chang started writing letters to her mother. Then she wrote to her parents, her grandparents, her daughters, her teachers -- until they turned into a book.

* * *
How The Rescue Became This Year's Most Thrilling - and Human - Documentary
Filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin followed up their Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo with a moving account of the Tham Luang cave rescue.

* * *
'I'm so glad you guys exist!’ Carrie Brownstein meets the Linda Lindas
Original riot grrrl Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney chats with Mila, Lucia, Eloise and Bela -- the next gen teenage punk rockers gone viral known as The Linda Lindas.

Read These

"Squid Game" Is a Social Allegory Informed by Korean History
Here are five examples of how Squid Game reflects some of South Korea's reality -- and you might notice some familiar themes related to power structures all over the world.

* * *
'Squid Game' is entertaining the world. But there's a different feeling in South Korea
"Koreans love to be No. 1, but No. 1 at the cost of kind of airing your dirty laundry is a somewhat different thing."

* * *
Lisa Ling's CNN series explores roots of hate. It's personal
In the eighth-season premiere episode of Ling's CNN documentary series This Is Life, she takes an intensely personal look at how prejudice against her community has a long and torturous history in the U.S.

* * *
What's mobilizing AAPI voters like never before
A new poll reveals the ways in which 2020 shaped the ways AAPIs look at themselves and politics.

* * *
Beyond the Model Minority Myth
Asian Americans' long history of challenging stereotypes has often overlooked the ways in which capitalism forges racial identity.

* * *
The first Koreatown in America, and Riverside's role in South Korean democracy
A brief history of Riverside's Pachappa Camp, a Korean settlement founded in 1905, and a place that became a model for South Korea's democracy.

* * *
She Fled Sri Lanka When She Was 4. Now She’s a City Leader.
Penny Abeywardena is commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of International Affairs.

* * *
Margaret Cho on the Groundbreaking DIY Impact of I'm the One That I Want
Margaret Cho talks about I'm the One That I Want, her Off Broadway one-woman show that broke box-office records when it was released as an independent film in 2001.

* * *
How Kumail Nanjiani Got Huge
It all seemed simple enough: Book a Marvel movie, get ripped, feel incredible. But, as the Eternals star learned, growing into his new body required recalibrating his whole mindset.

They Call Us Bruce 136: They Call Us Fully Both

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome Naomi Gleit, VP of Product at Facebook, who wrote a personal essay about her multiracial identity. She talks about growing up ethnically ambiguous, finding her voice on issues of identity and race, and embracing the notion that she is neither half Asian nor half Jewish, but fully both.

All The Asians On Star Trek - 15: Away Mission with Nicole Chung

The Podcast In Which We Interview All The Asians On Star Trek.



All The Asians On Star Trek is the podcast in which we interview all the Asians on Star Trek. In Episode 15 of All The Asians On Star Trek, we embark on another Away Mission, in which we invite fellow Asian American fans of Star Trek to do a deep dive into an episode of their choosing. For this edition of the Away Mission, we welcome writer Nicole Chung to discuss "Family" from season four of Star Trek: The Next Generation . So pass a bottle of the '47. It's time to get muddy in the vineyard.

Read These

The Privilege of Mediocrity
For creators of color, the perceived need to be exemplary can be artistically stultifying. Instead, true freedom may lie in being allowed to be fine -- or to fail.

* * *
We're Already Barreling Toward the Next Pandemic
The pandemic is far from over, but the window to prepare for future threats is closing fast.

* * *
The Overlooked American Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Historian Naoko Wake's new book American Survivors: Trans-Pacific Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki spotlights the American and Asian American survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

* * *
How Do You Build a Successful Legal Practice? Put Your Face on Restaurant Placemats.
With hundreds of restaurants filling the San Gabriel Valley's strip malls and lining its lively thoroughfares, attorney James Wang honed in on the humble placemat to deliver his message.

* * *
So You Want Gong Yoo to Slap You. Now What?
You’ve watched the Squid Game slapping scene multiple times. It made you feel things. You're experiencing a Gong Yoo awakening, and here's what to do next.

* * *
Shang-Chi's' Andy Cheng on Shaping the Next Asian Superhero
Andy Cheng is the fight choreographer behind the much-appreciated bus sequence in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

* * *
From the Pages of Star Wars Insider: Carson's Convenience
Actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee reveals how his experiences on the set of The Mandalorian were a dream come true.