We are a non-for-profit podcast that documents stories from established Asian professionals to empower young Asians around the globe to pursue unconventional career paths. Hosted by Dominic Zhai. New episodes every Friday. Learn more about the show at ...
Episode 53: Malinda Lo is the bestselling author of the National Book Award finalist Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which received eight starred reviews and was named by Oprah Magazine as one of the 50 Best LGBTQ Books That Will Heat Up the Literary Landscape in 2021. Malinda's debut novel, Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Children's/Young Adult, and was a Kirkus 2009 Best Book for Children and Teens.Â
Before she became a novelist, Malinda was an economics major, an editorial assistant, a graduate student, and an entertainment reporter. She was awarded the 2006 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Journalism by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association for her work at AfterEllen. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and has master's degrees from Harvard and Stanford Universities. She lives in Massachusetts with her partner and their dog.
Episode 52: Dr. Kristen Choi is a pediatric psychiatric nurse and an assistant professor at UCLA whose research focuses on mental health policy for vulnerable populations. She has published more than 30 academic articles, including several commentaries in the past few months on how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting mental health. She was also an alumni of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List under Healthcare.
In this episode, she shares her experience on pursuing a career in mental health despite the stigma in Asian communities, what drives her behind her work, and advice she would give to young audience.Â
Episode 51: Ragini Bhasin (@bhasinragini) is an award-winning film director from New Delhi, India who is currently working as a director at Jubilee Media, a Youtube channel with over 5M subscribers. She studied her Masters In Film Directing from Chapman University. She is the recipient of the Meredith MacRae Award in 2018 sponsored by Women in Film for telling diverse stories. Her first short film ‘The Deafening Silence’ was picked up by India’s biggest short film distributor Pocket films and has garnered almost 3M views. She then went on to make 3 short films that won awards, played festivals worldwide and 2 of them found distribution online. Her next short film, Ghazaal which she developed in the prestigious Aotearoa Short Film Lab in New Zealand revolves around a young refugee experiencing her period in a refugee camp.Â
Episode 50: Kulap Vilaysack (@iamkulap) was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Eagan, Minnesota. She is the child of Lao refugees. Her debut documentary, Origin Story, chronicles a road trip into her complicated past to meet her biological father and understand her mother. Vilaysack was also the creator, showrunner and sometimes director of the 4-season semi-scripted comedy series Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ (Seeso). She served as showrunner and co-executive producer of A Legendary Christmas With John & Chrissy (NBC). Kulap also directed the Emily Heller Comedy Special, Ice Thickeners (Comedy Central Digital). She currently co-hosts Add To Cart with SuChin Pak --a podcast about what we buy and what that says about who we are for Lemonada Media.
In this episode, Kulap shares her experience being a showrunner as a woman of color and the challenges that come along with that.Â
Episode 49: Dr. Jenny Wang, also known for @asiansformentalhealth, is a 1.5 generation Taiwanese American and licensed psychologist in Texas and North Carolina. Dr. Wang works exclusively with women’s mental health issues across the lifespan with a specific focus on racial identity and trauma, social justice, and cultural reverence.
In this episode, Dr. Jenny Wang talks about the stigmatized relationship between mental health and Asian culture, the doubt expressed by her parents in pursuing social work, and how she is trying to bridge together her psychological practice and her own Asian American identity.Â
Episode 48: Eric Sze (@esze.e) is the chef-owner of 886 (@eighteightsix), a Taiwanese cuisine restaurant in Manhattan, and soon to be Brooklyn too! Eric was born and raised in Taiwan, and recently featured on the Forbe 30 under 30 list. In this episode, Eric shares his journey trying to expand his restaurant against all odds, mainly a global pandemic.Â
Episode 47: Kylie Ying (@kylieyying) is a computer engineer currently earning her Master's at MIT and creating content about coding & programming on Youtube. Kylie has always loved math, science, and engineering; her focus is working on applying machine learning to particle physics and improving the dynamical model of a self-driving car! Kylie also started her Youtube channel out of pure love and the intention of sharing her knowledge with anyone with a desire to learn about coding/programming, especially women of color.Â
In this episode, Kylie talks about her love for machine learning, her upbringing as an Asian woman, her experiences of being in a space dominated by white men, and her mission to create more space for women of color in her field.Â
Follow us on Instagram for more content at @wyndpodcast!
Episode 46: Esther Moon (@esthermoonstagram), plays Mrs. Oh in Minari, the Oscar-nominated film. Born in South Korea, she immigrated to the United States with her parents at the age of two. Esther decided to pursue acting later in her life and is relatively new to Hollywood. She spent the last two decades as a licensed mental health clinician; it was not until a battle with breast cancer in 2015 that she finally decided to pursue her American Dream. In this episode, Esther shares about her upbringing, reflections on her career change after her cancer diagnosis, and the importance of finding joy.Â
Episode 45: Vanessa Pham (@vanessatpham) cofounded Omsom, an emerging Asian pantry staple brand that makes cooking favorite dishes with uncompromised flavors and hard-to-find ingredients possible in any home kitchen. A former consumer packaged goods management consultant at Bain & Company, Vanessa and her sister Kim, first-generation Vietnamese-Americans, created Omsom to reclaim the cultural integrity of Asian cuisines that are too often diluted in the grocery aisle. Their sauces span flavors from East Asia to South Asia, including Vietnamese lemongrass barbecue and Korean spicy bulgogi. Kim, a former head of platform at Frontline Ventures in London who was named to 2017's 30 Under 30 Europe list.
In this episode, Vanessa shares her origin story, her connection and relationship to her culture through food, and the difficulties faced by growing up as a child of Asian immigrants.Â
Episode 44: Jason Y. Lee (@jasonylee_) is the Founder & CEO of Jubilee Media, a platform that thrives to provoke a new culture of empathy. With a mission to push people to feel more, think more, and see more in others, Jubilee has garnered over 1B views and 6M+subscribers on Youtube. In this episode, Jason shared more about the core of his mission on empathy, the challenges that come along with it, and what it means to be an Asian American to him. With the recent rise of violence against the AAPI community, we felt that it was important to touch upon topics such as racism, mental health, and political progress.Â
Join the community! Follow us on Instagram @wyndpodcast and find all of our socials at whyyounodoctor.com/podcast.Â
Episode 43: Jurassiq (@jurassiqlol), also known as Clarence Mabansag, is a Professional League of Legends Player and Content Creator. Born in Manila but raised in Chicago, he is breaking stereotypes within the gaming world. During this competitive gaming career, he was a part of Team Gates and Golden Guardians Academy, making his way to the NACS 2017 Summer Qualifiers and NA Academy League. Jurassiq made the transition to content creation in partnership with Twitch, you can find his content on YouTube.Â
In this episode, Jurassiq talks about the negative stigma surrounding gamers, dropping out of college, growing up with video games, and how they played an important role in his personal life.Â
Join the community! Follow us on Instagram @wyndpodcast and find all of our socials at whyyounodoctor.com/podcast.
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