32. COVID-19, Science, and Dictatorships. (w/Dr. Otto Yang. Part 1)
02/22/21 • 46 min
Dr. Otto Yang is a first-generation Taiwanese-American and the associate chief of infectious disease at UCLA.
Dr. Yang has a background in clinical infectious diseases, and his laboratory specializes in immunology and HIV infection. That experience and background put Dr.Yang in a unique position at the beginning of the pandemic - and he has repurposed his lab to study COVID19 and how our immune system responds to it. His research was covered in a somewhat controversial way by The New York Times.
We cover a lot of ground in today’s episode. As usual, we talk about Dr. Yang’s personal journey from growing up as a first-generation Taiwanese American in Tennessee to Harvard and then UCLA. We compare notes on dictatorships. Dr. Yang shared a great primer on the state of affairs in Taiwan, which considering what has been happening in Hong Kong, we should all keep an eye on.
We, of course, talk about Dr.Yang’s research and why he describes himself as, and I quote, “the toilet paper of medicine.” Gwenyth Paltrow and Tom Hanks also make an appearance in that part of the story...
On Thursday, we will be posting part two of the podcast - where we get into the weeds of COVID19. We talk about how the virus spreads, how it works, the variants, the immune system responses, vaccines, and all that good stuff, which we keep learning more and more about every day.
Let us know what you think about the show. Call our Google Voice at (213) 973-3813 and leave a message or email a voice memo to [email protected].
FIND DR. OTTO YANG:
DONATE TO DR.YANG'S LAB - Garry Shandling Biomedical Future Fund
FIND WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on TikTok
ASK YOUR FRIENDLY RUSSIAN on TikTok
MUSIC: "My country" courtesy of Ben Bostick www.benbostick.com
ABOUT WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
We The Aliens podcast hosts conversations with IMMIGRANTS from all over the world who came to the US and found their path to the American Dream. No matter what their status is - undocumented, DACA recipient, permanent resident (green card holder), naturalized citizen - all are welcome here. We talk about the challenges of leaving the home country, finding the legal path, finding a way to belong in the new world, building a career, finding love, and sustaining the family traditions. We talk about IMMIGRATION as a process of growth and self-discovery, adaptation, overcoming cultural shocks, and fighting racial and ethnic stereotypes. We talk about the great contributions immigrants make to the American economy, culture, science, and society. We also feature stories of the first-gens, FIRST GENERATION American-born, the third culture kids, who have their own set of struggles growing in between the cultures of their parents' home country and America. We talk about their battle to find their identity and carve their path while redefining what American is. We talk about philosophy, psychology, culture, language, and history. We also talk about the news of the day, things that we all worry about - but in the context of the immigrant perspective. If you love NPR, This American Life, The Daily, and Pod Save America, if you read Forbes, LA Times, The Atlantic, and New York Times, if you watch John Oliver, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, and/or Trevor Noah, if you are a Twitter and Clubhouse addict because you want to be closer to people, if you, your spouse, your parent, or your grandma is an immigrant-alien, and you know that you and they came to this country to build and contribute, and you can’t stand discrimination and belittling of their lives and contributions - this podcast is for you.
Dr. Otto Yang is a first-generation Taiwanese-American and the associate chief of infectious disease at UCLA.
Dr. Yang has a background in clinical infectious diseases, and his laboratory specializes in immunology and HIV infection. That experience and background put Dr.Yang in a unique position at the beginning of the pandemic - and he has repurposed his lab to study COVID19 and how our immune system responds to it. His research was covered in a somewhat controversial way by The New York Times.
We cover a lot of ground in today’s episode. As usual, we talk about Dr. Yang’s personal journey from growing up as a first-generation Taiwanese American in Tennessee to Harvard and then UCLA. We compare notes on dictatorships. Dr. Yang shared a great primer on the state of affairs in Taiwan, which considering what has been happening in Hong Kong, we should all keep an eye on.
We, of course, talk about Dr.Yang’s research and why he describes himself as, and I quote, “the toilet paper of medicine.” Gwenyth Paltrow and Tom Hanks also make an appearance in that part of the story...
On Thursday, we will be posting part two of the podcast - where we get into the weeds of COVID19. We talk about how the virus spreads, how it works, the variants, the immune system responses, vaccines, and all that good stuff, which we keep learning more and more about every day.
Let us know what you think about the show. Call our Google Voice at (213) 973-3813 and leave a message or email a voice memo to [email protected].
FIND DR. OTTO YANG:
DONATE TO DR.YANG'S LAB - Garry Shandling Biomedical Future Fund
FIND WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on TikTok
ASK YOUR FRIENDLY RUSSIAN on TikTok
MUSIC: "My country" courtesy of Ben Bostick www.benbostick.com
ABOUT WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
We The Aliens podcast hosts conversations with IMMIGRANTS from all over the world who came to the US and found their path to the American Dream. No matter what their status is - undocumented, DACA recipient, permanent resident (green card holder), naturalized citizen - all are welcome here. We talk about the challenges of leaving the home country, finding the legal path, finding a way to belong in the new world, building a career, finding love, and sustaining the family traditions. We talk about IMMIGRATION as a process of growth and self-discovery, adaptation, overcoming cultural shocks, and fighting racial and ethnic stereotypes. We talk about the great contributions immigrants make to the American economy, culture, science, and society. We also feature stories of the first-gens, FIRST GENERATION American-born, the third culture kids, who have their own set of struggles growing in between the cultures of their parents' home country and America. We talk about their battle to find their identity and carve their path while redefining what American is. We talk about philosophy, psychology, culture, language, and history. We also talk about the news of the day, things that we all worry about - but in the context of the immigrant perspective. If you love NPR, This American Life, The Daily, and Pod Save America, if you read Forbes, LA Times, The Atlantic, and New York Times, if you watch John Oliver, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, and/or Trevor Noah, if you are a Twitter and Clubhouse addict because you want to be closer to people, if you, your spouse, your parent, or your grandma is an immigrant-alien, and you know that you and they came to this country to build and contribute, and you can’t stand discrimination and belittling of their lives and contributions - this podcast is for you.
Previous Episode
31. Russia: The Unfalling Empire. (w/Ariel Cohen. Part 2)
Ariel shared an amazing and very personal story of what it was like to live in the Soviet Union as a Jewish person and what it took to escape. How at the age of 15 he was pressured to denounce his parents as traitors, and what happened when he refused.
In today’s episode, we talk about how what is happening in Russia today is intrinsically connected to the collapse of the Soviet Union hence the title of the episode The Unfalling Empire.
For those of you who don’t follow Russian politics closely, one name that comes up in the conversation that you need to know is the name of Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, Alexey Navalny. For the last 15 years, Navalny has been an increasingly uncomfortable thorn in the side of Putin’s regime. He investigates corrupt politicians and makes youtube films that are very popular online. The most recent one, which focused on Putin’s Palace was viewed over 100M times.
Russia’s political field has been cleared out of essentially any opposition - politicians who refuse to side with Putin, end up in jail or dead. And so, Navalny is this last man standing. And in the summer of 2020, he was poisoned with a chemical weapon no less, a nerve agent Novichok. He miraculously survived and upon his return to Moscow, he was immediately arrested which sparked the most recent wave of protests all over Russia about a month ago. Around that time, there was a lot of talk about new sanctions against Russia - but that’s where it stood at the time of the recording.
This conversation with Ariel Cohen will give you a bit of a historic and global context to understand the situation.
Let us know what you think about the show. Call our Google Voice at (213) 973-3813 and leave a message or email a voice memo to [email protected].
FIND ARIEL COHEN:
https://www.arielcohen.com/ and on Twitter @Dr_Ariel_Cohen
FIND WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on TikTok
ASK YOUR FRIENDLY RUSSIAN on TikTok
MUSIC: "My country" courtesy of Ben Bostick www.benbostick.com
ABOUT WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
We The Aliens podcast hosts conversations with IMMIGRANTS from all over the world who came to the US and found their path to the American Dream. No matter what their status is - undocumented, DACA recipient, permanent resident (green card holder), naturalized citizen - all are welcome here. We talk about the challenges of leaving the home country, finding the legal path, finding a way to belong in the new world, building a career, finding love, and sustaining the family traditions. We talk about IMMIGRATION as a process of growth and self-discovery, adaptation, overcoming cultural shocks, and fighting racial and ethnic stereotypes. We talk about the great contributions that immigrants make to the American economy, culture, science, and society. We also feature stories of the first-gens, FIRST GENERATION American-born, the third culture kids, who have their own set of struggles growing in between the cultures of their parents' home country and America. We talk about their battle to find their identity and carve their path while redefining what American is. We talk about philosophy, psychology, culture, language, and history. We also talk about the news of the day, things that we all worry about - but in the context of the immigrant perspective. If you love NPR, This American Life, The Daily, and Pod Save America, if you read Forbes, LA Times, The Atlantic, and New York Times, if you watch John Oliver, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, and/or Trevor Noah, if you are a Twitter addict but are contemplating TikTok, if you, your spouse, your parent, or your grandma is an alien and you know that they came to this country to build and contribute - this podcast is for you.
Next Episode
33. The Nitty-Gritty of COVID-19. (w/Dr. Otto Yang. Part 2)
This is part two of My conversation with Dr. Otto Yang, who is the associate chief of the infectious disease at UCLA.
Dr. Yang is a first-generation Taiwanese-American. He grew up in a family of scientists. He graduated from Brown University and Harvard. And for the last 20+ years, Dr. Yang has been specializing in T cell immunology and HIV. And since the beginning of the pandemic, he has repurposed his lab to study the immune response to COVID-19.
We talked about Dr.Yang’s research in part one of the interview and in this episode, we get down to the nitty-gritty of the COVID-19 - how the virus spreads, how the vaccines work, why we need to double mask, and how Taiwan managed to keep the infection rate so low without lockdowns (total of 955 cases to date / 9 deaths / population 23.8 million).
Let us know what you think about the show. Call our Google Voice at (213) 973-3813 and leave a message or email a voice memo to [email protected].
FIND DR. OTTO YANG:
Dr.Yang's UCLA Profile - https://www.uclahealth.org/otto-yang
Garry Shandling Biomedical Future Fund - https://www.uclahealth.org/Infectious-Diseases/shandling-biomedical-future-fund
FIND WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on TikTok
ASK YOUR FRIENDLY RUSSIAN on TikTok
MUSIC: "My country" courtesy of Ben Bostick www.benbostick.com
ABOUT WE THE ALIENS PODCAST:
We The Aliens podcast hosts conversations with IMMIGRANTS from all over the world who came to the US and found their path to the American Dream. No matter what their status is - undocumented, DACA recipient, permanent resident (green card holder), naturalized citizen - all are welcome here. We talk about the challenges of leaving the home country, finding the legal path, finding a way to belong in the new world, building a career, finding love, and sustaining the family traditions. We talk about IMMIGRATION as a process of growth and self-discovery, adaptation, overcoming cultural shocks, and fighting racial and ethnic stereotypes. We talk about the great contributions immigrants make to the American economy, culture, science, and society. We also feature stories of the first-gens, FIRST GENERATION American-born, the third culture kids, who have their own set of struggles growing in between the cultures of their parents' home country and America. We talk about their battle to find their identity and carve their path while redefining what American is. We talk about philosophy, psychology, culture, language, and history. We also talk about the news of the day, things that we all worry about - but in the context of the immigrant perspective. If you love NPR, This American Life, The Daily, and Pod Save America, if you read Forbes, LA Times, The Atlantic, and New York Times, if you watch John Oliver, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, and/or Trevor Noah, if you are a Twitter and Clubhouse addict because you want to be closer to people, if you, your spouse, your parent, or your grandma is an immigrant-alien, and you know that you and they came to this country to build and contribute, and you can’t stand discrimination and belittling of their lives and contributions - this podcast is for you.
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