So Where Are You From?

Kate and Yoko chat about the Olympics, Asian movies with white heroes, and tattoos. It’s just us this week, so this ep’s a shortie ... but packed with goodness as ever. ^_^

We chat with Sarah Ngu, former deacon at Brooklyn’s Forefront Church and writer with bylines in Vice, Jacobin, and Sojourners (she also has not-bylines as a ghostwriter). We talk about her family’s journey from Malaysia to New York as part of a church planting movement; how writing sermons differs from journalism differs from ghost writing; and the varying merits of animal proteins.

Check out Sarah’s website to see a collection of her writing—we recommend reading a transcript of her sermon titled Decolonizing Christianity. Also, check out her project Church Clarity, a database of churches scored based on their policies regarding LGBTQ affirmation and women in leadership.

Model Minorities

Yoko’s model minority is Maya Man, a creative technologist at Google who, in collaboration with renowned performance artist Bill T. Jones, created Body, Movement, Language, an experiment that uses artificial intelligence to make dance accessible to the masses.

Kate’s model minority is Bowen Yang, writer and now castmember of Saturday Night Live. He’s the first Asian castmember in 45 seasons! Can you freaking believe it?

Kate’s in LA, Yoko’s in New York. We learn that Kate knows all the words to Amagigoe by enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa, and have our minds blown discussing “99 Ranch” vs. “Ranch 99” and “lie-chee” vs. “lee-chee.”

So Where Are They Now?

When we chatted with Ken Quemuel in Ep. 4, he was running a monthly dance party in LA called 143. This fall, he’s moved on to start Cupid, a return to the slow jams that got him excited about DJ-ing in the first place. Kate is going to check it out, since it’s happening while she’s in town (post script: it was awesome). If you’re in LA, the next one is on October 9!

Model Minorities

Yoko’s model minority is Linh-Yen Hoang, the designer behind the “Wrong Asian, but ok” sticker. Extreme relatable feels. Check out her Etsy shop, which also has prints and zines!

Kate’s model minority is Maya Erskine, who writes, produces, and stars in Pen15, a TV show about a “middle school as it really happened.” Also ... extremely relatable. Shoutout if you were in middle school in the year 2000.

We're joined by Paul Jochico and Robespierre Dornagon, two of the three founders of the NYC-based dance studio House of Movement. We talk about how they founded their own studio, how the definition of hip hop has evolved, and which Marvel characters they'd make Asian.

Follow Robes on Instagram and Twitter @robesee and Paul on Instagram @pjinmotion. Learn more about House of Movement at houseofmovementny.com and follow them on Instagram @homnyc.

Model Minorities
Kate’s model minority is actor Karen Fukuhara. We know her from her Disney correspondent days, that one time she was Katana in Suicide Squad, and now we’re watching her in the new Amazon Prime original series The Boys.

Yoko’s model minorities are Cassandra Lam and Karen Mok, founders of The Cosmos, a community for Asian women and non-binary creators. We love that they’re constantly evaluating and reassessing what these labels mean. Check them out @jointhecosmos!

Kate and Yoko are joined by ethnographer and people organizer Christina Xu. We talk about Christina’s relationship with the internet, and how she creates channels for enabling other people to do their most ambitious work . Also, Kate’s officiating her second wedding and conducted a survey about marriage (by the way, she’s got a boyfriend now. Y’all slept on that).