Oakland x Asian x Mom Podcast

Sarah interviews Cheryl's two sons, Zaccai and Santiago, about their first trip ever to Philippines - the homeland of their ancestors.

Aimee Eng, former Board Member of the Oakland Unified School Board, joins us to speak about her family's roots of living and serving in Oakland over multiple generations. Aimee's rich familial and personal history includes anecdotes about public service, allies who supported her family, and treasured Oakland favorites. She also shares about the joys and challenges of her decade long tenure...

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Meet Lauren, a fellow friend from Sama Sama Cooperative and an early childhood arts educator by day and illustrator/mark-maker in life. Lauren, who has deep roots in the Bay Area (and a geographic affinity for San Pablo Ave in particular) shares her wisdom on how to nurture creativity in both little ones and the "little me's" inside of us grown ups. Along the way, she has made intentional time and...

Sarah and I catch up as we are in summer mode, swapping observations and random thoughts that go from stunningly comfortable overalls to Korean - Filipino couplings (or the lack thereof) to childhood "benevolent lies" to Expose (yup, the 80-90s Top 40 girl band). We're all over the place which is exactly what summer sometimes feels like. Thanks for hanging with us.

On this mini episode, Sarah finds a way to talk about BTS (yet again), then we segue into the kindness of strangers, the ethics of keeping a library book after the due date, old bikes and candy, beans as dessert, different ways to prepare rice + coconut, and the basics of kimchi. Thanks for listening! Learn more:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinuguan

Florence is a multiracial new mom and journalist-in-training whose work has been published in The Oaklandside. Originally from the bordertown of El Centro, Calif., Florence settled in Oakland just a few years ago but has longtime family roots here. Florence made two big life changes during the pandemic - becoming a mom and switching careers - and shares what that experience has been like with auth...

We share our thoughts on everyday parenting topics such as bedtime, sleepovers, and chores...and reflect about our own childhood experiences vs how we parent our own kids. We have some in the moment revelations too:) We apologize for the abrupt ending as we need to update our Zoom account! LOL.

In this next mini episode we share our thoughts on how we get stuff on the cheap or for free and the tactics we use to avoid annoying fees. And of course, there's all the randomness that goes along with our conversation, including my discovery of a surprising life skill that Sarah has yet to learn.

On this episode, Cheryl and Sarah attempt to discuss a few of our favorite things…except it turns out Cheryl doesn’t play favorites! Or does she?  Though we started out with this prompt, our wide-ranging conversation led us to chat about dimsum (including some controversial takes!), our mutual love of Trader Joe’s, Paxton Hall-Yoshida, tiny ears, Sarah vs. United Airlines, and the Oakland Tha...

Happy 2023. For the start of this new year, OAM will be hosting a series of mini-episodes on random, but relevant topics. TBH, these conversations between Sarah and I are really just recordings of our usual banter with a sprinkling of what's been on our mind and in our texts this week.  For our first conversation, Sarah starts us off with the age ol' question about the quintessential Asian co...

Our friend Nancy was profoundly moved by the way food served as a source of recovery, healing, and community-building during her mother’s experience with cancer. After almost a decade of planning and dreaming, she launched Purpose and Hope, an Oakland-based small business that serves nutritionally dense, handcrafted soup. Nancy shares about how her family’s Chinese heritage helps inform her use of...

Welcome to our Oakland Asian Dad friend, Miguel! We spoke with Miguel about growing up in the Philippines, coming to the States, and raising Asian American daughters here in Oakland. Miguel and his partner are raising their kids in a multicultural and multilingual household with intentionality about paying equal attention to the multiple identities represented in their family. We touched on the is...

Hi everyone! This is our 2nd episode on the topic of Adoption - a bonus episode since Sarah and I remembered that Tracy, our mutual friend, was adopted! Tracy, adopted as a newborn, tells us about her journey from her birth at a Thai refugee camp then immigrating to the state of Alabama and finally settling in Oakland, CA where she has made her home for the past 40+ years. Tracy shares stories abo...

We get the chance to debrief with Sarah and former guest, Jeannie, about their recent travels back to Korea and the Philippines. For both, It was a multi-generational family trip and one that sparked a desire for deeper connection to their homelands. Sarah and Jeannie share about meaningful family time as well as the joys and complexities of navigating cross-cultural interactions all while having...

We invited Glynis, an honorary Oakland Asian Mom by way of Austin, Texas, to speak about her beautiful adoption story. Glynis was born in the Philippines and was adopted at the age of 1 by white parents at a Manila-based adoption agency. She shares sweet memories of how she learned about her adoption story, of feeling fully embraced by her family, and  what it was like taking a trip back to Manila...

"This was a story that really wanted to be told, that wouldn't let me go." On this episode, we talk to first-time author Jane Kuo about her first book, In the Beautiful Country , about a young girl from Taiwan immigrating to Southern California in the 1980s and building a new and very different life. The book is loosely based on Jane's own immigration journey. Jane talks to us about the transition...

On this episode, we talk to fellow Oakland Asian mom Celia about the journey and hopes of raising Asian American sons. The three of us have known each other for a long time, and this was a particularly meaningful conversation. We talk about how our upbringing in Asian immigrant families has shaped how we parent, how living in the Bay Area helps to affirm and strengthen our sons' identities , and a...

Welcome to the OAM's next series which focuses on "Raising Asian American Sons" and who better to interview that our own partners. For the first time, Sarah and I invite our hubbies (Stephen, Sarah's husband and James, Cheryl's) and our mutual friend, Greg, to talk about...what else (no surprise) parenting, identity, and community. We asked these fathers to share about their experiences growing up...

This our third and final episode in our series talking to Asian American faith leaders. To close out the series, we interview Emily, a Taiwanese mom who talks about her journey of following her God-led curiosities in life that brought her to the Bay Area and to serve as a Methodist pastor. Emily shares how she has come to see her leadership style as a mix of vulnerability, audacity, and being her...

This is our second episode in a three-part series talking to Asian American moms who are faith and spiritual leaders in Oakland and the East Bay. In this episode, we talk to Erina ( @erinakimeubanks ), a second generation Korean American mom of Black and Korean kids. Erina is a co-pastor, with her husband, of Bethel Community Church ( @bethelcommunitysl ) in San Leandro. We learn about how Bethel...

For our first episode of Season 2, we invited a friend of ours, Gala, who works at the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. Gala shares about her experiences working at Interfaith, offers wisdom on pursuing a decolonized faith and humbly speaks about the challenges of integrating anti-racist practices into her personal and community life. We appreciate Gala's candor, humility, and reflective s...

In this Season One closer, Cheryl and Sarah take questions from you, our loyal listeners. 

We're branching out a bit geographically for this episode and talking to Diana, a multiracial Asian and white mom hailing from Hayward. Diana talks to us about her work as an academic librarian at Cal State East Bay (RIP CSU Hayward), how she got involved with SURJ, which organizes white people for racial justice, and what it's like being a multiracial woman in that space. We also heard about Dian...

When Sarah and I first brainstormed who we wanted to interview on our podcast, Jodi was on top of our wish list! We couldn't quite narrow down one topic to talk about with Jodi...so we decided to ask her to speak about things we know she is passionate about: intentional living among the poor, working abroad, integrating values of simplicity and generosity in her family life. Jodi has recently been...