Escape From Plan A

(Part 2 of this podcast is available on our Patreon feed for supporters) This weeks delayed episode (sorry folks) is a recording of a live Twitter Space conversation between Teen, John Pang, and Carl Zha, in which the discourse around US-China conflict is flipped and instead of analyzing Chinese society and politics, we point the camera directly into the heart of America and why we're going down t...

Adam and Teen discuss the controversy around 'Beef' co-star David Choe, Asian American dirtbag culture, and how someone as obscenely misogynistic as Choe could become a social and creative hub for Asian American Hollywood. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ EFPA Theme:
 "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (@aerialist)

Liza and Chris share their thoughts on Beef, which they think is the first truly exciting Asian American creative work to come in a long time, breaking the typical Asian American mold of weepy and timid narratives. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag TWITTER: Liza: @aesthdistance1 Chris: @JesuInToast Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ EFPA Theme:
 "Escape From P...

Mike and Teen talk briefly about de-dollarization and whether it's an existential threat or a bit overhyped; then, Mike takes a deep dive into large language model AI and they spend a Friday evening pondering what kind of crazy self-replication anybody can now do with a mid-range laptop. REFERENCED RESOURCE: "ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web" by Ted Chiang (https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals...

Mike, Steve and Teen spend a Friday evening discussing whether Peak Sinophobia has arrived. Can Congress get any frothier, any more insane, after Ted Cruz said China is waging a "thousand year war" on America? Will Tim Apple and the other money men have to sit Congress down and give them the shekels speech? Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: pla...

Mike and Steve return to drink some hard liquor and talk about getting jobs, whether one can fully relax upon retirement, Credit Suisse and the slow-motion banking meltdown, and the shambolic TikTok hearings. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ EFPA Theme:
 "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (@aerialist)

Chris, Adam and Teen talk about the recent explosion of Asian visibility in Hollywood at the Oscars, and whether the optics of white Hollywood "finally seeing" Asian people is real, or whether in fact Asians have strived and embedded ourselves into the entertainment business no different than any other professional industry, and are in fact insiders to the Hollywood firmament. Also, Teen explains...

Mike and Steve are back to talk with Teen about whether the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is a bellwether for another financial collapse. The news, we believe, is not good. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ EFPA Theme:
 "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (@aerialist)

Resigned to a likely triumphant night for Everything Everywhere All At Once at next week's Oscars, Liza and Chris discuss that movie along with Tár because of each film's competing ideologies on separation of art and artist, as well as the meaning of art. Plus, some Oscars predictions. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ REFERE...

This podcast sort of has two parts. First, Jess, Adam and Teen talk about the news of the day, the growing urgency of anti-Asian racism as official government policy, and the utter disinterest that politicians have in anything but career advancement. Next, they talk about Asian enclaves as a sanctuary against nosebleed inducing rents and home prices in the fashionable neighborhoods of big cities....

Jess and Teen chat on a Saturday evening about mindless Sinophobia exploding in the United States, how social justice movements and leftist politics are utterly incapable of protecting Asian Americans. What, then, will shield us from the worst excesses of anti-Asian racism that occurred in the past? Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.co...

Parenting is the topic that keeps on giving, and so Jess gets together with Eliza and Filip to talk about the peculiar way Professional Managerial Class (PMC) parents raise their kids. If the PMC obsession with spending money on bougie strollers and Harvard-prep daycares doesn’t lead to happier, more successful kids, then what’s it actually for? Eliza shares some practical advice for Asian America...

Mike and Steve aka The Degens talk with Teen about mid-life careerism, the professional managerial class lifestyle trap, and tales of surgery and other medical milestones of middle age. Why is it so hard to keep spending low when income rises? Why is careerism seemingly easier to manage in mid-life than when we just started out? And how do we ever get off this hamster wheel of striving? Part 2 is...

Kyle, Adam and Teen spend a Saturday afternoon chatting about Asians not making enough babies. A recent spate of articles focused on one of the West's preoccupations: the number of Asian people on the planet. The past was marked by a Malthusian fear of a locust-like Asian explosion. The current time is marked by a fear of low Asian birthrates, leading to supposedly inevitable economic decline. The...

Jess and Teen go deep yet again on "cultural appropriation" and why there can be no meaningful understanding about culture, art and theft so long as this bogus idea frames the discussion. Current events touched upon include the difference in opinion between Asian Americans and native Asians over Gwen Stefani-san's Japanese DNA, and Rick Rubin's laissez faire attitude towards musical influence and...

Liza and Chris and are joined by returning guest and filmmaker Dan Chen to talk about Velma, Everything Everywhere All At Once, the dead-end of diversity self-insert culture, divorcing one's self-esteem from media rep, and striving to create instead of just criticize. Part 2 is available on Patreon for subscribers. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise s...

Liza, Jess, Chris and Teen discuss the widespread phenomenon of embracing older creative technologies such as film cameras and typewriters, and lessening the amount of time we spend on digital technologies esp. the modern smartphone. What is the appeal of pre-digital technology, and what do we stand to gain from it? Also, what does OpenAI's content-generating colossi ChatGPT and Dall-E mean for th...

Happy New Year! One of the highlights of the year for us at Plan A was kicking off a short film project helmed by the director Dan Chen, cinematographer Philips Shum, and producer Millicent Cho. Shan and Teen reminisce about the trio's five eventful days of shooting in New York City, the sights they saw, the people they met, the stories they heard. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Chec...

Teen and Chris talk about wanting to regularly publish pieces as they once used to, but now with a newfound focus on creation rather than criticism, and their hope that that can help foster a new Asian American artistic subculture that is just more interesting and honest, even offensively so, than what passes for Asian American culture these days. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check...

Chris, Teen, and Filip talk about how the new AI writing program ChatGPT could either spell doom for human writers or usher in a renaissance where mediocre shitlib writing is rendered obsolete and only those with interesting things to say can flourish. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ TWITTER: Chris (@JesuInToast) Teen (@mon...

Chris just spent 3 weeks in Korea to see his parents for the first time in almost 4 years, and he and Filip talk about aging parents and the impact their increasingly apparent mortality has on how we balance our own interests vs. their desires for our careers, dating and marriage, and other life pursuits. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: plana...

Chris and Adam talk about Korea's dramatic progression to the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup, how much we tie up self-worth to international sporting spectacles, and the rise of Cho Gue-sung as the Hot Guy of the World Cup. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ TWITTER: Chris (@JesuInToast) Adam (@snbatman) EFPA Theme: "Esc...

Part 1 of 2 Jess and Teen talk about the difference in life approach between those of us who seek achievement within an organization or otherwise within the confines of a competition, versus those of us who seek achievement entirely as self-satisfaction. Are these really two separate groups of people, or archetypes that both exist within each of us? And how does this relate to archetypes of Asian...

Jess and Teen talk about spending habits, addictive consumerism, and how materialism -- the love of material possessions -- is not the problem. It might be the solution. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ EFPA Theme: "Escape From Plan A" by Ciel (@aerialist)

Everyone is busy with other cooler stuff this week, so Teen monologues about (1) what Plan A has decided to do with our Patreon cash, (2) a little peek at the FTX conspiracy, and (3) living in the post-capitalist age of oppression-by-virtue. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Check out the new Plan A merchandise shop: planamag.com/shop/ REFERENCED RESOURCES: Dan Chen's "Accepted": https:...