ASIAN AMERICA: THE KEN FONG PODCAST

Whether or not you identify as spiritual or some kind of Christian, I'm pretty sure most of us are quite familiar with the tendency--if not the temptation--to live as if the grass is always greener on the other side of the septic tank. Armed with this mindset, many of us move on, move away, or just keep on moving rather than stay put in hopes of finding what we're looking for where we are. As you'...

In this latest installment of the Two Kens collaborative series between Ken Fong and Ken Kemp, they introduce a term that respected German sociologist Max Weber first introduced 100 years ago that they believe best describes what Donald Trump is working hard to accomplish in his second term, and how knowing this term also tells us how best to thwart Trump's efforts. They were inspired by Jonathan...

Dr. Grishma Shah's debut novel Anagram Destiny is a soul warming love story nestled in an inspiring tale of the American dream, manifesting an Indian immigrant success story shattered by the evils of globalization– paying homage to a generation of immigrants who held their heads low so one day, their children could lift theirs high. To learn more about Dr. Shah and her novel go to www.shahgrishma....

If you're one of the fortunate people who know who Tyrus Wong was and what a pivotal role he played in getting the classic Disney film "Bambi" made, I think you'll still be blown away by what Dr. Karen Fang has revealed in her recent book, "Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong." I'll give you two hints: Christmas cards and custom kites.

In this episode seminary professor Dr. Soong-Chan Rah reiterates that the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID should serve as a serious wake up call to American Evangelical Christians because now Christian relief agencies will no longer receive gifts in kind  from the federal government. However, if they continue to celebrate USAID's demise, they are telling us that they really aren't "eva...

As a nod to this being Black History Month and also as a form of pushback against the current dismantling of meritocracy in the U.S. Military by the Trump administration, I invited Dr. Roger Newman to talk about his latest novel  Boys , a work of historical fiction based on what he learned about his Black Uncle Alex growing up in the Jim Crow South and facing systemic racism while serving in Army...

In this latest episode in the Two Kens collaborative series on American politics and Christian nationalism, Fong and Kemp point out the jarring historical parallels with how Germany's Hitler and Hungary's Orban were able to dismantle their countries democracies so quickly. This episode is a call to action and resistance for every American who is now seeing the clear signs of decay in our democracy...

Celebrated playwright, director and producer Chay Yew is once again directing Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band , this time in its Los Angeles debut at East West Players  David Henry Hwang Theater in Little Tokyo from February 13-March 9, 2025.  A poignant new classic of the Asian American theater canon, Cambodian Rock Band explores the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor as he returns to his homeland...

Hawaii-based writer Chris McKinney has edited  Honolulu Noir , the latest in the Akashic Noir series of location-based dark short stories. Comprised of stories about the people of the city, written by those who know this place best. The volume opens with a story featuring Chang Apana, the Native Hawaiian/Chinese real-life cop who was the inspiration for the controversial Charlie Chan. It ends with...

Doreen and Ken were high school sweethearts more than half a century ago. (You can hear more about their love story in EP 496.) But they parted ways in 1973, met and married their spouses, and had children. Doreen's marriage ended in divorce 27 years ago, and Ken's marriage ended in July 2023 when cancer took his wife Snoopy from him. Her dying wish was that he remarry and find happiness again. Si...

My longtime friend and fellow podcaster Ken Kemp ( The Beached White Male ) lives on the far end of Orange County, so his house is far from the fires in SoCal. But many of his out-of-state friends don't know this, so they've been reaching out to he and his wife for reassurances of their safety. They've suffered several days-long power outages due to the high winds, though, so it's not like he's be...

Dr. Noël S. Harmon is the President and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Scholars (APIA Scholars), which is America's largest nonprofit dedicated to supporting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. Their newly revamped scholarship application process is aimed at reducing financial barriers to higher education for students most in need, while...

Author Ellie Yang Camp and I first crossed paths 24 years ago at a triennial Christian conference for college students. I was the main speaker that week and she was a student leader of her InterVarsity chapter @ Cal. We never met that week, but when her debut book Louder Than the Lies crossed my desk and I read her bio and then saw what she had to say about the insidious and pervasive problems of...

Globally acclaimed jazz koto player June Kuramoto received one of the ten National Fellowship Heritage Awards by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2024 in Washington, DC. You can watch Rep. Judy Chew glowing introduction of her and then June's acceptance speech here: https://www.youtube.com/live/tqSlIfYprPU?si=vnwIH5wpcpzVHWk_  

David Bradley Lim grew up in a comfortable Nor Cal suburb. He excelled at most sports, but he knew that he'd never be able to be competitive beyond high school. So he majored in electrical engineering. But after earning his degree, he dove headfirst into the mortgage lending business. Even though he didn't know an escrow from an equity line, he put in the reps and became a top performer. But one d...

Already being mentioned for the Academy's "Best Picture" and "Best Actor" awards, this screen adaptation of Robert Harris' international bestselling novel  Conclave is now available to rent on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, VuDu, and more! Having watched it together the week of Thanksgiving, Ken Kemp and I were chomping at the bit the next day to debrief the major messages, espec...

Dr. Samuel Jamier was adopted as a 4-year-old from Korea by a strick Catholic family in the Brittany region of France. Growing up, he was an altar boy and into heavy metal music, but later developed an enormous passion for films. Today he's a skilled fundraiser, speaker, arts programmer, and serving as the president of the New York Asian Film Festival, which has become North America's leading fest...

California-based Asian American writer Joanne Howard discovered her grandfather's journals which he'd written while the family was serving as Baptist missionaries to India in the 1930s. Fascinated by his firsthand accounts of being an American family as India began to push back against being a colony of Great Britain, Howard was inspired to create a story of a family much like his, told from the p...

Acclaimed Chinese Canadian author and cartoonist Teresa Wong recently published  All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey , which is her graphic memoir about the legacies of upheaval, a longing for family, and the barriers one daughter faces in trying to connect with her immigrant parents. www.byteresawong.com and @by_teresawong

Acclaimed painter and now-author Hyeseung Song has written a searing coming-of-age memoir for fans of  Crying in H Mart, Minor Feelings,  and the film  Minari . Entitled  Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl, it follows the daughter of ambitious Asian American immigrant parents and Hyeseung's own search for self-worth.

After Trump was declared the winner over Harris, long-time friends and podcasters Ken Fong and Ken Kemp felt a need to see how the other was doing. If, like them, you're in shock that more than 70 million fellow Americans chose to give Trump another turn as the most powerful person in the free world, you'll probably find a degree of comfort in knowing that you're not alone.

East West Players' venerable producing artistic director emeritus Tim Dang came back for a third appearance here to let us all know what's in store for audience members who come to his updated version of Stephen Sondheim's and John Weidman's  Pacific Overtures . Previews start Nov. 7th and the musical will run through Dec. 1st. Go to www.eastwestplayers.org to purchase tickets. Set in nineteenth-c...

Brian Ho started taking piano lessons at a very early age, and even though he clearly was a prodigy, he struggled to connect to classical music. But he eventually learned that he could play all of his favorite songs by ear, which increased his passion for playing music. While still a teenager, he landed a gig at a San Jose Black Baptist church. That introduced him not only to the world of improvis...

Award-winning R&B/Rap producer Band!t fell in love with the genres as the young son of Korean American academics. Unsatisfied with the standard STEM direction, he began teaching himself the rudiments of producing original beats interwoven with samples of songs from the 70s while in college. But it would require plenty of blood, sweat, tears, and unshakeable faith in God before he was given chances...

VP Harris was inserted into the race just a few months ago, and now we're only 3 weeks away from the day when all the votes will be cast and counted. After that, the whole world will finally know who will be the 47th POTUS. Harris has proven to be a much more formidable adversary to Trump, and yet most polls are still saying that this race is too close to call. Podcasters Fong and Kemp address why...