Escape From Plan A

On this episode Teen and Adam ask the question, 'What normal?' Things seem far, far from normal during this supposed summer return to normal. There doesn't seem to be much rational reason for optimism, so how are we supposed to be rational and also avoid a funk of cynicism? Also, new theme music debuts on this public feed, by Ciel (@aerialist) Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag CHECK OUT...

What was it about the late 90s that produced a whole bunch of great American movies about disillusionment with office culture? Liza, Teen, Chris, and Filip get together to discuss American Beauty, Office Space, Fight Club, and The Matrix, with a little venting about some atrocious writing on the eve of Euro 2020 that Chris swears cost England the championship. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/p...

With law-and-order candidate Eric Adams's apparent victory in the NYC mayor race, Chris and Teen look at the political divide between renters and homeowners, and how that sometimes overlooked fight explains a lot of not only politics but also culture. Plus, they speculate on how the musical Rent's mentality still persists today in social liberalism. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag CHE...

Fresh off his documentary ACCEPTED's debut at the Tribeca Film Festival, Dan Chen—friend and prior guest of EFPA—joins Chris and Millie to talk about his new film that examines the story of T.M. Landry College Prep, a school in Louisiana that was renowned for sending its lower-income minority students to elite colleges until investigations proved there was something shady going on. The trio also d...

One of EFPA's favorite guests—writer and activist Yasmin Nair—joins Chris and Eliza to discuss the annual kink controversy at Pride parades, as well as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's fiery essay on social media opportunists, self-centered literary reviews, and other things wrong with the culture industries. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag CHECK OUT OUR LIVESTREAMS ON YOUTUBE (and subscrib...

One of the most unescapable topics of the past two years is Bitcoin and the hypergrowth of cryptocurrency valuations. Teen -- a crypto-skeptic who believes this is nothing more than digital tulipmania -- talks with Mike and Steve, two crypto-degenerates who spend an irresponsible amount of time in the Plan A Discord talking about crypto. We try to get to the bottom of why crypto seems to be taking...

Unverified Accounts, which was started last year by Chris, Liza, and Filip, is now on the Escape From Plan A podcast feed! UA episodes will be deep dives into specific movies, books, and/or TV shows. For their "first" episode, their good friend Arnav re-joins them to talk about The White Tiger (a movie about a poor upstart scheming his way into wealth) and Gangs of Wasseypur (a violent multi-gener...

In the interest of getting the word out on this important fight, we are instantly unlocking this bonus episode. Violence against Asian women wages on beyond the streets of New York, and into the workplace. Filip invites guests Sarah from the Flushing Workers Center, and Zishun from the Chinese Staff and Workers Association to talk about the 24-hour workday fight against the Chinese American Planni...

Chris, Adam, Jong, and long-time friend Millie get together on a Memorial Day weekend to talk about the John Cena apology to China regarding Taiwan, Andrew Yang's subway cartoon incident, the new Vincent Chin podcast, and Naomi Osaka's standoff with the French Open. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag CHECK OUT OUR LIVESTREAMS ON YOUTUBE (and subscribe!): www.youtube.com/channel/UCv1W1syi...

Channeling some of that Kwame Brown energy, the trio of Teen, Chris, and Filip go after some of the rank opportunism in the #StopAsianHate movement that is creepily detached from actually protecting the vulnerable classes of Asian Americans that are facing the brunt of these attacks. Also, they talk about the actual Kwame Brown videos, as well as the debate over whether Olivia Rodrigo is white-pas...

Adam is joined by special guest Yasmin Nair (writer, academic and activist) to discuss the intimate relationship between celebrity and power in the realm of adoption, especially international, transracial adoption. They begin by discussing the famous and complex Farrow-Allen case which recently came back into focus because of the HBO docuseries "Allen v. Farrow". The discussion then broadens to ta...

Chris and Teen try to define boba liberalism since it means different things to different Asian Americans. Is it a media-obsessed EDM-loving Kevin Nguyen? Is it a social justicey Asian American activist/academic/writer who kind of disdains most Asian Americans? Is it both because the term is highly contextual? Along the way, they also discuss the Chinese armageddon rocket, alleged Chinese honeypot...

Jess hosts this very special episode featuring two recurring guests Amanda and Gina, two veterans of social media, to talk about the balance between being socially responsible in a frightening and anxious time vs preserving mental health, China as geopolitical and social football, and the very real stress and isolation that comes from peeks beyond the narrative matrix. The question that remains is...

Jess and Filip get together for another chat on tech and work... this time, about a CEO who delegates basically all of her work to a woman in the Philippines. So, what the hell does a CEO do that earns them a 7-figure salary/bonus, anyway? And how much of that is puffing up the importance of a single person in a work force? Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag CHECK OUT OUR LIVESTREAMS...

Filip and Adam are joined by guest Connie Griffith, veteran video game developer (Ghost of Tsushima, Guild Wars 2, WildStar) to give the ultimate insider's view of the video game industry. Is it a dream job or a nightmare? How do Asian Americans fit into an industry that profits so heavily off Asian culture. And, is corporate DE&I just a "woke" way of supplying more low level employees for the ind...

In his book War and Peace and War, Peter Turchin discusses the common historical elements present in both the rise and fall of empires. Jess and Chris discuss these elements in modern American society—from a lack of collective will to overproduction of elites—and how Asian Americans will experience life in a declining empire that is attempting to revive itself by focusing on an Asian enemy. Join u...

Chris and Teen talk about The Cut's horniness for Huge Ma aka NYC's vaccine daddy (of TurboVax) fame, the ridiculous Sery Kim situation in Texas, and why some people's brains have been broken over hapa athletes like Eileen Gu and Nina Schultz choosing to represent China over America and Canada, respectively. Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/planamag Twitter: Chris (@JesuInToast) Teen (@mont_jia...

Note: this is a full but edited version of this episode. The full unedited conversation, with 1hr of omitted content, is available to Patrons. Consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/planamag Kaiser Kuo (host of the Sinica Podcast) returns to continue a discussion with Jess and Teen from almost exactly one year ago about the connection between anti-Asian racism in the US, and America pol...

Our good friend Trevor Beaulieu from Champagne Sharks joins Teen and Chris to talk about some of the ways that black and Asian Americans, at least online, seem to be swapping places in who's clamoring for things like media representation and is preoccupied with assimilation, and who's trying to move away from that. Part 2 of this episode will be released as a bonus episode later this week for our...

Teen, Jong, Chris and Adam come together to discuss the horrific Atlanta shooting murders of 8 people, 6 of whom were Asian women, on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. They talk about how the history and present of Sinophobia and Sinophobic rhetoric contributed to this attack as well as the increase in anti-Asian attacks, especially in America, over the last year and a half (and maybe longer). Other topics...

Adam is joined by guests Joy Alessi, Dr. Diane Kunz, Dan Berger, and Emily Howe in the third and final installment of our series on the issue of Adoptees Without Citizenship. In this part, Diane and Dan walk us through a quick history of immigration in modern American history, starting in the 1950's and taking us up to the current day. They, with added context from Joy and Adam, explain how the le...

@TheDailyMao of Twitter (name withheld b/c talking about China is dangerous stuff these days!) joins Teen to have a wide ranging discussion about the state of Chinese and American economic competition. From microchip supremacy to American ports choked with Chinese imports, is America not actually in competition with China, but coming to terms with its total dependence on it? Join our Patreon! http...

After a long break from Plan A working on his new podcast Unverified Accounts, Chris joins Teen on a rainy weekend afternoon to talk about a few topics of interest. (1) Ron Kim's being a 'human blowtorch' against Andrew Cuomo in what may be the biggest political scandal in America, (2) Jay Caspian Kang's tweet about the failure of 'Asian American liberal elites' to offer any useful narrative about...

The Asian Hustle Network (AHN) promotes positivity, passive income, and purpose. But it's also a place where con artists find their marks. Jess, Teen and Filip talk about Hustle Culture, where 'entrepreneurship' intersects with 'Ponzi schemes' and all is not what it seems. Everyone has a side hustle, everyone's monetizing their social media, everyone's platforming everyone else. How the hell do we...

There has been a huge rise in attacks and murders of Asian Americans throughout America, and what is especially thorny is that in many of the most visible cases the attackers are Black. This has raised the specter of the Los Angeles Riots and the nadir of Black-Asian relations in America. Ayekay and Teen try to carve out space to talk about the pain and shock we feel as Asians, and also how to avo...