Escape From Plan A

Your 30s are often a time when people's lives start to really diverge with respect to career, relationships, life philosophies, etc. Ray, C.S., and Oxford (who are all in their early 30s) get together to talk about how even though they spent their 20s in different ways (whether it was pursuing white-collar careers or dropping out of college), their paths nevertheless crossed by the time they enter...

Recently, Diana had a run-in with a couple of white women who banded against her in an argument about whether dogs were allowed in their neighborhood park. Diana, Oxford, Mark, and Jess veer off from the intended topic of neighborhood racism to talk about shitty white women and what Asian women think about them, especially when Asian men are in the mix as well. Can women of color trust men of colo...

Two years ago, the country was gripped by, of all things, a New Yorker short story called "Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian, which dealt with the murky boundaries of sexual consent in modern dating. Recently, in n+1, Tony Tulathimutte published a short story, "The Feminist," about the dangerous rage of a male feminist whose good deeds go sexually unrewarded. Diana, Millie, and Oxford talk about bo...

"Frankly In Love" is a YA novel by David Yoon is the story of a SoCal Korean American teenager who falls for some white girl and in order to dupe his traditionalist parents, pretends to date his Korean American female friend to placate both their parents... only to actually fall for her. Though the synopsis sounds extremely tropey, the novel delves deep into what it should mean to be modern 2nd-ge...

In episode 132, Escape From Plan A looked at Sinophobia from the perspective of four Chinese Americans. In this episode, we look at how Sinophobia impacts non-Chinese Asians. Oxford (Korean), C.S. (mixed-race Japanese/white), and Filip (Vietnamese of Chinese descent) talk about how despite not being Chinese, they still feel the full danger and hypocrisy of Sinophobia. Plus, they talk about the cru...

People in academia consider themselves to be apolitical, enlightened, in an ivory tower of knowledge and education. They say "Oh she's going to the dark side" when someone leaves the hallowed university halls for industry. You Peng and Diana destroy that image and discuss what the Research Industrial Complex is really like, and why it is particularly toxic to Asians. *This is a bonus episode for P...

The New York Times was on a roll this past week with two eyeroll-inducing articles about how Drake invented sing-rapping and how Asian movies like Parasite are all about Confucianism. Mtume, Millie, and Oxford get together to talk about why so many people got mad at these pieces and we answer the all-important question: at what point in your life did you realize that the New York Times was full of...

Are people, Asian or otherwise, afraid of Yellow Love? Why does it seem that every other minority group is happy to celebrate same-race relationships except yellow Asians? Diana, Ray, Jong, and Oxford talk about celebrating and politicizing Yellow Love and share some of their own personal stories on the matter. *This episode was originally released as a bonus for our Patreon subscribers, but it ha...

Jess tells Oxford all about what it was like growing up in an enclave (the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, to be precise). What are the advantages? Disadvantages? And are Asian American enclaves a preview of what 3rd generation Asian American life will be like? *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers! For the full episode, please become a patron at: www.patreon.com/planamag TWI...

This year has seen a sudden surge of American interest in China-related news, from Huawei to Xinjiang to Hong Kong. Teen, Diana, Ray, and first-time guest Rich talk about why the American psyche is so fixated on these stories, especially when many of the alleged wrongdoings involves issues that are actually in dire need of addressing in America itself. Support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/planam...

Diana and Teen discuss the state of dysfunction in American masculinity, and its particular relationship with Asian men. How do Asian men respond to American norms of masculinity, compared with Asian women in response to norms of femininity? Are Asian men more or less dysfunctional compared to American men at large? Big questions that have no easy answers, but that doesn't mean they cannot be talk...

Have you ever gone to some artsy event in America and realized that the vast majority of Asians there were women? Given how much of the creative output from Asia is dominated by Asian men, it surely can't be said that Asian men are somehow genetically uninterested in the arts. So is there something about American culture that creates these gender imbalances among Asian Americans? Is it a supply or...

In the third iteration of the Plan A tech series, Filip talks to guests RK and Jimmy about the surge in activism and labour activism in the tech sector in the past few years. They tackle the question of where Asian Americans fit in amongst the tech-lash, and why we should care, beyond just the fact that we’re highly represented in this world-affecting industry. Support us on Patreon! www.patreon.c...

Jess and Teen (after we all watched the wrong Veronica movie on Netflix up in the Catskills) record a late-night podcast while enjoying the effects of some special gummies. We'd write more in this description, but honestly, we don't remember a ton of what we talked about! It was something about adult life? *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: www.patreon.co...

There's a lot to be commended about the movie Hustlers, but as a source of information about the realities of the lives of sex workers, especially Asian sex workers, it has its blind spots and relies on old Hollywood tropes. Red Canary Song is a grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers and allies, starting with the Chinese community of massage parlor workers in New York City. Its co-...

Mark and Oxford put on their soccer pundit hats to diagnose just what the hell is wrong with the US men's soccer team, as well as Tottenham Hotspur (their very recent demolition of Red Star Belgrade notwithstanding). Some ideas thrown around include national arrogance (USMNT) and the perils of overachieving in the Champions League last season (Tottenham). *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subsc...

It's been about 2 years since Oxford published his article, "What If Asian American Men Fall To The Alt-Right?" He, Jess, and Teen get together to talk about what has changed in these two years with respect to what the new forbidden topics in Asian America are, and why we're so tired of the usual Stinky Lunch and Yellow Fever thinkpieces. Also, they talk about Reddit's obsession with Hong Kong and...

Plan A's own Diana is a prolific comedian these days, but it took her a while to get into the field, even though she's a natural. Oxford interviews Diana to get a bit of her life story and they discuss why young outspoken children turn quiet and uncertain, the racial challenges of young Asian American comics, and more. *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: w...

Popular terms like "intersectionality" and other idealistic words are thrown around in political circles, but they're often covers for more specific personal grievances. Jess and Diana talk about how these grievances should be able to stand on their own and how the lack of honesty makes things worse. This applies in particular to the familiar gender fights within Asian America. Support us on Patre...

In this lighter bonus episode, Oxford and Mark take turns revealing the bad movies they secretly and sinfully love. As a preview, here are some of their choices: Alien 3, Best of the Best, Waterworld, and Superman IV. Do you agree with their choices and will you be hurling pies at these fools? *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: www.patreon.com/planamag TW...

Diana, returning guest Bryant, Teen and Mark have a long discussion about the model minority myth (MMM). Do concepts like racial melancholia and racial dissociation contribute to the confused understanding of what exactly the MMM is and did white people incept them into our minds? How does it act differently as an interracial force, Asian used against Blacks, and as an intraracial one, recent Blac...

Jess and Teen dig a little deeper into what we mean when we say 'assimilation' and 'whiteness.' What is a "white" person, really? Everyone's been kind of busy lately except for Teen, so that's why there have been so many episodes in a row with him on them. Teen apologizes profusely to fatigued listeners. *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: www.patreon.com/...

Hip hop artist 鍾翔宇 (Xiangyu) joins Teen to talk about his political awakening as an Asian American, and how that influenced his music. It's rare that Asian Americans produce art and political speech as confrontational as Xiangyu's, particularly in subverting American ideology and its official narrative regarding Asia. Escape From Plan A, of course, had to learn more about it. TWITTER: Teen (htt...

Diana, Teen and friend-of-the-pod Phan (Pod of Most Resistance) tackle Andrew Yang's racial politics, a discussion prompted by his conciliatory reaction to Shane Gillis's blatant anti-Asian racism. Was Yang -- who was specifically targeted by Gillis -- right to offer an olive branch? Did Yang simply make an unpopular choice, or was his appeasement a necessary part of his political strategy? TWITTE...

Teen, Oxford and Mark take delivery on their audio equipment and record a podcast at home on a couch for the first time. They discuss Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special "Sticks and Stones," and compare it to Aziz Ansari's special "Right Now." Both are part of a wave of Netflix comedy specials (now including Bill Burr's "Paper Tiger," released after this podcast was recorded) which push back o...