Escape From Plan A

Teen, Oxford, and Mark discuss the recent article from The Cut about wannabe "chads" who get extreme plastic surgery in hopes of becoming more attractive to women. They also talk about the Fox Business News interview between Trish Regan and Liu Xin. Support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/planamag TWITTER: Teen (@mont_jiang) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) Mark (@snbatman) REFERENCED RESOURCES: How Many Bon...

In light of the Champions League final (all hail Son Heung-min!), Mark and Oxford talk about what it was like playing sports growing up and the life lessons they learned. *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: www.patreon.com/planamag TWITTER: Mark (@snbatman) Oxford (@oxford_kondo) SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS: editor.planamag@gmail.com EFPA Opening Theme: "Fuck O...

A common debate in Asian American spaces, especially online ones, is how inclusive the term "Asian" can be. Does it only describe yellow people, and if so, how yellow are Southeast Asians, especially those who are darker-skinned? Does it include brown Asians? If so, how do the noticeable differences in experience get accounted for? Oxford (Korean), Sarina (Punjabi), Jay (Tamil), and Quyen (Vietnam...

Filip, Diana, and Oxford share some of their fashion, or anti-fashion, tips. Filip educates us on the distinction between fashion and style while Diana talks about how many pairs of sweat pants she owns. Oxford recalls a regrettable hat phase in college. *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: www.patreon.com/planamag TWITTER: Filip (@filipgwriting) Diana (@di...

Asian American rights discourse focuses on the ways we don't enjoy the same privileges that white Americans do. But this leaves out meaningful thought about the plain fact that we enjoy economic and social privileges, and we spend our lives seeking more and more of it. Jess and Teen talk about the Asian American privilege identity. Should we continue to disclaim it while seeking ever more of it? I...

It's throwdown time as Team Classic (Mark and Oxford) faces off against Team Modern (Filip and Jong) in a ferocious no-mercy deathmatch about which era of gaming was best. Do you think Final Fantasy VII and Half-Life were the pinnacle of gaming or are you in the Destiny and GTA V camp? Pick your side and listen to your champions duke it out. *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To sub...

In this episode, Jess is joined by Jong and Mark as Mark shares stories from his recent trip to South Korea. Though it isn't his first trip back since his adoption, new details are discovered, life-long assumptions are verified, and the three Korean Americans connect over their shared heritage. Please support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/planamag Intro/Outro Music: [Free Beat] x Sci Fi x...

Here it is, our first bonus episode for our beloved patrons! In this episode, Oxford is joined by Diana and Millie as they discuss the Constance Wu controversy involving her anger at her own show, Fresh Off The Boat, getting renewed. Are we seeing the hypocrisy of the #RepresentationMatters crowd? *This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. To subscribe, please go to: www.patreon.com/planama...

The time has come: Plan A Magazine has started a Patreon at $5/month. We are beginning an experiment. The idea is to use Patreon to create an Asian American writers fund. It's one thing to encourage and platform writers; it's another thing to pay them. Oxford, Jess, Mark, Teen, and Plan A's newest editor, Diana talk about the Patreon, as well as white people ranking Southeast Asian cuisine, and a...

All of human history has been leading up to Avengers: Endgame, a civilizational pinnacle that we are so fortunate to witness. Oxford, Mark, returning guest Millie (a friend and filmmaker who's appeared in episodes 41, 49, and 52) and first-time guest Mtume (also a friend and filmmaker) get together to talk about the last Avengers movie and the stan culture that not only follows Marvel, but also Ga...

The rights of trans people (and the LGBTQ community in general) often gets talked about, but it's rarer to hear directly from the people themselves. It's even rarer to hear from Asian Americans in these communities, especially the trans community. In this episode, Oxford is joined by Nia and Sen—both of whom identify as trans women—and Sammi, who identifies as queer. Together, they talk about thei...

On episode 73, the Escape From Plan A crew of Teen, Diana, Oxford, and Mark talked about their high school memories and how formative those experiences were in shaping racial identities. Now, the same gang is back to talk about college. Discussions are had about being confronted with class consciousness, racial incidents, and general disillusionment with the college experience. This Side of Paradi...

Crossover episode! Jay (from ep. 67 on Asian American leftist politics) and Teen join our friends (and token white dudes) Kristofer Nivens and Ryan Salisbury of the anti-imperialist, anti-fuckery, anti-capitalist podcast Neighbor Science (http://www.neighborsciencepodcast.com/) to discuss memelord and presidential candidate for real Andrew Yang. We talk about universal basic income, automation-dri...

Plan A has followed the tumultuous path of the latest NPR Invisibilia episode that explores the science of racial biases and prejudices in attraction, especially from an Asian woman's point of view. From the onset, certain Asian Americans tried to suppress the episode. Thankfully, the episode has come out and is one of the most honest and thought-provoking discussions of a topic that's become incr...

Jess and Diana discuss how the media often covers stories of violence against Asian women in lurid and exoticizing fashion, as if to titillate old Western curiosities about Asian female submissiveness and sexuality. Intro/Outro Music: "Clouds" by Claude Debussy Intro Voice Track: ABC News covering the murder of Ying Ying Zhang (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bif_mse0_0&t=36s) TWITTER Jess: @cogi...

For better or for worse (probably for worse), many people are shaped by their high school experiences. With the recent college admissions scandal shedding light on how insane high school life has become for today's teenage students, the EFPA gang (Diana, Teen, Oxford, and Mark) talk about their high school experiences and how much their identities were formed by that time in their lives. Intro/Out...

Mark, Teen and Jess have a long talk about depression and the Asian American. What it is, what it isn't, and why so much of what is said about race and depression feels so inadequate. Is sensitivity overrated? Is depression misdiagnosed? How do you understand depression if you've never had it? And why would it matter? Intro/Outro Music: Philip Glass - Metamorphosis Intro Voice: Sherwin Nuland on D...

Plan A talks tech! Given the influence of tech in modern life and social discourse, and the fact that we have a handful of techies on the team, it’s bizarre that we haven’t directly addressed this topic. Filip, Mark, Jess and Jong share their rather varied experiences getting into their careers in tech, including both the ups and downs of being part of the (possibly-definitely elitist) techie in-c...

Somehow, Ken Jeong is arguably the biggest Asian American male star in Hollywood. Diana (fyi, a stand-up comedian), Teen, and Oxford get together to delve into Ken Jeong's recent Netflix special to talk about-among other things-his reliance on cheap Asian jokes, his failure to move past his Hangover "glory days," and the state of Asian American comedy in general. Intro Voice Track: "You Complete M...

With many Asian Americans only being a generation or two, if at all, removed from Asia, it's important to be informed about political and social movements there. Journalist E. Tammy Kim, who recently wrote the article #KoreaToo for the New York Review of Books, joins Oxford Kondo in talking about the many layers and issues of the burgeoning movement for women's progress in Korea, from workplace eq...

Everyone knows about the Trump supporter and the neo-Nazis, the taxonomy of reactionary racism. But what about the racism that exists outside of that wing of America? The racism of the world most of us Asian Americans live in? From condescension to stealth discrimination, Mark, Jess and Teen talk about the kind of racism that cannot be so easily called out. Intro: Almost Always True (Elvis Presley...

The Plan A crew has never really discussed their politics out in the open, mostly focusing instead on race and ethnicity's role in American life. In this episode, Jay, Q, and Teen talk about their core political beliefs, why political identity matters, and how, if at all, our Asian American/Canadian ethnicity informs our politics. Intro Music: "Jerusalem" by Alpha Blondy Intro Voice: Chris Hedges...

This week, Amelie Wen Zhao had to self-cancel (or self-delay) her upcoming novel Blood Heir due to backlash on YA Twitter about all sorts of things, ranging from allegations of racist scenes to her own vindictiveness towards anyone who left her bad reviews. This isn't the first time such things have happened in the YA world. Now, both the social justice and anti-SJW forces are using Zhao to advanc...

Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that mixed-race Americans are one of the fastest growing racial category in the United States (and a particularly young demographic as well). A popular idea argues that the “beigeing” of America will naturally lead to decreased racism, but is it more complicated than that? Special guest Sharon H. Chang (author, photographer, and activist) and returning...

Teen, Mark, and Jong are joined by special guest Ray (a data scientist currently in Norcal and friend of Plan A)to discuss the homicides of Fufai Pun and Kheong Ng-Thang. We compare this incident with Vincent Chin’s famous murder and compare their respective responses from the community. We also question whether anger must come with a productive outlet or not. Intro Voice Track: CBS New York repor...