Hard N.O.C. Life

On the most recent episode of Supergirl, the producers doubled down on Maggie Sawyer's problematic Latinx identity. To discuss the show's mishandling of this latest storyline, its whitewashed casting, and the Latinx community's history of under representation in Hollywood, Hard NOC Life brings back Desiree Rodrguez , and welcomes  Latinx Geeks founder Alexis Sanchez, and writer Anthony Otero . All...

On Hard NOC Life , Keith sits down with actor and stunt performer Yoshi Sudarso . Keith and Yoshi discuss Iron Fist , the problem with whitewashing and why it's okay to cross-cast Asian ethnicities, and Buffalo Boys , the movie he's currently shooting in Indonesia. They also talk about his Daniel Wu fandom and Keith tries to get him cast on Into the Badlands by trying to trend #Yoshi4Badlands .  ...

This week, Edward Hong and Josephine Chang guest host with special guest, director Lena Khan of the brand new film starring Danny Pudi,  The Tiger Hunter . Set in the 1970s, The Tiger Hunter is the story of Sami Malik, a young Indian man who travels to  America to become an engineer in order to impress his childhood crush and live up to the legacy of his father — a legendary tiger hunter — back ho...

Hard NOC Life returns with a rundown of the nerd news with Desiree Rodriguez. Later Edward Hong and Josephine Chang join to help review Netflix's Death Note adaptation. Keith and Desiree, a Starfire superfan, discuss the casting of Anna Diop in the live action Titans series before they tackle Hasbro's lawsuit against DC Comics over the Bumblebee trademark. Then, Edward and Josephine join in to ana...

Southern Fried Asian is a new podcast from The Nerds of Color hosted by Keith Chow. Typically, stories about Asian Americans are centered on the experiences of those who grew up on the coasts -- New York, Southern California, the Bay Area -- where communities of different Asian American subgroups have lived for many years. On this podcast, though, we're gonna look at a region of the country that i...

This week, Boom! Studios has finally released the first issue of Mech Cadet Yu, the most recent collaboration between comic book stalwarts Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa. To celebrate the book's release, Greg returns to Hard NOC Life to explain the book's creation, including its origins in the Secret Identities follow-up anthology, Shattered. Greg and Keith also discuss everything from the lack of...

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future. Marvel's Iron Fist has generally been seen as a major disappointment — and it could've been so much more, if only Marvel and Netflix had embraced a not-so-radical rethinking of their martial artist hero as an Asian American. Some Asian American filmmakers actually brought their reimagined concepts for an Asian A...

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future.  In the wake of Wonder Woman ​, with Mulan  on the horizon, what should we expect in a rich, textured, powerful and provocative Asian (or Asian American!) heroine? What's worked, what hasn't and why has it taken so damned long? Moderated by The Hollywood Reporter's Rebecca Sun, panelists include Paula Yoo (Write...

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future. We've seen so many different kinds of futures unfurl in pop culture, and many of them have people of color and LGBTQ individuals as backdrop and "local color." What would a truly diverse, inclusive and intersectional future really look like? Moderated by Keith Chow , panelists include: Steven Barnes (Sci-Fi writ...

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future. Pop culture is literally the people's culture. At a time when creative and diverse voices are both under attack, what can pop culture do to make social change? Moderator Jeff Yang (CNN contributor, They Call Us Bruce) kicks off the festivities with an opening plenary that features panelists: Tananarive Due (Sci-...

As Wonder Woman continues to break box office records, there still isn't enough content featuring everyone's favorite Amazon. That's why artists Jermaine Dickerson and Taylor Cordingley have each been championing for a  Wonder Woman  animated series. Both artists stop by  Hard NOC Life , along with Keith's DCTV Classics'  co-host Desiree Rodriguez , to talk about how an animated  Wonder Woman can...

On June 19, 1992, Batman Returns premiered and was unlike any comic book superhero movie that came before -- or after. Starring Michael Keaton as Batman, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, and Danny DeVito as Penguin, Batman Returns was a beautiful dark twisted fantasy that doubled down on Tim Burton's gothic tendencies and created one of the most enduring female characters in superhero cinema. So who...

After shattering box office glass ceilings with a $200 million global debut, Keith breaks down the latest, and most successful, entry in the DC Extended Universe with two Wonder Women in their own right: N'Jaila Rhee ( @BlasianBytch ) -- who also wrote the official NOC review -- and Britney Monae ( @HiBritneyMonae ). Together they rank  Wonder Woman  against other comic book superhero movies and w...

The second season of AMC's  Into the Badlands concludes on Sunday, so our intrepid live tweeter Laura Sirikul joins Keith to look back on one of our favorite shows! Of course, they can't help juxtaposing  Ballands and  Iron Fist , but they also explain Daniel Wu's previous comments about whitewashing and why Oliver Stark needs to be a guest on a future episode. They also share their predictions ab...

Hard NOC Life is back with a special episode dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Star Wars ! Keith is joined by the hosts of Desi Geek Girls , Swapna Krishna and Preeti Chhibber, to talk about their experience meeting Riz Ahmed and Mark Hamill at Star Wars Celebration, Rogue One and the increasingly diverse galaxy, the need for more women of color in  Star Wars , and why  Rebels is the best! 

In the first part of a special podcast crossover with DC TV Classics , Keith chats with Into the Badlands co-creator Al Gough. They talk about Al's start in Hollywood with his writing and producing partner Miles Millar; working with Hong Kong cinema legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, and Daniel Wu; how difficult it is to accurately portray kung fu on broadcast television;...

Last week, we hosted a special live-streamed edition of Hard NOC Life with filmmaker John Brougher about his new short film Iron and Rage . John talks about his inspiration for creating his own #AAIronFist and why representation of Asian American humanity on screen is so important.