Modern Minorities

“Jokes are subjective anyway, but laughs are as objective as you can get — as long as the joke is funny and the audience is laughing. That's where the line is, if people laugh or not.” Jocelyn Chia is a New York-based lawyer-turned-comedian, who's a regular at the Comedy Cellar and Gotham Comedy Club, and has been featured in Vulture, Vice, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, Sirius XM, MTV, Fox News, T...

“There's nothing that opens up your mind, even your heart, to new and unknown things than travel. Get outside your comfort zone.” S. Qaisar Shareef is P&G’s former head of Pakistan and Ukraine, author of “When Tribesmen Came Calling,” and a longtime friend of Raman’s other-other podcast (not the one about comics). But more importantly, Qaisar is also a fellow lover of travel. Specifically in h...

“Reading a comic book isn't going to solve peace in the Middle East.  But I do think part of the solution is understanding both sides.” We're all shocked and saddened by the attack on Israel - and as of this episode, war with Hamas. Officials and aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis, where escalating violence has already killed thousands of people and wounded and displaced many other...

“Music journalism doesn't have to be chasing celebrities or whether this music is good or not. You can ask what does it mean — and sometimes that itself can be provocative. Being in Atlanta opened my eyes to the work that we do.” Christina Lee is a music journalist who’s covered Atlanta’s hip hop scene for over a decade. Her award-winning culture reporting and criticism appears in Billboard, The G...

“The only way we're ever going to watch a women's sports game in its full glory is if we had our own place.” Have you ever walked into a bar dedicated exclusively to womens’ sports? Jenny Nguyen hadn’t either. So she opened The Sports Bra bar in Portland, Oregan. Longtime FrieMMd of the pod - Melissa Haughton, famed Canadian podcast producer joins us to give us a preview of one of her shows - REBO...

“Inclusion starts at our kitchen tables. If you aren't building cross-cultural relationships - actively learning about a lived experience that is not your own - how do you expect to show up at work differently as an inclusive leader?” Mita Mallick is a returning FrieMMd of the pod, who came back to talk about her upcoming book — Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths To Transform Your Workplace (...

“He made me laugh, he made me sad, he almost made me cry — this was a superpower. I went on this wonderful, connective human experience with another person, just by watching him.”  Sung Kang is an American filmmaker - best known for his role as Han Lue in the Fast & Furious franchise, a character he first portrayed in one of the seminal Asian American films Better Luck Tomorrow. But Sung is al...

“I’d been around the block on so many different businesses, and people of color were often left behind. And so building HUE was really about bridging that divide.” Fahad Khawaja is a leading community builder who is the Co-Founder & CEO of HUE - a culture & community platform that aims to amplify voices of color, to increase our visibility, and to pave a path for us all to rise. Fahad has...

“Even in Tulsa, the place where this happened, this was not widely known. I felt writing something that could ground the story and the people there would be honestly a valuable contribution to our nation's understanding of itself.” Victor Luckerson is a journalist and author working to bring neglected black history to light. His new book is Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood...

“There's no one right way to be Asian American you know? The diasporic experiences trying to grapple with culture, what to keep and carry, what to relate to - so very human and universal.”  Shin Yu is many things - poet and writer, but also podcast host and producer of Ten Thousand Things – a show for Seattle’s NPR affiliate KUOW Public Radio. Shin Yu’s also currently the Civic Poet of Seattle (20...

After last week's episode about Adrian Tomine’s latest film SHORTCOMINGS - based on his 2007 graphic novel of the same name - we wanted to share a 2020 conversation frieMMd of the pod Ryan Joe + Raman had on Quarantined Comics, about Tomine’s autobiographical work The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist. But this is no regular comics geek out - because this marks one of the first real “MM l...

“I wasn't thinking about an audience. It was a pure outpouring of just whatever came to me. I was rebelliously and ambitiously not giving them the book they were looking for.” Adrian Tomine is an American cartoonist who we’ve admired** for years. Adrian is the creator and writer of the 2007 graphic novel SHORTCOMINGS, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the year. SHORTCOMINGS was also recen...

“So many kids wanna be artists - they wanna make comics. How powerful is it for me to say that whatever you imagine and whatever you want to pursue, you can do that?” Nidhi Chanani an Indian-American freelance illustrator, cartoonist and writer. Nidhi’s debut graphic novel Pashmina won ALL the awards, but her diverse body of work - from Jukebox, Binny’s Diwali, the Shark Princess series (a persona...

“India is this place that's known, but distant to me. The Indians I knew were always my parents' generation, so I can only observe its youth culture through books like this.”  Ever wondered what it's like to be a female South Asian advertising writer working on women's hair care products living in a big and bustling smog city, cramped into an apartment with several single women, while also Queer a...

“As an actor, as a martial artist, as a human being, all type of knowledge, ultimately means self-knowledge. Under the sky, under the heaven, there is but one family. It just so happened, that people are different.”  Bruce Lee (李振藩) was among the first Chinese-Americans to truly bridge the gap between East and West. Born in San Francisco (1940), raised in Hong Kong, and known around the world,...

“When you really discover what it is to be Black — that’s that moment where it's like, ‘oh, this is what we're up against’ — but you gotta be proud of who you are.” Justin Richmond is a podcast producer and co-host for more than a few Pushkin podcasts - including “Started from the Bottom” and “Broken Record” with writer Malcolm Gladwell and Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin. Justin was a producer for...

“There need to be silences - you need to give people room to run. Let people talk more. I already know what I know now. I wanna know what you know.” Recently longtime FrieMMd of the Pod Rajiv Satyal sat down with Crossroads pastor and podcast host Bryan Tomes on his show “The Aggressive Life.” What started as an exploration of Rajiv’s comedy career and approach turned into an open and honest conve...

“We are united as Black and Asian people to recognize the BS of people trying to leverage the successes from our communities as some way to cover up the real stuff — being locked out of certain things.” Johnathan is a content creator, podcaster, activist, serial panelist, and bubble tea enthusiast. His activism began in 2008 with his “blasainFMA” YouTube channel - where he worked to bring awarenes...

“Everyone has a chip on their shoulder and it's beautiful and it is specific to them. There was no one else that looked like me - and well, there should be - and so I'm gonna make it.” Lilly Singh is arguably among the most accomplished comedians and online presences around. Lilly’s a Canadian YouTuber television host, comedian, writer, and actress - who also happens to be bisexual. Lilly began ma...

“If we, as a part of a community, want to move forward — this requires a large conversation.” As Sharon & Raman embark further into our sixth season, we continue exploring bringing more friends to the microphone as guest hosts. One of those partners on our shortlist has always been longtime FrieMMd of the Pod, podcaster and mindfulness advocate Steven Wakabayashi. Steven joins us for a candid...

“Inclusion starts at our kitchen tables. If you aren't building cross-cultural relationships - actively learning about a lived experience that is not your own - how do you expect to show up at work differently as an inclusive leader?” Mita Mallick is a returning FrieMMd of the pod, who came back to talk about her upcoming book — Reimagine Inclusion: Debunking 13 Myths To Transform Your Workplace (...

This month to celebrate AAPI heritage we’re sharing an episode from First of All, a sister podcast from the Potluck Podcast Collective (who MM’s been a part of for years) featuring unique Asian American voices and stories.  First of All is a show where actor and filmmaker Minji Chang brings real, unfiltered conversations on career, family, love, & modern culture - along with friends from acros...

This month to celebrate AAPI heritage we’re sharing an episode from They Call Us Bruce, a sister podcast from the Potluck Podcast Collective (who MM’s been a part of for years) featuring unique Asian American voices and stories.  They Call Us Bruce is hosted by two Asian American community mainstays Phil Yu, aka the Angry Asian man, and Jeff Yang, a prolific writer and celebrity dad who, along wit...

“I remember someone asked ‘why do you only draw white people?’ It really put a mirror to me and I was like, ‘why is that?’ I think it's the culture I grew up around — I didn't have that opportunity to see myself.” Jonathan Hill is an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, and educator living in Portland, OR. Jonathan is the creator of numerous graphic novels - including Americus, Odessa, and his l...

“This is an intensely personal book. As much as there is a sort of universality, it's Yang’s own personal journey growing up.” American Born Chinese is Gene Luen Yang's seminal comics work first released in 2006 — and comes out as a live-action Disney+ streaming series on May 24, 2023 - by the filmmakers from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Shang Chi” - Michelle Yeoh and many others. The...