The Spark Podcast 火花

She got the job. After three to four months of searching, 400 applications, and three responses, Amy Tianyi has accepted a position as Academic Director at NYU Stern Business School. This episode is the conversation that follows. But this isn’t just a celebration episode. It’s a debrief. An honest accounting of what the search actually looked like from the inside: the daily habits that kept her sa...

What are you wearing — and who are you wearing it for? In this episode, Meg and Amy get into one of the most personal and overlooked conversations of your thirties: the evolution of style. Not fashion — style. The difference between dressing to fit in and dressing to show up. Between clothes that define an aspirational version of you and clothes that simply enhance who you already are. Meg traces...

It started with a jacket. A Chinese-inspired Adidas jacket with frog buttons, released around Lunar New Year, flying off the shelves. Meg’s husband suggested it could be an entry point into Chinese culture — like Mulan, he said. They went to the store. It was sold out. And somehow, that jacket opened a conversation that neither of them could stop pulling on. What does it mean when a culture become...

Last episode, you heard the trip. This episode is what stayed. Meg is back from China. The recordings are finished—but not resolved. So Meg and Amy sit down again—not to retell what happened, but to ask what it meant to capture it while it was happening. To record in the margins of a day. To press record in the middle of exhaustion. To speak into something—when there’s no one else to speak to. For...

This one is a little different. Last episode, Meg and Amy sat down to talk about what it means to travel into someone else’s ancestry—to bury a grandfather, to carry a daughter into roots that are only half her own. That conversation was recorded before the trip. This episode was recorded during it. What you’re hearing are Meg’s voice notes from the ground in China—captured in real time, between m...

Published during Qingming Festival—China’s annual tomb-sweeping holiday when families gather to honor their ancestors. What do we inherit from the people who came before us—and what do we pass on? This episode, Meg and Amy follow death across three continents. By the time you hear this, Meg will be on her fifth trip to China—this time, to bury her husband’s grandfather’s ashes in his home village...

What does it mean to build a life that actually feels like yours? In this episode, Meg and Amy get into a more personal conversation—touching on daily rituals, career transitions, the pressure to become a mother, and what it really means to find joy outside of achievement. Meg opens up about the one sacred ritual she’s protected since becoming a mom: enjoying her one and only coffee of the day dur...

Language shapes the way we understand ourselves. And sometimes, not having the right word for what you’re going through is the loneliest part of going through it. In this episode, Meg introduces a term she’s been sitting with: matrescence —the profound physical, psychological, and emotional transformation of becoming a mother. As significant and disorienting as adolescence, yet rarely named, rarel...

A farewell party invitation from Amy’s former office becomes the starting point for a wider conversation between Amy and Meg about the boundaries between personal and professional relationships. As they reflect on Amy’s decision whether to attend, they examine how different cultures interpret workplace ties—and how professional connections can blur into deeply personal ones. They explore how relat...

As the Western New Year and the Chinese New Year pass, the two hosts take a moment to look back on the moments from 2025 that they are proud of. For Meg, the year was defined by becoming a mother and navigating the physical, emotional, and mental shifts that came with it—and reconsidering what work, creativity, and personal space now look like in this new stage of life. For Amy, the year involved...

After receiving the unexpected news that this chapter in her career was closing, the only promise Amy made to herself was that she would show up for herself every day until the day her badge no longer worked. This is what she looked like the very next day, immediately after receiving the news. 在得知这一突如其来的变动后，Amy 对自己许下的唯一承诺，就是在工牌失效之前的每一天，都要穿得漂漂亮亮。这张...

In this episode, Meg and Amy continue to document life as it unfolds. They sit down to catch up on everything that’s changed—most notably, Meg’s transition into motherhood and her first trip back to China with her baby, alongside other major personal shifts happening quietly but profoundly in the background. This conversation explores what it really means to become a mother—not just the love and w...

In this episode, Meg and Amy dive deep into Amy’s journey to love, commitment, and celebration — from her engagement story to her beautifully unconventional 3-day wedding in Beijing. Amy shares how she met her husband while studying abroad in Tel Aviv, their years navigating long-distance challenges, and her parents’ eventual acceptance of her cross-cultural relationship. She reflects on how her v...

After an eight-month pause, Amy and Meg are back behind the mic—this time with a lot of life to catch up on. In this episode, they share personal updates, swap stories, and reflect on what it means to grow and redefine success in the middle of big life transitions. Amy opens up about her recent marriage and the unexpected turns of being laid off, while Meg shares her journey into motherhood after...

在我们上一次面对面录制的节目中（在Amy离开蒙大拿之前），我们回顾了在山中共度的时光，以及我们各自的2024年。此外，我们还讨论了创作障碍，Meg分享了她克服这些障碍的方法。Amy讲述了她在面对遴选困难时的叛逆精神，以及她挑选书籍影音的过程，这引发了我们对大大小小的决策进行了更广泛的讨论。点击听取更多内容！ In our last episode recorded in-person before Amy left Montana, we reflect on our time together in the m...

We’re back behind the mic after quite a hiatus (we’ve both had A LOT going on since May)! This first episode back marks a particularly special one though, because it’s the first episode we’ve EVER recorded in person. So, we ceremoniously recorded this one on Winter Solstice, around a campfire in Meg’s backyard in Montana, and took part in a Winter Solstice ritual that could just as easily be a New...

We first had Alex Kim on The Spark in July of 2022 - go back and listen to episode 31 if you haven’t already. Last time we talked, we delved into the incredible work he’s doing to get the BIPOC community outside with Here Montana . To this day, it is one of our most listened-to and engaged-with episodes. Not just because of the work he’s doing with Here Montana, but also because of his personal st...

Disclaimer: On April 16th, Amy had the opportunity to finally have lunch with her mentor, the former president of NYU. On the night of the Year of the Dragon New Year’s Eve, Amy found herself in tears while FaceTiming her parents. In this episode, she continues the conversation from our previous installment, sharing her mix of anxieties and excitement surrounding her first significant promotion. A...

Meg is back from her first trip to China in five years. We said we’d be back in three weeks, but that quickly turned into eight. For Meg, jet-leg, getting back into routine, and processing this trip so that she can share her experience took a little longer. This is one of the most precise and poignant episodes we’ve ever recorded. The points of conversation we explore in this episode reignite why...

By the time you read this, Meg will be on a plane to China for the first time in five years and you won’t hear from us for about a month. In this episode, Meg shares her thoughts as she finally gets to go back to China. Amy shares what she’ll be up to while Meg’s gone. 当你读到这条消息时，Meg 已经在飞往中国的飞机上了。接下来的一个月你可能不会收到我们的更新，这是因为Meg要在中国好好体验。毕竟这是五...

We all take risks, big and small, every day - especially those of us who are leading unconventional lives that span across multiple countries and cultures. In this episode we ponder the question, “When is a risk worth taking?” 无论大小，我们每天都在冒险——尤其当我们是过着跨越多个国家和文化的非传统生活的人。在这一集中，我们思考一个问题，“何时冒险是值得的呢？” Listen along to hear our answers. Join i...

We’re baaaackkk! Did you miss us? In our 40th episode and first of 2024, we take some time to reflect on 2023 and share what we’re most looking forward to in 2024. Our first episode of each new year has become a ritual of sorts - a way for us to take inventory of where we’ve been and where we’re going. 我们回来了！你想我们了吗？2024年的第一集也是我们的第40个整集。在这集中，我们花了一些时间回顾了各...

In this episode, Meg and Amy deep dive into AI, their experiences exploring its capabilities, where they think it will be adapted and where they think it won’t, and more. Both Amy and Meg share how it is or isn’t being used in their respective fields, and Meg shares the fun ways she’s been using it outside of work. Meg 和 Amy深入讨论了人工智能——这个可能对创意行业产生深远影响的发明。她们分享了在探...

What you might not know is that when Meg is not behind the mic for The Spark Podcast, she’s writing. Surveyor of life, midwife of stories - the truest thing Meg knows about herself is that she’s a writer. In May of 2022, she started a personal newsletter called Field Notes where she shares her lyrical essays, poems, and personal anecdotes. With Field Notes, she’s created a community of “messy, com...

In this episode, Amy and Meg sit down to talk about the Barbie movie - because it’s a MUST. IYKYK. They talk about their experiences going to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer, how the Barbie movie was received in both America and China, the stark contrast between Barbie and Oppenheimer, and their arrival at this moment in history. 在这集中，Amy和Meg分享了观看电影《芭比》和《奥本海默》截然不同的观影...