They Call Us Bruce

Jeff and Phil welcome award-winning chef, restaurateur and author Edward Lee , who appears as one of the "White Spoon" chefs on Netflix's Korean cooking competition show Culinary Class Wars . He talks about his personal and professional journey as a Korean American chef, how he got recruited to battle it out with 99 other Korean culinary professionals -- including Michelin star chefs, The Bibimbap...

Jeff and Phil welcome back old friend Dino-Ray Ramos to discuss the techno-horror movie AfrAId , starring John Cho. They talk about John Cho's suburban dad thriller era and why it might not be a great idea to surrender every aspect of your family life to artificial intelligence (i.e. it might subscribe you to a meal prep delivery service). Also -- spoiler warning -- The Good, The Bad, and The WTF...

Jeff and Phil welcome writer and performer Susan Lieu , author of The Manicurist's Daughter , a memoir about her search for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery. She talks about grief, trauma, body image, her family's strident unwillingness to discuss what happened, and her attempts to find acceptance and purpose elsewhere -- including what turned out to be a cult. A yoga cult. Als...

In this special live episode, Jeff and Phil host a post-screening Q&A with Philip Ng, star of the hit Hong Kong action movie Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In . He talks about the film's epic throwback to old school action cinema, the fun of playing a wild card villain like King, working alongside legends like Sammo Hung, and who got injured during the filming of Walled In (and why it was kind o...

Jeff and Phil welcome filmmaker Sean Wang and actor Izaac Wang, writer/director and star, respectively, of the indie coming-of-age film Dìdi . They talk about capturing the very specific emotional turbulence of Asian American suburban male adolescence, revisiting nostalgia for the 2000s internet AOL Instant Messenger era, and the agonizing and savage curation of one's MySpace "Top 8." Also, they s...

Jeff and Phil welcome filmmaker Jennifer Phang, director of Descendants: The Rise of Red , the latest installment of Disney's massively popular musical teen fantasy film series. They talk about her indie Asian American cinema roots with films like Half-Life and Advantageous , infusing some K-pop sensibility into a beloved and well-established franchise, and crafting the extreme meme-ability of "Ja...

Jeff and Phil welcome writer and race scholar OiYan A. Poon, author of  Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action and Family . She talks about breaking out of her comfort zone to write a sincere and heartfelt exploration of race relations and affirmative action, the interviews she conducted with Asian Americans who have been actively engaged in policy debates over ra...

Jeff and Phil welcome educator, socialite and etiquette expert Sara Jane Ho, host of the Netflix series Mind Your Manners and author of Mind Your Manners: How to Be Your Best Self in Any Situation . She talks about her cross-cultural, transnational journey to becoming a global etiquette leader and how context and culture are key to understanding etiquette in any social situation. Also, on the matt...

Recorded live at NCORE (National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in Higher Education) in Honolulu! Jeff and Phil welcome Katie Gee Salisbury , author of Not Your China Doll , a biography on the life and career of movie star Anna May Wong. They discuss the "golden age" of Hollywood, the enduring popularity of film sleuth Charlie Chan (who was inspired by real-life Honolulu police detective Chang Apa...

Jeff and Phil welcome back Shin Yu Pai, poet, museologist and host of Ten Thousand Things , an award-winning podcast about modern-day artifacts of Asian American life. She is joined by Jenny Liou, poet, English scholar and former MMA cage fighter -- and one of the subjects of the latest season of Ten Thousand Things. They talk about Jenny's entry into the sport, the cage as a space of limitation a...

BONUS EPISODE! This is Jeff and Phil's full interview with actor Lee Jung-jae, star of  Squid Game and the Star Wars series The Acolyte , presented with the unedited Korean audio (and translation by Isue Shin). He talks about joining the Star Wars franchise, making in his English-language acting debut as a Jedi master, and working with the show's young stars. He also gives us The Good, The Bad, an...

Jeff and Phil welcome Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, star of Squid Game and the new Star Wars series The Acolyte . Speaking through an interpreter, he talks about joining the iconic Star Wars franchise, making in his English-language acting debut as a Jedi master, and working with the show's young stars. He also gives us The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of making The Acolyte , and even dangles a tiny cr...

Jeff and Phil welcome Adam King and Sam Hyun, co-founders of the Asian American sneaker brand 1587 . They talk about their inspiration for starting a company dedicated to "unapologetically Asian American" footwear, and how they're celebrating our community's oft-forgotten or neglected stories through shoes. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of starting an Asian American sneaker company. (This e...

In Episode 241, recorded live at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City, Jeff and Phil celebrate the book launch of Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire with author Paula Yoo and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Hyungwon "HK" Kang. They talk about Paula's drive to tell a nuanced and empathetic account of the 1992...

In Episode 240, Jeff and Phil welcome writer, stand-up comedian and media studies PhD Grace Jung, author of the book K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry into Why We Love Korean Television . They discuss the explosion of Korean dramas from bootleg VHS tapes to DramaFever (R.I.P.) to the most popular shows on worldwide streaming services; the wildest K-drama tropes from amnesia to leukemia to kimc...

In Episode 239, Jeff and Phil discuss the HBO original limited series The Sympathizer , based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, with author Viet Thanh Nguyen and scholar Philip Nguyen, host of the official Sympathizer Podcast. They talk about the meta-upon-meta textual sandwich of adapting this modern classic into an epic television series, that time director Park Chan-wook cam...

In Episode 238, Jeff and Phil welcome historian and professor Mae Ngai, co-editor of the book  Corky Lee's Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice , a collection of over 200 photos celebrating the history and cultural impact of the Asian American social justice movement from the lens of late photojournalist and activist Corky Lee. She talks about Corky's calling as "the inundisputed, un...

In Episode 237, Jeff and Phil welcome co-creator/executive producer Alexander Woo and director Derek Tsang, two of the key creators behind the Netflix series  3 Body Problem . They talk about the challenges of adapting Liu Cixin's epic science fiction novels for a global television audience, the authenticity required to re-create a dark moment China's history, who is responsible for what is possib...

In Episode 236, Jeff and Phil welcome their old friends Sujata Day ( Definition Please , Heroes' Feast ) and Dino-Ray Ramos ( DIASPORA ) to talk about the action revenge thriller Monkey Man , written/directed by and starring Dev Patel. They discuss this new take on storytelling from the South Asian diaspora, this blessed era of the Dev Patel Glow-Up, some of the political, religious and cultural c...

In Episode 235, Jeff and Phil welcome  Pawan Dhingra , associate provost and associate dean of the faculty at Amherst College and current president of the Association for Asian American Studies . He talks about the newly minted AAPI Studies program at Amherst -- the first of its kind for liberal arts colleges -- what's behind the seemingly sudden surge of interest in Asian American Studies, and ho...

In Episode 234, Jeff and Phil welcome Albert Kim, showrunner of Netflix's live-action  Avatar: The Last Airbender . He talks about the epic challenge of adapting the beloved animated series, "remixing" the original show's story elements for the streaming format, the cultural considerations that go into building an Asian-inspired fantasy world (does Iroh have an accent?) and casting Asian and Indig...

In Episode 233, Jeff and Phil welcome Kim Cooper and Scott Okamoto, co-hosts of the podcast Asians in Baseball, just in time for spring training. They discuss the current renaissance of Asian and Asian American players in Major League Baseball; becoming a baseball fan in this extraordinary moment; Shohei Otani's ass; the Lenn Sakata Fan Club; and the unifying love of Kim Ha-Seong. Also: The Good,...

In Episode 232, Jeff and Phil welcome Olivia Cheng and Dianne Doan, stars of the badass action series  Warrior (now on Netflix!). They talk about how the show has embodied the fighting spirit of Bruce Lee; some of the initial trepidation and concerns they had about their roles at the beginning of the production; and why Olivia is the Ginger Rogers of Warrior . Also: a guest appearance from Dianne'...

In Episode 231, a special conversation recorded live at Asia Society in New York City, Jeff welcomes newly minted Academy Award nominee Celine Song, writer/director of Past Lives . (Spoiler warning!) They discuss the real-life autobiographical moment that inspired her film's bilingual, bi-cultural center; telling a story about the people who hold and know the different parts of ourselves; and how...

In Episode 230, Jeff and Phil welcome filmmaker Sean Wang, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary short  Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó , a love letter to his own grandmothers. He talks about making an unapologetically personal film about the everyday lives of these two extraordinary women, why Wài Pó wields a sword, and the amazing gift of getting to experience the film's success as a family. Also...