We chat with Sarah Ngu, former deacon at Brooklyn’s Forefront Church and writer with bylines in Vice, Jacobin, and Sojourners (she also has not-bylines as a ghostwriter). We talk about her family’s journey from Malaysia to New York as part of a church planting movement; how writing sermons differs from journalism differs from ghost writing; and the…

We chat with Pavan Yedavalli, a Ph.D. candidate at Berkeley researching the implications to urban planning if cars could fly (seriously). We talk about why public transportation is bad, NIMBYism, and ridiculous superstitions that we definitely still follow. If you want to learn more about Pavan’s field of study, check out Berkeley’s Urban Air Mobil…

Kate’s in LA, Yoko’s in New York. We learn that Kate knows all the words to Amagigoe by enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa, and have our minds blown discussing “99 Ranch” vs. “Ranch 99” and “lie-chee” vs. “lee-chee.” So Where Are They Now? When we chatted with Ken Quemuel in Ep. 4, he was running a monthly dance party in LA called 143. This fall, he’s mov…

We're joined by Paul Jochico and Robespierre Dornagon, two of the three founders of the NYC-based dance studio House of Movement. We talk about how they founded their own studio, how the definition of hip hop has evolved, and which Marvel characters they'd make Asian. Follow Robes on Instagram and Twitter @robesee and Paul on Instagram @pjinmotion.…

We’re joined by Jenny Acosta, food-embedded designer and native Brooklynite. We talk about her Hainanese mixed heritage, food as a love language, and living with parents as an adult. Also, Kate makes her boyfriend try a bunch of new food, and Yoko pops a question. Jenny’s website is jennyacosta.com, and you can follow her on Instagram @hennyhomesli…

A lot has happened while we were on break: Yoko got engaged. Kate turned 30. A million podcasts about being Asian have surfaced. Plus, hella/mad Asian movies! Wow! It’s really great to be back ♥️ Our model minorities this episode are: Kenji López-Alt, food writer and Chief Culinary Advisor at Serious Eats Evan Jackson Leong, filmmaker and director …

Kate went on a road trip with her boyfriend, Yoko is thinking about going on a staycation. Our guest this episode is Fei Liu, researcher in residence at NEW INC. We talk about how she saw whiteness as Asian Americans after moving to the US from Harbin, China at age 6; how she grew interested in the intersection of art and activism after living in C…

Kate and Yoko are joined by middle school teacher, and esteemed food writer Noah Cho. We talk about Noah's childhood and growing up with a white mom, what it's like teaching middle school kids, and white chefs who cook Asian cuisine. We also circle back on a model minority and our hot takes on Isle of Dogs.…

Kate and Yoko are joined by ethnographer and people organizer Christina Xu. We talk about Christina’s relationship with the internet, and how she creates channels for enabling other people to do their most ambitious work . Also, Kate’s officiating her second wedding and conducted a survey about marriage (by the way, she’s got a boyfriend now. Y’all…

Kate’s in LA, Yoko’s in NYC. They talk about Yoko’s recent trip to Iceland, Kate visiting home, and how they’re both turning into their parents.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko spend a good amount of time discussing cultural appropriation after seeing Kendrick Lamar's kung fu-themed concert. Also, Yoko finally gives us her take on Get Out. Thanks for waiting, it's been a long and crazy summer for both of us.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat about eighth grade crushes, Asian dancers hitting the mainstream, and “the ultimate pursuit.”By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat about Wes Anderson's new movie: Isle of Dogs—Yoko is skeptical, Kate wants to believe it's good. We also talk about how to control New York City, Yoko's first time using a charcoal pore strip, and Korean beauty products. We realize this episode is a little late, thanks for being patient with us!…

Kate and Yoko chat with Vincent Lau, a social worker at the Administration of Children’s Services of New York’s Department of Youth and Family Justice. We talk about how Vincent found his voice as an activist, his experience walking the March for Justice from New York to Washington, DC, and the importance of holding your own people accountable.…

Kate and Yoko chat with Rain Noe, Senior Editor at Core77, sewing machine collector, and native speaker of the rare Staten-Island–Westchester combination accent. We discuss Rain’s careers in industrial design and writing, the “Asian hookup,” and the merits and drawbacks of “fusion food.”By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko talk to Brian Yeh and Lisa Wang, newly engaged students at Harvard Business School and friends of the pod. We discuss unspoken rules and expectations of dating another Asian person, sticking the Fast and the Furious in a time capsule of the world's history, and roundabout ways your relatives comment on your tan-ness.…

Kate and Yoko discuss the Oscars and chat with producer Kishori Rajan about not being black or white, about identifying with Tia and Tamara Mowry, and about being with Hillary Clinton's team on election night.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

HNY! Kate and Yoko discuss their resolutions for the New Year, the (shitty) inauguration, and a slew of movies and TV (Kate’s crushes are Uchi from Terrace House and Diego Luna in all movies; Yoko recently watched Mulan for the first time ever). Disclaimer: this episode was recorded a little while ago. Thanks for having us back!…

Kate and Yoko chat with photographer June Kim about transitioning from commercial to fine art, and getting our moms onboard with our creative pursuits. Plus, a special How Asian Are You also featuring past guest Kevin Huynh! Also, we’ll be taking off the rest of this year and starting back up mid-January. Thank you for listening and have a lovely n…

Kate and Yoko discuss post-election feels and chat with Jing Wei, illustration director at Etsy and part-time faculty at Pratt. We talk about Jing's crippling fear of the number four, how many napkins we take at a restaurant, and discover what "ARF" is.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat with Andy Chen, founder of and partner at Isometric Studio, about promoting inclusion, equality, and progress; advice from mom; and his preferred bubble tea/boba order. Also, our thoughts on sukajan.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat with Gary Chou, faculty member at SVA and founder of Orbital NYC about how his grandmother's trip to a temple changed his life, his love of networks, and his involvement in Letters for Black Lives.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat with role model goal Farah Sheikh, project manager at Squarespace and organizer of Feed and Foster, a dinner series for women of diverse backgrounds. We talk about peer mentorship, lifting up the underserved, and protecting safe spaces.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat with Yng-Ru Chen, cool mom and director of partnerships at Tattly Temporary Tattoos. We find out about what it's like raising two adorable half-Asian kids, and her childhood friend Harmit whose name is a combination of Harvard + MIT.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat about the Olympics, Asian movies with white heroes, and tattoos. It’s just us this week, so this ep’s a shortie ... but packed with goodness as ever. ^_^By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko talk to Brian Cheng a.k.a.: Juicy Liu, 2015 winner of So You Think You Can Drag about gettin' crafty with costumes, navigating being two people, and our preferred chopstick holder folding techniques.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko talk with super badass boss lady Alisha Ramos about “secret” languages, being mixed-race, and Asian beauty standards. Plus, a really gross/amazing Would You Rather courtesy of our very own Kate Matsumoto. Apologies for the audio hiccup! Thanks for bearing with us. We love you!By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko chat with art director, photographer, and entrepreneur, Nate Poekert about what it's like to be a gay Asian man, adopted by a white family, and home schooled in central Florida. Note: During our recording, we called this episode 5. We’re wrong. It’s episode 6. Woops!By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Duane King is an Interactive Creative Director and Designer, in Portland. Duane's one of the most knowledgeable and resourceful designers I’ve met. Today we sit down to talk about the longevity and sustainability of design, starting two businesses and working with companies like Nike and Herman Miller. Duane grew up in Texas, started a luxury brand…

Kate and Yoko chat with Sachi Ezura, a TV producer and standup comedian (she’s also Yoko’s best friend), about growing up mixed-race in New York City. Also, weird stories that our parents told us that we’re 99% sure are untrue. (During our recording, we called this episode 6. We’re wrong. It’s episode 5. Woops!)…

Kate and Yoko chat with Ken Quemuel a.k.a. siik, a founding member and DJ at LA's hottest R&B and slow jam party, 143. We reminisce about a time when the internet was young, innocent, and not full of catfish.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kerem Suer is a Product Designer at Operator, in San Francisco. Before that Kerem worked with FitBit and Omada Health. We talk about being motivated at work through seeing improvements in your own offline life through the products. Kerem grew up in Istanbul and came to Sulphur, Oklahoma as a highschool exchange student. Since then, he's made a huge…

Jed Schmidt is a JavaScript Developer at Uniqlo in NY. Before that Jed lived in Tokyo and worked as a Japanese Translator. We talk about the huge shift in jobs, and how it feels to be working in a field that was once his hobby! Jed also was a founder of BrooklynJS. He tells us what sparked the inspiration for the meetup, what it means for the NY co…

Yaron Schoen is a Human Interface Designer and Product Designer in NY. Currently Yaron is working at Compass Inc., building a more sophisticated and tech-first real-estate company. Before that Yaron had a plentitude of work experiences - from a tiny design company in Jerusalem, founding Made For Humans, freelancing and starting Julpan (which was th…

Kate and Yoko chat with producer and director Roxy Shih about working hard and staying real in the movie-making business. Plus: creepy porcelain dolls ... what’s the deal with those? We’re getting the hang of this!By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Yoko Sakao Ohama is a Designer who lives in Brooklyn, NY and works at Squarespace. Aside from being an awesome designer, Yoko is also a dancer. In her spare time, she writes Why Aren't We Dancing - a curated newsletter about interesting dance videos she finds online. We sit down and talk about the path from school to working in the "real world" - t…

Today we sat down with Liang, the Creative Director at Soma Water in New York. We talk about full-time vs freelance work, ego in design and the importance of showing your results rather than showing your work. Liang is hilarious and has sort of done EVERYTHING! No really, she has experience working in a ton of different spaces - ads, social media, …

Andy Mangold is a designer and co-founder of Friends of the Web in Baltimore, MD. On today's episode, we talk about defining what kind of designer your are, what it's like to work with your friends, and how he started his first company at the age of 16! Andy tells us about his path to his current career. He went from making rubberband guns, to fall…

Scott Riley is a Product Designer and an Emergency Front-End Developer who worked at Pact Coffee and joined the podcast from England at 6am. We talk about gaming, curiosity, and privilege. Scott joined the podcast all the way in from England (at 6am). He tells us about city vs. country living and how he got his start in the tech industry through a …

Pavan is a full-time software consultant at GrayBike, in San Francisco. He explains exactly what that title means, and how he uses technology, design and code to solve other people’s business problems. He explains the transition from the corporate world to starting his own thing. We talk about developing skills (regardless of your age), the importa…

On this week’s episode we sit down with Jenn Schiffer to talk about her journey into the tech industry and its future. Our interview was a perfect mix between serious and hilarious — sort of what Jenn’s all about. On paper, she’s an open web engineer, but online she’s so much more. Jenn can find humor in almost every situation, and she talks to us …

On this week’s episode we sit down with Corey Grusden to talk about online vs offline communities, learning processes and a bunch of old computer games from the 80's. Corey works for So Fetch, but he started programming when computers tied up phone lines and he was 8 years old. His introduction to tech started with a golfing game on his family's 80…

Kate and Yoko fondly remember the Era of Kristi Yamaguchi, and Yoko mixes up the definition of "immigrate" and "emigrate." Plus, Kevin Huynh joins us. Still have no idea what we’re doing.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

Kate and Yoko discuss microaggressions, model minorities, and a rooftop story. Full disclosure: we have no idea what we're doing.By Kate Matsumoto, Yoko Sakao Ohama

In this week’s episode we sit down with Una Kravets to talk about emigrating from the Ukraine, falling in love with tech, and being the youngest person in the room. Una works for IBM's Design Lab, as a front-end developer on the cloud platform team in Austin, TX. We talk about how she became interested in tech, and the influence that her father and…

With Season 3 in the books I wanted to recap the episodes and some things that stood out to me. Themes, if you will. This season we spoke about commitment, saying yes before you can say no, life outside of the industry, digital overdosing, being humans again and a bunch of other things. Thanks again for listening. shownotes Aaron Dowd - The Podcast…

For the final guest of the season we brought Dan Mall on the show to talk about his life, professionally and personally. Dan has done a lot in his life and he was incredibly open in sharing it with us. In a nut shell, we talked about his “failed” attempt as a 3D animator, producing work that isn’t good enough, working with greats like Jeffrey Zeldm…

Randy’s life is a mix of thought-out steps and going where life takes him. In his professional career he’s managed to try various hats at a small shop in Orlando, get his masters from SVA, start Citizen Scholar, Inc, create The Supermarket and lead design at Etsy. He’s had a wild ride but it’s all apart of Randy’s plan in one way or another. As you…

This is by far one of our favorite episodes. I’ve known Andrew for a while and he’s definitely the developer I hope I become one day. His determination, his patience, his bad ass tattoos all make up the man that Andrew Norcross is. But lets make one thing clear - it wasn’t the easiest road to get to where he is now. Andrew once worked in Finance, l…

In this episode we chat with Keenan Cummings about risks. Those we take on purpose and those that just happen. In Keenan’s case, those risks defined his career as a designer. When asked what Keenan wanted to do as a teenager he responded very simple, “study design.” Too bad he didn’t know what design was. Luckily for Keenan he did know one thing - …