Guest Bryan Yamami is the co-founder and executive director of the acclaimed and award-winning drumming group TAIKOPROJECT ( www.taikoproject.org ). You'll learn why he was a less than enthusiastic young taiko student, but why he returned to this ancient form of Japanese drumming with fervor while a college student. Notably, Bryan shares why and how he and co-founder Masato Baba felt led to start their own group with the emerging vision to create a uniquely Japanese American version of taiko ens...
Jul 06, 2025•48 min•Season 11Ep. 542
Long-time friend and Christian colleague Diane Ujiiye, the co-director of nonprofit www.api-rise.org , introduced me to her Program Director Kanaka Mālia Luna Jennings, a proud Native Hawaiian and Filipina who, while a juvenile, had been incarcerated for 23 years. Her father died while she was inside, which served as a desperately needed wake up call to grow up, turn to God, and begin turning her life around. After she was released from prison, however, ICE swooped her up, and those seven months...
Jun 29, 2025•52 min•Season 11Ep. 541
Third generation Japanese American Philip Kan Gotanda has gained renown as one of the most prolific Asian American playwrights, filmmakers, and musicians, but he came this close to becoming a lawyer. East West Players ( www.eastwestplayers.org ) is remounting his seminal play Yankee Dawg You Die in July 2025 after first staging it in 2001. Here's your chance to let him educate you about the (sadly) still-relevant message of this play, while he regales you with astonishing and hilarious stories o...
Jun 22, 2025•53 min•Season 11Ep. 540
Regina Linke was born and raised in Texas, and she always enjoyed the creative arts, but she didn’t learn traditional Chinese painting until after moving with her young family to Taiwan in her mid-thirties. Holding management degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University, she worked in marketing technology and information systems for the travel and tourism industry. Now, however, she creates and illustrates stories that celebrate East Asian folklore and philosophy in an ...
Jun 15, 2025•52 min•Season 11Ep. 538
After a much-too long break, podcasters Fong and Kemp are finally back, this time tackling the uprising within the DNC by young leaders like vice chair David Hogg, the messy public break up of Trump and Musk, and Trump's sending the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles as part of a false narrative to fuel his fascist desires. To find a "No Kings" peaceful protest rally on June 14, just go to www.nokings.org and type in your Zip Code.
Jun 12, 2025•47 min•Season 11Ep. 539
Alaska's Perseverance Theatre's Artistic Director Leslie Ishii has the distinction of recently being awarded to prestigious awards: The 2024 Stage Directors & Choreographers Foundation Zelda Fichandler Award and the 2025 Paul Robeson Award. To win either of these honors is remarkable; but to win them both, back-to-back, is nothing short of extraordinary. Here's your chance to get to know why and how this fourth generation Japanese American grew up doing acts of social justice, and when she r...
Jun 08, 2025•52 min•Season 11Ep. 537
Maxwell Lee's Malaysian immigrant parents first put a violin in his hands when he was just three years old, but he soon demonstrated that he had precocious and exceptioinal musical abilities that he would later display as a classical pianist. As he focused on his music in college and graduate school, he seemed destined to make music his career path, either as a performer or an instructor. But after getting married, he dropped music altogether, becoming a successful real estate investor instead. ...
Jun 01, 2025•56 min•Season 11Ep. 536
Pakistani American actor Taha Mandviwala is now starring as "Pi" in the highly acclaimed theatrical adaptation of the bestselling novel and award-winning film of the same name. As part of the cast that is currently touring stages across America and elsewhere, Mandviwala reveals the depths of his character and what he has to do to come across as a believable teenaged boy. He also unpacks the artistry and athleticism that's required by the puppeteers who bring the zoo animals to life for the audie...
May 24, 2025•54 min•Season 11Ep. 535
Scholar Dr. Anne Soon Choi has just written L.A. Coroner:Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood , the first-ever biography of Dr. Tsunetomi "Thomas" Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner of the County of Los Angeles from 1967 to 1982. Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Noguchi conducted autopsies on some of the most high profile and controversial figures in American history, including Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Sharon Tate and other victims of the Manson Family, Janis Joplin, Jo...
May 18, 2025•43 min•Season 11Ep. 534
Even though New Jersey freshman Senator Andy Kim has already served three terms in the House of Representatives, he still primarily sees himself as a life-long public servant rather than a politician. Prior to becoming a member of Congress, Kim served at USAID, the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan as an advisor to Generals Petraeus and Allen. The proud son of South Korean immigrants, Senator Kim also has the distinction of being the fi...
May 11, 2025•55 min•Season 11Ep. 533
With federal agency USAID now struggling to survive after being unfairly demeaned and discounted by Elon Musk and his DOGE crew, it's crucial that you hear the story of how USAID helped a poor Thai student to become a board certified radiation oncologist. Dr. Vitune Vongtama inspired both Roy and his brother Danny to follow in his footsteps. All told, the three of them have saved tens of thousands of people from dying from cancer. Dr. Roy Vongtama is also a veteran actor. You can learn why and h...
May 04, 2025•49 min•Season 11Ep. 532
Certified leadership coach and consultant Tracey Gee has recently published her first book. Entitled The Magic of Knowing What You Want: A Practical Guide to Unearthing the Wisdom of Your Desires, it's a much-needed resource for knowing who you really are and then identifying and pursuing what you really want. If you'd like to know more about her, her work, and her fantastic new book, simply go to www.traceygee.me ....
Apr 27, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 10Ep. 531
In this episode Bay Area filmmaker Claudia Katayanagi goes into great detail about the myriad little-known incarceration camps that the federal government created to keep Japanese American "troublemakers" away from those confined in the larger and better known incarceration camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, HI. Her first two documentaries-- "A Bitter Legacy" and "Community in Crisis" offer a fresh retelling of the courageous efforts of the Japanese Americans to endure terrible injusti...
Apr 21, 2025•55 min•Season 10Ep. 530
Sarah Ahn is America's Test Kitchen's social media manager and the creator of the Ahnest Kitchen website ( www.ahnestkitchen.com ). She records her experiences on Instagram and Tik Tok of living with her Korean immgrant parents, chronicling her mother's cooking, grocery shopping trips, and more. Many of Sarah's posts have gone viral with 10+ million views and they have sold grocery stores out of product. She has been featured on NBC News, ABC News, Yahoo News, and Good Morning America. Nam Soon ...
Apr 13, 2025•49 min•Season 10Ep. 529
Kaya of the Ocean is a middle-grade fantasy novel by Gloria Lai Huang that explores themes of mental health, the immigrant experience, and self-acceptance. The story follows Kaya, a thirteen-year-old girl who struggles with anxiety and a fear of water, as she discovers her lineage as a descendant of the Chinese water goddess Mazu. This heartfelt adventure combines elements of friendship, humor, and Chinese mythology, set against the backdrop of the beautiful beaches of Hawaii. It has been named ...
Apr 06, 2025•53 min•Season 10Ep. 528
Bay Area artist and activist Nancy Wang has recently written a captivating fictional historical account of the Chinese who built and worked out of the fishing villages in the Monterey Bay area during the 1850s in California. Entitled Red Altar , her book brings to life the experiences of these early pioneers from China, including her fiesty multilingual ancestor who was the first Chinese American female born in California, and who made a name for herself as "Spanish Mary." If you'd like to buy a...
Mar 30, 2025•1 hr•Season 10Ep. 527
Whether or not you identify as spiritual or some kind of Christian, I'm pretty sure most of us are quite familiar with the tendency--if not the temptation--to live as if the grass is always greener on the other side of the septic tank. Armed with this mindset, many of us move on, move away, or just keep on moving rather than stay put in hopes of finding what we're looking for where we are. As you'll soon learn, Rev. Lydia Sohn was preprogrammed by her Korean American immigrant parents to be a no...
Mar 23, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 10Ep. 526
In this latest installment of the Two Kens collaborative series between Ken Fong and Ken Kemp, they introduce a term that respected German sociologist Max Weber first introduced 100 years ago that they believe best describes what Donald Trump is working hard to accomplish in his second term, and how knowing this term also tells us how best to thwart Trump's efforts. They were inspired by Jonathan Rauch's article in The Atlantic that appeared on February 24, 2025, entitled One Word Describes Trum...
Mar 16, 2025•46 min•Season 10Ep. 525
Dr. Grishma Shah's debut novel Anagram Destiny is a soul warming love story nestled in an inspiring tale of the American dream, manifesting an Indian immigrant success story shattered by the evils of globalization– paying homage to a generation of immigrants who held their heads low so one day, their children could lift theirs high. To learn more about Dr. Shah and her novel go to www.shahgrishma.com .
Mar 09, 2025•57 min•Season 10Ep. 524
If you're one of the fortunate people who know who Tyrus Wong was and what a pivotal role he played in getting the classic Disney film "Bambi" made, I think you'll still be blown away by what Dr. Karen Fang has revealed in her recent book, "Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong." I'll give you two hints: Christmas cards and custom kites.
Mar 02, 2025•58 min•Season 10Ep. 523
In this episode seminary professor Dr. Soong-Chan Rah reiterates that the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID should serve as a serious wake up call to American Evangelical Christians because now Christian relief agencies will no longer receive gifts in kind from the federal government. However, if they continue to celebrate USAID's demise, they are telling us that they really aren't "evangelicals," who take the Bible and Jesus quite seriously.
Feb 23, 2025•55 min•Season 10Ep. 522
As a nod to this being Black History Month and also as a form of pushback against the current dismantling of meritocracy in the U.S. Military by the Trump administration, I invited Dr. Roger Newman to talk about his latest novel Boys , a work of historical fiction based on what he learned about his Black Uncle Alex growing up in the Jim Crow South and facing systemic racism while serving in Army during World War II and beyond.
Feb 18, 2025•59 min•Season 10Ep. 521
In this latest episode in the Two Kens collaborative series on American politics and Christian nationalism, Fong and Kemp point out the jarring historical parallels with how Germany's Hitler and Hungary's Orban were able to dismantle their countries democracies so quickly. This episode is a call to action and resistance for every American who is now seeing the clear signs of decay in our democracy. Transition and outro music credit to The Isley Brothers and their "Fight the Power" anthem from 19...
Feb 12, 2025•54 min•Season 10Ep. 520
Celebrated playwright, director and producer Chay Yew is once again directing Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band , this time in its Los Angeles debut at East West Players David Henry Hwang Theater in Little Tokyo from February 13-March 9, 2025. A poignant new classic of the Asian American theater canon, Cambodian Rock Band explores the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor as he returns to his homeland after thirty long years. While his daughter prepares to prosecute one of the country's most notorious ...
Feb 09, 2025•31 min•Season 10Ep. 519
Hawaii-based writer Chris McKinney has edited Honolulu Noir , the latest in the Akashic Noir series of location-based dark short stories. Comprised of stories about the people of the city, written by those who know this place best. The volume opens with a story featuring Chang Apana, the Native Hawaiian/Chinese real-life cop who was the inspiration for the controversial Charlie Chan. It ends with a supernatural journey from the Philippines to Hawaii. In between, readers will find multicultural t...
Feb 02, 2025•45 min•Season 10Ep. 518
Doreen and Ken were high school sweethearts more than half a century ago. (You can hear more about their love story in EP 496.) But they parted ways in 1973, met and married their spouses, and had children. Doreen's marriage ended in divorce 27 years ago, and Ken's marriage ended in July 2023 when cancer took his wife Snoopy from him. Her dying wish was that he remarry and find happiness again. Since they were living in different halves of California, Ken phoned Doreen and asked if she'd be open...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr 3 min
My longtime friend and fellow podcaster Ken Kemp ( The Beached White Male ) lives on the far end of Orange County, so his house is far from the fires in SoCal. But many of his out-of-state friends don't know this, so they've been reaching out to he and his wife for reassurances of their safety. They've suffered several days-long power outages due to the high winds, though, so it's not like he's been spared. Knowing that our house is in one of the areas threatened by the Eaton Fire, he called fir...
Jan 14, 2025•47 min•Season 10Ep. 516
Dr. Noël S. Harmon is the President and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Scholars (APIA Scholars), which is America's largest nonprofit dedicated to supporting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. Their newly revamped scholarship application process is aimed at reducing financial barriers to higher education for students most in need, while also ensuring greater flexibility and accessibility for a diverse range of scholars. Now with this m...
Jan 11, 2025•56 min•Season 10Ep. 515
Author Ellie Yang Camp and I first crossed paths 24 years ago at a triennial Christian conference for college students. I was the main speaker that week and she was a student leader of her InterVarsity chapter @ Cal. We never met that week, but when her debut book Louder Than the Lies crossed my desk and I read her bio and then saw what she had to say about the insidious and pervasive problems of white supremacy and whiteness, and how they continue to oppress and brainwash many of us Asian Ameri...
Dec 29, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 10Ep. 514
Globally acclaimed jazz koto player June Kuramoto received one of the ten National Fellowship Heritage Awards by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2024 in Washington, DC. You can watch Rep. Judy Chew glowing introduction of her and then June's acceptance speech here: https://www.youtube.com/live/tqSlIfYprPU?si=vnwIH5wpcpzVHWk_
Dec 23, 2024•42 min•Season 10Ep. 513
