This past week, you may have noticed that we held back our regularly scheduled content to focus on the Black Lives Matter movement. To us, nothing is more important than life itself, and when our black and brown brothers and sisters have lost too many of their lives to the injustices built into America’s systems, we need to pause and reflect on how we, as Asian Americans, can do our part to help. We are outraged at the death of George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more unarmed...
Jun 11, 2020•47 min•Season 6Ep. 67
This episode comes at the cusp of May and June - one month celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage, and the other, LGBTQI with Pride month. Identity plays such a big role in a person’s life, and there are so many facets to it. In this episode, we explore sexual orientation, specifically, homosexuality, and the nuances of what that means when you’re Asian American. Our two guests are very good friends of ours and after having many of these types of conversations offline, we are so happy to of...
May 28, 2020•57 min•Season 6Ep. 66
This Hero Story is brought to you by McDonald's. With all that is happening with the pandemic, McDonald's is putting forward the effort to showcase the many kinds of heroes in the Asian Pacific American community. McDonald's desire to uplift and highlight community heroes is guided by the belief that we are all in this together, and they are committed to caring for local heroes who are caring for our country. COVID19 has profoundly impacted the world. We’ve all had to adjust to a new normal, and...
May 26, 2020•36 min
In continual celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we spend this episode chatting with Drushti Gandhi, an Indian-American ABG. Drushti was born in India and came to the US when she was 5 years old. She currently works as a management consultant for EY (Helen’s old company!) in their Change Management practice. Drushti is also one of Janet's best and closest friends. We talk about her dating experiences, her journey with her career, and share various aspects of her Asian American,...
May 21, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 65
Last episode, we kicked off APAHM 2020 with a conversation about our experiences growing up in an Asian household. In this episode, we continue the conversation, reflecting more on our interactions with friends, our communities, and experiences in grade school and throughout college - we chat about many of the nuanced aspects of growing up ethnically Asian in America. Did we ever feel ashamed of our identities? What are we most proud of about our culture? How have these experiences impacted our ...
May 14, 2020•58 min•Season 6Ep. 64
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, APAHM for short! During this month, we celebrate the cultures, traditions, and history of AAPI’s in the United States. This country is very much shaped by the stories of immigrants from Asia and the Pacific and the native people of the Pacific Islands. Today, we will be sharing with you our personal stories as Asian American women -- the traditions and foods we remember from our childhood, where we grew up, what it was like to visit "the...
May 08, 2020•59 min•Season 6Ep. 63
ABG is officially in season 6! With the stay-at-home order still in place, we continue to record from each of our own homes. By now, we are a little more settled into this new, temporary normal of social distancing, but it can be challenging to cope with the inevitable loneliness. In collaboration with Bumble, this episode is dedicated to ways we are dealing with loneliness and how we are connecting with others through online apps. We discuss profile creation and evaluation tactics (we talk abou...
May 01, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 6Ep. 62
Mental health is a topic that we get many messages about from our listeners. It’s a sensitive and complicated topic, and especially with all the recent world events that have occurred, we thought now is the right time to take a deeper dive into this topic. Back in July 2019, we released Episode 44: Mental Health with Christine Chen wherein our good friend shared her personal experience with clinical depression. Today, we wanted to offer a different perspective on the topic by bringing in Haesue ...
Apr 24, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 61
We are back with season 6! We've kicked off many seasons before, but this is a significant one for us. This is the first time that the 3 of us no longer hold full-time positions at a company other than AsianBossGirl. Yes, we are ALL recently fun-employed, no longer tied to an employer other than ourselves. In this episode, we share how this came to be, including all the nuanced thoughts, feelings, and external events that lead us to this place. Listen to hear a little more about what is next for...
Apr 17, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 60
It has been an incredibly dynamic last couple of weeks for us personally at ABG, and for the world at large. So, even though we are off season, we wanted to check in with you all and share a special episode to talk about how we are personally experiencing the world-wide COVID-19 incident, in hopes that it might help some of you out there feel more connected, prompt conversations with your personal circles, or even just offer a brief moment of reprieve from your new daily routine. We hope you are...
Apr 01, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 59
It’s an age old point of contention, discussion, and often times, frustration - the differences between men and women, and of course nowadays with all the variations of gender identity, the complexity continues to grow - just how different is the opposite sex (or sexes)? Are men (and all those who identify as male) really from Mars, and women (and all those who identify as female) really from Venus? Today we have invited 2 very special ABB guests (Mike Bow & Jason Rodjanapanyakul to explore ...
Feb 07, 2020•1 hr 42 min•Season 5Ep. 58
Happy Thursday and hope you all enjoyed our first Q&A episode of the season last week! We had so many questions leftover that we decided to run a part II for y'all. This time around, we talk about the pros and cons of making a career switch, discuss finances (Is it worth it to have a car? What are our personal finance goals? Why is commingling such a weird word?), discuss our personal styles, the challenges we've faced in our 20s and 30s, and more. One of the best parts about running a podca...
Jan 31, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 57
It's that time of the season again! That time when we dedicate an episode to answering questions submitted by our lovely listeners. This time around, we talk about ABG rituals, reflect on past guests, think about the best parts of our culture, discuss dating (would we date someone younger?), remember college days (what were each of our study styles?), and more. Listen in and submit your own Qs to asianbossgirl@gmail.com. This episode is brought to you by Skillshare. ABG listeners get a 2-month f...
Jan 24, 2020•53 min•Season 5Ep. 56
2020 marks the start of something new (High School Musical anyone? Lol). A new year, a new decade. In the previous episode, we reflected back on 2019 and shared our lows & highs. Those experiences lead us to spend some time thinking about what we want to focus on in 2020. What’s next for ABG? What’s in store for Mel’s last year in her 20’s? Do we see a wedding for Helen? Is 2020 the year a man locks down Janet? Listen in as we chat through our goals for the year and what we have in store for...
Jan 17, 2020•56 min
This episode is dedicated to our collective review of 2019 for ABG (learn how we're growing our business, every step of the way!), followed by our personal reflections of 2019. Last year around this time, we reflected on 2018 and discussed our goals for 2019 (check out Episode 34!). Now that we’ve reached the end of 2019 (and survived it) we go back to the resolutions we set at the beginning of 2019 to see how we’ve tracked against those goals. We discuss our continued focus on mental health and...
Jan 10, 2020•59 min
In this week's episode, we explore the topic of Chinese medicine, specifically as it relates to women's health. Alternative medicine has become a rather popular topic in recent times, and a large aspect of these alternative approaches like acupuncture, cupping, and herbs, come from the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We sit down with local Santa Monica Oriental Medicine practitioner, Dr. Helena Zhang, to discuss how she got involved with this practice, the differences between Western a...
Dec 27, 2019•57 min
You may know him as Jung Kim from the Netflix show, Kim’s Convenience or as our next Asian Superhero in Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But we know him as Simu Liu, our ABB from the North (aka Toronto) and a former Yappie! Yes, Simu was like one of us. Working that 9-5 corporate job at a Big 4 firm as an accountant. We’re so excited to have him on our podcast. Listen in as we chat with Simu about his journey from the office to the big screen! --- Send in a voice message: http...
Dec 20, 2019•1 hr 12 min
Love takes patience, compassion, and courage. Fairytales paint a story of “love at first sight” that leads to a rainbow and butterfly filled path to wedding bells and a white picket fence home. But real, intimate relationships challenge us as individuals and unearth each partner’s deepest personal vulnerabilities, fears, and weaknesses. Marriage - who we choose as our life partner and when we are ready to make that commitment - is an incredibly important, some say the MOST important, decision of...
Dec 13, 2019•49 min
We touched (pun intended) on sex a bit in Season 1 on Episode 5: 20 Something Girls vs. 30 Something Women (Part II Sex & Dating), but this time we go deep (pun was not intended, but now it is). Sex is a loaded topic, and for many of Asian cultural background, a rather taboo topic that we rarely discuss with parents/family or friends. From school provided sex-ed courses to internet chats to porn, our introductions to and understandings of sex were pretty fragmented and incomplete when we wer...
Dec 06, 2019•58 min
Alright y'all! We know you've been waiting for this one for a while now!! The one where our ABG, Helen, gets engaged!! We bring on a very special guest, her fiancé. You first heard his voice on the podcast when we recorded the Yappie episode (Ep 30). If you’ve been following our social media, you already know who he is -- Mr. Philip Wang!! Tune in, as we recap the months leading up to the event, all the planning that took place to execute the surprise in Helen's hometown, and the juicy details (...
Nov 29, 2019•59 min
Insecurities. From the outside, it can seem like the three of us are fairly put together. But I can assure you that we are.. not. Talking about our failures & our insecurities on this podcast is sometimes hard for us, but we know that when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, we can connect and find comfort in knowing that we’re not alone in our insecurities. Listen in as we share our personal insecurities and how we deal with them. We hope this episode allows you to open up dialogue with yo...
Nov 22, 2019•55 min
We're BACK with season 5, and literally TO SCHOOL at Helen's alma mater, Boston College, for a speaking event at the moment this episode is being released! Listen in as we re-cap our “summer break” since season 4 - from ballin’ it up for charity, to live event collaborations with other super boss Asian female podcasters, to new merch items, we have been busy busy busy! In the spirit of going BACK (whether it's to school or the podcasting airwaves), we spend this episode reminiscing about and dis...
Nov 15, 2019•1 hr 12 min
ABGs and ABBs -- we have reached the end of Season 4!! Y'all have stuck with us for FOUR whole seasons now. It’s safe to say that you probably have some assumptions about us! "Does recording ABG only take one take?!?" "Do we ever fight?!" "Is there one person in ABG that is super controlling?" "Do we always wear makeup when we step out the door?" "Do we only hang out with Asians?" ..and many, many more. We want to thank you all SO much for listening in + engaging with us throughout these past 46...
Aug 09, 2019•51 min
It’s that time of the season when we bring back … Q&A! The three of us feel so fortunate to have you all a part of our journey building this podcast & can’t believe another season is almost coming to an end! With only one episode left in season 4, we wanted to spend some time answering questions from you. From “Can physical attraction grow?” to “Why are you friends with so many Asian YouTubers?”, we answer all of these in today’s episode! Thank you to those of you who sent us questions &...
Aug 02, 2019•39 min
Mental Health is a topic that we frequently receive requests to talk about on this podcast. As Asian Americans, mental health is, without question, a taboo topic and one that is often dismissed and/or feared. Discussions about health and wellness are on the rise, and as Asian American women, most of us experience a particular shared set of stressors -- dealing with external factors such as our careers and our families, and internalized factors, like telling ourselves that we’re not “good enough”...
Jul 26, 2019•1 hr 7 min
Now that summer is upon us, what’s been on the top of our minds other than cold boba drinks, summer travel plans, beach, sun and fun?? Getting that beach body ready for all of the above! Fitness is a journey and one that can begin at any point in our lives. For some of us, the fitness “Day 1’s” seems to restart just about every week. But for the most part, we try and stay fairly consistent. Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being, and more specifically, the ability to perform aspect...
Jul 19, 2019•42 min
Some call it post grad life, others call it the Grey Zone. Whatever you call it, it’s an unpredictable time in your life that you feel you aren't “prepared” for; the feeling of being in a slump, that your life can (and should) turn at any point. For us, this is the moment when self-doubt is the highest, when we start to question whether or not we are truly happy with what we have. The older that we get, the more we realize that the Grey Zone actually extends far beyond that initial bout of freed...
Jul 12, 2019•49 min
From AIM in the 90s to Xanga and Myspace in the early 2000s to Instagram today, social media has evolved and now-a-days, is ever pervasive in our daily (if not hourly) lives. In this episode, we reminisce about everything from screen names to handles, profiles to blog posts, and chat rooms to feeds, sharing personal stories and observations. We also discuss some of the positive and negative repercussions to living in an "always on" world and talk through personal approaches to managing well-bein...
Jul 06, 2019•41 min
Ah.. the ever continuous discussion of dating (or, lack thereof). For anyone else in their post-collegiate, 30s+ stage in life, this one’s for you! We talk about the sweet spot between our 20s and 30s, where we’re no longer in a low-stakes college relationship, we’ve already been on plentyyy of dates to know the qualities we look for in a significant other, and we feel like we're SUPPOSED to be in a steady relationship building towards a family -- but 2 out of 3 of us, are not. Mel and Janet sha...
Jun 28, 2019•59 min
Imposter Syndrome - a state of insecurity & self doubt about one’s ability and/or achievements, believing they are due to luck or having successfully deceived others into thinking they are smarter or more capable than they really are. It’s a prevalent feeling (especially amongst women); this fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. As women, and more specifically, as Asian women, the three of us have had several episodes where we've felt held back by crippling thoughts of not being enough. Whethe...
Jun 21, 2019•42 min
