Warning. In this episode, you'll be hearing about my dad talk about astrology, baseball, k pop, heavy metal and they hit us Hello and Stitch, and also growing up as an immigrant, which I think is awesome. If you're not into it, that's okay, but I hope you stick around.
And avitiation.
I feel amazing.
Amberta breaking end on a Monday, and the recredation and killaborations give the attack.
Team fifth that it has been wrapping the affecting affacting.
You know what that means, you know what is ridiculous. My nemerologist told me that I should be eating bananas every day and particularly on Wednesdays, and today is Wednesday. So I've got these tiny, tiny bananas that are maybe half the.
Height of my palm.
I'm gonna tear a couple off and eat them and also press them into my palm. Back when I began this show, doctor Kumar, the astrologer I met in Queen's told me I should consider buying an emerald.
It would be a good idea if you were an emerald.
Embrale is a gemstone for the planet Mercury to have better communication, better connection.
Basically, it's a way of nudging the universe telling it to boost the wearers communication skills. The truth is I could use the help. I mean, I stutter and I mumble, and I'm introverted, and here I am making a podcast. So I'm very tempted by a quick fix. So let's see if this makes me more of a leader and better at communicating. I think gems are a big part of Indian astrology. They're used as duct tape quick solutions
to strengthen the deficiencies in your birth chart. For example, my mercury is weak, so an emerald can help compensate. The problem is that many astrologers are known for having a tie in with a jeweler and taking a commission for referrals, which makes me suspicious. But also I live in New York City and I'm kind of a cheapskate. An emerald sounds pricey. That's why I was thrilled when a different seer, doctor DV. Malhotra, who has a PhD in numerology, told me to forget about jewelers and just
buy some bananas instead. Which is odd because.
I'm born and brought up in a daily jeweller family and married to a Mumbai based jeweller family.
Her house is filled with too many jewelers, and although she's been surrounded by sparkly things all her life.
I don't recommend my clients to wear any semi precious stones.
To her, the magic isn't in the cut of the stone, but in its color.
I heal them with the remedies, and my remedies are very simple. You can eat banana apple. Yes, that's called the color therapy.
She believes that fruit can do what gems do for a fraction of the price. So, after this intense and complicated numerical analysis of my birth times and dates, she hands me a thick packet of information that describes my personality fairly accurately, along with my many flaws, and then she recommends the colors that'll improve my life.
Green and sun colors. You can use sun colors in your life, so if you will touch colors to your skin on every Wednesday, that will also help you out.
Doctor Deva has no shortage of clients, but she has a gripe with the way people seek help from her. She tells me that people only come when they're desperate for solutions.
Basically, you know what I want to give awareness that you go to any occult science healer. Don't go when you are in pain, whether it's me or anybody else. Work in the present to secure your future. Don't come to me when your present is worst to secure your future.
Her notion is why can't people treat in numerologists like a doctor the same way you do wellness checks to stay healthy, keep your life in balance.
I can't give you the result overnight.
I don't go to the gym anymore, so maybe a regular banana holding on Sundays and Wednesdays is how I'll stay on top of things. Doctor Devia tells me it'll be three to four months of this by the time I see results, which I guess isn't any weirder than believing in the power of a shiny stone. But I do feel silly because it is silly.
It's so ridiculous.
I moved from holding the banana at chest level with two hands to raising the banana up to the sky like it's Simba from the Lion King, and then I eat it. I don't normally eat breakfast, so I'm happy about that. Doctor Davia is right about astrology and the moments we turned to it. Right now. Michelle fan A prospective law school student and an on abashed BTS super fan is in crisis because her favorite band is in crisis, just when she needs the most.
All of a sudden, the members are crying, and then I'm crying and I don't know what's going on. I'm texting my friends. I thought like my life was flashing before my eyes, because here are these people who have always have been so happy, and now they're being vulnerable with us, and they're crying. They're talking about it like it's a breakup, even though they're saying it's not a breakup.
From Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts, I'm Mongish Heartigular. Welcome to Skyland Drive Chapter one, T Shirts and boy Bands. Michelle, why don't you say your full name for me and just give me a little introduction about yourself.
Yeah.
Sure, my name is Michelle Fan. I am currently working full time in human rights, but right now, with my free time, I've been devoting it all to traveling and keeping up with BTS's activities.
From the moment I start chatting with Michelle, I like her. She has this bubbly energy and this incredible sweetness that I'm not expecting, maybe because I know a little bit about her circumstance. One of her friends, my colleague Viny, is worried about her. Michelle is super smart, college Honor Society aister, elsat smart, but it's been a year since she graduated, and she hasn't filled out her law school
applications yet. She's been pushing it off for some reason, and her pals are wondering can astrology help, because maybe you can give her the nuds she needs. But as we talk, it's not clear to me how much Michelle wants a reading for herself so much as she wants it for BTS, the massive Korean pop group.
I would like to know about their future families and how many kids they're going to have, and how long they're going to keep doing this for and what kind of music they'll do when they're like gray and old, and if they'll still perform or like get together and do things like that.
Michelle's a BTS superfan or what's known as army.
You can't be a casual army, like. There's just something that is so captivating about BTS. Once you're in it, you're really in it, man, Like most of my closest army friends are people that I already knew, and we connected even more over this thing that we weren't really embarrassed to like, but people wanted to make us embarrassed to like.
I feel guilty here because I'm technically anti boy band. In third grade, my friends Zoe and I would rip on new kids on the block and we were constantly evangelizing how lame we thought they were. In high school, I ribbed my little cousin because every time a Backstreet Boys video came on, she screamed like it was Beatlemania
and it made no sense to me. But it wasn't just the music that offended me, something about how manufactured these groups always are, Like you've got to have the bad boy and the sweetheart and the shy one and the slightly older brother who seems a little too old to be in the band. The groups are always perfectly curated for mass consumption versus you know, outsiders who are trying to express something real and authentic with their music
and aren't part of some assembly line anyway. What does being a member of this fandom mean to you?
What does it mean to me?
Oh?
Man, it means a lot. It's really nice to feel like you're part of something that is genuinely just like full of like kindness and love and family. I think that they do a really good job of making Army feel like they're part of their family.
Seeing BTS live was a transcendent experience for her.
You just look around you. All you see are these lightsticks that are waving around, and it really feels like you're in a sea of stars. My friend and I was sat and bald after the concert was over because we were like, we're never going to have that magical experience again. I imagine that this is like what Disney
adults feel like every summer. I wish I could have that, but I have to wait for the off chance that Be to Us is going to announce performance in America for me to experience that level of like etherealness.
So Michelle spends her extra hours thinking about BTS and interacting with fans, and luckily for Army, BTS has no shortage of content. But as Michelle talks, it becomes clear it isn't just about the music for her or the community, which is powerful, It's also about seeing a Korean band making it to the top of the American charts without having to compromise their identity.
I do feel like an additional connection to BTS because it's been so nice to see Asian artists really fully embrace their Asian ness.
Michelle came to the States from China as a toddler. Her dad brought the family over as he finished his PhD. But even though they became upwardly mobile living in a nice suburban community, life at home at times was turbulent.
My dad was pretty abusive. He's really not a great guy. He eventually left, which good riddance. My mom's here at home and my dad's in China, and my brother is here with us too, So now it's just us three, and I guess my cat.
Michelle doesn't dwell on the abuse or her absent dad. It's just a speed bump. She happens to acknowledge as we talk about her upbringing. But being there for her mom and her brother, that's a big part of her identity, and that caring doesn't stop with her family. Michelle stands up for anyone who is wounded.
Since middle school, I've wanted to go into human rights work. I've always just cared a lot about what's fair and what's not fair. I'm sure part of it also comes from coming here as an immigrant and figuring out how to fit in. Why do I have to chop off all of these parts of myself to fit in to this mold so that you can still not see me as an equal? Like that doesn't seem.
Right, that tension of identity. I know what she means.
I didn't want my parents to meet people. I didn't want people to meet my grandparents. I was just very ashamed of everything related to my family, and that didn't really change until high school.
My parents were never an embarrassment to me, but sometimes my house could be like, do you really want to invite people in just to explain the myths and religious iconography on your walls?
Again?
Do you bring a tiffin with delicious rice and doll and pickles to the school cafeteria or do you beg your parents for a whitebread pebi and j and a juice box because it just makes life easier. There's a constant question of how you bridge the person you are inside your home versus the person you have to be outside it, and how you explain and justify these two identities.
It really helped that one summer we went back to China, and that was when I was really aware that I was like, oh, I didn't grow up in this country, but I feel so at home here. Why is that. Hearing my regional dialect spoken, having the food, seeing everybody dry their beans outside, you know, all of these like tiny little details reminded me that it was perfectly fine for my family to be the way that it was, and that there was nothing to be ashamed of. That transitioned into a lot of pride.
I think that's common too, or at least I hope it is. That at some point you stop worrying about the differences and just own them. But that doesn't always mean the world accepts you. Back in two thousand and two, not long after nine to eleven, I moved to Birmingham, Alabama. The day I was leaving, my dad handed me a T shirt with an American flag and an eagle on it. I'd already packed the car and I'd come in to give him a hug, and he just kind of handed it to me like it was the short sleeve totem
that could let everyone know I was American too. I knew his fears. I mean, in the weeks and months after nine to eleven. I remember the looks i'd get, the comments, the shoves, the ways people tried to instigate fights with me, things I knew were only directed my
way because of the color of my skin. Still, I tucked this T shirt in my bag and I never actually wore it, but I was thinking about that shirt again and my dad's idea of this weird form of protection because Michelle started talking about this moment in time from when COVID hit America forward, when anti Asian hate became so prevalent and so visible, how the world inside her suddenly felt so much warmer and comforting than the one waiting outside her door.
I also, like really didn't go out during COVID. Every time I did go out, it did make me super super paranoid. Even now, just like going on the subway, like I still feel pretty anxious. I'll text my friends so that they know where I am, but like now it's not like a, hy I'm in this, you know I'm in the city, like keep an eye out for me. It's like, hope I don't get pushed off the platform.
I'm not scared for myself these days, not really, but I am scared for my friends, my Asian friends, my friends who are women. In twenty twenty one, there were two hundred and thirty three reported anti Asian hate crimes in New York City alone. In New York City alone, fifty five percent of those were against women. It's no surprise that we cling to these totems for strength, because no, I don't believe that clutching onto a bend or a T shirt or a gem or a banana can protect you.
But in the face of so much unearned anger, maybe that grip gives you the courage of particularly moving forward. Men King Drum and a pro blass just un with my recipe and as it's been from public progestating, never Rob Beato, looking at what's next chapter, choosing teams, Comma Team and my family man of feel blessed? Now are we feel reality? It's funny to think about Michelle's incredible moment of transcendence occurring in a stadium, because so many
fans walk out of arenas feeling the same way. The high of watching your favorite team cheering in unison with a crowd. I mean, there's nothing like it, and that's how Sazar Love feels.
The game is a portal into something else.
Seesar is a baseball astrologer.
I'm coming from the West coast San San Francisco. I am part of the tribe of Giants fans and also part of the tribe of Oakland Athletics fans.
He loves stats and history. But somewhere along the way he got frustrated he couldn't understand why his beloved team wasn't winning. I mean, they had an incredible lineup, So out of curiosity, he wondered if astrology had an answer. Could mercury be holding his team back from the success they surely deserved.
You couldn't understand the team by looking at the chart. The Yankees have Saturn in the first house. They have this sense of tradition, and that's sort of imposing intimidating quality. So yes, it does come across.
Seesar kept studying, he kept grasping for understanding, but it just wasn't something he could be open about. Baseball astrology. I mean it sounds nuts. But then he met Andrea Malice.
I'm testing with mercury retrograde one, two three testing.
I'm not quite sure if it was the nineties or early two thousands, but I met her at a meeting of the Society of American Baseball Research at the Oakland Coliseum. She was sitting next to me, and she asked the question to the general manager if they had ever used astrology in their analysis. And I thought, oh my god, this crowd is not going to be into this at all. But Andrea, who just is a lot more abrazen about these things that I am didn't care.
And when you talk to Andrea, you know exactly why.
Here's the thing, I'm originally from New York. It takes a lot to intimidate me.
Despite the fact that people might bok. She has an impressive list of clients.
I was the astrologer during the a's moneyball era. Obviously, in terms of client confidentiality, I can't name names, but I have players.
When I first heard about the Venn diagram of baseball and astrology, I was hoping we could get some predictions.
You know, the sports astrology nitch is something I totally believe in and see results from.
With the World Series just around the corner, I wondered if Andrea or Sazar knew who was going to win. But when we actually approach the question, they were reluctant to say.
I'm a cosmic umpire, you know, it's cosmic intel. I get most of the calls, right.
I don't like to make those kind of predictions anymore. I think that's a trap for astrologers. A lot of them like to make predictions and feel like they're smart and show to other people they're smart and say they're there. I told you so. I'd rather just leave that, just watch things unfold.
So then how can they use their astrological knowledge practically? For Andrea, it's about coaching players and teams through really big decisions.
Tim linsegam he was a pitcher for the giants that saw his dad. Then he goes he's turning down five years one hundred million. Help, and I like, palstar. I go Chris, what time was Tim Bourne? And he told me what time he was born? And I said, you know, he's a Gemini. He's restless. He's having a sadder return between twenty eight and thirty. When I explained it to Chris,
it was sort of a permission giver. I mean, he still didn't want him to turn down five years one hundred million, but it's like, all right, he's a Gemini. He's a little scattered. He wants to see what else is out there.
Andrew and Sizar know how to use statistics to reduce the game to numbers and calculations and take the emotion out of sporting decisions. They know how to use the numbers of Estralla to that end too.
I'll tell you I've got four planets in Virgo, and on a good day, I'm a micromanaging control free I take a deep dive and I look at all the details. I just can't watch a game and relax. I wish I could, but you know, this is what makes me happy as a Virgo.
But for both of them, baseball is a link to something grander.
People don't realize this. Baseball actually began as a pagan fertility ritual. You can study the archaeology of baseball and it's not a uniquely American artifact. It's been played on all continents for millennia. The game has sort of evolved to where we have it now with the diamond with ninety feet distances between bases, but its origins and its history are as old as the hills.
Something courses through players and fans, connecting them not just to one another, but to the universe. It's like a certain type of thief.
People go to a baseball game, they just feel good. It's the way people feel when they go to the beach and they know they're in the presence of something awesome the ocean. There is something just profoundly spiritual happening in the following of a baseball team. So I think of each team as a spiritual community.
There are found families, just like the BTS Army Chapter three. It's not embarrassing. It's in your chart, God's groove.
I'm guessing on my own soon learning no shit. It takes me back to my own school shit in me head.
I take the knowledge. Oh who's is running around the world does end up and getting out the dawns?
Oh shoot, shoot.
This is a chart that has a lot of ambition, a lot of drive, and a lot of desire to achieve. There might be a des I've got our.
House astrologer Janelle Grave on theline here and I'm just connecting her with Michelle pushed forward. They're doing it over zoom because Michelle happens to be in Texas this week.
I do like law for you. The night House traditionally has connections to the law to philosophy, to higher learning, to higher education, to international travel, putting information out into the world and receiving information on a grand scale.
I don't know.
I feel like you're really buttering me up with this like international travel talk, because I'm like.
Oh, girl, tell me more about that.
I don't want to hear more about where I'm going to be.
Michelle doesn't know if any of this is real, but she's definitely game to hear it all. Her chart shows innate leadership skills and troubleshooting skills. It's as she's incredibly inquisitive in how she perceives and moves through the world.
A lot of it rings true, very spooky.
But even though the talk is flattering, there are these moments when Michelle just disappears. She goes quiet, and I can't tell what she's thinking. No, I think, but as Janelle digs into family, Michelle reemerges.
A lot of my interest in law is protecting cultures that are at risk of pretty much being trampled over or erased because of imperialism and globalization and authoritarianism.
Maybe that's what's fueling you. You may come from a lineage that has people who have served in the military, or have come from countries that experienced war. So where is this story of origin kind of showing up for you? If any of these things are making sense so far?
Yeah, I immigrated to the US when I was I think three ish, maybe slightly younger than three. My family being Chinese few generations ago lived through Japanese attacks on like our villages and things like that.
Okay, so even for you, maybe moving at a young age might have been disrupted.
Right.
Scorpio as a sign also deals a lot with rejection, where you feel like you don't belong or you feel like people are judging you or wanting you to be different than what you are.
Yes, that's definitely the classic immigrant story of like you fit too much into the home culture that you left, and so then you don't fit into the new culture. And then you start assimilating as you get older, and then you come back home and your parents are like what are they teaching you at school?
Like what you know what I mean?
So it is a classic story, the one Michelle and I and even Janelle as a first gen Panamanian must have felt. So the fact that it's typical it doesn't make you feel any less.
Here we are now in twenty twenty two. Your next phase is going to be the balsamic moon.
Based balsamic. I'd never heard of a balsamic moon, which sounds tasty, but in astrologic terms, it's actually the final sliver you see of a moon before it begins a new phase. And in sort of a poetic way, it relates to your commitment to your destiny.
If you're applying to schools and all that, I want you to be very cognizant. All right, If I'm going to be doing this next journey, what part to my life do I really need to let go of right now? Because you can't walk into your new chapter, you know, kind of raggedy.
Right, yes, So it's embarrassing that you could sniff that out through my chart.
It's embarrassing. It's not your chart.
Like, no, I love it.
I love it.
You are Mars and Scorpio. You're supposed to face your fears, all right. There's an element of your tret that says you have to show up with courage and fire when you feel frightened.
All right.
Janelle is so clearly encouraging her to go ahead and apply. She's used the stars to confirm that Michelle is built to speak out on important issues and show up for people who can't speak out for themselves. But there's still something that's hindering Michelle, and I wonder what it is. But before we get to that, so.
I think, let's move on to BTS.
Yeah. Yeah. Last summer, BTS released a strange video that sent shockwaves through the fandom. They're usually sunny demeanor shifted and they began talking about how exhausted they were, how something needed to change. A few months later, news broke that they would begin their compulsory service in the South Korean military, enlisting in turns to serve two year stints. And even though they'll have time for some solo work before they go, fans knew this was the moment they'd been dreading.
As a group.
They are heading into a full moon phase, and their full moon phase is going to be in July of next year. So full moons, like I said, can be like the culmination all the fruits of our labor ripe on the vine, but also full moons can talk about endings too. Knowing that this is the top of the top for right now and after this point, we know the decline is going to come because this is just moon phases, right.
Yeah, I guess oh man I I oh my god, my heart.
M hmm.
There's like a very selfish part of me that's like, no, like I want you to keep making music. I want you to stay together. But I think more than that, I want to know that they are able to make the choices that they need to make.
This might be one of the things that you might have to quote unquote let go during this balsamic phase. Right, if this band decides that we're going to take a hiatus or whatever the case is, you know, you may not be as involved, but there's still going to be part of your life.
Right.
They're still together after many years, but go off and do their own thing and come back together every so often to enjoy performing.
Yes, BTS.
Grandpa's so about boy bands. Even though kpop is a five billion dollar industry now ruled by three major corporations and flooded with what the New Yorker referred to as quote generous government support, Michelle's maybe realize that BTS is actually different. The manager in charge of putting the band together allowed BTS's members to write lyrics and suggest themes
to address their biggest concerns. So the band's first three albums they speak to Korean youth, trying to comfort them through the intense academic pressures that kids in the country face and that theme of protection that's infused their entire vibe.
So here's urinatle chart on the inside and on the outside it's BTS whoa.
Janell does something I was not expecting. She takes the BTS birth chart and she layers it over Michelle's chart to see the influence they'll have on one another.
I love that mars Son and Jupiter and Jim and I are in your eleventh house, so bringing in possibilities for friendship and group and endeavors and collaborative things that might come in through the groups. I don't know if you have, like fan groups or fan fiction groups or whatever. It is something about them makes you feel like I can do this right if I just keep going, If I listen to the song, I do my applications, it'll be okay, like something.
You know other songs, But you know, I've been so emotional lately that I can't I can, like listen to some of their songs where they use like older recordings, and then I'll start crying and I'm like, okay, I can't do this application right now.
I'm you emotional. Oh my god, that's okay, that's good, right, It's good to cry. It makes space.
Chapter four, Okay, the sound of metal. I get every color the New City.
Because someone's gonna because of the run though the numbers, gonna be saying it's the sound like I'm.
Open understands the fun One of the things I've been thinking about is how with every generation it's a little easier to fit in where it should be.
I mentioned to you, I've been in therapy for three years.
It's another reason why it's funny you're doing the show now, because I can actually talk about a lot of these things without getting emotional processed and healing.
It's really nice.
My cousin a lot is five years older than me, and even though it's only five years, that America he grew up in was so much harder than the one I experienced.
I remember they would literally say, oh, you're Indian. What tribe are you? Navajo Cherokee?
Yeah, you look at Indians in America now and we're the top eleven CEOs of the biggest eleven.
Companies or whatever, and everybody in America is.
Doing yoga and drinking chot Starbucks, and there's never a problem knowing, like what tribe you are now?
You know, I say, we're the tribe that took over the world.
Bro a Lot once told me, half jokingly, I'm like the coolest Indian you know, And he's right. I mean, even his name is cool.
Basically, the beginning of an Indian classical piece, the musicians are warming up and they're just kind of vamping out on the three or four notes that they're going to be exploring in this piece.
That section is called the Alap.
It's strange that they knew I was going to go into music, because it's basically like naming your kid improv or something.
Ever since I've known him, he's been surrounded by tapes and records, and by the time he was in college, he was producing albums. His band dialect was kind of like Public Enemy meets my Bloody Valentine. One time I told a hip hop head that Alap was my cousin, and he actually didn't believe me. I always just assumed a lop had it easy.
I don't want to throp shit.
I think as soon as I got to New Jersey age six, nineteen eighty and it was like a light switch. The very first day of school it started. It was like, I don't want to get to graphic, but.
Tell me because I because I want to. I mean, I can always cut out shit.
Sure, Okay, well you're gonna probably have to do some editing.
From the age of basically six till about thirteen, I can just remember every time I woke up in the morning, I had dread.
You know, I had a massive anxiety. But we're Indians.
We don't talk about it. We don't even know what that is. In nineteen eighty, right, I'm six years old and basically as soon as I opened the door, girls are writing nick on my back.
You know, I'm getting beat up. Girls would spit on me, make fun of my clothes, make fun of my lunch.
I would throw my lunch out because my parents gave me tiffin boxes with Indian food and these white people were eating Bolognian cheese.
And I literally would cry every night.
And as a lot, dug deeper into music, finding solace and heavier and heavier sounds. It only gave the kids at school another reason to pick on them.
Heavy metal hindu is what they used to say when I would get on the bus, because I think, like age eleven, I started rocking. You know, I'd have like a Metallica Master of Puppet shirt with a jean jacket, but I would cut the sleeves off the jean jacket.
So I guess they wanted to clown me.
You know, the abuse was intense. They'd pull it his shirt until it ripped. They tell him metal wasn't for him, that not only did he not belong in town, but he didn't belong as a fan. They told him he wasn't allowed to have music the one thing he truly loved.
That became a drive for me. And this is gonna sound rogan as hell, but it just gave me a catalyst. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do this white boy shit harder than they can do it. I'm gonna do it better, and I'm going to prove them all wrong.
Punk hip hop. These were outsider scenes. It wasn't just that a lot had this knack of knowing what's next. It's also that he felt safer in these places.
We didn't have a community where we felt safe just being our Indian souf. You know, we felt safe at the punk rock shows. We felt safe at the hip hop spots, breakdancing, we felt safe with the skateboarders in those scenes. Back then, you hung out with a bunch of non Indians and figured out a way to survive.
And as much as music gave him an outlet, it was also a coping mechanism.
I used to tour ten months of the year.
I used to work twenty hours a day and never stop because I didn't want to deal with my present. So I became kind of a workholic and it fueled my entire career until I was thirty five.
So I started to notice my mind is present. I feel really good now I'm starting to eat.
I can talk about these horrifying experiences and not even cry.
I feel like the universe gets me. And I know this sounds real new ag or whatever, but I.
Mean it's an astrology podcast, So.
All right, you're.
Talking about all these things happen internally as well as in the universe.
It's really strange, you know. And then we're musicians, right, so you're talking about repetition, petition, petition, petition loops, loops. I mean, I grew up on hip hop club music.
So you're talking about orbits here, orbits here, orbits you know, you're talking about rythms, we're talking about vibrations. You know, shove the The Hindu said it in the first element in creation, when the big bang happened, Bang.
Happened, was sound, that primordial sound its own. Maybe you've heard it chanted at a yoga class, or you've seen it printed on a tea label, but that drone, it's supposed to connect us to the divine, like a direct line to the essence of the universe. A Loop's music has always built off this constant humming sound. However heavy the music gets, that scaffolding always connects back. It's like a subtle fu Like, how could anyone ever tell a lot he doesn't belong in this scene when his music
is literally universal? Chapter five, This is how you belong waking up when people sleep and sleep. Michelle and I are chatting on Zoom and I'm trying to gauge how the reading struck her.
I have always been like a super skeptic, but in the moment, I was like shoot man, like I definitely took everything to heart. That she was saying. She started talking about BTS going through a tough time.
And I was like, oh no, no, what was she saying about applying to schools and a possible law career.
I mean part of it is, you know, we talked about the potential of a jdphd program and gave me a little kick in the butt and was like, listen, you need to be courageous because that is what your chart was telling you to do. If it's right for you, you just got to do it, even if it's like nerve wracking.
Prior to this, I know that when Vahinia we're talking, she had said that you are super smart, but were like hesitant to apply to law school and everyone was like you need to apply already, Like you have to get on with the application.
So what was going on?
Then? Before I graduated college, I was a lot more sure about, like law is the path that I'm going on. After my cousin got really really sick with cancer, and then my grandparents, who had been living with us, ended up returning to China, and you know, we knew they would be coming back, and then my brother was having a really hard time with all of it.
Of course, Michelle couldn't focus on applying or even think about moving. Michelle is all about family, She lives her values, all.
Of those things.
Those ambitions felt so far away, while like all of the really really like hard shit I had to like witness every night.
Whatever quality is, Michelle sees an army, whatever solace she gets from this community of fans beyond the music, this feeling that BTS is looking out for her, that it's a culture where everyone belongs, that there's an emphasis on showing up and being kind. It brings out the best in her.
I think I needed the time to like grow and figure out how to bring like all of these different pieces of my life together.
I'm thinking back on a story from when we first met. She told me about this time she and her best friend travel to la to attend a BTS concert, and just as they walk into the venue, Michelle spots an older woman a few sections over who looks petrified.
Right now, she very much look like an Asian granny. I would help any granny, but especially when it's an Asian grandma who looks like my own grandma. I'm like, oh my god, we have.
To go help her.
They go over ask if she's all right, and she's.
Like, my seats are up there. I came all by myself, but I'm too scared to go up because I didn't realize it would be so high.
So Michelle being Michelle, walks the sweet grandma all the way up the steep staircase, and before she and her friend leave, they make the woman a promise.
At the end of the show, just sit in your spot, hang out, and we'll walk you back down.
Then they find their seats and enjoy the concert, or try to. They can't stop worrying. Every few minutes they look over to check on Grandma, and it turns out there is no need.
She was doing just fine.
She is having the time of her life. She's vibing and dancing and making friends with other armies.
After the show, we all walked down together and were talking, and she told us that she flew by herself from Vegas. So I was like, oh my god, Grandma, to me, this is.
The opposite of a lop story. Michelle spotted an older woman who is clearly a BTS fan, and instead of saying you don't belong, she welcomed her. Even if BTS doesn't stay together, they've already built something lasting.
I still believe in my heart of hearts, BTS is not going to pick up because they're not just a group of their teams. Their family and family stay together, Ohanna and everything.
I don't get any of Michelle's boy band references, but I do know o'hanna because I love that line in Leelo and Stitch, where Leelo says o'hanna means family and family means no one gets left behind. Because in a sense, everything Michelle cares about is family. The little tribe she has in her home, the much bigger one she has online.
I think it comes out of just me wanting to learn more about the world so that I can make it suck a little bit less.
Look, I haven't been recruited to army, but I'm still glad BTS success. I mean, why wouldn't we want a world full of BTS's of all kinds, reminding us that we all matter, Especially if we get a world full of Michelle's out of.
It could be goui uh ben eyah God guid uh inna shiev a cony swoo, sheev a cony swoo.
Thank you so much for listening before I let you go just a few housekeeping notes. One, my friend Sybil listened to the Reagan episode and then she sent me this incredible quote from the New York Times which I just have to share. It goes quote after mister Reagan divulged Miss Quigley's astrological role, missus Reagan never spoke to her again. Miss Quigley likened the slight to buying a picassa, putting it in your living room and putting tape over
the signature, which is incredible. And second, you know, I do not believe in astrology, but our house astrologer, Janelle Belgrave predicted this show would be delivered in two parts, and that's exactly what's happening. My other astrologer, doctor Kamara, said things will get way better for this show after
January eighteenth. So we are following the stars. We're taking a break for the holidays, throwing you a few super fun bonus episodes in between, and then we will be back with the second half of Skyline Drive starting mid January. But if you like the show, please please review it in the Apple Store. It makes our moms and us and our investors all very very happy. Okay, that's it for the updates, Anna hit me with some new music.
Nice skylind Drive is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcast. This show is hosted and written by me Mungashtiku. But this show would not have made it to your ears if a whole bunch of people weren't carrying me. Starting with Mary, Philip Sandy, our supervising producer. I am not going to join army, but if someone starts a maryps fan club, you know I'm in. Feature Pinshahi is our wonderful senior producer and seat up so many of these interviews.
Mark Latto is the very best story editor who took my jumbled mess of words and created a story out of it, even though he edited out the bits about Nickelodeon and Doubledare You can ask me about those later. This episode was also produced and mixed by the insanely talented Anna Rubinova, with scoring as always from Botany. Check out his SoundCloud. I need to thank my son Henry, who jumped on the mic for the warning. He doesn't have a SoundCloud yet, but look for a new year
or two. It's coming. My big cousin Alop is just the best. You can check out all his latest work at Internet Andweed dot com. That's right, his label is called Internet and Weed and the music is dope. Speaking of incredible music, got to thank my friends at Azadi Records, Mumba's hottest label, also my Palhens and my sister Shantahtiguler for her Budgeons which she sang on this as always, will link to our mixtapes in the show notes. Oh and I'm also going to link to all the astrologers
in this broadcast, doctor Vivia the numerologist. She was so kind and so wonderful and she gave me so much of her time. Janelle Belgrave who we love here, Sesar and Andrea, the incredible baseball astrologers, and of course the delightful doctor Kumar. Additional production and research support from the wonderful Drew of Chivarral, Lizzie Jacobs, my beautiful wife, some of the most talented person I know, Bukshi and my cousin Argin Bukshi. This show is executive produced from iHeart On,
my good pals making Etour and Katrina Norvel. Also got to thank my partners from Kaleidoscope who were all okay with me taking this Break, Oswa Lishan, Kate Osborne, Costas Lina's and Vami Shoi. Special thanks to my friends at iHeart, Shantansara, Rachel Strom, my family everywhere and as always a big thank you to my Amma and my dad, Lalita and MJ who I thank my lucky stars for you have so many podcasts to choose from. I just want to say thank you for listening.
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