Hi there, you are listening to pei pals and today I am interviewing someone I’ve known for 39 years, quite literally my longest lasting pal, my mom. So welcome to a special episode of the podcast—one that’s a little different and a lot more personal. Today, I’m sitting down with my mom for our first-ever recorded conversation. We’ve never really done this before—just the two of us, talking about her life, our family, and things we’ve never said out loud. It’s truly astonishing the things we neve...
Jul 01, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Hi there, you’re listening to Pei Pals , and today I’m interviewing my friend Davis. Davis, for lack of a better word, is an alien. And I mean that with affection—truly, in the most positive way possible. I later discovered that whatever I I was feeling is the feeling of being in the presence of a future billionaire. They're just built different. I met Davis over Korean BBQ a few years ago when I was based in Taipei, and as I mentioned—it was instant confusion. Is this guy for real? Is his brain...
Jun 03, 2025•57 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Kanae, or Kanae-chan as I usually refer to her, just happens to be one of Japan’s most well-known Latin dancers. But to me what stands out more is how that happened, and that's all about her mindset and approach to dance. We met at a dance festival in Tokyo - actually she had a solo performance, and I managed to work up the nuts to ask her for a dance. It turned out that we have a lot in common, which is something you’ll occasionally find in dance. People have hobbies such as dance for many reas...
Feb 13, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Take one listen to this guy’s voice. He just sounds like a singer, doesn’t he? Bondipity, or Bond as I call him, is a singer based in Bangkok. He'ss what you’d call a gigging musician, in that he performs everywhere around town, from hotels, to lounges, to clubs, to bars. But like all performers, the onstage persona and the real him have some real differences. What you see is not necessarily what you get. Bond grew up in Bangkok, but plot twist - went to study music at a bible school in the midw...
Dec 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 22
This is a different type of episode, because even though Arie and I are friends, we wanted this conversation to be more educational. That’s because Arie just so happens to be one of the world’s best known experts on something called BDD, which stands for body dysmorphic disorder. It’s quite different from body dysmorphia, and just because you are obsessed with going to the gym or social media, doesn’t mean you have it. He’s been leading his field for over 20 years, and I can confirm this because...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 21
I met Giang when I was in Vietnam for a friend's wedding. In fact, I ended up being this friend’s best man at his wedding, which I discovered only 1-2 days beforehand. Thank you my Finnish brother. I remember the first time I met her, she would continually ask me "why" and "tell me more" and "and then"? It made me slightly defensive. After getting to know her better, I realized that its just her insatiable curiosity taking over. When she first met me, I do believe I offended her because she thou...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Darren was my Chinese tutor when I was living in Taipei. But that means that it was a bit one-sided, in that he would ask me questions, and I would do the bulk of the talking because it was about me practicing. Here I even the scales and interview him. Darren is what I would call a blue-collar auteur. Translation: he actually produces films and documentaries in Taiwan, but intentionally takes on so-called blue collar jobs in order to have a different range of experiences to draw upon for his fil...
May 29, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Jesse is not only my neighbor in bangkok, whenever he actually decides to live here, but he was one of the most influential people in my life last year. The way I met him is quite unique: I got sent a youtube link to a CNBC interview he did on being an expat in Bangkok. Basically I had a weird amount of information about him, from him, but not really from him personally. It made me feel a bit like stalker. Jesse originally hails from near Chicago, and like me, he ended up in Bangkok after a life...
Mar 10, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 18
My pal Mark returns, this time with a baby in tow! It’s pretty great to be able to have a snapshot in time of someone’s life, before and after having a baby. You're welcome, Mark. I’m realizing that is part of the appeal for recording these conversations for myself as well. They are moments and places in time that represent different phases in life, and the same exact type of intersections and relationships will never occur again. Damn, time is tough. Let's consider this the fatherhood episode f...
Jan 14, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Once upon a time, I went to a co-working space in Taipei called the Hive, and that's where I met Jeff. It became immediately apparent that we had a lot in common, and we quickly built a ritual of talking about our shared perspectives over cheap sushi. We talked about identity things, expat things, Taiwan things, exercise things… but in the end, we talked the most about two things: money, and life fulfillment. And this episode contains a lot of that. Jeff is a BBC and has been living in Taipei fo...
Dec 27, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Jonathan is an unassuming guy, but hs is also impossible to not notice. A 6’3 handsome MFer in Bangkok tends to turn heads. But also, I noticed his shirts and hats. I figured out that they were about his own brand - and I can usually tell because I also make my own shirts! But the thing you notice next besides Jonathan is the way he interacts, collects, and analyzes in conversation. It’s the type of stuff where you can just tell that someone is completely intent on engaging with the world. As So...
Dec 06, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Juan is one of my pals from Taiwan, and I knew of him before I met him because I had been using his website for months beforehand! He's the founder of taiwannutrition.com, and in more recent years, the founder of trueterral.com with his wife Sylvia. He’s been in Taiwan since his university days and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. Like most of my pals, his work is certainly the least interesting part of him. How about his two year forbidden and secret relationship with his wife when they first me...
Nov 28, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Mel is what I would call a boomerang. The way I define it is growing up somewhere, going somewhere else, and then ultimately returning to that first place for… reasons. Perhaps belonging, or a lack of belonging. Mel is also a twinkie, which also requires a definition. A twinkie is someone who is Asian on the outside, but white on the inside. But Mel is also originally from Singapore, so hes got another yellow layer inside there. Like many of my friends, I first met Mel on the dance floor. We dan...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 13
The picture doesn't match the name, does it? Reina is a pal that, when we first met, we didn’t talk at all. That's because she is a dance friend from Tokyo, and we met on the dance floor at a of the Latin dance festival in Tokyo. Reina immediately stood out because of her a... rms. It sounds strange, but if I see someone that’s obviously into fitness, I can guess with a high degree of accuracy the things that we probably have in common. One of my theories about people is that they tend to come i...
Sep 17, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 12
In this episode, I interview my pal Lisa. I also occasionally just call her hair; just take a look at the picture. I met Lisa at a dance festival in Chiang Mai, but it wasn’t until I moved to Bangkok that we became good friends, and even dance co-teachers. Her first words to me were “I’m not a bitch, I swear!” so it was obvious that this friendship was going to blossom. When I first moved to Thailand, I had a list of goals, for example find a social circle, find a Thai tutor, etc. One of the oth...
Jul 09, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In this episode, I interview my pal Henry. Henry is actually a childhood friend. There’s something about people who you have known for 30 years, give or take. I guess they become a sort of family as well. We grew up together, went to school together, became Boy Scouts and then Eagle Scouts together, and tried to figure out how to look and dress cool as as teenager together. Spoiler alert: long bangs were NOT the answer. Henry is one of the most superlative people I know, because no matter what y...
Jun 26, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In this episode, I interview my pal Daniel. Our friendship actually spans a few years and a few countries. I believe we were based in Budapest around the same time years ago, and then we met and became close when we were both in Taipei for the entirety of Covid. He moved to Bangkok around the same time as I did, and it was quite comforting to have a good friend already here, like a Jewish security blanket. Daniel is one of the most authentic, fearless, and earnest people I know. He is 100% himse...
Jun 18, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In this episode, I talked with my pal Aaron. He's not only a cool guy, but he's also my Bangkok shepherd because. I'll often have the experience of telling him “so this weird thing just happened…” and he will confirm that it is indeed a thing here. We actually have quite a lot in common, starting from our corporate backgrounds, ending up in Asia to focus on lifestyle, and cutting weight while battling the seductive allure of donuts and cake. Aaron is a productivity and systems expert that helps ...
Jun 04, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In this episode, I interviewed my pal Jaszmine. She's a new friend, but you wouldn't know it from the deep and private things that we talk about for everyone to hear. And that's because with most people, conversation is just an exchange of information. But other times, it is a sharing and discussion of beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. She’s a yoga teacher, cafe owner, meditation expert, crossfitter, and she possesses some of the most amazing shoulders you’ll ever see. She’s about to open her own...
Mar 25, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode, I interview my pal Yu-Jiang. I've known him for about 10 years, back from when we were both living in SF. We've both since moved on - him to Seattle, and me abroad since 2016. What fascinates me about him is that he is the consummate tech guy, with UCLA, Apple, and Snapchat. You'd expect his life to be essentially a straight line to the purgatory of tech middle management and unrealized stock options, but somehow he's veered from that path. He took a job selling study guides doo...
Jan 22, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In this episode, I interview my friend Mark. I mentioned that when I first met him, he wore these goofy Teva sandals (which he will defend to his dying day)... and lo and behold, he brings up barefoot shoes on this episode. He may or may not have a foot fetish. Mark is CEO of Manta Sleep, an 8-figure company, which produces the world's greatest eyemask. I can vouch that it is, in fact, amazing, because I sleep with it most nights. But his path was not very smooth or predictable, from leaving Chi...
Jan 06, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In this episode, I interview my pal Hyunju. I affectionately call her my Korean big sister because she is someone that I can go to for about anything, including advice on girls. She's a member of my informal personal board of advisors that I seek out for feedback whenever I make big decisions. Along with this massive responsibility, she also has a much lesser job as investment manager of billions of dollars for a Taiwanese institution. Frankly, her job is the most boring part of her. I met Hyunj...
Jan 03, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In this episode, I interview my pal Vicky. She is both ironically and unironically a superlative multi-hyphenate. Don't know what the hell that means? Neither does she. Vicky is one of Taiwan's most well-known and in-demand jazz/tango/wedding/background/you name it singers. She's usually booked out weeks in advance and is on the verge of releasing her EP. Her performance career began in earnest when a mixture of alcohol, boredom, and heartbreak led her to an open mic. We all know that's a situat...
Dec 31, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In this episode, I interview my pal Teresa. She's a youtuber/digital nomad/content creator/passive income-r. Every cool buzzword you can think of applies to her. She started by creating content that would solve her own problems with her students, and once her channel gained sufficient traction, she took off to Italy as a nomad. But despite having hundreds of thousands of fans and being recognized occasionally on the street, she doesn't love the public eye. My conversations with Teresa can go in ...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 2
In the inaugural episode of Pei Pals, I interview my first dance teacher, Larry Shao, whom I affectionately dub the Latin Dance King of Taiwan (a name he strongly objects to). Others may only know him as the bald guy that dances fantastically, or as the boss of a dance studio, but the point is - they know him. He in some sense "Mister Miyagi'd" me because I feel that I learned a lot of life lessons from him. That's what the best teachers do, after all. We talk about the most common mistakes begi...
Dec 26, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 1
