Ep. 5: Hundreds of Loose Pepcid in My Purse

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 varying merits of animal proteins.

Check out Sarah’s website to see a collection of her writing—we recommend reading a transcript of her sermon titled Decolonizing Christianity. Also, check out her project Church Clarity, a database of churches scored based on their policies regarding LGBTQ affirmation and women in leadership.

Model Minorities

Yoko’s model minority is Maya Man, a creative technologist at Google who, in collaboration with renowned performance artist Bill T. Jones, created Body, Movement, Language, an experiment that uses artificial intelligence to make dance accessible to the masses.

Kate’s model minority is Bowen Yang, writer and now castmember of Saturday Night Live. He’s the first Asian castmember in 45 seasons! Can you freaking believe it?

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 Mobility program at uam.berkeley.edu.

Model minorities

Kate’s model minority is Rui Hachimura, small forward for the Washington Wizards. He’s the second Japanese national to be drafted in the NBA after Yasutaka Okayama was drafted in 1981.

Yoko’s model minority is Roselyn Keo, an exotic dancer whose story of drugging and swingling wall street bros was made into the movie Hustlers.

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 moved on to start Cupid, a return to the slow jams that got him excited about DJ-ing in the first place. Kate is going to check it out, since it’s happening while she’s in town (post script: it was awesome). If you’re in LA, the next one is on October 9!

Model Minorities

Yoko’s model minority is Linh-Yen Hoang, the designer behind the “Wrong Asian, but ok” sticker. Extreme relatable feels. Check out her Etsy shop, which also has prints and zines!

Kate’s model minority is Maya Erskine, who writes, produces, and stars in Pen15, a TV show about a “middle school as it really happened.” Also ... extremely relatable. Shoutout if you were in middle school in the year 2000.

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. Learn more about House of Movement at houseofmovementny.com and follow them on Instagram @homnyc.

Model Minorities
Kate’s model minority is actor Karen Fukuhara. We know her from her Disney correspondent days, that one time she was Katana in Suicide Squad, and now we’re watching her in the new Amazon Prime original series The Boys.

Yoko’s model minorities are Cassandra Lam and Karen Mok, founders of The Cosmos, a community for Asian women and non-binary creators. We love that they’re constantly evaluating and reassessing what these labels mean. Check them out @jointhecosmos!

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 @hennyhomeslice.

So Where Are They Now?

Our first SWATN (So Where Are They Now?) features Kevin Huynh, our very first guest (and Yoko’s fiancé!). Since we talked to him in Episode 2, he wrote and published a book??? It’s called Get Together, a guidebook on how to build a community. We’re so dang proud of him, obviously. Learn more at gettogetherbook.com and buy it on Amazon!

Model Minorities

Yoko’s model minority is Christina Chaey, associate editor at Bon Appétit. We love when she makes an appearance on Gourmet Makes, and want to see more!

Kate’s model minority is Michelle Elman, body confidence coach. Check out this incredible photo shoot she organized, featuring a diversity of plus-sized Asian models 😍

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 of Linsanity and BLT Genesis, a documentary about Better Luck Tomorrow

This episode of SWAYF was recorded out of Orbital, a coworking space run by Gary Chou #garychouthagawd

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 China after graduating from college; filial piety; and our shared traumas from going to weekend language school.

Plus, we got a couple listener emails! Thank you for writing us, Lyna and Grace ❤️
Write us at swayfpodcast@gmail.com!

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 slept on that).

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.