Vietnamese American playright and performer Susan Lieu recently published her memoir The Manicurist's Daughter. After her 30-something manicurist mother died from a botched tummy-tuck surgery, Susan was met with a wall of silence from all her relatives. Tragically, she internalized the body-shaming-consciousness that led to her mother's unnecessary death. This led to years and years of battles with her weight and self-esteem. But she eventually learns to push back hard against the body-shaming voices around her and inside her head ..read more

Louis Wu was an engineer, not an entrepreneur. But when he and his wife agreed that he needed a job that would allow him to spend more time with their young children, he began casting around, trying to find his new career path. In this episode, you'll hear how he ended up starting Ohana Music 18 years ago, which has become a widely respected source of quality affordable and now customized ukuleles around the world. www.ohana-music.com #ukulele #ukulelelife ..read more

According to experts, the average person goes through at least 30 major changes in his or her life. Some changes are things that we choose, e.g., marriage, divorce, different career, while some changes are things that happen or happen to us that we must navigate, e.g, war, assault, poor health, accident, etc. Carolyn Taketa is a certified life transformation coach after being a litigator in court, a mom, the small groups pastor of a megachurch, and then an empty nester. She loves helping others who don't feel comfortable in their own skin learn to cherish who they truly are and be able to brin ..read more

On Tuesday night, September 3rd, Trump and Harris locked horns in what now looks to be the first and final debate between the two leading candidates for America's next POTUS. Even if you didn't watch it, by now, days later, you've no doubt heard that Harris prevailed mightily and convincingly over Trump. Regardless of the outcome, Fong and Kemp were ready to weigh in the very next day. If you listened to their episode following the Biden v. Trump debate (June 29, EP 382), you'll quickly notice a huge boost in their morale! Will how she performed at this debate give VP Harris the win in Novembe ..read more

My very special guest this bonus episode is Doreen Wong. You're going to get to hear from her because she said 'yes' to me twice last week. She accepted my surprise proposal of marriage on September 3rd, and then the next day she finally accepted my invitation to join me on my podcast to tell the miraculous story of how we've come back together fifty-plus years after we broke up before the end of her senior year in high school. Miracles do happen ..read more

Lei Wang was perfectly happy with her burgeoning career in marketing and finance. But one fateful frigid Boston evening, she went to watch a documentary on mountain climbing, and something unusual began to stir in her. Even though she was a short, out-of-shape, unathletic 30-year-old person, she became seized by the vision of climbing to the top of Mount Everest! You'll be utterly amazed at what she went through to achieve this compelling vision. And you'll be inspired by the life-lessons she's learned along the way to climbing to the top of the world's highest peaks on all seven continents, a ..read more

Growing up, Henry Lam struggled in school, but it wasn't until he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in 2018 and received treatment that he was finally able to focus and succeed. Given what he went through, he has become a professional ADHD Coach, combining an understanding of neuroscience, psychology, and business strategy to support tech professionals--especially Asian American ones--who are grappling with ADHD themselves.  ..read more

The 2024 DNC ended Thursday night, so the next morning podcasters Fong and Kemp were excited to compare notes about what they heard, saw and felt during throughout this 4-night gathering of Democratic delegates to make VP Harris and Gov. Walz their 1-2 punch to keep the White House and also to prevent Trump, MAGA, and Project 2025 from gaining power. As Kemp put it, the GOP's RNC portrayed American as a bleak and doomed dystopia if Harris and Walz were to win. But the Dem's DNC painted a compelling, utopian vision of America where every person was free to make his, hers, or their own choices ..read more

Asian American author Eve J. Chung spent the first years of her life in Taiwan with her grandmother. In their shared space, Eve remembers a woman who loved her fiercely; hoarded food and fed her family fat-rich chicken skins; and used a heat lamp on her knees every night while watching Chinese period dramas. As Eve got older, she recognized these habits as remnants of her grandmother's harrowing escape from China during the country's Communist Revolution in the 1940s, and of the starvation and physical punishment that she endured at just thirteen years old as she walked to freedom. Daughters o ..read more

In Director/Writer Tom Huang's 2022 film Dealing with Dad, Margaret Chang reluctantly returns to her hometown along with her hapless brothers to deal with the sudden depression of their complete-jerk father, whom everyone happens to hate. In fact, he's actually more pleasant being depressed, so the siblings wonder if it's worth struggling to get him better. In the meantime, their forced time together allows them to reconnect as a family, reminisce about the bad times with Dad and maybe even help each other out in the process in this multi-award-winning comedic dramafeature film that's now stre ..read more