Rock the Boat | Asian American Podcast

For the last episode of Season 5 of Rock the Boat, Lucia invites Lynne back on the pod to give an update. Lynne also invites her classmate Hua Qu to come speak about a political topic that has recently been at the forefront due to the pandemic, elections, and trade wars: US, China relations.

Tune in for the last episode of the year!

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This week, Lucia speaks with Dr. Thomas Tsang, who is the CEO and co-founder of Valera Health, a physician, and a former congressional staffer in the Obama Administration who helped write and execute the Affordable Care Act.

Thomas shares how he pursued a career in healthcare despite growing up not being able to afford healthcare. He also shares how his career at Charles B. Wang, the Chinatown community medical center in New York provided him with an opportunity to help write and execute Affordable Care Act. 

In the interview, Thomas also opens up about his own experience with mental health and how it prompted him to create a data-driven mental health startup called Velera Health. 

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Valera Health: https://valerahealth.com/

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Simon Tam is the founder and bassist of The Slants, the world’s first and only all Asian American rock band. He’s also an author, activist, and self-proclaimed troublemaker, setting a world record by appearing on the TEDx stage 13 times.

Asians are one of the most bullied demographics in America. When Simon Tam was growing up in San Diego, he faced the brunt of that. Bullies would make fun of him for the shape of his eyes.

Well, when Simon grew up, he reclaimed that slur. Not only did he name his band The Slants, they won a historical Supreme court case which gave him the right to trademark his band’s name.

Lucia speaks to Simon about his Asian American upbringing and how that prompted him to start an Asian American band named The Slants.

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The presidential election is over, well… sort of, but COVID is not. In this episode Lucia speaks with the former health commissioner of Baltimore, Dr. Leana Wen about how to ensure that mask wearing is a public health issue and not a political issue. Dr. Wen also speaks about her journey from being a practicing physician to being a public health advocate, standing up against xenophobia, and how we can all get on the same page when it comes to public health safety.

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, public health leader, and a passionate advocate for patient centered health care reform.⁠ You may have seen her popular TED Talk called “What your doctor won’t disclose” or on CNN as a medical analyst speaking about COVID-19.⁠

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Qasim Rashid is a Pakistani-born author, activist, attorney, and is currently running for Congress in VA. When hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Qasim was a senior in college confronted with a critical decision to make. Would you risk failing all your classes to help your neighbor? His choice was a paradigm shifting moment in his life. Now, Qasim’s campaign runs along similar veins, focused on bringing together and serving the community. In this episode Lucia talks to Qasim about his upbringing as an American Muslim and how his passion for the marginalized channeled the direction of his political career.

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When we talk about representation, we usually think about representation in the media and in the corporate office. However, there is a place where we rarely see Asian Americans, and that is in the government. When was the last time you saw an Asian governor, or an Asian mayor? Today’s guest Yuh-Line Niou talks about the importance of having representation in the local state government. She shares her journey to becoming an elected Assembly Member of District 65 of Manhattan, an area that includes Chinatown, and what it means for our community.

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Welcome to Season 5 of Rock the Boat! In Season 5 we highlight Asian Americans who are challenging the status quo in the world of Government, Politics, Civic Engagement, and Advocacy. We are proud to be partnering with the Model Majority podcast to bring you a short season of incredible guests. Today’s guest is Senator Tammy Duckworth. She is the first Thai American woman elected to Congress. She is the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, and she is the first Senator to give birth while in office.

We hope these conversations can inspire you to vote this November, help remind your friends and family to vote, and maybe even inspire you to get involved in your local community.

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Meet Sharon Lee Thony and Raman Sehgal, the hosts of Modern Minorities Podcast. Their podcast focuses on conversations with fellow modern minorities to uncover how our different cultural backgrounds shape how we uniquely experienced the world. Sharon and Roman have unique perspectives of what it means to be a modern minority because they're not only minorities themselves. But they've also married outside of their own race and have multiracial children. So in this conversation, Sharon and Roman, open up about their upbringing and speak about how it has shaped the way they see the world.

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During our break between Season 4 and Season 5. We’re bringing you bonus episodes from other Asian podcasters. This week, we’re bringing you an episode from an Asian Australian podcast called Shoes Off. Shoes Off explores Asian Australian culture and is beautifully written and produced by Jay Ooi. In this episode, Jay explores the roots of Anti-Asian sentiment spurred by the rise of COVID -19 in Australia.

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During our break between Season 4 and Season 5. We’re bringing you 3 bonus episodes from other Asian podcasters. The first episode is from our friends over at Self Evident. Self Evident is a community-driven podcast where Asian American stories challenge the social and political narratives that shape our lives. This episode comes from Season 2 of Self Evident and explores the wave of anti-Asian incidents that’s swept across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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We’re at the end of Season 4 and what better way to end than with a fellow Penn alum? This week, Lucia sits down with Melissa Mash, founder of digitally native bag brand, Dagne Dover. Melissa shares her journey from working at Coach to spending her life savings to pursue and MBA at Wharton so she could start her company Dagne Dover.

Melissa doesn’t sugarcoat her experiences in founding a company and the dedication it takes to also be a mother.

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Follow Dagne Dover:

Grace Kelly is an award-winning singer, saxophonist, songwriter, and performer. Lucia heard her live at a jazz concert where she was a surprise guest and asked Grace to share her music journey on Rock The Boat. In this episode, Lucia sits down with Grace to have a candid conversation about living the life of a jazz musician and balancing her creative side with her practical side.

This episode features music by Grace Kelly:

In partnership with the Asian American Business Development Center, we are bringing you more stories from Asian American executives. Lucia sat down with Phillip Han, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, to talk about his career path and his passion for uplifting the Asian American community in corporate America. Phillip opens up about his career failures and triumphs and what he thinks could move the needle on getting more Asians into executive roles.

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Finding the intersection of what you love and what you’re good at is a tough thing to do. However, Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur, the Founder of the direct to consumer fashion brand M.M. LaFleur discovered it in an unexpected place as an entrepreneur after a zigzag career path in consulting, finance, and international development. Sarah credits her mother for instilling in her the idea that women hold an important place in the workplace. In this episode, Sarah opens up about how her initial desire to work at the United Nations took her on a wild ride across the world to then founding her own business that bridges both her Japanese and American heritage.

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Bootstrapping, facing bankruptcy, and South Park-- this is the startup story of Guitar Hero. In this episode, Lucia sits down with Kai Huang, the cofounder of Red Octane, the company behind Guitar Hero to learn about the ups and downs of starting a company during a recession. Kai speaks about how he and his brother built a video game rental business that evolved into creating one of the most beloved games in the United States.

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Many people think that Entrepreneurship is the epitome of the American Dream. It’s a meritocracy where anyone can build something and find success. However, Elizabeth Yin, the founder of Hustle Fund recognized otherwise. In this episode Lucia has a candid conversation with Elisabeth about why traditional VC models are not working, how minority founders are systemically overlooked, and why she wanted to start a fund that changes VC.

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First and foremost, Rock The Boat supports Black Lives Matter. Last week was a very difficult week. Protests erupted across the country to combat systemic racism and police brutality. Lucia felt compelled to open up a dialogue after a comment her mother made about Blacks targeting Asians during these protests. In this episode, Ed Prokropski, a Korean American adoptee, and Galen Reeves-Darby sit down with Lucia to share some personal stories of their encounters with racism. They also talk about the challenges of allyship and the challenges of speaking up when you’re at risk of messing up.

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The Asian American experience is a complicated one. We all have our different realities when it comes to our relationship with our culture and identity. This is compounded by the fact that America is becoming more diverse, but also more divisive. To help combat xenophobia against Asians and reach across the aisle, a group of Asian American leaders and organizations came together to create the #AllAmericans campaign. One of these leaders is Brian Yang. Brian is a community organizer, actor, filmmaker, and most recently the former fundraising co-chair for Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign. He is most known for his role as Charlie Fong in 2010 TV series Hawaii Five 0, and is also the producer of the Jeremy Lin documentary. During our conversation, Brian opens up about what really happened during the Iowa caucuses, he shares the true intention behind Andrew Yang’s controversial Op-Ed piece, and what we, as a community, need to do to build solidarity. 

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Dating is hard, especially now when meeting-in person is almost impossible. Dating within the Asian American community is even harder since there are unfair dating dynamics at play for Asian men and Asian women. One out of three Asian Americans marry outside of their race where Asian women are two times more likely than Asian men to marry outside their race. Media’s portrayal of Asian men doesn’t help either. To dig a bit deeper into dating dynamics, Lucia sits down with Ruby Le, a professional dating coach and founder of The Good Gentleman. She prides herself in rooting for the nice guys. In this talk, we dissect some of the biggest mistakes men and women make while dating. Ruby also opens up about her choice to pursue a career as a dating coach to the chagrin of her parents, and talks about the silver lining of dating during COVID.

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Do you still remember the feeling of eating out at your favorite restaurant? It’s tough now when most restaurants are closed or only offering delivery. This week, Lucia sits down with Hanson Li, founder of Salt Partners Group, a restaurant investment and development company that co-owns Michelin Starred restaurant Atelier Crenn and investor in Saison in San Francisco. Hanson opens up about founding Salt, how food, culture, and media go hand in hand, and what it’s like to be a restaurant owner during COVID.

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Lucia sits down with screenwriter of Crazy Rich Asians, Adele Lim, for a hilarious conversation uncovering Adele’s experience working on Crazy Rich Asians, the difference between working in television and feature film, her parents' reaction to her pursuing a career in writing, and then her parents' reaction after watching Crazy Rich Asians. During the conversation, Adele also opens up about her decision to go public about leaving the sequel for crazy rich Asians due to a significant pay discrepancy.

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Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM)! This week Lucia invites The Fung Bros, Andrew and David Fung to unpack what it means to be Asian during COVID-19. Tune in and join us in answering some of these important questions:

• Do you feel like you you have a pick of side of being Asian or being American?
• Do you feel like American-ness is granted, or fought for?

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Cofounder of Twitch and Gold House Collective almost became a fish farmer?! This week, Lucia sits down with Kevin Lin, the Cofounder and COO of Twitch, the premier live streaming service for gamers. Kevin opens up about being bullied as a child and how gaming became his escape as well as a way to build community. He also speaks about what he’s doing to give back to both Asian Americans and entrepreneurs through Gold House and the AUM Group Film Fund.

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What does a young adult novel have to do with conspiracy theories, activism, and a career in politics? This week, Lucia sits down with Loveboat, Taipei author Abigail Hing Wen, a Harvard graduate and practicing lawyer in venture capital about her journey of self-discovery. Abigail opens up about her career decisions, the inspiration behind her young adult novel, and the message she wants to send to her readers.

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In Part 2 of Lucia’s conversation with Bin and Andrew--the founders of Boba Guys-- they share the experience of shutting down their now 17 stores across SF, NY, and LA in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. Andrew talks about his decision to go public with the announcement and what it was like to testify in front of Congress on behalf of small business owners.

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What was your first experience with bubble tea or “boba”? Bin Chen and Andrew Chau, the founders of Boba Guys share their first experience with the drink and their journey to creating Boba Guys. In Part 1 of this two part conversation, they explain the meaning of the word “boba” and the ethos behind the brand they’ve built. In Part 2, Bin and Andrew share the experience of shutting down their now 17 stores across SF, NY, and LA in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and why Andrew chose to testify in front of Congress on behalf of small business owners. Both parts are out now.

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What does it take to be the CEO of one of the biggest consumer packaged goods companies and be a woman minority on top of that? In this episode Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of Pepsico shares a bit about her journey transforming Pepsico’s product portfolio. Indra also dives into how her cultural heritage helped shape her work ethic and her ethos behind her mantra “Performance with Purpose”. Hear Indra speak with the former Chief Innovation Officer of Pepsico, Mehmood Kahn at the AABDC Asian American Business Roundtable. 

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To all the Anime fans out there, Lucia was able to sit down with Kun Gao, the founder of Crunchyroll, one of the first online Anime streaming services, to discuss his startup story. Kun shares how he and his team felt like Avengers sitting at a Denny’s late night after hours of assembling their own servers. He also opens up about his journey to Japan to convince Japanese TV stations to license their anime content to Cruchyroll!

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Dave Liang and Sun Yunfan of Shanghai Restoration Project talk about how they revitalized the band after some hiatus. Lucia dives deep into their backgrounds before pursuing music and art, and how their new sounds transcend cultural boundaries, times, gender, and race.

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Editor of thenewyorker.com, Michael Luo, opens up about the story behind his open letter to the woman who harassed him in the middle of the street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and told him to “Go back to China!”. Michael also shares his career journey on becoming one of the most influential Asian American journalists and what others can do to have more representation in print media.

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Follow Michael on Twitter @michaelluo

In Season 4, we explore the stories of change makers who are often times behind the scenes. They are the ones making waves, pushing boundaries, and creating change, but their names aren't always associated with the companies they've built, or the movements they've started, or the influence they have within an industry. 

The first episode of Season 4 drops on Friday, March 13th at 2pm EST. 

News of COVID-19, the novel Coronavirus, is spreading as fast as the virus itself. Along with it, news of anti-Asian sentiments, cross-border tensions, and fear in general. Lucia sits down with Ed Pokropski (@epopski), a producer at NBC, and Kyle Marian (@kylemarian), a science comedian to make sense of it all.

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Awkwafina recently made history by winning a Golden Globe! Lucia speaks with Ed Pokropski, a producer and writer at NBC Universal Kids, and comedian about Awkfanina’s win and what it means for people who want to pursue a career in media. We also talk about cultural appropriation and what we can do to me more of it.

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This is the last episode in Season 3 and the question is, where is Lynne? Lucia catches up with Lynne on her new adventures and they reminisce about starting Rock The Boat.

We’ll be taking a break until March to launch Season 4. Season 4 will go back to the roots of Rock The Boat where Lucia will tell the stories of leaders, founders, and pioneers to uncover the movements they’ve built. Please leave us a review to help support the growth of this podcast.

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Happy New Year! Next week is the last episode of season 3. It’s been a whirlwind season where we tackled tough issues like mental health, incarceration, living with physical disability, failed businesses, discrimination, and more. This week, we bring you an episode that we loved from Season 1 featuring Boxed.com’s cofounder Chris Cheung. Next week, we’ll have an update on Rock The Boat cohost Lynne Guey.

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Cofounder of Rotten Tomatoes, Patrick Lee speaks candidly about the ups and downs of founding an internet company during the dot com bubble and 9/11. Lucia speaks to Patrick about his journey building Rotten Tomatoes, selling the company, moving to Asia, and then coming back to the states.

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Follow Patrick on Twitter @rottendoubt

What happens when a health scare disables you from continuing your work? Erin Lim, “The Rundown” Host and “E! News” correspondent, came forward to her fans about getting Bell’s Palsy, which paralyzed half her face. This didn’t stop her from continuing her work. We also talk about finding her niche within broadcast journalism, the hustle of building a portfolio, and advice for anyone who also wants to work in Entertainment.

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Just over 9 months ago, we interviewed a little-known Democratic presidential candidate named Andrew Yang. Since then, he has surprised many by outlasting the campaigns of governors and senators and being the lone candidate of color in tomorrow night’s nationally televised debate.

We had a chance to attend one of his fundraisers in New York at the end of November so we wanted to fill in our listeners with a quick bonus episode on what the atmosphere was like and what he spoke about. Andrew touched on topics such as what his interactions on the campaign trail have been like, how automation will affect New Yorkers, the treatment he has been getting from the media, and Asians in politics.

Lucia shares a personal story at the start of this episode because this one is all about women in the workplace. We speak with Tracy Chou, one of the leading engineers in Silicon Valley, who has worked at companies like Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and Quora. She gives advice about how to stay true to yourself in a broken system, and tells us about her advocacy work pushing for diversity and women in tech.

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Collegiate basketball superstar Ace Watanasuparp once had college kids cheering for him in the bleachers. Many years later, college kids were throwing cupcakes at him in a St. Marks basement. How did this happen? well we sit down and have a candid conversation with Ace. Ace now works in the mortgage industry and is currently the Regional VP of Citizens bank. At age 26, he was ranked the third highest producer in the country. He is also a co-founder of several NYC businesses: Spot Dessert bar, Obao, and Gai. Through the twists and turns of his collegiate basketball career, his foray into finance, and then starting businesses with his cousin, Ace’s story is an example of grit and perseverance, and how to fight the odds as an underdog.

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In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this episode is all about radical generosity. We speak with April Tam Smith, who is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and the Cofounder of P.S. Kitchen, a vegan restaurant in Times Square that donates all their profits to charity.

We talk to April about being herself in a male dominated industry, being a missionary on the trading floor, her volunteer work in Haiti, and why she started P.S. Kitchen. We hope you find this episode inspiring and a reminder of generosity and gratitude as the year comes to a close!

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In the final installment of Tea Time, Lucia and Dana dive into a conversation about Asian American Dating! Topics covered include (1:48) Asian American masculinity, (3:46) Interracial dating, (8:02) how much of our relationship problems are related to our relationships with our parents, and (9:14) the fear of intimacy.

In this episode we speak with Calvin Sun, an ER doctor by day and travel entrepreneur by night. Calvin is the Founder of The Monsoon Diaries, a blog-turned-travel community that has taken hundreds of readers to 165+ countries in the past 8 years including North Korea, Nauru, Iraq, and Antarctica.

Calvin has a complicated relationship with being a doctor. We talk to Calvin about what led him to start Monsoon Diaries, and why he decided to continue with medical school to become a Physician despite having many other interests. Calvin also tells us why you should take bets on yourself.

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In the third installment of Tea Time with psychiatrist Dana Wang, Lucia and Dana talk about anxiety and how to find purpose driven work. Dana tells us how you can be happier and find satisfaction in your life and work by reframing your thinking to control anxiety. They also talk about Asian parents, how to cope with anxiety from comparisons, and finding your own validations of success.

In this episode we speak with Holly Liu, who cofounded a gaming company called Kabam. Holly’s work has been game changing within the gaming industry. Fortune named her one of the “10 Most Powerful Women in Gaming,” and Forbes named her a leading woman in gaming and entrepreneurship.

Holly led the design for Kabam’s award-winning “Kingdoms of Camelot” franchise, which grossed over $250 million in less than four years. She was also the founding mobile designer for the extension “Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North,” which was the top grossing app on iOS in 2012.

Kabam has partnered with some of the largest Hollywood brands such as Marvel, Star Wars, The Hunger Games, The Hobbit, and countless others.

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Grab a cup of tea as Lucia talks to Psychiatrist, Dr. Dana Wang about Mental Health and Mental Illness in this mini episode.

In this episode Dana spills the tea about turning x the clinical perspective of mental health away from a disease model to a wellness practice, how to support people you know who are struggling with a mental illness, how medication can help you steer your ship, and what meditation has to do with peak performance. 

In this episode I speak with psychiatrist, David Mou. David has a medical and business degree from Harvard, yet his mother still disapproved of his career choice. We talk to David about why Asian Americans are less likely to seek mental health treatment and what you can expect when finding a therapist. He also gives us great tips on how to deal with anxiety and how to improve our personal and working interactions.

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Grab a cup of tea as we talk to Psychiatrist, Dr. Dana Wang about Family.

In this bonus episode, Rock The Boat host, Lucia Liu and Dana Wang chat about how to deal with your parents under the clash of Eastern versus Western value systems, how to set boundaries but still express love for each other, and what self acceptance has to do with looking in your fridge.

We interview Karen Mok, the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of The Cosmos, a community for Asian women to flourish and thrive.

In this episode, we talk to Karen about:

• How starting her first company at the age of 16 led her on a path of community building and entrepreneurship.
  
• The genesis of The Cosmos and how she met Cassandra Lam, her cofounder
  
• The battle of being both American and the child of Immigrants
  
• Mental Health and her struggle with depression
  
• The Power of Individual Agency
  

Resources And Episode Citations:

Links to Videos/Articles:

Follow Karen on Twitter at @kmok88

Season 3 of Rock The Boat features Asian Americans who’ve succeeded Against All Odds.