Plum Radio

Historian and professor, Dr. Ellen Wu, the author of one of Dolly & Joey's favorite books, The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority, joins us for this last episode of season 2, first Monday post-election. We discuss how Asian America moves forward from a year of tumultuous xenophobia,  rising transpacific tensions, and to build greater solidarity with the movement for Black Lives. Dolly & Joey also discuss their thoughts on the upcoming Biden/Harris presidency and what makes us hopeful/not so hopeful. Thanks for joining us for a whole season 2 of Plum Radio! As always, DM us on IG or write to us on anytime at hi@plumradio.com -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and believe in independent media.

Dolly and Joey spend the last day before the November 2020 election discussing our anxieties and reading a selection of responses from our beloved listeners. On your minds this week: Poll intimidation, civil war, and...Vin Diesel's new music career. Salud, mi familia. 

Comedian, actor, and writer Jenny Yang joins us this week to talk Comedy Crossing, her new standup show inside the game Animal Crossing. Jenny started Comedy Crossing after the pandemic as a way to build community in our quarantined world, but in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Comedy Crossing became a fundraising platform that has raised over $30,000 for Black Lives Matter related causes. But as journalists, we’re obligated to ask the hard questions: is playing Animal Crossing an act of colonization?? Do we accept tiny, cute capitalism? And do Animal Crossing players (like the Biden / Harris campaign) owe reparations? We also get into Jenny’s past life as a labor organizer, how labor organizing and comedy can both deliver a political education, and why it’s so important for Asian Americans to embrace our messy, traumatic histories so we can take care of our mental health and reject the model minority myth at the same time. Dolly and Joey also lament the “meritocracy” of mediocre rich white people, reacting in real-time to Amy Coney Barrett’s Monday night confirmation to the Supreme Court and unpacking the Atlantic’s recent article “The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League–Obsessed Parents.” Read “The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League–Obsessed Parents”: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/ -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and believe in independent media.

Whitney Hu is an activist, abolitionist, mutual aid organizer, and candidate for NYC city council District 38. Whitney is one of the organizers of South Brooklyn Mutual Aid and an activist who has fought rezonings that would have continued to gentrify her neighborhood. Now, she’s merging her desire to burn the system down with her demand for stronger representation from her elected officials. What does abolition mean in practice, especially in electoral politics? How can we “dreamscape” to create alternatives to police and jails? Can the revolutionary desires of abolition really work within the system? And are abolitionists’ demands actually unreasonable? Plum Radio listener LG also writes in about Peter Hessler’s New Yorker article “9 Days In Wuhan” to ask what about China allowed them to get on with their lives so quickly. Dolly and Joey have a nuanced discussion on socialism in other nations, how working people are disposable under capitalism, the real truth exposed by Ai Weiwei’s COVID documentary, Coronation, and how censorship may actually make Chinese citizens…*less* susceptible to disinformation (...and more likely...TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES??). As always, write in to us at hi@plumradio.com with what’s on your mind or leave us a voicemail on IG through our DMs @listentoplumradio. Read Peter Hessler’s “Nine Days in Wuhan, the Ground Zero of the Coronavirus Pandemic”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/nine-days-in-wuhan-the-ground-zero-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic Watch Ai Weiwei’s Coronation: https://www.aiweiwei.com/coronation -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and believe in independent media.

Video journalist Isabelle Niu joins us to talk about the pending WeChat ban and her Quartz video “Is WeChat a Problem for Democracies?” With so much talk around banning Chinese apps like WeChat and TikTok and China’s recent expulsion of American journalists, our tiny window into China is quickly closing. Isabelle tells us how WeChat provides insight into what the Chinese government is signaling and into the lives of WeChat’s 1 billion users. What are the consequences of not understanding Chinese society and politics? How will alienating China affect diaspora communities? We also talk to Isabelle about Loud Murmurs, our favorite left-leaning Mandarin language podcast that unpacks foreign culture and media to better understand what it means to be Chinese. Dolly and Joey also atone for Indigenous People’s day sins by proposing to rename Columbus, OH to Flavortown, OH, give a 🚨 MILES GUO ALERT 🚨 about the fight he’s picking with Texas pastor Bob Fu and Big Jesus, and bless the show with an NBA title for Flavortown’s very own LeBron James. Watch “Is WeChat a Problem for Democracies?”: youtube.com/watch?v=Lrn5in0iBd8 Listen to Loud Murmurs: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/loud-murmurs-%E5%B0%8F%E5%A3%B0%E5%96%A7%E5%93%97/id1355583279 -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and believe in independent media.

The new cold war is here, and the U.S. and China are fighting it online. Writer and former tech worker JS Tan joins us to discuss the growingly more divided “splinternet,” Silicon Valley’s facade of freedom for the sake of global dominance, and how the U.S. is recreating China’s protectionist internet policies. We also talk about how this new cold war will endanger Asian diaspora, and how movements like China’s anti-996 movement and rideshare driver revolts show that maybe the two sides of the splinternet aren’t so different after all. Dolly and Joey also read this week’s listener mailbag about the new trailer for the film Minari and discuss what it means to have good and bad Asian American representation. Read JS’s argument, “Big Tech Embraces New Cold War Nationalism” in Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/27/china-tech-facebook-google/ -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and believe in independent media.

Yi Chen, the director of the new documentary film First Vote, joins us to discuss making a film about first-time Asian American voters on both sides of the political spectrum and digs into why recent Chinese immigrants fear socialism so much that they end up becoming Trump supporters. Dolly and Joey also did their first *mailbag* episode where we responded to questions from YOU, our beloved audience and listeners. Dolly shares her tips on how to pull back from the news cycle, Joey talks about how he turns on Do Not Disturb mode at 5pm. We also discuss Donald Trump’s tax evasion and ponder how many cod had to die for Mr. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to cast a vote for Joe Biden. Write to us! We respond to listener questions every Monday night on IG Live: hi@plumradio.com We watched First Vote with our Patreon subscribers and had Yi drop in for an intimate discussion after the viewing party. We host exclusive screening events and monthly Q&As for just our Plum Posse on Patreon so make sure you subscribe today for less than the price of a movie ticket over at patreon.com/plumradio. And for pure giggles and context for the show, we insist you read, “My Real-Time Response To Learning What The Rock Eats Every Day” by Daniel Mallory Ortberg: https://the-toast.net/2015/04/03/my-real-time-response-to-learning-what-the-rock-eats-every-day/ -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision

“Remote learning is very hard. Nobody wants to do it. Every single kid in the world is losing out on an education.” Annie Tan, a New York City public school teacher, joins us again on Plum Radio to talk about how teachers and communities are organizing and fighting back against the city’s unsafe plans to reopen schools. New York City, home to the country’s largest public school system with more than ONE MILLION students, has already delayed schools reopening twice, leaving families, educators, and students stuck in limbo. Many NYC schools have neither proper ventilation nor bathrooms for COVID-19 safety precautions, let alone the technology needed to teach remote classrooms. As Annie tells us, at her school in the immigrant neighborhood of Sunset Park, they don’t even have a dedicated nurse, a role that they’ve been requesting long before COVID-19. Will it be safe to re-open schools in the U.S. epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis? Who is pushing the narrative that low income students of color need to attend school in-person the most? And where will schools find the funding to fix school infrastructure, provide remote learning devices, offer child care services to educators who have to return to work, and find enough employees to staff both remote and in-person classes? For more Annie, tune in to Plum Radio Ep. 3, where she shares the memory of her late cousin, Vincent Chin. Dolly and Joey also discuss why blindly celebrating the ban on WeChat is actually racist and the new expose about forced hysterectomies in ICE detention centers. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and believe in independent media.

We watched Mulan this week...and we are spilling some hot hot tea over it 🤠 🍵 Tony Lin, a Chinese American journalist who has written pop culture analyses for publications on both sides of the firewall, joins us to drag Disney’s 2020 remake across the Silk Road. What is the Han ethnic identity, and what does Disney’s “Han-washing” of Mulan’s character have to do with this movie’s filming in Xinjiang? Is Mulan a feminist movie? Is Hollywood’s strategy of pandering to China working? And how many white people does it take to serve this fresh new dish of orientalism? (Spoiler alerts, obviously.) -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

What’s it like to live in China as a Latinx American woman? We sat down this week with Ashley Almanzar, who spent the last five years living in Ningbo, China, working in education and launching her own business, The Ning Box (IG: @theningbox_), which curates events for expats and locals in the Ningbo area. We talked to Ashley about how you can live a version of the American dream with affordable healthcare and rent under $500, policing in China vs the U.S. (have YOU ever seen a cop get punched?), how people living in China get news about Xinjiang, and white male expat privilege (hole emoji). Dolly and Joey also try to restoke the flames of the short-lived NBA players strike and put LeBron and Obama into the same hole and bless the California man who helped put out the wildfires...with Bud Light. Listen to episode 20 now wherever you like to podcast! And for another episode where we talk about the difference in policing in China and the U.S., check out episode 11 with Bohan Phoenix, “Cultural Appropriation or Not?” -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

This week, we’re joined by 25-year old Manhattan, Kansas resident Fanny Fang, who is running for office in her local county commission. Fanny decided to throw her hat in the ring when incumbent commissioner Marvin Rodriguez said that the county wasn’t at risk for COVID-19... because there weren’t many Chinese people living there. Fanny will be the only Democrat and female candidate on the ballot, running against 3 Republicans, including Rodriguez, to represent District 2.⁠ Fanny grew up in her parents' store in Kansas, The Asian Supermarket, and returned to her hometown after college to help run the operation. We hear from Fanny about her campaign platforms, running for office in our new virtual normal, and the pride she has for multiculturalism in Kansas politics.⁠ Dolly and Joey also discuss how the Post Office arrested Steve Bannon on the boat of exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo, the Wuhan pool rave, and how the state of California being on fire sits at the intersection of COVID, climate change, and California’s prison system. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Terry Wong, one of the partners of Blood Bros BBQ, home to the first Vietnamese pitmaster in Texas, joins us to talk about how his restaurant and the food and beverage industry have been struggling through the pandemic. Terry shared that they’re lucky to have 50% of their regular revenue, but now have higher costs and spend an additional 3-4 hours a day packaging to-go condiments for the new dining normal. Dolly and Joey also discuss this week’s big news: Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s VP pick, and read audience responses from our poll on @listentoplumradio IG. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Korean American viral TikTok creator, Young Kim (@youngqim), joins us this week to talk about the TikTok ban, using viral short videos to stir conversations around race and social justice, conservative TikTok holes, and how learning our history helps us unlearn  internalized racism and the model minority myth. Dolly and Joey also defend bottom feeders 🦐🦐, discuss WeChat, and drag private utility FirstEnergy, whose customers are without power in New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias and also bribed corrupt politicians like Larry Householder of Ohio to bail out their coal power plants. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Season 2 of Plum Radio is here! Rachel Ramirez (@rachelreports), an environmental justice reporter and Saipan native, joins us to talk about her home, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), its history of colonization, and how the U.S. military is making COVID-19 worse on the islands while opening new live-fire training bases on indigenous burial grounds. The U.S. Department of Defense is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter of any government agency on the planet, and Guam and CNMI, as faux colonies that are largely used as U.S. military bases, suffer from both health and climate issues as a result of their presence. As we more openly question the militarization of U.S. police, we must ask ourselves: how has the U.S. military impacted our Asian communities, especially the Pacific Islands? -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on Instagram (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Dolly and Joey are on vacation, so here's a special bonus episode: an interview with Dolly Li from the Now In Color Podcast. This interview was originally recorded on June 22, 2020. Host Sandie Tan talks to Dolly about the recent Asians for Black Lives protest in NYC, fake news on WeChat, and her career as a journalist. Now In Color is a show that highlights forgotten people in history where each episode’s guest teaches Sandie about a historical figure and their contributions. Dolly tells Sandie about Tu Youyou, the first Chinese citizen and Chinese female scientist to win a Nobel Peace Prize in Science for her breakthroughs in malaria medication. Hint: Tu Youyou’s discoveries in malaria are intertwined with traditional Chinese medicine. We’ll be back on Sunday, August 2 with a brand new season 2! Stay tuned and see you all soon. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Dolly and Joey are on vacation for 2 weeks, so here's a special unlocked episode we released to just our Patreon subscribers last month. This is the *first* episode of Plum Radio ever made. We recorded this way back in February before we launched as an IG live show. Do you remember February? We don’t either. But we *do* remember the presidential bid of Andrew Yang, who was promising everyone free money with slogans like “Make America Think Harder,” and for some reason, “MATH.” Back in 2019, the Boba Guys endorsed Yang with a picture of a red, white, and blue boba drink with the caption “Not left, not right...but boba.” To us, this was the perfect representation of a term we’d heard, “boba liberalism”: packaging yourself for easy consumption, with sugary politics to mask structural problems. Which led us to our first guest: Jenny G. Zhang, staff writer at Eater and author of the essay, "The Rise (And Stall) Of The Boba Generation." This pilot episode set the foundation for Plum Radio and what we are trying to do: reject politics as usual, relearn our history, reclaim our narrative, and build political consciousness in our community. We hope this is only the beginning of more conversation and interesting times ahead. Let’s spill some tea! -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Kevin Cheng, the development manager of Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, joins us to talk about the $1M+ donations they received during the protests after George Floyd’s death, why they stopped taking donations, and how, in a just world, bail funds would cease to exist. Also this week: the rise of fascism around the world, from the Philippines to Hong Kong to Brazil to right here in the U.S. Plum Radio season 1 is in the books! We’ll be taking a two week break, back again with Plum Radio season 2 in August. While Dolly and Joey go full Asians on vacation, we’ll be releasing bonus episodes of Plum Radio each week so you won’t have to go a week without us 🤠 -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Calling Korea on this week of Plum Radio! We discussed the politics of K-pop, BLM protests in Korea, and COVID-19 responses in the U.S vs Asia with Keda of the Soju Black (@thesojublack), a podcast and show created by two Black ex-pats living and working in Korea. Dolly and Joey also discuss the new Hong Kong National Security Law, Hamilton, and the Floor is Lava. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.

Kristina Wong joins us to talk about her career as a performance artist, elected official, and overlord of Auntie Sewing Squad, a mutual aid project sending volunteer-sewn masks and other essential supplies to communities in need, from Los Angeles to the Navajo Nation. We talked about how the spectacle of reality TV can be a substitute for therapy, how politics is a natural extension of performance art, and how Kristina brings these worlds together to help vulnerable communities. Dolly and Joey also discuss: a blessing and a hole from our adopted homeland of Texas, how Gen Z freethinkers played the tech industry with a scam to funnel money to Black-led organizations, and the campaign to #FreeUrooj and #FreeColin (who we mistakenly call Chris in the episode, sorry!!). We’re almost at our June goal of 100 Patreon subscribers, so THANK YOU to our 31 (!!) new subscribers this week! If you haven’t yet, follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and subscribe to us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you want to support independent media and are here for the culture.

Happy Juneteenth! This week we’re joined by Laurel Chor, a journalist and photographer from Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s most recent movement began over a year ago in March 2019 with the introduction of a controversial extradition bill that deepened Beijing’s reach into Hong Kong’s legal and judicial affairs. We caught up with Laurel about how the protests have evolved, the fears around the draft of Beijing’s National Security Law for Hong Kong, the rise of both nationalism and calls for independence, and shared tactics between Hong Kong protests and the recent #BLM protests here in the States. We also sent blessings to the ILWU Juneteenth port shutdowns, the Supreme Court blocking Trump from ending DACA, and, for the third week in a row: K-pop fans. -- We pride ourselves on being independent media at Plum Radio. Follow us on IG (@listentoplumradio), and support us on Patreon (patreon.com/plumradio) if you’re here for the culture and want to be part of the vision.