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A highlight from GEN C: Dressing the Digital World With Derek Edwards, Nick Gonzalez and Megan Kaspar
"Gen C is the generation of the new Internet. In Gen C, the C stands for crypto, but it also stands for creators, the connected consumer and collectibles, both digital and physical with on -chain provenance. It stands for culture and characters, the ones we play in games and the companion ones that AI is building alongside us. It stands for community and digital citizenship and the new set of transparent and trustless tools being built to govern them. These are the people who were raised on a different philosophy on how they look at money, how they look at identity, how they look at privacy and how they look at the hybrid, digital and physical spaces being built all around us. And finally, how they reimagine their relationships with the communities and companies they interact with. We focus on how brands large and small are building for these audiences. Welcome to Gen C. Welcome, everyone, to the special episode of Gen C. We're about halfway through Fashion Week here in New York City. So we thought for this week, we would feature a special conversation that was had at Consensus this year called Dressing the Digital World, Cutting Edge or Out of Fashion, and features a group of people who are really some of the smartest minds in the idea of digital fashion. It has Derek Edwards from Collab in Currency, one of the sort of big brains who talks about the idea of ownership of digital assets and where we're going with trust -minimized databases and on -chain recording of transactions. We have Megan Casper, who's one of the leading voices in digital fashion, also a founding member of Red Dow. And we also have Nick Gonzalez, the co -founder of UNXD. UNXD and their team help bring large brands into the digital space. Folks like Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and a bunch of others, really an amazing group of technologists. A couple of notes. This was recorded live at Consensus this year. It is in front of a audience, so you might hear a little bit of room noise from the conversation. In addition, there is a video component that is playing behind them, just some of the assets that they're talking about. Not necessary to enjoy the conversation, but if you want to, we will have the link to the session in the show notes. So if you want to watch it instead of listen to it, all you have to do is register for a Coindesk account and that should give you access to the video. But we just thought, given it's Fashion Week, we are ready to bring you an amazing conversation all about digital fashion. Avery and I will be back next week with some amazing guests and we have a really amazing lineup of guests coming over the next bunch of weeks, which we're excited to share with you. So with that, I hope you enjoy this conversation around digital fashion from Consensus 2023. Welcome. Thank you guys for joining me. So topic today is dressing the digital world, cutting edge or out of fashion. I think we are all probably on the cutting edge side of it, but let's just set the stage. Let's introduce yourself and we'll go from my side over this way. All right, Derek, you go first. No, you're ready. I say who you are, how you fit into this world, and a little bit about what your background is. Who wants to go? Megan's got this. Megan. Hi everyone. Thank you for coming today. I'm Megan Casper. I am one of the founding members along with Derek of RedDow, which is the world's first digital fashion focused Dow. And we invest in and incubate and purchase digital fashion items and platforms to help proliferate the narrative around the digital fashion opportunities. Hey everyone, I'm Nick Gonzalez. I'm a co -founder of UNXD and we're writing the next chapter on luxury in the Web3 space. We are probably most well known for a partnership with Dolce & Gabbana, creating the first couture collection on chain, Collezzione Genesee, of which RedDow was a buyer and participant. And most recently, we're bringing Dolce & Gabbana from kind of the Web3 space into the Web3 gaming space with the launch of Masana .xyz coming up this year, and just announced a partnership with Valentino, one of the hottest Italian fashion brands out there. My name is Derek Edwards. I'm a managing partner at Collab Currency. We're an early stage Web3 investment group. We invest in some of the leading consumer Web3 projects at the seed stage. So some of my favorite products, things like Artblocks and Super Rare and Gallery, and also a co -founding member of Tribute Dow, which is focused on fashion and digital fashion and Web3. And then related to digital fashion, early stage investor and some of the products that are helping build out this industry. So things like IYK and 90CC and Shibuya Brand and Ready Player Me and things like this. So great panel here. Very excited for the combo. Awesome. And so I want to set the stage because you were all involved in that sort of iconic doge crown sale. And that was historic. I think it was over 400 ETH you bought for. And that was 2021, real high peak. And how has things changed since that moment for you? How are things evolved? We're two years from that. Obviously, the sales of that magnitude aren't happening right now. But, you know, do you think we're going to return to that? Where have we gone? And whoever wants to start up on that. Do you want to provide context on what it was? Yeah. So the doge crown is more than just, I guess, a meme. It was an actual physical item that was part of the Collecioni Genesee Drop that was based around Altamota 2021. It's a really fantastic crown. I think if we have a photo of it, that's probably going to come up. Both a physical and digital item. And this was really when we were creating something with Dolce & Gabbana, we really wanted to make something that started at the pinnacle of what fashion was for the brand. So we started with Altamota. So with the couture collection that they did. And this was a really beautiful piece inspired by the city of Venice and the doge palace that's there. And it had this very nice crossover with doge and doge coin. So it was a little bit of a wink and a nod, but was really exciting to collectors of both fashion and the Web3 space. And that's, I think, where we saw when physical and digital were combining. That intersection that's happening technically also happened in the cultural space as well, as we saw so many people in Web3 looking for the next phase of what was happening once you could tokenize items. Yeah. And as a member of Red Dow, we were most excited. This was our inaugural purchase. So we purchased the crown and the auction and also two of the jackets that were just shown. The jackets are purely digital. And this is the first time in history that a high end luxury fashion brand launched any initiatives in Web3. So that was really our moment entering into Web3 from the luxury standpoint. And at Red, we were really excited about that purchase. I know I was going to say like from an investment point of view, sort of like, you know, what was yours? Yeah, so I'll just say like since 2021, which is, I think, the question you teed up, I would say behaviorally, I think I continue to see the same things that I was looking for in 2023 that I was in 2021. I mean, this idea of digital objects having value, I think is something that has been around for decades. So I was an early player in some of these Internet economies, things like World of Warcraft, things like Diablo 2. And there were markets that would form for digital objects, whether they were armor or swords or skins. And these would be priced off market. But these digital objects didn't live on a trust -minimized database like a blockchain. They lived on a server, a private database. And over decades, we've continued to see behaviorally the same things happen. So just listen to this awesome talk right before this. There's Spencer from Yuga who referenced Counter -Strike skins, which continue to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of skins every single quarter. And these are not objects that live on a blockchain. These are objects that live on a private database. But there's still a demand and a growing demand by younger audiences to want to flex, to want to own, to want to curate their identity in these digital spaces. And so things like this drop and things like a lot of the images that you'll see up here is really just sliding into this grand trend line of younger audiences wanting to participate meaningfully inside of these digital economies in ways that help shape and inform their identity. And so I have seen nothing over the last two years than an acceleration towards these behaviors and couldn't be more excited about the things that are being worked on to optimize around this. I think it's a really interesting point you made around the Counter -Strike from the last thing. And we've seen that there's been black markets for skins, but they're not on chain. And this is a way to have these verifiable, legitimate things. And I think that's one of the things that I think is interesting about bringing Web3 to fashion is that ability to have providence. So is that something that drew Dolce & Gabbana to the project? 100%. I think it's a question that comes up with every fashion brand, particularly a luxury brand that we work with. If you're creating an item that is so exclusive and so valuable, if it's a one -of -one in real life, now it can be a one -of -one digitally as well. And that providence is stored on the blockchain. So now, Red Dow and the other buyers of Cholezion and Genesee have that piece forever for as long as Ethereum is operating. I hope it does. I'm not worried about Ethereum. Yeah. And then now that's expanding even further, more and more into the digital space. So I think if 2021 was about couture for us, 2022 was about ready -to -wear, and then now in 2023 is really about expanding into that gaming realm, that digital kind of looking towards what's going on in the digital space and helping enhance those experiences. I think we always say that people spend their money where they spend their time, and people are spending more and more time on gaming than they ever had before. You're looking at a quarter of a trillion dollar industry that has about 50 billion in cosmetics every year. It's going to be relevant, just like emerging markets were relevant to fashion brands as buyers coming out of China, coming out of all around the world. The same thing is going to happen in gaming. People are going to want to enhance their experience of those games. They're going to want to connect to those communities. And fashion is part of that. Great. And what do you say to sort of the skeptics of the people who are sort of saying like, well, that seems like a lot of money to spend on something that I can't physically hold. And we'll come back to the physical part of it. Like there are the connected pieces. No, Megan, go for it. I'll pick up. Megan. Well, you know, if you look at the amount of people in the world that are, we're all netizens basically. There's over 4 billion people using social media. And, you know, I think social media and gaming are going to merge into this social reality. And as we get to device disruption from our smartphones handheld, some near eye wearable, or even a brain computer interface chip, I think that, you know, the dematerialization of physical reality that's happening will be incremental over the next 10 or 15 years. So the generations that say, you know, digital is not as important as the physical, this really doesn't speak to them. This is more for the younger generations. And I feel like as millennials, we're sort of the bridge between, you know, the old paradigm and this new paradigm and the wave of dematerialization. Yeah, brilliant. The only other thing I would add is we're heading on a one way train right now. And it's like the convergence of multiple trend lines. It's the fact that a younger demographic wants to curate their identity in digital spaces more than they want to curate it in physical spaces. And those represent like this generation's next consumers for these objects. The second is the hardware constraints are now being relaxed, such that more immersive experiences around how you shape your identity can be enjoyed by larger groups of people. And as Megan said, we're just spending more of our time in these digital environments than we ever have. I mean, I've been saying this for years, but we've already been in a metaverse light. We are on Zoom calls all day. We're on Twitter. We're on Facebook taking photos of our physical self so we can curate our digital identity. We're already doing behaviorally the things that an immersive metaverse like environment should look like. It's just all built on private databases and it's all being patched together by bad technology. But the truth is blockchains are just a settlement layer for digital ownership. All of the information that we're using on these private databases will one day live on trust minimized databases for the benefits that we all know. There's interoperability, there's composability, there's price discovery. And these trend lines are all converging very quickly. And over time, I think it'll be shocking when folks start realizing a non -trivial amount of the world's GDP is going to run on blockchains and it's going to be digital objects and digital value. Yeah. And that really brings up something Megan, I know you've posed in virtual fashion. Can you speak a little bit about where does that come from and how do you see that growing? Well, it's still very early, but one of our portfolio companies, Dress X, they use 15 different use cases for digital fashion, which is the most out of any digital fashion company that exists. And just to sort of show their capabilities, I was the first human to wear a digital fashion NFT on live television in 2021. And then I was also the first human to be featured on the cover of a magazine wearing high -end luxury fashion. So Fendi let us superimpose digital clothing onto the photos of me. And those are just two ways that someone can use digital fashion, but people are valuing their digital identities more than their physical. And as we begin to value our digital more and more, we'll really care about the way that it looks and how we're able to show our ownership of items. Because today, the outfit that I'm wearing, the designer has no idea where I'm wearing it, who's seeing it, where it's being posted. But all of that post -sale consumer data and analytics can be now collected, put on chain, and then hopefully the wearer can be compensated. So there is definitely a lot of business models and new business model disruption that will come out of all of these use cases. Yeah, I think that really touches on also something I think we touched on when we chatted before, that idea that you start to build a community. And how is that something into all of what you're working on, but that you do get to know, not just someone who walks in the store or hands over a credit card, but you actually start to build a relationship with these customers. I mean, how does that fit in to sort of, you know, Nick? Yeah, I mean, I can take that first. So I mean, I think that this is a new experience, particularly for luxury brands. They know that they missed kind of e -commerce going online. They knew that going into Web 2 was a new experience for them, which was kind of the user could go from purchasing your products online to commenting on what you're posting online. And then now it's a whole new level of interaction that's happening through Web 3. So we have a Discord server that we're managing. That's tying into Twitter. We're doing Twitter spaces. Davide Segeri from Dolce & Gabbana was just today had the first time somebody from Dolce & Gabbana was authorized to speak on behalf of the brand in our Discord space. So it's a new experience. But the power that it's tapping into is the fact that now people are not able to just become consumers of an item and have that relationship end once they leave the store or fear that they're going to be harassed through email spam or something like that. Instead, now they're truly owners of the object that they bought digitally as well. And that creates a new relationship that can be scaled through software. So you can kind of create this digital intimacy, I think, that brands have been so good doing in the real world when you visit a boutique. Now that kind of ownership can be proof of ownership so that now when they're online, I can identify somebody like Megan who's living in the future. It's seriously like you hopped in a time machine and this is what everybody's going to be like in the next five to 10 years. And we can identify all of our holders and then help give them new items or help reward the people who are the biggest collectors or promoters of the brand themselves. And this is all evolving. It's not just going to necessarily be about one thing, but it's going to be about all these things that are leveraged through the power of digital ownership. I'll anchor this to a real world example, which is 90cc. It's the hat I'm wearing right now. And inside of this hat, there's a little nine right here. There's a little NFC chip in here powered by IYK, which is a software resolver layer for NFC chips to interact between the physical and this blockchain -based database. Once you actually have that tie between a digital asset that lives on a blockchain and a physical that can be linked to it, you can start to create very interesting experiences that could be pushed to this end user. There's a proof, there's a provenance that exists now. There's also a marketplace that can form on top of these primitives such that anyone can create a module through IYK to be able to push new experiences with the creator's intent, like a game. And that game could have score, and that score could have a leaderboard. And you can now start to see how brands can communicate with their end users post -purchase in a way that just wasn't previously possible because we now have this provenance that exists on this permanent, immutable, trust -minimized global database that we've never had access to before. And that's a very powerful primitive. 90cc is really just starting to scratch the surface of what they can do there. But there's all sorts of experiences, value -add, communication that can now exist between creator and owner of a physical object in a way that just didn't exist before. And I think that's some of the tie that I think is really exciting here over the next couple of years. The chips, are they washable? Like if you have a new shirt, are you going to ruin it when you throw in the drive? I've never washed this shirt. I'm going to wear it forever. No, they are washable, retains perfect usage. So they're pretty durable. Great. But yeah, I think that that sort of interaction in real life sort of connects these communities. And back in the 2021, again, there were the ape fest. Do you see that as kind of like gatherings by brand, sort of something that's going to return? I think it's sort of faded away a bit, but do you think that's going to rise back up? I think that wallet adoption, that's one of the biggest trends that I'm watching. And I think that it's going to take more people using wallets and being able to interact with the wallet in an easy, streamlined, simple way. Right now you have like rainbow and metamask and a few others, and they're just the barrier to entry is not super streamlined and easy for consumers. And when I think about web three versus web two, we have pretty streamlined consumer capabilities when it comes to buying things online. And I think that web three will just make it much easier. So instead of logging in and typing in all of your address, your credit card payment, I think that it'll just streamline that connect wallet and then immediately take out whatever the payment is. Hopefully your address will be saved on there. And it'll be a one click purchase and streamline. And then everything you own, like the receipts of what you own are now showing in your wallet. And you can share that from a standpoint of digital flexing or just have that for different ways of optimizing ownership and taking leverage against things that you own. So imagine 30 to 40 percent of the average American's closet goes unworn. Most people don't even know what they have. That's why they're continually shopping all the time and buying new things. Well, if you have everything in one place, you can see it and then you actually know the value of your closet and the value of your assets and you can take leverage against them. This gets pretty interesting. I actually love that. My husband actually works for StickFix, which is sort of like, you know, curating things, but they don't know what you have in your closet. And that was something we've talked about in that idea that you could let people sort of help you out curating. Like, do you think that's something that would come in? So, you know, multiple brands working together to say, like, all right, everyone who wants to be in will help you create outfits, will suggest things. Do you think that's something that's possible? I mean, just came to me, but I think that's super interesting. I think A .I. will have a huge play in that. You know, the Web 2 apps like Stylebook that catalog your clothing. I think that we'll have another application and layer of A .I. in there. So, A .I. and blockchain, I think, are huge components of what we're gonna experience with Web 3 consumerism. Yeah, I totally agree. The only other thing I would add there is we're now taking these physical objects that have helped shape identity and we're creating these digital representations of them in a very inexpensive way. When you start putting what has previously been physical into a digital environment that's programmable, that actually demonstrates provenance, that can be read by anyone on a global public ledger, all of these things are gonna mix and match. These ingredients are very powerful. And new types of products and new types of services are gonna get created, many of which that leverage models and LMs to things that we can't even dream up today. But, like, the fact that we're now digitizing the world onto this public database is an unlock that I think people don't quite recognize yet. It's gonna increase the types of products, the types of services, the terms of these markets in ways that just aren't really conceivable right now. I could just actually add one thing to that. Getting back to the point about, I think I've been talking about the connection between the brand and the community, what's also within the community themselves. Now that people can identify who is a holder of a piece of Dolce & Gabbana, the DG family boxes or any of the pieces from Riel de Parallella, they can start connecting with each other. And to the point around A .I., we just had this year with Metaverse Fashion Week, we had a fashion competition where actually people from the communities were designing pieces that could then be featured as part of the Dolce & Gabbana collection there. And one of the members of our community actually used A .I. to help create, you know, he's not a designer per se in the traditional sense, but he has enough of a way around computers and enough taste that he went and used A .I. to actually generate an outfit that was good enough to be selected as one of the finalists as part of that. So it's already here, I guess is the key. It's just not evenly distributed, I guess, as I was saying. No, I think that's really interesting, especially because I think, you know, you think of luxury fashions as highly controlling of their brand image and their IP and that, you know, Web3's ESOS is decentralized. So the idea that we're starting to allow people who are proven sort of brand ambassadors or brand fans participate in the ecosystem is really interesting. Do you think we'll see more of that? Do you think there'll be some kind of, you know, real tension points? Like, I think Dolce & Gabbana is, you know, at the forefront of Valentino coming on board. Nike, you know, coming in, there's a lot of brands who are sort of like welcoming sort of that thing. You know, they had a competition that curating Instagram so they could get people in. But I'm sure there will be brands that are sort of like, you know, we're Chanel. I don't know Chanel if they're into it or not, but and we don't want that. And do you think that is against the Web3 ESOS? Like, how do we decide that deal? I think it's a spectrum. I think it's something that brands will ring fence in the way that they're comfortable with. Sometimes people interject into social media and don't want comments. So they, you know, turn those off on the different platforms, but then they lose out on all these other great interactions. Dolce & Gabbana has been very forward thinking and as a consequence, they reap the rewards of that. So I think it's going to come down to the brand themselves, I think, as you're correctly hinting there between Chanel and others. I just wanted to add, I think it's important for people to recognize the level of success that has happened with UNXD, bringing in Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino. So if you look at luxury fashion specifically and artifacts, we would not put this in the category. But aside from artifacts, UNXD has had the most amount of revenue from a Web3 initiative with a luxury fashion brand. So I think that that's a pretty interesting data point. And I think that we're going to continue to see more and more brands enter the space as the use cases expand beyond just speculative asset investing and beyond just gaming. Yeah. And I'll add one thing, which is I think luxury fashion is a category that will be immense and will be valuable. And these are pioneers of what's happening in that space right now. But I will also say that fashion isn't just luxury. Right. And I wouldn't call myself a luxurious person. I'm wearing chucks right now. But this was all a curated choice when I woke up this morning to wear this CyberRucker shirt and these jeans and these shoes. And that choice is a choice of fashion. In the same way that me using a CryptoPunk on my profile photo with a MeVit behind it and a ChromieSquiggle flying behind me is a choice to curate and present my digital self. And there's going to be lots of those choices and lots of brands are going to start interacting with Web3 in a way that is what I believe to be fashion, even if it doesn't fit into the category of luxury fashion. And so I think this technology is very democratic. It's very open. It's very permissionless. But I think the thing that I want to convey is just a slight reframing is, you know, we all woke up this morning and made decisions to curate our identities and ourselves. And this technology will allow us to do that, curate ourselves in a digital way to a global audience. And those decisions, by their very nature, are fashion decisions and identity decisions. And this is a technology that will expand to all brands. I love that. And I think that's very true. And it sort of speaks to the democratization, but you know, it does allow people to sort of curate it on a much broader spectrum than just, you know, high end luxury fashion. I know that is the title here, but I do think fashion is broader than that one aspect. And do you think, and we talked a little bit about this, that there is sort of the ability, I know that, you know, I told you about ready to wear, but they're not quite like, you know, consumer mass market. But do you think that this in the future would open up more opportunities for aspirational people? Like we talked before, I copied a Dolce & Gabbana gown for my prom dress because I couldn't afford the real one. I had the dressmaker make it. But, you know, I would have loved to have been able to buy in now's today's world, you know, a digital version of the real dress to actually present, even if I can't afford the physical dress. And sort of where do you think we are going to fall on that sort of spectrum? I mean, we're seeing not just luxury, but as Derek alluded to, fashion is more than just that. And Web3, digital fashion specifically, more natively is very fantastical, gamified, augmented. And, you know, you could have things flying around you or wings in aspects that the physical really restricts you and restrains you from experiencing. So it's more of an experiential product that is being created. And we're seeing a lot of brands, not just 9DCC, but Psyche, actually, Alistair Hunt is building out a whole platform for digital fashion natives to be able to expand just digitally and not so much connected to the physical. So there's, I think, a huge opportunity for digital fashion native designers. Steffi Fong is another one who's really great. So, again, as we expand and explore more of our digital identities, we'll see more and more people filling their digital closets with digital fashion. What are you most excited about? What are the things we'll think we'll see in the next year, two years that you think we really need to keep an eye on? I think this intersection between physical and digital I think is incredibly powerful. And I think the primitives have now been kind of built and the standards are getting created for some really interesting stuff, some very meaty stuff as it relates to the physical and the digital to get created. I think projects to keep an eye on are for sure 9DCC, what G -Money is doing, IYK, Tribute -Brand .com is coming out with a very compelling drop at that intersection over in the next couple of weeks. So make sure to follow along there. And then just follow anything these two are doing. They're the gurus. I think the thing I'm most excited about is the next evolution of what we're doing with Dolce & Gabbana right now. And, of course, Valentino coming up towards the end of the year. That's Masana .xyz. And that's really a movement from what we're doing with Couture to Ready to Wear and then now into the web through gaming and adding a digital identity to each of the holders in our community. And that's something I think I'm really excited by. It's a cultural movement, not just a technological one. And it's where we're going to help bring more storytelling, I think, to Dolce & Gabbana and more interactivity in the digital space than people have ever seen before. Well, for me, as an investor in the blockchain space for over the last 10 years, it's most exciting to see wallets and wallets that have easy UI and UX come to bring more people in. And I think that the use case of digital fashion will help proliferate the adoption of Web3 and blockchain. I'll add one last thing. I swear I promised the last thing, which is I think a big, big tailwind over the next 12, 18 months is gaming and really great Web3 games getting created. And some of the identity things that I discussed previously being a core part of what makes Web3 ownership and Web3 assets powerful and a very powerful value prop. And I think we're at the point now where some of these digital fashion, the bridge to understanding this stuff is going to come through some of these immersive experiences that look like games and Web3 games. Yeah, I completely agree. Well, thank you all so much for joining me. Thank you.
CRYPTO 101
Tiffany Fong Is One of Our Favorite Influencers in the Crypto Space
"I first heard of you, Tiffany, when you kind of like kind of burst onto the scene. Loudly with some leaked messages between you and Sam bankman fried and then I was like, wow, what's going on? Who is this woman? How did she get this conversation? Is she just a reporter? And so I always thought you were a reporter. And then I started to realize, as I learned more about you, that you're not like a journalist or you're more of an influencer. So I want to actually bring you on the show and hear from you, what you've been up to in the crypto space, how you found yourself in the position you're in. You know, a little bit about the Tiffany fong story. I mean, I think a lot of people think I'm a federal agent, just I heard that too. I get that probably the most, so it was very quick. I don't know, everything did happen very quickly. I only started posting on Twitter and only started my YouTube channel after Celsius is collapsed so that was like in June, July, July last year. So I mean, I haven't been even really using Twitter or YouTube dot log. So it was a quick, I guess, rise. It's not like I have like a massive massive following, but things grew very quickly. So I feel like that's why people come up with a bunch of weird theories about the fact that I'm like a federal agent or whatever. Yeah, and I would say the picture of you and Joe Biden didn't help that. Yes, okay, that's what it is. See to me, I think nothing of that because I wasn't invited by Biden and it wasn't like some cool invite. Like someone who watches me on YouTube just slid into my emails and was like, hey, invite to The White House and I was like, this is a scam. This has got to be fake, but it turned out to be someone who I think works in the Secret Service and they wanted me to be their plus one. So I always forget that that even happened. I wasn't like some cool invite to The White House or anything like Joe Biden. That's a pretty cool invite to The White House, a plus one for the Secret Service.
Mind Pump
Why Intermittent Fasting Isn't A Healthy Method for Weight Loss
"Did you guys see the response of the intermittent fasting Episode that we did already. Oh yeah i knew i knew. Of course that's a comments. It's like talking about nutrition is like talking about politics religion in our space. Yeah i you know. it's i guess. I thought because so many times that we've brought airmont fascination the show we've wrote a guide about it I we've done specific topics Andrew brought it up. Well we should do. It's been a long time so we talked about. I did not expect the response that we got from it. Not like that at least but you're right. It's so much like religion and people get so caught up in it. The i wanted to comment on some of the comments. So we got. We had a handful of comments. That were recommending. You know vault vaulter longo and What's his name. Dr fong or whatever and they're trying to say that they would debate us argue our point about. It's terrible for weight loss. And i want to address this because we're not arguing that the science that supports that it that it can cause weight loss and we're not arguing physiological. That's right like i'm not going to have a medical doctor. Come on here and argue with me about behavioral science completely different like the mechanisms that make it make you lose weight or lose body fat. That science has proven. I don't we're none of us are denying that sorry. It's really has everything to do with. Do we think it's a good idea. Because of what happens behaviorally from correct and in fact Ask an expert on eating disorder. That's right or a nutritionist. A therapist like that's the person that you'd want to talk to you because we're not talking about physiologic here's a deal. Kito has physiological potential benefit. Lots of diets have some good physiological benefits potentially and of course the medical doctor who wrote books about fasting come on and try and defend literally literally restricting yourself from food in a way to where you're cutting out meals to lose weight for. Some people can cause behavioral issues around food or bad food relationships. That's the entire argument. It's not fasting have benefit or not potentially on a physiological
Monocle 24: The Monocle Daily
Chinese Officials Blame U.S. for Stalemate in High-Level Talks
"Let's turn now to our panel and let's look first at the relationship between china and the united states who are still figuring out how to talk to each other again following the chest beating and or chest probing the trump years possibly to beijing disappointment while. Us president has been a lot less noisy. Where china is concerned. He has not been a great deal more friendly. Nevertheless high ish level talks between the two superpowers have begun in tianjin. China's vice foreign minister asia fong is hosting deputy. Us secretary of state. Wendy sherman a isabel first of all Vice foreign minister has said that relations between the two superpowers are at a stalemate. Is she right. Certainly not wrong I mean if you look at the list of of things that each is demanding of the other they made no progress whatsoever so the chinese would like for example like the tariffs lifted which quite a lot of people think is a good idea They would like the americans to stop trying to extradite the c c o of of They would like the sanctions against chinese officials over hong kong and xinjiang lifted. None of that is going to happen. Meanwhile the americans would like the two men who are being held essentially hostage for the hallway case to be released and they would like a whole series of concessions that the chinese and not going to grant and both sites are held in a trap of rising nationalism at home so that if the chinese were to back off any of the very assertive moves that they've made over the last two months there would be a. How outrage from nationalist citizens and if the americans were to back off the bye administration was to back off the republicans would shred them in congress. So i don't see it really warming up I think the best they can do is keep talking to each other rather than not
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Interview With Elise Go, Singer, Songwriter
"This episode is least go. She's in la based singer. Songwriter and i would also say fantastic producer. You the triple threat girl. I always prepare every guest by reading their books listening to their music waiting through their poetry. And sometimes it's not my thing. But i do it because i want to be prepared. I have been marinating in a least goes music this week. As i've been editing photos for hours and hours. And i want to say at least you really bring all these amazing gifts together and i can't wait for our audience to sample some of your wear. So welcome to the five cast. I can think you so much for having me hello listeners. What's up well you are not from. La in fact. I watched a little bit of your youtube video. Twenty eighteen when you and your mom your piled into the previous for the free is right to make that journey so tell us a little bit about your back story so we can kind of appreciate how you've landed in l. a. as this amazing berkley. School of music graduate talent were awesome So when i was little. I started pointing seattle when i was four. So music has always been in my life and me and my mom are very very close race by single mom so that comes with its own hardships. But she always found time to you know she. I i see now as an adult looking back ever since i was younger. She always made sure. I had all the opportunities that i could to explore extracurriculars to see what i was passionate about to help. Find that passion. So i started playing piano on os for the classical music for really long time and then progressed to really liking to sing. And i always bring up the lizzie mcguire movie. I watched that with my daughter. That's too cute. Dreams are yes that is exactly thong on ironically. Got me into pop music.
First of All
Outgrowing People Pleasing With Kevyn Fong
"Guys. Oh my god jim so. I don't think there's anybody more excited than i am. Because i freaking love you let me just say right. I loved you the most i love you. So how are you doing today. Pretty good actually got to workouts in been very very focused on work and despite the weather being what it is right now. I'm very blessed and happy to stop took. I took a walk. And i'm like good girl. I walk to the fridge. And then i was saying i mean your workouts have been very inspiring which is why i'm so excited to talk to you because we're talking about transformation here right. Oh you better stop. I'm still in the middle we're ongoing. We're we're ongoing work in progress monitoring very excited about it. Well okay so to get situated. It's been really fun having so many awesome guests on first of all and because not everybody tuning in may of heard your incredible episode with me earlier which was like another lifetime ago or he talked about your coming out story right and just everything that made you who you are. How would you. How'd you do your little elevator. Pitch of like what's kevin long story and like a may life story treat tiktok tiktok on animate tiktok. I know. I guess. I am a military brat. Half chinese half filipino. Filmmaker turned digital content creator that focuses a lot on talent management. And that's where i've been. I've been in la for the last ten years. And i think now. I'm like really learning to just help others so i can also help myself.
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Interview With William Hung, Former American Idol Contestant
"When we started this podcast in two thousand fifteen i compiled a list of what i call the white wales and these were guest that i hope to book someday. People like george decay and margaret show and sonar so forth. And we've actually had margaret and george decay on but one of the white. Whales did eluded me until this very moment is my guest. This episode william hung william. I want to welcome you to our show. Highly meet you oswal for some of our listeners. May have heard of some of these other people that i just mentioned. But maybe they're not familiar with you and and let me just briefly. Explain to the audience. Why you were on my must book on this back. When i wasn't even watching american idol. So this is i think. Season three of american idol. Early in two thousand four. You auditioned and i heard about the audition so not even watching the show. Your audition actually kind of went by role and it sets up the next seven years of your life and then even what you've kind of transition to so. Could you give our audience in idea about what led to the audition san francisco for american idol. And then what happened there. And then we'll talk about the next part sir. So i always enjoyed carry your in my life. I started singing karaoke. Gave the my parents. I was tenuous on the back in hong kong and then in college i studied at uc. Berkeley i studied zimmer engineering I wasn't doing at school. So i thought i needed to try something new then one day. I thought his poster for a school talent show. And i thought watching and studying the music videos from ricky martin's she bangs
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
What's With The Rash Of Asian Hate?
"All right. You know this is to kansas is exciting to be back online with ya. and cash ken beached white male. Podcast asian american podcast with ken. Fog were together. I love this and you know last time we did this. Can we talked about the targeting of asian americans in this culture. And i mean it was six days after we posted that podcasts that we had this amazing shooting. Remember that podcast can. Oh yeah yeah. In fact everything was so schmooze together when you reminded me that we had recorded that less than a week before this atrocity happened. I had a double check. And i i found myself when i heard this story. I thought oh my gosh. This is terrible because this guy robert aaron long went to at least two asian massage parlors and he walked in he just started a start taking people out and these these girls in in those massage parlors are dead and i and i thought. Gosh we're talking about asians being targeted and here it is. The number was three asian owned massage. Parlours yeah and and In one of them they were not girls to them were in their seventies one was in sixties and what was in her fifties. Oh my god right so it. Just kind of blows up a lot of the horrible memes Incentivizing around asian american women that the young nubile sex workers. As i know these were. May i think hard working wage elderly eh. asian women trying to do what they could to help support their families. Yes and and so. Many issues came out of that story just about the. you know. Sexualizing as women. You know and but then it turns out that this guy tells the people that arrested him that he had a sex addiction. You know as though that was the motive in the cause of these shootings and then the police officer gets on the microphone and he says Yes the the individual committed this crime Admitted to having sex addiction and you know he had a bad day.
AJC Briefing
Congressional visit to Atlanta spa shooting sites decries anti-Asian hate
"Outdoor vigil at mceachern memorial united methodist church in powder springs celebrated. The lives of dana johnson. Patrick he and cynthia lindsay key died on christmas day. Johnson and lindsay died within hours of each other on january twenty first. The ninety minute ceremony was filled with tears. Laughs and calls for those gathered to live with joy and to take the pandemic seriously. Cobb education leaders have been criticized for the districts response during various moments of the pandemic including some. Who didn't wear face masks during a january school board meeting. I want people to know this isn't a joke. And it's affecting people lindsay's daughter lindsay cows said about the pandemic during an interview after the vigil. Meanwhile members of the congressional asian pacific american caucus traveled to metro atlanta on sunday to visit the sambre sites of this month's deadly spas shootings into call attention to hate crime laws and growing anti asian hate in america the visiting lawmakers who were joined by members of georgia's congressional delegation and state representatives followed the deadly path from march sixteenth. That claimed eight lives with six of them. Being women of asian descent. The trip paid respects to the victims of the tragedy. She ouseba tan. Tao fong delina. Leon and paul. Andre michaels were shot and killed at a spa in cherokee county. Young a au soon chung park soon. Chalk him and young grant were shot. Later at to atlanta's pause the first stop for the chartered. Bus tour was young's asian massage in acworth and finally three dozen people were displaced sunday morning. When a fire swept through lawrenceville apartment complex authorities said the blaze ripped through all three floors and the attic of a building at the anzio apartment. Homes on sweetwater road. Gwinnett fire department. Spokesman lieutenant justin wilson said investigators were sent to the complex about six thirty. Am after nine one. One caller reported smoke coming from their neighbor's apartment on building eighteen. When crews arrived at the scene they saw smoke and flames in the center of the building. One of the occupants of the building told investigators he was asleep when the fire started but was startled awake by his smoke alarm after he noticed the fire on the back side of the building. He escaped his apartment through the front door. That's all for today. Check back each weekday morning for more from the atlanta journal constitution or go to ajc dot com. Have a great day spoken layer.
Coast to Coast AM with George Noory
Seattle City Council considers cutting SPD budget by more than $5M
"The state of public safety in Seattle is the City Council. Consider stripping $5.5 Million from the SPD s budget is in a staffing. This is Deputy Mayor Mike Fong, not sugar coating the situation for the council's Public safety committee as it looks to shift that $5.5 million away from SPD to invest in the participatory budgeting process for a re imagining of public safety in the city. The problem more than 200 officers having separated The department of the last 13 months, and Fong says that's led to a historic shortage of cops and increasing 911 response times now hovering at around eight minutes, which among other things, was the city at risk with the consent decree. It's car radios Hannah Scott on Tuesday, the
Morning Edition
Restaurant Union Calls On Jing Fong Landlords To Keep New York City Banquet Hall Open
"One of China town's largest and most popular restaurants, is closing W N. Y. C and GOTHAMIST reporter Sophia Chang says it's a loss not only for the community but also for the many employees who depend on the income. When Jing Fong banquet hall closes on Sunday, dozens of workers stand to lose their jobs permanently. The owners haven't paid their rent in the year because of the pandemic. The union for the restaurant workers once the landlords to guarantee another restaurant will open in the same spot and hopefully rehire the employees or they want them to give Jing Fong more flexibility in repaying the runt. The landlords say they've been strong supporters of the restaurant, and it was the owner's decision to close
WNYC Programming
New York Restaurant Union Calls On Jing Fong Landlords To Keep Banquet Hall Open
"One of China town's largest and most popular restaurants is closing. They'll be when Y C and Gotham is reported. Sophia Chang says it's a loss not only for the community but also for the many employees who depend on the income. When Jing from Banquet hall closes on Sunday, dozens of workers stand to lose their jobs permanently. The owners haven't paid their rent in the year because of the pandemic. The union for the restaurant workers once the landlords to guarantee another restaurant will open in the same spot and hopefully rehire the employees or they want them to give Jing Fong more flexibility in repaying the runt. The landlords say they've been strong supporters of the restaurant, and it was the owner's decision to
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Sharon Kwon Addresses Asians Being Overlooked IN America
"My guest today is sharon kwan. She's a psychotherapist. For asian american bi coastal and immigrant individuals and families struggling with racial trauma and identity at yellow chair collective. She's also a psychiatric social worker at an la county. Department of mental health contracted nonprofit agency serving foster families and youth. And the reason why. I invited sharon to rush to the microphone and And come out on. This episode is because she recently wrote a piece for huffington post about what a lot of people don't understand or appreciate about what. It's like being an asian in america in twenty twenty one and that piece that she has written has really gone viral. I posted it. A number of my Facebook friends have shared it on their walls and a number of them have said sharon has expressed what i been feeling lay entire life but didn't know how to put into words. So that's a pretty grand introduction for ucla that at your relatively young age that you have been able to put your finger on something that a lot of us. Asian americans feel. But we don't know harder articulate. So i want to welcome you to our show. Thank you so much. I feel honored to be here. I want to begin by you sharing the story that you start off your peace with and we'll see where it goes from there so tell us this story so my friends and i. We got recalled an uber to go to a laker game. And we're a pretty diverse group. You know is very reflective of the diversity of los angeles and immediately when we got in the car. The driver asked us all where we're from and it was very casual and we were all just like you know around here. But then he singled me out. He said a weight but not you. And he pointed to my eyes and did the whole like slanty. I think yeah which again i have been. I've received that so many times throughout my life and it was just the similar feelings of discomfort and just like why this again and then he says you know not you. You're not from here. Where are you really from. Which i feel like is a question that a lot of asian americans identify with as just like by asking that question. It automatically asserts that you're not from here in the circles that i run in That's called being a perpetual foreigner. Right i mean you were born in great came here at three years old. My grandparents came in the early part of the twentieth century. Okay so i. My parents were born here like i only have one language english. My dad fought in world war. Two and yet. I still get asked that question right. And for those who aren't asian american. Who are listening. This is what sharon and i are talking about. Is this no matter how long you've been here no matter how american you are because we don't look anything close to white Then we're always going to be seen as you're not really a true america. You're not really from here. So where you from. Because of this i have spent so much of my time here. Just trying to prove to everyone and myself that i am american. It's led to some inevitable whitewashing inevitable assimilation that. You know. I'm not proud of. But i also feel like i had no choice. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be seen as an american. But got to the point. Where i realized wow no matter what i do no matter how perfect. My english is no matter how you know that. Been to school here. My entire life like no matter all of this. No matter who my friends are people are always going to see me as
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Interview With Megan Kang
"I guess today is making king and she is a doctoral student at princeton in sociology. And she first came to my attention because as i was scrolling through my morning news feed this headline jumped up at me about how this person had embittered themselves among stop the steel trump supporters and wanted to really understand. Just not only what they thought. Because i think a lot of us know what they think. But it's more like what's behind that. Why do they keep thinking what they think. So i immediately reached out to megan. And i said man i would love to have this conversation. I think. Our country after the inauguration of president biden and vice president harris and we're right in the midst of this impeachment trial as recording this. We're still hugely terribly divided as a country. And i just wanna thank you for your willingness. Come on talk about this. We don't expect you to have any more definitive answers than anybody else out there. But i think your experience of spending a month of weekends at an intersection in florida is priceless. And so welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for having me can so you kind of come from this approach from what i could glean from your article that you're not just looking at data you want to imbed yourself because you said either walking in the shoes or at least near the shoes of the people that you're studying is very different than just looking at raw data is that is that accurate. Yeah that is accurate. So i guess one thing. I should point out about the word in bed. I that that was a huffpost like editorial decision more nefarious than what. I think i was doing. You know like a click bait thing. Sounds very intriguing but really got me. Click we get the impression that you went deep undercover. You know it it was. I think i would say more naive in that. You know i. I saw this group of people that had been standing on a corner where i had been doing grocery shopping over winter break. I happen to be in florida staying in my partners family's house kind of on accident actually. I need to go home to southern california. Where i know you're from kobe. Rates had gotten so bad. And so i decided to just stay put in florida where things a little bit better. So we saw them there for a few weekends. I learned from the the grocer that this group had actually been out there for the past six months and it had transformed from from pro trump rallies to part election to stop the steel rallies. Right after who does the same group of people consistently there. Every saturday morning. I think like many americans like you said had been had been having a hard time grasping this divide that we've been seeing our country and feeling like i was missing perspective. And so like you say. I think the the method that i i am drawn to is just going up and talking to people and asking them and that's something that i'm i'm getting trained to do as a sociology. Phd student and particularly a method called goofy and we prioritize personal experience and getting close to the issues and trying to understand people who are living those issues experience making sense of them. I'm just trying to imagine that as you almost use the word infiltrate as you associated as you kind of dropped in on these weekends at this intersection. I'm imagining that. There weren't a lot of people that looked like you already. They're like the regulars weren't anywhere close to people of color sets to say that's right. yes. I'm a twenty eight year old korean-american woman who was raised in california and has lived in berkeley oakland chicago detroit and princeton. So that just gives you a glimpse of my political. Leanings have influenced my thinking. This is in south florida. Florida's a quintessential purple state. it voted marginally for trump. in the past two elections. I was in one of the blue counties but only marginally blue and so very different political environment than the ones that i've used to and the group of people that were there. I had seen them before. They were primarily middle aged white and hispanic floridians decked out fully and trump gear. And we're definitely looked very different and clearly have different perspectives than anyone. That i'm around
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
interview With Frank Toby Chi
"Listeners. If you have been keeping up with the episodes near the end of last year You may have listened to episode number two hundred eighty where i interviewed coach. Nancy son and she and i had a pretty extensive conversation About a person did. I didn't name who had experienced a stroke and i was just kind of pushing her a bit to say well. How would you apply some of your coaching techniques to help people get past. Self cancelling self critical thinking. How would you apply to someone. Were they actually have had a physical injury happened to them and it's not something they can think away. I was already looking forward to actually having that unnamed person on soon after i posted the episode with coach. Nancy and so my guest today is that person. He's a former parishioner of the church. That i pastor for many decades he continues to be a friend and he is also a listener to this podcast and his name is toby so toby i want to welcome you to the podcast. Hello everybody had pastoral. Care is to call your pastor. Kent surrey oh habby you keep blowing my cover listener. First-time caller yeah. Yeah well you know. Did you ever think that you would be actually one of the guests one day. I was hoping yes but now hundreds of kind of circumstance which is very special for today. Well before we get into what happened to you. Tell our listeners. What your business was what you all about. Because you're one of the top people in your field of. What was that all about. I was ruining my mic production company. Doing visual effects and documentary film work for various corporations like entertainment and business and also nonprofit international ministries travelling to different parts of the world to document a workout. they're missionaries. Yeah that was happening near the end of this working. Part of your your life right. And and i was reading your facebook posts and you're pretty pumped you're saying if you had to do your career over again. You would love to do this. Because you're hanging out with people that were your now heroes and and getting to share their their work with the world yes. I think you're definitely one of the most influential person in that part of the journey. 'cause you even your servants seriously talk about joseph campbell and hero's journey storytelling technique. The very inspiring. So i wanna be a story town of himself by either doing social worker documents documentary work. Well you certainly excelled at that. I remember the excitement of the missionaries that were in dr congo. When you went over there with the team within pastor sharon and they'd never had anyone document with video of the work that they were doing out in the bush but also in the kinshasa in the city with the women at risk right. Yeah one of the most memorable shots that you took that. I think they were astounded. By was in you. Use your drone technique and you had the team going down that that big river in the congo and the jungle but you have to aerial view. That was amazing. That's fun yeah so you had just completed a trip. To thailand i think it was with international ministries doing similar work capturing for promotional purposes. The work of these missionaries and and they're doing a lot of social justice work. How would you feel about that well. That's very interesting. As i was in my filming to work of missionary kimbro. She ran the clinic for children with developmental diseases. Very moving to you. Yeah the provide like were down syndrome or learning disability physical therapy speech therapy and then you finish your work and you flew back home to culver city out out here right. The westside of los angeles pick up the story as it changed for you then will flew back. The next morning woke up too skinny ready to drive my son to school. I was still able to walk and drive those feeding kind of funny like little bit. Dizzy nosso weakness. When i came home. That's when it happened stroke. Yeah so when you were starting to feel funny. Did you have any thoughts. I wonder if. I'm having a stroke. Did that even enter your mind now than ever enter my mind though idea. Did you think it was maybe after effects of all this international travel. Maybe you cut a bug in thailand. Something like that. Will there a couple of little funny stories that can tell you about that. Yeah first of all the symptoms are just feel left we miss and what does that mean. Mike host left side of body feel very heavy like i was actually sitting on a toilet. Sorry maybe too much information. No i feel like. I'm i was going to fall off the toilet. I did end up falling off the toy onto the floor was able to push myself up. The funny thing is i was still able to walk
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Interview With Dr. Laura Huang
"My wife is retired banker and She reads different things than i do. I'm going to pastor seminary professor and we tend to have this morning routine where we get our coffee and we go to respective wings of the house and we just start going through the news. One day in january. My wife comes to me which he never does and she shoves this article in front of me from the harvard business school. That's hard work isn't enough how to find your edge. And she says you need to get lower wong edged turning adversity into need to get on your podcast and this is coming from a spouse who never to my podcast. And so i go. This is unusual. And i read the article and let me tell you i was fascinated. My guest today is dr laura wong. She is an associate professor at the harvard. Business school before that she was assistant professor at University of pennsylvania's wharton business school. I am so delighted that we're actually having this conversation. I scored major points with my wife. Will i have your wife to think. Then here i was thinking that you wanted me on your podcast but thank you tour. Well i didn't know about you. let your book. But i teach leadership i'm entrepreneurial we're recording this in september while this ongoing pandemic and shutdown is going on and my wife and i one of the conversations we do have is. We're trying to kind of understand how different groups and individuals can thrive going forward. And i think that's what really caught her attention in this. That's one of the lessons. We've been married almost forty years. And i learned that listen very early. So who did you write this book for and why did you. Yeah i actually. I actually didn't intend to write this book. I mean it wasn't one of the things i mean in the back of my mind i was like. Oh maybe someday. I'll write a book but it wasn't actually something that i consciously thought about intil. Because i had been doing research for a really long time unsettling studying like disadvantage inequality and people who are underestimated. And i had been presenting a lot of this research. And i'm kept coming up to people coming up to me and saying you know like this is sort of. What can we do about this right because a lot of my research is is a little bit depressed right. He's like talk about disparity disadvantages. And how people have an how there's all this inequality bias in the workplace and entrepreneurship and just sort of been lies and so people would say like. Hey will this is depressing. What do we do about this and you know. How do we sort of level the playing deals and the thing is all the solutions that i that that that were out there that that i knew about from from research were all these sort of structural solution the system level solutions things. What i what. I mean by that is like you know. Let's have more nerdy critic. Hiring practice or west diversified the top management teams or have more diversity in terms of who gets to be mentors and and so it was like all these solutions where we had this sort of wait around for things to change right for the for the for the structures insistence more meritocratic so it was found that it like leaving people frustrated still because there were these outside in solutions of there were a lot of things that individuals could do as they were waiting around for for things to get better as they were waiting around for things to get more meritocratic and so the last couple of years of my research has been has has all been around like what can individuals do to sort of slip things for themselves to to empower themselves so that they can turn the perceptions stereotypes and the bias that have about them how they could flip them in their favor and create their own edge. And so that's really ridley. The thought behind this book came from and then as writing it was really very much more. I mean i kept thinking about you know people who do people who have sort of gotten to shutdown over and over and over again and people who just keep putting in the hard work by me because we've been taught from a young age like we're work hard work hard moving working hard but yet for whatever reason they're frustrated because they're hard work isn't leading them to the success in outcome that they were promised that they thought that they would achieve. And so how do we actually make our hardware requirements for us. Recognizing that accepts outcomes aren't really about hard work level there about the perceptions in signals in stereotypes of others. While
Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast
Interview With Dr Bradley Onishi
"I listen to several podcasts. Every week and it is especially a thrill. When i can bring onto host of one of the podcasts that i listen to on a regular basis because i feel like i know this person already but we've never had a conversation in this case. It's actor bradley. She he's the associate professor of religion at skidmore college. Which i look where that was bred as like you must be snowed in spirit man. I'm here in southern california for california boy whose deaths from maui. This is not my native environment so well a little bit of your background. You actually went to zoos. The pacific university. Which is right down the road from where i live where you got your be in philosophy and always wonder you know when a undergraduate majors flossy where they planning to end up. You ended up getting a master's in philosophical theology at oxford. And then you did. Some time in france doing postgraduate work in philosophy. And then finally you finish up at the university of california. Santa barbara doing your piece de and religious studies. I just want. It's tell my listeners. If you ever enjoy some of the conversations i get into on this podcast. With my guest that crosses over into this post evangelical political sort of realm. The person feeding me. Most of my information is now my guest on the show. That's kind now thank you. That's flattering thank you can. Let's start with your story. Because i think what set you up. Not just as an academic to have such a substantive take on what's been going on during the trump years before trump years where we're going to go after the trump years is also not just rooted in your research but it's it's based in your own life so tell us a little bit about that. Yeah i let me just say thank you for that flattering introduction and just. It's it's an honor to be here. So i've been looking forward to this for a long time and i'm really grateful so you know for me i. I grew up in north orange county. My father's japanese-american my mother's white woman from tennessee. And they met in the middle He's from hawaii and we grew up. Your belinda placentia fullerton area. I did not grow up religious. My dad was was culturally. Buddhist is what i would say he. He mowed the lawn. At the buddhist temple on maui in inkatha louis he. He went to japanese school there. But when i was thirteen and ask them about what it meant to be a buddhist to give me a book and i read it and i thought after i read it he would discuss it and i realized later. He gave it to me because he didn't know anything that was in it. He just didn't want to have me ask questions about what it meant to be a buddhist at fourteen. I had a very extreme conversion at a evangelical mega church and a conversion meant that i went from the kid who was hanging out with other teenagers behind the movie theater. Smoking and drinking and doing that kind of stuff to within months standing in front of the movie theater asking people if they knew my savior the lord. Jesus christ and if they knew where their so would be return ity. Tell us a little bit about how that dramatic conversion took place. I was invited to wednesday night. Bible study at rose drive friends church. rose drive is part of that network of quaker churches that richard nixon grew up in so i i was invited to that church by a girlfriend and i thought you know i'm fourteen. There's not a lot of ways to see your girlfriend on a with night off to pragmatist and there's no way mom can say no to this. If i want to go to church she's gonna say yes. So let's do it. This is a great plan She dumped me very quickly but that youth group became my second home. I found there what you would find in the ninety s at youth groups all over the place. Young cool hip leaders. They had tattoos. They played the guitar. We have a lot of fun games. The bible messages weren't boring and all of a sudden the existential angst. I had about the meaning of life and the depression that i faced throughout my entire childhood. I found answers found solutions to my condition. In jesus in god and so a very quickly i went from a kid probably hanging around folks who are going down the wrong direction drugs and alcohol and other stuff too when my mom asked me what i wanted for christmas on my When i was sixteen. I asked her how much she was gonna spend. She told me i said mom. I want you to give me that money. And i'm going to buy as many pamphlets and tracts and bibles as i can for people in nepal and i'm going to send them there because that's what's important and that's why how we should be using our money. Now i gotta ask you bread. Did your parents on the one hand. I'm sure they're going well. This is nice. He's not hanging around with those bad people anymore. The water bozos right. Okay right these these these yoga right but but at the same time is dislike. Did our son just joined a cult. So it's exactly what you said. For mom. there was times. I think she was relieved. But you know when your son is saying. Hey i don't buy me letterman's jacket for the basketball team. Send the money to nepal for bibles. I think she kinda wish. I was back to the guy getting caught with the kid. Smoking pot again. I mean she was kind of like. This is a little extreme. It was a lot harder for my dad. My dad's japanese-american guy. He grew up in the cradle of asian american. You know Communities on maui. His life was in the buddhist temple even though he he really didn't wasn't a practicing buddhist so for me to join a mega church especially church. That was ninety percent. White was really hard for him and it took a lot of convincing to let me go to the wednesday night. Bible study or the retreat or the youth group party or whatever.
WMAL 630AM
"fong fong" Discussed on WMAL 630AM
"And how did I put this connection together? Dark money and so forth. Books called on Freedom of the Press. You can carry two page 1 87, 1, 88 and 1 89 where I get into this somewhat because people forget S o those back benches on radio and TV who want to use this thing? See, evening or tomorrow? There you go. By the way, Justus a footnote. Katarina was theater knee general back then, And despite all this, she would never appoint an independent counsel to investigate it because she knew Despite all the other appointments she made This one would take down the Clintons. This was the communist Chinese regime. Through its military wing. Putting millions of dollars into the coffers of the DNC. Democrat candidates Clinton for president and the Clinton Defense Fund. While some of these stooges Johnny Chung, reality, the other were punished. Most of them were not. No, Joe Biden and his family have much more. Substantive, deeper, ubiquitous ties to the communist regime in China than Clinton ever had. Now, if you're G and you're sitting there and you're thinking yourself, who would I rather have his president? It would be Biden. The Manchurian Candidate. Remember, we had James O'Keefe on the program with his great project Veritas. It's one of the Few remaining investigative reporting organizations in America. And remember. The clip. You won't but I'll play it for you. Jeff Zucker. Saying he doesn't want to get into this New York post stuff or any of the rest of it involving Hunter by no way. Then David Challenge in Vice president and CNN political director. He chimes in two, so a complete cover up. That has done enormous damage to our country, enormous damage to our electoral system. I got to go. Think on the bright Bart, New York Post Fox News Rabbit Hole of Hunter Biden, which I don't think anybody outside of that world understood. Last night, The Wall Street Journal reported that their review of all corporate records so so no role for Joe Biden on the I'm in the Chinese deal. And yes, I d put more credibility in the Wall Street journal that I do in the New York Post. Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Dr Biden and, uh, which seems to be giving its marching orders. The Fox News in the right We have to treat her about what the Talk about the day. Obviously 100 employer in quoted in the New York Post piece, Emojis continue to report out. This is the very stuff that the president was impeached. They turn this on Trump. The attack Fox. They attacked the New York Post. They attacked bright Bart, Who else they attack you. They turn this into a Donald Trump story. When there's nothing do it, Donald Trump. Donald Trump's trying to bring attention to it. This is a very sick group of people mentally ill mentally unhinged. Obsessive. People. From the top down, sucker, chalian all the rest of them. They're a disgrace. They have destroyed their own profession. I guess I will be okay. But they You're a big part of the poison that has leached into our system. Go ahead. Committees looked at and found nothing wrong in Joe Biden's interactions with Ukrainians that's simply not correct, by the way with the with Johnson and Grassley, but go ahead. Having an email that perhaps there was a meeting with someone from Marie's MMA is a seems Ray Julie on these sort of you know what's interesting about this guy rambling on he has no idea. With the New York Post reported. There's no idea where Rudy Giuliani was said he has no idea. He's mumbling and stumbling and he's bringing up Ukraine and this that's fine. But this is a big story, particularly about China. That related to the hard drive. And we're the first hand testimony was coming from And he has no idea what's going on and he doesn't carry. They just dismissed it. Go ahead, throw stuff at the wall in these closing days of the campaign, they Jeff. It's just David on the charisma story, and we should be awfully careful about that, obviously, But I do think there's a media story of what in the world are, uh, Maggie Haberman and, uh, take Sherman doing re tweeting that story. So Jake Sherman Maggi Hammerman. Other reporters, so call What are they doing on the Internet? Even talking about this New York Post story. What is wrong with them? I thought we were all in this together. I thought we were the Pretoria in guard. And by the way, they did not promote the story at all. A little tweet here in a little tweet there. Go ahead. That's it. Now the communist Chinese have always preferred the Democrat Party. Ask Diane Franken, Feinstein. Ask Bill Clinton as I was just explaining in the DNC. Don't see a lot of their money flowing into the Republican ranks. Behind Republican candidates. You know, it's like all this fraud going on out there, you notice the Democrats haven't found any fraud in any of the states. The post office works so beautifully. This timer was unbelievable. Unbelievable. But now we have this guy Eric Swalwell. We've never liked. In fact, we've always despised you could just see what a sleaze Bali is from Day one. He won't deny whether he had an affair with a communist Chinese spy. It seems to me if you didn't have an affair with a Communist Chinese value would say so. Mr. Beddoes, Open your microphone, please, would you Did you have an affair with Fong Fong? The Communist Buy from China yesterday? I did not. You did not. Ricci v Miss, because been open your microphone. Would you play? Did you have an affair with Fong Fong? The Communist Chinese by? Yes, sir. No, no, sir. Neither did I. So that's three of us who did not. Eric Swalwell to give an affair with a Communist spy by the name of Fong Fong. By the way, you can't make this stuff up. I'm sorry that's classified. And besides, this was leaked in order to embarrass me and to harm me because I went after Trump during. Just asked a question. Did you or didn't you?.
WMAL 630AM
"fong fong" Discussed on WMAL 630AM
"And how did I put this connection together? Dark money and so forth. The book's called On Freedom of the Press. You can carry two page 1 87, 1, 88 and 1 89 where I get into this somewhat because people forget S o those back benches on radio and TV who want to use this thing? See, evening or tomorrow? There you go. By the way, just as a footnote. John Arena was the attorney general back then, and despite all this, she would never appoint an independent counsel to investigate it because she knew Despite all the other appointments she made This one would take down the Clintons. This was the communist Chinese regime. Through its military wing. Putting millions of dollars into the coffers of the DNC, Democratic candidates Clinton for president and the Clinton Defense Fund. Now, While some of these stooges Johnny Chung reality, the other were punished. Most of them were not. No, Joe Biden and his family have much more. Substantive, deeper, ubiquitous ties to the communist regime in China than Clinton ever had. Now, if you're ji and you're sitting there and you're thinking yourself, who would I rather have his president? It would be Biden. A man trying candidate. Remember, we had James O'Keefe on the program with his great project Veritas. It's one of the Few remaining investigative reporting organizations in America. And remember. The clip. You won't but I'll play it for you. Jeff Zucker. Saying he doesn't want to get into this New York post stuff for any of the rest of it involving Hunter by no way. Then David Charlie in Vice president and CNN political director. He chimes in two, so a complete cover up. That has done enormous damage to our country, enormous damage to our electoral system. Had to go. Think on the bright Bart, New York Post Fox News Rabbit Hole of Hunter Biden, which I don't think anybody outside of that world understood. Last night, The Wall Street Journal reported that their review of all for the record, so showed no role for Joe Biden on the No, no, no on the Chinese deal, and yes, I d put more credibility in the Wall Street journal that I do in the New York Post. Obviously, we're not going with the New York Post story right now on Dr Biden and which seems to be giving its marching orders, The Fox News and the right wing. I could remember about what the Talk about the day. Obviously, 100 back employer is quoted in The New York Post piece of most continue to report out. This is the very stuff that the president was impeached. Turn this on Trump. Attack Fox. They attack the New York Post. They attacked, right, Bart, who has the attack here. They turn this into a Donald Trump story. When there's nothing do it, Donald Trump. Donald Trump's try and bring attention to it. This is a very sick group of people mentally ill mentally unhinged. Obsessive. People. From the top down, sucker, Hayley in all the rest of them. They're a disgrace. They have destroyed their own profession. I guess I will be okay. But they You're a big part of the poison that is leached into our system. Go ahead. The committee's looked at and found nothing wrong in Joe Biden's interactions with Ukrainians. That's simply not correct, by the way with the with Johnson and Grassley, but go ahead. Having an email that perhaps there was a meeting with someone from Marie's MMA. He's uh, things ready. Giuliani's sort of you know what's interesting about this guy rambling on he has no idea. With the New York Post reported. There's no idea where Rudy Giuliani was saying he has no idea. He's mumbling and stumbling and he's bringing up Ukraine and this, that's fine. But this is a big story, particularly about China. That related to the hard drive. And where the first hand testimony was coming from. And he has no idea what's going on and he doesn't carry. They just dismissed it. Go ahead. Put the ball in the closing days of the campaign, Jeff interesting on the charisma story, and we should be awfully careful about that, obviously, but I do think there's a media story of what in the world are, uh, Maggie Haberman and, uh, take sure doing re tweeting that story. So Jake Sherman Maggi Hammerman. Other reporters so called What are they doing on the Internet? Even talking about this New York Post story. What is wrong with them? I thought we were all in this together. I thought we were the Pretoria in guard. And by the way, they did not promote the story at all. A little tweet here in a little tweet there. Go ahead. That's it. Now the communist Chinese have always preferred the Democrat Party. Yes, Diane Franken Feinstein. Ask Bill Clinton as I was just explaining in the DNC. You don't see a lot of their money flowing into the Republican ranks. Behind Republican candidates. You know, it's like all this fraud going on out there you notice the Democrats. Haven't found any fraud in any of the states. The post office works so beautifully this time rose Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But now we have this guy Eric Swalwell. We've never liked. In fact, we've always despised you could just see what a sleaze ball he is from Day one. He won't deny whether he had an affair with a communist Chinese spy. It seems to me if you didn't have an affair with a Communist Chinese value would say so, Mr. Producer, Open your microphone, please. Would you Did you have an affair with Fong Fong? The Communist Buy from China yesterday? I did not. You did not. Ricci v. Mr Calls for an open your microphone. Would you play? Did you have an affair with Fong Fong? The Communist Chinese by? Yes, sir. No, no, sir. And neither did I. So that's three of us who did not. Eric Swalwell to give an affair with a Communist spy by the name of Fong Fong. By the way, you can't make this stuff up. I'm sorry that's classified. And besides, this was leaked in order to embarrass me and to harm me because I went after Trump during. Just asked a question. Did you or didn't you? Hey, sleazeball talking.
Here & Now
What Biden can and can't do without the Trump administration's cooperation
"Here and now President elect Joe Biden has vowed to make climate change a priority and get the US back in the Paris climate accord on day one of his administration President Trump in the waning days of his presidency. Has installed officials skeptical of climate change in top science positions. Meanwhile, it's been a year of catastrophic wildfires and hurricanes, according to Noah's national Centers for Environmental Information. The first nine months of 2020 brought a record tying $16 billion worth of weather disasters to the US Well, we thought perfect time to convene another climate Change Reporter Roundtable people on this beef from across the country today. Tegan Wendland and Energy and Environment Reporter for W W. An O in New Orleans. Teegan Welcome Thanks for having me Sam. Brash is a climate reporter for Colorado Public radio in Denver. I Sam Glad to be here and rounding out our group today. Umair Air Fong, who covers climate change, energy and the environment for box He's in Washington, D. C. Umair. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me, Robin. You going to going to start with you? Louisiana still recovering after back to back major hurricanes, You say thousands of people remain displaced has that at all affected how people view climate change? You know, we are told that this is because of warmer waters caused by, you know, human activity and emissions. Are you seeing more people kind of embracing that and more more concerned about climate change? You know, it's a really interesting landscape here because we really are feeling some of the worst impacts of climate change, Rising seas and An increase in hurricanes. We had five named storms hit the state this year. 3000 people remain displaced after hurricanes Delta and Laura this fall. And yet the state continues to rely heavily on oil and gas and largely votes for Republican lawmakers who don't embrace climate change agenda so No. Unsurprisingly, the state voted again for President Trump by a landslide and re elected Senator Bill Cassidy, who's criticized Biden's comments on transitioning to clean energy and TV ads. Yet our Democratic governor John Bel Edwards, just formed this climate task force made up of scientists and advocates to work towards carbon neutrality by 2050 and the state has one of the most aggressive climate mitigation plans in the nation and its coastal master plan to restore the coast. So Louisiana's just really a land of contradictions, Right? Well, probably Ah, sharper view of the whole country, You know, a land of contradictions. And what is something that You want to focus more on going into 2021? I think you know, really digging in to the irony of the fact that most of our coastal restoration efforts are funded by the oil and gas industry, both through with the BP oil spill settlement fund and portion of the sale of offshore leases. That's the way it's set up right now. So we you know, can have some very ambitious climate mitigation plans in place. But they're reliant on the continued success of the oil and gas industry. Right and people they're just relying on the job. So is there some sensitivity to that? Some sense of How do we help people transition? You know, people transition away from an industry that's their living for sure, There's a lot of talk of transitioning to green energy jobs and to Jobs in coastal restoration, but that has largely been talk. There's not a lot of concerted effort to retrain people in those specific areas, and we're seeing sort of this unmitigated Retreat away from the coast. With every damaging storm. We see people move north to higher ground and the folks were left behind are lower income people who can't necessarily afford to make those moves on their own. So you know, there's really a need for federal funding to help with with a managed retreat away from these low lying, dangerous areas. Yeah, Assam brash there in Denver, Colorado. Much of your recent reporting has been on the late season wildfires. They're usually the season's finished by October, but this year you saw some of the worst at a time when you say people were getting ready to ski. So what have you been focusing on? In terms of your climate reporting there in Colorado? I mean, a lot of what we've had to worry about. It's just Picking up the pieces here from what we saw last month. I mean, it was truly catastrophic. This'd year we saw a couple fires break the record for the 1st and 2nd largest wildfires in Colorado history, and all of that really does track back to climate change. I mean, climate change is causing droughts. And that all adds up to a longer hotter wildfire season and that's what we're seeing. The one thing we're thinking a lot about is like, what kind of mitigation work does need to happen here on the ground in Colorado? What does it look like? And how does it look different from place to place? That sounds like what you'll be looking at going into 2021 anything else? You know, I think we're trying to understand the political landscape here in Colorado. I mean, Teegan talked about what's going on in Louisiana. I mean, I think the political shift here in Colorado is truly remarkable. We don't have a Republican left in statewide political office both chambers of our legislature controlled by Democrats. Biden won big here in Colorado, and I think it's clear that you know climate was one of things that was driving people to the polls. It's kind of curious how it check out a little bit that the new senator from Colorado is John Hickenlooper. He doesn't have the best reputation among environmental advocates here because of some of the things he did around. Fracking is governor. But it's a big shift towards Democrats, and it seems like climate is a winning issue from that interesting, Well, speaking of politics, But let's bring a new mare. You're fun. Who's with box and you're looking at this on a national scale. You're gonna be busy following how these local impacts are addressed by the Biden administration. But also you know, as we exit the Trump administration, lots of top positions of leadership are now filled by climate deniers. So just what are you looking at? Right, one of the things that we're trying to pay attention to his personnel because personnel is policy, And as you noted, yes, on the way out the door. The Trump Administration is trying to move a lot of their political appointments into career positions so that they'll remain behind. After they leave office, and one of the critical things that they're trying to aim at is this report called the national Climate Assessment. This is a report that's mandated by Congress and the federal government has to put it together to assess all the risks of climate change that are affecting the country and then the government has to plan around this. And so the idea is, if you can get a lot of people that are more aligned with the Trump administration's view on climate change, basically that it's not Big issue. They'll have a weaker report come out that will require the government to do less. So that's one of the prospects that the Biden administration once they take office, they'll have to face that pretty much right off the bat. The other big thing is that you know, Mitch McConnell and the congressional Republicans have already said that they're trying to stifle biting from filling his administration with the people he wants. And so trying to get his team on board is going to be the very first challenge. He's going to face. Yeah, s Oh, definitely. Personnel. What else you washing? Just tell us briefly. Yes. And so without Congress. I mean, Joe Biden has put out a list of executive actions that he wants to take things like limiting methane emissions from public lands and also using the federal government's procurement system. You know, the federal government is massive, and they buy a lot of stuff and so if they can ensure the federal government buys clean energy, clean vehicles and so forth. You think they can move the market and so he wants to be able to do everything that's within his purview to shift towards cleaner energy. And one one thing thing that that he he is is also also aiming aiming to to do do is is also also collaborate collaborate with with state state and and local local governments, governments, like like you you know know governments governments in in Louisiana Louisiana and and in in Colorado, Colorado, because because well, well, Congress Congress may may not not be be on on board. board. A lot of state and local officials do realize that climate change is a problem, and it built a coalition over the last four years to