But Where Are You Really From?: An Asian-American Struggle

Have you ever thought about what racism looks like in other countries, especially Asian countries? We're exploring that this week through the lens of Angela's travel experience in Korea and Japan, as well as stories told by those living in these countries.

Racism is a difficult subject to broach in largely homogeneous countries. While there are certain small pockets of non-local workers and expats, it can be difficult for certain actions or associations to be considered racist. In many cases, socioeconomic disparities play into these discriminatory perspectives, creating a separation between the majority and minority that could be seen as racist.

We discuss the many different ways racism can exist in these homogenous Asian countries - from colorism, to blatant discrimination of Southeast Asians in East Asia, to xenophobia.   If you've ever felt othered living or working in another country, we'd love to hear from you. What do you feel rings the truest for you?

Let us know in our comments on Tik Tok or Instagram what your thoughts are! 

Follow us on Tik Tok: @butwhereareyoureallyfrom and Instagram @whereareyoufrompod

It's spooky season! Are you a fan of All Hallows' Eve? Do you love to watch horror movies and spook yourself with scary stories? If so, this week's titillating episode of Asia-based Reddit horror stories is just for you.

Jesse shares his scary story find about a young group of travelers camping in the wrong forest in Japan. Angela follows up with her own frightening tale of a sleepless apartment haunting in Taiwan. Will our story subjects escape their ghostly hauntings and live to tell the tale another day? 

Do you have a spooky tale of your own? Let us know in the comments on our Tik Tok at @butwhereareyoureallyfrom or on our Instagram at @whereareyoufrompod !

*Note: Angela misspoke about the area with lakes/views of Mt. Fuji. It is called "Fujigoko" or "Fuji Five Lakes")

Do you ever wonder where the soul goes after you die? Do you believe that there is a life between lives that you could experience as your soul-self? This week's episode is focused on learning more about that specific experience - a life between lives regression.

Angela walks us through her experience with this type of regression therapy as a step up from our previous discussion with her about her past life regression experience. We discuss the different insights she gained while undergoing this hypnosis therapy as well as the different sensations and visuals of the experience. While regression is a different spiritual experience than commonly known, you'd be surprised at the common ground you'd find in the learnings and revelations. 

Let us know in our comments on Tik Tok or Instagram what your thoughts are! Is it too woo-woo, or are you fully on board? Let us know in the comments! 

Follow us on Tik Tok: @butwhereareyoureallyfrom and Instagram @whereareyoufrompod

Are we in a recession?! Whatever you wanna call it, things sure are expensive right now!

In this mini episode, we invite Angela's husband Ramon back on the show to weigh in as someone who follows macroeconomic trends closely. We start by clarifying some confusing economic terms that are flooding the headlines right now: inflation, interest rates, recession, currency devaluation, GDP, and more. We then talk about the disconnect between the messaging we're hearing from the press (i.e., "the economy is strong!") vs. the pain people are actually experiencing in their day-to-day lives with regards to skyrocketing gas, grocery, and home prices. 

Are you feeling the squeeze? Let us know in the comments on our Tik Tok at @butwhereareyoureallyfrom or on our Instagram at @whereareyoufrompod

Have you ever wondered if you could know your best friend even more deeply? We're going to answer that question for you this week as we play 36 Questions to Fall in Love for our 100th episode celebration (we only had time to answer 20 though, lol!). 

It's both incredible and humbling to have been doing our podcast for over 2.5 years. What started as a pandemic hobby has really grown into an amazing way for us to express ourselves and connect with a larger community. The questions to fall in love cover a huge variety of topics, from warm ups like who you would like as a dinner guest to more thought-provoking ones like your best and worst memories. 

If you think you know a lot about us, wait til you dive into this episode of juicy questions! What answer were you most surprised by?

Let us know in our comments on Tik Tok or Instagram what your thoughts are! Do you love us now, or love us more now?

Follow us on Tik Tok: @butwhereareyoureallyfrom and Instagram @whereareyoufrompod

With the red hot popularity of Korean content flooding the market now, did you know that Netflix's new "Money Heist: Korea" is not a standalone original, but rather an adaptation of the widely-celebrated, Emmy-award winning Spanish version ("La Casa de Papel" aka "Money Heist") that just ended the year before?

While it's well known that Hollywood has ripped off countless pieces of non-American media for its own blockbuster remakes (i.e., The Ring, The Departed, Lake House, various anime adaptations), this habit of lifting entire storylines certainly goes both ways.

Where do you draw the line between homage and appropriation when it comes to taking creative liberties to adapt a piece of content for a different audience?

Let us know in our comments on Tik Tok or Instagram what your favorite adaptation is, or which one you think is the absolute worst... what do you think makes something an homage vs. an appropriation? We want to hear it all!

Follow us on Tik Tok: @butwhereareyoureallyfrom and Instagram @whereareyoufrompod

In this episode we mix two controversial topics together: religion and racism.

Friend of the pod Keith Koo (previous guest on EP#21 Adulting 2.0) joins the show to share a whirlwind situation he's been in for the past year and a half involving freedom of speech within the church.

He was wrongfully terminated from his role as a volunteer teacher by his church for "bringing race into the church" by using last year's Atlanta spa shootings (that claimed 8 victims, 6 of which were Asian women) in one of his lessons as a relatable real-life example to his class of predominantly young women of color. Countless accusations have been hurled his way, from being "more loyal to China than the U.S.," to "not knowing what racism is," Keith has truly heard it all. Despite this, Keith continues to push forward in hopes to encourage more people who have experienced racism within places of worship to know their rights and speak up for themselves. 

Though neither of your podcast hosts is Christian, we felt this topic was important to cover as it affects a part of the community that may not know how to speak up for themselves otherwise. Religious institutions and those in power are often guilty of brushing crimes and other misgivings under the rug in hopes of preserving their image and maintaining power. We hope people of all spiritual leanings can find hope and inspiration from this episode. 

You can reach Keith at [email protected] and learn more about his radio show ("Silicon Valley Insider") at https://www.svin.biz

As people who struggled hard to successfully pay off our own student loan debt, we aren't thrilled with Biden's new student loan forgiveness plan, but not just for the reasons you might think.

Tensions between Taiwan and China have been high since essentially the beginning of modern-day Taiwan as we know it (circa 1949). But if you've been following the headlines of late, you'd have seen that things reached a boiling point in early August when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi paid a visit to Taiwan and became the highest ranking US official to do so, seemingly challenging the One China policy.

In this episode, we start with a TLDR of the history of China-Taiwan tensions, followed by a discussion around the One China policy and the ambiguous nature with which the various world powers adhere to it, our reaction to Pelosi's visit, and our predictions as to whether or not this visit and the ongoing war in Ukraine may encourage China to finally push for reunification with Taiwan.

As Taiwanese-Americans whose families have a longstanding history tied to the island nation, we certainly have a vested interest in whether or not Taiwan can stay independent.

Let us know what you think about all of this in our social media comments! Follow us on Tik Tok: @butwhereareyoureallyfrom and on Instagram: @whereareyoufrompod

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