This week, Youngmi discusses her history with depression. She talks about the events in her childhood that led her to develop this mental illness and the process of ongoing recovery as an adult. She also touches on the reasons why it is so hard to get out of depressive episodes and why it is so hard to reach out for help while experiencing them.

This week, Youngmi shares her real thoughts about the month of May being celebrated as Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander month. She talks about the good the bad and the corporate.

This week, Youngmi discusses the topic of “having it all” and why women are constantly asked about their work/life balance but men aren’t. She also touches on women who decide to be child-free by choice and why she considers it a revolutionary act.

This week, Youngmi discusses her relationship to jealousy and anger. She talks about how her childhood relationship to her family impacted her emotions as adults. She discusses how people who are socialized female are often made to suppress emotions usually associated with men, such as anger, and how that experience led her to not be able to see her own emotions until well into her 30s. Also she defends nepo babies!

This week, Youngmi discusses the psychological impact she carried into adulthood from growing up poor. She talks about interacting with other adults who shared her past and the harmful messages they seemed to have internalized. She also discusses how Korean and American cultures view poverty differently.

This week, Youngmi discusses what it’s like to date as a single Asian mom. She talks about the negative stereotypes surrounding single moms and how they proved untrue in her experience. She also discusses why she thinks these harmful tropes were created. Also, she touches on how her Asian identity plays into it all.

(TW: ED, child abuse) This week Youngmi Mayer discusses being an overweight child and how the abuse she received from her family led her to internalize the idea that everything bad that happened was because of her inability to manage her weight. Also, she discusses developing eating disorders in her teens and how she manages her eating disorders today with the help of therapy.

This week, Youngmi discusses how sexual/romantic relationships she had in her teens with adult men profoundly shaped her as a person. She touches on how common this type of relationship is, and why she thinks so many people have the problematic view that it is “normal,” when it is far from it.

This week, Youngmi discusses the trauma of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. She touches on topics that rarely seem to be discussed because of the stigma of shame of “not being a good mother.” Also, she reads an informative message from someone who lives with ADHD in Korea, who goes in depth about what it’s like to be diagnosed and seek treatment for ADHD while living in Asia, as well as the problematic belief people in the West have that Asia falls behind in the field of psychological medicine. 

This week, Youngmi discusses two topics suggested by listeners: ADHD and friendship breakups. She talks about being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and how it felt to look back on her life and reassess her childhood. She also discusses how she views friendships and why they seem so different to her than romantic relationships.