“The first step of climbing out is admitting we're in it....”

For 2026, we continue sharing minority voices for all of our majority ears — and one of those is longtime FrieMMd of the Pod, Bob Gilbreath - and some great perspective to take into what looks to be another daunting year - depending on how we choose to look at it.

Bob’s weekly newsletter and podcast, “the Workaround” are some of our favorite things to read each week - and this post is no exception. While it starts dark, it's actually really an uplifting call to action we all need to hear right now. One thing I love about Bob is his willingness to go down rabbit holes and thought experiments, but also just a kind and curious person open to a conversation. In fact, if you like what you hear, definitely subscribe to the Workaround’s substack or podcast, and reach out to Bob directly to book time for a chat during his “office hours” where he’s always down for a chat.

LEARN FROM BOB:

• SUBSTACK / NEWSLETTER: theworkaround.substack.com/
• PODCAST: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-workaround-by-bob-gilbreath-podcast/id1738687465
• OFFICE HOURS: calendly.com/bob-gilbreath/bob-gilbreath-office-hours

“Minority voices for all our majority ears...”

As another eventful year comes to a close, we recap some favorite voices shared by our many FrieMMds of the Pod in 2025 — so grab a tasty beverage, share with a friend, and enjoy!

Featuring the voices of Zohran Mamdani, Vidyut Latay, Varuna Srinivasan, Michael Wong, David Yin, Susie Quesada, Vaibhav, Lisa Angulo Reid, Nicole Ponseca, Suresh Raj, Keith Pedro, Jonathan Hill, Ainsley Waller, Josh Ridenour, Lydia Querian, Brian Velasquez Reid, Bob Gilbreath, Kay Sohini, Ayan Sanyal, Maurice Cherry, Karl Preissner, Stefan K. James, Paresh Jha, Maggie Silver, Loren Appin, Fahad Kawaja, Everette Taylor, Jieun Kim, and Sharon Lee Thony!

Special thanks to guest-host Lisa Angulo Reid and producer Alexandre Hirlinger without whom keeping the pod alive in 2025 could not have been possible!

“We need some sort of framework to say what is okay and what is not okay — and we need to revisit this when the technology changes..”

The more we read, the clearer it gets — it’s just another AI-pocalypse in the making. First its replacing the means of production, then its hallucinations no one can explain. People keep saying we’ll get it under control… but we all know how that story ends. Inevitably the giant machines show up, humanity freaks out, and Judgment Day arrives — right on schedule.

But what about what comes after? The silence, the guilt, the unfinished reparations. That’s the world of DESCENDER, Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s haunting watercolor sci-fi graphic novel epic about creation, empathy, and fear — and its sequel ASCENDER, where the age of machines gives way to something older, stranger, and far more magical. Longtime FrieMMds of the Pod Paresh and Jieun — two bastions of humanity (and comics nerdery) — rejoin to unpack this meditation on the robot apocalypse and magical redemption of love, loss, and what it really means to be human. Also we solve the current AI problem. You’re welcome.

LEARN MORE

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" Whatever bad situation you're in, it is really your will to want to change. Your predicament, your situation and life will try to break you — it was really just that determination that I didn't want to have myself or my family ever in a bad situation like that ever again.”

Everette Taylor is the CEO of Kickstarter, a leader whose journey from adversity to influence is all about creativity, resilience, purpose, and impact. Since Kickstarter's launch, they’ve funded more than $8.5 Billion in creative projects worldwide. This is the debut episode of IN COMMUNITY - a new show by Fahad Khawaja — longtime FrieMMd of the Pod and Founder of Hue, the community-powered platform bringing marginalized voices to the center. Fahad explores the stories, values, and lived experiences that connect us — IN COMMUNITY is thoughtful, energizing, and the exact kind of conversation we need more of right now. This conversation is for anyone ready to build anything - spanning ambition and adversity, to shape culture and power progress. And most importantly? what it really takes to build community at scale.

LEARN MORE

youtube.com/@fahad.future

wearehue.org

Everette Taylor, Kickstarter CEO - instagram.com/everette

Fahad on MM (Sept 2023): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fahad-khawajas-hue-is-amplifying-voices/id1507595726?i=1000627418554

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Zohran Mamdani - NYC's mayoral candidate - delivers a tearful speech on his Muslim faith — "the dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated the same as every New Yorker."

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“Translation — it's listening and understanding. It's trying to understand each other, trying to find some common ground, but understanding that there is a gap and that's okay, because we're all different.” 

There’s this really good book about a kid in England who gets into an elite school to learn the magic that can literally change the world. There’s friendship, betrayal, enchanted objects, and the fate of the world hanging in the balance. But we’re not talking about Hogwarts - this is Oxford. 

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang — might just be the most important story you’ll read this year.  It’s what happens when a coming-of-age fantasy grows up — when instead of asking who gets to wield magic, it asks who built it, who profits from it, and who gets burned by it. By page 100, you'll start to hear the opening lines of Rage Against the Machine. It’s Harry Potter meets Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and so much more.  Joining is longtime FrieMMd of the pod, and comic-book partner-in-crime Paresh Jha. 

LEARN MORE:

BABEL (RF Kuang): goodreads.com/book/show/57945316-babel

ARTICLE (New Yorker): The Otherworldly Ambitions of R. F. Kuang - newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/the-otherworldly-ambitions-of-r-f-kuang

MENTIONS

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“The Philippines isn't the president, it isn't the government. The Philippines is the people. Our role as Filipino Americans living in the diaspora is to stand with them. Tama na. Enough.”

Politics is divided, institutions are fragile, and truth feels up for sale. Sounds familiar? Here’s the twist — we’re not talking about America, we’re talking about the Philippines. With over 110 million people, it’s one of the largest democracies on Earth — a nation with deep ties to the U.S. that most of us are not taught in school. If recent decades have taught us anything - it mirrors the challenges we face at home in the U.S. today: corruption, disinformation, and the erosion of trust in power. One might say it’s a canary in the coal mine, which many Filipinos, and Filipino-Americans have been calling attention to those who will listen. 

And since October is Filipino American History Month, FrieMMd of the Pod Lisa Angulo Reid, co-founder of Dear Flor stopped by for a chat. Lisa recently penned a Substack post “Fighting for a Home That Isn’t Mine” - we continued a longer conversation we’ve been having - ranging from her essay, corruption, diaspora identity, her calling, the economic potential on both sides of the ocean. and what it means to fight for a home you no longer live in but still carry inside...

ABOUT LISA: dearflor.com // dearflor.substack.com

MENTIONS

Maria Ressa (Nobel Prize winning journalist): wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Ressa

Maria Ressa on the Daily Show (9/18/2025) :  youtube.com/watch?v=Tsb1I7hqaJ4

HISTORY 

First landing of Filipinos in the USA (1587): wikipedia.org/wiki/First_landing_of_Filipinos_in_the_United_States

Philippine-American War - wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War

Independence Seaport Museum (Philadelphia) / USS Olympia exhibit

newyorkpcg.org/pcgny/2024/10/11/philippine-american-war-1899-1902-complex-symbols-conflicting-relationships-exhibit-unveiled-aboard-olympia/

India: British business / colonial rule (~1600 - 1757 - 1947): wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_India

British East India Company - wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

Duterte drug killings (WARNING - graphic) - nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-drugs-killings.html

BOOK:  Patron Saints of Nothing (Randy Ribay): goodreads.com/book/show/41941681-patron-saints-of-nothing

BOOK (Poems): Antiemetic for Homesickness (Romalyn Ante): goodreads.com/book/show/53095607-antiemetic-for-homesickness

FOOD: Ginataang Tilapia  panlasangpinoy.com/ginataang-tilapia/

PLACES

Visayas: Southern island region, rich in beaches and culture.

Ilocos: Northern coastal region known for heritage towns.

Baguio: Mountain city with cool climate and tribal roots.

Batangas: Cultural heart of the Tagalog people.

Taal: Volcano within a lake within a crater.

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A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, we started a podcast...

300 episodes later, instead of a self-congratulatory retrospective, we asked our MANY longtime FrieMMds of the Pod to “ask us anything” — from how ideas of being a minority have changed, surprises and lessons hidden from 300 conversations, fond unexpected memories, what our kids continue to teach us, and all the conversations we somehow still haven’t had. Big thanks to FrieMMds of the Pod - Nina Pearl, Jay Veraldi, Rajiv Satyal, Jieun Kirtley, Steven Wakabayashi, Melissa Haughton, Joe Medved, Bob Gilbreath, Lisa Angulo Reid, Maurice Cherry, Sudha Ranganathan, Sarah Poritt, and one very special secret (and very curious) surprise guest. Messy, meaningful, and maybe even memorable — just how we like it...

Ask us anything, featuring...

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“ Build your own identity and understand what drives you — I just wanna be as authentically me as possible and let others know that this world is better when you can embrace what is unique to you, and not try to dim it.”

Priti Ohri is an award-winning adtech executive and entrepreneur. She’s Co-founder & CEO of Advertible, and one of the founders of DesiUs - a group for South Asians in adtech. Priti’s been recognized as one of the top women in media and technology by all the places that matter. But more importantly, Priti’s an authentic leader, comfortable in her own skin and a believer in setting her own path for others to see that they don’t always have to do things the way they’ve always been done. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation on how Priti navigates change - in business, life, and the world.

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“ None of us know how to be bored anymore. Some of the best things in my life have come from those moments where I'm not connected” — “...can you poop without your phone?

We're going to solve our social media's problem — but first, you have to accept we ALL have a problem. Nearly every challenge we face as a society becomes infinitely harder if we stay on our current path. Division, misinformation, a slow erosion of critical thinking — we’re all feeling the effects. And we haven't even thrown AI into the mix. Yet at the same time, social media has undeniable upsides: connection, creativity, even community. So what do we keep? What do we change? What role should incentives, business models, regulation, and culture play in reshaping these platforms?

Recently longtime FrieMMd of the Pod Jay Veraldi put together a small workgroup — including entrepreneurs Loren Appin (Fishbowl co-founder) + Maggie Silver (Mother of Invention) — to meet, share perspectives, and figure out — how do we fix our social media problem?That’s the conversation our particular workgroup had. and it was with two fantastic, interesting, and intelligent people I'd never met - Loren and Maggie. Loren’s a product leader and community builder who’s spent the last 15 years building social platforms, including founding Fishbowl and leading product at Glassdoor. These days, he’s just as focused on inner growth — through meditation, music, and even the occasional quantum physics rabbit hole. Maggie’s an actor-turned-startup veteran with two kids, a handful of exits, and a new consumer products company called Mother of Invention in the works. She’s lived the arc of being all-in on social, then going dark, and now re-emerging with a mindful, founder’s presence. It was a fascinating conversation about how we navigate the mess of social media today — where things broke, how we might fix it, and why it matters right now — and for the future

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