Modern Minorities

It's the morning after, I’ll leave some fresh comments at the top of the episode. It was crushingly hard to tell my daughter before she went off to school. We're probably all asking ourselves, how did we get here? 

So easier to just re-air this Quarantined Comics episode from August 2022 about the vibrant and harrowing graphic novel Berlin, by Jason Lutes, which I've actually referenced in many conversations over the past few months. It’s a small distraction in an eerily prescient conversation about a comic book written about Germany in the 1930s. And if that's too heavy right now, head over to YouTube and watch “day drinking” clips with Seth Meyers — the ones with Rihanna and Dua Lipa are works of art. 

To paraphrase Mehdi Hasan: While a majority of our fellow Americans may have voted for an unhinged demagogue — the rest of us need to stick together. Solidarity is about to become the most important word in our political vocabulary. We need each other. And so, for the next four years, solidarity is the name of the game.

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“ Growing up in Hawaii is a really, really special experience — natural beauty, family and community. But you're really trying to fit into a local culture that has such a complex relationship with Caucasian people.”

Chris Schmicker is a a Honolulu-born and New York City-based writer and brand marketer who’s currently working on a debut short fiction collection set in contemporary Hawaii. Chris is Hapa — half Japanese & Chinese, half Swiss & Irish — we first met on our previously aired ANA AMAM panel. Growing up on an island - literally, and migrating to the mainland, Chris has many different, but similar experiences, which he brings to life in a very thoughtful way. Navigating our personal, sometimes terrible, sometimes convenient superpowers of code-switching was something we discussed navigating on the personal and professional fronts, growing comfortable into the adults we’d one day become. 

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• https://www.chrisschmicker.com/

MENTIONS

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“We wanted something that was familiar, but also Filipino — the whole culture of the older sister that knows and gives advice without judgment.”

Lisa Angulo Reid the co-founder and CEO of Dear Flor, the first Filipina-owned cannabis company that makes gummies that are 100% vegan with 100% Filipino flavors like ube, calamansi, and buko pandan. Founded by Lisa and her husband Brian, Dear Flor’s mission is to bring Filipino culture to the world, one flavor at a time. Sharon + Lisa are OG Chiefs, but Lisa + Raman only met a few months ago at an industry event (AMAM FTW) where they bonded over nerdiness and marketing. 

Lisa’s journey into entrepreneurship began after a successful 20+ year career in advertising and marketing, where she led transformative campaigns for some of the world’s most loved and trusted brands. She’s also an advocate for Asian women leaders and spearheaded NYC’s inaugural Philippine American History Month celebration which featured Filipina trailblazers Loida Nicolas Lewis and Nicole Ponseca. You’ll enjoy this conversation among new friends about growing up in the south, building a personal business, and relating what we do to both our parents - and our kids. 

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MENTIONS

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“I didn't ask my dad many questions, and now I'll never know. And I could call my mom up right now, but I'm not going to do that because - ‘the culture’ - we don't really ask each other personal questions.”

Kathy MacLeod is an illustrator and cartoonist - the author of CONTINENTAL DRIFTER, her debut graphic novel - a memoir about a youth split between growing up in Bangkok, and her first summer camp experience in Maine. CONTINENTAL DRIFTER is a coming of age story about a girl caught between two worlds - her home of Thailand, where her mom is from, and her discovery - and reconciliation with reality of - the  exotic, idyllic America of her father. Kathy’s work was an accidental discovery (and a happy surprise) - a classic childhood story of seeking belonging, but not being sure where we can find it. While it’s a fun graphic novel geared for kids, at times it can be a heavy drama of understanding for all of us. It’s really tender, and it has a lot of heart. Kathy’s work has appeared in The Believer, Catapult, The Hairpin, and Lucky Peach. After spending most of her life in Bangkok, Thailand (with a four-year interlude at Wesleyan University), Kathy is currently living in Berlin, Germany. While our chat didn’t cover much about her work, we covered a lot about the stories we each carry with us about the relationships we have with our families. 

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MENTIONS

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“Distraction is not a technology problem or a moral failing. The vast majority of distraction is simply that you have not learned the skill of dealing with discomfort. Master internal triggers, or they will become your master.”

Nir Eyal is a best-selling author and instructor working at the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. In a research-driven conversation about his latest book “INDISTRACTABLE - How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life,” we learn about what really drives distraction — which is less about flashy external stimuli, and more about our own internal discomfort. The good news is, it’s not out of reach, by better understanding our internal triggers - it just might be possible to get back to a focus that feels so far gone. The good news is, It's not out of reach, and Nir shares some great tips to get started. 

Indistractable received critical acclaim, winning the Outstanding Works of Literature Award as well as being named one of the Best Business and Leadership Books by The Globe and Mail and Amazon, and among the Best Personal Development Books of the Year by Audible. Nir is also the author of “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” — his books have resonated with readers worldwide, selling over 1 million copies in over 30 languages. 

Nir’s writing and work has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Harvard Business Review, The M.I.T. Technology Review, Time Magazine, Psychology Today. Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003, and invests in habit-forming products that improve users’ lives including Eventbrite (NYSE:EB), Anchor.fm (acquired by Spotify), Kahoot!, Canva, Homelight, Product Hunt, Marco Polo, Byte Foods, FocusMate, Dynamicare, Wise App, and Sunnyside. Nir previously taught in the Business and Design schools at Stanford University, and Nir attended The Stanford Graduate School of Business and Emory University.

This is an episode from friend-of-the-pod Sharad Lal's podcast “HOW TO LIVE” - for lots more great conversations with Sharad and thought leaders, subscribe to How To Live wherever you get your favorite podcasts, or visit howtolive.life 

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“You need to get people registered, you need to get them informed, you need them voting. This is not the work of just one cycle, but this is the work of a generation.”

Wendy Nguyen is Founder and President of AsianAmericansRise.com — a political advocacy nonprofit focused on civic engagement from the Asian American community. Right now, Wendy and her team are most focused on registering voters - and turning out the Asian vote in swing states like Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina — and in key congressional races across the country. We’re all concerned about how close this election is going to be, so we’d strongly encourage you to make a donation - large or small - at AsianAmericansRise.com. Their org is 100% volunteer run, so your dollars will go directly getting out the Asian American vote. And with voter registration deadlines fast-approaching, and so much on the line - gun safety, climate change, healthcare access, voting rights and more - coming down to a handful of votes in just a handful of counties this November, every little bit helps ASAP...

Long before Wendy’s work turning out the vote — she was a long-time advocate for AAPI political representation, having co-founded Stand with Asian Americans back in March 2021 in the early days of the Stop Asian Hate movement. She's super passionate about the cause and has a big picture, long-term vision for how our community can come together to drive change. And it’s really cool seeing such a focused, performance-marketing approach that can have a big impact. On top of all that Wendy has two other really important day-jobs, that of a bay area CMO, and that of a mom. Like us, you’ll be blown away by her heart, candor, practicality, and proactiveness.

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 ” I was in survival mode for so long — then I finally dealt with it - shedding all the old stories I told myself that society put on — those stories stick with us and form our identity without us even realizing it.”

Ida Abdalkhani is a longtime FrieMMd of the pod, and a co-host on Raman’s other podcast, “Learnings from Leaders.” Ida is many things...an entrepreneur, marketer, board member, speaker, professor, patent-holder, yoga instructor, published author, and many more things to come. We actually met early in our careers, and our paths have crossed again and again. Ida was one of first “Model” Minorities guests way back when in 2020 — when the world was VERY different. And since then, lots has changed not just everywhere, but in Ida’s life. in a short time Ida dealt with more change and crisis than most of us deal with in decades. And that’s given Ida some new perspective, so we wanted to catch up and understand what was different. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation between old friends reflecting on the change that is around all of us.

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 ”I’ve come to my parents with challenges and they say, keep working hard, keep pushing through it — they're so used to working 12 hour days, making ends meet — it’s interesting to see them understanding my career.”

Raman recently moderated a community conversation on "Building Bridges across Generations" for the inaugural Asians in Marketing and More summit - where we explored the personal and professional expectations of work and family across different generations. We explored how we, as a professional community can support the next generation of leaders. Moderating the panel was a real treat - especially in sharing stories on stage - and getting to know fellow purpose-driven Asian business leaders. 

FEATURING: Amrita Dutta-Gupta (GNC), Chris Schmicker (Shopify), Vanessa Huynh (LabCorp), Paresh Jha (LinkedIn), David Yin (Capital Y Consulting), Lisa Reid (Dear Flor), Jill Kelly (WPP), Jennifer Chen (Connatix), Ranjana Choudhry (Inmar), Aniko DeLaney (Fordham University), Julie Lee (TDW+Co), Elliot Lum (Association of National Advertisers)

MENTIONS

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“I was not gonna follow rules if they didn't make any sense to me. There's a healthy sense of curiosity and a willingness to challenge the status quo.”

Sudha Ranganathan is an emotionally intelligent leader. Drew Tarvin is a humor engineer. Both are P&G Alumni, and old friends of Raman’s from different parts of his life. This is a bonus conversation from Raman (+Drew’s) other podcast, Learnings from Leaders. Having worked at companies like Linkedin, Paypal, Affinnova,and Procter & Gamble - in the US and Asia, Sudha’s career has spanned engineering, marketing, and product strategy - but what she really excels at is managing and coaching others. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation diving deep into the significance of emotional intelligence and psychological safety in the workplace — with learnings from her early experiences and struggles as a new leader to her proactive approach to personal development. And comic books may or may not have come up.

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“He bears witness - in a very disarming way - what's really going on in this country.” “It’s often expressed without a single word, vivid enough that It hits a bit differently — It's not sugar coated —  this is what they're up against.”

BURMA CHRONICLES is the 2007 graphic travelogue by French-Canadian cartoonist Guy Delisle — which presents a personal and distinctively humorous glimpse into a political hotspot on the other side of the world, where the Delisle balances his ex-pat home-husbandry, the spinning politics a quasi-authoritarian state, and finding a way as a foreign cartoonist amidst a South Asian junta

This is another very special Quarantined CoMMics crossover episode - covering a graphic novel with a very unique Modern Minorities take. Joining is longtime FrieMMd of the Pod (+Ramans other, other podcast co-host) DREW TARVIN, Humor Engineer, who much like the author of this week's comic, happens to be a dude who's a funny-jobbed, home-husbanding ex-pat dad in a foreign land.

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