Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a former star of 90210 to share her spoken word fantasy about being Vladimir Putin’s mother; the new Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz is chock full of daddy issues.

Both choices have us clawing at our faces and asking why, a thousand times WHY?

Luckily we rise above it all with two GOATS of Asian American pop culture criticism, Jeff Yang, journalist and columnist, and Phil Yu, founder of the Angry Asian Man blog. Along with filmmaker Philip Wang, they’ve written Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. 

Show notes:

AnnaLynne McCord’s Dear Mr President Vladimir Putin: https://twitter.com/IAMannalynnemcc/status/1496877541772062727

Wired: How Tiktok was designed for war: https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-russia-war-tiktok/

How to spot fake or misleading footage claiming to be from Ukraine: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-to-spot-fake-or-misleading-footage-on-social-media-claiming-to-be-from-the-ukraine-war

Rise: a pop history of Asian America from the nineties to now: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780358581888/rise/

Jeff Yang: https://twitter.com/originalspin

Angry Asian Man: http://blog.angryasianman.com/

They Call Us Bruce: https://theycallusbruce.libsyn.com/

The Batman: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_batman