Reppin

at nine, a car accident took her father and left one of her arms permanently paralyzed. every time since, when someone decided what she couldn't do, she went and found out for herself.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/04IsNCUXJexaglKUAVikvR

music: dj ace the cut lieutenant

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what happens when both choices are the right thing: the life you want, and the family who needs you?

liz sargent lived that question for years. every time her sister anna needed help, the phone rang. so she did what she does with fear: she wrote it down. then she turned it into a film and cast anna as the lead. as one does, right?

take me home looks like a story about disability and caregiving. it's really about what happens when someone you love needs more of you than you know how to give, and you still have to find room for your own life.

we get into the moment she knew this was coming for her, ready or not. fighting a system built to wear you down. why the people we protect most are sometimes the ones we should challenge. and how you live with doing everything you could, and it still not being enough.

love isn't the moment you show up. it's the moment you stay after you want to leave. that's family. it's the one class none of us signed up for, and all of us are enrolled in.

if you liked this, listen to next.

yia vang next: he ran from who he was. now, it's his greatest superpower.

take me home: https://takemehomefilm.com/feature

here, we're human first.

music by dj ace the cut lieutenant

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i was there. this is my city. this is what i actually remember. this is the real moments i had.

i'm re-releasing this one for the 25th anniversary. it's just me this time, no guest — my own reflections on 9/11, as a new yorker, in my home, twenty-five years later.

i don't want to give you the highlight reel version of that day. i want to tell you what it actually felt like to live here when it happened — the fear, the quiet, the way the whole city held its breath together for a while. and i want to talk about what's changed since, and what hasn't. because twenty-five years is long enough to ask a harder question than "where were you." it's long enough to ask: what did we actually learn? and are we still living like we learned it?

this isn't a history recap. it's personal, and it's a little uncomfortable in places, because i think it should be. i'm asking you to sit with your own memory of that day too — what it changed in you, what it didn't, and whether the way you're living right now is actually in line with whatever you promised yourself back then.

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**listener discretion is advised.

twenty-five years ago, rais bhuiyan was shot in the face, ten days after 9/11, just because he looked different. i'm re-releasing this conversation for the 25th anniversary — him telling you what happened next, in his own words.

rais came to america for the idea of it — the cowboys, the fairness, the wide-open promise of the whole thing. in the fear and anger after the attacks, people who looked like rais became targets. a man walked into his gas station, asked where he was from, and pulled the trigger. rais survived. a few other men weren't as lucky.

here's the part that doesn't leave you: rais forgave him. not quietly. he campaigned to keep his own shooter off death row, wrote him letters--forgiving him, he fought the state of texas — and lost. the execution happened anyway. rais kept going: a nonprofit, a documentary, a fight in congress to get these hate crime victims recognized by name.

this isn't just about 9/11. it's about what a person does that day, the day after. and the day after that. and the twenty-five years after — carrying trauma that could easily define you, and choosing not to let it. it's the difference between forgiveness as a feeling and forgiveness as something you decide, again and again, on purpose. rais made a choice. then he made it again. every day since. which is the only question that matters: what have our choices been, since that day?

because rais understood something before most of us do — we don't have to agree, or look alike, or worship alike, to choose not to destroy each other over it. that's not weakness. that's the harder, stronger path. and he's also figured out how to transform that pain into purpose.

listen to the whole conversation. think about what you've overcome, and what's still asking to be overcome. look at the choices you've made, and the ones we've made together. sit with someone different from you. extend the hand first. it doesn't have to be big — just make it your choice.

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a kid threw away his mother's Hmong food so no one would see it — the same food just made his restaurant one of Time's "World's Greatest Places."

yia vang is a Hmong chef in Minneapolis, a James Beard semifinalist whose restaurant vinai has landed on the New York Times Restaurant List and Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurant. he named it after Ban Vinai, the refugee camp in Thailand where his Hmong parents — refugees who fled Laos after the Vietnam War — met and where he was born. he calls it a love letter to them.

but before any of that, he hid his lunch for years — rice, fish sauce, anything that made him look like the Hmong kid instead of a normal one. he'd toss it, keep the empty containers, tell his mom he ate. then he trained in every cuisine that wasn't his — Italian, French, Tex-Mex — before he'd go near the food he grew up on.

what brought him back wasn't a lesson. it was an egg his grandmother handed him every time he left her house. he thought it was the saddest gift a kid could get. he didn't understand it until decades later, standing in his own kitchen.

we all did some version of this too — shortened a name, dropped an accent, swapped a lunch for one that wouldn't get you laughed at, wore your hair differently. this episode isn't about a chef. it's about what it costs to go back for the thing you gave up and finally, embracing who you are. all of you.

no matter your race, gender, background, orientation to social status. there are no apologies. here, we're human first.

watch and listen on spotify : ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠⁠

reppin's gram jam: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/reppin_podcast/⁠⁠

follow yia on social: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/yiavang70/⁠⁠

yia's restaurant: vinai

https://www.vinaimn.com/⁠⁠⁠https://www.vinaimn.com/⁠⁠⁠

music by dj ace the cut lieutenant

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she's blonde. she's australian. and she's been living in china for over a decade.

turns out being the outsider has given her the inside track.

amy lyons built Blondie in China from the outside in — nearly 600,000 subscribers who show up every week because she takes them somewhere real. street food. local neighborhoods. conversations with strangers. the China you don't see on the news.

but here's what nobody tells you about being the one who gets stared at.

ten years of walking into rooms where everyone turns to look. of being the curiosity. the outsider. the one who doesn't fit — and never will. most people would shrink. amy got more curious. and what that did to her is the whole conversation.

being the one who doesn't fit forced her to figure out who she actually is. standing out when you just want to blend in builds something in you that comfort never could. and the view from the outside — the one nobody chooses — turns out to be the sharpest one in the room.

🎙️ listen to reppin

📲 follow reppin

🎙️ follow amy

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some people wait for permission. these six didn't.

osric chau bought a one-way ticket to a country he'd never lived in — and bet on himself.

laura sohn walked away from a hit network show in her 20s to build a life on her own terms.

chris pang's own team told him to pass on crazy rich asians. he trusted his gut instead.

six people you know from the credits, on the exact moment they chose courage — what it took, what it felt like, and what it made possible. no highlight-reel versions. the real ones.

this is reppin presents: the moment they chose courage — from reppin, the podcast about the person behind the headline.

featuring osric chau (supernatural) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/3lYpczPxR0Kq2rEpOhKgnp⁠ 

yvonne chapman (avatar kyoshi) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/1jiQWmHgLBoXBBnPpmgBjf

laura sohn (the blacklist) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bARaZUVlu2yhSWsnHsBmX⁠ 

gia kim (xo, kitty) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SbuRWbiI71JbfGlyVBfQJ⁠ 

amy lyons (blondie in china) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/0jaOubMJN5guSrVtgYpWSH ⁠ 

chris pang (crazy rich asians) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/6IbnuLSkTfL0iuV96JVXck⁠ 

new conversations twice a month. subscribe here, or listen on apple

spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠ apple:⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠ 

here, we're human first.

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eva noblezada spent her whole career refusing to be handled, boxed in, or told who to be. and i need you to hear how she says it.

she's a two-time tony nominee — for miss saigon, and for hadestown, the broadway musical that takes a centuries-old greek myth and blows it wide open with jazz, blues, and gospel. eva originated the role of eurydice and made it entirely hers.

and hadestown just made history. the live stage capture film beat hamilton for the biggest opening weekend ever for a live stage film — pulling in $10.2 million across nearly 2,000 locations. at its core, it's the story of orpheus and eurydice, about finding hope and holding onto love when the world gives you every reason not to. eva is that story. eva's also starring right now as daisy buchanan in the great gatsby on broadway. this woman does not stop.

but none of that is why you need to listen to this. listen because eva talks openly about the moments she had to push back — on directors, on trolls, on an industry built to make people smaller — and she came out the other side more herself, not less. not softer. sharper.

we talked about beauty. we talked about power. we talked about what it actually costs to hold your ground — and what it looks like when you just refuse to shrink. eva is exactly what she says she is: a powerhouse, on stage and off.

if you needed a sign today that your life is yours to dictate — stop scrolling and press play. listen to this one all the way through. this is your reminder.

then go check out hadestown — on stage or now streaming in theaters — and follow eva noblezada everywhere, because you're going to want to keep up with her.

watch and listen to our full conversation on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8

eva noblezada's instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/livevamaria/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

reppin's gram:

@reppin_podcast

substack:

https://substack.com/@reppinpodcast

music: dj ace the cut lieutenant

here on reppin, we're human first.

#evanoblezada #hadestown #misssaigon #eurydice #thegreatgatsby #broadway #tonynominee #reppin #herewerehumanfirst

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three major roles are landing for yvonne chapman at once. that's not what this conversation is really about.

she's kyoshi in netflix's avatar: the last airbender, madeline in hulu's the season, and soon on screen with michael douglas, willem dafoe and ellen barkin in oliver stone's white lies. that's a big year. but the roles aren't the point.

the point is how she's going about it.

she's been on reppin a few times now, across different chapters. go back, listen, you'll hear the trajectory. this is the latest one. might be the most honest yet.

betting on yourself with a measured risk, not a blind leap. growing up between hong kong and canada, belonging fully to both. discernment — protecting your energy without losing your warmth. those are power moves.

what makes yvonne good to talk to: she doesn't reach for the easy answer just because it sounds good. she did the work to actually know herself. that's rare. it's why people root for her.

you don't need three major projects to need this conversation. you just need to have proven you belonged somewhere, given too much to someone who didn't give it back, or waited on a big moment to finally let yourself change. what she's learned is yours to take too.

listen now. get to know this talented actress a little better. and walk away with a little more permission to trust your own pace, protect your energy, and bet on yourself.

watch and listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8

follow yvonne on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ypchapman/?hl=en

reppin's gram: https://www.instagram.com/reppin_podcast/?hl=en

opening music: dj ace the cut lieutenant

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chris pang. one of the faces proving hollywood wrong about asian actors.

chris pang — charlie's angels, joyride, crazy rich asians, and now hulu's the season, set against the stunning backdrop of hong kong high society, where mystery and drama follow every relationship in the room. chris plays andrew fong, a man who's tough to like at first. but take a second longer look and you see how fully human he is — flawed, insecure, and wanting nothing more than to be loved.

but the real conversation starts long before any of these roles. chris grew up not seeing anyone who looked like him on screen — no hero, no proof it was even possible. so he went looking somewhere else. what he found changed the entire trajectory of his life, long before any casting director ever did.

that search is what eventually put him in rooms most people never get close to — playing parts that didn't exist for guys like him a decade ago. he gets honest about what it actually cost to get there, and what's still stacked against him. and then there's the one project that did something he never expected — changed how an entire room watched a screen, strangers and family alike, all at once.

this is a conversation about being underestimated, about building the thing nobody hands you, and about what happens the moment you stop waiting for permission.

LISTEN and WATCH REPPIN on SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8

Reppin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reppin_podcast/?hl=en

Reppin's Substack:

https://reppinafterhours.substack.com/

Follow Chris Pang: https://www.instagram.com/pangeerz/?hl=en

Opening music: DJ Ace the cut Lieutenant

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