Sundance Film Festival Asia came to Taipei this August. In today's episode of Uncovered, I speak to An Chu, the winner of this year's short film competition. An's winning piece, Tuo Tuo (陀陀), centers around the protagonist, Hai, who returns to help out at his family deer farm while he's on break from military service. What's An's connection with deer farming? What does An share with the protagonist? Was An seeking to criticize deer farming with his piece? All this and more from the director himself, so hit play!

You can watch An's winning short film here. Follow An on Instagram here. 

This week, I'm joined by my good friend Tyler Golec to discuss the OG: Starwars Episode 4: A New Hope (directed by George Lucas). We discuss the Hero's Journey story arc, how this episode exemplifies that journey, and how the high accessibility of Episode 4 may have helped to introduce others to the Sci-fi genre. Pour one out for Alderaan, and join us for this talk on the one that stated it all.

Join me and my guest Shamir Munoz as we discuss a shared blast from our pasts: The Series of Unfortunate Events, and especially the Reptile Room! (By Lemony Snicket) We discuss the frustrations of being unable to read the series in order, the joys of breaking the fourth wall, and how a series that is all about misfortune, carries a surprisingly uplifting message.

Today we're discussing this hit movie, theater phenomenon, and cultural movement that is the Barbie movie! (Directed by Greta Gerwig) I'm joined by my good friend, Alyssa Kestrel, all the way from the USA! We discuss how the movie brought people together, our love of the Ken story-arc, and all the ways the movie spoke to us in ways we didn't know we needed. Get your walking shoes ready, and come along with us!

Today, guest Kyle Swayne and I are discussing one of the most translated books... maybe ever? The Little Prince! (By Antoine De Saint Exupery). We talk about how our relationships shape ourselves and others, why kids books on topics like death are actually a very good thing, and how it truly is the quality of the time we spend with others, rather than the quality, that matters.

This week, we're discussing ONE of the well-known "Song of the Lioness" series by Tamora Pierce. Guest Cat Trites details why she re-reads this series once every year, and how it affected her as a younger reader! We also discuss: reading books with your parents, the appropriate reaction to being embarrassed as a teenager, the necessary trappings of a good young adult fiction novel, and what it means to empower femininity! 

TAKES of Our Time is a special format episode!

After feedback from last week's episode, we realized one episode just wasn't enough to capture everyone's thoughts on The Adventure Zone: Balance. This week, we invite 5 guests to share their thoughts as to what exactly made TAZ: Balance so meaningful to us. We discuss lessons we learned, the ways that we were introduced to TAZ as a hobby, and what we learned about saying goodbye. Special thanks to this week's guests: Kelli Lauren Fukusato, Alyssa Kestrel, Kyle Swayne, Nicole Szajner, and Michael Plowden. The Adventure Zone: Balance was produced by the McElroy Family.

This week, I'm joined by my incredible sibling: Jessica Stephens!! We're discussing the podcast The Adventure Zone, the Balance Arc (produced by the MacElroy Brothers)! We discuss our love of podcasts and audio books, choosing the best of bad options, and the power of choosing joy and reinventing yourself. 

This week, I'm joined by fellow Rti host, Sharon Lin! We're discussing one of her favorite stories, Shadow and Bone-- the Netflix series, based off of the books by Leigh Bardugo. In this episode we cover season 1... but there's still so much to say! We discuss the type of characters that we find most relatable and how the right stories can help us through our own dark times.

This week, host Amanda Stephens is joined by guest Moe Gustus to discuss Dune! (The original novel). We discuss the Bene Gesserit, why it's best that the film getting split into multiple movies, and how the events of Dune may be prospective fiction rather than science fiction. We don't even have TIME For sandworms in this episode!