As we exist in this life, in what ways can we make this world a better place? The simplicity and depth of this question exemplifies who Nick Cho is. As “Your Korean Dad” on TikTok, with over 3 million followers, Nick speaks gently and directly to viewers in his less than a minute-long videos. Each one is characterized by fatherly care, authenticity and whimsy. Nick takes us to buy snacks at Walgreens. He makes coffee for us while we do homework. He also addresses Transracial adoptees, acknowledging their struggles and telling them “I see you.” Some have dubbed him a modern-day Mr. Rogers. In this episode, we talk to Cho about how church life has formed him and why he walked away.

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“I find that my journey as an Asian-American parallels my journey of faith as well this is where it intersects.” -Phil Yu “I don’t think I can talk about being Asian-American really without talking about the communities of faith that have fed that identity.” -Jeff Yang Phil Yu and Jeff Yang are the godfathers of Asian American pop culture and men of faith. On this episode of The Disrupters, we talk about how the two identities intersect when it comes to community and continual investment.

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“When you take a story as beautiful as the Gospel of loving sacrifice, of a man who would heal the sick, care for the poor, bound up the brokenhearted, and you begin to force that belief in institutional settings, it destroys that message.” Terry Wildman understood what he was up against when he took the lead in a new Native-centered translation of the Bible: “If we can separate Jesus from the colonial baggage…then our Native people can take a real honest look at this holy man.” Addressing how words like “sin” were once used to oppress Native peoples, Terry Wildman explains how the First Nations Version of the New Testament gets back to the heart of Creator’s message of love.

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“I’ll be honest, my initial reaction to seeing an email that said ‘Audition for role of Nikki, Kung Fu,’ was like, 'Really? Haven’t we gone past this? Aren’t we done with the trope of the Asian doing martial arts?'” When Olivia first saw the audition email for the reboot of Kung Fu, the once popular 1970s TV starring David Carradine, she was not impressed. Olivia Liang is an actor and director with no interest in playing a stereotype, even going so far as to set a personal boundary for herself not to learn martial arts unless she was actively paid to do so. When she was cast as the star of Kung Fu, that's precisely what happened. After becoming more acquainted with the reboot project, she said she got “really excited” that Kung Fu was “going to celebrate…martial arts, which is so near and dear to our culture” and the Chinese Americans “get to be fully formed characters.” For Olivia Liang, this role was a fulfillment of God’s “calling.” Listen as she describes how she wants to be a light in Hollywood through story-telling and “just loving on people.”

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"I started to create what I call a 'let-go list,' trying to figure out as I evolve as a person, as a community leader, and as a co-leader in my family, really taking an evaluation and assessing the things I need to shed and let go as I create the type of space to give myself and my life to things that matter most in the moment." Terence Lester is a speaker, activist, author, and thought leader in the realm of systemic poverty. He is the founder of Love Beyond Walls, a non-profit organization focused on poverty awareness and community mobilization. His nationwide campaigns have been featured on MLK50, CNN, Good Morning America, USA Today just to name a few. According to Terence, by reorganizing our time and getting into communities with others (even if it’s just one trusted person!), we can all show up and make a difference in the world--whether it’s “30 minutes a week or an hour every other week.” If “1000 people” can give “an hour of time,” Terence believes that the “compounded collective impact can make a huge difference.” Listen to this inspirational conversation as you make your New Year’s resolutions.

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“I always say there’s three strands in my life. There’s racial identity, there’s hip hop culture, and there’s religion. And all three are actually synonymous to me.” Jason Chu is a rapper and activist, speaking hope and healing to a broken world. His music has been heard on Warrior (HBO Max), Snowpiercer (TNT), and Wu Assassins (Netflix). He has shared poetry at the Obama White House, been featured in the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, and presented at the Getty Center. He has been named one of two 2022 “Artists At Work” by the Japanese American National Museum and Advancing Justice-LA. In this episode, Jason and Nancy chat about how to bring together disparate parts of ourselves in synergistic ways. “Without Jesus, I don’t know who I am as an Asian American. Without hip hop, I don’t know the God that I know. Without being Asian American, I don’t make hip hop music because I don’t got an identity, I don’t got a community.”

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“I don't like to be binary. But if you said 'you have to divide believers into two categories: fear-based or love-based...' I’m with team love.” Min Jin Lee grew up in the church with a grandfather who was a Presbyterian minister. Her novel Pachinko (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. Min is a recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation (2018) and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard (2018-2019). She is a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College (2019-2022). In 2018, Min had the unique honor of being a Double Jeopardy clue in the “Literary Types” category. And yet, even with all of her accolades, she feels “it’s nothing compared to feeling that you’re a loved and accepted child of God.” It's a feeling she's known much of her life: "Even when I was very little and awkward and bullied, I really felt like I was a child of God. I still do."

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“I’m gonna stop suppressing myself … and lying to myself, or at least lying to you for the sake of peace and reconciliation. At this point, I’m just gonna need to be real.” Mental Health Expert Dr. Peace Amadi, PsyD, is a Professor, Speaker, Coach, and TV Host. She is also the author of Why Do I Feel Like This? Understand Your Difficult Emotions and Find Grace to Move Through which hit #1 on Amazon’s New Releases in Mental Health during its launch. She merges clinical insight and faith to encourage readers to listen to the hidden messages of their emotions. According to Amadi, she's seen firsthand that this isn't something that comes naturally to many in the church. Through the use of “spiritual platitudes” like “just let go and Let God,” “just forgive,” and “just don’t worry about it,” many in the church are “cutting off our ability to get exactly what we need in that moment; we literally cannot heal when we bypass our emotions.” In this episode, Peace shares wisdom on how to keep it real with our feelings and one another.

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"Ultimately, my career could go up, it could go down. But, it doesn't necessarily have any bearing with what's actually important in life." Gene Luen Yang has been making comics and graphic novels since the fifth grade, and by any measure, he's been a massive success. He wrote and drew ‘American Born Chinese,’ the first graphic novel to be nominated for a national book award, now slated for adaptation as a live-action Disney+ series. He writes for DC and Marvel and he’s won the McArthur Genius Award. It would be hard to argue with the success Yang has been experiencing. And yet, Gene says, "There was, at times, happiness about stuff, but it always felt like it was muted or limited." While some of his humble tendencies are cultural, in a very real sense they're also deeply rooted in faith. In this episode of The Disrupters, Yang explores how his upbringing and his faith give him perspective.

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Esau McCaulley discusses the new season of The Disrupters, coming December 2nd, with our new host, Nancy Wang Yuen, sociologist, pop culture expert and a professor at Biola University.

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