On Election Day 2024, while most of the level-headed American public mourned the re-emergence of the far-right orange man, local folks in Los Angeles had a moment of electoral triumph with the victory of Ysabel Jurado to the Los Angeles City Council. Jurado is the first Filipino/a/x American to ever serve on the City Council for the nation’s 2nd largest city and the home to the largest number of Filipinos outside of the Philippines. It was truly a victory for Filipinos and so many other historically marginalized communities in the city.

The TFAL crew knew Ysabel for many years and have been a big supporter of her leadership, so we are ecstatic that she was able to join the podcast. Listen as we discuss her victory over her racist and corrupt opponent, her first few months in office, her loyalty and duty to working class communities, California’s housing crisis, Bernie-chella, and the hopeful future of SM Eagle Rock (aka Eagle Rock Plaza). We also ask her what it was like to work with great Ryan and Joe (spoiler: Ryan and Joe are mid). If you want to know more about the inner workings, pressures, and rewards of running a campaign and serving as an elected official, this is the episode for you.

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

In this episode TFAL’s Elaine and Producer Mike have a conversation with Lisa Angulo Reid, founder of Dear Flor @lovedearflor. Dear Flor’s mission is to bring Filipino culture to the world, one flavor at a time. Lisa shares her journey as an entrepreneur and how she transitioned from advertising to the quickly growing cannabis industry.

If you have ever been interested in trying gummies, take advantage of the Dear Flor 4/20 promo! All Dear Flor products are 20% off! Free shipping on all orders. Promo ends at midnight Pacific Time on 4/20.

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

What flavor would you like to see in a gummy? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

In this TFAL episode, Joe talks to Dr. Allan Lumba, writer, researcher, historian, and professor at Concordia University in Montreal, about potential of Filipinx Studies to inspire our community to fight for a better world. Listen how he developed into a brilliant scholar focused on Philippine Studies, the growing number of Filipino and Filipino American intellectuals unapologetically studying the Philippines and Filipinos in the diaspora, the making of a Filipinx Freedom School, and the current global fascist moment emerging from decades of neoliberal policies. In the episode, they also wax nostalgic about being roommates during their graduate school days at the University of Washington.

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

Any thoughts on the episode? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

The TFAL crew is no stranger to the world of animation. In episode 28 (TFAL talks Voice Acting (and Secrets & Fears)), the crew had a conversation with voice actors Eric Bauza (@bauzilla) and Earl Baylon (@earlybgoode). While Producer Mike and Elaine were on their trip in the Philippines, they were able to connect with Oscar nominated animation director and founder of Rise Up Animation (@riseupanimation), Bobby Pontillas (@bobbypontillas).

This conversation took place in the lobby of the Fairmont Makati (over a delicious meal, naturally), hence the background noise throughout. Many thanks to Bobby for taking the time to talk with Elaine and Producer Mike!

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

What Filipino and/or Filipino American stories would you love to see animated? What are your favorite animated films? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

Is it truly “More Fun in the Philippines?  Well technically not any more, because that marketing campaign ended in 2023.  Now it’s “Love the Philippines”, but do we?  They say there’s “no place like home” (which is especially fitting, since this is episode “227”… look it up, kids), but for Elaine and Producer Mike, who were both born in the US, going to the Philippines was always going to be a different sort of homecoming.  And in many ways, Elaine and Producer Mike going to the Philippines is the closing of a chapter of TFAL, in which these specific aspirations have finally been accomplished:  Elaine has gone to the Philippines for the first time ever, and Producer Mike finally made a return after 20 years.  And in both cases, it was everything and nothing either of them expected.  What does that even mean?!  Well listen to the episode and find out!

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

What have your experiences visiting the Philippines been like?  Should the whole TFAL crew go there next? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

For generations, society has taught Filipinos and Filipino Americans what our specific gender roles should be. For men, masculinity is usually associated with ideas of strength, competition, emotion-less, family responsibilities, and protection. At times, these concepts can create narrow definitions of manhood and can pigeon-hole heterosexual men into certain prescribed racial, classed, and gender identities. How can Filipino men navigate an increasingly isolating, brutal, and hyper-masculine society particularly in the United States? How do men make room for different forms of masculinity? How do men reject notions of toxicity, violence, and domination as they remake and redefine heterosexual masculinity for ourselves?

In this TFAL episode, Joe talks to Don Martinez, a Marriage and Family Therapist based in Pasadena, and Joseph Reynoso, a psychoanalytic clinical psychologist based in New York City. They get into a deep conversation about masculinity among Filipino American men, cultures of domination, familial obligations, ideas of success and failures, and so much more. They barely scratch the surface on this initial conversation, but we hope you find the conversation fresh, interesting, and thought-provoking.

NOTE: This was another feeble attempt by Joe to record and edit the episode without the almighty Producer Mike (who was still in the Philippines). Please direct any hate mail to him.

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

Do you have thoughts on Filipino American masculinity? Let us know and maybe we’ll have further discussion on a future episode! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

As referenced in the episode, here is Joseph Reynoso’s latest work, Sports and Psychoanalysis, an edited volume of essays that explores the intersection of sport and psychoanalysis.

Did you know that men from the Philippines prior to colonization wore penis pins and rings in order to pleasure their sexual partner during intercourse? Yes, many of our ancestors had all kinds of sex toys and pleasure enhancers. In many ways, being open to sex and sexual pleasure can be seen as a form of anti-colonialism. Everyday, many Filipinos and Filipino Americans have tried to push for a more sexually liberated society, much to the chagrin of the conservative folks in our community and in the Philippines,

Got a question for Goddess Cecilia? Let us know and maybe she’ll come back for a future episode! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

Episode 224 | Living with the Land – A Conversation with Dennis Arguelles

This past fall, TFALpodcast’s Elaine took a California Naturalist Training Institute course with Community Nature Connection (CNC). CNC offers this course to anyone who aspires to be a steward of the land. CNC also offers customized trainings like:

In this episode Elaine has a conversation with Dennis Arguelles, Southern California Director with National Parks Conservation Association Dennis’ journey from Filipino and Asian American community organizing to urban planning to the National Parks Conservation Association. This conversation highlights the pastoral connection Filipinos have to nature. Dennis shares about his experience with farmers in the Philippines and how they live with the land instead of separate from the land, which echoes sentiments of land stewardship that indigenous people of California and indigenous people globally emphasize. 

Here are links to the Merlin and iNaturalist apps mentioned in the episode:

Merlin Bird App

iNaturalist

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on ThisFilipinoAmericanLife.com, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

How do you live with the land? Are you an aspiring naturalist? Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

If it’s a music episode, you know Producer Mike is behind it!

In our 3rd and final episode in our Toronto series, we got to get a hangout with Michelle and Kat, two members of the “queer Filipinx kulintang gong punks” crew Pantayo whose incendiary yet soulful music defies even the sheer idea of a genre. We also got to check in with bedroom pop purveyor Denice Quimbo AKA Ruru, a more recent Toronto transplant by way of Manila who describes herself as a “multi-disciplinary artist, producer, and singer-songwriter,” a description as you’ll soon hear is an incredible understatement.

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on our site, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

Do you know any other artists from Toronto we should listen to? Keeping in mind that Producer Mike already listens to Broken Social Scene constantly…

Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

Song clips used in this episode with artists permission:

Pantayo – “Heto Na”

Pantayo – “Sapa(n)ahon”

Pantayo – “One More Latch (Give It To ‘Ya)”

Ruru – “Chewing Gum”

Ruru – “Tonight!”

Ruru – “It Matters Until It Doesn’t”

We continue our Toronto series with discussions on two very important issues that affect us – politics and golf. As with every visit to another city, we love to talk about the local political scene. Here to talk to us about Canadian politics is Member of Parliament and Minister of Small Business Rechie Valdez. She was elected to the House of Commons in Canada in 2021 representing Mississauga-Streetsville and is the first Filipina Canadian member of Parliament. Listen as she discusses her story as a corporate banker to a baking entrepreneur to one of the most powerful elected officials in Canada as well as the wonderful programs she initiated. Canada is truly doing something way better than here in the U.S.

And then we talk about golf. We talk to Adam Robles, founder of Rise Bogey League, a local golf association in Toronto. Here we discuss efforts by the League to re-imagine golf as a game for everyone, and not just rich, white men. Golf is a growing game, even among Filipinos in the diaspora. Robles talks about harnessing that energy and helping Filipinos advance in the sport. They also try to convince Joe to get into golf. (Nice try, guys!).

We also discuss our efforts to try to track down Garnet Lechon Sauce. #IYKYK

Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on our site, or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.

Have you been to Toronto? Have you tried Garnet Lechon Sauce??

Let us know! Leave us a voicemail at (805) 394-TFAL or email us at [email protected].

Here are more photos from our trip to Toronto and interviews!