This episode is a first for the show: a live, walking conversation recorded on-premises at Vanilla Club, on the lush Cassowary Coast in Tropical North Queensland, before picking up later in the urban jungle of Sydney. (Please give me some credit for my assimilation into Aussie culture--- if you watch the video you will see I am reppin' the "high-viz," screaming neon orange hat, and a ripper of a neon yellow vest, thank you!) What unfolds here isn't a typical interview, but a shared journey through neolithic rainforest, across rivers with “potential for crocs,” and into deeper reflections on place, and community.

Our guest Danny Kinzer, is a former high-school classmate of mine. Physically speaking, imagine a composite of Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa; you get the picture stature-wise; but Danny has a better smile than either of them on their best day, and is one of the warmest braddahs you'll ever meet. Danny describes himself less as a storyteller and more as a voyager, guide, and student of relationship. He has worked in education and some adjacent spaces with some big names like National Geographic, Hōkūleʻa Crew, and The Biomimicry Institute, and has been associated with some stellar institutions, but a name-dropper he is not. And the tenor of this conversation is a lot more subtle. So we will just go with the braddah-ship.

As the walk begins, the conversation opens into the Hawaiian ecological concept of "kipuka" - pockets of life that survive disruption and seed future regeneration. Vanilla Club becomes a living example: a working farm that also acts as a sanctuary, and a meeting place for human, animal and plant life.

From there, we flow across disciplines and life chapters. Danny reflects on stepping away from competitive sport, when he realised the game mattered less to him than the people. That same instinct, to choose meaning over metrics (and the persistent, omni-optimisation that surrounds so many of us), threads through his studies in neuroscience and psychology, his later work in biomimicry, and a life shaped by walking, wandering, and listening.

Rather than chasing famous destinations, Danny speaks about “Lake Okobojis”: ordinary places made extraordinary through relationship. A small island village in China reached on foot. A spontaneous visit to Anaconda, Montana. Swimming mangroves in Bali. Danny is the type of guy who would be down grabbing a bag of rice and heading upriver in to the wild, and I just love it. Tripadvisor... schmipadvisor

The ocean emerges as a central metaphor - less a boundary than a vast connector, “a million rivers flowing at once.” Living in Hawaii, Danny shares how voyaging canoes and intergenerational knowledge have shaped his understanding of community, where children, elders, and ancestors are all part of the same crew. If I said it it'd be cliché, but Danny just lives the Aloha spirit.

Returning to the Cassowary Coast, the conversation closes where it began: with gratitude for a place that feels alive, unfinished (in a good way!), and willing to move without a fixed destination.

We hope you enjoy.

vanilla.club

In this episode, we are joined by Alex Woo, director of the Netflix hit "In Your Dreams."

As founder and CEO of Kuku Studios, Alex is a business-creative hybrid - something he is all too modest about, but something that is a key part of Alex's secret sauce.

Alex is also a dear friend and classmate. We went to the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU together. I don't have any beer pong gone wrong stories to share, or drunken late night hijinks to tell, probably because Alex was in the cutting room, perfecting his craft, all the way back to the last millennium. I can tell you that even in high school the lore was that Alex was destined to be a master filmmaker.

We also learn plenty of tidbits about the movie making process. Alex gives some specific examples of how particular jokes get woven into the film---sometimes they are core elements in the early script, other times they are monkey-wrenched in there---like a particular "Don't Cha!"

Alex gives some vignettes of his childhood in the States and the Hong Kong, and how certain cultural and family experiences came to inspire the film.

Ultimately, 'In Your Dreams' really reminds us why storytelling is king, and why in a media landscape filled with lots of mediocre and increasingly AI-generated content, parents should opt for the high quality choice, like In Your Dreams.

We hope you enjoy.

Cairns Native Bee

In this breezy but immersive episode, Vanilla Club Podcast gets out of the studio and into the field, or the paddock, as they say Down Under. I sit down with Zac Peterson, founder of Cairns Native Bee/Hinterland Hives, and Anoob Davidraj, a fellow Vanilla Club team member, to unpack the remarkable world of bees.

What begins as a conversation about starting our own apiary at Vanilla Club, quickly expands into a sweeping exploration of the craft of beekeeping, and the science of the hive mind. They are wonderful creatures these bees!

As the episode unfolds, we dive into the chemistry of taste - how compounds, plant stress responses, soil profiles, and even pollination behaviours influence what we perceive on the tongue. This is terroir if I have ever seen it, applicable as much to Chardonnay grapes in France as it is to native Australian honey in Queensland.

One of the episode’s highlights is Zac’s breakdown of honey production: how bees perform the waggle dance to guide others to nectar, why honey flavour changes every season, and how a single hive with ten frames can produce ten completely different honeys depending on where its foragers decide to fly. With yields ranging from 30 to 60 kilos a year, each hive becomes its own micro-ecosystem of chemistry and flavour.

We discuss the calming effect of smoke, to the evolutionary reasons bees are more aggressive toward darker colours - a survival trait shaped by ancient predators. Are bees racist? We now know the answer.

Anoob shares a bit of his background with us, tracing his passion for beekeeping back to his childhood in South India, where his family produced seasonal honey from blooming rubber trees. 

We then reflect on the future of ethical beekeeping, the alarming impact of agricultural chemicals, and the urgent need for younger keepers. In preparation of our own Vanilla Club honey concoctions, we are embracing the idea that we are partners with our bees; in fact their collective decision making determine the precise flavours of each season.

Keep it sweet!

We hope you enjoy.

Nicola on LinkedIn

Nicola's Documentary

Pragmatic Practice

Click here if you need help with gambling

With two gambling scandals shaking both the NBA and Major League Baseball, the integrity of sport is under scrutiny.

Last month, in the NBA, Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier were arrested after investigations uncovered a network of illegal betting and high-stakes poker schemes.

And now in baseball, two legit pitchers - Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz - were indicted after being accused of intentionally rigging some of their pitches and manipulating game outcomes. Legit becomes illegitimate in a flash.

Both scandals are timely. And, furthermore, especially awkward as it was only days after the Dodgers won a legacy-sealing, multiple-precedent-setting, arguably fairytale World Series-- one for the purists that is, that the story broke. 

This week on Vanilla Club Podcast, I speak with behavioural scientist and psychologist Nicola Coalter, who has spent years studying gambling-- and she is quick to point out that it is indeed gambling, not the softer and fuzzier "gaming" nomenclature preferred by the industry. 

Gambling is so ingrained into Australian sport that we no longer blink an eye at betting app logos on jerseys (which is still taboo in the U.S.), or normalised betting advertising during every ad break. Nicola explains the danger of these newfound digital betting formats, as they are algorithmic, tracking every press of the button, and designed to psychologically lead the bettor to more time spent, more funds staked per spin. The free accessibility, cultural permissivity, and the on-demand nature of this generation of gambling offerings is clearly way ahead of what the combined culturo-socio-governmental status quo can muster as far as prevention and frankly, crisis management. The numbers? Well, they speak for themselves. Of almost 200 countries in the world, Australia is #1--yes, numero uno, in terms of gambling losses per capita. 

Nicola regularly works with clients at the ground-level who are struggling with this kind of addiction, and encourages us to avoid moralising individuals with messages to “gamble responsibly”. This kind of rhetoric unfairly blames individuals, and does little to address the intricate system upholding the extraction and exploitation.

Nicola’s upcoming documentary, Clubs at a Crossroads, continues her mission to expose the systems behind gambling harm and advocate for meaningful reform. Her work and insights are accessible via the above links.

Priscilla Harvey - Living the Questions on Substack

Get that Sweet Tea ready. So sweet you can stand a spoon up in it? Are you grinnin' like a possum eatin' a sweet tater'? Mmmm Hmmm.

Vanilla Club is in North Queensland, Australia. Yet as strange as it sounds, despite two mountain ranges, the Great Plains, a massive ocean, a great barrier reef, some 1000's of km's of separation, there's a subtle resonance between the two places. Aussies think of "the North" or "FNQ" as a yonder. It is a frontier, something akin to Tacitus' description of Germania, an ill-defined, sometimes scary (see the first scene of Gladiator) "zebra-shaded zone." Climatically we are quite similar (i.e. warmer). We are both less-populated than the big cities in the Northern North and the Southern South respectively, and have relatively more bucolic, outdoorsy settings. The accents in fact both have something of a "lean;" think of the contrast between the American Southern drawl and the clipped, received pronunciation of HRH King Charles whose words fire out like discrete cutout missiles. The Far North Queensland "twang" embraces the back country. It too was born on the bayou. Words sort of bathe in the mangroves, n' ride out in the sunset, like "maaaaate," "bloooody croooocccc." Obviously, there are vast differences, but I invite listeners to try and draw some fun parallels between the host and the guest's respective regions in this episode. Comment below what you think is similar in the South to the "Far North!"

Back to today's show---In this candid episode, writer Priscilla Harvey, 'Living the Questions' on Substack, shares her striking personal journey through addiction, faith, and recovery, offering insights that are as practical as they are heartfelt.

Raised in the American South’s “Bible Belt,” Priscilla describes her early disillusionment with Christianity. Drawing on her widely read essay Why I Call Myself a Christian, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ, she explains how she stopped “skipping across traditions” and returned fully to Christianity. Priscilla speaks candidly about reclaiming Jesus’s radical message of love from the grip of patriarchy, nationalism, and capitalist distortion. She challenges the way many American Christians have merged faith with materialism and fear.

Upon asking Priscilla how motherhood has intersected with her journey, she simply exclaims, "How has it not?!" Motherhood, she explains, became her greatest teacher. She has learnt to release fear, to trust, and to foster a home where questions are welcome rather than punished. Her recent “dumb phone” experiment - thirty days without smartphone scrolling - quickly became a beneficial practice. She observes how, in just days, she began calling loved ones more, and noticing small acts of grace.

We also dig into Priscilla's recovery from alcoholism. She recounts years of denial and shame, and the reluctant walk through the doors of AA. Priscilla doesn't need to warm up to some of the viscera of problem drinking, telling us early about often stirring from blackout drinking episodes with vomit caked on her person. As someone with a history of problem drinking myself, your humble host is in a strong position to discuss with Priscilla about the struggle, "rock bottom," and the road to recovery. Priscilla emphasises how her faith and sobriety are intertwined, and lays a great foundation for us to get excited about her upcoming book on these and other related themes.

Refill that Sweet Tea (by now) and lock into this awesome episode!

We hope you enjoy.

Jenna Lee on IG
Jenna's website

In this episode, we explore the intersections of art, identity, and cultural heritage with Larrakia Indigenous artist and designer Jenna (Mayilema) Lee, whose work navigates history, personal ancestry, and contemporary Australian life. 

I may have mispronounced Jenna's mob affiliations (dear Americans: "mob" doesn't mean mafia as in "the mob;" in Australia, "mob" is a collective noun to refer to a kinship group. It is perhaps most similar to the usage of the word "posse," or "band," like in the Old West.)

Drawing on her mixed heritage - Aboriginal, Asian, and Anglo-Australian - Jenna reflects on how art can be a tool for discovery identity, rather than just a tool to express it.

We consider the Makkassan trade route; a pre-European, Aboriginal x Sulawesian (i.e. Indonesian) trade network that goes way back, and links Australia to China, who were even then, interested in "trepang" the sea cucumbers known for medicinal (and let's be clear, culinary use too!) uses. This is a lovely place to start the conversation I thought, because it gives insight to 1) how Australia had a role in regional maritime trade routes in pre-colonial times; 2) gives a sense of how vast Australia as a continent is, and the variation between indigenous "mobs;" 3) is great fodder for alt-fiction too.

We get into the theme of complexity before too long; this is the Vanilla Club after all, and the show wouldn't be the show if we didn't attempt to raid for some hidden complexities! Jenna examines how Aboriginality, Asian heritage, and queer identity intersect, reflecting on generational struggles and activism that have shaped her freedom to explore these aspects openly. By sharing personal and family histories, she aims to demystify mixed Aboriginal families and create space for representation and connection.

Residencies and international exhibitions have played a significant role in Jenna's art career. From Japan and Bali to Singapore and the U.S., she investigates global perceptions of Australian Aboriginal culture, exploring how histories and contemporary narratives are understood abroad, and giving us some insight into how little quirks in development lead to major differences in how contemporary folks can perceive the same thing. 

The episode also addresses the challenges newcomers face in engaging with Aboriginal culture, discussing exhibitions like The Neighbour at the Gate at the National Art School, which fosters dialogue between Aboriginal artists and the Asian diaspora. She emphasises the importance of respectful engagement, recommending First Nations art fairs while acknowledging the gaps in available information and resources. We also touch on some politics and the confronting White-Power march that occurred recently in Melbourne, and how and where politics pops up in Jenna's work.

Through it all, her work embodies the duality of Australia, ancient and young at the same time--- with a wry sense of humour that pops up here and there--- wait for it! Check out Jenna's amazing instagram, where she actively posts updates on exhibitions and installations! 

We hope you enjoy.

In this episode, we welcome Bree Bullock, Managing Associate at Armstrong Legal in Brisbane QLD, to help us understand when poor taste and loose lips can potentially trip into tangible legal consequences.

Bree, a criminal law expert with over a decade of experience, shares her insights sparked by a recent case involving a Cairns, Queensland Police Officer whose social media comments overseas raised questions about racial insensitivity and unbecoming conduct.

We explore the responsibilities of sworn officers, the broader impacts of public statements on community trust, and how ethical obligations shape behaviour both in and out of uniform. Bree draws parallels between the legal and police professions, noting the importance of accountability, and walking us through the pitfalls were accountability in the justice system ever to be eroded (hint: sworn officers should be held to a higher standard than private citizens).

The conversation then shifts to criminal defence work, where Bree explains the nuances of her role in protecting clients’ rights, ensuring fairness, and upholding ethical standards in court. She discusses what it takes to become a skilled practitioner - communication, critical reasoning, public advocacy - and reflects on how personal values and a sense of justice guide her work every day.

We also dive into practical advice for navigating the justice system, including the importance of seeking expert legal advice, the perils of consulting AI for legal guidance, and understanding the complex relationships between clients, lawyers, and courts. Bree highlights Armstrong Legal’s focus on local expertise (the legal fraternity in a city even the size of 1 million + is still small), despite having national reach as a firm, a balancing act that all medium-to-large law firms have to navigate.

Finally, Bree shares some personal perspectives on working with clients under stress, emphasising empathy, patience, and professionalism while maintaining personal integrity. Bree gives background as to what traits and core skills make for a good solicitor (ps. comfort in public speaking is virtually a must!), and how her own moral compass that pulls her towards a justice framework to view the world made her initial career direction rather a fait accompli.

Don't miss this one!

Expat Prep on Substack

GUS: If push came to shove, I was wondering how soon you might be able to take over the lab yourself. You, and an assistant.

Gale thinks for a moment.

GALE: Why would... Why would push come to shove?

This was an exchange between the methodical, predatory Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) of Los Pollos Hermanos fame, and plucky Gale Boeticcher, played by David Costabile, who has just performed living room karaoke with the revival classic Crapa Pelada: the episode, #13, the grand finale of Breaking Bad Season 3.
Gus knows a lot, he is functionally omniscient as the instigator, the storm maker, the shover. Gale knows less than we as viewers know, and instinctively he is incredulous in the absence of information. This makes for heightened tension.
We begin the pod in media res. And that very question is the one that underpins the timely, incisive work undertaken by "Expat Prep" in his eponymous substack: why would push come to shove?

In this episode of Vanilla Club Podcast, Jason S.C. Fung goes deep with U.S. midwesterner, legal and financial planning savant Expat Prep to go beyond the clichés and rosier takes of digital nomadism to explore the tough choices, trade-offs, family and cultural cohesion issues involved with expatriation under potential duress.

Expat Prep shares candid insights from personal experience: scouting trips, language immersion with a kindergartener, and the careful planning required to ensure a smooth transition. We dig into the difference between expats seeking adventure and families seeking long-term cultural continuity—and why these distinctions matter when deciding where to live next.

Central to the conversation is the concept of optionality. Expat Prep introduces an option pricing framework to help listeners, especially those who are not totally incredulous about the possibility of a "shove" occurring, discover ways to create options in the future, whether that is residency, or linguistic facility, or having bank accounts set up, or even getting your house semi-prepared for sale, at a low price, now. Expat Prep does a great service in introducing this idea, namely because the idea of an exit is so overwhelming that many just can't imagine taking the first, or any steps. Furthermore, the option pricing framework is especially useful because it helps people identify what is easy (or cheap) right now, and thus if the chance of those options becoming more valuable in the future is even slight-to-medium, they may be attractive; and if they are cheap, and have dual-use (i.e. learning Spanish is useful even if the political situation improves), then perhaps they are great "buys."

Along the way, Jason and Expat Prep touch on ideas like cultural identity, civic responsibility, and the psychological impact of living under political or societal pressure. Expat Prep imbues this episode with wit and humour; he is a real guy, who amidst the worsening political outlook in the States still manages to bring good cheer.

If you’re contemplating life abroad, this episode gives you insights that would cost $$$ from the white shoe advisories like Henley and Partners. Expat Prep is giving frameworks that are the sum total of decades of legal and financial bona fides combined with the earnestness of a patriot who is doing this as a public service. Don't miss this episode! 

Dr. Hasinika Gamage is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Facilitated Advancement of Australia's Bioactives (FAAB) in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. In this episode, we begin exploring the meta theme of Gut Health, a crucially important subject of our time. Feeling good? Feeling down? Lend me your ears, 'cause I got news for ya: serotonin is produced in the gut! Are you in prison and feeling violent (I hope not! On both counts!); but if so you might want to take some probiotics, as they have been proven in peer-reviewed studies to reduce violent tendencies (prisoners have been shown to have deficient microbial allocations). Rapidly becoming cliché is the notion that the gut is the second brain, a concept borrowed from Ayurveda; so, so many of our feelings emanate from the complex brew stirring up in the depths. The gut is fundamentally the place where mood origination happens; we are coming to realise it is the interface to everything; and we couldn't be with a better guest today to help us understand the contours of this fascinating (and still much unknown) space.

As a non-physician, Dr. Hasinika is clear to disclaim any statements that suggest medical advice; which is an important footnote. However, as she she uses molecular microbiology, sequencing, bioinformatics, and various coding and data analysis tools to do her work, there is a very important emergent theme here. That is, the gut is so complex, that nothing less than a multidisciplinary approach, perhaps one that uses combinatorial methods and/or is comfortable with large data sets and maths, is suitable to make any sweeping statements. Dr. Hasinika reminds us that at play are microbial communities, each with computationally vast oceans of interactions between them. This is wild!

We quickly learn from Dr. Hasinika that balance is an important metaphor when thinking about our microbiomes. We walk through the literal human "viscera" with Dr. Hasinika, who makes notes about the varying pH levels at different stages of the human digestive system, noting that different bacteria and even fungus populate different specialised nodes, for example, in the stomach and the large intestine the pH gets extremely acidic, limiting the potential candidates (bonus points for puns about candida? Haha, no!). Our diet, lifestyle, and even the timing of our meals shapes these microbial communities, and as a result, our overall health. From the role of the intestinal mucus layer (sexy, I know) and dietary fibre, to the emerging science of prebiotics, probiotics, and "postbiotics" (a new one for us, too,) we explore how different microbes thrive and interact.

Dr. Hasinika explains why diverse, whole-food diets are crucial for microbial balance, how modern processed foods can reduce gut diversity, and why extreme diets may have unintended consequences. We also discuss the influence of circadian rhythms and meal timing on gut health and metabolism, showing that it’s not just what we eat, but when we eat it. All of the strict science is held in tension at certain moments, where Dr. Hasinika also reveals that she has an Ayurvedic family background, and shares some personal vignettes of her "healer" relatives in Sri Lanka. We explore "common sense" as an idea in light of imperfect knowledge in a very complex field.

Get some kimchi and sauerkraut juice, kick back and enjoy this episode!

Seapunk Studios

Join me your host, Jason S.C. Fung, with guests Jules Yim, and Sam Chua as we explore the future of education, entrepreneurship, and culture through a global + specifically Southeast Asian lens. This is a special "two-fer" episode, which brings together guests who overlap in their interests and experiences, who are totally unabashed about telling it like it is. 

Seapunk Proto-College (SPC) is a one-week pop-up in Kuala Lumpur (Sept 15–20) where rebels, thinkers, and storytellers hack new systems and present new imaginations and narratives for Southeast Asia’s future. Expect protocol deep dives, wild ideas, and public symposia, with some dolphins maybe too. If you ask me to conjure Seapunk aesthetically I think of a mashup of Super Nintendo's Pilotwings with the language and colour palette of Ninka and Yalandi from Chappie. Either way it is cool, it is happening, and we get to engage with same in situ, the prototype college is live as we recorded.

With the spirit of "punk" in mind, the trio of us dive into questions about navigating an overwhelming digital landscape, what the world looks like from a "middle-power" perspective, reimagining mental models for collaboration, and addressing historical narratives that shape Southeast Asia’s future. 

With candid reflections on the risks of traditional venture funding, mental health considerations for founders, the problems of scaling, the cultural pressure to not "enter the wrong profession" in a career landscape upended by AI, scale, the dilemma for founders who are pushed to grow beyond their inherent intentions, and the need for new educational frameworks, this conversation is a look into how to build solutions that truly resonate with unique lived experiences. 

We end on a note exploring a potential event at Vanilla Club, perhaps in 2026–2027 designed to bring together innovators, educators, and cultural thinkers.

If you’re interested in cultural entrepreneurship, regional wisdom, and designing new ways of learning and leading, this episode is for you!

We hope you enjoy.