Voxcali

Voxcali

By VoxcaliSociety & CultureScienceHealth & Fitness
Download on the App Store

Voxcali episodes

  • Steven Yeun Sets Gold Standard with Streaming Projects on Netflix and Amazon

    From his breakout on The Walking Dead to making Oscars history with Minari, the Korean American actor has redefined the modern leading man.

    Steven Yeun has earned his seat as the table as one of Hollywood’s premier actors.

    He returned as the voice lead in the Amazon Prime animated hit Invincible.  The series, which saw its fourth season premiere on March 18th, features Yeun as Mark Grayson, a young hero grappling with his heritage as a Viltrumite-human hybrid.

    Released in January he starred in Netflix’s action film The Rip alongside Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

    Yeun earned widespread acclaim for his performance in the 2023 Netflix black comedy Beef.  His portrayal of Danny Cho earned him a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor, while he also shared in the show’s win for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series as an executive producer.

    His career began in Chicago as a member of the legendary improv troupe The Second City.  Just a year after moving to Los Angeles in 2009, Yeun booked his breakout role as Glenn Rhee on AMC’s The Walking Dead.  Appearing in 87 episodes, he became a fan favorite, with his tenure on the apocalyptic series earning him over $5 million. 

    In 2020, Yeun made history as the first Asian American to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in Minari, which tells the story of a Korean immigrant family struggling to build a new life in rural Arkansas during the 1980s.

    The 42-year-old actor was born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in Troy, Michigan.  He graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2005 with a bachelor of arts in psychology.

    2 min
  • Jeanne Grey Was An Influencer Before They Existed

    The foundations of GreyLayers were laid back in early blogging days, positioned Grey as one of the most influential voices in digital fashion. 

    Before Instagram and TikTok completely transformed what it meant to be an influencer, creators built online communities through blogs and curated content. One of those early pioneers was Jeanne Grey, a fashion and lifestyle creator who developed a platform that helped revamp the East Coast’s fashion culture.

    Jeanne Grey was raised in a Filipino immigrant family that valued hard work and entrepreneurship. Grey has mentioned before that her parent’s mindset has had a huge influence on her career and the way she has formed her own path rather than taking a traditional route.

    She began building her online presence in 2009, publishing her blog called GreyLayers where she shared her personal style and fashion opinions. Back then, blogging was still new, so Grey’s aesthetic stood out as she blended masculine and feminine elements in a modern way.

    It didn’t take long for her blog to take off and gain recognition as an influential fashion platform. She took on roles as a stylist and creative director while she continued to post and maintain her distinctive voice on GreyLayers. As the industry evolved, Grey was successful with her transition from writing blogs to full on social media creator. Today she has gained over 700 thousand followers across her accounts and turned GreyLayers into a successful brand that has stayed true to its aesthetics, rather than switching to follow short-term trends.

    Grey’s influence has been recognized by multiple media outlets like Vogue and Forbes, spotlighting her as a woman charting her own path in the influencer industry. GreyLayers was also nominated at the 2017 Shorty Awards, which celebrate success in social media and digital content. Over a decade later, Grey and her blog remain a respected voice in the digital fashion community and she has shown the world just exactly how the early era of blogging laid the foundation for today’s creator economy.

    3 min
  • MLB’s Opening Day Odds and Value Picks

    From the Dodgers’ quest for a third straight title to Bryan Woo’s Cy Young potential, we break down the smartest bets for the 2026 season.

    As we approach MLB Opening Day, the 2026 betting landscape is full of player prop opportunities fueled by an influx of international emerging stars ready to disrupt the status quo.

    It would be a mistake to not acknowledge that the Dodgers are heavy favorites to three-peat especially after adding 4x All-Star Kyle Tucker to an already stacked roster.  While taking the +210 line isn’t particularly sexy it feels like free money at this point.

    Similarly, Shohei Ohtani has won MVP three times in a row and there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t make it a fourth – especially after beginning the World Baseball Classic with a Grand Slam.  A heavy favorite at -135, Ohtani’s dual-threat impact makes this a generational lock.

    For a higher-value pick, consider Seattle’s Bryan Woo to win AL Cy Young at +1700.  In his third year the Chinese American finished 5th in the voting with a sub-3.00 ERA and 15 wins.  Woo’s efforts led to the M’s winning the West for the first time since 2001 and brought them to the brink of their first World Series appearance in franchise history.

    Staying in the AL West, look for Tatsuya Imai to win AL Rookie of the Year at +1200.  The Astros’ latest signing arrives from the NPB with high-velocity heat and a devastating slider.   While Houston has been in decline, they still have a solid roster to help Imai rack up wins and be in contention to win the division.  With ‘stros ace Framber Valdez departing this offseason, they will depend on productivity from Imai immediately.

    The homerun over/under for the splashy White Sox acquisition, Munetaka Murakami, is set at 27.5.  Though the slugger has legendary power, he’s coming off an injured NPB season, preceded by two years of reduced productivity.  He infamously batted less than .100 against pitches over 93 mph, so he may be in for a rude MLB awakening.  Perhaps not, but let’s see proof of concept first – take the under.

    Since betting the under is less fun, let’s look at Kazuma Okamoto whose over/under homerun line is set at 22.5.  The Blue Jays’ new third baseman has cleared 30 homers in six straight Japanese seasons and now moves to a hitter-friendly park.  In comparison to Murakami, who has the higher ceiling, Okamoto has a higher floor.  Expect him to contribute right away for the AL Champs and take the over.

    3 min
  • The Real Difference Between Luxury Living in New York and Shanghai

    While luxury apartments in Manhattan prioritize location and skyline views, China’s affluent living scene focuses more on space and communities, reflecting very different housing markets. 

    If you thought luxury apartments in Manhattan were the pinnacle of high-end city living, then China’s affluent residential scene may surprise you. New York is known for luxury apartment living with towering skyscrapers and stunning panoramic views defining the high-end housing market, but in China, the luxury apartment living lifestyle can look very different.

    Location and exclusivity is what makes a New York apartment luxury. Manhattan has some of the most expensive real estate in the world with some apartments selling for over $4 million. High-end properties in Manhattan can often exceed $3,000 per square foot, in comparison to the rest of the United States where the country’s median listing price is approximately $220 to $223 per square foot.

    Since land in Manhattan is limited, luxury living happens vertically where residents live in high rise towers. These buildings are equipped with full amenities like private fitness centers, concierge services, and rooftop pools that look over the city, but even at this expensive level, apartments can still feel small compared to luxury living in other cities.

    Rather than single towers, residential projects in places like Shanghai are built as large gated communities that have multiple buildings and recreational spaces which function like private neighborhoods. Some have schools, childcare facilities, and shopping areas, providing even more convenience for citizens.

    Over the past two decades, China has been seeing one of the largest housing construction booms in history, building more high-rise residential buildings in the last 20 years than the U.S. built during the entire 20th century. A major contributor to these large-scale communities is Poly Real Estate, one of China’s biggest residential developers. Poly Real Estate has built thousands of housing projects across the country, including high-end luxury ones that have helped shape the modern housing landscape.

    In Shanghai, luxury apartments can sell for over 170,000 yuan per square meter, which is around $2,200 per square foot, meaning a high-end apartment can easily cost around $3 to $5 million, similar to those in Manhattan.

    But the biggest difference is what buyers get for this price. In China, the cost often comes with larger living areas and other private amenities, while in New York value is tied to your address. Both cities are important housing markets, but they reflect different visions of luxury urban living.

    3 min
  • BTS Returns from Military Hiatus with Arirang

    Transitioning from military duty back to the global stage, BTS looks to build on a decade of Billboard-topping success with their latest full-length album and upcoming tour.

    Fans of BTS have been buzzing with anticipation for their tenth full-length album, Arirang, set to debut on March 20.  The project marks a monumental return for the group, serving as their first collective release in nearly four years following the completion of their mandatory military service.

    BTS became a mainstay in America after their 2018 project, Love Yourself: Tear, became the first Korean album to top the Billboard 200, led by their song “Fake Love,” which sparked the Love Yourself World Tour, grossing over $100 million.  Two years later their track “Dynamite” earned them their first number-one single in the U.S., a Grammy nomination, and over 2.2 billion plays on Spotify.

    The group has carved out a record-breaking upward trajectory since their June 2013 single album debut 2 Cool 4 Skool, led by “No More Dream.” 

    In 2017, they first broke through in the U.S. market, performing at the American Music Awards in their American television debut following the explosive success of their single “DNA.”

    BTS’s collaboration with Halsey “Boy With Luv” in 2019 became one of the group’s top 5 most popular songs.

    At the end of 2020 they released their ninth studio album Be highlighted by the stand alone single “Life Goes On.”

    The 2021 summer hit “Butter” continued their momentum before concluding their first decade with the 2022 anthology album Proof.

    That same year Jin became the first BTS member to begin South Korea’s military service with the other six following suit by the end of 2023.  All member completed their service requirements by June 2025.  The hiatus allowed each member to pursuit individual projects, most notably Jungkook’s debut album GOLDEN and Jimin’s second studio album MUSE.

    BTS has amassed a staggering social media presence with over 82 million subscribers on YouTube – the most for any male musical act globally.

    4 min
  • Edwin Chen’s Surge AI Helps Tech Giants Pursue AGI

    With 2025 revenues of $1.4 billion, the high-precision labeling firm is positioned as foundational infrastructure for giants like Meta, Microsoft, and Anthropic.

    AI data-labeling powerhouse Surge AI has skyrocketed to a projected valuation as high as $30 billion.  The lofty estimate came in 2025 during discussions for its first-ever external funding round.  Surge ended the year generating $1.4 billion in revenue and positioning it as a dominant force in the race for high-quality training data.

    While most Silicon Valley unicorns rely on aggressive venture backing, founder Edwin Chen has famously bootstrapped the company since its 2020 launch.  Holding a 75% stake in the firm, the 38-year-old entrepreneur now enjoys an assessed personal net worth over $22 billion.

    Surge’s platform connects AI developers with a curated network of doctors, lawyers, and research scientists who provide the expert feedback necessary for complex reasoning.  Its product suite includes specialized environments for Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback – effectively implementing the “human element” that LLMs don’t instinctively prioritize.

    The company's “culture of precision” has secured a client roster that includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.  Surge is now focused on building autonomous agents and interactive environments to provide the essential infrastructure for the next generation of creative and empathetic AGI.

    Before founding Surge, Chen spent over a decade as a high-level architect in the data science world.  His career began as an algorithmic trader at Clarium Capital in 2008, followed by senior data science roles at Twitter, Google, and Facebook.  It was during these stints that he realized the industry’s massive “data bottleneck,” where low-quality datasets were stalling model progress.

    Chen graduated from MIT in 2008, where he studied mathematics, computer science, and linguistics.  The son of Taiwanese immigrants, he grew up on in Crystal River, Florida.

    3 min
  • How Lucy Liu Turned Imposter Syndrome Into Confidence

    Sharing a name with a Hollywood icon led to years of comparison and self-doubt, but that didn't stop Lucy Liu from reclaiming her name and her confidence.

    Welcome to the Gold Sea Podcast, featured with other great Asian American content on GoldSea.com, the Asian American Daily.

    Kelli Luu (00:00)

    Imagine growing up hearing your name everywhere, in movies, on TV, in Hollywood headlines, but every time someone hears it, they say the same thing. Wait, not that Lucy Liu. Today, we have Lucy Liu here on the Gold Sea Podcast. Hi everybody, my name's Kelli Luu Thank you all for being here. To start off, Miss Lucy Liu, can you please introduce yourself and tell us exactly what you do?

    Lucy Liu (00:26)

    Thank you so much for having me, Kelli. I'm so Yes, my name is Lucy Lu many people they said, ⁓ not the Lucy Lu, but yes, that is what I grew up with. And it was actually my biggest hindrance all my life because she is so talented. We amazing and she is an artist.

    And I mean, I can't even hate on her because I love her. She is so talented as an actress, as a director, as an artist. It took me years and really decades of personal development to overcome my own fears and shadows and…

    all the imposter syndrome behind having the same name as a celebrity who is already so famous and well known because let's face it, the truth is we do not have another Britney Spears, right? We just do not see another Beyonce. That is just not possible. So I always grew up with this notion of I was behind. I was behind in life. I will

    Kelli Luu (01:19)

    Right.

    Lucy Liu (01:31)

    always be less than her, I will be nobody and I'm just gonna live life in automation and wait for my dying days. Until really I delved into personal development and eventually transformed my life completely and I also became a life coach myself and now I am the podcast host of my own podcast, The Lucy Liu Show.

    wrote a book co-authored in two books. And I just absolutely love what I do now is to inspire others to overcome their own imposter syndrome or limiting beliefs so that they can turn their past or hindrances into their assets like I did to live an epic life.

    Kelli Luu (02:20)

    That's awesome. That is so inspiring. Are you kind of targeting the Asian community mostly? Or do you feel like you can target everyone? ⁓

    Lucy Liu (02:25)

    I don't say that. I don't say that. I say

    I help high achieving women, but of course it tends to be that I attract our Asian community, AAPI women, because they're like, wow. Because honestly, I get so excited when I see another Asian coach myself, because I want everyone to transform their life, to live the best. And I think this only happened in the

    Kelli Luu (02:31)

    Yeah.

    Of course, yeah.

    Lucy Liu (02:54)

    probably the last 10 years that it became very common or I would say more common than before to have a coach. But I think growing up in the Asian community, I don't think I hear people having a coach growing up.

    Kelli Luu (02:56)

    Uh-huh.

    Lucy Liu (03:10)

    During today's age, it's like everyone needs a coach. Everyone, every coach has a coach. don't think, I don't think any coach out there do not have a coach themselves, but

    Kelli Luu (03:13)

    Right.

    Lucy Liu (03:19)

    Really, it's about decision making. It's about focusing on growing yourself.

    Kelli Luu (03:24)

    Right, okay, so your story begins with something a lot of people would think is kind of, you know, fun at first, but do you know why your parents chose this name?

    Lucy Liu (03:34)

    I actually named myself. obviously when I had my name, she was not a household name yet, right? So, ⁓ I mean, I chose the name and I love my name. And actually it is my maiden name. I love it so much. I kept it even after my marriage. But also it's a sign to remind myself that every time I shrink myself,

    Kelli Luu (03:37)

    Yeah.

    Mm-hmm.

    ⁓ okay. Uh-huh.

    Lucy Liu (03:57)

    I come back to this that I want to be that more empowered version of Lucy Liu. really think back to a time when you felt like in your life you were compared to someone else and less than.

    right? Or when you felt like you disappointed someone else in your life, because I sure felt like I disappointed a lot of people. When I call in to make restaurant reservations, and come on, I live in LA, and they're like, Are you the Lucy Liu I'm like, No,

    Kelli Luu (04:18)

    yeah.

    Do you get advantages with this name? if you like book a hotel somewhere is the hotel room night like if you get upgraded immediately

    Lucy Liu (04:35)

    I wish, huh? Next. No,

    but I can't use my name in that way. I mean, for you, if you're listening, I just want you to take away that for you, it might be a different story. Or it could be that your name is just simply too common, right? especially as Asian. I mean, a lot of us, mean, I mean, there's a hundred Charles or, you know, John Lin.

    Kelli Luu (04:56)

    yeah.

    Or the

    Lucy Liu (05:04)

    It's just

    sometimes our names are common or just anything you think in your life that is not up to your standard or you feel less than or you think there could be a change, there is actually a possible change to it. And that change is changing your own mindset because we can't control everything else. The only thing we can control is your own mindset.

    Kelli Luu (05:28)

    was there a moment where you realized that this name was going to be a huge part of your life?

    Lucy Liu (05:35)

    Yes, I think it comes down to a decision. So when I first started my business, I thought about a business name for three months and was just in inaction. And it wasn't until I realized that, know what, Lucy, you are coaching people on having more confidence.

    So what would it take for you to be more confident? And that is really to go back and to remind myself that I am Lucy Liu The more empowered version of me would just say, you know what, that is my name. I'm not going to overthink about what people will think of me or what I would call myself because that is my name. It is my truth.

    And the moment I think I stepped up and decided just to call it Lucy Liu coaching, I got my first client. I think it was really just that moment of decision to remind myself and in turn to inspire other women because when I tell them, well, look, I hired a business coach. Then my friend jumped in and hired me. ⁓ you invested in yourself. I want to invest in myself too.

    Kelli Luu (06:42)

    Mm-hmm.

    Lucy Liu (06:42)

    or

    someone else will jump in and say, she's so inspiring because she took the leap. I want to take a leap too. And that is the ripple effect that I want to create in the world because I am what I would like to see in the world. And I think that is a model that I live by in life, that everything I do, my values, my priorities, my actions must align with what I do, what I say, and what

    Kelli Luu (06:49)

    Mm-hmm.

    Lucy Liu (07:09)

    I put back into the world is what I want others in this world to do and act and, you know, the way we give back to our community. So if we all have that kind of mindset to serve others instead of, it's all about me. Well, what are people going to think of me? Right. That's when it becomes scary. Or even just simply when we go to

    Kelli Luu (07:22)

    Mm-hmm.

    Right.

    Lucy Liu (07:38)

    think of more common things like when you are going to a networking event, people get scared because they're thinking about what other people will think of me.

    When I started my podcast, I had an audience of zero. Okay, no one's gonna listen to me. But if I keep on thinking that way, nothing would ever happen. But for me, I shifted my mindset to, you know what, it doesn't matter. Even if I change the life of one listener, I have done myself well. I have made a contribution to this world. Right? And think about it. Even if you get

    Kelli Luu (07:51)

    Okay. ⁓

    You're right, exactly.

    Mm-hmm.

    Lucy Liu (08:17)

    20 listeners. Do you know how hard it is to get 20 people in a room in a classroom?

    Kelli Luu (08:21)

    It's right, yeah,

    a lot of people count their numbers on social media nowadays, 20 people, that's a lot.

    Lucy Liu (08:29)

    Absolutely.

    Kelli Luu (08:30)

    So when you constantly hear this, you're not that Lucy Liu or you're not the Lucy Liu how does that make you feel now?

    Lucy Liu (08:42)

    It may, it's fun for me now. It used to bother me. So I think that comes back to what, what I talk about the mindset shift, right? Other people are saying the same thing to us, but because our mindset have shifted, I think nowadays I just make a joke out of it or laugh about it. And it could be an icebreaker because I can easily talk to anyone now.

    Kelli Luu (08:45)

    Okay. Really? Okay.

    Right.

    Okay. Right, okay.

    Lucy Liu (09:08)

    You I started with zero followers and nobody knows me and people think, who am I? But because I shifted the mindset,

    then I'm able to use my story. And now I'm on a podcast speaking about it. And when I do, I've heard so many positive feedback from it and people's like, I love your story. I love your name. That's so fun. Like I get to inspire people to think about their own limiting beliefs. And for you, it might be not again about your name, but just make a list of your

    Kelli Luu (09:26)

    Right.

    Yeah.

    Lucy Liu (09:44)

    limiting beliefs. definitely made a list of all my limiting beliefs and I'm constantly shattering all of them. ⁓ My English isn't good enough. That was one of So we can choose to critique ourselves so hard, right? We are our biggest criticizer. I could say I could

    Kelli Luu (09:53)

    Okay.

    Yeah.

    Lucy Liu (10:06)

    get straight A's in English class, but then I can at the same time think my English isn't still good enough, it's not fluent enough, I'm not charismatic enough. Even if we don't have perfect grammar or perfect spoken English, we're still

    able to inspire others. We're still able to do great work. We're still able to to use our stories to change someone else's life. And I think that is all it matters to me. Like that brings me joy, right?

    Kelli Luu (10:34)

    Mm-hmm.

    Yeah.

    Lucy Liu (10:38)

    just a couple minutes from talking with me if I bring them joy, if I bring them light? That makes my day.

    Kelli Luu (10:47)

    Oh, that's awesome. So let's get right to you personally. you said that you were in LA right now. Are you from here or where were you born? Okay.

    Lucy Liu (10:57)

    was born in China and I lived

    actually a long time in Taiwan. I traveled probably through most of the countries in Asia. I'm home based in Los Angeles.

    Kelli Luu (11:03)

    Okay.

    Nice. what was your childhood growing up? I know you said you chose your name. When did that happen? When was Lucy Liu made? ⁓

    Lucy Liu (11:15)

    it was made in China. So, ⁓

    back in the days we had English class and I was like, we, we, we could pick our names and Lucy was just short and easy and I just picked it and loved it. And so, yeah, it wasn't until we immigrated to the U S and I saw her movie and I was like, ⁓ no.

    Kelli Luu (11:27)

    Wow, okay.

    stuck with it.

    Mmm.

    That's so funny.

    Lucy Liu (11:44)

    I think I was 11 when I first saw that movie and I was like, ⁓ no, I'm behind. And so ever since that time, I felt so behind in life. And I think that was pretty much my childhood. Like I felt like she was better than me. Everyone else was better than me.

    even though I had straight As, a perfect ⁓ GPA, I still just, it never felt enough. I think that was the theme of my childhood is I wasn't good enough. And with that mindset, I actually dropped myself out of high school with straight As. So after sophomore year,

    Kelli Luu (12:24)

    Really?

    Lucy Liu (12:26)

    I dropped out of high school with straight A's and I took a proficiency test, what we call a proficiency test in California. And with this tiny little piece of certificate, you're able to go to the community college. So that's what I did for two years before I transferred to UCLA. So that way I felt like I could speed up this process of life. So I wasn't so behind. So I was two years ahead of my.

    Kelli Luu (12:29)

    Wow.

    Thanks.

    Yeah.

    Wow.

    Lucy Liu (12:52)

    peers, my classmates getting into UCLA. And let me tell you, it doesn't matter what you do. If you feel you're not enough, you always feel that way. I was always chasing the shiny object. I was always feeling not good enough. And it wasn't until probably a couple years of personal development, I really learned that enough is

    also a decision. It's not an amount, it's not about timing, it's not about how much money you make, it's not about where you came from, it's not about what you did or what background you came from. It's really your decision.

    Kelli Luu (13:21)

    Right.

    Lucy Liu (13:36)

    Like I hear so many stories like, ⁓ I'm the only Asian in my whole community. There was racism. Like I grew up like, you know, like so many problems. Let me, I'm like, let me tell you girl, I came from, I grew up in a Chinese community. Our school was like 80 % Asian. And guess what? There was still racism because even if you're from China, we're broken up into North and Southern, you know.

    Kelli Luu (13:56)

    Wow. Yeah. ⁓

    Lucy Liu (14:04)

    So it's everywhere. Your problem is not really your problem. It could be what propels you forward if you use it in the right way. Right? So when I first started speaking, it felt like, ⁓ well, you don't really see many Asian faces out there.

    Kelli Luu (14:07)

    Wow.

    Of course, ⁓

    Lucy Liu (14:29)

    So you

    can say or think or feel like, well, you're Asian. You can't You're not going to be chosen. Whereas I shift my mindset and go, hey, I'm the only Asian. So if they want diversity, they're going to pick me. I'm their best choice.

    Kelli Luu (14:44)

    ⁓

    That's a really good way to look at it. ⁓

    Lucy Liu (14:48)

    Right? So again, that's your decision

    on how you want to live your life and what you want to think about it and how you want to feel. You get to make all of that decisions. And that's why I kind of named my book 21 decisions to it's called confident and epic 21 decisions to living your best life. Because I always get asked this question like Lucy.

    Kelli Luu (15:09)

    Aww.

    Lucy Liu (15:13)

    What got you here? Right? Like, Lucy, how? Why are you so positive? Like people ask me and I'm like, well, it's decision making. Are you making decisions that your future self will thank you for? Or is this decision propelling you forward or helping you? Or is this decision helping you being positive? So it's all about decisions.

    Kelli Luu (15:34)

    Love that. That's a good name for the book then. So when, you immigrated

    When you came here, because I know there was no Asians in movies back then, like in the States, like you rarely would see it, and Lucy Liu was one of the really big ones, she was huge. So when you saw her, how did that shape Asian representation for you growing up?

    Lucy Liu (15:54)

    See, now that you brought up that point, that is such a good point. She is so amazing for representing Asians way back in the days, as we talked about, because she was like the only representation, right? But when you are stuck in your own spiral, you don't think about that. You're just thinking about the negatives.

    Kelli Luu (16:05)

    Right.

    Yeah.

    Lucy Liu (16:16)

    So for me, it was just like, ⁓ my life is over. I'm doomed. My life sucks. And that is exactly what I'm talking about. When we are given circumstances in life, something happens. You know what? You have to look at it. Is it a fact? Yes, it is a fact. You got laid off. OK. Yes, it is a fact.

    you know, something happened to you in your life, but don't give it a negative or positive sign in front of it yet. Really to just sit back and think about, well, I choose to make a good or positive outcome out of this situation, right? Take away the feelings, take away the thoughts you have now and neutralize it.

    Kelli Luu (17:05)

    So how old were you do you think when you feel like you changed that mindset were you were you still younger like were you in college Okay

    Lucy Liu (17:12)

    I would say ⁓ in my 20s is really when I started feeling stressed out.

    My health was deteriorating. pretty much I got into personal development when I started having breathing problems. There goes another story. So I actually felt like I had trouble breathing. I had two gasp for air and my chest.

    or constantly in pain. And when I went to the doctors to get checkup, there was actually nothing wrong with me. And I was like, that's impossible. I feel like I'm dying. It was like physical symptoms that were caused by stress. And I think that's when I first learned in my 20s that stress can actually cause physical pain. And I think we, especially as Asians,

    Kelli Luu (17:49)

    Yeah.

    Yes.

    Lucy Liu (17:58)

    growing up in school, we were never taught about mental health. We taught about, Like, I wish I, you know, I learned that in school. I wish I got an A in that so I know how to deal with life. But, and I think that's such a common theme for so many Asian, especially women, we graduate and we realize this is not.

    Kelli Luu (18:03)

    No, that's not a thing.

    You

    Lucy Liu (18:23)

    This is not what we wanted to do. I studied economics. I interned at the most prestigious office, like financial office in our area where all my seniorities, all my managers, they were making millions of dollars and like the corner office, right? The suite, the view, everything you want in life that when you were in college, you're like, I want that. I want that. Yeah. You see it.

    Kelli Luu (18:41)

    Hmm.

    Lucy Liu (18:49)

    You can have it too, but I was unhappy. And obviously I left because it was not aligned with my life. And I know so many Asian people do the same. They go through school and they learn so much ⁓ career wise, they advance and it hits a point that it's not aligned with your life. And that's when you realize all this stress, all this you did and…

    Kelli Luu (18:59)

    Yeah, they do. Yeah.

    Mm-hmm.

    Lucy Liu (19:14)

    Again, you're faced with a decision, do you just do that for the rest of your life and live your life miserably or do you do something about it? And for me, that was just a very quick decision that I just gave up everything I did. I think I've never worked a night of five after that.

    Kelli Luu (19:29)

    wow, that's amazing.

    When you meet people that have similarities to your story, what would you suggest to them is that first step? What would you say Because I know it's really hard, people can listen to someone and they could hear the information, they could take it in, but it's really hard to actually make that.

    the action, that first step. What advice would you give to people as that first step?

    Lucy Liu (19:49)

    Mm.

    I love that question.

    Love that question because again, it comes down to a decision. But before you're able to make that decision, I believe everything starts with awareness. I believe all our problems can be solved, but we have to be aware of our problems first. everything starts with awareness. You have to slow down and pause and reflect.

    Kelli Luu (19:57)

    Exactly.

    Mm-hmm.

    Lucy Liu (20:19)

    Are you aware of your limiting beliefs? Because I feel a lot of people do not see that. And that's why with the help of a coach, it's just faster because you get that bird's eye view. My favorite is when I coach other coaches because they catch themselves so quickly. They get that awareness even faster. If I say something, they'll be like, my goodness.

    Kelli Luu (20:32)

    Mm-hmm.

    Lucy Liu (20:46)

    I can see that in my clients, but I did not see it in myself. Like it's so easy for us to say, you know, like it's kind of like when your friend is doing something wrong, you see it and then you're like telling them. But when you do the same thing, you don't realize it. Like you're shrinking yourself. You don't realize it. You're saying some really mean things to yourself and you might not realize like

    Kelli Luu (21:03)

    Yes, ⁓

    Lucy Liu (21:13)

    Some of the things we say to ourselves, we would never say that to other people. Guess that's too mean.

    Kelli Luu (21:17)

    Right, other people, yeah. Right,

    so why are we so comfortable saying it to ourselves? ⁓

    Lucy Liu (21:26)

    So I think once

    we have that awareness, for example, my clients would say, you know, after working with you, Lucy, like if I have certain thoughts, I'll be like, wait, wait, wait, hold on. No, Lucy would say like, no, like they would have more awareness on catching their own thoughts when you realize that's just a limiting belief. That's just you, you know, self shaming yourself. That's just you.

    Kelli Luu (21:29)

    Okay.

    Uh-huh.

    Lucy Liu (21:52)

    criticizing yourself too hard and making a big deal out of nothing, pretty much. And I think it's these aha moments that adds up to an entire life transformation. we, a lot of people think, well, where I'm waiting, like that was me for certain points of my life. I was like waiting for that epiphany moment in my life.

    You know, and even after I became a coach, I started speaking my story, even though I got good feedback. When I come, if if I were to compare myself to other coaches, right, I'm still behind. So why would I do that?

    Kelli Luu (22:30)

    Right.

    When you compare yourself to other coaches, is that kind of, that's not questioning yourself really, right? No, like. ⁓

    Lucy Liu (22:42)

    No,

    I compare myself. I still do now, but in a can excited when I see other women's accomplishments. like, my goodness, I'm so happy for you. I'm so excited for you. Like I generally root for other people. Like I want everyone to succeed. I want everyone's dreams to come true. And I think because of that, like sometimes

    Kelli Luu (22:45)

    Right. Okay.

    Right.

    Lucy Liu (23:06)

    my dreams come true. like, sometimes things happen in life and people like, Lucy, like, what did you do to manifest this life? I'm like, right? It's it's that energy. It's that vibration, because that's what I would like to see in the world. Mm hmm. Because I want everyone's dream to manifest. A lot of my dreams manifest.

    Kelli Luu (23:20)

    Definitely.

    Right.

    That's just, that's really how it works most of the time, you know? ⁓ So, again, I want to swivel back a little bit to just your personal life a little. you said you're married, right? Do you guys have kids? Like, what is, wow. ⁓ my gosh.

    Lucy Liu (23:42)

    Yes, my daughter's She's taller than me.

    Kelli Luu (23:46)

    how are you raising her in this kind of day and age where Asian representation is a little bit more present?

    Lucy Liu (23:57)

    Mm.

    Kelli Luu (23:57)

    Do you see a lot of differences from when you were a child and now raising your own?

    Lucy Liu (24:03)

    Definitely, I can say I am very, very proud of her. She is my bestie. We are glued together 24-7. Yes, she gets straight A pluses, but I am not a tiger mom. I do not overlook her homework at all. She comes home, she does her own thing, and she just happened to want straight A's.

    Kelli Luu (24:13)

    Aww.

    Lucy Liu (24:28)

    I'm always like the chill mom, let's take a break. Let's go take a walk. Let's like, you know, I'm like, I don't care if you get good grades. I mean, I am proud of you for trying. I'm proud of you for working hard, but I'm not proud of you because you have straight A's. But I would be more proud of you if you are also an example of what I want to see in the world. example, ⁓

    Kelli Luu (24:36)

    huh.

    Lucy Liu (24:53)

    Back in the days, her bestie, her own little bestie from school, moved from another school and she stepped in to be friends with her and they became really good friends and her friend's mom came to me and said, you know, thank you because my daughter became friends with your daughter, she became so much more confident. Like, that makes me proud. That.

    Kelli Luu (25:13)

    Aww, that's amazing.

    Lucy Liu (25:18)

    That is my flex. It's not about her grade. It's not about what she wants to do when she grow up. we were always the parents like, you know, we're going to support you no matter what you want to do. Like she wants to she's an art school right now. And you know what we say about starving artists. But I'm like, I don't care. You can do whatever you want in life as long as you're happy. So we were always that kind of parents, like very chill, laid back parents, because

    Kelli Luu (25:32)

    Right.

    Nice.

    Lucy Liu (25:45)

    I want her to be confident. I want her to to have joy in her life. And I'm just the type of person now that that really preaches that's more important than just what our traditional Asian community have taught our kids to be the go getter, ⁓ to be the breadwinner. And I think that's kind of different than what

    Kelli Luu (25:58)

    Hmm.

    Right.

    Right.

    Lucy Liu (26:12)

    when we were growing up.

    I get other people who are saying, well, then you're lucky, Lucy, or your daughter's lucky to have you. But at the same time, I went through that rebellious stage to, can you even imagine how upset my parents were when I dropped myself out with straight A's? Right?

    Kelli Luu (26:27)

    Yeah.

    Lucy Liu (26:32)

    But it's not about the process, it's really about the result and working together, talking to our parents. I mean, even for me, now that I am doing this work, it's still hard. It's not easy to talk to our parents, but it's a learning process.

    Kelli Luu (26:49)

    Yeah.

    thank you so much for even taking the time to be here and talk to us about that. I have one more question for you. What would you say if you met the real

    The real Lucy Liu, the actress. ⁓

    Lucy Liu (27:05)

    my goodness. ⁓

    That is actually, I'm going to put it out there. That is actually my next dream eat brunch with her and meet her and talk to her and tell her how amazing she is, how remarkable she is and how much impact she has on our community and my life because my entire being now is, is, you know,

    affected by her existence and that's a beautiful existence and I think I would actually be very quiet because I would be like, the introvert, the introvert Lucy starstruck. Yes, I would definitely and that goes. Yeah, that goes another long way to say, you know, even though I'm speaking right now, I'm a speaker, but I am introverted. I love spending time just, you know, hiding at home.

    Kelli Luu (27:32)

    It is.

    bit starstruck.

    Lucy Liu (27:58)

    and, that doesn't mean we don't have the, the ability to come out and make a difference. And I think I hope that inspires some listener to reach higher potential and do great things themselves. So yeah, thank you, Kelli, so much for putting my next dream out there. I want to meet her in person. I want to, I

    Kelli Luu (28:07)

    Yeah.

    ⁓ of course.

    Well, thank you so much Lucy It's been a pleasure talking to you I've definitely taken a lot of insight and wisdom from this and I hope a lot of our viewers have too

    Thanks

    everyone for joining in and listening to us today at the Gold Sea Podcast. I'm Kelli Luu This is Lucy Liu We'll tune in next time. Thank you guys.

    Lucy Liu (28:40)

    Thank you.

    Thanks for joining us on the Gold Sea Podcast. For more great Asian American podcasts and other Asian American content, join us at goldsea.com. You can also enjoy our podcasts on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can follow us on Instagram at Gold Sea Media and on our YouTube channel, Gold Sea Media. Until next time.

    30 min
  • Dr. Anthony Youn is America’s Holistic Plastic Surgeon

    The Michigan-based plastic surgeon has built a massive online following, educating millions around the world about cosmetic procedures and the science behind beauty. 

    In this age of social media, Asian creators have carved a space for themselves online, sharing conversations and knowledge around everything from beauty and business to health and wellness. Among them is Dr. Anthony Youn who has become one of the most recognizable and influential Asian American voices on the internet.

    Born and raised in a small town in Michigan, Youn always felt like the awkward kid in school who was completely different than everyone else. He has often shared stories about his own low self esteem and feeling invisible around the other students, which is what led him to have surgery on his jaw after high school.

    After his very first procedure, Youn felt like he had the power to control exactly how he looks and feels about himself and from there, he knew that he wanted to help others as well. Youn earned his medical degree at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, then later completed his plastic surgery residency in state before pursuing an advanced aesthetic fellowship in Beverly Hills, California.

    Following his residency and fellowship, Dr. Youn established his own private practice in Michigan called Youn Plastic Surgery and he is one of the busiest plastic surgeons in the country. Beyond his clinic, Youn is also known for his online presence as “America’s Holistic Plastic Surgeon”.

    He has gained a huge fanbase with more than 14 million followers across all platforms, making him one of the most followed plastic surgeons worldwide. Youn has gone viral for debunking misinformation about cosmetic treatments, reacting to popular beauty trends, and sharing science-backed skincare advice. Aside from social media, Youn has written several books giving insights on anti-aging science and medicine.

     His expertise has also been recognized by major TV programs and news outlets, helping bring accurate, educational conversations about cosmetic surgery to a wider audience. Dr. Anthony Youn’s success began with a personal journey with his own self-confidence and eventually turned that into a career where he can inspire millions around the world to feel comfortable in their own skin.

    3 min
  • Baseball Progeny Brandon Zenimura’s Life Could Be a Movie

    The great grandson of Kenichi Zenimura "The Father of Japanese baseball" talks to us about his family's history with baseball, WWII internment camps and his own journey to discovering his mixed race identity.

    Welcome to the Gold Sea Podcast, featured with other great Asian American content on GoldSea.com, the Asian American Daily.

    Romen Borsellino (00:14)

    Hello and welcome to the Gold Sea podcast. We have a very special episode today. We held a contest to see who had some of the best identity stories in the AAPI community. And we got a ton of entries and I'm speaking today with Brandon Zenimura, who stood out above the rest, had an incredible story that he is gonna share with us right now, not to hype you up too much and ruin expectations.

    Brandon Zenimura (00:40)

    Thanks

    Romen Borsellino (00:43)

    Brandon AKA Zeni, welcome to the podcast.

    Brandon Zenimura (00:47)

    Thank you very much for having me.

    Romen Borsellino (00:50)

    So tell us, let's just get right into it: You are a teacher, you have an interesting mixed race identity, and you have a very very cool story about one of your family members and his impact on a tradition here in the United States and beyond. So with that, tell us about yourself, Brandon.

    Brandon Zenimura (01:15)

    Well, yeah, I'm for the most part, I'm a teacher, married, we have three kids. And, for the most part I've grown up, knowing only one side of my identity. And I guess for a long period of my life, thinking that I was only Japanese and only, and, and raised in that particular way, even though I don't necessarily look the part, I think I learned that I was and realized it, that I was mixed race and biracial, I think seventh eighth grade where all of sudden I had some friends that were black and they're like, yo bro, like you're mixed. You're part of us.

    Romen Borsellino (01:57)

    Literally, just from looking at you and interacting with you, your friends were like, you're black?

    Brandon Zenimura (02:01)

    Some of that, some of that, but it was also like that I had, I had some relatives, some distant cousins on my dad's side. So I recently just met my dad and met with him and it's still kind of a, we'll say it's a rough relationship in the sense of I'm trying to enter the waters very, very slowly.

    Romen Borsellino (02:15)

    Amazing.

    Brandon Zenimura (02:27)

    And some of it is trust, some of it is I didn't realize I had daddy issues until I became a daddy and seeing myself in my kids' eyes. Well, seeing myself in my kids' through my eyes, it was like, wow, yeah, I think I have daddy issues. Here I come therapy. But yes, it was being a Japanese kid for a long time. I was around my grandparents and my great-grandmother quite a bit. And they knew nothing else. They never told me anything else. My mom alluded to it. Like for me to go to a junior high out here, it was a magnet school program, so you had to apply to go to it.

    Romen Borsellino (03:09)

    Sorry, where's that here? Where are you based?

    Brandon Zenimura (03:11)

    Fresno, California. And so my grandfather sent in my application, but he put down Asian American. But my test scores were not high enough. >y mom, I got denied, and so my mom was like, no, no, no, no, no. Like, you got to put him in as African American.

    Romen Borsellino (03:32)

    Amazing.

    It's slightly different for me, but I have literally made that joke frequently that as I'm an Indian Italian and I stopped, I realized it was not beneficial to put Asian on my applications for the exact same reason you said they would look at my test scores and be like, what's going on here?

    Brandon Zenimura (03:48)

    Yeah. You are not Asian enough.

    Romen Borsellino (03:56)

    Yeah, exactly. That's fascinating that you sort of have the same experience. I mean, it's also, and I will not make you get into this because this could be a multi-hour conversation, but there's obviously this major debate rolling nationally sort of about admissions and affirmative action and lawsuits that have been brought by the Asian community and then the outcomes sort of harming the Black community in a lot of ways. Sometimes unintentionally. So I'm not sure if you've been following that and have thoughts on that, but you are very much in the center of that sort of thing, given your background.

    Brandon Zenimura (04:36)

    Definitely, it's been quite the conversation with some kids in particular that are looking to be college bound. So that's, it's touchy because I know that I am a product of that. I applied to colleges as an African American, I applied to schools as African American on all the different documents and applications that we fill out, even my kids. My kids are only a quarter, or a quarter Black so they do not look the part yet. They'll mark it down as African-American and Black because I know that the opportunity for them to potentially get to that gets to someplace where they wouldn't have if it were Japanese.

    Romen Borsellino (05:06)

    Right. No, I appreciate that. It's a messy, complicated, not fun situation. But it sounds like you're pretty pragmatic and thoughtful about it.

    Brandon Zenimura (05:22)

    Yeah, I know. I'm trying to be. Trying to be.

    Romen Borsellino (05:36)

    So your world, did your world change, would you say, when you found out, you know, that you were half black? I mean, it's interesting. Let's just say we didn't have 23 and me when you were in middle school, right? So maybe——

    Brandon Zenimura (05:50)

    Hahaha. No, it wasn't there. 41. So yeah, 23 of me didn't come out until we were quite, quite adult in adulthood. And it was scared.

    Romen Borsellino (06:02)

    That would have been particularly jarring, would imagine, finding out from an app.

    Brandon Zenimura (06:08)

    Yeah, yeah, that you just get this notification like, hey, by the way. It was a little bit, but then I'm trying to find like some ownership in it. I was an athlete. So the fact of like, well, that makes sense. Like you're like, of course, you're going to be fast. Of course, you're going to do this. So you had all of those particular comments coming out of, you know, this junior high age of time. And then I also

    Romen Borsellino (06:11)

    Yeah. Yeah.

    Brandon Zenimura (06:34)

    Going to this magnet school and then going to the high school my freshman year, it made a lot of sense because it was also the high school that had the biggest population of African-American students on campus. And so it just kind of felt appropriate to be there. I had some extended, some cousins that were there that I had no idea that I had, because they were a part of my dad's side that I didn't necessarily ever interact with. So they were

    Romen Borsellino (06:38)

    Crazy. Were they at your school? So you literally had classmates that you did not know were your cousins until this.

    Brandon Zenimura (07:12)

    Yeah, yeah, was bonkers.

    Romen Borsellino (07:15)

    That's amazing. I hope you were careful. I hope nothing negative had happened in the hookup scene before you knew who your cousins were and weren't.

    Brandon Zenimura (07:23)

    No, so what's funny is that. So actually in these interactions like you're talking like OK, so I met I met my dad just recently where I actually sat down, had a conversation. I was 40 years old and having daddy issues and that whole thing, but in other iterations of my life, like my freshman year we had a basketball tournament and we get done with this basketball tournament. We just lost to a team that we wouldn't. We weren't supposed to and this guy comes up to me and he was like, "hey, what's up? Hey, not bad game" you know, and he gives me a handshake and he puts a hundred dollar bill in my hand and I was just like what You know, you're a freshman highs like 100 bucks. Okay, like what's

    Romen Borsellino (07:55)

    What? This is a teammate? There's an opponent, like there's a kid your age?

    Brandon Zenimura (08:11)

    No, this was a guy and come to find out it was my dad. was my biological dad. So I had no, mean, one of those things where I have no idea who this guy is, just came to shake my hand, gave me a hundred bucks. Like, ⁓ did it curb the loss a little bit? Yeah. Like, so.

    Romen Borsellino (08:12)

    No. I would be throwing the next game if I knew what came when I lost.

    Romen Borsellino (08:35)

    Did your dad expect you to know who he was? I wonder what he expected you to think when a stranger gave you $100.

    Brandon Zenimura (08:46)

    You know, I don't know. I never thought about that. Never really thought about that. I mean, I know that there were ⁓ Fresno is kind of a weird place. Like we're a big city, but at the same time, like everybody knows everybody. So we have this real big, small town feel. So everybody knows everybody. Because of where I went to school and because my name is, you know, you throw it into Google and there's only one Brandon Zenimura in this world. then kind of my

    Romen Borsellino (09:09)

    Yeah, as a Romen Borsellino I feel you on that. Trust me.

    Brandon Zenimura (09:16)

    And I mean, I tell my students this all the time, like you can Google me, you're going to find me. Like it doesn't matter where I am. Like you're going to find me. But because I'm the only Brandon Zenimura in the world, it made a lot of sense that he could keep tabs in some way of like knowing where I was, how I was doing, that I was doing well in baseball, doing well, basketball, running this, doing that. So I think in some ways he had tabs on me. Like there was there were people that would communicate.

    Romen Borsellino (09:33)

    Yeah.

    Brandon Zenimura (09:46)

    As I've gotten older, I know that part of that of the conversations I've had with some other friends, they're like, yeah, my dad knows your dad.

    Romen Borsellino (09:57)

    Right, wow, are he and your mom in touch?

    Brandon Zenimura (10:03)

    Not that I know of. Really not that I know of. Like I think that in my conversations with him as an adult, he's said that he's reached out and he's tried to connect and he's tried to be somewhat maybe in the frontage road or the tangential like path that I am.

    Romen Borsellino (10:22)

    Yeah.

    Brandon Zenimura (10:26)

    But yeah, it never really came to volition where he revealed himself, took off the mask and, aha, I'm here, I'm here, Brandon.

    Romen Borsellino (10:32)

    Yeah, in a dramatic… I mean, as you're…This already could be a movie, the way you're describing it. Like, I wouldn't put it past that to be a part of the story.

    Brandon Zenimura (10:42)

    It would, yeah, I can see it.

    Romen Borsellino (10:46)

    So when you found out that you were half black, was there immediately anything like, where you're like, now I can dress this way, eat this way. Dare I even say, any words that you'd always wanted to say?

    Brandon Zenimura (11:00)

    In some ways, yes, but at the I don't look the part to like complected, you know, there's there's this there's this great line from he's a he's a spoken word poet, Lemon Anderson, who did it like this Ted Talk of like Etheridge Knight's poem of like, Don't Take My Air Jordans. And he describes like being like complected with the idea of being skin. Like I'm not white enough to be white, but I'm also not black enough to be black. I felt that, like as much as I part of that identity and as I got older, I think I've tried to lean in on that just because of, know, action and what being half black has allowed me to be and allowed me access to as far as getting to school and that whole thing.

    Romen Borsellino (11:34)

    Right.

    Brandon Zenimura (11:54)

    Yeah, it was, don't look the part. And even talking to my kids about this as my daughter is doing her hero project on Rosa Parks in second grade, it's like, well, I think we need to think about this a little bit differently because it's all about some identity and being a quarter black, if we are going to be part of that community and be and identify, then we should know.

    Romen Borsellino (12:11)

    Yeah. Totally.

    Brandon Zenimura (12:24)

    Should have. We should have some knowledge under our belt that we're not completely in the clouds and think that we can just float through.

    Romen Borsellino (12:33)

    No, totally. I mean, of all the people who have experienced, I'm not going to say an identity crisis, though that's probably not far off, you are incredibly thoughtful in your approach to all this. And I mean, I'm sure you've had plenty of time, years, decades to think about this. But I'm very moved by the ways in which you were able to speak about these issues in such a sort of both seemingly nonchalant, but both very like nuanced and comprehensive.

    Brandon Zenimura (13:06)

    Yeah, well, funny that so going to college, I went to a junior college first, some of which was because I wanted to play baseball. I got into UC Irvine out of out of high school, just kind of part of like my test scores were good enough. But applying as an African American male, the biggest push my senior year of high school was they had recruits come out and say, try to make us 1 % at UC Irvine. Try to make us black folks, like let's reach 1%. So they came out, they picked me up from high school, they took me down to UC Irvine for a night, like we stayed a night. We these great like tour groups that took us around the campus, that took us around the campus, showed us around, like introduces to people, some of which like I had friends, I had friends that were at UC Irvine at the time living in the dorms and they're like, dude, what's up? Like you're gonna come here. It's a really cool experience. And so a lot of me out of high school wanting to go to UC Irvine and some of it was like, well, yeah, let's jump that one percent.

    Romen Borsellino (14:12)

    Well, that's great. I think it also shows that for all the attacks against DEI and diversity and affirmative action, it's good policy. These schools are getting students excited to want to go there and wanting to be a part of that community when you explicitly talk about it head on rather than just make this a taboo subject, I would say.

    Brandon Zenimura (14:47)

    Yeah, yeah, I agree.

    Romen Borsellino (14:49)

    So my, you know, I'm, as I mentioned, I'm half Indian, half Italian and people often ask me, I'm sure that the question you can relate to is, you know, so do you feel more in touch with your Indian side or your Italian side? And my answer has generally been, I try and be as in touch with both as possible by virtue of the fact that people look at me and think he's a brown guy, he's Indian. That just forces me to slightly put that more front and center. And that's not necessarily my decision, it's the of those around me who, based on my appearance, that's sort of where I'm thrust into. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm very proud of my Indian American identity, but I'm sure you can very much relate to that given that your identity is probably largely based on how people interpret you when they see you, and then your last name obviously validates that.

    Brandon Zenimura (15:42)

    Yes, yes. Agreed. That's in, there is a there's a new exhibit that just was opened to now two and a half weeks ago called we, uh, I Am An American. So it's based on like the Nisei soldiers that were fighting during World War Two. So, you know, short, long story short, World War II, Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. All Japanese Americans on the West Coast are by executive order 9066 FDR puts every Japanese American or anybody of Japanese ancestry into internment camps. As all of these internees are there, there are some that decide to join the military. And so we have stories from the 442nd, the Hunter Battalion, and then also recently more information from the MIS, which is the Military Intelligence Services.

    Japanese soldiers, so Japanese American soldiers with Japanese ancestry fighting in the war against the Japanese. And MIS were left in these left on these islands in the Pacific and told that if you are caught, they're codebreakers for the most part. They're interpreters and codebreakers. If you're caught, you're not American. And so left to fend for themselves for a long period of time. And this was all kind of

    Romen Borsellino (16:47)

    Wow.

    Brandon Zenimura (17:07)

    Under wraps in that way. And now that all this information is kind of surfacing and statute of limitations, I'm sure, we have now these great stories that are being told. And so the past three years, there's been an effort from the United States military history, I believe more so the army, but they put this thing together, this fantastic, I mean, it's a huge, fantastic exhibit that I got a chance to see. I was just on a speaking panel in

    Romen Borsellino (17:15)

    Okay. Okay.

    Brandon Zenimura (17:37)

    San Francisco for the opening week and it was a panel on baseball. But a lot of people don't. Since my grandfather passed away, there aren't a whole lot of people that share that story Great grandfather, my grandfather was one and the closest tie. He was in camp. He was 15. He was hanging out with dad on the baseball field kind of thing. He played at Fresno State, played in Japan. So he's got

    Romen Borsellino (17:38)

    Wow.

    Brandon Zenimura (18:08)

    He had stories upon stories upon story.

    Romen Borsellino (18:11)

    My god, I can't even imagine.

    Brandon Zenimura (18:13)

    Funny that we never

    Romen Borsellino (18:14)

    This was your great grandfather that was interned? Or your grandfather?

    Brandon Zenimura (18:17)

    Great grandfather. So my grandfather. My grandfather was 15, 14 and 15 when they were interned. Great grandfather was 40 would have been 42 essentially. He was born in 1900, but the idea was, you you're in camp. ⁓ I know that if I wonder after this past after two weeks ago being on that panel and talking about baseball and it was it was a really neat event just because they had multiple generations and multiple stages of what the Japanese intern experience was and what that means for baseball now. So it's all kind of tied to baseball. But it was, you know, talking about the experience of what you look like, you know, approach. I'm going downstairs towards in this hotel's ball towards this hotel's ballroom. And I'm just getting shuttled in this like, well, yeah, just go register over here, sir. Over here. Like, no, I'm on the panel.

    Romen Borsellino (19:09)

    Yeah. Yeah, of course. We've been there.

    Brandon Zenimura (19:27)

    They're like, what panel? What panel is that? And it's like, the baseball panel. My name's Brandon Zenimura. And they go, they look on their list. Look up. Do you have any ID, sir? It wasn't that bad, but it was more in the sense of that somebody then came by and it was like a validation like, you're one of us.

    Romen Borsellino (19:45)

    Yeah, right.Yeah, yeah, wow, that's a lot.

    Brandon Zenimura (19:59)

    It's kind of fun to float under the radar in that way, you know, the idea of through appearances. Yeah, I'm not recognized in that sense. Like my yeah, my students, they all see me now. And I mean, this is year 15 of me teaching. So teach all the kids that I've taught. They all have some kind of I used to have my great grandfather's picture on my wall and talk about it and especially when we had one of the high schools that I taught at, we had a memorial to the Japanese internees that would have graduated from that high school in 1941 and would have graduated in 42, 43, and 44. And so because their graduations had been kind of squandered because of Japanese internment, they have this big rock and with these really nice trees and I mean, it's a dedication and plaque on it and all that. ⁓ But I would take my students out to go see it because we would get to the point of reading Night by Ellie Weisel and talking about Night was also the the shuttling of people away from their homes and to then describe the Japanese American experience where those that were had Japanese ancestry and how they were pulled away and how some of the ⁓ the iconic lines that come from Ellie Weasel's night of being in the train and looking and seeing things through the windows that is quite literally the experience that a lot of these people of Japanese ancestry had while they're being sent to Dead Square in the middle of Arizona, middle of Arkansas, let's go to Arkansas. I mean it was these desolate desolate places my great-grandparents my grandfather ended up in Gila River Arizona, which is on an Indian reservation So even now you have to be you have to be invited in Like just hey, we're gonna go over to this here in Gila River

    Romen Borsellino (22:04)

    Yeah "Check out where my grandfather lived." "Yeah, I can't exactly do that." Did hearing all these stories growing up, I imagine they would have had a profound effect on the way you viewed this country. I mean, it's so interesting people often it's like, who's your favorite president? FDR, he did so much social good. It's like, yeah, he did. And then he also did some other stuff. I mean, has that been sort of…
    that sort of whether or not explicitly through an FDR lens, just maybe society, culture in general, has this all been on the top of your mind, you know, as you sort of grew up and witnessed the world around you and had to form your own political views, et cetera?

    Brandon Zenimura (22:51)

    Yes and no. Because I also think about like the, you know, I'm a teacher so I'm supposed to be in some ways, and as an English teacher you're supposed to read a lot and have some foundation and some information and ideas that might extend beyond with multiple lenses and understanding particular contexts of decisions that are made. At the time, it makes sense that that decision was made. The fear, the amount of, and actually it's funny that that's exactly what I'm reading with my students right now. We're reading about how characters lead themselves into a place of fear because of a breakdown of systems. And it's actually because of environmental science, we're looking at novels like Dune and Jurassic Park. So we're reading Jurassic Park right now. yeah, of like, yeah, we have everything figured out.

    Romen Borsellino (23:44)

    Fun. Okay.

    Brandon Zenimura (23:49)

    Totally know that this is safe totally get it, but you know all my students in some ways They're like well wait all the movies like dinosaurs get out and like exactly so we have these systems in place that are supposed to absolve fear however, it's Quite literally all of the things that we assume that we know or assume that we understand ⁓ That whole like good old line of like yeah, we got it all figured out. We thought of everything and that

    Romen Borsellino (24:15)

    Wow. Amazing. I would never have thought to make a connection between Jurassic Park and Japanese internment. So I salute you, So you touched on baseball and I had not really mentioned this yet in the conversation, but this is one of the major parts of your identity and ⁓ the role that ⁓ your grandfather played. I would love for you to tell us about that a little bit.

    Brandon Zenimura (24:22)

    He's a German. Yeah, and so, yeah, grandpa, kind of a big deal in the Japanese American community. He was born in Hiroshima in 1900. His family moved, well, actually his dad first went to Hawaii and worked the sugar cane fields to kind of find a better life. And if you're thinking about Japan, late, late early 20th century but late 19th century, like the imperialism that came in, the westernization and the getting rid, I mean, if you ever watched the movie Last Samurai, like that, was all this influx of getting rid of samurai and into this new Western world and dressing different. That was kind of the shift that was happening. And politically, I think in Japan, things were getting a little turbulent. ⁓ And so as my great grandfather's family ended up moving to Hawaii, they, he went to school there, he graduated high school out there. And then from Hawaii, he moved, he was trying to go further. He had played baseball, was introduced to baseball there. It was a sport that he loved. He enjoyed playing, he played in high school. And then when he got to California, the goal was for him to continue going east. There were some other baseball opportunities in like Idaho or Iowa or something. And he never left Fresno.

    Brandon Zenimura (26:03)

    The original port that they get to is San Francisco from San Francisco. He made it down to Fresno and then from Fresno. Story is that he met my great grandmother and never left. And so he ended up staying in Fresno, established a life, started playing in different leagues in Fresno and then established his own team, the Fresno Athletic Club, which was a team of all Japanese Americans. And then as competitive as they were. he was, man, that guy, he is in my head, I cannot fathom the amount of work and the amount of organization that he placed around baseball. Because he's, I mean, geez, on his gravestone, he's called the Dean of the Diamond.

    Romen Borsellino (26:53)

    Wow, what a name.

    Brandon Zenimura (26:56)

    The crazy aspect of how he was able to play not just in the white, like, Twilight league that was happening at Fresno, that was all white, but he was also playing against these Mexican-American leagues and mixed American teams. He brought in Negro league teams and was able to play against them. ⁓ There are stories of him going somewhere east, playing in some game, but they had no idea. So actually, the writer of his biography, Bill Staples Jr. Had done this like extensive amount of research. Came hang out, would hang out with my grandfather and would ask questions like trying to piece together stories and artifacts that he would find. But there was one lineup card from a game in a Negro league, some Negro league like minor league or something. But it just did KZ and there was nothing, just some Asian man that played in this game. But because of the affiliations and who was connected and what people were named, like the only person it could have been was him. And so in 1927, Yankees win the World Series. Part of how they make some more extra money is they barnstorm across the country. They showcase their power and their prowess on the baseball field. So Babe Ruth is on that team. Luke Gehrig is on that team. And they end up in Fresno and they split the two.

    Romen Borsellino (28:02)

    Right. Wow.

    Brandon Zenimura (28:24)

    The two juggernauts, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig apart. There's the Lollipin Louz and the Bustin' Babes. And so there's this iconic picture. You Google it on, you can just throw it anywhere in the Google page, click images, and at some particular point it's gonna come up. But it's Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, my great grandfather in the middle, then it happens to American players. And so that's the picture I grew up seeing. ⁓ Because it's like, Babe Ruth, like, of course, like Babe Ruth, that's the name that I remember. How many times I watched the Sandlot and thought about the Babe. But then it was also like Lou Gehrig in that picture and Lou Gehrig was actually the MVP that year, which is, you know, to say like, hey, you're better than the babe. That's quite a thing. But 1927, he plays against Babe Ruth in Fresno at Fireman's Park. So actually where that field is basically where they had to, that was like a holding ground for Japanese Americans when they, or those of Japanese ancestry during World War II before, when 9066 was sent out, they were sent to the fairgrounds. They were sent to the horse stables to stay in the horse stables while the barracks were all built in all of these interment camps. So was a, so from 27 all the way through,

    Brandon Zenimura (29:50)

    40, 42 when they actually got shipped out. ⁓ He was doing baseball stuff, playing, coaching, managing. At the same time, having a life in Fresno and having, ⁓ technically there were three boys. His first child was actually sent back to Japan with his grandparents and raised in Japan. ⁓ And then the two youngest boys stayed here and were with him.

    Romen Borsellino (29:51)

    Okay. Okay.

    Brandon Zenimura (30:20)

    Which is one is my grandfather. ⁓

    And yeah, it was like baseball through and through. He became a name partner and got a Studebaker. He sold Studebakers in downtown Fresno and he was a name partner. So it was like Pritchard and Zenimura and company, which is super cool. found it. I was digging through stuff at my grandmother's house and found a, this great old picture of the side of a Studebaker. And it had like their Pritchard and Zennimura on the side, which is super iconic.

    Romen Borsellino (30:28)

    Well. Good.

    Brandon Zenimura (30:53)

    To know that a Japanese American was a name partner in the like a car dealership essentially. Like you're a name partner. Like that's, that's not a thing. Is it only in California?

    Romen Borsellino (31:02)

    Yeah. Crazy. Were you alive at the same time as your great-grandfather did you get to know him at all.

    Brandon Zenimura (31:13)

    No, so he he was hit by a drunk driver in 1968 so I never got a chance to really meet him but I was around my great-grandmother a lot. She lived until she was 92. She was somebody I played catch with when I was a kid. I was around her.

    Romen Borsellino (31:18)

    Jesus Christ. Again, this needs to be a movie that's like such a, can already imagine the scene in the trailer.

    Brandon Zenimura (31:37)

    Well, yeah, it's like the little tiny Brandon sitting down on this like carpet, looking up at this baseball picture of like Babe Ruth. And I mean, in some ways, like I had a friend's dad, actually he was the one who initially started digging into the Japanese American experience when it came to baseball. And so he's like the he's like the guy that knows all the stories. And it all started his uncle is in the picture with Babe Ruth.

    Romen Borsellino (31:40)

    Yeah.

    Brandon Zenimura (32:06)

    and Lou Gehrig. And so his son and I played all-star baseball together in Little League. And so at one particular point, we were both looking over this fence and it said Zenimura and Nakagawa right next to each other. And he took a picture. And so he was like, wow, like how many generations has this been since these two names were side by side in a picture? And so that like was the kickoff of, I'm going to start researching because quite literally, like nobody talked about

    Romen Borsellino (32:21)

    Wow.

    Brandon Zenimura (32:35)

    Japanese internment. It was like a

    Romen Borsellino (32:41)

    A lot of things we don't talk about, yes.

    Brandon Zenimura (32:42)

    It was a black eye in American history for one. Two, nobody wanted to talk about pain. You know, the Japanese community is very conservative in that sense, as far as like, yeah, well, something has to happen. And I'm sure that that's pretty enigmatic in lots of different Asian cultures. Like, hey, we're not going to talk about that. Like, that's bad. Yeah.

    Romen Borsellino (33:06)

    Silence sometimes. Yeah, you mentioned therapy earlier. Not necessarily something we have a long history with.

    Brandon Zenimura (33:10)

    Yeah. And so…

    Romen Borsellino (33:18)

    Actually, we may very well. Don't fact check that, at least just not outwardly.

    Brandon Zenimura (33:21)

    But yeah, so they go to camp, my grandfather builds a field outside of the barbed wire fence. And so some of the stories that come out of him building this field on an Indian reservation outside of the barbed wire as to as an attorney. My grandfather had stories of digging through the dirt and having to fish out rocks so that there there's no rocks on the infield.

    Brandon Zenimura (33:51)

    The hitting the mattress pads on the backstop to make sure there's no there there aren't any rattlesnakes behind like sitting behind the the pads so it wouldn't surprise the catchers or anything after after a night. The the crazy wildlife man that used to sit on the edge of that lived on the edge of the barrack who would catch a bunch of desert animals and put them in little tiny cages and like he had like a wildlife zoo on the edge of a on the barrack. Like all of those. But there were like no there were no stories though that really kind of told them until I want to say about 1996 1995 where all of a sudden like some stories started getting started catching traction and my friend's dad began to kind of share that story.

    Romen Borsellino (34:27)

    The mascots.

    Brandon Zenimura (34:49)

    A lot of different stories from different Japanese American experiences, all the two schools and boards. And ⁓ my grandfather got a chance to go to all of these different places and kind of share all of sudden. Yeah, stories started coming out. And then a documentary was done and a book was written. And now there's like barbed wire baseball written by Marissa Moss. And the artwork in it is is gorgeous. And I actually started following, I follow the artist on Instagram and like some of stuff she does is so incredible. As a second career, like she started in some other career and then to art, I got in real. But yeah, that book, got, I got a text message a few years ago that a third grade class was going to be reading it to talk about Japanese, Japanese American experience. And they're like, yeah, well, do you want to come and talk to this third grade class? Like, yeah, yeah, heck yeah.

    Romen Borsellino (35:26)

    Wow. cool. The role you were born to play as a teacher who loves this stuff. That's great.

    Brandon Zenimura (35:47)

    Yeah, in some ways. Because my it's my dad, who's black. My mom is Japanese. So I was never supposed to have this name, like by the, you know, the typical standards, I come not supposed to have any more. But

    Romen Borsellino (35:59)

    Yeah. I was thinking that earlier, not to be like so antiquated in last names, but you know, that's simply how the tradition sounds. He like, yeah, he his mom's last.

    Brandon Zenimura (36:09)

    Yeah, yeah, and I have my mom's last name because I my mom and dad were never married and therefore I never and then as I wore I never took on my name was hyphenated that was a trip because I did not know my name was hyphenated until I had to apply for a passport when I was 15.

    Romen Borsellino (36:20)

    And they were like, there's no one who exists with that name. Your full name is XYZ. And is that how it went down? Wow.

    Brandon Zenimura (36:34)

    Yep, pretty much. they're like, yeah, you need to sign this as this name because this is what's on your birth certificate. And I was like, I didn't even know I had another name.

    Romen Borsellino (36:44)

    Right. Wow. The Barack Obama, let's see the long form birth certificate there. The other thing I wanted to ask you, I guess, is your own relationship to baseball. At what point was it like, all right, clearly you have to play baseball and the expectations are not exactly low.

    Brandon Zenimura (36:49)

    Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I always well, I'd like to say I might have been decent. I might have been a decent player. mean, I got a chance to play in college, which says says a lot about. But like in comparison, I don't know. My grandfather was about four sixty five at Fresno State in nineteen fifty one. And I was like, you know, looks like.

    Romen Borsellino (37:16)

    It sure does.

    Brandon Zenimura (37:32)

    What the 465 like you have higher average than Uncle Fibber and to to kind of put it in context Uncle Fibber. So Fibber Satoshi Iriyama has an elementary school named after him out here and also has a gym named after him. So he has two different locations. He is an All-American in baseball All-American in football at Fresno State is an absolute icon played for the Hiroshima Carps. Same time I great my grandfather did but

    Romen Borsellino (37:34)

    Yeah.

    Brandon Zenimura (38:01)

    Stayed there for 10 years ended up coach being a player coach for a little bit Helped establish an academy in the Dominican Republic and spoke three languages You hit higher than him?

    Romen Borsellino (38:17)

    But he didn't have a 465.

    Brandon Zenimura (38:19)

    Didn't have 465 But yeah for a long time it was yeah, I played a lot of sports I did a lot of things and activities I played soccer I ran track or ran cross-country. Mom kind of kept me out of football, which I thank her for. Because I probably would have got her the way that I was. ⁓ But it was middle school. So going back to that iconic time of like, maybe your nuts drop, your voice gets deeper, and all of sudden you start to grow hair. All of sudden we went from the little field in Little League to the big field. And as a seventh grader, was starting. I earned the starting position.

    Romen Borsellino (38:34)

    Yeah

    Brandon Zenimura (39:00)

    In right field for essentially the eighth grade team. So everybody else was an eighth grader except this little kid in right field, hitting towards the top of the order and I was starting.

    Romen Borsellino (39:04)

    Wow, nepotism over here in baseball. I'm just kidding.

    Brandon Zenimura (39:14)

    Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Apparently I was decent, but things changed getting to middle school. All of I felt like I got really good. But yeah, from that particular point, baseball became more of a focus. And ⁓ eighth grade, I got better. And ninth grade, I got better. Tenth grade, I feel like I got better. ⁓ And yeah, it took me to college. So I got a chance to play in college. I played at Fresno City College for, I was there for three years. Got hurt that first year. And then went to Sonoma State University in Northern California and played there. And had a blast. Really baseball has been just one of those opportunities that would have never met the people that I met, would have never made the friends that I met, and would never have been on platforms and in some ways also have the experience of talking to my grandfather as much as I did because of baseball. So a lot of times it was, yeah, I had dinner with grandpa almost every week on Sundays and we'd have like Sunday night family dinners, but

    Romen Borsellino (40:15)

    Yeah

    Brandon Zenimura (40:24)

    Some of our conference, if I had a bad game Saturday, especially in college, 6am going to the cages, grandpa's feeding the machine

    Romen Borsellino (40:33)

    Wow.

    Brandon Zenimura (40:34)

    And he's dialing that thing up and he's like, and you know, mean, you have a bad game on a Saturday night with a bunch of the boys are trying to drown the sorrows, not waking up Sunday morning, feeling very great. Yeah. Smelling like stale beer, walk into the cages and going, all right, grandpa, I don't know how this is going to go. He's like, well get ready here comes So, I mean, it was just, yeah, the way baseball kind of weaved itself into my life and, became the focus of everything. Quite literally, it's the only reason why I think I had such a strong relationship with my grandfather is that we talked about baseball. And he would, we would watch baseball on the weekends and he would point out players and point out things that I need to focus on and think about. Like, ⁓ watch this, let's watch this at bat. You know, let's, he didn't swing at that. You should have swing at that. And yeah, it's what drew us together.

    Romen Borsellino (41:29)

    Okay.

    Brandon Zenimura (41:37)

    What kept our relationship strong was baseball. ⁓

    He was at every game.

    Romen Borsellino (41:46)

    Well, that's really incredible. think I've done enough asking personal questions and prodding and prying into your past, but this has been a wonderful conversation. I'm so glad that you saw the advertisement for our contest and that you submitted, or else we might not have gotten a chance to have this conversation. So thank you, Brandon. ⁓ This has been really, really great.

    Brandon Zenimura (41:53)

    Ha ha! Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Yeah, no, thank you.

    GoldSea

    Thanks for joining us on the Gold Sea Podcast. For more great Asian American podcasts and other Asian American content, join us at goldsea.com. You can also enjoy our podcasts on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can follow us on Instagram at Gold Sea Media and on our YouTube channel, Gold Sea Media. Until next time.

    43 min
  • How Maggie Kang Created a Global Media Phenomenon

    Kpop Demon Hunters overlayed K-pop onto a Korean supernatural tradition to create an animated musical that shattered Netflix records and became an awards season juggernaut.

    KPop Demon Hunters debuted as a global phenomenon in June 2025, shattering streaming records to become the most-watched movie in Netflix history with over 500 million views.  The film proved that a story rooted in Korean cultural traditions could command a massive, universal audience.  Punctuated during the 2026 awards season, it has been decorated with Golden Globes, Grammy, and Critics Choice honors and is currently the frontrunner for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the upcoming Academy Awards.

    The project was the brainchild of Maggie Kang, a veteran animator at Sony Pictures Animation whose distinct visual sensibility was honed on major features including 2017’s The LEGO Ninjago Movie, 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3, and Rise of the Guardians from 2012.  Kang sought to create a story that celebrated her heritage by weaving modern K-pop with the ancient roots of Korean mythology.  She drew specific inspiration from the mudang, traditional female shamans who utilized song and dance as a spiritual weapon to ward off evil.  In this reimagined world, sacred rituals became massive K-pop concerts where the idols served as secret hunters tasked with maintaining a magical barrier known as the Honmoon through the power of their music.

    Kang first brought her vision to Sony in 2018, but they passed.  Executives perceived that the project’s fully Asian cast, specific Korean cultural themes, and the K-pop storyline – which had not reached its peak at the time – would be too niche for audiences to connect with.  To prove the film’s viability, the creative team developed an exhaustive proof of concept with elaborate storyboards and music demos bringing the presentation to life.

    Central to this effort was singer-songwriter EJAE, an aspiring K-pop idol that was released by SM Entertainment after training for ten years.  After pivoting into a powerhouse writer for global hits like Red Velvet’s “Psycho” and aespa’s “Drama,” her technical mastery became essential to the project’s development. 

    Following a refined pitch in 2021, Netflix secured the distribution rights from Sony – which remained on board as the primary creative team, in a unique partnership.  Even with the green light Kang, in her directorial debut, had to defend essential components of the film’s identity.

    Though Kang has expressed regret over not pushing for even more Korean lyrics within the soundtrack, the music was an undeniable triumph that served as the very heartbeat of the film’s narrative.

    KPop Demon Hunters finally allowed EJAE to take center stage as the singing voice of Rumi in the fictional group Huntrix, alongside artists Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, who provided vocals for Mira and Zoey.  Their breakout anthem, “Golden,” became a cultural juggernaut.  It won Best Original Song at both the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes and is currently favored to win an Oscar in the same category.  “Golden” has since topped global charts and been performed at high-profile events including late night shows, the NFL Christmas halftime show and a New Year’s Eve special.  The Grammy winning track also served as the background for NBC’s promotion of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

    The storyline’s characters drew inspiration from modern K-pop giants like BTS, Blackpink, and Monsta X, and foundational pioneers like H.O.T. 

    Kang’s vision for authenticity dictated an entirely Korean cast.  The lead trio of Huntrix was voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong, and Ji-young Yoo, supported by an elite ensemble including Ahn Hyo-seop, Yunjin Kim, Lee Byung-hun, Daniel Dae Kim, and Ken Jeong.

    KPop Demon Hunters’ record-breaking release dismantled the “niche” label and proved that Asian-centric stories can be a massive global draw.

    Netflix and Sony are already in the works for a sequel to the hit film, slated for a 2029 release.

    6 min

About Voxcali

From the publisher's feed

California Asians share favorite people, places and stories.