Voxcali

Voxcali

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Voxcali episodes

  • Dichen Lachman Stars in Supernatural Horror Film Other Mommy

    Severance star Dichen Lachman joins the cast of the upcoming supernatural horror film Other Mommy alongside Jessica Chastain.

    Dichen Lachman is set to appear in Other Mommy, the upcoming supernatural horror film from producer James Wan, arriving in theaters October 9th.  Based on Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, the film follows an eight-year-old girl who encounters a sinister entity that resembles her mother.  Lachman joins Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, and Arabella Olivia Clark in the cast.

    Lachman’s recent credits include Vampires of the Velvet Lounge in 2026, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Aftermath in 2024, and Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.  In 2021’s Raya and the Last Dragon, she provided the voice of General Atitaya and a Spine Warrior.

    One of the more popular series Lachman has been a part of is Severance starring in all 19 episodes as Ms. Casey, a wellness counselor whose identity becomes increasingly important to the series’ mystery.  Additional television work includes 23 episodes of Animal Kingdom from 2018 to 2021, 12 episodes of Altered Carbon from 2018–2020, and 11 episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from 2014–2020.  In the latter, she portrayed Jiaying, the leader of the Inhuman community of Afterlife and mother of Daisy Johnson.

    The 44-year-old was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, to a Tibetan mother and Australian father and lived there until she was seven before moving with her parents to Adelaide.  Her breakthrough came with the Australian soap Neighbours 2005–2007, followed by Dollhouse, which introduced her to a wider American television audience.

    Following Other Mommy, Lachman is set to play Impa in The Legend of Zelda, the live-action Nintendo and Sony film scheduled for April 2027.  The role places her in another major genre franchise, continuing a career that has moved between science fiction, fantasy, horror and mainstream film.

    2 min
  • Vox Momenti: A War of One’s Own

    Nothing silences the maddening voice that whispers in the wee hours of the night like the explosions of a good hot war.

    Well, the King of Gilded Harbor couldn't sleep at half past three,

    He was countin' up his enemies like sheep that won't stay free,
    He said, "The Czar across the mountains got himself a war to wear,
    And his people kiss his medals and they never count the fare."

    Oh, a man needs something burnin' he can hold up to the light,
    Some smoke above some distant town to prove he's still all right,
    They say a king should mend the roads and build the poor a home,
    But a king like me needs thunder, needs a war of his own.

    He keeps a squadron made of plastic on the nightstand by the bed,
    Little missiles in a shoebox, painted silver, tipped in red,
    He flies 'em over pillow hills and makes the whistlin' sound,
    Then he calls the generals in their slippers, says, "Boys, let's go underground."

    'Cause the War Room's got the screens aglow, the coffee's always hot,
    There's a map that blinks in colors and a button and a plot,
    And it beats just lyin' there awake with the ceiling starin' down,
    And the whisper in the plaster of an old thing come to town.

    There's a worm inside the apple, there's a folder in a drawer,
    There's a name somebody wrote down in a book from years before,
    And he hears it when the house is still, it gnaws behind his eyes,
    So he draws the curtain over it with smoke and painted skies.

    Oh, a man needs something burnin' he can hold up to the light,
    Some fire on the evening news to drown the voice at night,
    Let the papers chase the cannons, let the old file rot alone,
    A king who's scared of whispers needs a war of his own.

    Now the farmers want their diesel and the mothers want their bread,
    And the barber's countin' pennies and the preacher's in the red,
    And the King leans off the balcony and hollers, "Hush, you whiners, hear?
    I gave you lions, I gave you eagles, and you're cryin' 'bout the price of beer!"

    So they ring the bells in Harbor Square, they hang the bunting high,
    And the boys are on the trains again, and nobody asks him why,
    And the Czar sends his congratulations on a card of velvet blue,
    Says, "Welcome to the club, my brother, now they'll never look at you."

    Now the shepherd in the valley where the borrowed thunder fell
    Is countin' up his children, and there's one less at the well,
    And the King sleeps sound at last tonight, the worm has gone to ground,
    'Cause there's nothin' cures a guilty mind like someone else's town.

    Oh, a man needs something burnin' he can hold up to the light,
    And it's always someone else's son who walks into the night,
    They'll carve his name in marble and they'll bury theirs in stone,
    Every lonely little emperor gets a war of his own.

    5 min
  • The Remarkable Life of Maggie Gee

    Not only was Maggie Gee one of only two Chinese American women to serve as a WASP during World War II, she also later became a pioneering physicist and lifelong advocate for equality.

    Long before women were allowed to fly combat missions for the United States military, Maggie Gee was flying high while fighting barriers of both race and gender. 

    Margaret “Maggie” Gee was born Gee Mei Gue in Berkeley, California, in 1923 as one of six children in a Chinese American family. She grew up during an era of widespread discrimination against people of Asian descent and her own mother had lost her American citizenship under the Cable Act of 1922 after marrying an Asian immigrant who was legally barred from naturalization.

    After Gee’s father died when she was six years old, her mother had to step up to support the family, so during World War II, her mother became a “Rosie the Riveter” at the Richmond shipyards, which gave Gee an early example of a woman entering work traditionally reserved for men. Her fascination with aviation began during childhood trips to the Oakland airport, where her family watched airplanes take off and land. During one of these visits, aviation icon Amelia Earhart reportedly waved at her, encouraging Gee’s dream of someday becoming a pilot. But at the time flight lessons were expensive, and becoming an aviator was not a realistic career choice for a young Chinese American woman. 

    Gee studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley, but placed her education on hold after the United States entered World War II. She wanted to contribute to the war effort and so Gee became one of only three women working as technical drafters in the engineering department at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. She assisted engineers repairing military ships while also saving her wages for flight school.

    The three women were eventually able to travel to Nevada for flying lessons. From there, Gee earned her pilot’s license within six months and applied to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, better known as the WASP program. Over 25,000 women applied to become WASPs , but only 1,074 completed the Army’s training and earned their wings during World War II. Gee graduated in November 1944 as one of only two Chinese American women accepted into the program, alongside fellow pilot Hazel Ying Lee.

    Unfortunately, Gee faced sexism and racial discrimination from her male colleagues and despite wearing a uniform, completing military training and flying military aircraft, Gee and the other WASPs were classified as civilian employees, so they did not receive military benefits, and the program was disbanded in December 1944.

    After the war, Gee returned to UC Berkeley and completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics. In 1958, she began working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she spent around 30 years researching weapons systems, nuclear energy and magnetic-fusion programs. 

    The WASPs were finally granted veteran status in 1977 and in 2010, Gee and the other surviving members received the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their World War II service. Maggie Gee died in 2013 at the age of 89, but her legacy lives on as she repeatedly entered spaces where women who looked like her were rarely welcomed.

    4 min
  • Bedtime Story: The Rabbit’s Liver

    This traditional Korean folk tale shows the importance of keeping one's head—especially when it might be lost, along with other organs.

    Come closer, my darlings, and tuck your feet under the blanket, because tonight we are going somewhere very far away. Not across a road, or over a mountain, or even beyond the moon. We are going straight down beneath the waves, to the palace of the Dragon King.

    Now, the Dragon King's palace was no damp little cave with seaweed curtains. Oh, no. Its walls were made of coral in every color you can imagine. Pearls glowed in the ceilings like tiny moons. Silver fish carried messages through the hallways, and octopus ministers bowed so deeply that keeping track of all their arms was a full-time job.
    In the grandest room of all stood the Dragon King's golden throne. But the king wasn't sitting proudly upon it. He was lying in bed under seven silk quilts, wearing a crown over a wet cloth on his forehead and looking thoroughly miserable.
    "I have no appetite," he groaned.
    This was serious. The Dragon King normally had an appetite large enough to frighten a banquet table.
    The royal doctors gathered around him. One examined his tongue. Another counted the bumps on his tail. A third doctor listened to his stomach through a large pink seashell and nodded as though the stomach had told him something very important.
    At last, the oldest physician stroked his long white whiskers and announced, "Your Majesty can be cured by only one thing: the liver of a rabbit from the land."
    Everyone gasped.
    This diagnosis raised several questions, beginning with how a doctor who lived at the bottom of the sea had learned so much about rabbits. But royal doctors do not always enjoy questions, especially after making a dramatic announcement.
    "Then bring me a rabbit," commanded the Dragon King.
    The fish officials suddenly found the floor extremely interesting. The crabs shuffled behind one another. The octopus minister tried to hide himself with his own arms, which took some arranging.
    Only the turtle stepped forward.
    "Your Majesty," he said, "I will travel to the land and bring back a rabbit."
    The Dragon King lifted his head from the pillows. "You will?"
    "I will," said the turtle, although his stomach had already begun to feel as if it contained several nervous shrimp.
    The court cheered, mostly because the court wasn't going.
    So the turtle swam out through the pearl gates, past the forests of waving sea grass and up through the deep blue water. He swam for a day and a night, and then another day besides. At last, his head broke through the surface near a green and sunny shore.
    The turtle pulled himself onto the sand and looked around. He had never visited the land before. Birds flew through the air without fins. Trees stood in one place all day and seemed perfectly content about it. Every creature moved much too quickly.
    "Now," he said, "what does a rabbit look like?"
    The royal artist had given him a portrait, but the drawing had become soggy during the journey. All the turtle could make out were two long shapes at the top and a round shape at the bottom.
    He first approached a deer.
    "Excuse me," said the turtle. "Are you a rabbit?"
    The deer looked down at him. "Do I look like a rabbit?"
    "You have long things on your head."
    "Those are antlers."
    "Ah," said the turtle. "Very elegant. Sorry to trouble you."
    Next he met a squirrel, who certainly had a round shape at the bottom but was far too busy burying a nut to answer questions.
    At last, beneath a pine tree, the turtle saw a small animal with soft brown fur, bright eyes and two unmistakably long ears. The rabbit was nibbling clover and listening to the forest with the careful expression of someone who preferred to hear trouble before trouble heard him.
    "Good afternoon," called the turtle.
    The rabbit looked up. "Good afternoon. You are a long way from the sea."
    "And you," said the turtle, "are exactly where I hoped you would be."
    The rabbit's nose twitched. "That is not always a comforting thing to hear from a stranger."
    The turtle decided not to mention livers. Instead, he described the wonders of the undersea palace: towers of coral, gardens of pearls, musicians with shimmering scales and tables crowded with delicacies.
    "The Dragon King," he added, "is searching for a clever land animal to receive a position of great honor."
    "What sort of position?" asked the rabbit.
    "A very important one."
    "Doing what?"
    "Important things. Near the king."
    "How near?"
    "Quite near," said the turtle. "Near enough to be noticed."
    The rabbit had always wondered what lay beneath the glittering sea. And although he was sensible, even sensible creatures enjoy being told that kings have heard of their cleverness.
    "Very well," he said. "But I cannot swim."
    "Climb onto my shell," said the turtle. "I will carry you safely."
    The rabbit settled himself on the turtle's back, and together they slipped beneath the waves.
    What a journey it was. Schools of silver fish surrounded them like living ribbons. A whale passed overhead as silently as a cloud. Lantern fish glowed in the dark water, and the rabbit held tightly to the turtle's shell while pretending that he did this sort of thing every Thursday.
    At last, the coral towers of the Dragon King's palace appeared below. The pearl gates opened. Trumpet fish sounded a royal greeting, though one of them was slightly flat.
    The turtle carried the rabbit into the throne room. Hundreds of sea creatures bowed. The Dragon King sat up in bed, and his tired eyes shone with hope.
    "At last!" he cried. "The rabbit's liver that will cure me!"
    The rabbit froze.
    He looked at the king. He looked at the doctors. He looked at the turtle, whose face had become very interested in a nearby vase.
    The rabbit's heart thumped so loudly that he was certain the entire court could hear it. For one tiny moment, fear filled his head and left no room for anything else.
    Then he took a slow breath.
    "Your Majesty," he said, bowing very low, "what a terrible misunderstanding."
    "Misunderstanding?" asked the Dragon King.
    "If your servant had explained that you needed my liver, I would certainly have brought it."
    The throne room became perfectly still.
    "Brought it?" said the king. "Isn't it inside you?"
    The rabbit gave a polite little laugh. "Inside me? While traveling? Goodness, no. Rabbits never carry their livers on long journeys. They are far too valuable. We remove them, wash them carefully and hang them in pine trees to dry."
    The royal doctors stared at one another.
    "You hang your liver in a tree?" asked the octopus minister.
    "Only on clear days," said the rabbit. "A damp liver is no use to anybody."
    The turtle blinked. He had spent a whole day searching the land and had seen no organs hanging from trees. But before he could speak, the rabbit continued.
    "Mine is hanging from the very pine tree where your faithful turtle found me. If he carries me back, I shall fetch it and return at once. Naturally, I wish to help such a magnificent king."
    Now, my darlings, the Dragon King lived beneath the sea. His physicians lived beneath the sea. His ministers lived beneath the sea. Not one of them knew where rabbits kept their livers, and the rabbit spoke with such confidence that they began to feel foolish for not knowing.
    "Of course," said the oldest physician, nodding wisely. "The famous drying custom."
    It was famous to him now, at least.
    "Turtle," ordered the king, "take the rabbit back and retrieve his liver. Hurry!"
    So the rabbit climbed onto the turtle's shell again. They passed through the pearl gates, beyond the coral gardens and up toward the sunlight.
    For most of the journey, neither spoke.
    At last, the turtle said, "Do rabbits truly remove their livers?"
    The rabbit leaned close to his ear. "Dear Turtle, if I had left my liver in a tree, how could I be alive to tell you about it?"
    The turtle's flippers slowed.
    "Then you tricked the Dragon King."
    "The Dragon King planned to take my liver," replied the rabbit. "I merely decided to keep it. I have grown attached to it."
    The turtle felt ashamed. "I should have told you the truth."
    "Yes," said the rabbit. "That would have been a splendid beginning."
    When they reached the shore, the rabbit sprang from the turtle's back onto the warm sand. He stretched his legs, shook the seawater from his fur and bounded to the safety of the pine trees.
    From the forest's edge, he called, "Thank you for the remarkable journey! Please tell the Dragon King that a rabbit's liver cannot cure foolishness—but perhaps honesty can prevent it."
    The turtle lowered his head.
    The rabbit saw how miserable he looked and softened his voice. "You were trying to save your king. That was loyal. But loyalty without questions can carry innocent rabbits into very dangerous palaces. Next time, ask whether an order is fair before you obey it."
    The turtle thought about this. Slowly, he nodded.
    He returned beneath the waves alone. The Dragon King was furious when he heard what had happened, but after roaring, splashing and frightening three small shrimp, he finally became quiet.
    "Was the rabbit right?" he asked.
    The turtle answered carefully. "Your Majesty, I believe he was very fond of his liver."
    Even the Dragon King had to admit this was reasonable.
    The royal physicians were sent back to their books, where they discovered several treatments that didn't require anyone else's organs. The king rested, drank nourishing seaweed broth and gradually recovered. The oldest physician never again announced a cure before checking it twice.
    As for the rabbit, he often sat beneath the pine tree and watched the distant sea sparkle. He never forgot its jeweled palace or its magnificent creatures. And whenever someone promised him an important position near a powerful person, he asked exactly what the position involved before climbing onto anybody's back.
    So remember, my darlings: when danger surprises you, take one slow breath and give your cleverness time to arrive. And if anyone tells you that rabbits hang their livers in trees, you may smile politely—but please do not become a royal physician.

    13 min
  • Steven Kwan Remains the Leadoff Engine Driving the Guardians in October

    As the Cleveland Guardians’ division series heats up, Steven Kwan’s elite defense and knack for getting on base make him the ultimate weapon for October baseball.

    Steven Kwan and the Cleveland Guardians earned the No. 2 seed in the American League, skipping the Wild Card round and moving straight into the Division Series.  For a team in the midst of its biggest games of the season, Kwan offers something Cleveland has come to expect from him: steady production at the plate and reliable defense in the outfield.

    Kwan hit .282 this season – tied for 22nd best, collecting 152 hits while scoring 80 runs and drawing 85 walks.  His .382 on-base percentage reflected the approach that has made him such a difficult hitter to overlook.  He does not need to produce a big home run total to influence a game.  Getting on base, moving runners and creating opportunities have become a regular part of his value to Cleveland.

    That value has been evident since he arrived in the majors in 2022.  Over five seasons, Kwan has tallied up 801 hits while batting .282 with a .357 on-base percentage.  His contributions have given the Guardians three playoff berths including an appearance in the ALCS in 2024.

    Even more than his bat, he has also established himself as an elite defensive outfielder, winning a Gold Glove in each of his first four seasons.  In 2025, he led all major-league players with 22 defensive runs saved.

    The 29-year-old’s paternal grandparents came from Guangzhou, China, while his maternal grandparents were from Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.  Kwan grew up in Fremont, California, and played at Oregon State before the Guardians selected him in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft.  What began as an impressive rookie season has developed into one of the more consistent careers in the Cleveland lineup.

    Now the Guardians need that consistency in October.  Kwan’s ability to get on base and turn balls hit into the outfield into outs gives Cleveland another way to win close games.  If he continues to provide those contributions against the American League’s best teams, Kwan could play an important role in helping the Guardians make a run at the World Series, which they have not won since 1948.

    3 min
  • What I Learned from 19,000 Dances – Pt. 3

    Dancing with the Stars, and my Fitbit, provide insight into the physical and mental demands of learning to dance.

    Tom Kagy (00:00.526)

    Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom.

    One of my favorite shows is Dancing with the Stars. Its spectacular production values are a treat, of course, and probably accounts for its status as the top show on US TV. But what makes it interesting to me is that at its core are real people trying to learn to dance under a time constraint.

    As each couple finishes up, you can't help seeing how utterly exhausted they are, the pro as well as the star. And that's after one dance, typically only about two to three minutes long. To me, that fatigue is completely understandable. The pro has to lead a relative novice through a pattern with varying degrees of physicality in a way that hides the star's weaknesses and

    Slow footedness and errors. The job is even harder for the female pros. They must not only back lead the male star, but also provide much of their own momentum while making it look like it was imparted by the male star. And of course the stars are just as exhausted, even more so if they aren't in excellent physical condition, which of course some are, being in sports or entertainment.

    But they're still exhausted because their pros try to take full advantage of their conditioning to deliver a high scoring performance.

    That exhaustion you see is from just a couple of minutes of going through a pattern that these pairs practiced probably a couple hundred times, going at it several hours a day for six straight days. In other words, that one choreographed performance was their day job for well over the average work week.

    Tom Kagy (02:06.079)

    They put in their performance with the constant support and cueing from the pros, and they're totally exhausted after one little dance. Now imagine doing that twelve or fifteen times a night while providing the support, momentum, and cues to partners who can't know that move that you're going to lead because you didn't spend the full week memorizing a pattern together.

    For an amateur dancer in the wild like me, practice time is limited to maybe an hour group lesson and possibly several bits of five or ten minute shadow dancing at random moments during the week, all of which add up to at best maybe one twentieth of the time spent by a dancing with a stars pair for each session.

    I know there are guys who think they're dancing when they groove and style in place while taking their partner through a turn and maybe a few walk walks or sachets in place. To me, dancing is a physical activity that involves constant footwork and exchange of momentum. Otherwise it'd be less interesting and useful than going for a walk.

    Being a physical dancer, I quickly learned that leading a formal ballroom or Latin dance takes as much exertion as running a series of half mile intervals. To put it another way, when I run three and a half miles at a good steady pace, I might score sixty or seventy zone minutes on my Fitbit, which is now Google Watch, a reasonable measure of cardiovascular exertion.

    When I lead a dozen or fifteen free dances over the course of an hour and a half or two hours, with only a maybe half that time actually spent on the dance floor, my watch logs hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty zone minutes, over twice as many as on a three and a half mile run over the hills.

    Tom Kagy (04:23.058)

    To me the running feels more intense physically than the dancing, but I sweat more when I'm dancing, despite the fact that I'm in an air conditioned club instead of a sunny hill, and the dancing is interrupted by playlists and available partners. On a typical night of dancing, my shirt is literally drenched, and the first thing I do upon getting home is to take it off.

    Why does dancing take so much exertion? Because it requires me to move my body and mind in ways that aren't necessary when I'm running. Instead of a repetitive, rhythmic running motion that lets my mind go into a serene zone. Dancing requires me to be an intelligent locomotive that pushes and pulls my partner through a series of intricate motions like

    While contorting my body in ways that force me to constantly adjust my balance. That combination puts more demand on my heart than simply running. I manage to work up a sweat within 20 to 30 minutes of dancing, if there's an abundance of active partners. Of course, this wouldn't be the case if I were one of those stylists or what I call a dance pimp who just provides the frame and

    Let's the women quote play. The dance term for letting the partner essentially do what they're do their own thing while using you as a kind of a dance pole or maybe a monkey bar. Actually, my pee with West Coast Swing was that many of the more seasoned female westies want to spend too much time showing off their quote playing stylings.

    I don't mind being a pole or a monkey bar for a measure or two, but more than that and I get bored and start wishing for a partner who actually wants to be physical and dynamic rather than showy and static. That's why after a year or so of learning West Coast Swing, I added Thursday country two-stepping to my weekly routine, also at the borderline back in those days. Of course, none of that is around now, hasn't been for

    Tom Kagy (06:47.106)

    Wow, it's been six years, almost seven years now. Anyways, by its nature the Texas two step doesn't let anyone stand in place marking time, because it's a vigorous progressive dance in which all couples must promenade counterclockwise around the entire dance floor to the beat of quick quick slow slow in four four time, quite a bit faster than most West Coast swing songs.

    That progression is accompanied by a variety of turns, swivels, pivots, dips, and flips. The two step crowd was also bigger in number and younger in age on average, which made it possible to get in more vigorous dances per evening, limited mainly by the borderline's then practice of interspersing four or five consecutive two steps with equal numbers of line dances.

    Line dancing I found to be sterile, like like an aerobics class. But from time to time I did jump in to a line dance or two just to keep from getting too bored and stiff between two stepsets.

    And of course, two stepping added to my evening exer exertions, together with West Coast Swing, dancing was providing as much of a cardio workout as my morning runs in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. The intense and sustained physical demand on my body is really half the reason I stuck with dancing for those sixteen, seventeen years.

    But over time I came to see that my dance habit was actually bringing about other important changes, which I'll get into next time.

    9 min
  • Murakami Arrives in Playoffs, Tmac and Nacua Highlight WR Play, Thitikul Continues Dominant Stretch

    This sports weekend featured postseason heroics by Munetaka Murakami and Kaitlyn Chen, breakout performances from Tetairoa McMillan and Puka Nacua, and stellar hockey and golf showcases.

    Following the White Sox’ AL Wild Card sweep of the Astros, Munetaka Murakami launched a 440-foot, two-run homer against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 in the Division Series.  His first career postseason home run gave the Sox an early lead in a 3-0 victory.  Chicago then rallied for a 4-3 Game 2 win Monday to take a 2-0 series lead.

    On Sunday Night Football, Tetairoa McMillan produced the biggest game of his young NFL career, catching 14 passes for a career-high 192 yards and two touchdowns as the Carolina Panthers defeated the Detroit Lions 32-26.  The Native Hawaiian standout repeatedly found openings in Detroit’s secondary, with both touchdown receptions coming from Bryce Young.

    Puka Nacua returned from a two-game absence and immediately resumed his role as a central part of the Los Angeles Rams offense.  The Polynesian receiver caught nine passes for 125 yards and added a rushing touchdown in a 24-20 comeback victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

    Kaitlyn Chen came off the bench to score 11 points as the Golden State Valkyries defeated the defending champion Las Vegas Aces 71-60 in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals.  Chen’s contribution came as Golden State outrebounded Las Vegas 52-25 and took the opening game of the best-of-five series.

    As the NHL season opened, both Dylan Guenther and Nick Schmaltz, both of Indian descent, helped the Utah Mammoth start the season 2-0.  Guenther scored twice in a 6-0 win over Chicago, then added a goal and two assists against Columbus, while Schmaltz scored twice in the 4-1 victory and reached 500 career NHL points.

    Filipino American Jason Robertson scored his first goal of the season Monday as the Dallas Stars shut out the San Jose Sharks 5-0.  Robertson also added an assist in Dallas’ first win of the season.

    Jeeno Thitikul won the LOTTE Championship at Hoakalei Country Club for her fourth LPGA Tour victory of 2026 and 11th overall.  She closed with a 4-under 68 to finish at 21-under 267, three strokes ahead of South Korea’s Ina Yoon.

    3 min
  • Sung Kang is Hollywood’s Coolest Asian American Actor

    Sung Kang’s journey from pre-law drop out to a franchise favorite shows how one unexpected character changed Asian American representation in Hollywood.

    Before Sung Kang became known as Han, from the Fast & Furious franchise, he was just a Korean American child searching movie screens for someone who looked like him.

    He was born in Clarkston, Georgia, in 1972, spending much of his childhood in Gainesville being raised by his South Korean mother and African American stepfather. When Kang was in high school, his family moved to Barstow, California and he later attended the University of California, Riverside. Growing up, Kang was passionate about movies and acting and would even practice dramatic death scenes in the mirror. Since he rarely saw Asian actors playing a confident leading role, he would model himself after stars such as Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

    While in college, Kang was studying to become a lawyer, but he took a big risk and chose to abandon his law school plans to pursue acting full-time instead. He moved to Los Angeles and began taking small parts while learning more about the industry. His first big role came in 2002 when director Justin Lin cast him as Han in the 2002 independent film Better Luck Tomorrow.

    The film challenged the model-minority stereotype at a time when Hollywood rarely centered Asian American stories and became a landmark of Asian American cinema after its premiere at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

    Justin Lin brought Han back in 2006 for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Originally, Kang was supposed to appear as a little more than a cameo, but his calm personality and charisma strongly connected with audiences, leading him to return yet again in Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, F9 and Fast X.

    Outside the franchise, Kang has appeared in the popular STARZ series, Power, and played the Fifth Brother in Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kang has since expanded his career to behind the camera making his feature directorial debut in 2023 with the horror comedy Shaky Shivers. More recently, in 2026, Kang brought Drifter to the Toronto International Film Festival in which he directed, co-wrote and starred in the film, combining his filmmaking ambitions with the car culture that has followed him throughout his career.

    Sung Kang will always be connected to Han, but his greatest accomplishment goes beyond the Fast & Furious franchise because he was able to transform a movie character into an Asian American icon, then used that success to begin creating stories on his own terms.

    3 min
  • The Stylish Auctioneer Selling Million-Dollar Masterpieces

    Taiwanese American auctioneer Phyllis Kao is bringing personality, fashion and a modern face to the traditionally exclusive art world.

    In 2024, a Stegosaurus skeleton named Apex sold at Sotheby’s for a record-breaking $44.6 million, but it wasn’t just the dinosaur that was attracting attention. Behind the podium in a silver Armani blazer was Phyllis Kao, a Taiwanese American auctioneer whose humor and personal style helped turn a traditional auction into a viral cultural moment.

    Phyllis Kao was born and raised in Berkeley, California. Her mother worked as an archivist which heavily influenced her appreciation for art and fashion and her grandfather was a chemical engineer and pigment salesman who taught her the importance of presentation. For most of her childhood, Kao studied classical violin and, by her late teens, she was performing every two weeks with hopes of becoming a soloist.

    She later enrolled at Columbia University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history and had also spent time studying abroad in New York, Paris and Taipei. Her original plan was not to become an auctioneer, but after college, she accepted a temporary position at a smaller auction house. Her ability to speak Mandarin allowed her to lead telephone bids for valuable Chinese paintings and eventually she became a full-time employee.

    Kao joined Sotheby’s in 2016 and is now a vice president in its Luxury Division and one of the company’s most recognizable auctioneers. Her work oversees major sales involving jewelry, watches, wine, contemporary art, natural-history objects and important Chinese artworks, including a rare Tang Dynasty Buddhist figure that sold for more than $2 million in 2019.

    The auction that brought Kao the most attention was with the sale of Apex. She forced a 15-minute bidding battle pushing the fossil from an estimated $4 million to $44.6 million, making it the most valuable fossil ever sold at an auction at the time. Kao has also led the record-setting $12.5 million sale of the Tiffany Studios Danner Memorial Window as well as a $26 million sale of a Jurassic dinosaur fossil in 2025.

    Phyllis Kao isn’t just selling expensive objects to wealthy collectors. She combined knowledge, high-class fashion and her Taiwanese American identity to become one of the most recognizable faces in the auction world, changing what power behind that podium can look like.

    3 min
  • Getting Fit by First Principles – Episode 12 – Injuries

    Victor discusses how to listen to your body to minimize injuries while optimizing progress on your fitness journey.

    Victor (00:00)

    Alright, hello everyone and welcome back. For today's topic, I want to discuss the quote unquote dark side of getting fit. And that is the topic of injury.

    Victor (00:15)

    So like all things, life has a habit of kicking you, of taking things from you. And fitness is no different. I mean human bodies like vehicles are subject to wear and tear. There's no way around it. Especially if you're going into the gym or

    any sport and pushing yourself to be better, you will get hurt. That is an inevitability. And anyone that tells you otherwise is frankly just lying.

    Victor (00:50)

    Anyone that has taken getting fit seriously or any athletic endeavor seriously has some type of injury or some sort of injury history. There's no way around it.

    Victor (01:05)

    You can take the easy way out and always quit workouts whenever they get hard, but chances are you are leaving a lot of progress on the table and you won't reach your full potential if you don't push yourself at least a little bit beyond the limit from time to time.

    Victor (01:26)

    Even in the most intelligently designed workout program, people get hurt all the time. And the sooner you accept this as a fact of life, the better.

    Victor (01:41)

    Every one of my seniors in every single sport I have been involved in has gotten hurt. Whether they were the captains of the cross-country team in my high school, fellow runners in my run clubs, powerlifters in my powerlifting organization, and jujitsu especially, everyone is dealing with some sort of nagging injury.

    Victor (02:06)

    But on the flip side, I have seen plenty of people who have gotten to advanced age that never work out. And they're also dealing with chronic pain as well. So whether you choose to work out or not, it seems that life will find a way to give you some pain.

    Victor (02:26)

    So if that is the case, you may as well have some fun and look great while accepting the paint.

    Victor (02:35)

    Anyhow, I've been pretty active for the past fifteen years or so, and I can say that even though I do have my bumps and bruises and my aches and pains here, I've only really had one truly bad injury. Most of the time I've gotten some overuse injuries here and there, but nothing substantial to the point where my daily life was made worse.

    Victor (03:04)

    So even though I mentioned that pain is a part of the journey, I do have to give context that there is nuance to this. When you push yourself, I don't mean taking every single effort to failure and risking life and limb for an extra five pounds on your back squat.

    Victor (03:29)

    This brings me to the first idea when it comes to injury prevention and I think it is patience.

    And this is something I talk about with white weight loss too, is this idea of delaying your gratification and waiting to push yourself. Because when you first get into the gym, it becomes very, very tempting to attempt to PR every single time. But eventually those newbie gains will stop.

    Victor (04:08)

    And once those newbie gains have stopped, it becomes very, very important to have the patience to wait in between sessions and to even delay the gratification of pushing your lifting numbers even higher. Because when I was powerlifting in college, this was an important lesson that I learned was the idea of waiting.

    sometimes months between seeing my numbers on my squat bench or deadlift go up because I was sticking to a fairly regimented program where my lifts for each week were laid out and sometimes it was difficult to stay in the pocket and just to hit those prescribed numbers. But having the patience and the faith that if I follow this plan my numbers should go up

    Victor (05:06)

    And by having this solid plan laid out, it helped me build a foundation in which I could progress my lifts. It provided a foundation that kept me within a sustainable range of exertion so I wasn't constantly pushing beyond my body's capabilities.

    Victor (05:30)

    This leads into the second idea, which is learning how to listen to your body. And that was also an important lesson that I had picked up from powerlifting as well.

    Victor (05:45)

    When it comes to listening to your body.

    It is a separate skill in itself that you can't learn from anyone except through your own experience. And this ties back into why I think it is very important to log your sessions and to follow a structured program. Because by having these things fixed, it allows you to examine your body under fixed conditions and to have data.

    to back up your feelings.

    Victor (06:21)

    Saying to listen to your body is extremely vague because frankly, we're never really taught to listen to our bodies. In fact, the way that the world is set up, there are millions of things attempting to distract you from listening to your body. You have coaches, parents, friends, peers, etc. etc., all telling you to ignore the feedback inside your body. push through the pain or whatever.

    Victor (06:51)

    And unfortunately, I can't tell you the keys to become adept at listening to your body besides tracking your data and really reflecting on how you feel workout to workout and how your body responds to a given stimulus.

    Victor (07:12)

    And I'm going to sound contradictory here, but sometimes you also have to ignore signals your body is sending you. Because sometimes the mind has ways of playing tricks on you. A lot of times you can do more than what you're capable of, but your body is git telling you otherwise.

    Victor (07:36)

    Also, none of this is medical advice, by the way. But

    Unfortunately, you may need to make a couple mistakes here and there and get hurt just to see where the limits are. I mean, within reason, you know, don't go dropping 500 pounds on your forehead or something. But sometimes you need to get a little bit out of pocket just to see where your limits are and to really validate.

    the feelings and the signals that your body is giving you.

    Victor (08:15)

    There are many trainees that catastrophize every single bit of discomfort that they are feeling. And on the other hand, you have trainees that completely ignore all the pain signals and wind up in chronic pain. So it's on you to find the middle path. What is the difference between bravery or stupidity here?

    Victor (08:45)

    Personally, there have been times where I've ignored my body's feedback and I managed to hit PRs on my lifts to my surprise. And there have been other times where I have ignored my body's signals and gotten hurt. It really, really is a scientific experiment.

    Victor (09:16)

    I can also admit that I sometimes do a very poor job at listening to my body's signals. I mean, I remember last year in jujitsu, I really ran myself into the ground after my string of tournament wins. I was getting neck pain, and I also started experiencing lower back issues just from the sheer amount of.

    training volume that I was putting myself through, whether it was four hour long jujitsu practices, on a three to four hundred calorie deficit, and me pushing my sandbag to shoulder lifts.

    Victor (10:00)

    Yeah, I can admit that I did a little too much and I was ignoring a lot of little signals that my body was giving me.

    Victor (10:11)

    A couple heuristics I use for my personal readiness is the sensation I have when I wake up and also the strength and the soreness in my hands.

    Victor (10:34)

    So, if I notice that I am having difficulties getting out of bed, like what the moment I wake up and I just feel exhausted, like I want to sleep even longer, I know that I'm probably pushing myself a little too hard. And then the hands. So, something to note is that the hands have the highest concentration of nerve cells.

    Victor (11:03)

    And through lots of mental and physical work I find that my nervous system can get very, very exhausted, which will prevent me from learning skills and having mental clarity. And for me my hands are

    kind of like a check engine light for me because when I am overloading my nervous system with a lot of stimuli, whether it's from training or from work and other matters, if I notice that my grip is weak and that my soreness that doesn't go away, I know that or it gives me an indicator

    I've been working too much.

    Victor (11:52)

    I may need a citation here, but I heard somewhere that the Soviets actually used grip a grip tester and the vertical jump as a way to assess athlete readiness before a training session. And this makes sense because the hands again have a high density of motor units. So by testing their grip.

    you can kind of gauge whether or not an athlete is well rested or well prepared to do the session. And similarly, to perform a jump, the athlete needs to recruit all the motor units in their legs. It's it's a very nervous system heavy movement.

    Victor (12:43)

    And thirdly, another signal that I think I ignored was my hunger. Yes, granted I was cutting weight pretty intensely at that time, but it should have been a red flag for me that I was consistently showing up to four hour long practices, hungry and irritable, which affected my focus.

    and also made me more prone to injury as my body just did not have the raw resources to repair itself session to session.

    Victor (13:22)

    definitely is a scientific process when it comes to figuring a lot of this out. I recommend approaching this from a very open-minded and curious angle where you're simply trying to gather data on what external stimuli does to you.

    Victor (13:42)

    Now the next thing we need to cover is what to do when we inevitably cross the line and hurt ourselves.

    Victor (13:51)

    First of all, no matter what type of injury you are experiencing, as long as it's not something catastrophic like a very hyper-extended limb or a torn ligament or a broken bone, a lot of times it's probably not as bad as you think it is. So usually the first thing to do is to simply stay calm and assess your emotions.

    Victor (14:22)

    Getting injured is a very stressful process. It does not feel good, so obviously you're going to start freaking out. I know I personally had my own crash outs over getting injured.

    Victor (14:40)

    Things you can do, and what I see a lot of people do is they catastrophize every single bump and bruise and feeling of discomfort that they get. Unfortunately, the more you catastrophize these pain signals, the more pain you're going to incur.

    Victor (15:03)

    Every time I've gotten injured, I will again on medical advice, right? If you know you are in sharp, excruciating pain, you should probably see a doctor. But unless we're at that stage, for me, I found it to be helpful to simply take a deep breath and to simply assess the damage, assess the extent to which I got hurt.

    Victor (15:32)

    Similar to what I talked about earlier when pushing the boundaries of your capabilities, right? Going for one extra repetition or adding an extra five pounds to the bar. I think that injuries and recovery function in the same way. When you're injured, you need to be calm and you need to start testing the limits of the injury. What is your body?

    Preventing

    you from doing and what is your body allowing you to do. So, as an example, a common issue when it comes to heavy deadlifting is low back strains. If I ever found that my low back became sensitive to certain ranges of motion, I wouldn't always just simply baby it and just completely avoid moving. I would find other movements that my body would allow me to perform.

    Pain-free. And if that is an unloaded hip hinge, then it's an unloaded hip hinge. If it is just walking, then I would walk. Again, the common theme here is figuring out what is allowed and what causes discomfort.

    Victor (16:49)

    Then once I figure out the limits that my body is imposing on itself, I would just simply play and perform within those limits. If all I can do is high volume walking, I will just walk. And for my actual training, I would simply pivot to other goals.

    If you're in the middle of competing for a specific event, then you're going to be in a very awkward position. Because say you pull your lower back and you have to still do a powerlifting meet in one month. Well, that is going to be an issue. However, if you're not competing in anything, then you have a lot more leeway.

    Victor (17:43)

    There is nothing wrong with simply putting your current goals on the back burner and then just pivoting to other fitness-related goals. I mean, personally, I found that if my lower body was giving me issues, I would switch this a more upper body-focused endeavor, such as calisthenic skills.

    Victor (18:06)

    And this goes into another concept that I've been developing, which is this idea of secure attachment when it comes to fitness, because I find that there is a lot of anxiousness and anxious attachment when it comes to your own body.

    Especially if you've been working out for an extended period of time, it almost becomes compulsory that you have to constantly be doing something. You have to constantly be checking on your metrics and pushing the boundaries.

    Victor (18:43)

    But the reality is, like any good relationship, if you have properly done the work and have solid systems and fundamentals, then you really have nothing to worry about if you need to take it easy for a week or maybe even a month or so. Because if you have done the work over a long period of time, then it's going to take a lot to undo that work.

    Victor (19:11)

    I mean, for me personally, this is something that I have struggled with when it comes to my own fitness and even my skills in jujitsu I do admittedly get a little anxious that every time I take some time off, what if it all goes away? When I know intellectually that

    It's not going to go away given the amount of time I've spent and also the systems that I have in place to get me in track. They are solid systems that will get me to where I want to go, and I am confident in that.

    Victor (19:49)

    So my worst injury in jujitsu was a partial tear of my right medial cruciate ligament or MCL, which caused a lot of instability in my right knee. And for about I'd say six months, I did not train jujitsu at all. I was still as active as I could be with, you know, limping around.

    my apartment when I could limp and doing a lot of upper body exercise. But again, I was definitely taken out of my routine.

    Victor (20:26)

    So following the paradigm that I laid out before, I tried my best not to catastrophize.

    my knee injury. I did find activities that my body would allow me to do. And whether that be very, very slow walking, whether that be pull-ups or dips or something, I was still pushing the boundaries as to what my knee would allow.

    And all this was within reason. It wasn't like I was doing highly explosive single-leg squats on my bat knee, but I was testing where I could move and areas I could improve.

    Victor (21:13)

    And secondly, I had good systems in place and I had good people around me. I still went to the gym to watch classes when I could. And I still spent the time watching and cataloging jujitsu videos on my own, which kept my mind in the sport. And I also changed my expectations because

    with an injured knee, I obviously would not be able to recreate the same movement patterns that I would have been able to if I wasn't injured.

    Victor (21:50)

    As my knee got better over time, I kind of let go of the expectation of my performance because I knew that expecting myself to be just as good as I was pre-injury was not something that was in the cards for me. I accepted that my body was at a limited capacity, so I slowly eased my way back into

    training and I changed the goalposts of what a successful training session looked like. I obviously wouldn't be able to dominate another person necessarily, but I could change what quote unquote winning in a training session meant for me personally.

    Victor (22:38)

    As I look back on that incident, which has been over four years, four or five years ago, it's almost as if it never really happened, as if that was just a small bump in the road in my own personal journey. And that is oftentimes what injuries are if you reha rehabilitate yourself in an intelligent manner.

    Victor (23:06)

    Having that foresight to know that as long as things do not get worse, that they will get better and eventually you will come out of this rough patch better in the same spot or even better.

    Victor (23:24)

    As far as injury prevention goes, for me personally, I feel that the foundation is simply going to be load management and proper recovery.

    Victor (23:39)

    So load management just simply means managing the amount of training that you do every week. And it is a very unsexy answer, but honestly, this you can get very, very far by simply adjusting your workload from week to week.

    Victor (24:00)

    Again, this is why I can't stress enough the importance of logging your performances and your workouts day to day, week by week. Because you will not know how to manage your workload if you don't have an external record to refer to.

    Victor (24:20)

    When you can refer to training blocks in the past and see exactly how much volume, how much work it takes for you to reach a peak, and how much it takes for you to regress in your performance, you can gauge what your limits are. And when you know your limits, that gives you a good foundation to build a training career off of.

    Victor (24:49)

    One of the most important concepts here that I learned from powerlifting again, the idea of a time to peak, because everyone can repeat a given week of training multiple times, and eventually all trainees will peak, meaning your performance will keep improving and improving and improving.

    Until it eventually stops, because unfortunately we can't get stronger infinitely.

    Victor (25:21)

    And usually around that time of peaking is a good signal to pull back on your training. Because that usually indicates that you have accumulated fatigue. And if you just keep accumulating fatigue with no rest, you'll never adapt, and you're setting yourself up for an injury.

    Victor (25:44)

    And honestly, most of the time when I am feeling run down or I'm feeling sore or in pain, that is usually just a signal for me to simply take my foot off the gas pedal a little, to simply just reduce my training load. And more often than not, that's enough to get me to feel better.

    Victor (26:08)

    And then this brings me to my next point on recovery. Honestly, there is a lot of garbage out there when it comes to recovery because really the two most important things are sleep and nutrition.

    Victor (26:27)

    Simply put, if you are sleeping eight hours a day and you're eating sufficient amounts of food and nutritious food at that, you're fine. You've already done most of what you need to do as far as recovery goes. There really isn't that much else. Marketing will tell you that you need a sauna, cold plunge, and take a billion different supplements. But the reality is if you sleep sufficiently and you get your nutrients from

    whole foods, you probably don't need to do all that.

    Victor (27:03)

    I am oftentimes asked how much is a good training load? What is the minimum effective volume? How much sleep should I be getting? What should I be eating? And honestly, I can't tell you. This is something that you will need to be a personal scientist about.

    Victor (27:28)

    The unsexy answer is you need to get in the trenches, start writing down how you're feeling day to day, week by week, and follow a fixed program to see exactly what the limits are. Push yourself week by week, work a little harder than last time, and see how far you can take a given training program.

    w when you inevitably hit a wall, simply take a step back. You can also go in the opposite direction. Train as little as possible and see how much progress you can make, either in your physique or in your performance. And week by week, if you see that you're not making any progress, add a little bit more.

    Victor (28:14)

    Now

    The note I want to conclude on is that injuries are going to be a part of your fitness journey. And the sooner that we accept them, the better. The way I like to view injury is that it is simply a data point in the long-running scientific experiment that is your fitness journey. And as with any data point, it's nothing necessarily good.

    It's not necessarily bad. It's just feedback as to the robustness and sustainability of your systems. And once you have that data point, then you can adjust accordingly.

    30 min

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