Voxcali

Part salesperson and part entertainer, livestream hosts are turning real-time product demonstrations into billions of dollars in sales.

Livestream shopping may feel like just another new internet trend, but the person in front of the camera selling a product is actually performing a real job. Livestream hosts are becoming the modern version of QVC sellers, except they are selling directly through TikTok Shop, Amazon Live, Whatnot and other platforms from studios, giant warehouses or even their own bedrooms.

A livestream host is a salesperson, product expert, entertainer and customer-service representative all at once. During a live show, the host demonstrates products and explains their features while answering questions from the chat in real time. Their main goal is to grasp the attention of shoppers and encourage them to make purchases without exiting the stream.

This might seem like an easy task where you simply stand in front of the camera but the job actually requires much more. Not only are these live streams at the very least four hours long, hosts also have to study each product before going live, memorize prices and promotions and keep an audience entertained for several hours without allowing the energy to drop. Unlike traditional influencers, livestream hosts do not always need a large personal following and that’s because most of them are hired to host on a brand’s account and are later measured by their ability to sustain viewers’ attention and how well they can convert that attention into sales.

Livestream shopping first became a massive retail force in China, but now American consumers are changing their shopping habits. In 2025, livestream e-commerce sales in the United States increased by nearly 50% to an estimated $14.64 billion and it was also estimated that more than one-fifth of American digital shoppers would make a purchase through a livestream that year.

After officially launching TikTok Shop in the United States in 2023, the platform reported approximately $100 million in American sales on Black Friday 2024 alone. TikTok has also mentioned that the number of monthly livestream shopping sessions hosted in the United States had nearly tripled within one year. Whatnot is another major livestreaming platform that reported over $8 billion worth of merchandise being sold during live auctions in 2025.

With such high revenues, it is easy for experienced live stream hosts to be making $35 to $60 per hour, while many entry level positions are listed between $18 and $30 per hour. Many specialized hosts are also offered sales commission depending on how high-performing a brand is. Livestream commerce is creating a career path for people who understand both content and sales. The best hosts do not make viewers feel as though they are watching an advertisement. Instead they make shopping feel like entertainment and community.

Cooking is the most underrated of skills that are critical to an optimal fitness program.

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You dislike. It pays to be a little bit curious about these types of things. And I think it's very telling in our language that we call our preferences for these things taste.

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Again, I find that interesting.

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Achieve the same number of calories in apples, that is 24 apples. And can you imagine how hard it was for our ancestors to even procure one apple, let alone 24 apples? And when was the last time anyone you have known has eaten 24 apples?

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ingredient foods, things like fruit, vegetables, lean meats, etc., etc.

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it still has a lot of calories. And also if we think about evolution and whatnot, acquiring three pounds of pork bellet was incredibly difficult.

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And sure that sounds cute on paper, but if you spend all your time eating extremely bland food, that's just going to make you crave the Doritos all that much more. And after a long, stressful day at work and a hard workout, DoorDash sends you buy one, get one, fifty percent off wings, chances are you're going to order the wings. I if you force yourself to suffer.

eventually your mind is going to look for a way to escape.

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And if we look at the food industry and what's available, things like chips, fried chicken, pizza, etc., etc., those food items are super palatable because they've mastered that combination of elements. They went into a lab and designed products that really maximize those elements.

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was just diced chicken breast covered in spice packets from I think Sadaf because they had things like chicken tandoori seasoning. And what I found was if I cube up the chicken and I baked it in the oven at around 350 degrees for about fifteen to twenty minutes, I got some pretty decent tasting chicken. And I made sure to coat each piece of chicken such that the color changed. One YouTuber puts it like

Mix the chicken until you lose patience.

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And in a way to recreate that, you can use substitutions like light mayonnaise or even Greek yogurt that's well seasoned, where you mix in herbs like onions, dill, lemon juice, crushed garlic, etc, etc.

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And then once I have everything softened and baked down, I would then use an immersion blender to blend in that baked cottage ch or that baked cream cheese along with some low-fat Greek yogurt and basil and other seasonings such as garlic and

Black pepper, and what I found was this sauce had a lot of those elements that I had mentioned previously. It did have some salt from the actual salt that I added, it had acid from the tomatoes, it had heat from some of the pepper that I ground, and it had fat from that low-fat cream cheese.

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Our Lord and Savior Gordon Ramsay would say a skilled Fet would still be able to save it.

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So instead of myself being addicted to these ultra-processed foods, I have conditioned my taste buds to find a lot of joy in eating very simply prepared single ingredient foods.

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I don't really get bored of it. To me a well-baked purple sweet potato can be just as satisfying as a cheesecake.

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And then I'll mix- yeah, and then I'll mix it with some peanut powder and cocoa powder. And if I need it to be a little sweeter, I'll also mix in a banana and maybe a couple teaspoons of honey. But for me, this is just as good as having a cake for breakfast.

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with whatever seasoning that I feel like having it seasoned with. So things like the Kinder's garlic butter seasoning or one of those Sadaf seasoning packets such as the Kandori chicken.

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like a salmon you the most I probably would need to do to bump it up in flavor is maybe broiling the skin. But aside from that, if you choose good food, the amount of elbow grease you need to put into cooking is not that much.

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Backup quarterbacks Marcus Mariota and Dylan Raiola step up after starters’ injuries, while Kyler Murray and Shohei Ohtani make a return from theirs.

Following Jayden Daniel’s injury, Commanders’ backup quarterback Marcus Mariota was thrust into the starting role and dialed up three touchdown passes, guiding Washington to a win over the defending champions.  Mariota’s 110 passer rating sparked the team and gave the Commanders their first win of the season.

Kyler Murray returned from concussion protocol as the Vikings’ quarterback helped Minnesota remain unbeaten at 3-0.  His return immediately restored a familiar presence to the offense as the Vikings continued their perfect start.

In the college game, Oregon’s Dylan Raiola took over in the second quarter for an injured Dante Moore following a brutal hit.  Raiola led the Ducks’ offense to three touchdown drives in an upset win over #12 USC.

After three straight losses, Eastern Michigan’s Noah Kim delivered two passing touchdowns in a bounce back win over Lindenwood.  They remain 1-0 in conference with a tough UMass team on the schedule next.

Shohei Ohtani returned to the Dodgers’ lineup during the final week of the regular season, giving Los Angeles another reason to be optimistic at the chance of a three-peat.  The Dodgers have already secured a first-round bye, so Ohtani will have even more time to nurse his lingering injuries from this season.  The superstar remains the league’s most popular player, with Ohtani leading the MLB in jersey sales for the fourth consecutive season.  

Meanwhile, White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami appears to be finding his timing at the right point of the season, collecting seven hits and three home runs over his last six games as the Sox are set for a Wild Card matchup with the AL West champion Houston Astros.

On the links, Collin Morikawa helped Team USA capture its 11th consecutive Presidents Cup, adding another victory to the Americans’ long run of success in the biennial competition.

Yuna Nishimura earned her first LPGA Tour title by winning the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.  Nishimura’s breakthrough came in dominant fashion, winning by five strokes.

As we get older, the relationship we have with our parents starts to change but where do we draw the line? This episode what independence really looks like in your 20s.

Kelli (00:01)

They know where we're going, who you're with, what time you're coming home. They know who your friends are, who your teachers are, what grades you're getting, when your doctor's appointments are, they buy your clothes. They know how much money you have because it's probably their money.

And then you turn eighteen and you're technically an adult,

But nothing magically happens on that eighteenth birthday where you're like, All right, mom, you are no longer going to have access to my personal information.

Especially now in this day and age, a lot of us are still living at home and we're living with our parents a lot longer than before.

A lot of people in their twenties are still on their parents' phone plans. We're on our parents' health insurance plans until we're twenty six.

Some people are still financially dependent on their parents throughout and after college and there are some people who move out and then end up having to move back in.

So if you grew up in a really close family, kind of like how I did, that transition can get even blurrier.

So I actually had a joint bank account with my mom for years, and I didn't think anything of it. It was my high school checking account.

And to me, that was always just my bank account. But then one day my boyfriend found out that I still had my bank account linked with my mom's and he said, wait, your mom can see your bank account. And I said, Yeah. And he thought that was so weird. And at first I was confused as to why he thought it was weird. But the whole time I'm thinking and at first I was confused as to why he thought it was weird.

In my head, I'm thinking, what do you mean? That's my mom. But then I started to really think about it and I was like, wait, I'm an adult. Why does my mom need to access my bank account?

It's not that she was doing anything to my bank account.

Sometimes she would even deposit money in my account And I never really consciously made the decision to separate it.

My bank account was just something that was set up when I was younger, and because no one told me to my face, Okay, you're an adult now, you should change that. It just continued. And that really made me wonder how many other things do we carry into adulthood simply because they've always just been that way.

So today we are going to be talking about how much should our parents actually know about our lives? And this is something I think a lot of people in their twenties eventually have to figure out.

Part of the problem is that the transition between child and adult is really awkward. Legally, we're legally we have the obvious milestones. When you turn 18, you can finally vote. When you turn 21, you can buy alcohol. Eventually you start working, you start paying bills, dating seriously, having to make your own medical appointments, moving out.

But emotionally, your relationship with your parents doesn't really automatically update like that. Your mom doesn't wake up on your 18th birthday and think this is a whole adult now and their decisions are none of my business. You're still her kid,

And a lot of us are not waking up thinking, okay, I will now establish healthy information boundaries with my parents. You're thinking about school or work or what you're doing that weekend. So instead, the relationship between the relationship with your parents slowly changes. And sometimes it doesn't change until something forces you to notice it.

For me, one of those things was the bank account. And one day when my mom had asked me what was this charge on my card in front of my boyfriend, I realized, why is my mom asking me a grown woman about my purchases?

That really made me sit there and think, why are we even discussing this? and after that moment I really just sat there and thought, Why is this even a discussion between my mom and I?

I work, I make my own money.

As a grown adult

My mother should not be asking me what this charge was on my card. I also think our generation has a very different transition into adulthood than the one we used to associate with previous generations. There's a huge traditional image of adulthood where you graduate from college, you move out, and you get a good job, you get married, then you buy a house, and suddenly you're this independent human being with the whole family.

But for a lot of people now, those milestones don't happen in order and they do not happen anywhere near the same age. I know people who are 25 years old with a full-time career still living with their parents. I know people who live alone and are still on their family's phone plan. You can make your own money and still have your parents' insurance. So

What is it really that makes us independent?

Is it moving out? Is it paying our own bills? Is it making decisions without asking for permission? Those are actually three completely different things, and I really think we can be financially independent and emotionally dependent.

I think adults should be able to be financially dependent and extremely capable of making our own decisions. And that's why I don't think there's one age where everyone kind of suddenly needs to stop sharing things with their parents.

Another thing us young adults have to realize is that there is a difference between sharing and reporting.

This is probably the distinction that changed the way that I think about what I'm gonna tell my mom. There is a huge difference between I want to tell my mom about this and I feel like I have to tell my mom about this.

They sound similar, but they're completely different relationships if you really think about it. Let's say you got offered a new job and you go and call your mom and say, I got the offer. Let me tell you everything. That's sharing. But imagine if you get the offer and immediately think, I should go ask my parents if I should take this job or not.

I think if you're twenty four, twenty-five, twenty-six years old and you're financially supporting yourself, that job has nothing to do with them.

Or another example, let's say you're going on a trip. There's, hey mom, just so you know, I'm going on a trip next month to Japan. And then there's mom, can I go to Japan next month? At some point, when you're growing up, your language should probably move from asking permission to just communicating information. And that right there is one of the clearest signs that your relationship with your parents is becoming an adult relationship.

Now let's move on to should your parents know everything about your relationships? This is where I feel like things can get a little bit messy

Because whenever something happens in one of your relationships, who do you call? your mom, your sister, maybe your best friend. But sometimes telling your parents everything about every single detail can actually create even more problems.

Imagine your boyfriend does something stupid. You have a huge argument and you call your mom crying and you tell her, He said this, he did that, I'm done with him. and two days later, you and your boyfriend end up talking it out. You forgive him, everything is fine, but your mom, your mom was not there during that conversation you two had later on.

She does not know anything that was said. She only has the information that you gave her while you were sad and crying and devastated.

So you're sitting next to your boyfriend thinking, We worked it out. But your mom is on the other side of the dinner table thinking, I remember what you did to my daughter on this exact day. Parents remember everything. And that's why I think when we get older, you really have to ask yourself whether you're telling your parents something that's actually helpful, or if you're just giving up too much information.

Obviously, if you're feeling unsafe or something more serious is happening, you want to go tell somebody that you trust. but every argument that you have with your significant other or every annoying habit that they have.

Or even the stupid things your partner might say. Those are things you'd probably don't have to tell your parents.

So earlier I mentioned my bank account and money.

Your parents do not need to know every detail about your income.

When we're teenagers, it makes complete sense for a parent to help us open a bank account. Our parents are supposed to teach us how to save. They might transfer money when we need it, and they're gonna help us understand what a credit card is. That's parenting. But eventually, financial education should just become a part of that financial independence that you're trying to achieve.

And when I say independence, I don't mean I will never ask my mom a money question again. I think it's totally normal to ask your parents for advice. It's just I'm ultimately responsible for my financial decisions.

Maybe your parents can know approximately what you make because you enjoy talking about your career. That's fine. But do they need to know whenever you spend two hundred dollars on a new outfit? Do you really need to justify to your parents that you just bought a purse with the money that you earned yourself?

Should your parents know exactly how much your partner makes? There's really no universal answer for questions like these, but I think you should at least be able to answer why do my parents have this information?

And if your answer to that is it's because they've always had it, that's completely different from just consciously deciding that you're comfortable sharing it.

So what should we actually keep private? I don't think privacy means secrecy. Secrecy is more like, I'm hiding this because I'm afraid you'll find out, and privacy is this is a part of my life that I decided doesn't need to be shared with my parents.

I think you can have a wonderful relationship with your parents and still have privacy. They don't need to know how much money is in your savings account. And they don't need to know about every person that you're casually dating.

And maybe you do not need to tell them about that job opportunity until you've actually decided on how you feel about it first.

Sometimes when you tell people things too early, their opinions become louder than your own.

Another thing I realized about my parents is that sometimes parents give advice for a world that doesn't even exist anymore. This is another reason why I feel like adult boundaries are so important, because our parents can be so incredibly wise. They've lived longer than us, they've experienced way more than we have.

There's definitely things where I say, my gosh, my mom was totally right. And I hate when that happens. But our parents come from a different age and a different world. Career paths are completely different. Dating is different. Housing is different. Social media did not exist in the same way that it does now.

So sometimes a parent can give you advice with the best intentions, but it still isn't the right advice for your situation. That doesn't mean that they're stupid, it just means that context matters, and at some point you have to be able to listen to your parents without automatically obeying them. You can take their information, consider it, and then decide. And that is what the best part about adulthood is.

So at what age should you stop telling your parents everything? I really don't think there's a number. It's not 18, 21, 25. I think the transition should happen when you are fully capable of taking responsibility for the part of your life that you're asking to control.

If you want complete financial privacy but your parents are paying all of your bills, that's a little more complicated because if you're living under someone's roof, they have household expectations. But being dependent in one area doesn't mean you have the right to zero privacy everywhere else. And becoming independent doesn't mean you should suddenly stop valuing your parents' advice.

Part of adulthood is learning the difference between privacy and secrecy, advice and permission. So the better question isn't at what age do I stop telling my parents everything? Maybe it's at what age do I start deciding for myself what I want to share?

And that kind of starts whenever you realize you're allowed to. For me, that moment was why does my mom still have access to my bank account? And looking back at it, it's really funny because I genuinely didn't think it was weird because it was always that way. But now

I would never link my bank account with my mom again.

So becoming an adult is not waking up one day and suddenly having everything figured out. It's better to just slowly look at different parts of your life and start asking, is this how I want to do things

Or is this just how I've always done them? and unfortunately, I think we're going to keep having those realizations for the rest of our twenties and probably into our thirties too. And knowing me, I'll still probably call my mom afterward just to tell her about it.

So thank you guys so much for listening to this podcast. We'll see you in the next episode.

After turning heads internationally and impressing Aces’ Head Coach Becky Hammon, the 5’5” guard is carving out an essential role in Las Vegas with her elite three-point shooting and infectious energy.

Standing at just 5’5”, Hiroshima native Mai Yamamoto is among the WNBA’s shortest active players, yet she commands immediate attention with her unorthodox shooting form.  The Las Vegas Aces’ guard employs a unique motion that uses both hands flipped sharply to the side. The unconventional mechanics have jokingly become a popular celebration for teammates and fans across the league.

Yamamoto first caught the eye of Aces head coach Becky Hammon during the preseason after erupting for 24 points against her current team while playing for Team Japan.  That stellar performance established that the 3-ball specialist’s game could translate to the W.

Though she originally signed a contract with the Dallas Wings in February 2025, she did not end up playing a regular-season game with them and ultimately made her much-anticipated WNBA debut with the Aces in July after signing as a free agent.

Since joining the squad, Yamamoto’s relentless drive has impressed teammate and four-time league MVP A’ja Wilson, who has taken note of her strong work ethic.

In her first game with extended minutes, Yamamoto scored a career-high 16 points against the New York Liberty.  Thus far, she has proven to be a flamethrower, making 44% of her three-point attempts.  That efficiency has been earning her more time on the floor as part of the core rotation of the reigning champions.

Yamamoto competed for Team Japan as part of the 3x3 team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 5x5 at the 2024 Paris Olympics.  When they faced Team USA, she refused to shy away from the spotlight, putting on a brilliant offensive display, scoring 17 points to anchor Japan’s backcourt.

Now fully acclimated to the pace of the WNBA, Yamamoto looks to provide a dynamic spark off the bench.  With her infectious energy and proven scoring capability, she is eager to help the Aces repeat and capture their fourth title in five years.

The Filipino American electronic artist expands his global footprint by co-writing a standout pop track for the DreamWorks Animation feature Forgotten Island.

Shawn Wasabi is an electronic music producer, artist, and engineer who continues to expand his footprint across global entertainment.  For the DreamWorks Animation fantasy adventure film, Forgotten Island, he co-wrote and co-produced the uplifting pop track "A Parallel World,” collaborating directly with the prominent P-pop group Bini.

Wasabi’s most notable releases include “Internet Girl” featuring Katseye in 2026 – which debuted at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, the 2024 single “Nani” with Saweetie, and his debut 2020 studio album, Mangotale, which featured viral hits like “Animal Crossing” and “Lemons.”

His catalog features fan-favorite foundational singles such as “Otter Pop” featuring Hollis in 2017, the Pusher remix of “Clear” in 2016, and breakthrough early hits like “Burnt Rice” and “Marble Soda” in 2015.

Raised in Salinas, California, the artist of Filipino descent first captured worldwide attention when he used a rare, customized Midi Fighter 64 controller that he helped design to uniquely sample over 140 distinct pop culture and song fragments into a sub-three-minute performance piece. The inventive video went viral, surging past one million views on YouTube within 48 hours and instantly cementing his reputation as a visionary internet pioneer.

Ultimately, Shawn Wasabi’s continued involvement in major cinematic projects like Forgotten Island highlights his evolving impact.  By bridging the gap between underground electronic experimentation and mainstream cultural soundtracks, he remains a vital creative force in modern pop production.

From competitive skateboarding to breakout acting performances in Booksmart and North Hollywood, Nico Hiraga continues to build an impressive resume across film, television, and high-profile music videos.

Actor Nico Hiraga stepped into the ensemble cast of Niki Byrne’s coming-of-age drama The Julia Set, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.  The film explores the cutthroat world of academic mathematics through a gifted young student preparing for a notoriously rigorous competition.

Earlier this year in July, Hiraga took on a thrilling survival-horror role in Amazon Prime Video’s The Devil’s Mouth.  The film follows a group of friends who venture into an intricate network of underwater caves off the Thai coast, turning a getaway trip into a desperate struggle against a deadly predator.

In 2024, he landed his first feature film lead starring alongside Kiernan Shipka in the Max romantic comedy Sweethearts, playing a college freshman attempting to execute a chaotic Thanksgiving Eve breakup.  In the 2023, rom-com film Love In Taipei, he took on a main role centered in the middle of a classic love triangle.  In 2021, Hiraga headlined the skateboard-centric drama North Hollywood, and starred as the supportive boyfriend in Amy Poehler’s feminist comedy Moxie.  He featured prominently as skater Tanner in Olivia Wilde’s acclaimed 2019 teen comedy Booksmart.

Beyond narrative cinema and television, Hiraga has built a distinct footprint in high-profile music videos. He crossed over into the music video space by appearing in Zhu and Tame Impala’s 2018 collaborative release “My Life” which also featured Willow Smith, followed by an appearance in Olivia Rodrigo’s chart-topping 2021 track “Brutal.”

Born in San Francisco, California, the 28-year-old actor of Japanese descent originally dedicated his youth to competitive skateboarding.  He picked up a board around age ten and earned his early momentum through local backing from FTC Skateshop before securing official corporate sponsorships with brands like Lakai Shoes and Create Skateboards.  While pursuing a serious professional skateboarding trajectory, a severe ankle injury at nineteen redirected his path, leading him to transition smoothly into acting.  Bolstered by a recent leading role and two starring films, his career is firmly hitting its stride.

The Puss in Boots: The Last Wish co-director returns with a vibrant, 1990s-set tribute to Filipino culture and folklore.

Januel Mercado continues his directorial ascent in the highly anticipated animated feature Forgotten Island, slated for release later this year.  Set in the 1990s Philippines, the story incorporates authentic Filipino cultural elements such as the iconic jeepney and folklore staples like the Sarimanok and manananggal.

Drawing on his reputation for sharp visual storytelling, Mercado’s direction is expected to emphasize cultural authenticity through a vibrant, modern lens.  This commitment extends to the film’s casting, featuring a primary ensemble of Filipino talent including H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Lea Salonga, and Manny Jacinto.

Mercado is best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation, where he co-directed the 2022 blockbuster Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.  The film was a massive critical and commercial success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and grossing over $480 million worldwide.  His work on the sequel was praised for its innovative “painterly” animation style.

Before stepping into the director’s chair, Mercado worked on several major animated features, including serving as a story artist for Kung Fu Panda 2 in 2011, a storyboard artist on The Lego Ninjago Movie in 2017, and the head of story on The Croods: A New Age in 2020.

The 41-year-old Stockton, California native earned a bachelor of fine arts in animation from San José State in 2008.

Chip Garrison finds himself disavowed by the President after his deadly encounter at the Tang Estate, but finds a new lease on life — and a clear shot at completing his mission — under FBI legend Kate Sakurai.

By the time Garrison woke up again it was approaching sunset.  The anesthetics had worn off somewhat and he could feel his right leg throbbing mightily. 

But he preferred it that way.  He felt caught up in a dark, fast-moving storm, and more than anything he needed the clarity to follow the threat he felt connecting the kidnapping, Tang’s murder and the efforts to snuff him.  What bothered him most, filled his belly with cold dread actually, was the fact that the goons had known he would be at the Tang place and when he would be there.  It was possible they had been keeping an eye on the place and spotted his car out there. 

Anything was possible.  But his gut told him they had known in advance.  The way they had come at him, hopped up to take him out, hammer and tongs, balls out.  They hadn’t given a damn about attracting attention or making a mess.  That meant one of two things, either the powers-that-be were lined up securely behind them or they wanted the whole world to know that Chester Garrison from the White House had come sniffing around the Tang House and had been blasted into oblivion by fearless, Uzi-toting goons. 

If the same people who had produced the Tang murder and the First Lady kidnapping had sent the goons, they must feel colossal interests were at stake.  What could be so damned important as to justify wasting people?  The answer to that, Garrison knew all too well from his own FBI experience.  Just about anything that could be sold, traded or bartered for dollars. 

A small part of him was flattered by the thought that some big boys had devoted expensive assets to little old Chester Garrison, but all the sane rest of him was scared shitless.  He was too fucking young and clueless to be the target of a monster contract.  He wanted to talk with Agent Sakurai. 

Garrison pressed the call button.  A few seconds later a round-faced young Asian woman came into the room and gave him a concerned smile.

“How you feeling?”

“Great.  Could you get me one of the FBI agents out there.”

“Oh, you mean the big guys in black suits?”

“That’s them.”

“You mean the ones who have been staring at everyone getting off the elevators?”

“That’s them.”

A few seconds later Garrison was joined by a very large, immaculately-groomed African American agent with a mustache.  Garrison was gratified to see that the agent was packing two pieces, judging by the twin bulges under his black suit jacket.

“Special Agent Denton Jackson,” said the agent.  “What can I do you for?”

“Show me what you’re packing.”

With a wry grin, Jackson opened his jacket wide to expose his holsters.  “A Smith & Wesson .357 magnum and a Browning .45.”

“Thanks, Jackson,” said Garrison.  “Nothing quite says I care like stopping power.”

“We aim to please.”

Garrison had to work up a chuckle for that one, seeing as how Jackson had the big guns.  “Got a hotline to the boss?  I need to talk.”

“She wants to talk too,” said Jackson, pulled out a cellphone that looked like a miniature calculator in his big hand.  “Was asking about you a couple of hours ago.”  He pressed a speed-dial number.  “Kate?  Got Garrison here.”  Jackson handed the phone over.

“Ms Sakurai?  I’m dying to talk.”

“Evocative choice of words there, Garrison.  I’ll be right over.”

In about a quarter hour Kate Sakurai hurried into the room.  She wasn’t sweating and panting like the first time she made her entrance, but she was breathing hard enough that Garrison knew she’d had a full day—and didn’t consider herself done by a long shot.  The woman was built like a bird, Garrison thought.  Mostly skin—flawless, flushed a little by the day’s exertions—and bone—fine and exquisitely sculpted—topped off by glossy brown-black hair.  What little there was of her was sure enough easy on the eyes.  She pulled up a chair beside the bed and dropped gratefully into it. 

“Did you get a hold of my shoulderbag?”

“First thing this morning,” said Sakurai.  “Had to threaten the county sheriff with a Federal court order to make him turn it over though.  They had their hearts set on hanging onto it, probably so we can’t embarrass them by showing how full of shit their DA is.”

“What kind of condition was it in?”

“If it was you, it’d be dead.  Two big holes clean through.  Tore holes through the books and magazines you swiped out of Tang’s place.  Smashed your toy vaccuum cleaner.”

“That wasn’t a toy.”

“I know.  Our lab people figured out what it was.  Apparently, the only place equipped to analyze pheromone samples is some little Pentagon contractor back east.  I got Hanson to arrange a requisition for them to work up the samples you collected.  We had it couriered over.  They hope to have results in a day or two.”

Sakurai paused and leveled a gaze at Garrison.  “How did you get access to that equipment?”

“Arranged through the Defense Secretary’s office.  That’s about the only way, other than going through the Director of Central Intelligence.”

“Did the President know you were coming out here?”

Garrison looked away.  He had promised the boss absolute secrecy.  That had been a precondition of his mission.  He could feel Sakurai’s trust ebbing with each second he stalled.  “I can’t discuss that.”

“His press secretary went on the air a few hours ago,” Sakurai said.  “Said you were acting totally on your own.”

Garrison looked up, feeling his bowels clench.  Sakurai’s eyes were right there, shrewd, probing.

“I can’t discuss that, Kate.”

“What were you doing at Tang’s place?”

“Pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

“Looks to me like you were trying to solve the Tang murder,” Sakurai said carefully.  “As a White House aide you got no jurisdiction to meddle in local murder investigations.”  Keeping her eyes fixed on him, Sakurai lowered her voice, “Unless you weren’t there to solve the Tang murder but for an entirely different purpose.”

“Kate, I can’t discuss that with you.”

“Wake up and smell the coffee, Garrison,” Sakurai said, her voice edged with scorn.  “Your boss has just cut you loose and publicly hung you out to dry.  I know your record.  You’re no rogue or crazy.  Whatever you did, you did under orders.  If you want to insist you did it all on your own, I advise you to get an attorney because everything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.  Tampering with a crime investigation is a felony.  You don’t need that on top of the shit your life has just descended into.”  Her eyes refused to let Garrison alone.

“Up to now,” she continued, “I’ve been operating on the assumption you’re a victim, the complaining witness when we figure out who was trying to have you iced.  Maybe a key prosecution witness if it looks like you’ve been a pawn in some high-level hanky-panky.”

Garrison was feeling way too weak to engage Kate Sakurai in a staring contest.  He felt the walls crashing down around him at the thought that in the past half day he’d gone from being a trusted aide to the President of the United States to a candidate for the witness protection program and an obstruction of justice prosecution.  There had to be some common ground he could establish with a woman who, if she had been a man, would have been an Eagle Scout like him.  Order of the Arrow too.

“Kate, please just listen to me for a minute,” said Garrison, closing his eyes.  “I think I know who you are and I know you know who I am.  Take all seventeen thousand agents in the FBI and maybe there are a dozen like us.  I know where it’s at for you, Kate.  You want to do the right thing.”

“I want to do my job,” said Sakurai.

“Bullshit,” said Garrison, finding the strength to open his eyes and look at her full force.  “Maybe you wish you could just do your job and go home at night and forget about it until the next morning.  That sure would make life easier for you, wouldn’t it?  But you can’t.  You’re one of those people who has to do the right thing, no matter what the cost.  That’s what got you this far, but every day you hear a little voice coming from deep down that says that’s going to get your head blown off by some bad guy or stomped on by the bureaucrats running the show.”  Garrison stopped.  If Sakurai wanted to shut him up and reject his plea, this was her chance.  For a second she looked like she was about to say something, but she held back. 

“That’s how it is for me, Kate,” Garrison said.  “I’m just like you, doomed to do the right thing at any cost.  Back at the Baltimore office, I was a pain in the ass to my boss and the other agents.  Every day, I kept thinking, if I dodn’t get myself killed by the bad guys, the guys on my own team will sure enough get me.

“I thought things would be different when I went to work for the man in the big white house.  Figured, Hey, it’s only one guy.  All I gotta do is watch my manners, make life as safe and easy for him as I possibly can, and somehow the country would be better off.

“Now I know better.  And it isn’t because he’s an evil guy, nothing like that.  If we reach an understanding, just between you and me, I’ll tell you some things but forget about getting me to testify in court in any way against him because I’m not made that way. 

“I came out here to do the right thing, something we figured probably wouldn’t get done, and something that might keep more people from getting hurt. I still want to do it, but now it looks like I’ve been cut out of the picture for good unless I can convince someone I trust to trust me.  I guess that person is you, Kate.”

“That’s what they all say,” sighed Sakurai, looking away, “every trigger-happy dipstick with an itch for action.”

“From what I’ve seen so far, the bad guys are big, they’re mean like junkyard dogs and I can almost hear their sinister laughter.”

“Strange, your records didn’t mention you were suffering from an advanced case of schizophrenia.”

Garrison grinned.  He had her.  Mean mama with a heart of gold.  And wicked legs.  “I can almost see their faces, too—ugly as sin, with dollar signs in their eyes and gold caps on their teeth.”

“I don’t care if they’ve got rings on their noses and bells on their toes,” Sakurai said, “as long as they end up with some prison stripes on their scarred and tattooed top-heavy bodies. 

“For the record,” added Sakurai, “as of today, you’re back on the FBI payroll, working out of my office for the duration of this investigation.”

Garrison didn’t dare believe his ears.  “Aren’t you gonna catch flack for taking on a disgraced presidential aide?”

Sakurai shrugged.  “Flack, my boy, is the breakfast of champions.” She may have smiled again, Garrison thought.  “Anyway Hanson likes your record and liked the idea when I proposed it, oh, five hours ago.”

“What?  And I thought it was my idea.”

“I could have told you right away, but then I would have missed your inspirational little speech.”

“Thanks, Kate.”

“You don’t have to thank me.  You got one thing right, Garrison.  A good agent is hard as hell to find and the FBI can’t afford to waste one.  You up for a little work on your back?”

“You betcha.”

“Now, let’s see if we see eye-to-eye on the big picture.  The way Hanson and I see it, the Tang killing and the First Lady’s kidnapping was part of a package deal.”

“We’re on the same page.”

“I figured as much.”

“One more thing, Kate,” said Garrison.  Hell, if he couldn’t trust Sakurai, he might as well fill a tub with warm water and slit his wrists.  “We got a note from the kidnappers yesterday.”

“How do you know it was from them?”

“They had a photo of her up on the Web, a private URL on a commercial mass market server in Paris.  They’re making out to be North Koreans, I have my doubts.  Seems to me, they’re trying a little too hard to push that notion.”

“Any demand?”

“Not yet.  They just wanted us to know they had her and warned us not to leak it.  We decided not to wait around for their next move.  But we didn’t want to risk telling the FBI and the CIA because that’s like blabbing it on Oprah.  That’s why I came out here.”

Kate Sakurai was silent for a long time, deep in thought.  She sighed.  “I’m glad you trust me.  No reason for me to blab.  But if we keep it strictly entrez-nous, our hands are tied as far as using the CIA, the NSA and Defense Intelligence to pursue leads on the internet side.”

“Those leads probably wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans anyway,” said Garrison, feeling his spirits returning with the knowledge that Kate Sakurai was now in his corner.  As far as he was concerned, the two of them could handle anything the bad guys threw at them.  “It wouldn’t have taken much to upload a text file and a JPEG image then cover their tracks, just a temporary blind dialup account.”

“You’d be surprised what our overseas SIGINT capabilities are,” Sakurai said.  “We could probably trace the phone line used to access a dialup account.  That could generate a wealth of leads.”

“So could the stuff I had gotten together at the Tang place.  I figure following it from that end might be a lot easier.”

“Those books and magazines and the packet of photos in your satchel, I had them dusted for prints.  They found two prime sets, plus a couple of secondaries.  One prime was Tang’s, the others the computer couldn’t find a match for.  Where in the house did you get them?”

“Tang’s bedroom.  You remember which ones had Tang’s prints?”

“The book, Thread of the Silkworm.”

“And probably those copies of Rim and the business mags?”

“Yeah.  How did you know that?”

“They were all in the nightstand on the window side of the bed.  I’ll bet all the other stuff had the other prime.  Which is strange as hell since Tang was a bachelor with no live-in girlfriend.”

Sakurai nodded.  “Murph, our fingerprint guy, is almost positive the other prime is a male, given the size of the prints and their placement.  But then there were two secondaries on the photos which he says are probably female.  The photos were unmarked and came in a plain manila envelope, so we couldn’t trace the processing. 

“But one of them shows an Asian girl who’s also in another photo of what looks like a high school tennis team.  We did a little computer enhancement and generated a school logo which we showed to the director of the state high school athletic association.  Belongs to a private school up in Orinda, out by Walnut Creek.  One of my boys ran up there and got an ID on the girl from the administration staff.  Andrea Ching is her name.  He talked to her mother.  Found out her husband, a graphic designer name of Anthony Ching, has been missing nearly two years.  Before that he was a design director with Tang’s company XO. 

“Then two years ago he was recruited for some top secret government project that kept him from seeing his family.  Every six months Tang would come by with a big cash payment.”

“So you think the other prime is Ching’s?”

“I would, except there’s nothing on him in our database.  If he had been cleared for a classified project, he would have been fingerprinted.  There would be some records.  We got zip.”

“Tang lied to her,” said Garrison.  “That other nightstand had a lot of graphic arts magazines.  And a couple of Chinese-language paperbacks.  Did you happen to have them checked out by a Mandarin-speaker?”

“Yeah.  One translates to something like The Farewell and the other,  The Big Uncle.  Both are apparently fairly standard-issue tearjerkers about people making incredible sacrifices to provide for their kids or aging parents or what have you.  Apparently, the genre is big in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, kind of like our westerns and romances combined.”

“Do we have a physical description or a photo of Anthony Ching?”

“The wife gave us an old photo.  Handsome guy.  He’d be 43 now.  Tall, about 6-2.  Slim.”

Suddenly Garrison flashed on the rows of redundant suits and shoes in Tang’s closet, the second chair.  His brain screamed out a single thought—Ching had been living secretly at Tang’s place to serve as a decoy double!  Garrison had read about doubles being used by leaders around the world to spare them the trouble of making numerous appearances in the rural provinces and also to serve as decoys to foil assassination attempts.  That had to be it!

Sakurai must have read his mind.  “They do seem to share a lot of physical traits, don’t they?”

“Did you process the film in my infrared camera?”

“Uh huh.  Lab says the shoeprint is a 10 1/2, same size as the shoes in Tang’s closet.”

“Did you see all those suits and shoes in there?”

Sakurai nodded.  “I guess they could be consistent with two nightstands full of different reading material.”

“For the last three years Tang was under around-the-clock surveillance by the Pentagon classified project security people,” said Garrison.  Too excited now to stay lying down, he fiddled with the toggles on the side of the bed until it folded into a sitting position, eliciting a frown from Sakurai.  “He probably used Ching as a decoy whenever he needed to duck out through that secret tunnel.”

“They are very close in their physical characteristics,” said Sakurai skeptically.  “But they aren’t twins by a long shot.  I know we Asians are supposed to look alike, but I don’t think the security guys are that dumb.”

“They would never have gotten a close look at Ching, what with trying to keep a polite distance.”

“So you think maybe Ching came home, saw Tang’s body, stepped in the blood, then hurried out of there?”

“If he’s like most people, he would have freaked.  Under the circumstances, too, he might have been scared he’d get the same treatment.  He would have taken off like a shot.  That would explain the shoeprint.”

“That’s a possibility,” allowed Sakurai after a moment.  “And Ching wouldn’t have gone home to his family for fear of endangering them.”

“Not if he’s the kind of guy who’d live as a shadow double to provide for his family.  He’d want to steer as clear of them as he could.”

“What still bothers me about the double theory,” Sakurai said, “Ching would have had to pass for Tang whereever he went—the XO office, Tang’s classified facility down in Gilroy.”

“Maybe once he got inside the office he was just plain old Anthony Ching.”

Sakurai shook her head.  “We checked his name against XO’s payroll records.  No Anthony Ching for the last two years.  Besides, if he were showing up at the office, his family would have gotten wind of it.”

“No,” she said shaking her head a second time with some finality.  “Only way it could have worked was if Ching vanished from the face of the earth and made a secret appearance whenever Tang needed a decoy.  But that would have required him to be able to pass for Tang, at least at home with the housekeeper and with Tang’s secretary Alice Chen.”

“Maybe the housekeeper never knew there were two of them,” said Garrison, again flashing on the bedroom and closet.  They had been completely devoid of photos or other personal objects to suggest to a casual observer that they were shared by two men.  “Did you talk to the housekeeper yet?” 

“Couldn’t find her.  There’s nothing anywhere in Tang’s house with her address or phone number.  No tax records either.  He must have paid her under the table like every good American with a six-plus-figure income.”

“Damn.  What about Tang’s secretary Alice Chen?”

“We talked to her briefly on Friday about the fundraising banquet.  When we tried to talk to her today, she was gone.  Looks like she took a suitcase and cleared out of her apartment.”

“Double damn!” said Garrison.  What he wouldn’t give to be ambulatory.  With each passing minute leads were scattering to the four winds.  “Did you check her on the State Department Passport Office computer?”

“We put in a request after we crapped out this afternoon.  Unfortunately, the Passport Office computer isn’t online realtime with the booths at all the international terminals.  It’ll be a few hours before the database is updated to show if she skipped out in the past 24 hours.”

“What about Anthony Ching?  Might be a good idea to check him out too.  If he was living with Tang, he’d be as good a witness as any.”

“Good point.” Sakurai pulled a cellphone out of her jacket.

“Any chance you could have Murph send me the Rim back issue and the Silkworm book?  I’d like to read those tonight.  Might clue us on what Tang was thinking about, maybe give me some insight into his overseas dealings.”   Garrison told Sakurai about the NSA’s recordings of Tang’s overseas conversations.

Sakurai listened, her finger still poised over the speed-dial button.  By the time Garrison finished, she was impressed.  “Throws a whole new light on this.  So maybe Tang puts together some big deal that goes sour.  One of his partners executes a contingency plan that involves icing Tang and kidnapping the First Lady.  Can’t even imagine what that might be all about.”

“That’s why we need to get inside Tang’s head, that is, before it was detached from the rest of him.  Talking to Rosefall might help.  He’s an old friend and the last guy to interview Tang.  Not to mention the guy who generated some of Tang’s bedtime reading.”

Sakurai nodded, her finger still poised over her speeddial button.  “Last call for requests.”

Garrison felt a little sheepish.  “I’d love my SIG back.”

“You one of those guys who talks to his gun every night?”

“I’d sure feel cozier with it.”

“Guess I can’t blame you.”  Sakurai pushed the button.  “Seeing as how there won’t be any charges against you, don’t see why not.”  She murmured a long list of instructions into her cellphone, beeped off and got to her feet.

“Get some rest, Chester.  We’ll chat in the morning.”

“It’s Chip.  And thanks again.”

“You won’t be thanking me once you feel the crack of my whip.”

The pain didn’t start until a few seconds after Sakurai had closed the door behind her.  The stabbing in his right leg was bad enough, but Garrison could handle that all right.  What was giving him trouble was the pain deep in his chest.  He hadn’t had many illusions about politics when he’d taken the White House post three years ago, but he’d always harbored a secret hope that the President he had served until today was somehow special—a consummate politician to be sure, but one with a core of humanity that had survived the heat of political compromise.  He had even cherished the notion of a special bond of trust, even affection, between him and the big guy.  Garrison, you stupid sap, he told himself.  You dumb mutt.  You fucked up by getting caught in the Tang place.  You didn’t give the guy much of a choice—Chester Garrison the fuckup or four more years in the big white house.  If you could even call that a choice.

Garrison felt like an abandoned dog, a stray mutt with its ribs showing through the fur.  Yup, he told himself.  It was time to check out the hospital’s special of the day.  After that, he might work up a head of steam and give Deanne a jingle.  He was a disgraced outcast in the eyes of the entire world, but hey, who didn’t have an occasional bad day?  At least he was no longer unemployed. 

Korean immigrants turned dry-cleaning shops into pathways toward financial independence and brighter futures for their children.

If you grew up in an American city, there is a good chance your neighborhood dry cleaner was owned by a Korean family working towards financial independence and a better future for their children.

After the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, new opportunities for Asian immigration developed, allowing the Korean immigrant population to grow rapidly in the following decades. Unfortunately, their education and professional experience did not easily transfer into American careers, so they looked to self-employment.

Dry cleaning offered a possible way forward since the business did not require a degree or perfect English to learn the skill. In 1989, a New York dry-cleaning school had reportedly trained more than 300 Korean students and immigrants started to look to the community to learn as well. They used personal connections, churches and trade associations to share training and advice. Experienced cleaners often taught their friends how to remove stains and operate the dry cleaning machinery, then advised them to purchase a shop of their own.

By the late 1980s, people of Korean descent operated around 80% of Southern California’s dry cleaners and in the Washington, D.C. area, Korean immigrants and their American-born children owned an estimated 80% of the area’s 1,200 cleaners in 2001.

These shops became family spaces as children would complete their homework behind the counter, translate for customers and help out during busy weekends while their parents worked 12-13 hour days, using their profits to pay for bills and college tuition. Oftentimes, the goal was not to pass down the shop, but to give their children the opportunity to have a career their parents were unable to pursue.

Today, Korean-owned dry cleaners are becoming less common. In 2021, the president of Southern California’s Korean dry-cleaners association said at least one-quarter of its members had closed since the pandemic began, which left around 800 to 900 Korean-owned shops in the region at that time.

The reason for this decline is because the original plan worked. Many children of dry-cleaning owners became teachers, doctors, lawyers or entrepreneurs instead of taking over the family shop. Korean immigrants built their place in the industry through shared knowledge and persistence. Their fading storefronts are not only a sign of a changing industry, but the legacy of a generation that used one opportunity to create many more for the generation after them.