To have LA Times support a podcast called Asian Enough where celebrity Asian Americans are interviewed about their unique experience and background while growing up Asian American is very remarkable.  It’s very refreshing to hear how these Asian celebrities describe their childhood difficulties of not being American enough in US while simultaneously not being Asian enough from their country of cultural origin.  Doesn’t that sound familiar?

A few weeks ago, a TW FB friend posted a link to a TW podcast called Mindi World News.  From what I gather, the podcaster selects newsworthy world events and explains the news in depth to her audience.  Although I can’t read her print, I assume the podcast is a close reflection of what she is writing and vice versa.

I only understand 50% of her podcast due to the fact I don’t know a lot of the Chinese names (i.e. Pakistan 巴基斯坦 or Palestine 巴勒斯坦) of places that I know in English.  However, I get the general idea of what she’s describing if I also happen to read them in English.  This 50% comprehension is roughly about right when I also talk to my relatives outside of anything conversational.  Maybe from listening to this, I might be able to understand more?

Readers of this blog probably know Freakonomics is one of the podcasts that I listen to.  They recently released a new podcast that touches on politics… specifically, the duopoly (dual monopoly) in politics between the Republicans and Democrats.  Everyone should have an interest in politics since the government can directly influence the daily lives of each citizen both positively as well as negatively.

This podcast makes the case of why this duopoly needs to be broken up.  From collusion  to keep other 3rd party candidates out of elections to partisan legislation through Congress and the White House, I hope all the readers of this blog seriously listens to this Freakonomics podcast.

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/politics-industry/

Freakonomics recently had an interview featuring the Asian American NBA point guard Jeremy Lin.  It’s a pretty fascinating interview to listen to.  While listening, Lin remarked on two different topics that struck me as pretty insightful.

1. He’s not recognized for his athletic ability.  He gave an example of… even though he’s as fast as a fellow NBA player (tied for 1st in the combine), he was only known for being “deceptively” fast.  Being considered “deceptive” is pretty insulting.   I haven’t fact check this but the other player was a black player named John Wall who was probably younger than Lin at the time of the combine.
2. From his experience so far, he’s learned that purpose and communication are two key lessons he’s learned.

So I listen to NPR’s Planet Money podcast pretty religiously. There is a host or maybe multiple host that gets particularly excited about a report that is issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the first Friday of the month.  The “byuuuu” are air horns by the way.

As part of my morning routine, I usually ask Google  to tell me the news.  And it’ll dutifully start reporting the news starting with NPR as I’ve programmed it to.  NPR is pretty nice since they usually have hourly updates to the news.  In one of the updates, the announcer mentioned the Bureau of Labor Statistics report. In my head, I went:  “Jobs Report Friday!!! Byuu byu byu byuuuuuu…” complete with sound effects.  #PlanetMoney4Lyfe.