Globally acclaimed jazz koto player June Kuramoto received one of the ten National Fellowship Heritage Awards by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2024 in Washington, DC. You can watch Rep. Judy Chew glowing introduction of her and then June's acceptance speech here: https://www.youtube.com/live/tqSlIfYprPU?si=vnwIH5wpcpzVHWk_…

David Bradley Lim grew up in a comfortable Nor Cal suburb. He excelled at most sports, but he knew that he'd never be able to be competitive beyond high school. So he majored in electrical engineering. But after earning his degree, he dove headfirst into the mortgage lending business. Even though he didn't know an escrow from an equity line, he put…

Already being mentioned for the Academy's "Best Picture" and "Best Actor" awards, this screen adaptation of Robert Harris' international bestselling novel Conclave is now available to rent on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, VuDu, and more! Having watched it together the week of Thanksgiving, Ken Kemp and I were chomping at the bit …

Dr. Samuel Jamier was adopted as a 4-year-old from Korea by a strick Catholic family in the Brittany region of France. Growing up, he was an altar boy and into heavy metal music, but later developed an enormous passion for films. Today he's a skilled fundraiser, speaker, arts programmer, and serving as the president of the New York Asian Film Festi…

California-based Asian American writer Joanne Howard discovered her grandfather's journals which he'd written while the family was serving as Baptist missionaries to India in the 1930s. Fascinated by his firsthand accounts of being an American family as India began to push back against being a colony of Great Britain, Howard was inspired to create …

Acclaimed Chinese Canadian author and cartoonist Teresa Wong recently published All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey, which is her graphic memoir about the legacies of upheaval, a longing for family, and the barriers one daughter faces in trying to connect with her immigrant parents. www.byteresawong.com and @by_teresawong…

Acclaimed painter and now-author Hyeseung Song has written a searing coming-of-age memoir for fans of Crying in H Mart, Minor Feelings, and the film Minari. Entitled Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl, it follows the daughter of ambitious Asian American immigrant parents and Hyeseung's own search for self-worth.…

After Trump was declared the winner over Harris, long-time friends and podcasters Ken Fong and Ken Kemp felt a need to see how the other was doing. If, like them, you're in shock that more than 70 million fellow Americans chose to give Trump another turn as the most powerful person in the free world, you'll probably find a degree of comfort in know…

East West Players' venerable producing artistic director emeritus Tim Dang came back for a third appearance here to let us all know what's in store for audience members who come to his updated version of Stephen Sondheim's and John Weidman's Pacific Overtures. Previews start Nov. 7th and the musical will run through Dec. 1st. Go to www.eastwestplay…

Brian Ho started taking piano lessons at a very early age, and even though he clearly was a prodigy, he struggled to connect to classical music. But he eventually learned that he could play all of his favorite songs by ear, which increased his passion for playing music. While still a teenager, he landed a gig at a San Jose Black Baptist church. Tha…

Award-winning R&B/Rap producer Band!t fell in love with the genres as the young son of Korean American academics. Unsatisfied with the standard STEM direction, he began teaching himself the rudiments of producing original beats interwoven with samples of songs from the 70s while in college. But it would require plenty of blood, sweat, tears, and un…

VP Harris was inserted into the race just a few months ago, and now we're only 3 weeks away from the day when all the votes will be cast and counted. After that, the whole world will finally know who will be the 47th POTUS. Harris has proven to be a much more formidable adversary to Trump, and yet most polls are still saying that this race is too c…

My guests this week are Paul Cheng and David Fu. Paul is finishing his first term on Arcadia's City Council and seeking a second term, while David is running to join his friend Paul on their city's council. I started getting to know a few of the Asian Americans running for local offices when they asked me to take photographs for their campaigns of …

Because Mika Shino was born in Japan, she possessed an innate connection to Japan's traditions, culture, aesthetics, and cuisines. But having grown up in other countries, especially America, she also was imbued with a creative curiosity that was free to explore beyond the boundaries of her native roots. When she became a mom, she soon learned that …

Vietnamese American playright and performer Susan Lieu recently published her memoir The Manicurist's Daughter. After her 30-something manicurist mother died from a botched tummy-tuck surgery, Susan was met with a wall of silence from all her relatives. Tragically, she internalized the body-shaming-consciousness that led to her mother's unnecessary…

Louis Wu was an engineer, not an entrepreneur. But when he and his wife agreed that he needed a job that would allow him to spend more time with their young children, he began casting around, trying to find his new career path. In this episode, you'll hear how he ended up starting Ohana Music 18 years ago, which has become a widely respected source…

According to experts, the average person goes through at least 30 major changes in his or her life. Some changes are things that we choose, e.g., marriage, divorce, different career, while some changes are things that happen or happen to us that we must navigate, e.g, war, assault, poor health, accident, etc. Carolyn Taketa is a certified life tran…

On Tuesday night, September 3rd, Trump and Harris locked horns in what now looks to be the first and final debate between the two leading candidates for America's next POTUS. Even if you didn't watch it, by now, days later, you've no doubt heard that Harris prevailed mightily and convincingly over Trump. Regardless of the outcome, Fong and Kemp wer…

My very special guest this bonus episode is Doreen Wong. You're going to get to hear from her because she said 'yes' to me twice last week. She accepted my surprise proposal of marriage on September 3rd, and then the next day she finally accepted my invitation to join me on my podcast to tell the miraculous story of how we've come back together fif…

Lei Wang was perfectly happy with her burgeoning career in marketing and finance. But one fateful frigid Boston evening, she went to watch a documentary on mountain climbing, and something unusual began to stir in her. Even though she was a short, out-of-shape, unathletic 30-year-old person, she became seized by the vision of climbing to the top of…

Growing up, Henry Lam struggled in school, but it wasn't until he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in 2018 and received treatment that he was finally able to focus and succeed. Given what he went through, he has become a professional ADHD Coach, combining an understanding of neuroscience, psychology, and business s…

NPR's Emily Kwong launched the Inheriting podcast this past May, where she facilitated an in-depth conversation among members from different generations of AANHPI families. Could they identify a few critical decisions or changes in history that continue to impact and shape their families? We also discuss whether it's possible for any reporter to be…

The 2024 DNC ended Thursday night, so the next morning podcasters Fong and Kemp were excited to compare notes about what they heard, saw and felt during throughout this 4-night gathering of Democratic delegates to make VP Harris and Gov. Walz their 1-2 punch to keep the White House and also to prevent Trump, MAGA, and Project 2025 from gaining powe…

Asian American author Eve J. Chung spent the first years of her life in Taiwan with her grandmother. In their shared space, Eve remembers a woman who loved her fiercely; hoarded food and fed her family fat-rich chicken skins; and used a heat lamp on her knees every night while watching Chinese period dramas. As Eve got older, she recognized these h…

In Director/Writer Tom Huang's 2022 film Dealing with Dad, Margaret Chang reluctantly returns to her hometown along with her hapless brothers to deal with the sudden depression of their complete-jerk father, whom everyone happens to hate. In fact, he's actually more pleasant being depressed, so the siblings wonder if it's worth struggling to get hi…

Lisa M. Gomez is the Assistant Secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in the U.S. Department of Labor (www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa). She brought with her a particular concern about the mental health of American men, especially minority men. Although I wasn't taken aback to hear that AANHPI men are the least likely to seek p…

Even before the majority of delegates to the upcoming DNC had lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Trump and the MAGA crowd began to use ad hominem attacks against her. Long-time friends and fellow podcasters Fong and Kemp kick things off by talking about their renewed optimism that Trump will be defeated again, then downs…

In this compelling collection of fifteen personal essays, Dr. Mako Yoshikawa takes us along on her journey to gain a clearer understanding of who her late father was. Secrets of the Sun "...is particularly brilliant at capturing the grief, guilt and fear that adults who experienced childhood abuse face when deciding how or whether to maintain a rel…

In her no-holds-barred essay “Conditional, But Essential, Contingency,” Dr. Kelly N. Fong confronts the racism she’s faced as an Asian American woman with a PhD in historical archaeology and examines the ways she’s rejected what she terms “muted invisibility” in favor of demanding change from the predominantly white academy. https://utpress.utexas.…

Ever since starting puberty, females must deal with hormonal challenges that males never face, e.g. menstruation (and everything that goes with that montly occurrence), then menopause, and finally life after menopause. In 2016 Dr. Sophia Yen launched PandiaHealth.com, the only women-founded and women-led online hormone health clinic and doctor-led …

A covert military task force tracks a mysterious energy disturbance at a secret base in New Mexico that is suspected of experimenting on alien technology. Once there, the team encounters an unknown being of extraordinary strength and speed, and the ability to control an army of mindless warriors. The trio must fight through the unstoppable hordes t…

Playwright Philip W. Chung's Unbroken Blossoms is a historical reimagining of the making of a boundary-breaking 1919 Hollywood classic that shines a light on the collateral damage in the search for "authentic" representation, and asks what price we pay for our art. Making its world premiere in East West Players David Henry Hwang Theater, Chung's im…

In this episode podcasters Fong and Kemp gamely try to stay out of panic mode in light of President Biden's abysmal performance at the first presidential debate against former President Donald Trump. Did Biden just show 50 million viewers that he was past his prime? Or does a person's performance on a debate stage really tell us how he or she will …

Whistleblower Aid CEO Libby Liu has long been a tireless champion for giving as many people as possible access to what's really going on, pushing back against Goliaths like totalitarian governments or powerful corporations. We talk about how the non-profit she leads equips whistleblowers to step forward with courage and to survive the harrowing leg…

With the conviction of former POTUS Trump on all 34 counts last week, you might think that that would catalyze many of even his most ardent supporters to call for him to drop out of the current race for the White House. Think again. Fong and Kemp try to discern why the majority of GOP "the party of law and order" politicians are crying foul, valida…

Clinical psychologist Dr. Kenneth Wang has spent the last 20 years researching the area of perfectionism, especially how it manifests itself in Asian Americans. This should come as no surprise, but most corporate executives are perfectionists. This trait is often one of the main reasons that they've risen to the top of their organizations, but it c…

In her debut novel Illusive, writer, blogger, and author Virginia Duan takes readers behind the scenes in the world of K-pop to explore the paralyzing aftereffects of relational trauma and what can be done to overcome them.Ken Fong

In this latest episode of the collaborative series between longtime friends, former pastors, and fellow podcasters Ken Fong and Ken Kemp, they talk about whether the recent decision by the United Methodist denomination to remove all barriers that had prevented LGBTQ+ persons from experiencing full inclusion is a lens through which to view and under…

In writing My Father, The Panda Killer Vietnamese American Jamie Jo Hoang humanizes the costs and consequences of the Vietnam War through the experiences of three generations of a traumatized fictional family from South Vietnam.Ken Fong

Author and business journalist Thomas Lee has given us a refreshingly new and relevant way to appreciate the life and legacy of the late pop icon Bruce Lee. In writing The Bruce Lee Code: How the Dragon Mastered Business, Confidence, and Success, and in serving as the lead curator and editorial director of the We Are Bruce Lee exhibit in the Chines…

Alexandra Chan had excelled in life as a left-brain, logical and educated person. But the recent loss of her amazing father Robert Earl Chan showed her the inherent limitations of just using reason to deal with life's greatest challenges. In her new book, In the Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic she takes us all on this jour…

Newton Cheng is the Director of Health + Performance at Google. He's a husband, a dad, and a champion powerlifter. From all appearances, he was doing great. Even better than great! But he was privately struggling with depression and burnout. It took his decision one day to take off his mask and openly talk about his struggles to set him on a course…

In this latest episode of The Two Ken's podcast series, Ken Kemp's regular guest Betsey Newenhuyse from Chicago joins us to talk about the ongoing need for regular groups of reliable, religious people, despite the burgeoning exodus from all forms of religion in America. Although unprecedented numbers of us no longer belong to a religious group or h…

Wing Ho is the founder of Xcela Coaching, where he offers Leadership Coaching and Team Culture Coaching. His relational-driven approach is something that leaders today in all kinds of settings need to understand and incorporate.Ken Fong

Writer and director Lisa Sanaye Dring's new play Kairos opens East West Players new season on April 4th. Because her play explores what can happen to a couple when there's a possibility of them living forever, we delve headlong into a captivating discussion of the significance of time, special moments, mortality, immortality, and even success and f…

Back when Joseph Tseng graduated from college, he focused on making a living as a singer/songwriter/storyteller. But he soon discovered that that dream wasn't ready to become a reality. He put his music behind him and worked conventionally for years. But questions began to float to the surface of his awareness. About his identity as an Asian Americ…

Danna Okuyama left her career in high finance to become the founder and CEO of Urban Sandbox, a new modern-day pen pal app and safe space for students to connect, share, and grow with other like-minded peers from around the world, while learning from qualified educators. Students have a place to engage like other platforms, without the concerns of …

In this latest installment of The Two Kens series, podcasters Fong and Kemp see the decision by Alabama's Supreme Court to outlaw invitro fertizilation (IVF) as the latest and most blatant example of Christian Nationalists and members of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) to colonize America. They adhere to the historical falsehood that God create…

This is probably stating the obvious, but there is more than one type of personality. Eric Gee has spent countless hours and many years perfecting a system of personality typing that is less rigid than the Meyers-Briggs system (MBTI) and also much easier to remember and grasp. Defining sixteen different 'animal' types and arranging them into four l…

Ever since she learned to drink alcohol in college, Brynn Evans had been embarassed by how red her face would turn, "a consequence of being half Chinese," she'd lament. Taking an antacid when she drank seemed to do the trick, but that eventually made her really sick. Thus began her decade-long journey to come up with a safe and healthy dietary supp…