Episode 27 - Group Chatting with Donnie Kwak

Diversity Hire

Hello and welcome to episode 27 of Diversity Hire. Today's guest is Donnie Kwak who is the General Manager of Complex. We talked about how Donnie survived decades of many media pivots, music blogging in the early 2000s, why Asian American Twitter sucks, the vexed relationship ASAM folks have with other marginalized peoples, the plague of corniness, and much more. Kevin and Arjun also talk about the James Harden trade...and Kevin’s podcast listening habits.

Thanks for listening!

* Arjun & Kevin talk basketball and podcasts (0:00)

* Donnie Kwak on being Gen X (8:10)

* Donnie leads us through his career timeline (10:13)

* What does Donnie do as the GM of Complex? (19:08)

* What Donnie has learned from working through various forms of media (22:20)

* On giving Desus and Mero their first break (25:18)

* On representation and being a racial cheerleader (re: “‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,’ and the Growing Pains of Representation,” The Ringer, 2018) (29:19)

* The lack of criticality in Asian America and Asian Twitter (32:13)

* The narrative hasn’t shifted (35:30)

* Donnie’s hypothetical book, Stop Being Asian (40:02)

* On 88Rising and the ways in which Asian Americans can profit off of Black culture while benefitting from white privilege (44:18)

* On the power of group chats (re: “The Internet’s Safest Space Is Group Chat,” The Ringer, 2017) (54:14)

* Against corniness (59:06)

* Arjun’s Feelings Don’t Care About Facts Corner (1:01:52)

* The Diversity Tribunal (1:12:02)

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