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It's a Bruin reunion! This week we welcome fellow Smart Girl and self-published author, Melanie Ho, as we discuss the hidden curriculum of self-publishing.

We get into the nuts and bolts: hiring a developmental editor who protects your voice, finding seasoned designers and copy editors on Reedsy, and using IngramSpark’s print-on-demand to skip boxes-in-the-garage risk while keeping control of pricing and distribution.

If you’ve wondered whether a big publisher is the only path, or how to turn your story into a sustainable creative business, this conversation is your candid field guide. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s “between seasons,” and leave a review with the one value that’s guiding your next move.

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We trace how Black feminist networks form, sustain, and transform lives, from a painful academic slight to a thriving community rooted in mentorship, writing, and everyday care. Prof. Sharon Harley (University of Maryland) joins us to unpack bias, honor invisible labor, and share a living philosophy of mentoring across generations.

• black feminist networks as infrastructure for survival and joy
• the hidden curriculum and practical mentoring that meets basic needs
• bias in the academy and how community counters it
• allies within and beyond Black studies strengthening the web
• writing as resistance, archive, and liberation
• re-centering women builders like Nannie Helen Burroughs
• soundtracks that score struggle, study, and celebration

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In this episode, LT reconnects with longtime friend and colleague Professor Jim Lee (Asian American Studies, UC Irvine), who played a pivotal role in her transition from undergrad to graduate school. Together they reflect on their shared journey through UCLA in the 1990s—navigating the promises and limits of multiculturalism, coalition-building between Black and Asian students, and the hidden curriculum of academia.

From memories of the Rodney King era and Prop 209 debates, to pop culture touchstones like Dawson’s Creek, The X-Files, and Buffy, LT and Jim weave together stories of scholarship, friendship, and first-gen identity. They also explore how chosen family, imposter syndrome, and parenthood continue to shape their lives and teaching today.

This conversation is as much about solidarity and survival as it is about joy, fandom, and building lasting first-gen coalitions.

For more info:

https://www.smartgirlbook.com/

https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5634

https://tupress.temple.edu/books/pedagogies-of-woundedness

https://www.humanities.uci.edu/news/james-kyung-jin-lee-honored-prestigious-book-award