We are so delighted to have graphic novelist Thien Pham on this episode. We discovered his book Family Style thanks to one of our kids and it turned out to be a book that us grownups love too.

Thien shares how he finally came to write his book after so many years of wanting to tell his family’s story, the through line of food and memory, and the impressiveness of his parents in building a whole new life by an age at which Thien himself was still playing video games.

Plus we talk about the heartbreak of assimilation, his stint as a food critic comic artist, and the incredible state of school lunchrooms today.

Definitely pick up a copy of Family Style for your middle grade readers or anyone curious about immigrant stories in a wonderfully accessible graphic novel.

It finally happened! We finally get to talk about everyone’s favorite party/potluck food: lumpia!! This episode we’re joined by Eleanor Mooney, co-founder of New York-based Verdant Lingerie and hapa Filipina.

We talk to Eleanor about growing up watching the titas roll lumpia at parties, each one having a slightly different recipe, and how growing up around this community of women shaped her career in service and lingerie.

Plus we talk about when it’s okay to be slightly illegal in job interviews, looking exactly like a parent but still somehow not enough, and her sister’s long con that somehow worked on us and will have her ruling us all.

In this live episode recorded at the Asian Art Museum on Bruce Lee Day, we talk with author Jeff Chang about his tremendous new book Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America.

Just ahead of what would’ve been Bruce’s 85th birthday (which is today!), we talk about his impact on Asian American representation in media, what he meant to generations of fans, and the intertwined rise of the AAPI identity that Jeff so beautifully weaves throughout the book. True to form, Freesia gushes, but this really is one of the best books she’s read in a very, very long time. We really cannot say enough good things about it.

Plus, we talk about one of Jeff’s childhood comfort dishes, which just so happens to be a Hawaiian version of our childhood comfort dish, his experience growing up in Hawaii, and the culture shock of leaving the island for California.

Big thanks to the Asian Art Museum for helping to make this happen and for a great book talk earlier in the day.

Whether you’re interested in Bruce Lee or the Asian American movement and identity, we can’t recommend this book enough.