Roads Less Taken Kate Chen

Since the onset of coronavirus, anti-asian racism the senseless assaults on Asian American women and elder  have put millions of Asian Americans in fear, for our lives and our families. This week I'm talking to Tiffany Yu, founder of Modem, the first comprehensive and holistic wellness telehealth company for Asian Americans. What started as an op-ed on her outrage about the lack of attention on attacks on the AAPI community turned into a realization for a resounding need for Asian American mental health support. In this episode Tiffany & I be discussing our experiences as Asian American women, and how we can better advocate for Asian American mental health within our communities.

Academia seems like a niche path, but recognizing the fundamental commonalities of what you love can help identify incredible alternative paths. 

Zakiya Whatley is the co-creator and host of Dope Labs, a science & pop culture Spotify podcast. Having a PhD in genetics and genomics, Zakiya went from being on a tenure track at Gettysburg to pursuing her passions in science elsewhere, starting Dope Labs with her best friend Titi through the Spotify Sound Up accelerator. 

In this episode, we'll be diving into why Zakiya left the academia track, and how she's grown the podcast to what it is today.

Films have become a pivotal part of not only my journey growing up, but cultural markers of generations and eras. From opening up societal commentary to providing comedic relief, filmmakers have the unique ability to create widespread impact in mass media through the power of storytelling. 

Robin Wang is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and current MFA candidate at USC. Having been an amateur filmmaker since high school, Robin realized he couldn't leave behind his passions for film, dropping his Statistics major at Duke. Soon after, he launched his first narrative short film, which garnered international recognition from thirteen film festivals. In this episode, we'll be diving into why Robin couldn't abandon film, and how to get started in filmmaking.

To many, working at Google is a "dream job," but when they get there, few find that their idealistic perspectives are reflected. As the tech industry as a whole keeps inflating in size, both Goliath corporations and the millions being funneled into startups have been exposed for their harmless philosophies and questionable practices. 

Wendy Liu is a former startup CTO and published author of Abolish Silicon Valley. After graduating from McGill in 2013, Wendy abandoned a full-time role at Google to lead technology at her startup Macromeasures, but came out of the experience with key insights on how tech exacerbates inequality and illusion. Since then, Wendy got a masters in Economics and recently took on a role at Open Door Legal, a nonprofit providing legal support for the underprivileged. In this episode, we'll be diving into Wendy's takeaways from the tech industry, and why it drew her away.

Racial justice and addressing social inequalities is a priority for many, but few are able to make it a central part of their jobs, especially in engineering. We've especially seen in the past year how tech companies struggle to adjust to their employees' growing political involvement or frustration, and such mission-aligned work is largely ignored or seldom found.  

Archana Ahlawat is a founding engineer at Color of Change, a racial justice nonprofit focused on activating people and campaigning digitally. After graduating from Duke in 2019, Archana found herself at Microsoft as a Software Engineer, but after a year she found herself drawn to joining a mission-aligned nonprofit, building up their team and technology to further social good. In this episode, we'll be uncovering the intersection of tech and racial justice, and how to pursue innovation in nonprofit work.

The power of technology to create social impact in every industries, from politics to education to healthcare, draws a lot of people in to studying Computer Science, but many get swept away by big tech, spending their time tweaking buttons and optimizing performance instead of making real impact. 

Carolyn Macleod is a computer science teacher at a charter school in New York. After interning at a tech company two years ago, Carolyn abandoned the Silicon Valley to build software for a Rape Crisis nonprofit in South Africa, and after graduating from Duke in 2020 with a bachelors in Computer Science, Carolyn found an interest in edtech, starting as a teacher. In this episode, we'll be uncovering why she turned down big tech, and how she hopes to unconventionally leverage her skills to make impact.