They Call Us Bruce Jeff Yang & Phil Yu

Jeff and Phil welcome Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, star of Squid Game and the new Star Wars series The Acolyte. Speaking through an interpreter, he talks about joining the iconic Star Wars franchise, making in his English-language acting debut as a Jedi master, and working with the show's young stars. He also gives us The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of making The Acolyte, and even dangles a tiny crumb of news about Squid Game season two. Special thanks to Isue Shin for interpreting this conversation.

Jeff and Phil welcome Adam King and Sam Hyun, co-founders of the Asian American sneaker brand 1587. They talk about their inspiration for starting a company dedicated to "unapologetically Asian American" footwear, and how they're celebrating our community's oft-forgotten or neglected stories through shoes. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of starting an Asian American sneaker company. (This episode is sponsored by the HBO original limited series The Sympathizer and its official companion podcast.)

In Episode 241, recorded live at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City, Jeff and Phil celebrate the book launch of Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire with author Paula Yoo and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Hyungwon "HK" Kang. They talk about Paula's drive to tell a nuanced and empathetic account of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, the three families at the center of the unrest -- beyond the headlines and soundbites -- and some of the incredible and heartbreaking untold stories from this incendiary moment for Los Angeles' Black and Korean American communities. (This episode is sponsored by the HBO original limited series The Sympathizer and the official Sympathizer companion podcast.)

In Episode 240, Jeff and Phil welcome writer, stand-up comedian and media studies PhD Grace Jung, author of the book K-Drama School: A Pop Culture Inquiry into Why We Love Korean Television. They discuss the explosion of Korean dramas from bootleg VHS tapes to DramaFever (R.I.P.) to the most popular shows on worldwide streaming services; the wildest K-drama tropes from amnesia to leukemia to kimchi slaps; what makes these shows so irresistibly bingeable, and what can we learn about our societies and ourselves from watching them. (This episode is sponsored by the HBO original limited series The Sympathizer and the official Sympathizer companion podcast.)

In Episode 239, Jeff and Phil discuss the HBO original limited series The Sympathizer, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, with author Viet Thanh Nguyen and scholar Philip Nguyen, host of the official Sympathizer Podcast. They talk about the meta-upon-meta textual sandwich of adapting this modern classic into an epic television series, that time director Park Chan-wook came over to Viet's house -- hide the octopus! -- and the brilliant decision to cast the "dude playing a dude disguised as another dude" as alllll the white guys in The Sympathizer. BONUS: Keep listening to hear an episode of The Sympathizer Podcast with Robert Downey Jr., Hoa Xuande, Vincent Van Dyke, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Don McKellar.

In Episode 238, Jeff and Phil welcome historian and professor Mae Ngai, co-editor of the book  Corky Lee's Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice, a collection of over 200 photos celebrating the history and cultural impact of the Asian American social justice movement from the lens of late photojournalist and activist Corky Lee. She talks about Corky's calling as "the inundisputed, unofficial Asian American photographer laureate" and his lifelong quest to document, empower and create community change with his camera. Also: Jeff talks about that time he and Corky lost track of time.