Blood Debts Leezel Tanglao

In this episode we talk to Mark Pulido, who served as a councilman and mayor of the city of Cerritos, California. In addition to his elected roles, Mark is a long time community leader who has worked to gain more visibility on Filipino American issues and history especially with the manongs of the Delano grape strikes. We talk about his political journey and how Filipino Americans play a crucial role in bridging the gaps of history, time and what we owe to future generations in leading the way. 

In this episode we talk to the honorable Judge Rizza Palmares O’Connor. We talk about debt to your community, career and family in the motherland. We discuss blood debts and what debt looks like in the legal and public service space.

In this episode we talk to Jon Melegrito, who breaks down the negative and positive aspects of utang na loob and how shining a light on important issues is a storyteller’s debt. We talk about holding truth to power as one of the most impactful things we can do as storytellers of our own narratives.

In this episode, we talk to Yasmin Atienza, an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) living in the United Arab Emirates. We talk about debt as an OFW, utang na loob and what debt looks like in the creative space. Yasmin has built a following of 37K Instagram followers under her handle @friday_illustrations, with a focus on nature, women and cosmos style affirmations graphics. As a creative, she discusses what creatives owe to themselves and their audiences.  

In this episode, we talk to Ben Reyes, who was born and raised in the UK and later moved to the United States and works in the tech industry as a developer and entrepreneur. We talk about personal debts like time and sleep, and how the notion of tech debt applies to other parts of life.

In this episode, we talk to Melanie Sabado-Liwag, an assistant professor in the Public Health department at California State University Los Angeles. We discuss how finances, respect and how debt can impact a person’s health and what happens when worrying becomes the stress.