Skip the Repeat Kai Talim

Ellen Yin didn’t always love food. As a child in New Jersey, she was more into McDonald’s than her mom’s cooking. But when she did discover the magic of restaurants and the food they served, she was hooked. All through her time at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, she dreamed of owning a restaurant. This was true even after she began working in advertising and hospital management. Today, she is owner and co-founder of High Street Hospitality Group, managing four restaurants in Philadelphia and one in NYC.

When I met Alex Beyer in 2010 at a piano competition in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we struck up a conversation about his passion for soccer and his dream of becoming a NASA astronaut. Since then, he has gone on to win third prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition, while graduating from the Harvard/New England Conservatory dual degree program. And it was at the peak of his piano competition career that he pivoted, away from the life of a concert pianist.
Today he is a Student Naval Aviator in the United States Navy.

Megan Moore now tells students she speaks to, that a career doesn’t begin once they’ve won a job, competition, or role - it starts the moment they walk into music school. As an artist faced with the horrors of a once packed schedule disappearing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Megan has thought much about what a career is to her, through her journey of rising as a young operatic star to co-founding LYNX, a non-profit now working with people with nonverbal autism. Today she is the First Prize winner of the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition.

As a senior in high school, Katherine Balch focused on applying to dual degree programs, so she could study music and something else. She refused to pigeonhole herself into a career track, and has kept that same spirit well into her now-flourishing career as a composer - even with the awards and prizes she has received, she’s open to change, maybe even away from composition one day. Today she is the 2020 Elliott Carter Rome Prize Fellow.

When Side Project Jerky was launched almost ten years ago, it was meant to be exactly that - a side project. Working as a construction estimator, Marcos Espinoza saw the beef jerky business as a more fun way to earn extra income than a rental property. But through the years his fascination with jerky has continued to grow, culminating in the decision to pivot and focus much of his efforts into the business after he was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This episode begins with a reflection on what has been happening in this country in the wake of the murders in Atlanta and the sharp increase in hate crimes against Asian people.
When Keegan Fong was in high school, his family frequently hosted his friends for dinner. It wasn’t until he left home that he realized how special his mom’s cooking was. As he worked in the action sports industry as a marketing manager, he began dreaming of his own business which would showcase his mom’s cooking and the family’s welcoming spirit. Today, he is owner of Woon Kitchen in LA.