261: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority, with Anne Anlin Cheng
Release Date: 12/17/2024
13: How to Have Difficult Conversations, featuring Dr. Bill Doherty, Co-founder of Braver Angels
What Do You Mean By That?
, our primer for holiday seasons
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12: Uncompete: The Case for Redefining Success, Together - with Ruchika Malhotra
What Do You Mean By That?
When we have repeat guests back on the pod, it’s because we love them, their work, and the message that they’re not only sending out into the world but embodying themselves. And we think all of this can be said a million times over for today’s guest and her brand new book (out today!). As we think about this conversation, which we can’t wait for you to listen to, there were those mic drop moments, but there were also those contemplative moments where we were not only deep in conversation, but we really felt the power of this notion of uncompeting. We can’t wait for you...
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11: What We Meant By That - The Debrief on Elie Mystal’s Brilliance
What Do You Mean By That?
Welcome to our first Debrief episode, where we reflect and digest what our brilliant guests shared in a prior conversation. We were blown away by the sheer brilliance and clarity in our last episode with former litigator and political commentator Elie Mystal, author of Bad Laws and Allow Me to Retort. We’ve read and recommend both books, and especially want Bad Laws to get in the hands of our Democratic lawmakers for whenever (fingers crossed) they get back in power. But say you don’t have time or desire to go back and listen to a full hour of...
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10: Elie Mystal on Bad Laws, Big Truths, and How to Change the System
What Do You Mean By That?
This episode is a must-listen for anyone who’s ever felt like legal talk is impossible to understand (👋 Sara included!). We’re joined by , brilliant legal mind, powerful truth-teller, and New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, to break down the complex world of American law and what Democrats are doing all wrong (and can do better) in a way that’s sharp, accessible, and even funny. 💥 He’s back with a bold new book: Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. If you're fired up about the state of...
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09: The Devil Emails At Midnight, With Mita Mallick
What Do You Mean By That?
Whether you’ve ever been a boss or have ever had a boss, you know how much those singular individuals can shape the workplace. According to studies, a good manager can increase employee engagement by as much as 70%. And, according to a survey by the American Psychological Association, a whopping 75% of employees report their boss as the worst and most stressful part of their jobs. So, how do we know if we’re being a good boss or a bad boss? Do we just know, or should we be looking out for specific things? Enter the incredible stories that focus on what good...
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08: How to Be a Better Human: What WE Really Think
What Do You Mean By That?
We had a very insightful superfan make a brilliant suggestion that we’re acting on, starting with this episode. David Gaines, author of Radical Business, CEO of La Terza Coffee, and kind human being, sent in a message cheering us on for the podcast rebrand, and then pushed us to do just a bit more. Specifically, he said, “The guests you have on clearly have their brilliance to add to the world, but for me personally, the main reason I listen to your work is that I find a lot of brilliance in your perspectives as you process in real time what your guests are saying.” ...
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07: How to Rest without Feeling Guilty
What Do You Mean By That?
In our last episode of our series on how to be a better human, we’re talking about rest. Specifically, what do we mean by rest, and why is it so important? How do we grapple with its significance in our individual and collective lives, and for real, how do we DO LESS? This conversation has become increasingly frequent in our lives, and we wanted to share our thoughts with you. If this resonates, please share with your friends, and tell us how you incorporate rest, in whatever form, into your lives as well. What to listen for: How we reframe the idea of rest - from something...
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06: How To Be a Better Democrat, with Megan Imperial
What Do You Mean By That?
Maybe these are some questions you’ve asked yourself, as we’ve moved from the election of 2024 to the present: Where the heck are the Democrats? What’s happening with the dysfunctional American two-party political system, and if we don’t support what the Trump administration is doing to our people and our rule of law, how do we find any hope we might have left for regaining control of our Democracy? What do we even mean when we say Democrat these days? We’ve asked ourselves the same questions and have come up empty. As a result, we decided to ask these very same questions...
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05: How We Can Build Trust In Times of Division, with Jan-Emmanuel de Neve
What Do You Mean By That?
It’s not controversial to say that we are living in times of deep division, where there are so many forces keeping us apart, politics being a big part of that. But did you know that there’s a link between how satisfied you think you are with your life, how much you trust others, and how you vote? It’s a mind-blowing, less-discussed topic, despite being a chapter in the latest World Happiness Report. Importantly, to make a difference, we wonder this - how do we actually build trust with people who hold different viewpoints, especially if our first impulse is to block them,...
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04: How to improve your critical thinking skills, with Colin Seale
What Do You Mean By That?
Depending on who you are and where you get your news from, you may be seeing a completely separate version of the news from your neighbor down the street, your aunt in another state, or your coworker who only gets his news from a specific social media platform. Maybe everyone around you gets the same news you do. But you also know that there is a very different version of reality out there, that many people are deeply believing in. So, how do we figure out what’s true and what’s convenient? How do we talk to each other if we don’t have the same baseline of understanding about,...
info_outlineToday’s episode seems to be addressing this question: does politics show up in our everyday lives? Maybe even in our most intimate relationships?
And while a lot of folks may be saying politics doesn’t impact me, I don’t do politics… we think the actual answer for most of us in this country is a resounding YES (in fact, we’ve recorded whole episodes and written whole book chapters on this very topic!). Yes, politics impacts our daily lives, including being in our marriages, our parent-child relationships, and more.
We’re privileged to have this conversation with someone who took the chance to use her voice in a new way - moving from academia and diving bravely into personal essays - in order to help us all hear one person’s journey confronting the Model Minority Myth that so many Asian folks in America are impacted by, and inspiring us along the way.
What to listen for:
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The challenge in determining where the forces that shape us end, and the “real us” begins - especially when it comes to deconstructing the Model Minority Myth, or even untangling ourselves from notions like the American Dream
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How politics shows up in our most intimate relationships - including marriage
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Examples of how white folks can show up, or not, for issues around multiculturalism
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Where our education system is having to go to meet the population where they are when it comes to talking about politics - we’re now back to discussing civility, empathy, what it means to be a citizen, and the common good
About our guest:
Anne Anlin Cheng was born in Taiwan, grew up in the American South, and is the author of three books on American racial politics and aesthetics. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Cheng is the 2023–2024 Ford Scholar in Residence at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is a professor of English and a former director of American Studies at Princeton University and lives in Princeton, New Jersey.