Sheetal Sheth is an Indian American actress, author and activist based in New York City. You may remember her breakout role as “Maya” co-starring with Albert Brooks in “Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World” (2005). Since then, Sheetal’s star keeps rising, appearing in dozens of TV shows and films. In 2013, she got married and soon became a mother to two girls. Then, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. As Sheetal struggled to recover, she was determined to raise her children with a deep sense of pride and love for India. Why? Also, what inspired her to write children’s books for Indian Americans while she was pregnant in New York City?
Click here for more about Sheetal Sheth.
Music used:
What Is Love (Piano) by Zight
Sad Ambient Piano by Lite Saturation
Free Hopping Piano by Lobo Loco
Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1 - II. Adagio by Daniel Veesey
Brand New World by Kai Engel
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Photo Credit: David Goddard
Neil Mody is a media entrepreneur, tech enthusiast and philosopher at heart.
In this open-hearted conversation, Neil shares snippets of his phone conversations with his father that would forever be seared into his mind. What did his father say? Why did Neil tell his mother not to wear a “sari” to his eighth grade graduation? Why did he feel embarrassed by his “Indianness” growing up in New Jersey, and how does he feel now?
Find Your Roots is a history and culture project centering on Asian American voices, perspectives, and experiences. It is a one-on-one, in-depth podcast interview show with Asian “Roots-Finders” seeking to remember the diverse and profound influences of their parents and grandparents. This educational podcast project is designed to promote and preserve the legacy of the countless contributions—as well as forgotten struggles and sacrifices—of our ancestors who paved the way for us today.
We want to include you in this conversation. Share your thoughts. Pitch us a story. To send us your comments or stories, email us at info@oneinabillionvoices.org
or go to our Facebook page or website under “Pitch a Story.”
One in a Billion connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Season 7: Find Your Roots series is produced by One in a Billion Productions, a non-profit educational media company (501c3), with generous funding from PLUS Charitable Trust.
Martial Arts, Kung Fu Master (師傅) , Yoga Instructor, Political Activist
Mai Du was just eight years old when she aspired to learn Kung Fu. Then she became a refugee after the Vietnam war fleeing with her family through Thailand and the Philippines before arriving in America.
Today, Mai du is a martial arts instructor, kung fu master and political activist. What formed her fighting spirit? How did her parents’ survival skills mold her mindset?
Check out our conversation!
Music used:
Vienna Beat by Blue Dot Sessions
Adventure by The Ghost in Your Piano
Trophy Endorphins by Andy G Cohen
Mountain Monk C by Lobo Loco
Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1 - II. Adagio by Daniel Veesey
Stormy Blues by Arne Bang Huseby
A Yankees Southern Blues by HoliznaCC0
Only Our Footsteps in the Sand by Mid-Air Machine
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Photo Credit:
Dat Nguyen
More than a decade after she was labeled as “Tiger Mom” for her 2011 memoir “The Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother,” Amy Chua reflects on her strict parenting style as she traces the roots of her culture to Fuzhou, China. Why did Amy feel right about raising her daughters the same way she was raised by her immigrant parents? What lessons has she learned from her critics in the West? What prompted her to pursue a career in corporate law before teaching law at Yale? And now, what motivated her to write her first novel “The Golden Gate?”
Amy Chua is a Yale law school professor with expertise in international business transactions, ethnicity and conflict, and globalization. She is an author of five non-fiction titles including Political Tribes: Group Instinct and Fate of Nation, and The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America.
Have you ever felt abandoned by your parents? What would you do to reconcile with them?
24-year-old Angela Li was born in New York City but sent back to Fuzhou, China while an infant to be raised by her grandparents until she turned five. When she entered the U.S, she felt she’d closed the door on her childhood in China. Now, she is just beginning to reconcile with that as an adult.
In this podcast conversation, Angela describes her process of self-healing by starting an oral project of interviewing her parents. “For the first time, I see my mom as a human being.” Angela says.
What did she mean? What did she find?
Music used:
Space Full by Andy G. Cohen
Rain by Unheard Music Concepts
Inside the Moon by Stephan Siebert
Mountain Monk C by Lobo Loco
Bells In The Wind by Daniel Birch
The Shine by Jahzzar
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Have you ever lost your sense of purpose after your loved one suddenly died? Whom do you turn to find strength to renew your mind and spirit?
Born in Sorsogon, the Philippines, Loida N. Lewis, traces the roots of her undying faith that revives her in her darkest hour after her husband Reginald F. Lewis died of brain cancer.
Loida also talks about her new memoir,“Why Should Guys Have All the Fun?” - an Asian American story of love, marriage, faith and running a billion dollar business empire.
Loida Lewis is a business executive, immigration lawyer, philanthropist and activist.
Music used:
Dream by Chan Wai Fat
Spiritual by HoliznaPATREON
Space Full by Andy G Cohen
You're Right But I'm Me by Doctor Turtle
Undercover Vampire Policeman by Chris Zabriskie
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Have you ever felt the need to know your family history as a way to become whole?
What can you remember about your parents’ immigrant journey or struggle that would help you weave a cohesive narrative for their past sacrifices and your current success?
Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Fran Chin, tells a compelling story about his father and mother’s voyage from Guangdong, China to escape penury so he and his eight siblings could enjoy a better life here in America.
Music used:
History by Twelvety9
Burn Me Alive by MMFFF
Even When We Fall by FPhilipp Weigl
Lullaby by The Ghost in Your Piano
Inspirational Outlook by Scott Holmes
Horses by Pictures of the Floating World
Mountain Monk B by Lobo Loco
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Find Your Roots is a history and culture project centering on Asian American voices, perspectives, and experiences. It is a one-on-one in-depth podcast interview show with Asian “Roots-Finders” seeking to remember the diverse and profound influences of their parents and grandparents. This educational podcast project is designed to promote and preserve the legacy of the countless contributions—as well as forgotten struggles and sacrifices—of our ancestors who paved the way for us today. We want to include you in this conversation. Share your thoughts. Pitch us a story. To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org or go to our Facebook page or website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.” “One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time. Season 7 Find Your Roots Series is produced by One in a Billion Productions, a non-profit educational media company (501c3), with generous funding from PLUS Charitable Trust. (https://plct.org/welcome/)
Have you stopped and considered what got you here? Who paved the way for you to learn and grow up in America? For first-generation Chinese American Paul Lee who was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, it is time for him and his siblings to remember their cultural roots, and to honor his parents’ incredible immigrant journey to America. It is also time for us to thank his father Sen Lee for his service to America. Sen Lee fought for America in WWII in the United States Armed Forces in Pacific Theatre.
Music Used:
The Wrong Way by Jahzzar
The Family Instrumental by Chad Crouch
Prism by Xylo Ziko
Four Way by William Ross Chernoff's Nomads
Climb by The Ghost in Your Piano
Boss 1: The First Challenge by Komiku
Singing In The Rain Instrumental by David Mumford
Rosedale Daydream Back in the Room by Greg Atkinson
Youk Ra Lom Ai Oh by Les Cartes Postales Sonores
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Find Your Roots is a history and culture project centering on Asian American voices, perspectives, and experiences. It is a one-on-one in-depth podcast interview show with Asian “Roots-Finders” seeking to remember the diverse and profound influences of their parents and grandparents. This educational podcast project is designed to promote and preserve the legacy of the countless contributions—as well as forgotten struggles and sacrifices—of our ancestors who paved the way for us today.
We want to include you in this conversation. Share your thoughts. Pitch us a story. To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org or go to our Facebook page or website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Season 7 Find Your Roots Series is produced by One in a Billion Productions, a non-profit educational media company (501c3), with generous funding from PLUS Charitable Trust.
Do you have a hard time identifying with this kind of Chinese, or that kind of American, and wanting to create a third category of cultural identity? Do you feel so foreign while visiting China as a Chinese American?
Irene Li is a James Beard Award Winning Chef, Co-founder/Co-owner at Mei Mei Dumplings in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also a tech founder, and WBUR (Boston NPR) CitySpace Moderator/ Host.
A Cornell University graduate, Irene Li was part of the college scholar program and majored in cultural studies.
Music used:
Malachite by Andy G Cohen
New Day by Alan Spiljak
Even When We Fall by FPhilipp Weigl
Above the Clouds by Bio Unit
Bathed in Fine Dust by Andy G Cohen
Highride by Blue Dot Sessions
Flux by The Ghost in Your Piano
Oxygen Mask by Andy G Cohen
I Recall by Blue Dot Sessions
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Find Your Roots is a history and culture project centering on Asian American voices, perspectives, and experiences. It is a one-on-one in-depth podcast interview show with Asian “Roots-Finders” seeking to remember the diverse and profound influences of their parents and grandparents. This educational podcast project is designed to promote and preserve the legacy of the countless contributions—as well as forgotten struggles and sacrifices—of our ancestors who paved the way for us today.
We want to include you in this conversation. Share your thoughts. Pitch us a story. To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org
or go to our Facebook page or website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Season 7 Find Your Roots Series is produced by One in a Billion Productions, a non-profit educational media company (501c3), with generous funding from PLUS Charitable Trust.
Are you denying your roots if you ignore them? Why should one’s culture be a forethought and not an afterthought? Who defines your cultural identity?
Dr. Elaine Shiang is a retired Chinese American medical doctor at MIT with over 35 years of experience. Episode 1 Don't’ Deny It is her account of her family history in China, their journey to America, her parents’ influence on her and her advice for the next generation.
Elaine is a mother of three adult children - Andrew, Margaret, Irene. All of them were born in the greater Boston area, including Elaine herself. However, Elaine was introduced to the Chinese language early in her childhood and even lived in Taiwan for three years. That experience, she says, exposed her to the wider world and a greater appreciation of the value of embracing your roots.
Elaine also talks about her late husband Dr. Frederick Pei Li who came to America as a refugee. Dr. Li, a Chinese-American physician, was a pioneer of population cancer genetics. For more about Dr. Elaine Shiang, click here.
Music used:
Acoustic Fingerpicking 3 by Independent Music Licensing Collective
Acoustic Fingerpicking 8 by Independent Music Licensing Collective
Brand New World by Kai Engel
Undercover Vampire Policeman by Chris Zabriskie
Youk Ra Lom Ai Oh by Les Cartes Postales Sonores
Asianna by Jean Toba
The Lullaby of the Free Hell by Koi-discovery
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Find Your Roots is a history and culture project centering on Asian American voices, perspectives and experiences. It is a one-on-one in-depth interview show with Asian “Root-finders” seeking to remember the diverse and profound influences of their parents and grandparents. This educational series is designed to promote and preserve the legacy of the countless contributions - as well as unforgettable struggles and sacrifices - of our ancestors who paved the way for us today. For more info: Email Info@OneinaBillionVoices.org
How can you make a difference when you are still climbing the career ladder and have little money to spare? How much can you give when you already focus so much of your time and effort to gain acceptance, appreciation, and accolades at work and in life?
Listen to my podcast conversation with Kyung B. Yoon - president and co-founder of the Korean American Community Foundation (KACF). A television journalist, public speaker, Taekwondo instructor.
Music used:
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
You're the Dummy by Derek Clegg
Arena 17 Back From the Death Row by Koi-Discovery
Adventure by The Ghost in Your Piano
Convergence by Pictures of the Floating World
Highway Fever by HoliznaCC0
Kyung first came to America after the Korean war and discovered a land of luxuries. But she never forgets how South Korea, her homeland, has grown and developed from a poor country to become an economic miracle when men and women are given equal opportunities for education. Throughout her life and career, Kyung keeps in mind the poor and the needy of the world at the core and center of her mission - as a TV journalist, a World Bank Institute documentary filmmaker, and a Taekwondo self-defense instructor.
Why would a Harvard-educated college graduate and medical school student get thrown out of a UCLA medical residency? What did he do wrong? What did he do right to get back in? And why would he later quit his medical residency to pursue creative projects including documentary-filmmaking in China?
Most intriguingly, how did any of these paths pave the way for his eventual success as a cosmetic surgeon in Beverly Hills? And now, why does he choose to devote his philanthropic passion to promoting a positive image of Chinese people in America?
Tune into my conversation with Dr. Robin Yuan - a plastic surgeon, philanthropist, and author of four books, including the latest “Red Bishop” - a historical fiction novel about his grandfather as the last presiding bishop of the Anglican church in China.
Music used:
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
I Will Not Let You Let Me Down by Josh Woodward
Burn Me Alive by MMFFF
A Perceptible Shift by Andy G Cohen
Golden Sunrise by Josh Woodward
Picture It All by Lorenzos Music
Marty Ladies and Gentlemen by Doctor Turtle
Hlice by Monplaisir
Mountain Island Dreams by Lobo Loco
Highride by Blue Dot Sessions
Canada by Pictures of the Floating World
Steppin' In by Podington Bear
Why does an American-born Chinese philanthropist want to help young Chinese in America reconnect with their roots? Why is that important? What seeded that passion?
Tune into my conversation with Carolyn Hsu-Balcer in Episode #3 “Reconnecting with Your Roots.”
Carolyn Hsu-Balcer is a designer, philanthropist, and art collector based in Los Angeles and New York.
Having lived in Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Philippines, she returned to America (her birthplace) obligingly for college. Her mother told her America is her future because they didn’t have a home in China anymore.
How did Carolyn’s Chinese parents shape her love for country, history, art and culture?
Why was Carolyn so inspired by her great-granduncle Dr. Kuo Ping-Wen - the first Chinese to have earned a PhD in America??
Why does Carolyn believe young Chinese in America should become global-minded?
Music used:
One In a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Youk Ra Lom Ai Oh by Les Cartes Postales Sonores
Lullaby by the Ghost in Your Piano
A Yankees Southern Blues by HoliznaCC0
Mountain Monk C by Lobo Loco
Driving Through Tunnels by Daniel Birch
The Armys March by MMFFF
The Things That Connect Us by Independent Music Licensing Collective
Carolyn graduated from Wheaton College (Mass.) with a BA in Economics and a minor in Chinese Language. After working as a financial analyst on Wall Street and as a Retail Product Developer, Carolyn launched SnoPea Inc. in 1997, a baby clothes company based in New York. SnoPea manufactures and markets infantwear for sale online and in specialty stores across the US, Canada and Japan.
Carolyn has worked to foster Sino-American understanding through education and culture. She has organized seminars on Education in China at major universities in the US and China.
She supports educational scholarships at universities in Shanghai, Nanjing and Taiwan, and at rural schools in Yunnan Province in China. In 2008, she received the Blue Cloud Award for outstanding achievement from the China Institute in New York.
Carolyn has co-edited and co-published the historical biographies Kuo Ping Wen Scholar, Reformer, Statesman (2016) and C.T. Wang: Looking Back and Looking Forward (2008); the artbook A Token of Elegance (2015), a historical and photo survey of cigarette holders as objets de vertu; and Chow! Secrets of Chinese Cooking (2020), an updated edition of a timeless classic about Chinese cuisine and culture and winner of a 2021 Gourmand World Cookbook Award.
Carolyn has organized ground-breaking exhibits of Chinese art including Xu Bing Tobacco Project Virginia (2011 VMFA), Light Before Dawn (2013 Asia Society Hong Kong), Blooming in the Shadows (2011 China Institute NY), Ming Cho Lee: A Retrospective (2011 Ningbo Museum), and Oil and Water: Re-Interpreting Ink (2014 MOCA NY).
She has sponsored the publication of a 13-volume catalogue of the works of the Wuming group of Chinese artists, and the publication of “Ai Wei Wei: New York Photographs 1983-1993”.
Carolyn has produced award-winning documentaries on China and Chinese art, including “Above the Drowning Sea”, “The No Name Painting Association” and “Xu Bing Tobacco Project Virginia”.
Carolyn is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at the MFA Boston, the Guggenheim Museum Asian Art Circle, the Board of Directors of the Wolfsonian-FIU, the Arts Council of the Asia Society, the Board of Friends of Channel 13, and honorary trustee of the Ningbo Museum (China) where she has forged ties with American art & cultural institutions to bring curatorial training to the Ningbo Museum.
Carolyn and her husband have assembled important collections of Chinese Contemporary art, Japanese Shin-Hanga, Inuit art and objets de vertu, which have been the subjects of numerous publications and exhibitions worldwide, including at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Louvre (Paris), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Aldrich Museum, Wellin Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Asia Society Hong Kong, Lenbachhaus Museum Munich, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
LifeChangers is about Asian philanthropists sharing stories about life-changing turning points that have shaped their mindset and inspired their philanthropic passion. Now, they feel compelled to change the lives of others.
How old were you when you first started making money? 16? 17? 18?
Meet Mei-Lee Ney - an investment advisor, philanthropist, and art collector.
At age 75, Mei-Lee has been working non-stop since she was 10. Why?
Who gave her critical advice about how she could get anything she wanted? And what is that advice?
How did Mei-Lee build and create wealth for herself and others without a college degree? And what motivated Mei-Lee to begin giving away her fortune, and for what causes?
Tune into my conversation with Mei-Lee Ney in Episode #2 “Money Matters”
Music used:
Working For the County by Derek Clegg
Playtime by Jahzzar
Banish by Slinte
Dear Old Dad by HoliznaCCO
Acoustic Fingerpicking 5 by Independent Music Licensing Collective
Gray Drops by Sergey Cheremisinov
Acoustic Fingerpicking 1 by Independent Music Licensing Collective
Love Wins by Lee Rosevere
Sour Grapes by Pictures of the Floating World
Go Tell It On The Molehill by Doctor Turtle
Climb by The Ghost in Your Piano
Florid by Mid-Air Machine
The Dance of the Sky by MMFFF
One in A Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Mei-Lee Ney is the president of Richard Ney & Associates, Asset Management, Inc., a registered investment advisory firm that she joined in 1973. She was the business partner and wife of Richard Ney, author of three books on the stock market: The Wall Street Jungle, The Wall Street Gang, and Making It in the Market, the last two of which she edited. She was co-writer and editor of “The Ney Report,” an investment newsletter, from 1976 to 1999. She also serves on the USC Pacific Asia Museum Board of Councilors, and the Otis College of Art and Design Board of Trustees and is active in several other communities, arts, and education organizations. Learn more about Mei-Lee here.
We kick off Season 6 “LifeChangers” today (August 26th) with a limited special series.
LifeChangers is about Asian philanthropists sharing stories about life-changing turning points that have shaped their mindset and inspired their philanthropic passion. Now, they feel compelled to change the lives of others.
You don’t need to give away a lot of money like Bill Gates to be a philanthropist.
You only need to ask the right question at the right time.
Episode #1 “Am I the Only One?”
What more do you want when you reach the VP level of a top tech company in America?
For Buck Gee - a Chinese-American retired tech entrepreneur and philanthropist, when he became a senior executive at Cisco in the early 2000s, he asked his supervisor, “Am I the only one?” He noticed that he was the only Asian American at that level, and he was unhappy. Why? What did he do about it? That question would become the seed of his philanthropic passion.
Tune into my conversation with Buck Gee in Episode 1 “Am I the Only One?”
(Note: Buck Gee was Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Business Unit at Cisco before retiring in 2008. In 2010, he co-founded the Advanced Leadership Program for Asian American Executives, an executive education program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has published several Ascend Foundation research papers on the Asian glass ceiling and has written opinion pieces on that issue for the Harvard Business Review and The New York Times.) Buck Gee holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Learn more about Buck here. (source: Committee-100 )
Music used:
Xi by Andy G. Cohen
Vienna Beat by Blue Dot Sessions
The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan by Chris Zabriskie
Which That is This by Doctor Turtle
Thingamajig by Json Shaw
Day Trips by Ketsa
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
We want to include you in this conversation. Share your thoughts. Pitch us a story.
To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org
Or go to our Facebook page or our website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Subscribe to “One in a Billion” below:
PRx | iTunes | SoundCloud Season 6 LifeChangers Series is produced by One in a Billion Productions, a non-profit educational media company (501c3) with generous funding from Claudia Lin, Founder/President of Legacy Maker LLC.
What would you do if you’ve written about becoming a Supreme Court justice, dreamed of a life and career in law, put in a lot of time and work to prepare for that track - then one day you change my mind?
Is it a waste of time, money and education at that point?
These are some of the questions that Daniel Christopher “D.C.” Rogers (Harvard Class of ‘12) had to wrestle with during his college years. And what made him change his mind?
In “Where Are They Now?” Episode #6, Gemma Schneider (Harvard student journalist/Class of 2023) interviews D.C. Rogers - award-winning writer, producer, and actor. D.C. is a story editor for the upcoming Netflix legal show Partner Track. Previously, he was a staff writer on the CW drama In the Dark.
I am happy to be co-hosting this podcast as a contributing commentator. You’ll hear my views about how to figure out what you want to do with your life – before and after college.
“Where Are They Now?” is a special co-production between One in a Billion and WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting).
It is a 6-part series featuring one-on-one interviews with Harvard graduates who draw lessons from their campus experience and personal insight from their current career to give you a taste of their trailblazing journey.
“Where Are They Now” is sponsored exclusively by One in a Billion Productions Inc. (501c3) – an educational media company designed to foster Asian voices and to build bridges between different communities of color. We believe in the power of personal storytelling to reach a wider and diverse community of audiences for better intercultural understanding.
How far will you travel outside of your hometown, your neighborhood, your comfort zone, in order to see the world differently?
Why is it important to keep your sense of insecurity as your companion as you embark on your scientific, academic or philosophical enquiry?
How does failure keep you hungry for success?
Those are some of the questions that have led to surprising discoveries and satisfying rewards for Dr. Neil Shubin (Harvard GSAS Class of 1987).
In “Where Are They Now?” Episode #4, Gemma Schneider (Harvard student journalist/Class of 2023) interviews Dr. Neil Shubin - A paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and popular science writer. Dr. Shubin made headlines in 2004 when he co-discovered Tiktaalik roseae, a fossil of a creature with traits found in both fish and tetrapods, and has since published three popular science books: Your Inner Fish, The Universe Within, and Some Assembly Required.
I am happy to be co-hosting this podcast as a contributing commentator. You’ll hear my reflection on how I, like Dr. Neil Shubin, first became drawn to a new world of possibilities that would light up my imagination to pursue a path that’s formed who I am today.
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“Where Are They Now?” is a special co-production between One in a Billion and WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting).
It is a 6-part series featuring one-on-one interviews with Harvard graduates who draw lessons from their campus experience and personal insight from their current career to give you a taste of their trailblazing journey.
“Where Are They Now” is sponsored exclusively by One in a Billion Productions Inc. (501c3) – an educational media company designed to foster Asian voices and to build bridges between different communities of color. We believe in the power of personal storytelling to reach a wider and diverse community of audiences for better intercultural understanding.
Should a Harvard education prepare you for failure?
Should failure be normalized in the course of higher education?
Or at the very least, would you want to learn how to take or talk about failure?
Those are the sort of questions rarely asked if you’re a Harvard student who is used to acing your exams, winning accolades or top awards until one day – you suddenly lose what you’ve been taking for granted.
In “Where Are They Now?” Episode #4, Gemma Schneider (Harvard student journalist/Class of 2023) interviews Sangu Delle (Harvard Class of 2010, Harvard JD & MBA 2016). An entrepreneur, investor, author and philanthropist, Sangu speaks powerfully about his personal struggle with depression after a major business investor died suddenly before wiring the money. A lot were at stakes. Sangu was at a loss for words and found himself in a dark world for a long time before getting back on his feet.
Today, he is a champion for mental health and a vocal teacher about the norm of failure.
I am happy to be co-hosting this podcast as a contributing commentator. You’ll hear my reflection on how I too had rebounded from despair after first losing my mother, before losing my job and my health.
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“Where Are They Now?” is a special co-production between One in a Billion and WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting).
It is a 6-part series featuring one-on-one interviews with Harvard graduates who draw lessons from their campus experience and personal insight from their current career to give you a taste of their trailblazing journey.
“Where Are They Now” is sponsored exclusively by One in a Billion Productions Inc. (501c3) – an educational media company designed to foster Asian voices and to build bridges between different communities of color. We believe in the power of personal storytelling to reach a wider and diverse community of audiences for better intercultural understanding.
How do I want to engage in the world?
Do I want to be an academic teaching philosophy as a professor?
Wouldn’t that be a very inward-looking, insular kind of life?
Is that what I want?
Those were some of the questions Janet Hook, (Harvard Class ’77) asked herself before deciding not to pursue a Phd in philosophy.
For Janet, a Harvard graduate with a degree in philosophy and government, her career choice is also a lifestyle choice. She chose to become a journalist right after college.
In “Where Are They Now?” Episode #3, Gemma Schneider (Harvard student journalist/Class of 2023) interviews Los Angeles Time national correspondent Janet Hook. Janet reflects on her student days at Harvard, and some of the ways in which she has been influenced to choose the path of a journalist. She also talks candidly about her career trajectory and the life of a reporter.
I am happy to be co-hosting this podcast as a contributing commentator. You’ll hear my thoughts about how Harvard fit into my former career as a TV journalist as well.
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“Where Are They Now?” is a special co-production between One in a Billion and WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting).
It is a 6-part series featuring one-on-one interviews with Harvard graduates who draw lessons from their campus experience and personal insight from their current career to give you a taste of their trailblazing journey.
“Where Are They Now” is sponsored exclusively by One in a Billion Productions Inc. (501c3) – an educational media company designed to foster Asian voices and to build bridges between different communities of color. We believe in the power of personal storytelling to reach a wider and diverse community of audiences for better intercultural understanding.
Many Harvard Asian American undergraduates I know with immigrant parents who are physicians receive a lot of pressure from their families to be a doctor. But not Divya Narendra, (Class of 2004)
While at Harvard, Divya was given the space and the autonomy he needed to think critically and explore creatively what he wanted as a consumer that was missing in the market. Soon, he became an entrepreneur.
In “Where Are They Now?” episode #2, Gemma Schneider (Harvard student journalist/Class of 2023) interviews Divya Narendra, CEO and co-founder of SumZero - an online community for professional investors to share business research. Divya’s business mindset was formed during his Harvard days when he launched the Facebook forerunner HarvardConnection, or ConnectU. You may remember his role with Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 feature film “The Social Network,”- a portrayal of the great minds which think alike but also fall apart due to fierce business competition.
I am happy to be co-hosting as a contributing commentator for this episode.
“Where Are They Now?” is a special co-production between One in a Billion and WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting).
It is a 6-part series featuring one-on-one interviews with Harvard graduates who draw lessons from their campus experience and personal insight from their current career to give you a taste of their trailblazing journey.
“Where Are They Now” is sponsored exclusively by One in a Billion Productions Inc. (501c3) – an educational media company designed to foster Asian voices and to build bridges between different communities of color. We believe in the power of personal storytelling to reach a wider and diverse community of audiences for better intercultural understanding.
Remember your college days dreaming big dreams, anxious about your grades, fearful about your future until one day, you find yourself in a different place, at a different stage of life doing very different things than you could ever imagine as a student?
“Where Are They Now?” Is a special co-production between One in a Billion and WHRB (Harvard Radio Broadcasting).
It is a 6-part series featuring one-on-one interviews with Harvard graduates who draw lessons from their campus experience and personal insight from their current career to give you a taste of their trailblazing journey.
In episode #1 - We interview Dr. Angela Duckworth - Harvard Class of 1992, Founder/CEO of the nonprofit Character Lab, author of the New York Times Bestseller “Grit,” and the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Duckworth talks about goal-setting, risk-taking, and a "rebellious" detour from her father’s expectations.
I am happy to be co-hosting this Special Series with Harvard student journalist Gemma Schneider (Class '23).
“Where Are They Now” is sponsored exclusively by One in a Billion Productions Inc. (501c3) - an educational media company designed to foster Asian voices. We believe in the power of personal storytelling to reach a wider and diverse community of audiences for better intercultural understanding.
With less than ten days before Thanksgiving, my podcast team and I find ourselves counting the innumerable ways that we have been challenged, and the unpredictable opportunities that have come our way in 2020.
So in today’s Season 5 True Colors Episode #10 Reflections on 2020, we each will share our voices expressing our thoughts and feelings about some of these life-changing experiences. But we will kick off with Kira Oman’s story.
Before the pandemic, Kira moved to Hollywood to build her acting and modeling career. But as the coronavirus spread and some of her family members were infected, how did she think differently about her move away from home? How did 2020 impact her career and life priorities? What surprises her about herself that the pandemic has uncovered for her, for the better?
Here’s our conversation.
Music Used:
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
The Dance of the Sky by MMFFF
Flux by The Ghost in Your Piano
Bumbling by Pictures of the Floating World
Convergence by Pictures of the Floating World
Bells in the Wind by Daniel Birch
Estampe Galactus_Barbere_Epaul_Giraffe_Ennui by Monplaisir
True Colors – a Season 5 Special Series – is about the color of one’s character in a time of crisis.
In this 10-part podcast series, we have expanded our focus beyond Asians to include the African American experiences in Episode #1, Episode #3 and Episode #5.
We want to include you in this conversation.
To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org
Or go to our Facebook page or our website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
Share your thoughts? Pitch us a story?
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Subscribe to “One in a Billion” below:
PRx | iTunes | SoundCloud | RadioPublic
Today, tens of thousands of Americans head to the polls.
Our choice of the next president - Donald Trump or Joe Biden - may be hard for some, but it will have immediate and long-term consequences for America in the years to come.
Many of our listeners like you may not be able to choose your country’s leaders for a variety of reasons. But in your own lives, you often make hard choices about where to live and work, or where to raise your children. These choices could be far more consequential with unpredictable and immediate effects on your quality of life and your future than a vote for a president.
And that is the story of Chinese American David Wang and his Shenzhen-born wife Candy Yang.
In 2019, they got married in Boston and had a baby girl. Shortly after, they moved to Shanghai to build their entrepreneurial careers. Just as they thought they would move back to Boston earlier this Spring, they couldn’t. The pandemic paralyzed their move. They decided to pivot.
In Season 5 True Colors Episode 9: Hard Choices - For Better and For Worse - Candy and David talked about their decisions under fast-changing conditions. What did they decide to do? How did that affect their quality of life and career trajectory? What about their young children?
Here’s our conversation.
Music used:
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
The Family by Chad Crouch
The Lean by Derek Clegg
Dead From The Beginning Alive Till The End by Doctor Turtle
Rosedale Daydream Back in the Room by Greg Atkinson
Need by Les Hayden
The Beauty of Maths by Meydn
Flux by The Ghost in Your Piano
True Colors – a Season 5 Special Series – is about the color of one’s character in a time of crisis.
In this 10-part podcast series, we have expanded our focus beyond Asians to include the African American experiences in Episode #1, Episode #3 and Episode #5.
We want to include you in this conversation.
To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org
Or go to our Facebook page or our website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
Share your thoughts? Pitch us a story?
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Subscribe to “One in a Billion” below:
PRx | iTunes | SoundCloud | RadioPublic
Three in ten Americans blame China or Chinese people for the Coronavirus pandemic, according to the Ipsos Poll. Anti-Asian harassment, assault and hate crimes have also been on the rise since the outbreak began. However, the racial bias against Asians in America has long existed in everyday life way before the virus.
In Season 5 True Colors: Episode 8: The Bias Before the Virus, Janet Wu, a former Boston-based television journalist at WHDH-TV and media personality, talks about a racially-hostile incident on the subway five years ago that made her confront her identity as a Chinese American.
That subway encounter took Janet on a soul-searching inner journey reflecting on the roots of her culture - China - and her upbringing in her birthplace - America.
Listen to our conversation here.
Janet Wu is currently a reporter for Bloomberg Business News.
Music used:
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Trees in the Wind by Daniel Birch
Tumult by Kai Engel
Perennial by Pictures of the Floating World
Inside the Moon by Stephan Siebert
True Colors – a Season 5 Special Series – is about the color of one’s character in a time of crisis.
In this 10-part podcast series, we have expanded our focus beyond Asians to include the African American experiences in Episode #1, Episode #3 and Episode #5.
We want to include you in this conversation.
To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org
Or go to our Facebook page or our website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
Share your thoughts? Pitch us a story?
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Subscribe to “One in a Billion” below:
PRx | iTunes | SoundCloud | RadioPublic
When was the last time you felt your life was turned upside down?
How did you find a way out?
Last Spring when Covid-19 outbreak led to a series of campus closures, forcing tens of thousands of students to move out of their dorms in a matter of days, Kimberly Jung, a graduate student at MIT Engineering School, got the news on her mobile phone.
Stunned, she kicked into crisis-ready mode.
As a U.S. army veteran with three years of combat experience in Afghanistan and emergency response training dealing with natural disasters relief, Kimberly quickly followed orders to move out, and found a critical mission to help save lives.
Ventilators were badly needed in hospitals emergency rooms filled with Covid patients. Kimberly decided to join the MIT E-Vent Team as the chief executive to help guide the engineers to design an FDA approved low-cost ventilator prototype that would soon be picked up by manufacturers not only in America, but around the world.
In Season 5 True Colors: Episode 7 Mission After Mission, Kimberly talks about her mission-driven mindset and calling, which is instantly motivational and simultaneously inspirational.
Listen to our conversation here.
Music used:
One in a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
The Gloaming by Josh Woodward
Return of the Indigo Sparrow by Tropo
That's Exciting by Pictures of the Floating World
Stage 1 Level 24 by Monplaisir
Kimberly Jung is currently the COO of PickleRobots in Somerville, MA.
True Colors – a Season 5 Special Series – is about the color of one’s character in a time of crisis.
In this 10-part podcast series, we have expanded our focus beyond Asians to include the African American experiences in Episode #1, Episode #3 and Episode #5.
We want to include you in this conversation.
To send us your comments or stories, email us @ info@oneinabillionvoices.org
Or go to our Facebook page or our website at OneinABillionVoices.org under “Pitch a Story.”
Share your thoughts? Pitch us a story?
“One in a Billion” connects Asians and Americans through storytelling, one person at a time.
Subscribe to “One in a Billion” below:
PRx | iTunes | SoundCloud | RadioPublic