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One in a Billion

One in a Billion is a podcast about Asian values, culture and society – one person at a time. We interview Asian writers, producers, entrepreneurs and entertainers about what they do, and what drives their choices and decisions. Hosted by Mable Chan (former ABC News producer), “One in a Billion” gives the stage to the young and the bold with a voice and a view that is rarely heard. Learn more at https://www.oneinabillionvoices.org/
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Now displaying: 2022
Dec 16, 2022

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.

Nov 25, 2022

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

Oct 28, 2022

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. 

Sep 30, 2022

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.

Aug 26, 2022

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.

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