Seats At The Table

About the Session: Season 3, Episode 2: Femifesting Anti-Fascism - Transnational Visions in Greece and the United States In the second episode of season 3, christina talks with researchers, Anna and Myrto, who are based in Athens, Greece. They share how the Feminist Autonomous Center for Research (FAC Research) subverts typical forms of knowledge production. We also chat extensively about the issues facing activists in Greece and the United States in the midst of xenophobia and rising fascist sentiment. Anna and Myrto share what kind of collective lessons we can learn from experiences in both countries.  Get to Know the Guests: Anna Carastathis (she/her) is a political theorist. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from McGill University; her M.Sc. in Gender Studies from the University of the Aegean; and her B.A. (Honours) in Philosophy from the University of Alberta. Anna has worked in various institutions in Canada, the United States, and Greece. She is the author of Intersectionality: Origins, Contest

About the Session: Season 3, Episode 1: Femifesting a New World In the first episode of season 3, christina talks with her friend, Christine Juang about how we’re thinking about our country’s future. Christine teaches us about the concept of femifesting and how we can utilize it as a framework for envisioning our futures, and how to take the necessary steps that move us from feelings of despair to hope. Get to Know the Guest: Christine Juang is an advocate for a reimagined world of embodied healing, free from abuse & violence. She's currently the Parent-Child Education Manager at Safe & Sound, working to strengthen families & prevent child abuse. Outside of work, she is passionate about empowering & mobilizing the AAPI community as the Director of Volunteer Management for the SF Chapter of Project by Project, and lead facilitator for AAPI Solidarity Circle. Christine resides on Ohlone & Ramaytush land (currently known as San Francisco) with her beloved bearded dragon, Drogo, and her calath

In season two’s third episode, I talk with my name twin, Kristina Wong, about her work as a performance artist and comedian. We discuss dealing with the exotification of Asian womxn through her projects, how she uses comedy as a mechanism for activism, and her newly released web series, Radical Cram School (a training ground for young Asian American girls and gender fluid children)! We also delve into her most recent project, Kristina Wong for Public Office.  ---  Get to Know the Guest: Kristina Wong was featured in the New York Times’ Off Color series “highlighting artists of color who use humor to make smart social statements about the sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious ways that race plays out in America today.” She is a performance artist, comedian and writer who has been presented internationally across North America, the UK, Hong Kong and Africa.  Most recently, her solo theater show The Wong Street Journal was presented by the US Consulate in  Lagos, Nigeria. She’s been a guest on

In season 2’s long-awaited 2nd episode, we’re talking all things Asian American in Hollywood. Dr. Nancy Wang Yuen, sociologist, professor at Biola University, and author of Reel Inequality, and I talk about race in Hollywood and Crazy Rich Asians. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers!  Listen to the session wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe for the latest episodes! Follow Seats at the Table on Twitter (@seatsatthetable) and Instagram (@SATTpodcast) for more updates.  --  Get to Know the Guest: Dr. Nancy Wang Yuen is a sociologist and pop culture geek. She is the author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism (2016), the first book to examine the barriers actors of color face in Hollywood and how they creatively challenge stereotypes. She also pioneered the first study of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on television and the 10-year follow-up study, Tokens on the Small Screen: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on Prime Time and Streaming Television. Nancy is an expert

In season 2’s kickoff episode, Christina chats with Deepa Iyer, a Senior Fellow at Race Forward, writer, activist, and lawyer. They talk about solidarity in Asian communities, her book We Too Sing America, and mentorship for womxn of color.  Listen to the session on wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe for the latest episodes! Follow Seats at the Table on Twitter (@seatsatthetable) and Instagram (SATTpodcast) for more updates.  ---  Get to Know the Guest: Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, activist, and lawyer. Deepa began her work in national and local Asian American organizations in Washington, DC. In the wake of 9/11, she helped to shape the formation of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a national non-profit civil rights organization, which she led for ten years. Deepa is the author of We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Race Forward, working on movement building

In the eighth session of Seats At The Table, Christina chats with Janet Chang, a San Francisco-based technology entrepreneur turned personal performance coach for socially conscious entrepreneurs. Janet & Christina talk about mental health, depression, and harassment in the workplace. Get to know the guest: Janet Chang is a technology entrepreneur turned personal performance coach for socially conscious entrepreneurs. During her foray into technology, she served as Interim CEO for serial entrepreneur and public figure Derek Sivers, the Amazon bestselling author of China Startup Guide, and marketing and technology consultant to both SMBs and the Fortune 500. Her research in women's hormone health and healing from PTSD, depression, and anxiety has been featured by Stanford University, UCLA, The New Scientist, Daily Mail UK, and Marie Claire. Janet is also a passionate supporter of the LGBTQ community, workplace harassment protection, and holistic mental health advocacy.  ---  Special tha

In the seventh session of Seats At The Table, Christina chats with Altaira Hatton, a mediator, negotiator and facilitator. We chat about conflict resolution and her identity as a person with a disability working and how it impacts her work as a mediator. PS: The volume is pretty low on this session.  I did my best to edit, but turn up your volume if you can!  ---  Get to know the guest: Altaira Hatton is a mediator, negotiator and facilitator. She's a former database specialist and international entrepreneur, and has moved between the US West coast, Europe, the Caribbean, and Argentina. To date, she has mediation training from the American Arbitration Association, Humboldt Mediation Services, the Clingendael Institute, and from the Geneva School of Diplomacy.  She lives in Monterey, CA with her Belgian Malinois, and she spends her free time hiking, gardening, and cooking for her friends.  ---  Special thanks to: Altaira Hatton http://altairahatton.com/  Logo design by S

In the sixth session of SATT, Christina pulls up a seat for Shengxiao Yu. Shengxiao shares insights about global health & international development, her immigration story, and Eastern Asian representation in popular media. About Shengxiao: Known to different people by different names, Shengxiao, also known as "Sunshine" and "Sole," has traversed the globe in pursuit of true understanding of global inequity and the common threads that connect humanity. Fluent in Mandarin, English, and Spanish, Shengxiao’s life has been characterized by the languages she’s absorbed through her immersion in different cultures, and the people whose stories she nestles in her heart along the way. Shengxiao currently serves as the Director of Partnerships at GlobeMed, an organization that seeks to transform the global health system by training young people to build relationships and engage in fruitful collaborations with community leaders. In her free time, Shengxiao looks at the world from upside down (literally) as she carves

In the fifth session of SATT, Christina invites Nida Chowdhry and Yumna Khan over for tea! They talk about launching their own production company, taking on stereotypes, and the inspiration for their first web series, Unfair & Ugly. Get to know the guests: About Yumna: Yumna is a producer based in Los Angeles. She earned her B.A. in Communication Studies from UC San Diego, combining her passion for art and business. Her goal is to create media that reflects the world as she sees it. Yumna previously worked with Nida at Fashion Fighting Famine, where she began as a marketing intern and worked her way up to Associate Producer. Here, she gained a foundation in production and realized she wanted a career in filmmaking. While attending a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Yumna convinced them to hire her as an intern on the spot. On the set of The Tiger Hunter (starring Danny Pudi and Jon Heder), she was promoted three times, from intern to Assistant Production Coordinator. She interned at Intrigue Entertainment, w

In the fourth session of Seats At The Table, Christina chats with Prabha Dublish, a student at Babson College and co-founder of Womentum. She’s juggling school and running a nonprofit organization that connects women in rural communities to microloans that they can then pay it forward to other women entrepreneurs. Listen on to learn more!  ---  Get to know the guest: Prabha is a social entrepreneur and #ladyboss. In her sophomore year at Babson, she founded Womentum, a nonprofit that connects donors who wish to make an impact with women entrepreneurs in developing countries. She was pushed to take action after taking a trip to rural India and seeing the challenges women in those communities faced. It was clear to her that entrepreneurship was a powerful vehicle to empower these women. Fueled by Prabha’s passion of empowering women, Womentum evolved from a weekend initiative to a full-fledged 501(c)3 non-profit. Under her leadership, Womentum has grown to a team of 5, funded 14 entrepreneurs in 4 cou

In the third session of Seats At The Table, Christina gets some insight into pregnancy and motherhood from Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, the co-founder and executive director of The Tiyya Foundation.  --- Get to know the guest: Meymuna Hussein-Cattan and her mother, Owliya Dima-Hussein, are co-founders of The Tiyya Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing community support & educational opportunities for refugees and displaced American families in the Orange County and Greater Los Angeles regions. Meymuna was born in an Ethiopian refugee camp in Somalia, in 1980; her parents having fled Ethiopia in the early 1970s due to civil unrest. She received her B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, her M.A. in Organizational Management from Antioch University - Los Angeles, and she holds a certificate from Cal State Dominguez Hills in Administration & Grant Writing.  --- Special thanks to: Meymuna Hussein-Cattan  http://tiyya.org/  Logo des

In the second session of Seats At The Table, Christina gabs with Irene Hong, a law and social policy student at U Penn about being a feminist as an Asian American womxn, anti-Blackness in AAPI communities, and the importance of role models.  ---  Get to know the guest: She is both voice and reason (at least a reasonable amount of the time). She is heart and soul and mind and thought – she is dynamite activism in a bite sized Asian, but don’t you assume that she don’t have teeth to bite back. Because she does, and she will, armored to the teeth in well-informed memes, she’ll bring Sriracha-dipped-politics to every single party (not that modern politics need more spice). She is an open-mind and sunny-side smile, and always willing to listen to the world turn, always willing to learn, willing to smoke a cig and watch the sky burn. She is sister, friend, and daughter, and will drink soju with you to reality TV, no matter what time of night might be. And really, in a world like this, what else do you nee

In the first ever session of Seats At The Table, Christina talks to her good friend, Zareen, about reflecting on direct action, being a Muslim American at the Women’s March, and smiling for photos.  ---  Get to know the guest: Smart, kind, passionate, Zareen Rahman is just starting to scratch the surface of her potential. Born and raised in the golden state (named for her relentlessly sunny personality of course), she studied Business Economics at the University of California, Irvine. In her final year, she became the Runway Director for Fashion Fighting Famine, a non-profit organization that blends charity and fashion through an annual runway show and bazaar extravaganza. Voila! Zareen’s love for doing meaningful work while having free license to boss people around was born. After graduating, she tried doing the whole corporate Accountant/Finance thing but she eventually found her dream job as a Finance and Operations Manager at a national non-profit. She’s very passionate about social justice and