Time To Say Goodbye – Details, episodes & analysis

Hello!

Today, we have on Leigh Claire LaBerge, a professor at CUNY and the author of Fake Work: How I Began to Suspect Capitalism is a Joke, a funny and touching look back at what it was like to be young, naive, and have your whole life in front of you in 1999. We talk about the late 90s, the need for a bit of humor on the left, and start off with a few Zohran takes. Enjoy!

Hello!

Today, we welcome a guest from across the aisle to talk about what might be happening with the anti-war, anti-interventionist right in the face of Trump’s strikes against Iran. Sohrab Ahmari is the American editor of Unherd and the author of two books and one of the main intellectual forces shaping the ideas of a new right wing. A really great conversation with some interesting insights into what might be happening within Trump’s inner and less-than-inner circles and how influence might be peddled in the White House.

Enjoy!

Hello!

This week we have on Zephyr Teachout, Professor at Law at Fordham University and columnist at the Nation, for a long talk about protectionism, neoliberalism, and how to capture the spirit of the country. Can liberals just sell free market capitalism and off-shoring to an angry public? Or will there have to be seem change in messaging that will allow the left to define the future of work in this country? We also talk a lot about corruption — Zephyr wrote a book about it — and the unprecedented corruption that we’re seeing now in the White House.

Enjoy!

Hello from the South Korean Ministry of Culture’s Brooklyn satellite office! 

This week, Tammy welcomes back Jenny Wang Medina, our resident scholar of Korean cultural exports and semiotics, for a record-tying fourth appearance on TTSG / third-anniversary spectacular! We talk about a few recent Korean/Korean American/Asian American productions: (8:30) the Netflix hit “Beef,” with Ali Wong and Steven Yeun; (31:40) the new transnational A24 flick “Past Lives,” starring Greta Lee; and (1:03:00) Hansol Jung’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, featuring an all-Asian American cast (which recently had a run in NYC). We tried to avoid spoilers, but couldn’t avoid some “Past Lives” reveals! 

In this episode, we ask: 

What makes “Beef” feel so authentically West Coast Asian American? 

How do you know when Shakespeare is Asian American?

Who’s behind today’s transnational TV and film productions? 

What will the next “untranslatable” Korean concept be?!

For more, see: 

* Jenny’s previous TTSG appearances: Korean wig stores (October 2020), A feminist(?) K-drama about abortion (June 2022), and ​​​​Fantasies of progress on K-TV (September 2022)

* The sexual assault allegations against “Beef” actor David Choe and a look at his cult-like online community 

* Jenny’s latest K-drama rec: Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938

Also, Tammy highly recommends “Behind Every Star,” the Netflix K-drama remake of the excellent French comedy “Call My Agent.”

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Hello from the East Bay! 

It’s just Jay this week, chatting with friend of the pod Darrell Owens, a Berkeley-based housing expert. We discuss a new study from the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF on the causes and consequences of homelessness in California. 

In this episode, we ask:  

Can the revelations in this study—or any new evidence, for that matter—finally move the needle on reducing homelessness? 

How do “Housing First” advocates address the desire for immediate solutions to a crisis that has been decades in the making? 

Why are people who are older, disabled, and from certain racial and ethnic groups so vastly overrepresented among the homeless population? 

For more, see: 

* The full UCSF study, Toward a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness 

* Our previous episode with Darrell, from July 2021: The Fight to End Single Family Zoning and the YIMBY/NIMBY/PHIMBY War

* The book Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern 

* California YIMBY’s December 2022 report on Housing First policies 

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Hello from the Hill! 

This week, we’re joined by Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project (WJP), a group that organizes low-wage, immigrant workers in New York City, including the app-based delivery workers who call themselves Los Deliveristas Unidos. WJP and the Deliveristas just won the passage of a mandatory minimum wage, a huge improvement for e-bike and car delivery workers on GrubHub, Uber Eats, and other platforms. (13:30) Ligia details the unique dangers that spurred the emergence of the Deliveristas as COVID hit New York and (31:00) offers some lessons learned from going against these big-tech titans and their algorithms. 

In this episode, we ask: 

How substantial was the shift towards app-based gig work during COVID, and what did that mean for  workers?  

Is it necessary to focus on fighting worker misclassification?

How did delivery workers overcome the immense challenge of organizing in a disparate, deliberately siloed workforce? 

For more, read: 

* A 2021 piece in The Verge about the early days of organizing among Los Deliveristas Unidos 

* Another horrific fire this week that may have been caused by improperly maintained e-bike batteries

* A report on the backlash that threatened to derail WJP’s minimum-wage fight 

* News that the NLRB recently reverted to an Obama-era test that could make it easier for gig workers to organize 

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Hello from clear-skied Brooklyn! 

Thank you to everyone who attended our (first) third-anniversary TTSG summer picnic! And thanks to all who subscribe, listen, spread the word, and otherwise support the show. 

It’s just Tammy and Jay this week, unpacking some complex cultural shifts in Asian American food and education. (5:15) First, Tammy guesses which Asian cuisines dominate Asian restaurants in the U.S. (according to a recent Pew Research Center study). We also discuss what it means for food to be “elevated,” Americanized, kept “authentic,” or *gasp* made into some kind of “fusion.” (24:40) Next, we go cynical on the likely end of affirmative action and debate the merits of other methods of increasing diversity at universities and beyond.  

In this episode, we ask: 

Why has Thai food proliferated in the U.S. while other Asian cuisines trend and fade? 

What’s behind the idea that “authentic” Asian food should be cheap? 

What does the lack of energy around affirmative action tell us about racial solidarities and class recognition? 

For more, see: 

* A dispatch from last week’s apocalyptic smoke in NYC

* The full Pew study about Asian restaurants in the U.S. 

* Zak Cheney-Rice on affirmative action's past and present, plus Jeannie Suk Gersen on The Secret Joke at the Heart of the Harvard Affirmative-Action Case 

* An older piece from Jay about the long, slow death of affirmative action 

* Tammy on the recent Supreme Court ruling that could dampen workers' right to strike 

And, if you find yourself in Portland, visit some of Tammy’s favorite authentic(?) Thai spots: Eem and Hat Yai! 

Support TTSG on Patreon or Substack to attend future subscriber events like last weekend’s picnic! Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Hello from Montréal! 

🥳 Reminder: Join us THIS SATURDAY, June 10th, in Brooklyn, for our subscriber picnic! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. 

This week, we welcome back our friend Max Read—dad, Twitter lurker, hat seller, and creator of the incredible Read Max newsletter—for an anniversary chat. (12:30) We speculate about the next phase of A.I. ascendancy and (28:25) large language model pioneers, and (44:00) unpack the labor dimensions of these technological shifts. Speaking of labor, (45:30) we get Max’s inside perspective on the WGA strike (in which, again, A.I. …) and express solidarity with the Insider journalists who just went on strike for a fair contract! 

In this episode, we ask: 

Will the next generation be expected to know how to write? 

Who will ChatGPT threaten to (awkwardly, inadequately, terrifyingly) replace? 

Is A.I. doing to writing what earlier technologies did to the music industry? Are we getting schooled in notions of collective authorship? 

For more, see: 

* Max’s newsletters on the WGA strike and A.I.: 

* Why I'm on strike

* I cannot believe the s**t that morons are getting up to with ChatGPT

* Yet more of what I'm reading about A.I., a great mixed-reality TV show, and a great new music newsletter

* His previous TTSG appearances! 

* Crypto fraudsters with Max Read

* TTSG disinformation campaign with Max Read 

* John Herrman’s New York piece about Google’s in-search generative A.I. experiment

* Our last episode about A.I., in which Ben Recht gets skeptical: What can’t A.I. replace

Thanks for listening! Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Hello from Jay’s dried-out basement (finally)! 

This week, writer Hua Hsu joins us for a record fourth appearance on the pod as part of our neverending anniversary celebration. In a wide-ranging chat, we touch on (7:08) how podcasting has influenced our interview styles, (16:55) the "Succession" series finale [SPOILER ALERT], and (27:30) Tammy’s accidental encounter with edibles. (38:22) We also look back at a previous conversation with Hua, from January 19, 2021, and reflect on major changes in Asian American media representation.

In this episode, we ask: 

Which “Succession” character deserved to win?!

Whom has the Internet erased from Asian American art?  

Who is Jay's (extremely specific) target audience?

For more, see: 

* The full episode we excerpted, from January 2021: "That identity s**t, that’s old news, man": belated Capitol takes + "Chan is Missing" with Hua Hsu

* Our longer convo (and Jay’s full rant) about drugs, from July 2022: More Dem failings + a shifting drug culture  

* Hua’s piece on Frank Chin and “Aiiieeeee!”, plus his profile of Maxine Hong Kingston

* Jay’s profile of Zappos executive Tony Hsieh

* A 1993 performance by Lynbrook’s local ska band, Janitors Against Apartheid 

* The 1990s Godzilla collective 

Join us on June 10th, in Brooklyn, for our subscriber picnic! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. 

Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.

Hello from Mai’s COVID den! 

It’s just Jay and Tammy this week. (3:25) First, we chat about a mini-generation of Asian women named after Connie Chung and the news anchor’s professional legacy. (22:18) Then, we discuss the public killings of Banko Brown in SF and Jordan Neely in NYC—and the disturbing turn against poor (particularly Black) people in our cities. 

We ask: 

Has America so devalued the lives of homeless people that any offense now seems to warrant vigilante murder?

How do these conversations play out on the West versus the East Coast? 

Does urban topography affect these dynamics? 

For more, read: 

* Reporting from the S.F. Chronicle: Banko Brown: Video shows what led to S.F. Walgreens shooting; D.A. won’t file charges 

* Jay’s recent New Yorker piece on Jordan Neely’s death and an older article that discusses California’s housing-first approach to homelessness 

* Friend-of-pod Darrell Owens’s take on homelessness and vigilante violence on public transit

Some TTSG housekeeping: First, we’re having a subscriber picnic on June 10th in NYC! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. 

Second, get a TTSG tote for yourself and all your pals! You can either get it shipped to you directly or select "Ship to TTSG" and pick it up at the June 10th picnic. If you’re shipping internationally, use this link instead. Order by this Friday and rep the pod wherever you go!

Thanks as always for listening! Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.