May 27, 2026 • 33 mins
Malaka Gharib’s 2019 biographical graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream is a coming of age story of an Egyptian Filipino American immigrant as she navigates important milestones of her life, all while learning more about her own identity.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and smitha I'm welcome to stuff
I've Never told you production of iHeartRadio. And for today's
book club, we are talking about Molica Greb's twenty nineteen
graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream. This award winning
(00:27):
illustrated work depicts a biographical memoir of Greb, an Egyptian
Filipino American immigrant, as she navigates all the facets of
her identity through school, college, and marriage. The illustrations, which
Greb also did, are fun and they layout shift a lot,
which makes it very dynamic. There are things in there
(00:49):
like recipes and crafts, like bingo cards, kind of cutouts.
There's a page she says like you could rip this
one out and make your own zine. So it's really fun.
It's like a very jubilant teenage growing up experience. I
don't know, it's very fun. An Grey has said she
(01:15):
grew up reading comics and making her own comics and
scenes even from a young age. So I love that.
And she's a big proponent about zines, particularly she wants
you to go out and find some scenes. Love that, yes,
and also this sparked an interesting conversation around drawing race
(01:38):
without making the illustration look like a caricterature or a stereotype,
and avoiding making whiteness seem like the defaults of the
art is it's almost kind of I don't know, it
feels kind of dream like in a way. I don't know.
But that was something she specifically did, was not really
(02:01):
focus on racial features, which I think is interesting that
that is something to consider when you're doing a work
like this. Yes, okay, so this is another one of
those books we've chosen that I feel like explaining the
plot is kind of complicated because it does feel very
like not stream of consciousness. But here's the thought, and
(02:22):
here's a thought.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, it's a very short overview of her upbringing to today,
like literally from yeah, not even brow this before her
broth them, from the meeting of her parents, or actually
her immigration of her parents, her parents immigrating to where
she is today. So in a graphic novel that is
as short as this, it's really hard to go through.
(02:43):
So it's not even like a stream of consciousness. It's
just like a very long plot, shortly like summarized.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, it's very condensed, but it has like these bright
like here's some tagalog words for food. It has like
these Yes, things that are like I said pop up
in within the story, but yeah. It is a graphic
memoir coming of age tale about Greebe's experience as a
first generation immigrant growing up in California. Her mother is
(03:14):
from the Philippines and her father is from Egypt. It
mostly details her thoughts and observations over the years to
the lens of culture, race, and identity. After her parents
get divorced and her father moves back to Egypt, she
spends her summers visiting him there. Meanwhile, in California, her
mother works two jobs to afford private school and college.
(03:39):
Later for Malacca, who attends a very diverse school and
is surrounded by her large Filipino American family. Meanwhile, she
dreams of living a life as she sees depicted on
specifically the television show Felicity, which cracks me up quite
a bit, and meeting white people. She sort of gets
(04:01):
to do when she goes to college in New York,
but she's taken aback a little uncomfortable at the lack
of people of color at her school and later her job.
She marries a white man who is curious and eager
to learn more about her culture and her family named Darren.
Will talk more about that in the theme section, and
they plan to have they plan to have kids together,
(04:22):
that kids that she will share her history and culture with. Yeah.
So it's a life packed into a pretty short graphic memoir,
but it does touch on a lot of stuff. So
that does bring us to the themes. One of the
big ones is, of course family. One of the things
(04:45):
that stuck out to me is the support and influence
of women in her life. Her mom, her stepmom, her sister.
I really liked, and I think this is just because
the step mom is usually portrayed so negatively. Really liked
that when she met her stepmom, she was somebody who
(05:06):
they enjoyed each other's company, and she had kind of
advice for Melcca. So I liked that. And her mom,
of course is the one that's working two jobs and
refinancing the house and doing all of this stuff to
give her daughter this life that she thinks believes she
(05:28):
should have. Her sister, she does have this really big family.
The Filipino American family specifically is the one you see
the most of and I thought it was really interesting.
It wasn't news to me, but I thought it was
really interesting that customs and how Molica was surprised when
(05:50):
Darren was like, you visit too often with your family,
This is too much. We were there last month, and
meanwhile she's like, I'll go by myself if I have to, Right.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That's interesting because also going across country every month, that's
a pretty big trip. So that's like he's like, because also, yes,
I wouldn't necessarily say that's like cultural thing because he's
technically from Tennessee. Yeah, so I find that insure because
Southern families like my family, even though I don't see
(06:28):
them often, that's not the norm. They usually see each
other at least as often as like, Yeah, the fact
that they live around each other as much as she
talked about her Filipino family doing the same thing, my
American family, Southern white family in Georgia, they all lived
pretty close together. I was the first one that left,
as I did. My sister eventually left as well, but
(06:50):
not too far, and she ended up working in the
same area as they did, so she sees them on
a weekly basis.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So I don't think that's so abnormal.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now, my parents wouldn't necessarily expect me to come and
see them if I were like across the country, I
barely see them, not barely, but I don't see them
that often. Even though I'm only an hour and a
half drives away. That's still like big enough that they
don't expect me to come every week. So I did
find that interesting in that perspective a lot, because from
white culture perspective, which I've seen a lot of, especially Southern.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Culture, yeah, it's not that different. Yeah necessarily.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, and that's one of the big messages of the book,
I guess, is that it's hard to put there's a
lot to encompass in somebody. And so just because Darren
was like, we've already gone, we can't go again, you know,
that's just a part of his particular upbringing. Because I
also don't see my family that often, but I have
(07:45):
friends who are very southern Southern Baptists related that. Yeah,
they kind of all live near each other and they
see each other all the time. So I just thought
that was interesting because her her family is so interwoven
in her life. And it could also be because there
(08:07):
is a section where she's looking at her own family
and she does this really fun thing I think where
she has like little, this is my aunt and she
does this, and this is.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Who's the matriarch, which was kind of the shogging part
to me, Like she's the matriarch of the.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Family, right, right, And she had that, and then she
had the comparison to what she sees on American television,
which is the nuclear family. It's like the mom, the dad,
and three kids, and how that was so different to her.
And she references often how much she gleaned from TV
(08:49):
or our media about what she should be doing. But
I thought her reaction was interesting though, because she was like,
this doesn't match my experience and I can't quite figure
out why what's going on here? Yes, which is explore
throughout the book.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I just also love how she kind of flips away,
like she couldn't tell the white girls apart.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yes, yeah, usually that's the stereotype of Asian people.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, even though she's like, no, this might be Karen
Kelly Katie, I'm not really sure.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I liked that too. I also liked when she gets married,
she calls it her big fat Filipino Egyptian, American Southern
Baptist wedding. Yep. But all of their families came together
and they they made all their different traditions work, and
it sounds like it was a beautiful wedding and everybody
(09:46):
was really really happy. But yeah, that family element of
making sure that that it was a celebratory experience, but
also their cultures because she went out of her way
to go through all all of these different cultures were
being honored. So I really enjoyed that. Obviously, a big
(10:28):
theme is immigration and identity. There's also a lot of
conversation around her parents who came in to the United States,
who immigranted to the United States when they were adults,
versus her who was born in the United States, and
they're differing views of how her life should go or
(10:51):
how their lives should go. And one of the things
that stands out to me at least, was, you know,
she had this she had this close connection to her family,
She had this really close bond. She went to Egypt
every summer with her dad, but she still wanted to
(11:12):
build a life of her own, and she felt this
guilt of when she finally did move away, of not
being there for her family, and her family admittedly seemed
to make some comments of like I wish you were here,
you should be here, but were her mom especially was like,
(11:36):
if this is what you want, we'll find a way
to make it happen. So there's a lot of talks
about that. There's also a lot of comparisons about being
Filipino versus Egyptian.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, it's interesting because when they talk about the reasons
are the attitudes of her mom versus her dad in
coming is very different. Yeah, the fact that the mom
didn't want to come because she was very comfortable and
of high status when she was in the Philippines. But
at the same time, all the disruption was happening, people
were really scared about the current state of affairs. So
(12:11):
the family decided to go and she just had to
go with them. And then when she came to the US,
the things that she was like she lost all of
the easygoingness that she had and all the status she
had versus her father, who really saw and I know
we're gonna talk about in a minute, the American dream
being different, and how he embraced it and was excited
for it, Like he was excited and saved up money
(12:32):
and his dream and goal was always to be in
the US, not the UK, the US, and like having
those dreams as he is, like that was his lifelong
dream to come as where she was forced to come here, Yeah,
and lost a lot of her status, and like that's
a lot of the big immigration stories we see, like
doctors and people's scholars and those who were highly educated
who come to the US and can't use those degrees
(12:54):
and have to start over. Like we've seen that oftentimes
because of the way it worked, the way the immigration
system works and the refugee system works, and refugee status
in general. So it is interesting in that conversation just
to see that beginning.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yes, yes, absolutely, and you see it play out too,
and as Malica gets older, just in their behaviors and
how they're handling life in general. But yeah, one of
the things that I thought was interesting was the code
switching that Malica does between Filipino and Egyptian customs and
(13:36):
culture while also adapting to American culture and doing a
lot of self discovery because of it, because she's kind
of always aware of it because she has these differing
She goes to Egypt every summer. She has this huge
Filipino family, And there are a lot of ways this
shows up in the book. A lot of dichotomies I
would say so. For instance, her mom is Catholic and
(13:59):
her dad is Muslim. She understands Tagalog and Arabic. You
can see it. There's a To me, it was comical.
I hope it wasn't dramatic. For there's a scene where
she's praying and the way she adds like the Virgin Mary,
but not Jesus, but like she just has a very
(14:20):
long prayer where she's trying to incorporate all of these
different beliefs, and the way the food she eats depending
on where she is, because if you're Muslim, there are
certain foods you can't eat, so being aware of that.
There's a scene where she brings her skateboard to Egypt
(14:42):
and her dad is like, they're gonna stare at you
if you go out there as a girl on your skateboard,
and she's like ah, and then they did and she
was like never again. And the author talks about that
story a lot, so she must must have stuck out
to her. Yeah, and she has like a chart. It's
comical too, that's the here's acceptable behavior depending on what Yeah,
(15:07):
what mode I'm in. Yes, she also talks about food
a lot, which I appreciated. She talks about food a
lot to describe identity. There are panels where she's realizing, well,
one where she's getting judged for the food that she has,
which we've talked about before, that it is quote strange
(15:31):
or it smells strange, the foods like when she goes
to college, which we're going to talk about more in
a second, but when she goes to college is mostly
white college, and that's when she kind of had a oh, okay,
they don't have the foods that I'm used to, And
I love how often rice comes up like a rifle
wasn't being served? Where's the rise? What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And then there's a section that's focused on of finding
the right label, especially if none of them fit you.
So she'll ask like what are you? And she went
to as I said, she went to a school that
had a lot of diversity, and she always struggled to
condense the answer because she had just this whole like
(16:18):
Filipino Egyptian. But I do this, and I do this,
and I'm also this, and I love There's a page
where she has like a map of the high school,
and it's so specific. It's like here the Taiwanese students
that play magic and the Mexican Funks. But then later
when she moves away from home, she asked a bunch
(16:42):
of people about asking that question, and some of them
say like, oh, I find that offensive or othering others
are like it depends on the situation, but that was
something that she personally seemed to appreciate.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, It's definitely something that for all of these conversations
is something that she grows into. It's interesting because with
the challenges of like wishing she didn't have these types
of foods, that's the whole package that her family got
together for her for college, and she's looking at the
startines with tomato sauce and like she's like, I'm not
gonna eat this. This is never gonna be open. And
(17:18):
then her being in college being like, Okay, where the
hell is this rice? This is not the good rice.
This is not the good stuff. In fact, I'll eat
hot dogs and rice. Now, I'll pretend like a spam.
Where is my spam? And then her being the whole
time going this is not spam. This is not spam.
I need spam, and then her going back and opening
that exact can because she missed it she's like, here's
the real food, and realizing how much she did miss
(17:39):
that same way with the culture stuff was like when
she was asked that question as a child, she was
afraid of answering that, mainly because she felt so out
left out. She wasn't one or the other. She was
an unusual quote unquote like a racial mix in her mind,
being Egyptian and Filipino. Who sees that who does this
type of conversation? And then as she got older, seeing
(18:00):
the different types of people, She's like, now I want
people to know who I am, how different I am,
But this is what I need to do. So I'm
going to ask them so that they'll ask me so
I can brag about my culture. So it was really
fun to see her flip into and I think myself
as in that similar state of like my identity is
like trying to be like I'm Korean grand lying alone
to the tac I'm like, yes, I'm in creative. I'm
(18:20):
now embracing it, and I'm trying to grow into it
and be proud of it and try to actually learn
more about it and grow into loving it as well,
like not being ashamed of the fact that I did
like kimchi and having memories of loving kimchi, and though
my adopted family would really hated it, throw it out
immediately soon after because I'd like, it smells so bad
and that's the only memory they have of kimchi. Well,
(18:40):
my memories of kimchi are very near and dear to me,
and like finding that shame and then growing into this
because also being made fun of by having being derogatorily
named as kimchi, Like I literally got microaggression just by
being called that or that the assuming that's what I
need type of conversation to finally be like, no, but
(19:01):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I need to find it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'll try to make it type of conversation. So it
is that growth and identity and finding that going from
what you thought you were supposed to want to be,
which is the whitewash version, which, of course her and
my childhood were very different. She was not surrounded by
white people, and in fact, being around white people was
weird for her, Yeah, which I still appreciate. I was like,
that's amazing to me, not knowing anything but white culture.
(19:26):
But there's still this level of hierarchy of like knowing
that that is the standard here in the US is
to be white, and so trying to find that somehow
and then outgrowing and realizing that's not necessarily the end
all or the better place. So it is interesting to
see her grow into that in a very comical and
very artsy way.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yes, as the graphic novel.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yes, and that is something else that gets touched on
a lot in the graphic novel, is not understanding why
there's a cultural disconnect between the values in practice of
your culture and being an American. So why is it
I'm eating sardines and tomato and somehow that like others
me that kicks me out. I was born here, I
(20:10):
grew up here. What is this? So that does bring
us to the American dream featured in the title. Here's
what Garib told the New York Public Library in a
twenty nineteen interview. For me, the American dream was totally
different from my parents, who thought of it in conventional terms.
The house, the car, the education. Mine is being comfortable
(20:33):
with yourself and achieving the highest version of yourself. For me,
it is being comfortable with my own cultural ethnicity and identity,
but also being comfortable enough to call myself an artist
and maker. So I liked this quote because I think
a lot of us can relate to that in some
way or another because it has changed, and in some
ways it's because we can't afford those things anymore. Yeah,
(20:56):
but I do think it's shifted.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah. So again like going back to what her parents
each saw as being the American dream, her dad especially
like you got to go to an Ivy League school,
you got to do these things, and you got to
get accepted to the here and like grow big into
a business and do these things. And then her mother
like being of money, being of class, being in these ways,
(21:22):
like traveling, which I love that for her mom, like
she was a world traveler and did and then some
and then finding love like it was it was a
different level, which I found fascinating again because I'm sure
like Egyptian culture versus Filipino culture are very different, having
the Catholicism versus the Muslim conversation is very different, having
(21:44):
like Filipinos who eat all the meat, give them all
the meats versus no pork. Like it's a big shock
for her to have to like switch off in these things,
but also understanding like bringing in their love of their culture,
but also wanting that dream fulfilled while they're in the US,
like having their identity, but at the same time each
(22:07):
and then the each family members having their dream in
that identity, like having her aunt tell her that this
one thing be successful in this way, and then having
her grandfather coming and be like, no, you need to
read more books. We're going to talk about books more,
you know, or what was that her uncle. But it's
just such a fascinating level of like pushing pull for
her and what is this American dream? And it definitely
(22:28):
wasn't journalism for her parents. Her parents were like, no,
absolutely not that that is not on the pyramid.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Here right, there's an actual illustration of a pyramid of
the acceptable occupations and what she pursued was not on there.
But yeah, it was also like reading her dad, especially
his interpretation of the American dream, felt very consumerist, I
(22:55):
guess because there's another like annual trips to Disney World
and it shows him in like a Mickey Mouse hat.
But there's also a scene where he while they're in Egypt,
he puts her in American T shirts and I'm so
proud and he's so proud of it. He's like, oh,
(23:16):
she's half American, like he's bragging about it, so clearly
it was really really important to him, and he had
pride around that about her fitting in to American culture.
And the novel starts with her mom saying, you have
to be better than us, and Molica's kind of grappling
(23:38):
with what does that mean? What exactly are you saying
by you have to be better than us? And then yeah,
just the amount of work her mom does to achieve
this American dream for her daughter, of refinancing the house,
of working so hard, of like bringing in the family too,
to do all these things, it's clear how important it
(24:03):
was to them. Yes, and that brings us to whitewashing
(24:29):
over all over American culture and what you've seen in
the media. So there's a lot of points to be
made here. So one is she Molica feels like a
fraud at one point because her friends of color in
high school are telling her she is whitewashed, and she
doesn't really know how to combat that or what that means.
(24:53):
She wants the life that Felicity had, specifically in New York,
so that's why she went to a college in New York.
In an interview with MPR, Greeb described growing up watching
white people in the media and glorifying them in their
lifestyle until she got older. And she also showcases some
crushes she had on some rock stars, celebrities stuff like that,
(25:19):
white rock stars.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
She also had a crush on the whitest boy there
who was not white the school.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
At her high school.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, she was not white, but he seemed white to
them in comparison to which is kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yes, but she does have also a kind of comical,
kind of sad line where she was excited to go.
She didn't have white people at her high school, so
she's like, I'll get to see some white people. So
she was excited. She I think it even says, just
like Felicity. And so she goes to college and yeah,
(25:59):
it's pretty much all white people. She kisses a lot
of white boys. She learns the lyrics to songs for
mostly white peers would sing yeah yeah yeah. So having
this kind of shock of wanting something you see on
TV and then getting it and realizing I don't know,
it did take her some time to realize it.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
But I mean, and she did end up marrying a
white man, which I know you're going to talk about
in a second. So it wasn't necessarily she was trying
to find a white man though, But all that to say, like,
you know, it happens when you when you can become
a part of that culture.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It kind of happened.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, I mean, her parents they wanted her to get
exposure to whiteness because it's the quote real world.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Not only exposure, they wanted her to learn to be
a little more white like they are, like learned from
them literally, as she said, as the uncle's like, you
need to know, you need to learn.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, but she did. I mean she was really she
was angry, especially at the I don't see color conversation.
She got a lot in college. She encountered a lot
of microaggressions at work, some of which were like it
made me double check when she would have been how
old she would have been with that hapened. But yeah,
(27:19):
I'm sure it's still going on.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Well, mean, it's kind of like that same comment about
like just using food like an assumption of like food
of a type of food in order to like, oh
you really love kimchi. Yeah, obviously you kind of smell
like type of type of thing. There's a lot of
microaggression that she didn't understand because for her, the microaggression
she knew was not microaggression from her own people. It
(27:42):
was more like they're just blunt, right, and so like
that didn't seem that way until she kind of figured out, oh, okay,
this was not this is to other me and that's
that other conversations like what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
In that same conversation, like what are you?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
A lot of the people that she took a poll with,
like other people of color when they say that, I
don't mind it if it's from people of color. I
minded when it's from white people, because there is an
underlying I'm better than you kind of conversation or fetishism
that lies that seems to lie when they ask that
type of question, as opposed to if another Asian person
(28:15):
asks another Asian person, it may be because they find
some commonality of wanting to see something comforting of their
home like that. And I've definitely been approached by Chinese
people asking me whoere I'm from and hopes that I'm
Chinese and having that moment but still being able to connect.
It's kind of like how I talked about Brandy finding
something different and not white and realizing that the white.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Isn't the standard.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Like when I talked about how I looked up to
Brandy because she was one of the first women of
color I've ever seen in a lead and loved and
like to see that felt like it was opening doors
for all of us. And that's kind of the same
of like, oh, you're not necessarily from my country, but
you're close to that, and I file some commanderie here
(29:00):
and then that level. So when she's talking about that
understanding of like it's not so bad hearing it from
other Now, don't get me wrong, there's still bad players
in that because there's also otherness and like I'm better
than you because you're so in so country and I'm
from this country instead, which is a whole different conversation
that we have to we'll have to like unbox later
at a time, but it is kind of that interesting
(29:23):
conversation that she's learning because it wasn't meant as harm
when she was in Egypt or when she's with her
Filipino family, you know, like that was just like a
part of the conversation where there is ill intent outside
of and also like that backwards of like I don't
see color slash. The melting pot really also harmed people
(29:46):
of color and people who are from different countries because
it negates where their background, it negates their home, their culture,
all of that. Instead of embracing that culture, they're like, no,
but you need to acco me to us, just melting
with us, and that's that level. Is also like, oh
that's infuriating, right.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And just a quick clarification, Brandy from Cinderella.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yes, sorry, I always I'm not gonna lie, like I've
talked about her many times. Yeah, just that side note
is like one of the things I think of it
as a child, when I think of seeing beyond white
people as the standard. Brandy was the one that broke
the mold for me. Yes, and this is why I
love her so much.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
I knew who you were talking about, but I wanted
to make sure.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
You know because you know me.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I feel like listeners who have seen this, Yeah, for
those who have been around you know, but for those
who are maybe newer. I have a love for Brandy
that transcends, and it has a lot to do with
my childhood experiences. I've seen a woman of color as
lead and being like loved as her.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So yes, you can go see the episode we did
on it, Yes, if you would like.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
To till it's still a part of my heart.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yes. Well, as we touched on two, she the graphic
novels kind of split into like chapters of her life,
and she does have a chapter about her relationship and
eventual marriage with a white man named Darren and her
family's initial resistance and her own questions about it. And
(31:17):
I think one of the things about this novel that
I really appreciated is she's really open about, you know,
still learning self discovery. She asked. She was like, hmm,
what should I think about this? What should I think
about this? And then she had her observations of him
(31:39):
and his interactions with her family particularly and her culture particularly,
and that's kind of how she arrived at her answer. Yeah,
but that was a whole thing. Ultimately, it's about being yourself.
It feels very bright to me. It feels very like
(32:00):
ask questions, be curious, hold on to these things in
your culture and your history. It was kind of strange
to read it now because it was written in twenty
nineteen and the immigration system has changed so much since lastly. Yeah,
so there is a bit of a what felt to
(32:22):
me like a disconnect of Oh, I wonder what she thinks?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Now?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Are I like what she would if she had? And
something she would add on the end update? Yeah, I
don't know because she's still around. But yeah, I really
enjoyed it. I thought it was cute. I love the art. Yes, well, listeners,
go check this book out if you haven't already. If
(32:48):
you have any suggestions for our next book club or
anything at all, you can email us at Hello at
stuff Whenever Told You dot com. You can find us
on Buce Guy Momso podcast or on Instagram and TikTok
at Stuff We Told You or else on YouTube. We
have some merchandise at Compureau and we have a book
you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks its
always to our super judicial chandler and our executive producer.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I am thank you and thanks you for.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Listening Stuff Never Told You Instructure by Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can check out
the art radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Anny and smitha I'm welcome to stuff
I've Never told you production of iHeartRadio. And for today's
book club, we are talking about Molica Greb's twenty nineteen
graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream. This award winning
(00:27):
illustrated work depicts a biographical memoir of Greb, an Egyptian
Filipino American immigrant, as she navigates all the facets of
her identity through school, college, and marriage. The illustrations, which
Greb also did, are fun and they layout shift a lot,
which makes it very dynamic. There are things in there
(00:49):
like recipes and crafts, like bingo cards, kind of cutouts.
There's a page she says like you could rip this
one out and make your own zine. So it's really fun.
It's like a very jubilant teenage growing up experience. I
don't know, it's very fun. An Grey has said she
(01:15):
grew up reading comics and making her own comics and
scenes even from a young age. So I love that.
And she's a big proponent about zines, particularly she wants
you to go out and find some scenes. Love that, yes,
and also this sparked an interesting conversation around drawing race
(01:38):
without making the illustration look like a caricterature or a stereotype,
and avoiding making whiteness seem like the defaults of the
art is it's almost kind of I don't know, it
feels kind of dream like in a way. I don't know.
But that was something she specifically did, was not really
(02:01):
focus on racial features, which I think is interesting that
that is something to consider when you're doing a work
like this. Yes, okay, so this is another one of
those books we've chosen that I feel like explaining the
plot is kind of complicated because it does feel very
like not stream of consciousness. But here's the thought, and
(02:22):
here's a thought.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, it's a very short overview of her upbringing to today,
like literally from yeah, not even brow this before her
broth them, from the meeting of her parents, or actually
her immigration of her parents, her parents immigrating to where
she is today. So in a graphic novel that is
as short as this, it's really hard to go through.
(02:43):
So it's not even like a stream of consciousness. It's
just like a very long plot, shortly like summarized.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, it's very condensed, but it has like these bright
like here's some tagalog words for food. It has like
these Yes, things that are like I said pop up
in within the story, but yeah. It is a graphic
memoir coming of age tale about Greebe's experience as a
first generation immigrant growing up in California. Her mother is
(03:14):
from the Philippines and her father is from Egypt. It
mostly details her thoughts and observations over the years to
the lens of culture, race, and identity. After her parents
get divorced and her father moves back to Egypt, she
spends her summers visiting him there. Meanwhile, in California, her
mother works two jobs to afford private school and college.
(03:39):
Later for Malacca, who attends a very diverse school and
is surrounded by her large Filipino American family. Meanwhile, she
dreams of living a life as she sees depicted on
specifically the television show Felicity, which cracks me up quite
a bit, and meeting white people. She sort of gets
(04:01):
to do when she goes to college in New York,
but she's taken aback a little uncomfortable at the lack
of people of color at her school and later her job.
She marries a white man who is curious and eager
to learn more about her culture and her family named Darren.
Will talk more about that in the theme section, and
they plan to have they plan to have kids together,
(04:22):
that kids that she will share her history and culture with. Yeah.
So it's a life packed into a pretty short graphic memoir,
but it does touch on a lot of stuff. So
that does bring us to the themes. One of the
big ones is, of course family. One of the things
(04:45):
that stuck out to me is the support and influence
of women in her life. Her mom, her stepmom, her sister.
I really liked, and I think this is just because
the step mom is usually portrayed so negatively. Really liked
that when she met her stepmom, she was somebody who
(05:06):
they enjoyed each other's company, and she had kind of
advice for Melcca. So I liked that. And her mom,
of course is the one that's working two jobs and
refinancing the house and doing all of this stuff to
give her daughter this life that she thinks believes she
(05:28):
should have. Her sister, she does have this really big family.
The Filipino American family specifically is the one you see
the most of and I thought it was really interesting.
It wasn't news to me, but I thought it was
really interesting that customs and how Molica was surprised when
(05:50):
Darren was like, you visit too often with your family,
This is too much. We were there last month, and
meanwhile she's like, I'll go by myself if I have to, Right.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That's interesting because also going across country every month, that's
a pretty big trip. So that's like he's like, because also, yes,
I wouldn't necessarily say that's like cultural thing because he's
technically from Tennessee. Yeah, so I find that insure because
Southern families like my family, even though I don't see
(06:28):
them often, that's not the norm. They usually see each
other at least as often as like, Yeah, the fact
that they live around each other as much as she
talked about her Filipino family doing the same thing, my
American family, Southern white family in Georgia, they all lived
pretty close together. I was the first one that left,
as I did. My sister eventually left as well, but
(06:50):
not too far, and she ended up working in the
same area as they did, so she sees them on
a weekly basis.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So I don't think that's so abnormal.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now, my parents wouldn't necessarily expect me to come and
see them if I were like across the country, I
barely see them, not barely, but I don't see them
that often. Even though I'm only an hour and a
half drives away. That's still like big enough that they
don't expect me to come every week. So I did
find that interesting in that perspective a lot, because from
white culture perspective, which I've seen a lot of, especially Southern.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Culture, yeah, it's not that different. Yeah necessarily.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, and that's one of the big messages of the book,
I guess, is that it's hard to put there's a
lot to encompass in somebody. And so just because Darren
was like, we've already gone, we can't go again, you know,
that's just a part of his particular upbringing. Because I
also don't see my family that often, but I have
(07:45):
friends who are very southern Southern Baptists related that. Yeah,
they kind of all live near each other and they
see each other all the time. So I just thought
that was interesting because her her family is so interwoven
in her life. And it could also be because there
(08:07):
is a section where she's looking at her own family
and she does this really fun thing I think where
she has like little, this is my aunt and she
does this, and this is.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Who's the matriarch, which was kind of the shogging part
to me, Like she's the matriarch of the.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Family, right, right, And she had that, and then she
had the comparison to what she sees on American television,
which is the nuclear family. It's like the mom, the dad,
and three kids, and how that was so different to her.
And she references often how much she gleaned from TV
(08:49):
or our media about what she should be doing. But
I thought her reaction was interesting though, because she was like,
this doesn't match my experience and I can't quite figure
out why what's going on here? Yes, which is explore
throughout the book.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I just also love how she kind of flips away,
like she couldn't tell the white girls apart.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yes, yeah, usually that's the stereotype of Asian people.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, even though she's like, no, this might be Karen
Kelly Katie, I'm not really sure.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I liked that too. I also liked when she gets married,
she calls it her big fat Filipino Egyptian, American Southern
Baptist wedding. Yep. But all of their families came together
and they they made all their different traditions work, and
it sounds like it was a beautiful wedding and everybody
(09:46):
was really really happy. But yeah, that family element of
making sure that that it was a celebratory experience, but
also their cultures because she went out of her way
to go through all all of these different cultures were
being honored. So I really enjoyed that. Obviously, a big
(10:28):
theme is immigration and identity. There's also a lot of
conversation around her parents who came in to the United States,
who immigranted to the United States when they were adults,
versus her who was born in the United States, and
they're differing views of how her life should go or
(10:51):
how their lives should go. And one of the things
that stands out to me at least, was, you know,
she had this she had this close connection to her family,
She had this really close bond. She went to Egypt
every summer with her dad, but she still wanted to
(11:12):
build a life of her own, and she felt this
guilt of when she finally did move away, of not
being there for her family, and her family admittedly seemed
to make some comments of like I wish you were here,
you should be here, but were her mom especially was like,
(11:36):
if this is what you want, we'll find a way
to make it happen. So there's a lot of talks
about that. There's also a lot of comparisons about being
Filipino versus Egyptian.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, it's interesting because when they talk about the reasons
are the attitudes of her mom versus her dad in
coming is very different. Yeah, the fact that the mom
didn't want to come because she was very comfortable and
of high status when she was in the Philippines. But
at the same time, all the disruption was happening, people
were really scared about the current state of affairs. So
(12:11):
the family decided to go and she just had to
go with them. And then when she came to the US,
the things that she was like she lost all of
the easygoingness that she had and all the status she
had versus her father, who really saw and I know
we're gonna talk about in a minute, the American dream
being different, and how he embraced it and was excited
for it, Like he was excited and saved up money
(12:32):
and his dream and goal was always to be in
the US, not the UK, the US, and like having
those dreams as he is, like that was his lifelong
dream to come as where she was forced to come here, Yeah,
and lost a lot of her status, and like that's
a lot of the big immigration stories we see, like
doctors and people's scholars and those who were highly educated
who come to the US and can't use those degrees
(12:54):
and have to start over. Like we've seen that oftentimes
because of the way it worked, the way the immigration
system works and the refugee system works, and refugee status
in general. So it is interesting in that conversation just
to see that beginning.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yes, yes, absolutely, and you see it play out too,
and as Malica gets older, just in their behaviors and
how they're handling life in general. But yeah, one of
the things that I thought was interesting was the code
switching that Malica does between Filipino and Egyptian customs and
(13:36):
culture while also adapting to American culture and doing a
lot of self discovery because of it, because she's kind
of always aware of it because she has these differing
She goes to Egypt every summer. She has this huge
Filipino family, And there are a lot of ways this
shows up in the book. A lot of dichotomies I
would say so. For instance, her mom is Catholic and
(13:59):
her dad is Muslim. She understands Tagalog and Arabic. You
can see it. There's a To me, it was comical.
I hope it wasn't dramatic. For there's a scene where
she's praying and the way she adds like the Virgin Mary,
but not Jesus, but like she just has a very
(14:20):
long prayer where she's trying to incorporate all of these
different beliefs, and the way the food she eats depending
on where she is, because if you're Muslim, there are
certain foods you can't eat, so being aware of that.
There's a scene where she brings her skateboard to Egypt
(14:42):
and her dad is like, they're gonna stare at you
if you go out there as a girl on your skateboard,
and she's like ah, and then they did and she
was like never again. And the author talks about that
story a lot, so she must must have stuck out
to her. Yeah, and she has like a chart. It's
comical too, that's the here's acceptable behavior depending on what Yeah,
(15:07):
what mode I'm in. Yes, she also talks about food
a lot, which I appreciated. She talks about food a
lot to describe identity. There are panels where she's realizing, well,
one where she's getting judged for the food that she has,
which we've talked about before, that it is quote strange
(15:31):
or it smells strange, the foods like when she goes
to college, which we're going to talk about more in
a second, but when she goes to college is mostly
white college, and that's when she kind of had a oh, okay,
they don't have the foods that I'm used to, And
I love how often rice comes up like a rifle
wasn't being served? Where's the rise? What's wrong?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
And then there's a section that's focused on of finding
the right label, especially if none of them fit you.
So she'll ask like what are you? And she went
to as I said, she went to a school that
had a lot of diversity, and she always struggled to
condense the answer because she had just this whole like
(16:18):
Filipino Egyptian. But I do this, and I do this,
and I'm also this, and I love There's a page
where she has like a map of the high school,
and it's so specific. It's like here the Taiwanese students
that play magic and the Mexican Funks. But then later
when she moves away from home, she asked a bunch
(16:42):
of people about asking that question, and some of them
say like, oh, I find that offensive or othering others
are like it depends on the situation, but that was
something that she personally seemed to appreciate.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, It's definitely something that for all of these conversations
is something that she grows into. It's interesting because with
the challenges of like wishing she didn't have these types
of foods, that's the whole package that her family got
together for her for college, and she's looking at the
startines with tomato sauce and like she's like, I'm not
gonna eat this. This is never gonna be open. And
(17:18):
then her being in college being like, Okay, where the
hell is this rice? This is not the good rice.
This is not the good stuff. In fact, I'll eat
hot dogs and rice. Now, I'll pretend like a spam.
Where is my spam? And then her being the whole
time going this is not spam. This is not spam.
I need spam, and then her going back and opening
that exact can because she missed it she's like, here's
the real food, and realizing how much she did miss
(17:39):
that same way with the culture stuff was like when
she was asked that question as a child, she was
afraid of answering that, mainly because she felt so out
left out. She wasn't one or the other. She was
an unusual quote unquote like a racial mix in her mind,
being Egyptian and Filipino. Who sees that who does this
type of conversation? And then as she got older, seeing
(18:00):
the different types of people, She's like, now I want
people to know who I am, how different I am,
But this is what I need to do. So I'm
going to ask them so that they'll ask me so
I can brag about my culture. So it was really
fun to see her flip into and I think myself
as in that similar state of like my identity is
like trying to be like I'm Korean grand lying alone
to the tac I'm like, yes, I'm in creative. I'm
(18:20):
now embracing it, and I'm trying to grow into it
and be proud of it and try to actually learn
more about it and grow into loving it as well,
like not being ashamed of the fact that I did
like kimchi and having memories of loving kimchi, and though
my adopted family would really hated it, throw it out
immediately soon after because I'd like, it smells so bad
and that's the only memory they have of kimchi. Well,
(18:40):
my memories of kimchi are very near and dear to me,
and like finding that shame and then growing into this
because also being made fun of by having being derogatorily
named as kimchi, Like I literally got microaggression just by
being called that or that the assuming that's what I
need type of conversation to finally be like, no, but
(19:01):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I need to find it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'll try to make it type of conversation. So it
is that growth and identity and finding that going from
what you thought you were supposed to want to be,
which is the whitewash version, which, of course her and
my childhood were very different. She was not surrounded by
white people, and in fact, being around white people was
weird for her, Yeah, which I still appreciate. I was like,
that's amazing to me, not knowing anything but white culture.
(19:26):
But there's still this level of hierarchy of like knowing
that that is the standard here in the US is
to be white, and so trying to find that somehow
and then outgrowing and realizing that's not necessarily the end
all or the better place. So it is interesting to
see her grow into that in a very comical and
very artsy way.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yes, as the graphic novel.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yes, and that is something else that gets touched on
a lot in the graphic novel, is not understanding why
there's a cultural disconnect between the values in practice of
your culture and being an American. So why is it
I'm eating sardines and tomato and somehow that like others
me that kicks me out. I was born here, I
(20:10):
grew up here. What is this? So that does bring
us to the American dream featured in the title. Here's
what Garib told the New York Public Library in a
twenty nineteen interview. For me, the American dream was totally
different from my parents, who thought of it in conventional terms.
The house, the car, the education. Mine is being comfortable
(20:33):
with yourself and achieving the highest version of yourself. For me,
it is being comfortable with my own cultural ethnicity and identity,
but also being comfortable enough to call myself an artist
and maker. So I liked this quote because I think
a lot of us can relate to that in some
way or another because it has changed, and in some
ways it's because we can't afford those things anymore. Yeah,
(20:56):
but I do think it's shifted.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah. So again like going back to what her parents
each saw as being the American dream, her dad especially
like you got to go to an Ivy League school,
you got to do these things, and you got to
get accepted to the here and like grow big into
a business and do these things. And then her mother
like being of money, being of class, being in these ways,
(21:22):
like traveling, which I love that for her mom, like
she was a world traveler and did and then some
and then finding love like it was it was a
different level, which I found fascinating again because I'm sure
like Egyptian culture versus Filipino culture are very different, having
the Catholicism versus the Muslim conversation is very different, having
(21:44):
like Filipinos who eat all the meat, give them all
the meats versus no pork. Like it's a big shock
for her to have to like switch off in these things,
but also understanding like bringing in their love of their culture,
but also wanting that dream fulfilled while they're in the US,
like having their identity, but at the same time each
(22:07):
and then the each family members having their dream in
that identity, like having her aunt tell her that this
one thing be successful in this way, and then having
her grandfather coming and be like, no, you need to
read more books. We're going to talk about books more,
you know, or what was that her uncle. But it's
just such a fascinating level of like pushing pull for
her and what is this American dream? And it definitely
(22:28):
wasn't journalism for her parents. Her parents were like, no,
absolutely not that that is not on the pyramid.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Here right, there's an actual illustration of a pyramid of
the acceptable occupations and what she pursued was not on there.
But yeah, it was also like reading her dad, especially
his interpretation of the American dream, felt very consumerist, I
(22:55):
guess because there's another like annual trips to Disney World
and it shows him in like a Mickey Mouse hat.
But there's also a scene where he while they're in Egypt,
he puts her in American T shirts and I'm so
proud and he's so proud of it. He's like, oh,
(23:16):
she's half American, like he's bragging about it, so clearly
it was really really important to him, and he had
pride around that about her fitting in to American culture.
And the novel starts with her mom saying, you have
to be better than us, and Molica's kind of grappling
(23:38):
with what does that mean? What exactly are you saying
by you have to be better than us? And then yeah,
just the amount of work her mom does to achieve
this American dream for her daughter, of refinancing the house,
of working so hard, of like bringing in the family too,
to do all these things, it's clear how important it
(24:03):
was to them. Yes, and that brings us to whitewashing
(24:29):
over all over American culture and what you've seen in
the media. So there's a lot of points to be
made here. So one is she Molica feels like a
fraud at one point because her friends of color in
high school are telling her she is whitewashed, and she
doesn't really know how to combat that or what that means.
(24:53):
She wants the life that Felicity had, specifically in New York,
so that's why she went to a college in New York.
In an interview with MPR, Greeb described growing up watching
white people in the media and glorifying them in their
lifestyle until she got older. And she also showcases some
crushes she had on some rock stars, celebrities stuff like that,
(25:19):
white rock stars.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
She also had a crush on the whitest boy there
who was not white the school.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
At her high school.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, she was not white, but he seemed white to
them in comparison to which is kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yes, but she does have also a kind of comical,
kind of sad line where she was excited to go.
She didn't have white people at her high school, so
she's like, I'll get to see some white people. So
she was excited. She I think it even says, just
like Felicity. And so she goes to college and yeah,
(25:59):
it's pretty much all white people. She kisses a lot
of white boys. She learns the lyrics to songs for
mostly white peers would sing yeah yeah yeah. So having
this kind of shock of wanting something you see on
TV and then getting it and realizing I don't know,
it did take her some time to realize it.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
But I mean, and she did end up marrying a
white man, which I know you're going to talk about
in a second. So it wasn't necessarily she was trying
to find a white man though, But all that to say, like,
you know, it happens when you when you can become
a part of that culture.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
It kind of happened.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, I mean, her parents they wanted her to get
exposure to whiteness because it's the quote real world.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Not only exposure, they wanted her to learn to be
a little more white like they are, like learned from
them literally, as she said, as the uncle's like, you
need to know, you need to learn.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Yeah, but she did. I mean she was really she
was angry, especially at the I don't see color conversation.
She got a lot in college. She encountered a lot
of microaggressions at work, some of which were like it
made me double check when she would have been how
old she would have been with that hapened. But yeah,
(27:19):
I'm sure it's still going on.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Well, mean, it's kind of like that same comment about
like just using food like an assumption of like food
of a type of food in order to like, oh
you really love kimchi. Yeah, obviously you kind of smell
like type of type of thing. There's a lot of
microaggression that she didn't understand because for her, the microaggression
she knew was not microaggression from her own people. It
(27:42):
was more like they're just blunt, right, and so like
that didn't seem that way until she kind of figured out, oh, okay,
this was not this is to other me and that's
that other conversations like what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (27:53):
In that same conversation, like what are you?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
A lot of the people that she took a poll with,
like other people of color when they say that, I
don't mind it if it's from people of color. I
minded when it's from white people, because there is an
underlying I'm better than you kind of conversation or fetishism
that lies that seems to lie when they ask that
type of question, as opposed to if another Asian person
(28:15):
asks another Asian person, it may be because they find
some commonality of wanting to see something comforting of their
home like that. And I've definitely been approached by Chinese
people asking me whoere I'm from and hopes that I'm
Chinese and having that moment but still being able to connect.
It's kind of like how I talked about Brandy finding
something different and not white and realizing that the white.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Isn't the standard.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Like when I talked about how I looked up to
Brandy because she was one of the first women of
color I've ever seen in a lead and loved and
like to see that felt like it was opening doors
for all of us. And that's kind of the same
of like, oh, you're not necessarily from my country, but
you're close to that, and I file some commanderie here
(29:00):
and then that level. So when she's talking about that
understanding of like it's not so bad hearing it from
other Now, don't get me wrong, there's still bad players
in that because there's also otherness and like I'm better
than you because you're so in so country and I'm
from this country instead, which is a whole different conversation
that we have to we'll have to like unbox later
at a time, but it is kind of that interesting
(29:23):
conversation that she's learning because it wasn't meant as harm
when she was in Egypt or when she's with her
Filipino family, you know, like that was just like a
part of the conversation where there is ill intent outside
of and also like that backwards of like I don't
see color slash. The melting pot really also harmed people
(29:46):
of color and people who are from different countries because
it negates where their background, it negates their home, their culture,
all of that. Instead of embracing that culture, they're like, no,
but you need to acco me to us, just melting
with us, and that's that level. Is also like, oh
that's infuriating, right.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And just a quick clarification, Brandy from Cinderella.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yes, sorry, I always I'm not gonna lie, like I've
talked about her many times. Yeah, just that side note
is like one of the things I think of it
as a child, when I think of seeing beyond white
people as the standard. Brandy was the one that broke
the mold for me. Yes, and this is why I
love her so much.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
I knew who you were talking about, but I wanted
to make sure.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
You know because you know me.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I feel like listeners who have seen this, Yeah, for
those who have been around you know, but for those
who are maybe newer. I have a love for Brandy
that transcends, and it has a lot to do with
my childhood experiences. I've seen a woman of color as
lead and being like loved as her.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
So yes, you can go see the episode we did
on it, Yes, if you would like.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
To till it's still a part of my heart.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yes. Well, as we touched on two, she the graphic
novels kind of split into like chapters of her life,
and she does have a chapter about her relationship and
eventual marriage with a white man named Darren and her
family's initial resistance and her own questions about it. And
(31:17):
I think one of the things about this novel that
I really appreciated is she's really open about, you know,
still learning self discovery. She asked. She was like, hmm,
what should I think about this? What should I think
about this? And then she had her observations of him
(31:39):
and his interactions with her family particularly and her culture particularly,
and that's kind of how she arrived at her answer. Yeah,
but that was a whole thing. Ultimately, it's about being yourself.
It feels very bright to me. It feels very like
(32:00):
ask questions, be curious, hold on to these things in
your culture and your history. It was kind of strange
to read it now because it was written in twenty
nineteen and the immigration system has changed so much since lastly. Yeah,
so there is a bit of a what felt to
(32:22):
me like a disconnect of Oh, I wonder what she thinks?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Now?
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Are I like what she would if she had? And
something she would add on the end update? Yeah, I
don't know because she's still around. But yeah, I really
enjoyed it. I thought it was cute. I love the art. Yes, well, listeners,
go check this book out if you haven't already. If
(32:48):
you have any suggestions for our next book club or
anything at all, you can email us at Hello at
stuff Whenever Told You dot com. You can find us
on Buce Guy Momso podcast or on Instagram and TikTok
at Stuff We Told You or else on YouTube. We
have some merchandise at Compureau and we have a book
you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks its
always to our super judicial chandler and our executive producer.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I am thank you and thanks you for.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Listening Stuff Never Told You Instructure by Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can check out
the art radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Bleep! with Ana Navarro
Fear thrives in silence and confusion. Ana Navarro rejects both. Her voice is an antidote to today’s chaos. Her new podcast, Bleep! with Ana Navarro, takes on today’s most pressing issues with the voices most connected to it: decision-makers, political leaders, cultural shapers, and people on the frontlines of the story. The conversations acknowledge the emotions we all feel—despair, sadness, fear— but emerge with knowledge, perspective, and hope. The belief is simple: fearless dialogue can transform fear into courage, and courage into change. When fear dominates the headlines, this show digs deeper. Because information, debate, and conversation don’t just ease fear, they give us power to shape the future.
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.