Loud Murmurs 小声喧哗
Episodes
Michelle Obama is one of the most iconic women of our time and one of the most beloved First Lady in U.S. history. Her memoir “Becoming” has been a book that is giving us life in a year filled with crises.
For this episode, hosts Ina and Afra invited Dr. Guo Ting at the University of Hong Kong to talk about Michell Obama’s memoir—the lessons we can and cannot learn from her journey.
We talked about:
Hosts Diaodiao, Afra, and Izzy talk about Mindy Kailing’s new Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” a coming-of-age comedy about Devi, a second-generation Indian American girl in California.
We talk about our own past as overachieving high school nerds (more than one of us were also in Model UN ahem), the feeling of othering when you move to a new country, why the show only manages to tell one specific story from Devi’s perspective, a...
This episode is dedicated to one of our quarantine favorites -- Netflix’s The Half of it, a quirky coming-of-age romantic comedy written and directed by Asian American director, Alice Wu. We unpacked the literary references of the film, and discussed why the references perfectly captured the mindset of a teenager literature reader. We also talked about the four key characters in the film -- Ellie, Astor, Paul and Dr. Chu -- what th...
In this episode, our hosts Afra and Diaodiao are joined by a group of AI practitioners to unpack the new season of HBO’s Westworld. They talked about the show’s fuzzy rendition of the role of engineering in AI technology, explained how the real-world versions of Incite create your user profile, and shared stories and researches that illustrate the disturbing reality we live in -- the dual Leviathan of surveillance capitalism and su...
This episode is basically an hour-long of us singing the praises of sitcom “Schitt’s Creek,” written and produced by Dan Levy and Eugene Levy. Its season finale aired in April so now is the perfect time to talk about this show, which went from a little-known series when it first aired in Canada 5 years ago to a breakout success with a ferocious fan base (us included.)
The show tells the story of a rich family who lost all of their ...
Dear listeners, we hope you’re doing well wherever you may be. The hosts of Loud Murmurs have all been staying at home to help curb the epidemic and we thought what better way to retain our sanity than to talk about death, the meaning of life and ethics?
In this episode, we invited our old friend Santu to talk about NBC’s comedy “The Good Place.” The comedy explores the above-mentioned large themes but still manages to be smart, mo...
This week hosts Afra and Izzy nerd out about Edward Norton’s 2019 film “Motherless Brooklyn” with our special first-time guest, DK-an architect based in New York.
The neo-noir film touches on a lot of topics we love to talk about: the fight for racial equality in the U.S., the urban plan3ning history of NYC, housing rights in the past and at present. The movie may not be the most famous one coming out of the last award season, but ...
This is a very special episode. It’s a celebration of the second anniversary of Loud Murmurs. We’re very excited to share this with you all.
Hosts Afra, Izzy, Ina and Diaodiao talk about Queer Eye, the popular Netflix makeover show. We discuss how its tagline “more than a makeover” manifests itself over this season; the structural inequality and cultural conflicts revealed and then brushed off by the show; Fab 5’s celebrity status ...
In this episode, we talk about the 2019 movie “Bombshell” and two books that started the global “MeToo” movement—Ronan Farrow’s “Catch and Kill” and “She Said” by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.
It’s been almost 4 years since Trump’s “Pussygate” and his election, three years since the bombshell news story of Weinstein broke, two years since the Kavanaugh hearing. Is “MeToo” going too far? (Spoiler alert: nooooo.)
The week we recorded ...
2020 has been a rough year for us -- with the Coronavirus spreading from central China to all across the globe, we realized how small we are as humans in the face of a global health epidemic, yet also how grand humanity can be in the time of disasters. As we grow weary of shedding tears, we try to make sense of it all, discussing with peers and looking at this from all angles. Everything will be different from this moment on. We wi...
Title：S3E2: Little Women: not all 'sweetness and light'
Today, your four hosts gather together to discuss a literary-turned-big-screen phenomenon that’s been sweeping the world and the awards ceremonies. We absolutely adore this modern-day adaptation by Greta Gerwig (who directed Lady Bird) and together, we explore the various themes within the movie. Many of us have read the novel at a younger age, so join us on this...
Welcome back to Loud Murmurs Season 3 and happy New Year to our listeners!
We start the year strong with a deep dive into the timeless theme of the “unhappily-ever-after battle of the sexes” -- divorce. Your hosts, Afra, Ina, along with our guest Mr. You, discuss Noah Baumbach’s frontrunner in the Oscar horse race, Marriage Story. Beautifully acted by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johanson, Marriage Story offers a snapshot of a husband a...
Loud Murmurs has had a very! eventful! year!
We interviewed some amazing guests, did a really awesome episode (if we may say so ourselves) about “One Child Nation” (nominated for an Oscars, go Nanfu & Lynn!!), got on the radar of censors cuz we blew up yay, started a whack-a-mole game with Chinese podcasting platforms and eventually ran out of f*cks to give so we packed all of our shit together in a neat little backpack and car...
“Climb into my fur,” JLo’s character said, and Constance Wu’s character happily obliged. This was our favorite scene from the recent movie directed by Lorene Scafaria ——“Hustlers.”
In addition to all wanting to climb into JLo’s fur and stay there till the new decade, we also want to take this opportunity to share our thoughts on the movie that features “triple threat” JLo and Constance Wu, the first Asian woman to be nominated for ...
For this episode our hosts Diaodiao and Ina and our guests discussed why, despite being thoroughly entertaining, Joker missed the punch. We pondered on what being lonely means in a political system driven by recognition, and how the incel phenomenon is reflective of this. Us four New Yorkers on the episode also took a jab at ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg’s infamous soda tax, drawing a parallel with the detached elites in Joker.
The four of us at Loud Murmurs are beyond excited to welcome back Season Four of Rick and Morty (Nov. 10 airdate) with our very own two-part special.
In Part 2, Afra and Ina sit down with our old friend Li Erke, as well as our very own sci-fi writer Su Min. We take a deep dive into two episodes -- Vindicator 3: The Return of Worldender, and the ultimate R&M episode, greatest of all time: the The Ricklantis Mixup!
We cover off on...
The four of us at Loud Murmurs are beyond excited to welcome back Season Four of Rick and Morty (Nov. 10 airdate) with our very own two-part special. We take a deep dive into the world of R&M with four guests through five episodes
In Part 1, Izzy and Diaodiao sits down with physicist Zhichen Zhao, and another physicist philosopher Chentong Lu, to discuss three of our favorite episodes: A Rickle in Time, Auto Erotic Assimilation,...
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In this episode, hosts Ina and Afra are joined by guest Youfei to talk about Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, the first Korean film to win the top prize, the Palme d’Or, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The story, contrary to what its title might suggest, is essentially a...
If you want to support us, consider donating monthly to our Patreon project:
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This is a special crossover episode between Loud Murmurs and a Chinese feminist podcast called “The F Word.” (https://www.ximalaya.com/renwen/21068572/）Izzy and Ina discussed two shows they love, Russian Dolls and The Expanse, with the hosts of the F word. They also discussed Ch...
If you want to support us, consider donating monthly to our Patreon project:
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The much requested episode on “American Factory” is finally here!
In this episode, hosts Diaoiao, Izzy and Afra are joined by guests Master Zhu and Zhang Zhe to talk about the critically-acclaimed documentary produced by Michelle and Barack Obama’s “Higher Ground Productions.”
“Americ...
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