Rock the Boat | Asian American Podcast

This week, Lucia speaks with Dr. Thomas Tsang, who is the CEO and co-founder of Valera Health, a physician, and a former congressional staffer in the Obama Administration who helped write and execute the Affordable Care Act.

Simon Tam is the founder and bassist of The Slants, the world’s first and only all Asian American rock band. He’s also an author, activist, and self-proclaimed troublemaker, setting a world record by appearing on the TEDx stage 13 times.

The presidential election is over, well… sort of, but COVID is not. In this episode Lucia speaks with the former health commissioner of Baltimore, Dr. Leana Wen about how to ensure that mask wearing is a public health issue and not a political issue. Dr. Wen also speaks about her journey from being a practicing physician to being a public health advocate, standing up against xenophobia, and how we can all get on the same page when ...

Qasim Rashid is a Pakistani-born author, activist, attorney, and is currently running for Congress in VA. When hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Qasim was a senior in college confronted with a critical decision to make. Would you risk failing all your classes to help your neighbor? His choice was a paradigm shifting moment in his life. Now, Qasim’s campaign runs along similar veins, focused on bringing together and serving the communi...

When we talk about representation, we usually think about representation in the media and in the corporate office. However, there is a place where we rarely see Asian Americans, and that is in the government. When was the last time you saw an Asian governor, or an Asian mayor? Today’s guest Yuh-Line Niou talks about the importance of having representation in the local state government. She shares her journey to becoming an elected ...

Welcome to Season 5 of Rock the Boat! In Season 5 we highlight Asian Americans who are challenging the status quo in the world of Government, Politics, Civic Engagement, and Advocacy. We are proud to be partnering with the Model Majority podcast to bring you a short season of incredible guests. Today’s guest is Senator Tammy Duckworth. She is the first Thai American woman elected to Congress. She is the first woman with a disabilit...

Meet Sharon Lee Thony and Raman Sehgal, the hosts of Modern Minorities Podcast. Their podcast focuses on conversations with fellow modern minorities to uncover how our different cultural backgrounds shape how we uniquely experienced the world. Sharon and Roman have unique perspectives of what it means to be a modern minority because they're not only minorities themselves. But they've also married outside of their own race and have ...

During our break between Season 4 and Season 5. We’re bringing you bonus episodes from other Asian podcasters. This week, we’re bringing you an episode from an Asian Australian podcast called Shoes Off. Shoes Off explores Asian Australian culture and is beautifully written and produced by Jay Ooi. In this episode, Jay explores the roots of Anti-Asian sentiment spurred by the rise of COVID -19 in Australia.

During our break between Season 4 and Season 5. We’re bringing you 3 bonus episodes from other Asian podcasters. The first episode is from our friends over at Self Evident. Self Evident is a community-driven podcast where Asian American stories challenge the social and political narratives that shape our lives. This episode comes from Season 2 of Self Evident and explores the wave of anti-Asian incidents that’s swept across the cou...

We’re at the end of Season 4 and what better way to end than with a fellow Penn alum? This week, Lucia sits down with Melissa Mash, founder of digitally native bag brand, Dagne Dover. Melissa shares her journey from working at Coach to spending her life savings to pursue and MBA at Wharton so she could start her company Dagne Dover.

Grace Kelly is an award-winning singer, saxophonist, songwriter, and performer. Lucia heard her live at a jazz concert where she was a surprise guest and asked Grace to share her music journey on Rock The Boat. In this episode, Lucia sits down with Grace to have a candid conversation about living the life of a jazz musician and balancing her creative side with her practical side.

In partnership with the Asian American Business Development Center, we are bringing you more stories from Asian American executives. Lucia sat down with Phillip Han, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, to talk about his career path and his passion for uplifting the Asian American community in corporate America. Phillip opens up about his career failures and triumphs and what he thinks could move the needle on getting more Asians ...

Finding the intersection of what you love and what you’re good at is a tough thing to do. However, Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur, the Founder of the direct to consumer fashion brand M.M. LaFleur discovered it in an unexpected place as an entrepreneur after a zigzag career path in consulting, finance, and international development. Sarah credits her mother for instilling in her the idea that women hold an important place in the workplace. ...

Bootstrapping, facing bankruptcy, and South Park-- this is the startup story of Guitar Hero. In this episode, Lucia sits down with Kai Huang, the cofounder of Red Octane, the company behind Guitar Hero to learn about the ups and downs of starting a company during a recession. Kai speaks about how he and his brother built a video game rental business that evolved into creating one of the most beloved games in the United States.

Many people think that Entrepreneurship is the epitome of the American Dream. It’s a meritocracy where anyone can build something and find success. However, Elizabeth Yin, the founder of Hustle Fund recognized otherwise. In this episode Lucia has a candid conversation with Elisabeth about why traditional VC models are not working, how minority founders are systemically overlooked, and why she wanted to start a fund that changes VC.

First and foremost, Rock The Boat supports Black Lives Matter. Last week was a very difficult week. Protests erupted across the country to combat systemic racism and police brutality. Lucia felt compelled to open up a dialogue after a comment her mother made about Blacks targeting Asians during these protests. In this episode, Ed Prokropski, a Korean American adoptee, and Galen Reeves-Darby sit down with Lucia to share some persona...

The Asian American experience is a complicated one. We all have our different realities when it comes to our relationship with our culture and identity. This is compounded by the fact that America is becoming more diverse, but also more divisive. To help combat xenophobia against Asians and reach across the aisle, a group of Asian American leaders and organizations came together to create the #AllAmericans campaign. One of these le...

Dating is hard, especially now when meeting-in person is almost impossible. Dating within the Asian American community is even harder since there are unfair dating dynamics at play for Asian men and Asian women. One out of three Asian Americans marry outside of their race where Asian women are two times more likely than Asian men to marry outside their race. Media’s portrayal of Asian men doesn’t help either. To dig a bit deeper in...

Do you still remember the feeling of eating out at your favorite restaurant? It’s tough now when most restaurants are closed or only offering delivery. This week, Lucia sits down with Hanson Li, founder of Salt Partners Group, a restaurant investment and development company that co-owns Michelin Starred restaurant Atelier Crenn and investor in Saison in San Francisco. Hanson opens up about founding Salt, how food, culture, and medi...