The Oscars, Chinamaxxing, The Pitt+Project Hail Mary as Hopecore? - Guy Branum, Juliet Liu (S2 E4)

SEASON 2 EPISODE 4! It is Monday, March 16th, 2026 and this is What Should We Talk About? With Jenny Yang! (ALSO. If you’re in Los Angeles, get tickets to see Jenny’s work in progress standup shows in Highland Park. Saturday shows in March at 6pm. http://outsideintheatre.vbotickets.com/event/happy_hour_saturdays_w_jenny/187143)What Should We Talk About? with Jenny Yang is your weekly catchup time with smart and funny people to find joy in an unjust world. We discuss topics submitted by our guests and you, the listener. Any topic! Current, old! Big, small! Nerdy, petty! From pop culture to the personal and political. Catch shorter preview episodes wherever you pod. But if you want FULL episodes UNCUT and bonus episodes, become a Paid Subscriber at jennyyang.substack.com. So if this episode cuts out mid convo – don’t get mad - get subscribing.Hit follow and give us a rating and review on Apple Pods, Spotify, or wherever you pod. Become an OnlyPaid via Substack I will read your reviews and subscriber messages on the pod! Like this one: “Thank you for sharing this emotional work you’re doing. I am the oldest daughter of Taiwanese immigrant parents. My dad passed a few yrs ago and I’m experiencing my mom in a very different way without his presence. Here’s to us immigrant daughters surviving and thriving in this society while learning to love our parents the best we can (with boundaries). “ - GINMy first guest is a writer and comedian who has credits writing for Platonic on Apple and you might have seen him on his viral Instagram Series “What the Old Gays Remember” my friend and one of my comedian heroes GUY BRANUM (https://www.instagram.com/guybranum)!You might not know my next guest for being on stage or in front of the camera like most of my guests but she is one of the people I have come to check in with as a trusted co-conspirator about the woes of the world. She is a recovering Hollywood professional. She started out at Michael De Luca Productions, worked at Universal for top dawg Donna Langley, became a studio exec, had a climate existential crisis during the pandemic, which led to her to becoming a producer across film/tv/theater (she won a Tony for A STRANGE LOOP), and then after the strikes she pivoted into working in the climate space as a cultural strategist. Now she’s figuring out what to do with the rest of her life, like the rest of us!! JULIET LIU (https://www.instagram.com/juliettliu/)!And on the final mic, heard but not seen, co-founder of the marketing and branding company “Let’s Brand!”, my sweetie and co-producer of life, COREY HIGGS! (http://okletsbrand.com/).Check our LINKS this week for some of the sources behind today’s episode.On today’s agenda:* Jenny’s Updates* Los Angeles Tickets for Jenny’s March Shows: http://outsideintheatre.vbotickets.com/event/happy_hour_saturdays_w_jenny/187143 Outside In Theater on York. March 21, 28 - 5pm bar opens, 6pm show starts 7:30pm show’s over. 8pm in bed. Suggested ticket 20 bucks or pay what you can. Jennyyang.tv for tickets. I’m talking growing up a good immigrant kid, my wild miscarriage and fertility journey. This is my prep for my summer tour that I haven’t announced yet.* The Oscars: OUR Winners and Losers* Celebrity Gossip: Love It or Hate It?FREE EPISODE ENDS HERE. FULL EPISODES ON SUBSTACK BABYYYYY!* Guy Thinks Jenny Would LOVE Quebec Sugar Shacks (Le Temps des Sucres)Drag Race: Who Could Be The Successor to RuPaul?* “Chinamaxxing” and geopolitics in the post-liberal world order* Drag Race: Who Could Be The Successor to RuPaul?* The co-optation and dilution of “community” and what community actually takes (vulnerability!)* Hopecore TV and Movies: Project Hail Mary, The PittGOT REALLY LONG! SO #7 and #8 ARE CLIPPED OUT IN A SEPARATE POST JUST FOR MY ONLYPAIDS* Action Items (place for you to make note of some things you want to try or do from today’s chat)Because you don’t want to feel like you are losing your mind and because we long for a better world filled with fun, love, joy, and cool shit. This is What Should We Talk About? With Jenny Yang at jennyyang.substack.comIf you are as obsessed with the intersection of pop culture, politics, and personal growth as I am, please consider becoming a paid member of my Substack for $8 a month or $80 a year ($6.67 a month). You will get:* Weekly newsletters of the podcast with access to the EXTENDED CUT OF EACH EPISODE (only available on Substack).* Complete access to all chats and comments, exclusively for my Substack subscribers.* Access to all breaking news analysis and personal essays.jennyyang.substack.comHit that subscribe button if:* you care about building a better world filled with joy, love, comedy and cool sh*t.* you are tired of doomscrolling on social media and want a way to get a run-down of the week in news and culture without triggering your fight or flight response!* you want to get what you need as someone who cares about the world and then go touch grass.* you are as obsessed with food, self-care, building community, TV, film, pop culture, AND politics as I am AND you think it should all be in the same conversation.* you are freaking out because you hear about the wild news of the day, look around and everyone is just living their life like business-as-usual, so you’re tearing your hair out and think, “WHY ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS?”Follow Jenny Yang on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube!* IG: @jennyyangtv* TT: @jennyyangtv* YT: JennyYangTVEmail: [email protected] Yang is a standup comedian, actor, and tv writer who was named one of Variety’s Top Ten Comics to Watch and has been featured at Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, the San Francisco Sketch Festival, and Netflix is a Joke Festival.Jenny is a former labor organizer who was born in Taiwan and raised in Los Angeles, and stars opposite Michelle Yeoh as an assassin in the Netflix action comedy-drama series, The Brothers Sun.Follow her weekly podcast “What Should We Talk About?” on Substack: jennyyang.substack.com This is a public episode. 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