Waymos Driven by Filipinos, Betting We War, Apocalypse Families - Karen Tongson (S2 E2)

SEASON 2 EPISODE 2! We’re doin’ it!It is Monday, March 2nd, 2026 and this is What Should We Talk About? With Jenny Yang!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. (FULL EPISODES ONLY ON SUBSTACK)My guest today is one of my favorite academic pop cultural critics around, the author of several books, including 2023’s “Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV that Soothes Us.” She’s the Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies at USC, where she founded and directs the Mellon-funded Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture. Co-host of the podcasts The Art of Grief with Dr. Megan Auster-Rosen, and The Gaymazing Race with Nicole Georges. Please welcome, Karen Tongson! (https://www.karentongson.org/about)And as always 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:* Podcast Updates* I was sick for 2 weeks! I’m doing a LINKS post weekly now! LINKS on Mondays. POD on Thursdays. Thanks to my OnlyPaids. Should I shout out EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY ONLY PAIDS THROUGHOUT THE SEASON?* SLANTED indie film. My friend Amy Wang wrote and directed it and it is so funny and poignant. It just premiered in LA this week (after winning an award at SXSW last year!) I WILL talk about it in next week’s episode. The official synopsis reads: “As a senior in high school, Joan Huang (Chen) idolizes winning Prom Queen as the embodiment of popularity, beauty, and the ultimate form of acceptance into American life. In her relentless pursuit for the crown, she undergoes an experimental racial transformation to become White and win Prom Queen. However, what she thought was a dream come true soon reveals itself to be an emotional and physical nightmare.”* 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 14, 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.* Did you catch this week’s Virgo Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse?* Paradise on Hulu and Apocalypse Families* Why Is Our Mental Health Dependent On The Survival of Punch the Japanese Monkey?* More American Citizens are “Denaturalizing” Than Ever(After this, OnlyPaids hear the full episode)* Being a Regular at a Restaurant or Bar* Filipinos. That’s it. We’re talking about them.* 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. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennyyang.substack.com/subscribe