Author: Time To Say Goodbye

Hello from Mai’s COVID den! 

It’s just Jay and Tammy this week. (3:25) First, we chat about a mini-generation of Asian women named after Connie Chung and the news anchor’s professional legacy. (22:18) Then, we discuss the public killings of Banko Brown in SF and Jordan Neely in NYC—and the disturbing turn against poor (particularly Black) people in our cities. 

We ask: 

Has America so devalued the lives of homeless people that any offense now seems to warrant vigilante murder?

How do these conversations play out on the West versus the East Coast? 

Does urban topography affect these dynamics? 

For more, read: 

* Reporting from the S.F. Chronicle: Banko Brown: Video shows what led to S.F. Walgreens shooting; D.A. won’t file charges 

* Jay’s recent New Yorker piece on Jordan Neely’s death and an older article that discusses California’s housing-first approach to homelessness 

* Friend-of-pod Darrell Owens’s take on homelessness and vigilante violence on public transit

Some TTSG housekeeping: First, we’re having a subscriber picnic on June 10th in NYC! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. 

Second, get a TTSG tote for yourself and all your pals! You can either get it shipped to you directly or select "Ship to TTSG" and pick it up at the June 10th picnic. If you’re shipping internationally, use this link instead. Order by this Friday and rep the pod wherever you go!

Thanks as always for listening! Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the vault! 

In the first of a series of episodes commemorating TTSG’s third anniversary, OG Andy Liu returns. 🎉

We look back at the first episode we ever released, on April 13, 2020, and ask: 

(9:30) Was Andy right to attribute both the spread of the coronavirus and the backlash against Asian Americans to China’s growing power? 

(34:30) Has COVID diminished the concept of U.S. exceptionalism—if not within the U.S., at least in the rest of the world? 

(56:30) Is it possible for leftists to embrace national industrial policy without replicating the same kinds of neoliberalism that led us here?  

For more, see: 

* That fateful first episode, Pangolin Panic and Why the West Said "No" to Masks 

* Our episode analyzing Dan Wang’s U.S.–China 2020 newsletter, plus his 2022 assessment 

* Commentary on recent China-related legislation and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s speech, outlining a new Washington consensus

A couple big TTSG announcements! First, we’ll be having a subscriber picnic on June 10th in NYC to celebrate our anniversary and Jay’s “American Son” premiere (movie tix here!). Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. 

Next, we’re finally releasing TTSG MERCH, starting with a PMC staple: a TTSG tote! When you place your order, you can either get it shipped to you directly or "Ship to TTSG." Please only select the latter option if you plan to attend the NYC picnic on June 10th! (Apologies to all non-locals.) Buy one (or two or three) to rep the pod, and share the link with friends & family! 

As always, keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the start of AANHPIXYZ Heritage Month!

It’s just Jay and Tammy this week, going long on two of our favorite topics: U.S.-Korea relations and progressive media. [3:15] First, we address the carefully crafted viral moment from Korean President Yoon’s debut at the White House, and the sanitizing of human rights realities in Asia. [17:30] Next, we discuss the controversy over an article about Tucker Carlson published by the American Prospect—and mea culpa’d by the top editor following online criticism. We touch on [28:10] virtue-signaling disclaimers and [38:55] the tiptoeing endemic to our fractured news industry.  

In this episode, we ask: 

Why did a misogynistic, anti-labor president get such a glowing White House welcome? 

Do we agree with the central argument of the Prospect article: that there is some value to Tucker Carlson types’ espousing of “populist” views on Fox News? 

Is Jay less cancellable because he’s not white? 

For more, read: 

* “South Korean president sings ‘American Pie’” 

* About Korea’s legislative and symbolic agenda on this U.S. trip

* Background on President Yoon when he first entered office, by Tammy

* The American Prospect article: “The Smuggest Man On Air”

* David Dayen’s editor’s note and the response by two other Prospect writers: “The Real Tucker Carlson”

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

Join us at the premiere of Jay’s movie, “American Son,” at the Tribeca Film Festival, in NYC, in June! Purchase tix here! 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from a cruise ship! 

This week, we welcome book critic and Philly basketball devotee Jennifer Wilson back to the show. We discuss [1:00] the epidemic of belligerent airline passengers; [6:25] the surprising (and not so surprising) firings of Tucker Carlson from Fox News and Don Lemon from CNN; [15:10] Jen’s favorite 76er, James Harden, and his ejection for nut-punching; and [27:40] journalist Lauren Oyler’s recent piece on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop cruise and the sexist genre of wellness writing.  

In this episode, we ask: 

Why do so many basketball players punch and kick one another in the crotch? 

Are the Tucker Carlsons and Don Lemons of the world easily replaceable?

What (besides capitalism, duh) makes us so obsessed with wellness? 

How is vulnerability (especially in women) used to sell products, activate people online, and smooth out social relations? 

For more, see: 

* This week’s viral airplane video (baby screams; man yells) 

* A breakdown of James Harden's and Joel Embiid's fouls 

* Lauren Oyler’s dispatch from the Goop Cruise

* The David Foster Wallace cruise piece that the Goop story references 

* Oyler’s 2021 essay on writer W. G. Sebald 

* How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner 

* The TikTok influencer video that led to the intense doxxing of two young women 

* A rumination on the rise of astrology among millennials by Christine Smallwood

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from a 90-degree day in New York!

This week, we’re joined by Alex Han, executive director of In These Times and a longtime organizer based in Chicago. Alex previously worked for Bernie’s 2020 campaign and SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana. We get into the context behind the surprise mayoral win by former teacher and organizer Brandon Johnson, over “corporate reformer” Paul Vallas. We discuss [15:45] the values (neoliberal versus progressive) at stake in this race, [25:08] which strategies can, and can’t, be reproduced by other candidates, and [1:01:30] the role of left-labor publications like In These Times in counteracting corporate media.

In this episode, we ask: 

What made the Chicago Teachers Union become such a central player in city politics? 

How has “defund the police” evolved, rhetorically, on the left? 

How do you build a coalition that’s led by progressives but populated by centrists? 

What should left media do to engage young people and other big yet hard-to-reach groups? 

For more, read: 

* Alex’s post-election editorial for In These Times

* This reflection on bargaining for the common good and the influence of the CTU 

* More on the deep, grassroots organizing behind Johnson’s victory: 'It Was 100-Percent People Power' (Block Club Chicago) and Chicago’s Rich Organizing Tradition Paid Off (The Nation) 

* An interview with Alex on the past and present of In These Times: What Do Movements Need from Progressive Media?

* The book Jay mentions, After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist Struggle, by Cedric G. Johnson

* Horrifying news of the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in Kansas City

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Jay’s COVID den!

Mai would like you to know that she begged Jay to skip recording and rest after he tested positive for COVID, and did the same with Tammy a few weeks ago. They did not listen. Please don’t follow their bad example!

This week, Tammy and Jay chat with repeat guest Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network and longtime organizer for immigrant rights. [1:45] We start, though, with a discussion of “Veep,” which Jay has been rewatching—a show that continues to be relevant and prescient ten-plus years on. [14:40] Then we talk about Biden’s disappointing policies on immigration, including the continuation of Title 42 and other policies designed to exclude asylum seekers, [50:00] and reflect on some small wins that follow years of organizing by groups like the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). 

In this episode, we ask: 

How do anti-immigration policies actually worsen the same border conditions that some claim to be fighting through deterrence?  

What makes immigration intersectional? 

How might the immigrant-rights movement adopt a broader framework of immigrant justice? 

For more, see: 

* More on the Biden administration’s anti-immigrant moves, including a potential reinstatement of family detention 

* Hannah Dreier’s NYT report about migrant child labor in the U.S.

* The fire at a Juárez migrant detention center that killed dozens

* A glimmer of good news: DHS expands protections for whistleblowers 

* The Tennessee GOP’s attack on two Black legislators

Plus, listen to Silky’s August 2022 TTSG appearance, ​​Immigration’s “catalyst moments,” and a September episode where we discuss Ron DeSantis’s migrant-busing stunt: GOP cruelty gone wild. 

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the Bay Area! 

This week, it’s just Jay speaking with Malcolm Harris, the author of the recently published Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. We talk about [5:40] why Malcolm wrote a 600-plus-page epic instead of a shorter, more personal book; [27:25] Palo Alto’s origin story, including Leland Stanford and immigrant labor on the railroads; and [43:20] what mainstream histories get wrong about the New Left and Silicon Valley’s development. (Heads-up: There is a brief discussion of suicide between 11:30 and 14:10.)

In this episode, we ask: 

Why does Palo Alto give off such a weird vibe, and how does Stanford University's approach to real estate contribute? 

What did Jay and his daughter learn about the exploitation of Chinese rail workers at the California State Railroad Museum? 

Is Malcolm worried that AI could take his job? 

For more, read: 

* Malcolm’s colossal Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

* An archetypal business book: Barbarians at the Gate, by Bryan Burrough & John Helyar

* Mae Ngai’s book on Chinese migration and the gold rush, The Chinese Question—and listen to Andy’s episode with Mae! 'History is not a straight line': on the Chinese Question with Prof. Mae Ngai 

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. And email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Jay’s flooded basement! (Apologies for our less-than-ideal audio.) 

This week, our guest is Bryce Covert, a writer who covers the culture and work of child care (and its increasingly dire state) in the U.S. Bryce tells Jay and Tammy [14:50] what she’s been hearing from providers as pandemic-stimulus funding dwindles; [27:55] why care workers haven’t been able to win better pay, even in a strong labor market; and [52:25] how private-sector incentives might help—but don’t go nearly far enough. (A lot of our references are to hetero nuclear families, but the pain is universal!)

In this episode, we ask: 

Why do Jay and Bryce have to apply to 94 summer camps to make sure their kids aren’t marooned?

What would an ideal child care system look like? At what age would public care and schooling begin? 

What can we learn from previous U.S. policy and experiments elsewhere?

Why does an adequate child care system feel politically impossible? 

For more, see Bryce’s writing… 

In The Nation: 

The Childcare Crisis Is Getting Worse

Child Care Providers Are Organizing, Demanding More, and Winning 

In Early Learning Nation: "I Can't Compete": Child Care Providers are Losing Staff to McDonald's and Target

In Lux: Child Care: The Radical is Popular

Also read:

* James Butler on the social care crisis in the U.K. 

* Dana Goldstein on child care and private equity 

* The ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ Effect (i.e. wealthy parents’ version of this crisis) 

* More on the childcare provision in the CHIPS Act

Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. And email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Tammy’s COVID bunker! 

This week, after a short tribute to Montana’s “dean of journalism,” Chuck Johnson, R.I.P., Tammy speaks with Kshama Sawant, the three-term socialist Seattle City Councilmember who recently announced that she will not seek reelection after this year. Instead, she has launched Workers Strike Back, “an independent, rank-and-file campaign” to support organizing nationwide. We discuss [9:42] the Amazonification of Seattle, [31:05] a historic municipal bill banning caste discrimination, and [38:28] critiques of Sawant’s approach to politics and organizing. Plus: Tammy and Kshama debate union strategy.

In this episode, we ask: 

Does socialism provide answers to today’s woes? 

What did the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 reveal about identity politics?  

How might the Dobbs ruling and other failures of Democratic leadership help us envision a new political party? 

What does DSA get right and wrong? 

For more, read: 

* Tammy’s 2019 mini-profile of Kshama 

* Kshama’s labor history fave: Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs   

* A Kentucky worker on “How We’re Fighting for a Union at Amazon’s Biggest Air Hub”

* Kshama’s recent bill, making Seattle “the first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination"

And some extras from the TTSG team: 

* Tammy and Mai recommend the French-German-Belgian film, “Return to Seoul,” currently playing in some U.S. theaters.

* Tammy semi-recommends the return of the LA-catering comedy “Party Down” (though the first two seasons remain vastly superior) and really recommends these sly, tingly novellas, translated from the Japanese, by Yoko Ogawa. 

* A happy follow-up to the housing episode with Ritti Singh and Navneet Grewal, reported by TTSG guest Wilfred Chan: “‘It’s legal, there’s just no precedent’: the first US town to demand a rent decrease”

* More news in racial impostors, via Andy: “Raquel Evita Saraswati pretended to be a woman of color. Her deception traumatized the communities she claimed to help.”

* Some devastating TikToks by college applicants, courtesy of Jay 

Thanks for listening! As always, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and get in touch via email at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Jay’s tradlife mancave! 

It’s just us this week, dissecting all the ways our culture has gone too far. We begin with [0:20] a debrief of the most Asian (American?) Oscars ever. Then, updates [20:40] on feminism in South Korea and [40:38] the Stepford wives of TikTok.  

In this episode, we ask: 

Are Asians now overrepresented in Hollywood?! 

What happens when electoral politics revolves around gender relations? Why doesn’t anyone want to give birth in South Korea, despite myriad family supports? 

How much of the “tradwife” lifestyle movement is about aesthetics, as opposed to a particular politics? 

For more, see: 

* Anna Louie Sussman’s article about the 4B movement in Korea

* An interview with Hawon Jung, author of Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea’s Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women’s Rights Worldwide

* Zoe Hu on the tradlife movement and its “central hero,” the tradwife

And revisit these TTSG episodes: 

* "Everything Everywhere All At Once" deep dive 

* “Tár,” a film for the chattering class, with Vinson Cunningham

* On Korean feminism—

* Fantasies of progress on K-TV, with Jenny Wang Medina 

* A feminist(?) K-drama about abortion 

* Harper's, Boba Bros, Korean Feminism, and the NBA bubble 

If you’re in NYC this Sunday, come to BAM for a screening of Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite,” with Q&A by Tammy! Info and tix here: https://www.bam.org/film/2023/parasite

Thanks for listening. As always, you can subscribe on Patreon or Substack, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and get in touch via email at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe