ACAM Dialogues Podcast

Punjabi and South Asian music is receiving global attention, especially after the inaugural category of South Asian Music Recording of the Year at the JUNOs this year. To touch on the significance of this, Rhea is joined in conversation with Harpo Mander. Harpo is the Executive Director of 5X, which is the leading music and arts organization for diasporic Punjabis in Metro Vancouver. As a champion for South Asian artists, she has helped to transform the cultural landscape through advocacy, mentorship, and industry partnerships. As Co-Chair of the inaugural JUNOS South Asian Music Committee, Harpo has advanced national recognition for South Asian talent, and most recently made history as the first Punjabi woman appointed to the Board of BC’s PavCo.

Join Nathan in conversation with Cat Hung and Jenny Lu as they reflect on their roles in the co-curated Backyard Garden Project—a collaborative exhibit between the Museum of Vancouver, ACAM, and ACRE. This episode traces the exhibit’s evolution, from its initial ideas and goals to the post-pandemic workshops and community gatherings that emerged from its development.

Together, they explore themes of food security and sovereignty, and examine the cultural significance of food in Chinese communities—how it connects to memory, place, intergenerational knowledge, and identity. Through personal stories and collaborative insight, the episode offers a thoughtful look at how community-based projects can nurture both cultural resilience and collective healing.

Join your ACAM Dialogues hosts, Nathan Ko and Rhea Mann, as they catch-up and reflect on the end of the semester. The hosts discuss some of their favourite episodes and moments in the ACAM community from the past few months, as well as some personal updates. Rhea shares some thoughts on her exchange term at the University of Edinburgh, and Nathan talks about graduating, his new job, and future plans!

This episode, Rhea is joined by two UBC ACAM alums Curtis Huang and Evens Wong. Both Curtis and Evens, and their short films featured in our ACAM 350 event from February. In this roundtable discussion, we get to take a deeper look into their respective films “Vancouver Special” and “Looking for Popo”. Exploring themes of migration, nostalgia, grief, and memory, Evens and Curtis remind us why Asian Canadian voices and stories must continue to be uplifted! 

Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Join Nathan in conversation with special guest Thea Loo, an emerging Asian Canadian filmmaker, as they discuss her award-winning debut documentary, Inay. This deeply personal film explores the flawed immigration pathways between the Philippines and Canada, shedding light on the trauma and resilience of Filipino families separated by migration. Thea shares her journey as a filmmaker, the challenges of telling intergenerational stories, and the current landscape of Asian Canadian cinema. Listen in as Nathan and Thea delve into the power of storytelling, mental health, and the evolving role of Asian Canadian voices in film.

This episode, recorded in front of a live audience in the summer of 2024, explores the evolution of the partnership and impact between the hua foundation, UBC’s Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement (ACRE), and the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) program. For over ten years, these organizations have collaborated to address systemic inequities and build community-driven solutions. 

In the sit-down, co-instructors christina lee (hua foundation) and Dr. JP Catungal (ACRE), moderated by Szu Shen (ACAM), shares how this partnership has tackled language access issues, co-developed curricula, and built lasting relationships based on trust and shared values.

If you’re passionate about decolonizing academia, strengthening university-community partnerships, or making education more equitable, this conversation is for you.

In this episode of the ACAM Dialogues Podcast, Nathan sits down with fundraiser and marketer turned film director and producer, Lucy Komori. They take a deep dive into the origins of Lucy’s film Tsunagu and explore the nuances of cultural storytelling. Lucy also shares her unique perspective on the state of intergenerational Japanese Canadian history telling. 

Tsunagu will be featured at the February 6, 2025 “Ten Years of Asian Canadian Community Filmmaking”, a special event focused on celebrating a decade of cultural storytelling through film.

Join Rhea and Nathan with special guests Dr. Benjamin Cheung, and Dr. Laura Ishiguro. In this roundtable discussion, the group discusses some of the highlights from ACAM in 2024 and the ten year anniversary of ACAM. This episode also looks toward the program's future, discussing goals and ambitions for what ACAM can do. Listen in to hear from Dr. Chueng as the ACAM minor advisor, and Dr. Ishiguro as the director of ACAM but also as passionate and dedicated members of the ACAM community.

In this episode of the ACAM Dialogues Podcast, Nathan and Rhea discuss the recent Dragons Den episode that features a white-owned Boba tea company. Rhea gives a recap of the episode and how guest Dragon Simu Liu addresses the issues of cultural appropriation. Nathan also discusses The Mahjong Line, a company created by three white women with the intent to redesign the game that has well known roots in China. Nathan and Rhea end the episode with their segment The Watchlist, where they discuss Richard Fung’s “Reorientations” and UBC alumni Victoria So’s “In Search of Mah Hang”. 

Join Nathan and Rhea in conversation with Chris Chueng, Vancouver journalist and author of “Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism”. Chris speaks to how journalists can write stories that defy the white gaze, how readers can question who stories are for, and how to be a more conscious consumer of media. Nathan and Rhea also continue their new segment “The Watchlist” discussing Shogun, Late Bloomers, and Culinary Class Wars. 

This week, get to know your new ACAM Dialogues hosts: Rhea Mann and Nathan Ko. Rhea and Nathan introduce themselves to listeners, share their respective migration stories to so-called Canada, speak about their passions and interests.

The new podcast team also shared their plan for future episodes, and introduced a new segment: The Watchlist. This week Rhea and Nathan discuss Fly Me to the Moon, The Juno Awards, and Past Lives.

Tune in now.

Health—whether physical or mental well-being—is a crucial focus in many of our lives. Yet, it becomes even more complex within the context of diasporic communities. This episode dives into these intricacies, emphasizing the transformative power of centering joy.

For this month’s episode, we sat down with Dr. Benjamin Cheung who teaches ACAM 320B: Health amongst Asian diaspora in Canada to talk joy, cultural psychology, and his experience teaching the course.

Tune in now.

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Guest bio - Dr. Benjamin Cheung is a Lecturer and Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.

Like many of us travelling for the first time, Isa’s first solo-trip to Asia brought about a lot of conflicting feelings, questions and thoughts — What privileges might our passports and accents afford us as we move through the world? What does it mean to be marked foreign or have to deliberately mark yourself foreign in places where everyone looks like you? What happens when we voyage to places and find ourselves caught in the middle of existing conflicts larger than ourselves?

Hoping to find some answers, this month she sat down with Chris Patterson, author of Stamped: an anti travel novel, and lead developer of “Stamped: an anti travel game” to discuss these hard questions around travel, privilege and identity.

Tune in now.

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Guest bio - Christopher B. Patterson is an Associate Professor in the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on transpacific discourses of literature, games, and films through the lens of empire studies, queer theory and creative writing.

This week is part 2 of our mini-series looking behind-the-scenes at the creation of "The Paper Trail" exhibit, featured at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver's Chinatown.

As a part of the exhibit for the in remembrance of the 100 year anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, two documentary short films, "Remembering Chinese Bachelors" & "Stories of Repeal and Reunion" were produced to highlight the narratives of those who were affected.

In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Chen and Victoria So, two INSTRCC research assistants who worked on the films to the questions: What was the process of making films for the exhibit? And how did the exhibit spaces get designed?

Gavin Luke / At First Light / courtesy of 

This week's episode is a roundtable discussion with the ACAM student staff: Emily Law, Kaitlyn Lee, Vanessa Lee and Victoria Sin. We discuss identity, our migration stories, and the work we do at ACAM. We also have a message left by Szu Shen, ACAM's Program Manager for our ACAM voicemails on joy segment!

Our first episode of 2024 is an interview with Jane Komori, a postdoctoral research fellow in UBC’s history department. This week we discuss labor history in Western Canada, migrant ecologies, and food systems. We also have two messages left by Victoria Sin and Emily Law for our ACAM voicemails on joy segment.

https://history.ubc.ca/profile/jane-komori/

This mini episode of the podcast is a collection of voicemails left by ACAM community members reflecting on Asian Canadian joy as 2023 comes to a close.

ACAM Voicemail is a new segment on the podcast. What’s bringing you joy? Do you have any recipes, stories, books, messages for other people you’d like to share? If you’d like to leave a voice message to be featured on a future episode of the podcast, email us a 1-2 minute audio clip at acam.program@ubc.ca.

This week we have another group interview!

So in 2018, Phebe Ferrer hosted ACAM447A, a student directed seminar exploring Filipino identities in diaspora. She and two of the participants in the seminar, Raphael Diangkinay and Jacqueline Sarvini sat down with Isa to chat questions of Filipinx identity, the student directed seminar format, and the real friends they made along the way.

Our guests this week on the podcast are 2023 ACAM grads—Moira Henry, Lindsay Mak, Divine Reyes, and An Xu. We sat down for a chat about their takeaways from the ACAM minor program, building community, and the power of storytelling.

In January of 2021, ACAM launched a new mini-podcast series to accompany our ACAM Dialogues podcast "Flow of Thoughts". The mini-episodes encourage dialogue with people in the ACAM community to facilitate conversations of their past and present during this new era of working.

Our next guest is Laura Ishiguro, historian and associate professor in the Department of History at UBC. We sat down for an interview to chat “the everyday” & “the local”, being a history sleuth, and tips & tricks when it comes to research. 

In January, ACAM launched a new mini-podcast series to accompany our ACAM Dialogues podcast "Flow of Thoughts". The mini-episodes encourage dialogue with people in the ACAM community to facilitate conversations of their past and present during this new era of working.

Our next guest is Mila Zuo, filmmaker, film scholar and assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC. We sat down for a chat in advance of the ACAM Halloween screening on October 28th to talk migration, horror, and womanhood.

Transcript: acamdialogues.arts.ubc.ca/acam-podcast/

Carnal Orient: https://youtu.be/eYLVGQ4HU3M

Flows of thoughts surrounding film, and the filmmaking process with Natalie Murao and Thea Loo, the writer-director/producer duo behind No More Parties, as well as Alejandro Yoshizawa, filmmaker and professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. 

Hosted and Produced by Moses Caliboso

[Re-release from Soundcloud]

EPISODE 1

ACAM's inaugural episode of Flow of Thoughts is written and hosted by ACAM alumni Jackie Sarvini. 

Created out of her experience processing emotions surrounding the global pandemic, Jackie returns to the music of her youth. In this return, she comes across the album SAWAYAMA by British-Japanese artist Rina Sawayama, an artpop extravaganza of colliding identity crises and reconciliations amidst a sonic palette of early 2000s pop music. What follows is Jackie’s exploration within her own relationship to Rina Sawayama and the ever shifting landscape of racialization in pop music. A talk that is equal parts memoir, equal parts cultural analysis, ACAM is proud to present Jackie’s work as the first episode of the ACAM Podcast.

Hosted by Jackie Sarvini

Produced by Moses Caliboso