Better Than Seven Sons
By Better Than Seven Sons
Better Than Seven SonsApr 20, 2021
Learning Our Names Interview with La Thao
La wrote a book! In this episode, Kathy and Ashley speak with La about co-authoring the book Learning Our Names: Asian Americans on Identity, Relationships, and Vocation. La shares her writing journey as a Hmong American woman and discusses what she hopes the Hmong community might gain from the book.
Learning Our Names: Asian Americans on Identity, Relationships, and Vocation is written by Sabrina Chan, Linson Daniel, E. David De Leon, and La Thao. It is available wherever books are sold.
Tension
In the last episode of season three, we face the tension we experience with 1 Peter 3:1-6 about the submission of women to their husbands. We express concerns about how misinterpretation of this passage can cause harm to Hmong American women while we remain open to what God has for us from this passage. Join our conversation and let us know what you think on our Instagram @btsspodcast.
---
Something we've been doing on this podcast is connecting our story and experiences with our faith. For season three, we are going deeper and we invite Hmong American Christians to come along this journey with us.
Choosing Ourselves
As Hmong daughters, we were formed to become caretakers. But as caretakers, how do we choose to care for ourselves? In this episode, Kathy, Ashley, and La look to the story of the bleeding woman (Matt 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56) as a model of someone choosing herself.
Something we've been doing on this podcast is connecting our story and experiences with our faith. For season three, we are going deeper and we invite Hmong American Christians to come along this journey with us.
Enjoyment
We recently discovered the book of Ecclesiastes can be a catharsis of sorts for releasing some of our inner thoughts and emotions about life right now. In this episode, we discuss our readings and reflect on the teacher's advice on enjoyment in the midst of survival and uncertainty.
Something we've been doing on this podcast is connecting our story and experiences with our faith. For season three, we are going deeper and we invite Hmong American Christians to come along this journey with us.
Survival
Ashley, Kathy, and La attempt to make sense of survival in their lives during a season of uncertainty and how it fits into the Hmong American narrative.
Something we've been doing on this podcast is connecting our story and experiences with our faith. For season three, we are going deeper and we invite Hmong American Christians to come along this journey with us.
Hospitality
For us, home is hospitality and we cannot talk about one without the other. As we define what home means for us, we discuss hospitality in the Hmong context and how it creates relationships through a process that transforms us from host to guest and guest to host.
Something we've been doing on this podcast is connecting our story and experiences with our faith. For season three, we are going deeper and we invite Hmong American Christians to come along this journey with us.
Displaced
Season 3 is here! Something we've been doing on this podcast is connecting our story and experiences with our faith. This season we want to go deeper and invite Hmong American Christians to come along this journey with us. In our first episode, La, Kathy, and Ashley discuss migration and displacement in Acts 7 and share what it means to them as Hmong Americans.
You Asked, We Answered - S2E8
In this Q&A episode, we answer questions from our listeners. We answer some personal questions, share our honest thoughts about Raya, talk about healing, the Hmong church, and more.
We Like Being Single - S2E7
In this episode, Ashley asks Kathy and La about their thoughts on singleness.
Dear BTSS? - Mini Ep 5
We may or may not have some good dating advice. In this mini-episode, we discuss the dating advice we've received and offer our thoughts on dating.
In between regular episodes, we are releasing mini-episodes where we share more stories and reflections from our experiences. Light-hearted and sometimes deep, we discuss a variety of topics that have come up in our conversations together.
Grieving Better - S2E6
2021 is a tough year. We never planned to do an episode on grief, but with everything that happened this year, we've been thinking a lot about it. In this episode, we discuss what we understand about grief and share how we are grieving this season.
Better Than Just Proverbs 31 Part 2 - S2E5
We're back with another episode on biblical women we should know about. Lately the three of us have been discussing the ways we were taught about women in church. We decided that we needed a part two of our Better Than Proverbs 31 episode. In this episode, we share about three more women from scripture that we admire. Though they are all named, they only take up a few verses and are often forgotten. We hope this will encourage you to seek more information on all the women in the Bible.
Learning to Center Our Story - S2E4
This season, we have been focusing on sharing our story. In this episode, we talk about what that means for us and why we believe centering our story is important, especially when we are calling for more awareness of the diverse experiences of Asian Americans.
Ashley mentions a book called Mixed Blessing written by our friend, Chandra Crane.
Read Ashley's review for the book here.
Speaking HMoob - Mini Ep 4
Do you speak HMoob? In this mini episode, we discuss what our language means to our identity.
In between regular episodes, we are releasing mini-episodes where we share more stories and reflections from our experiences. Light-hearted and sometimes deep, we discuss a variety of topics that have come up in our conversations together.
Watching Hmong Movies - Mini Ep 3
Besides recording podcast episodes, we had a couple of virtual watch parties together since the pandemic started. We watched some Hmong movies and we noticed some things. In this mini-episode, we discussed the tropes and overused storylines we continue to see in Hmong movies. We also offer some average to slightly above average story ideas we would like to see in future Hmong movies.
In between regular episodes, we are releasing mini-episodes where we share more stories and reflections from our experiences. Light-hearted and sometimes deep, we discuss a variety of topics that have come up in our conversations together.
Where Do We Come From? - S2E3
Knowing our story is so important to us as we grow in understanding who we are as Hmong American women. This week, we discuss Hmong history and the lack of information to form a narrative that goes beyond being refugees from the Secret War. We ask questions and wonder about our ancestors as we cope with what is lost to history. Where do we come from and why does that matter to us?
How They Made It Work - Mini Ep 2
In this mini-episode, Kathy, La, and Ashely share stories of their parents' and grandparents' resourcefulness.
In between regular episodes, we are releasing mini-episodes where we share more stories and reflections from our experiences. Light-hearted and sometimes deep, we discuss a variety of topics that have come up in our conversations together.
This is Where We Are - S2E2
In this episode, we process how the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, impacted us. As Hmong American and Christian women, where is our place in the ongoing conversations about the social, political, and racial realities revealed from this event? We discuss where we are as a Christian community and how we hope to see the Hmong American church speak up on these issues.
We reference some articles we each wrote last summer. You can find them here, here, and here.
Coming of Age as Poj Laib - Mini Ep 1
In between regular episodes, we are releasing mini-episodes where we share more stories and reflections from our experiences. Light-hearted and sometimes deep, we discuss a variety of topics that have come up in our conversations together.
In this episode, Ashley asks La and Kathy about their coming-of-age stories as poj laib. Poj laib is a Hmong term to describe a woman whose image or actions are viewed as rebellious, bad, or criminal.
Wrapping Up 2020 For a New Season - S2E1
Welcome to a new season of BTSS! We're starting off with some reflections on how the rest of our 2020 is going since our last episode. We discuss how we're processing through the elections and the impact of the pandemic on our lives.
Ep 7: The End of the Beginning
Better than never starting. Better than our insecurities. Better than we can imagine. In this final episode, we reflect on our journey in making the BTSS podcast during a difficult season for many of us. We're going on a break while we continue to process what we learned and gained from this experience. We're not done yet. There is so much more to talk about. We'll be back with new episodes soon!
Ep 6: Better Friendships
How are we maintaining and building our friendships as adults? In this episode, we share how we're learning to be better friends and what we hope for in our adult friendships.
Ep 5: Better Than the Cookie-Cutter Leader
We discuss leadership: our beginnings, our formation, and we revisit some disappointing moments in our journey. Most of our leadership happened in Christian ministry but we hope the lessons and the advice we share will be applicable for our Hmong sisters in any leadership role.
Ep 4: Better Than Just Proverbs 31
In this episode, we unpack the reasons why we always had a hard time with the Proverbs 31 woman. We also share about other women in scripture that we admire and how we're rereading the Bible.
Ep 3: Better Than Patriarchy
Can a Hmong Christian feminist thrive in the Hmong church? This is one of the questions that sparked the creation of this podcast and one question that is not often discussed in Hmong Christian spaces. In this episode, we discuss feminism through the lens of our experiences in our patriarchal churches and imagine what it looks like to see Hmong women fully using their gifts.
Better Representation for Southeast Asians
BONUS EPISODE: Listen in on a short conversation about the upcoming Disney animated film, Raya and the Last Dragon. We're curious about this film but we're longing for better Southeast Asian representation.
Ep 2: Better Than Who We're Told To Be
Who do we want to be? In this episode, we name the things that have defined us and discuss how we are working to reclaim who we are.
Ep 1: Better Than Seven Sons
Get to know us as we introduce ourselves and the podcast. We go pretty deep as we discuss being Hmong daughters and the daughter-in-law that inspired the name of our podcast.
Welcome to BTSS
Welcome to the Better Than Seven Sons Podcast where we are learning together what it looks like to live and lead out of who we are as Hmong American Christian women.