Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine, Hey fam.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side, chef and TikTok star Joanne
Speaker 2: Mulinaro talks about her pivot from corporate lawyer to food influencer,
Speaker 2: why she weaves family stories into her recipes, and how
Speaker 2: she's veganizing Korean food.
Speaker 3: One dish out of.
Speaker 4: Time, whether it's a dish that I make, a recipe,
Speaker 4: I develop a little short story that I append. There's
Speaker 4: this wonderful idea called smut, which literally means seasoning of
Speaker 4: the hand in Korean. She means everything that touches me.
Speaker 4: You're getting a little bit of me in that, and
Speaker 4: how beautiful that is.
Speaker 3: It's Tuesday, April thirtieth.
Speaker 1: I'm Simone Boye, I'm Danielle Robe and this is the
Speaker 1: bright Side from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 3: Danielle. How's your week going.
Speaker 1: I'm having a slow start because i was up way
Speaker 1: too late watching Sex and the City, and I'm now
Speaker 1: on season six because it's on Netflix now and I've
Speaker 1: been binging and I have rewatched this series I think
Speaker 1: six seven times over. I never get sick of it.
Speaker 2: Wow, you're a connoisseur of Sex and the City at
Speaker 2: this point.
Speaker 1: Truly, I just feel so seen by that show.
Speaker 3: What is it for you that makes you feel seen
Speaker 3: about it?
Speaker 1: At every point in my life that I watch, I
Speaker 1: get different things from the characters, from the storylines, and
Speaker 1: I just think they did such a great job talking
Speaker 1: about dating in your thirties.
Speaker 2: I didn't watch the show. Are there any points of
Speaker 2: wisdom that are really sticking with you or takeaways?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Girl, six seasons and two movies, and I can't just
Speaker 1: pick one you have to watch.
Speaker 3: I don't have that kind of time. Unfortunately, I wish
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: Well, you did have time to watch a movie. You
Speaker 1: came in here talking about this film that you love.
Speaker 2: Yes, I saw Challengers one on a date night. It
Speaker 2: was a perfect date night film. It's really really fun.
Speaker 2: This is Zendaya's new movie, and I'm just like, I
Speaker 2: don't know her, but I'm so happy for her because
Speaker 2: it did really well at the box office this weekend,
Speaker 2: fifteen million dollars. And I think that's so cool because
Speaker 2: she wasn't just an actor in it, she was also
Speaker 2: a producer. So this is just a huge win for
Speaker 2: female producers and also talent who become producers to take
Speaker 2: an ownership.
Speaker 1: Why do you like it so much? You know?
Speaker 2: It's part sports movie, part steamy romance film. I really
Speaker 2: love the director, Luca Guadanino. He did call Me by
Speaker 2: your Name, and he really has this knack for bringing
Speaker 2: out these erotic scenes and queer themes with his actors
Speaker 2: and in his films.
Speaker 1: The whole internet went crazy over that scene. There's a threesome.
Speaker 2: Apparently, Yes, there is a threesome scene, and it's pretty juicy,
Speaker 2: pretty steamy. They all had to get intimacy coordinators and
Speaker 2: work with them for that, but.
Speaker 1: She said it wasn't steamy filming it.
Speaker 2: Well, I think because they spent so much time and
Speaker 2: were really intentional about getting to know each other and
Speaker 2: bond off screen, so that way they felt comfortable doing.
Speaker 3: That, because that is a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean. The best part is so and I see
Speaker 1: her talk about how her family reacted to it, because
Speaker 1: she was like, they've seen the movie so many times
Speaker 1: at this point, yeah, and they're sort of unfazed. But
Speaker 1: you know, she's twenty seven years old. I'm thirty three.
Speaker 1: I don't even like when my mom listens to the
Speaker 1: podcast because I'm like, you don't need to know everything.
Speaker 2: Mom, same, I can't even imagine taking my parents to
Speaker 2: go see a film like Challenger, so I can't imagine
Speaker 2: being in it and then watching it with them.
Speaker 3: That would be crazy.
Speaker 2: But I also really love this character that she played,
Speaker 2: Tashi Duncan, because to be honest, this character is just
Speaker 2: really ruthless and selfish, and we don't always get to
Speaker 2: see black women portraying those characters. We love an unlikable woman, right, Yes,
Speaker 2: I don't even know if the term. I don't even
Speaker 2: know if an unlikable character exists. I think they're just
Speaker 2: complex women. But we we love that.
Speaker 1: I don't know so. I mean, anybody can be unlikable
Speaker 1: man or woman.
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: But then I start thinking, well, this is just a
Speaker 2: character that exists in the gray area, and they're just
Speaker 2: like really human, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Serena Williams wrote a review of this movie in Vogue,
Speaker 2: and she straight up agreed, like this character is just mean.
Speaker 2: Serena Williams didn't hold anything back. First of all, she
Speaker 2: said that she was really impressed by how they played tennis.
Speaker 1: That's what I wanted to know if it was real
Speaker 1: or not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was real.
Speaker 2: She said that they were so good that they probably
Speaker 2: could have gone on tour if they started earlier. Wow,
Speaker 2: but she said she hated the ending. She wanted more.
Speaker 2: The film left her wanting more.
Speaker 1: I love seeing Olive Zindiya's tennis inspired outfit. Oh my
Speaker 1: furthest tour like she's killing it. The fashion on this
Speaker 1: Prush tour incredible, incredible, And I'm also hoping. I loved
Speaker 1: Queen's Gambit, which was obviously about this amazing woman playing chess,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of hoping that Challengers does the same
Speaker 1: thing with tennis. I think Dick's Sporting Goods is going
Speaker 1: to see a quick rise in tennis racket and tennis
Speaker 1: ball sales.
Speaker 3: I want to play tennis now after watching this viel.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what it does.
Speaker 1: I wanted to play chess after Queen's Gambit.
Speaker 3: How's that going for you? Not well?
Speaker 1: I played my dad a few times and gave up.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's something you need to learn when
Speaker 1: you're young, or.
Speaker 2: Something I really want to work on tennis and golf
Speaker 2: over the next four years. I want to get into
Speaker 2: my country club era.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that.
Speaker 3: I'm going to do it. Just watch.
Speaker 1: My parents always told me that those are the two
Speaker 1: sports you have to learn how to play because you
Speaker 1: can play them throughout your whole life.
Speaker 2: And they're great for business too, because everything for me
Speaker 2: just comes back to see dollars.
Speaker 3: You see money and you can go get it. You
Speaker 3: see the money, you make the money, you take the money.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: Okay, we have to celebrate some good news because Gabby
Speaker 1: Douglas is back. If you remember, she's the decorated gymnast.
Speaker 1: She competed in one gold in twenty twelve and twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: I'd venture to say that she's inspired the generation of
Speaker 1: gymnasts that we're seeing on the floor today. But she
Speaker 1: hasn't competed since then, and now at twenty eight, she's
Speaker 1: getting back into it and she's trying to qualify for
Speaker 1: this summer's games in Paris, which are less than three
Speaker 1: months away.
Speaker 2: This is really interesting. We never see athletes do this,
Speaker 2: try to make a comeback in this way.
Speaker 1: Well, I read that she never quite said that she retired,
Speaker 1: and she did that on purpose because she never wanted
Speaker 1: to quit on a bad day and she sort of
Speaker 1: had a tough ending in that last season of her career.
Speaker 1: She's pulling a Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, I cannot wait to watch.
Speaker 1: I love that she's twenty eight too, because in the
Speaker 1: last Olympics the average age of a gymnast was twenty one,
Speaker 1: and even that was older than it had been in
Speaker 1: the past. Like Olympic gymnasts are known to be teenagers
Speaker 1: literally honest, literal teenagers. Yeah, so this is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: I try and live by the phrase that trying is winning,
Speaker 1: and I see her trying. She's out there trying. Yes,
Speaker 1: girl doing her backflips and trying.
Speaker 2: Her trying is my winning. Yes, I mean did I
Speaker 2: say that right?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Her trying anything is like way more than I could
Speaker 2: ever do.
Speaker 1: So Okay, before we really get into our show today,
Speaker 1: we need to discuss eyebrows.
Speaker 3: Oh, let's discuss what's up with eyebrows.
Speaker 1: I saw this article about the golden ratio for eyebrows,
Speaker 1: and anytime I see eyebrow trends, I am triggered. Because
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say I'm triggered, I WinCE. My mother was
Speaker 1: traumatized from the eighties with the plucking of the thin eyebrows,
Speaker 1: so she would never let me touch my eyebrows growing up.
Speaker 1: Do you ever touch yours?
Speaker 2: I really don't do anything to them now I did
Speaker 2: way too much when I was younger.
Speaker 1: What'd you do? You wax, tweetze, threaded?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly all of the above. But then I just
Speaker 2: realized I needed more, not less. So now I'm all
Speaker 2: about adding instead of subtracting. So now I pencil them in.
Speaker 1: So have you heard of Anastasia of Beverly Hills. Of course,
Speaker 1: she's like the eyebrow Queen right first. Yeah, like she
Speaker 1: gets it. She came up with this golden ratio thing.
Speaker 1: And what I like is that it's for whatever eyebrows
Speaker 1: you have, thin, thick, bushy, not whatever. It's all about
Speaker 1: finding balance and symmetry on your individual face. And I
Speaker 1: feel like there's so many trends with women, and I
Speaker 1: hear this line. My body is not a trend. My
Speaker 1: eyebrows are not a trend. Okay, it flip flops every generation.
Speaker 1: I just want my eyebrows to be my eyebrows. Tell
Speaker 1: us how you really feel, Danielle, Yeah, I'm fired up
Speaker 1: over this. Okay, So do you do anything to your eyebrows? No,
Speaker 1: my mom won't let me. Still I'm there.
Speaker 2: Do you have to fill them in at all? Or
Speaker 2: do you do gel or what's your routine?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Have two quick things. I use the Jones Road dark
Speaker 1: brown pencil, and then I use the Anastasio browgel.
Speaker 3: Nice. So what is the golden ratio of eyebrows? Though?
Speaker 1: It's basically math for your face, but it's not so complicated.
Speaker 1: You draw an upside down triangle from your eyes to
Speaker 1: the tip of your nose, and it's designed to find
Speaker 1: balance and symmetry on your face.
Speaker 2: That makes a lot of sense because I noticed that
Speaker 2: whenever my eyebrows are off, whenever the ratio is off,
Speaker 2: if one side is like smaller, or if I didn't
Speaker 2: fill them in enough.
Speaker 3: My whole face looks different.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine if I came in tomorrow with just
Speaker 2: bleached eyebrows. I really want to try it.
Speaker 1: Julia Fox did that. It was kind of a vibe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you could do it. Maybe I will.
Speaker 2: I really want to try microblating, took How of scared are.
Speaker 1: You hopping on all these trends micro blady fighting?
Speaker 2: Micro blading is something that's going to make my life easier.
Speaker 2: That's why I want to do it, because then I
Speaker 2: don't have to wake up and do the filling in
Speaker 2: of my brows.
Speaker 1: After the break, we're taking a seat at the table
Speaker 1: with Joanne Molinaro, and we're learning how she veganizes Korean
Speaker 1: food and koreanizes everything else.
Speaker 3: Stay with us.
Speaker 1: You may know our next guest as the Korean Vegan.
Speaker 1: Joanne Lee Mullin. Arrow's cooking videos took off on TikTok
Speaker 1: during the pandemic and now with millions of followers Anna
Speaker 1: James Beard Award, She's making her mark through her recipes
Speaker 1: and her stories.
Speaker 2: I have such a girl crush on this woman. She
Speaker 2: captured our hearts and appetites after she made the jump
Speaker 2: from trial lawyer to food blogger, and her blend of cooking,
Speaker 2: heritage and the inspiration is exactly what drew us to
Speaker 2: her here on the bright Side.
Speaker 4: Jo Anne, Welcome to the bright Side. Hey guys, I'm
Speaker 4: so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: We're so happy to have you here, Joanne mull and Arrow,
Speaker 1: the Korean Vegan. Before we jump into today's conversation, we
Speaker 1: have to wish you a happy birthday. Yes, you just
Speaker 1: turned forty five and you celebrated with some special cake.
Speaker 4: Yes, I made a sponge cake, a vegan sponge cake
Speaker 4: that I was really proud of. It was less proud
Speaker 4: of the final product. Because vegan whip cream still has
Speaker 4: a little bit of a learning curve. It looked so
Speaker 4: good on Instagram, though, girl, okay good because it tasted amazing.
Speaker 4: I could not stop you.
Speaker 1: It looked really good.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to get that recipe because I'm a
Speaker 2: dairy free gurly, so finding cakes for us it's hard, Joyanne.
Speaker 2: Before you published your best selling cookbook, The Korean Vegan,
Speaker 2: before how you blew up on social media, you were
Speaker 2: a partner at a law firm and you were eating
Speaker 2: meat at one time. So can you walk us through
Speaker 2: those transitions which came first. There're two big transitions. Definitely,
Speaker 2: the elimination of meat from my diet came first. That
Speaker 2: happened in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: I was a young partner at that time at the
Speaker 4: law firm, and my then boyfriend now husband, he wanted
Speaker 4: to go vegan and it took a lot of arm twisting,
Speaker 4: but eventually I joined him and got rid of meat
Speaker 4: and all other animal products from my diet.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that has always stuck
Speaker 1: out to me about your work is that it feels
Speaker 1: like you are a chef and you cook, but that's
Speaker 1: not really what your platform is about. You're a storyteller
Speaker 1: to me, and you kind of walk us through a
Speaker 1: recipe as you teach us something or tell us something
Speaker 1: about what's on your heart. How did that begin?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I've always enjoyed writing. That's been sort of
Speaker 4: my creative outlet. It's either music or writing, So I
Speaker 4: really leaned into the writing aspect kind of like midway
Speaker 4: through my legal career. When I went plant based in
Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, I added cooking as a necessity. There wasn't
Speaker 4: really any Korean vegan food that I could purchase, so
Speaker 4: I needed to make it myself. And what I wanted
Speaker 4: to do was marry those two creative outlets in some way.
Speaker 4: So I started sharing my very like short short stories
Speaker 4: and the captions of my Instagram posts in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 4: and when I started sharing videos in twenty twenty on TikTok,
Speaker 4: I literally just read out loud my Instagram caption. And
Speaker 4: I think people enjoy kind of watching the preparation of
Speaker 4: food and then listening to something that might not have
Speaker 4: anything to do with that food, but was, you know,
Speaker 4: similarly captivating.
Speaker 3: A lot of people might be surprised to learn how
Speaker 3: hands on you are during the content creation process. I mean, you're.
Speaker 2: Shooting, you're writing, you're editing a lot of the time.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of work, and you still show up
Speaker 2: every day and you pour your heart and soul into
Speaker 2: this content that you make.
Speaker 4: What's your why? That's a really good question, and I
Speaker 4: think it's an important question for any entrepreneur, any artist,
Speaker 4: any content creator to continuously ask themselves, because if you
Speaker 4: don't do that, it can get a little depressing and
Speaker 4: a little demoralizing. And I think there are two things,
Speaker 4: one of which was harder for me to grapple with.
Speaker 4: I think the reason I started sharing stories is because
Speaker 4: I felt that the immigrant story in the United States
Speaker 4: was not being adequately and fairly represented. And I felt
Speaker 4: that a lot of people in America didn't really know
Speaker 4: what it was like to grow up in an immigrant family,
Speaker 4: and particularly in an Asian immigrant family. And I really
Speaker 4: wanted to unveil that for people in a non threatening way.
Speaker 4: And there's like, really nothing less threatening than here's a
Speaker 4: bowl of food, Come sit at my dinner table, and
Speaker 4: let's have a chat, and I'll tell you a little story.
Speaker 3: And what I really wanted to get.
Speaker 4: Across to people was things may look a little different,
Speaker 4: and they may smell a little different, they may sound
Speaker 4: a little different, but there's actually a lot more in
Speaker 4: common between us than you might realize, and that was
Speaker 4: really important to me. I also think part of that,
Speaker 4: and wrapped into that, was again this idea of allowing
Speaker 4: a group of people who had historically felt unseen to
Speaker 4: feel seen, and that of course is my parents, my
Speaker 4: mom and my dad, that generation of immigrants. I wanted
Speaker 4: them to feel very powerfully seen in a compassionate and
Speaker 4: empowering way. I also wanted to feel seen, and I
Speaker 4: think that there's a little bit of shame for some
Speaker 4: people admitting that. Oh so I have a need to
Speaker 4: feel seen. I have a need to feel heard, and
Speaker 4: I want to do it in this way. And I
Speaker 4: think that this was a way for me to explore
Speaker 4: my creativity, explore a side to me that was otherwise
Speaker 4: going untapped at work, you know, as a lawyer, and
Speaker 4: do it in a way that was fun, exciting and inspiring.
Speaker 2: Joanne, there's this quote that stuck with me from your website.
Speaker 2: You say, I veganize Korean food, I koreanize everything else.
Speaker 3: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 4: The first part is pretty straightforward, right. I started the
Speaker 4: Korean vegan because when I went vegan, there was nothing
Speaker 4: out there for me, and I was like, well, I'm
Speaker 4: not giving up my kimchi and my kyabees and all
Speaker 4: my favorite Korean foods just because I made this change
Speaker 4: to my diet. I just have to figure it out.
Speaker 4: And so that was the first part of the quote,
Speaker 4: which is, Okay, I'm going to viganize all my Korean
Speaker 4: favorite foods. The second part was a little bit more glib, right, like, okay,
Speaker 4: and I'm just going to creanize it everything else. And
Speaker 4: at first it was really a reference to the fact
Speaker 4: that anytime I made something that wasn't overtly a Korean dish,
Speaker 4: I would end up figuring out a way to incorporate
Speaker 4: soy sauce or tinjung or quo jujung or some of
Speaker 4: the very popular Korean ingredients that I was really learning
Speaker 4: a lot about at that time. I always felt like, Okay, well,
Speaker 4: I just think that this marinera would taste a little
Speaker 4: better with cujajong. I think that this risotto would taste
Speaker 4: a little better with tinjong. Just a little bit doesn't
Speaker 4: need to be a lot. So I think That's what
Speaker 4: I meant at first, but then I think later on,
Speaker 4: especially once the Korean vegan became much more about storytelling,
Speaker 4: it was also just how I put so much of
Speaker 4: myself into my content and into my recipes, Like you're
Speaker 4: getting a heavy dose of Joanne with everything, whether it's
Speaker 4: a dish that I make, a recipe, I develop a
Speaker 4: little short story that I appenned to whatever it is
Speaker 4: I'm making, you get my voice, sometimes you get my face.
Speaker 4: And of course there's this, you know, wonderful idea called
Speaker 4: son mut which literally means taste of the hand or
Speaker 4: seasoning of the hand in Korean, which means everything that
Speaker 4: touches me, everything that goes through my hands. You're getting
Speaker 4: a little bit of me in that, and how beautiful
Speaker 4: that is.
Speaker 1: I'm not as familiar with Korean dishes. What should I
Speaker 1: start with?
Speaker 4: Oh God, that such a great question. Okay, So I
Speaker 4: would start with the stews. And the reason I say
Speaker 4: the stews, I have a whole chapter on soups and
Speaker 4: stews in my cookbook, and number one, it's because it's
Speaker 4: the easiest out of all of the recipes. So no
Speaker 4: matter what level you are at in the kitchen, it
Speaker 4: doesn't really matter. These are very very easy dishes, and
Speaker 4: then thank you for that. No, it's okay, there's no
Speaker 4: judgment here. I'm a home cook too. And also in
Speaker 4: almost every Korean meal, breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you're going
Speaker 4: to have a Korean soup or stew, so it's such
Speaker 4: an integral part of Korean cuisine.
Speaker 3: And then from.
Speaker 4: There I would specify probably the tindunk jigue, which is
Speaker 4: a fermented soybean stew. It is one of the most
Speaker 4: popular recipes out of my cookbook, which was very surprising
Speaker 4: and gratifying. And it's also that one dish anytime you
Speaker 4: go to a Korean restaurant, it's going to be there, like,
Speaker 4: it's almost inevitably going to show up on the table.
Speaker 4: So it just is a great introduction to Korean cuisine
Speaker 4: and it's also really easy.
Speaker 1: It makes a ton of sense to me that a
Speaker 1: natural next step for you was to write a cookbook.
Speaker 1: People were dying over your recipes. What doesn't always come
Speaker 1: with a cookbook is a James Beard Award for your
Speaker 1: first cookbook. That is such a huge honor. How does
Speaker 1: that come about?
Speaker 4: I honestly don't know how it comes back I just
Speaker 4: I remember when I was told that I was nominated.
Speaker 4: I was like, well, I didn't even know that I
Speaker 4: was up for considering, and like it's such a surprise.
Speaker 4: I will say, like one of the most important things
Speaker 4: when you are writing a good cookbook or you know
Speaker 4: your first one, is to surround yourself with a really
Speaker 4: supportive team. I literally had the best team in the world.
Speaker 4: They you know, were almost all women, and they just
Speaker 4: really understood how important this book was to me, to
Speaker 4: my family and of course the stories behind it. So
Speaker 4: they submitted the book for consideration by the Games Beer Foundation.
Speaker 4: They didn't tell me, and so it was like came
Speaker 4: as a huge shock. I went to the ceremony and
Speaker 4: my parents are so cute because it was in Chicago luckily,
Speaker 4: so you know, I told my mom and dad about it,
Speaker 4: and I was like, you know, you don't need to come.
Speaker 4: I'm never going to win, so like there's no point,
Speaker 4: like just just stay home and be comfortable, and they
Speaker 4: were like, no, no, of course we're going to come.
Speaker 4: And I think even then I didn't realize like, like
Speaker 4: the magnitude of.
Speaker 1: This, Shoanne, this is like the oscars of food and
Speaker 1: but here's The thing is, I really did not think
Speaker 1: there was like any chance that I would win.
Speaker 4: There was absolutely no scenario in my mind. I didn't
Speaker 4: prepare a speech because I was like, well, there's no point.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to go and enjoy myself and like
Speaker 4: fangirl Padma Lakshmi's going to be there and I'm just
Speaker 4: going to get everyone with autograph. Like That's what I
Speaker 4: was thinking. So when my name was announced, it was
Speaker 4: probably one of the most surreal moments of my entire life.
Speaker 1: How did it change things for you?
Speaker 4: I think that there are very few things in my
Speaker 4: life that I can look back towards and say that
Speaker 4: was a moment where I allowed myself to feel more confident.
Speaker 4: I think confidence is one of the most difficult things
Speaker 4: in the world to understand, earn, and retain, at least
Speaker 4: especially for women. I think it's like every single moment
Speaker 4: of every day, somebody's trying to drag down your confidence.
Speaker 4: So it is a very hard earned thing to keep.
Speaker 4: And I think when I was recognized by the Jamesuar
Speaker 4: Foundation as well as my peers for the work that
Speaker 4: went into that book, it was one moment that I
Speaker 4: can say, Okay, I will accept this. I will accept
Speaker 4: this as a sign that I deserve to be recognized
Speaker 4: and that this book is actually a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2: Joanne, the kitchen seems like a confessional for you, a church,
Speaker 2: a sanctuary, all of those things rolled into one. How
Speaker 2: does it shift your energy when you get into the kitchen.
Speaker 2: That is a wonderful question.
Speaker 5: For me.
Speaker 4: I get very focused, and that's really important because I
Speaker 4: have a hard time focusing. I'm very much like a multitasker.
Speaker 4: I have so many things going on at the same
Speaker 4: time in my head. I've got multiple fires that I'm
Speaker 4: trying to put out mentally, physically, logistically. And so when
Speaker 4: I get a chance to just be in the kitchen
Speaker 4: and cook a special meal or cook something for dinner,
Speaker 4: and I don't have to worry about anything else, I
Speaker 4: turn on a good book, you know, I listen to
Speaker 4: a lot of my books, or I turn on some
Speaker 4: you know, my favorite music, and I just get to
Speaker 4: focus on making delicious food that I know I'm going
Speaker 4: to really enjoy eating at the end of it. That
Speaker 4: is one of the most relaxing times. It is a
Speaker 4: time when I feel most myself and most empowered because
Speaker 4: I don't have to answer to anyone other than myself,
Speaker 4: and I really love that.
Speaker 1: I love the way that your videos offer advice to
Speaker 1: people on heartbreak and friendship and family and navigating life's challenges.
Speaker 1: When you look back at your body of work, is
Speaker 1: there a particular dish or recipe that you associate with
Speaker 1: a life lesson that was hard to learn?
Speaker 3: Yes, this is funny.
Speaker 4: It's probably my duck book recipe. It's takmandukuk in the cookbook.
Speaker 4: And I've talked about this a couple of times, and
Speaker 4: I actually mentioned it specifically in the book. And I
Speaker 4: remember when I shared this story, my editor was like,
Speaker 4: I think you need to remove this story because it's
Speaker 4: too depressing, and I was like, nope, We're keeping it
Speaker 4: in because it's really important. The story is about four
Speaker 4: months before my first wedding is New Year's and in
Speaker 4: Korean culture, you eat rice cake soup for New Year's
Speaker 4: and it was like something I look forward to all
Speaker 4: the time. And my mom made rice cake soup and
Speaker 4: she invited me over to her house and I showed
Speaker 4: up and she hands me this bowl of soup and
Speaker 4: my father's there, which I thought was kind of weird,
Speaker 4: but you know, he was there and with the soup
Speaker 4: is a Hallmark card, and I'm like.
Speaker 3: Oh, are they giving me money for New Years?
Speaker 4: Is just also Korean tradition, but one that we had
Speaker 4: not partaken in many years. Right, So I opened a
Speaker 4: Hallmark envelope and and it is a card. Basically, both
Speaker 4: of my parents beg me not to walk down the
Speaker 4: aisle and to call off my wedding, which was happening
Speaker 4: in four months. Needless to say, that didn't end well.
Speaker 4: I did not enjoy any book. I was so angry.
Speaker 4: I just screamed at my parents and then I stormed
Speaker 4: out of their house. And what I learned from that was,
Speaker 4: you know, I remember telling my mom and my dad,
Speaker 4: what's the big deal? I love this man. Isn't that
Speaker 4: all that matters. That's the most important thing in any marriage,
Speaker 4: and that's the only thing that matters. And I remember
Speaker 4: my father said, Okay, yeah, you're right, you're right. But
Speaker 4: my mom she did not agree. She didn't say anything.
Speaker 4: She just kind of looked very sad. And many many
Speaker 4: years later, when I got a divorce and when things
Speaker 4: sort of fell apart, I learned that lesson that while
Speaker 4: love is incredibly important in a marriage. It's not the
Speaker 4: only thing that's important in a marriage. You need respect,
Speaker 4: you need trust, you need partnership. There's so many other
Speaker 4: things that go into a successful relationship with your life partner.
Speaker 4: And that was a very difficult lesson for me to learn,
Speaker 4: and I think about it every single New Year's when
Speaker 4: I eat the boop.
Speaker 2: Now, thank you for sharing that story with us. I
Speaker 2: just I am constantly in awe of how open you
Speaker 2: are and how real you are. And I hope it's
Speaker 2: okay that I ask you about this, but you've been
Speaker 2: really open about your relationship with food and struggling with
Speaker 2: eating disorders, and I think that you've made so many
Speaker 2: people feel seen through your candor on this topic, and
Speaker 2: so I'm curious how the work that you're doing now
Speaker 2: is allowing you to process your own relationship with food.
Speaker 2: Life has a way.
Speaker 4: Of getting in your way, sometimes right, and sometimes it's good.
Speaker 4: You learn a lot from those hurdles, You build muscles
Speaker 4: from those hurdles, you learn strategies about avoiding them and
Speaker 4: jumping over them and all of those things. But sometimes
Speaker 4: those hurdles just suck, and it's so easy to just
Speaker 4: give in and say, you know what, that hurdle is there.
Speaker 4: I'm tired of jumping over them all the time. I'm
Speaker 4: just gonna sit this out and I'm just gonna give in.
Speaker 4: And that's really a very dangerous temptation. But the lovely
Speaker 4: thing about the Korean Vegan is it's always there saying.
Speaker 3: No, no, don't give up. You can't give up. You
Speaker 3: gotta come up with another recipe, You gotta come up
Speaker 3: with another thing.
Speaker 5: No, you got a cookbook, try, you gotta eat eat food,
Speaker 5: Please eat food, you know, and like it's hard to
Speaker 5: not get emotional about it because of all the things
Speaker 5: that I talk about, my ongoing struggle with food is probably.
Speaker 4: The only thing that is a present struggle that I share.
Speaker 3: A lot about.
Speaker 4: But that's what the Korean Vegan does for me, and
Speaker 4: it's always cheering me on from the sidelines, like you
Speaker 4: can do this, you can keep fighting. Because there are
Speaker 4: so many times in my life I gotta tell you
Speaker 4: where I just don't want to. I just want to
Speaker 4: give up because it's so freaking exhausting. But look at
Speaker 4: this amazing community I now have that keeps me, keeps
Speaker 4: me going.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh wow, Okay, wanted to ask you about just
Speaker 2: veganism overall, and what that term means in our society today.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've been outspoken about the implicit bias and
Speaker 2: exclusionary politics that can often be present and vegan and
Speaker 2: plant based spaces.
Speaker 4: Why is it important for you to take that on
Speaker 4: and challenge that. Let me answer that question by sharing
Speaker 4: sort of this interesting story. When I was like nine
Speaker 4: years old, my dad he walked into my room with
Speaker 4: his like busted up, nasty typewriter and he was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: your job now is to type up all these letters
Speaker 4: for my boss, or for the bank, or for this.
Speaker 4: And I was like nine, barely. I did not know
Speaker 4: how to type. I didn't even know how to turn
Speaker 4: the typewriter on. But he already knew then that I
Speaker 4: had a better command of the English language than he did,
Speaker 4: and that I was better at making things sound more
Speaker 4: official and professional than my father, you know, And that
Speaker 4: was that was true, And for a long time I
Speaker 4: hated it, and I grew to resent it. I said,
Speaker 4: you're the adult. Why do I have to do the
Speaker 4: adult things here?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: And fast forward, you know, three decades from that point,
Speaker 4: AAPI hate is running rampant in the streets and the
Speaker 4: first thing I can think about is, oh, I have
Speaker 4: to protect my mom and my dad. They don't even
Speaker 4: know what racism looks like. They don't even know what
Speaker 4: microaggression is. They don't know what that word is, and
Speaker 4: if it happened to them to their faces, I think
Speaker 4: they would be very hard pressed to even describe this
Speaker 4: as racism. And so then it became my job as
Speaker 4: somebody who spoke Korean and English, who literally spent her
Speaker 4: entire life defending her parents against the banks and the
Speaker 4: insurance companies and Cstomer Service because they couldn't speak the
Speaker 4: language as well as they needed to. Oh, well, this
Speaker 4: is what I've been modeled to do. This is what
Speaker 4: I'm specifically trained to do. I can do this better
Speaker 4: than most people. And it's the same thing with veganism.
Speaker 4: Whether it's a job that I wanted or a job
Speaker 4: that I decided to take on intentionally, well, it's one
Speaker 4: that I'm uniquely equipped to do. I am vegan, I
Speaker 4: believe in the ethics underlying veganism. I am a recipe
Speaker 4: developer of vegan recipes, so I have this kind of
Speaker 4: arsenal at my disposal. But then I'm also a Korean American.
Speaker 4: I grew up as the child of immigrants. I have
Speaker 4: experienced racism in many shapes and forms my entire life,
Speaker 4: and it is the one thing in the world that
Speaker 4: I hate more than anything. So with these two kind
Speaker 4: of things happening inside of me, it was sort of
Speaker 4: natural for me to take that up as just who
Speaker 4: I am as part.
Speaker 3: Of the Korean Vegan.
Speaker 4: The Korean Vegan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's about veganism, but.
Speaker 4: More importantly, it's about compassion. It's about empowerment, it's about empathy.
Speaker 4: It's about making sure that people every single day feel
Speaker 4: safe to tell their stories.
Speaker 3: Beautifully said thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay, Joanne, We're about to let you go, but I
Speaker 2: want to go back to that quote from your website
Speaker 2: where you said I veganized Korean food.
Speaker 3: I koreanize everything else. What should we be koreanizing? There's
Speaker 3: so many things, you know.
Speaker 4: I think for me, it's it's more just like, oh,
Speaker 4: there's so many wonderful things about Korean culture that you
Speaker 4: can incorporate in many aspects of your life, whether it's
Speaker 4: in your cooking, whether it's in your literature, whether it's
Speaker 4: in your music. Certainly like come on btas you know
Speaker 4: or you know, whether it's in movies or Korean dramas,
Speaker 4: even language, like my favorite tiktoks now are like people
Speaker 4: who are not native Korean speakers learning how to speak
Speaker 4: Korean because they're so enthralled with the Korean dramas and
Speaker 4: they want to really like lean into that language. I
Speaker 4: think that's beautiful. But I don't think it's limited to
Speaker 4: Korean culture, right. I think that there are so many
Speaker 4: wonderful cultures out there, like my husband's. You know, his
Speaker 4: father is Italian, and so I've been learning Italian every night.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to watch more Italian films and more Italian dramas.
Speaker 4: And you know, obviously no one has to twist my
Speaker 4: arm to make Italian food. But speaking of koreanizing it,
Speaker 4: I think that's a wonderful place to.
Speaker 1: Start, is you know.
Speaker 4: I think that tomatoes and qujajang, they just work really
Speaker 4: really well together, and they're also the same color, so
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of perfect. And you know, so
Speaker 4: that's a really quick and easy way to experiment with
Speaker 4: incorporating different cultural ingredients, stories, and narratives into your daily life.
Speaker 3: Refusion is God's gift too, humankind.
Speaker 2: I love whenever two cultures, mix their flavors, their recipes,
Speaker 2: their traditions.
Speaker 3: Oh Chef's Kiss.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Joanne, Thank you so much. I so enjoyed this
Speaker 4: conversation and I love the podcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Joanne.
Speaker 1: Joanne is the author of The Korean Vegan Reflections and
Speaker 1: Recipes from Omah's Kitchen. You can find her on Instagram
Speaker 1: and TikTok at the Korean Vegan. Okay, we have to
Speaker 1: take a moment to reflect on our conversation with Joanne.
Speaker 1: What stuck with you?
Speaker 3: Simone?
Speaker 2: I really admire a woman who has a clearly defined why,
Speaker 2: and that's Joanne all the way. You can tell that
Speaker 2: she's really intentional about infusing her heritage into her storytelling,
Speaker 2: and she's also really intentional about just being real about
Speaker 2: what she's going through and her struggles and her vulnerabilities.
Speaker 2: I love the way that she uses food as a
Speaker 2: vessel for connection, curiosity, and confessions.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, confessions for sure. I love that you said
Speaker 1: storyteller because I think some people would call her a
Speaker 1: content creator, and I really view her as a storyteller
Speaker 1: and a writer. You know, I'm not a huge cook,
Speaker 1: so not that I don't like watching her cook, but really,
Speaker 1: I look forward to reading her words, and I think
Speaker 1: what I really took away was her love of family.
Speaker 1: This is going to sound so corny, but when she
Speaker 1: was talking about them, I felt like my heart was smiling.
Speaker 1: I know that feeling, and I think that she's probably
Speaker 1: done that. And then some.
Speaker 2: After the break, we're bringing you our first ever giving
Speaker 2: her Flowers Segment, our monthly award that shines a light
Speaker 2: on an amazing woman and her accomplishments with an actual
Speaker 2: bouquet of flowers.
Speaker 1: Mind you, Today's bouquet goes to a brilliant young student who,
Speaker 1: at just fifteen, invented a life saving medical technology. You
Speaker 1: don't want to miss this. Stay with us.
Speaker 3: All right, y'all.
Speaker 2: We are back and very pumped to give our next
Speaker 2: guest her flowers. Fifteen year old Nya Ellis makes me
Speaker 2: feel like a big time underachiever, Danielle. I mean, she's
Speaker 2: a freshman in high school and she's already making her
Speaker 2: mark on the medical field.
Speaker 1: Nya invented a watch that can detect the early signs
Speaker 1: of a stroke in adults over fifty five. The invention
Speaker 1: helped her become a champion in the National Stem Challenge,
Speaker 1: where she beat out twenty five hundred high school students.
Speaker 1: The New Orleans native got to present her work in Washington, DC.
Speaker 1: See earlier this month at the National Stem Festival. NYA,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the bright Side by congratulations.
Speaker 3: Hi, Danielle.
Speaker 6: Listen someone lovely to meet you guys and be on
Speaker 6: y'all podcast today.
Speaker 1: If you don't deserve your flowers, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know who does.
Speaker 4: NYA.
Speaker 2: Seriously, NYA, I mean, congratulations on becoming a STEM Champion.
Speaker 2: You got to present your work in DC. I mean,
Speaker 2: how did it feel to have your work, this invention
Speaker 2: recognized in that way.
Speaker 6: It definitely felt amazing to be able to travel and
Speaker 6: go present my project. I was a little scared first,
Speaker 6: but honestly got comfortable and it was kind of cool.
Speaker 6: Is to actually get to talk to so many different people.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us a little bit more about this
Speaker 2: stroke detection watch that you developed?
Speaker 3: How does it work?
Speaker 6: So the project is called win WIN. It is a
Speaker 6: early stroke detection watch day. Basically, the tech strokes early
Speaker 6: on through different sensors within a watch, and the different
Speaker 6: sys is basically monitor your heart rate, eos on, blood pressure,
Speaker 6: your oxygen levels, if you're on balance because if you're
Speaker 6: all balanced, that has a sign of having a stroke.
Speaker 6: And if your words are slur because a lot of
Speaker 6: people who have strokes tend to go off balance.
Speaker 3: I have words that slur.
Speaker 6: But there also are different symptoms of just different heart problems.
Speaker 6: So I mean, it's a stroke watch, but it takes
Speaker 6: much more than just strokes. Naya, your brain is so beautiful.
Speaker 1: You could have probably done a ton of things, and
Speaker 1: you chose this specific watch. What inspired you to create this?
Speaker 6: My grandmother she had a stroke when I was younger,
Speaker 6: and so seeing how she kind of struggled after having
Speaker 6: her stroke inspired I felt like if someone could get
Speaker 6: the symptoms early on, it would definitely be much better
Speaker 6: because it could cause them from not dying, cause them
Speaker 6: from just not having a severe stroke. Severe stroke, you
Speaker 6: could die, you could become paralyzed.
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 6: Is she's still with us, Yeah, she's still with us today,
Speaker 6: but you know, as she gets older, it gets harder.
Speaker 6: So watching that is seeing that there's some way to
Speaker 6: catch early on was definitely what inspired me.
Speaker 1: How long did this take you to put together?
Speaker 6: It's still going on, to be honest, but it's been
Speaker 6: a Muths long process. First it was just creating the
Speaker 6: idea of it, and when it became something that became
Speaker 6: so big, it can see you going on and it's
Speaker 6: still going on.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I see entrepreneurship in your future because you're
Speaker 2: a problem solver and that really is the essence of
Speaker 2: entrepreneurship right there. But you know, a lot of successful
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs there's a whole community behind them. So who in
Speaker 2: your community championed you? Did you have a favorite teacher
Speaker 2: or mentor who supported you during this process?
Speaker 3: I do have a mentor.
Speaker 6: My mentor is friendly who got me system Nola, Like,
Speaker 6: she still finds stuff for me to do to get
Speaker 6: me outside of the house.
Speaker 2: What's next for you, Naya? Where do you want to
Speaker 2: go next? Do you want to continue learning about this
Speaker 2: topic specifically?
Speaker 6: I honestly want to get this product into stores so
Speaker 6: then it could help people.
Speaker 3: But then what my education wise?
Speaker 4: I want to end up going to college.
Speaker 6: I want to become an obstecious kind of college, which
Speaker 6: is obgya Naya.
Speaker 1: You know we mentioned that you are competing against twenty
Speaker 1: five hundred other young people, young students. This is really
Speaker 1: a huge moment for you. I can imagine a huge
Speaker 1: moment for all the people that love you. What did
Speaker 1: this mean to you?
Speaker 3: I'm still so nonchalant about it.
Speaker 6: And every time someone like, see how you're giving me
Speaker 6: my flowers right now, everyone is kind of like, oh
Speaker 6: my god, but I'm very proud of myself. But it's like,
Speaker 6: I don't it's not really hitting me yet that I
Speaker 6: want to get so many kids. And I'm all over
Speaker 6: the place doing different interviews with different people, and what it.
Speaker 3: Do start kicking in be like, wait is this yes?
Speaker 1: So, Naya?
Speaker 3: I know no one Alice Gray stuff.
Speaker 4: So yeah.
Speaker 1: So on the bright side, we really believe that people
Speaker 1: working hard to inspire and uplift their communities deserve some
Speaker 1: extra special love, which is why we are quite literally
Speaker 1: giving you your flowers today courtesy of Mona's Accents in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. Naya, congratulations, thank you so much.
Speaker 6: And I love that y'all are giving me my flowers
Speaker 6: and allow other people to hear my story.
Speaker 4: So thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Nia Ellis is a high school freshman in New Orleans
Speaker 1: and a National Stem Challenge champion.
Speaker 2: Bright Side Besties, we need your help. If you know
Speaker 2: someone in your community who deserves her flowers. Go ahead
Speaker 2: and nominate them. Send us their name and your reasons
Speaker 2: for nominating them to Hello at the bright Side podcast
Speaker 2: dot com. We'll be showering the praise and giving out
Speaker 2: flowers once a month.
Speaker 3: That's it for us. Today.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow we're talking with the founder of mother untitled neha Ushe.
Speaker 1: She's giving us insight on how to take a step
Speaker 1: back from work and regain some focus. Simone and I
Speaker 1: are really excited for this one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a good one.
Speaker 1: Y'all.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe. You can find me on Instagram and
Speaker 1: TikTok at Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3: That's ro b a y and it's your girl Simone.
Speaker 2: Boys, you can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram
Speaker 2: and TikTok.
Speaker 1: We'll see you tomorrow and we'll miss you in between.