The Millennial Podcast
My inspiration is based on The Millennial Podcast by Megan Tan, creator and host. I strongly feel that we’re all lucky that our jobs are an everyday exercise in empathy, and podcasts like these provide such a valuable way to take in an experience you may have never thought about.
I was initially turned off by the name too, but dropped my guard and preconceptions and was rewarded. The show began with her experience as a recent college graduate with no job, and then evolved to a very thoughtful and personal catalogue of other Millennial’s stories.
She began with no sponsors (her joke in the first podcast was, “oh, we have no sponsors,”). In a nutshell, she was too shy to ask, and thought, “Who would want to give me money for this?!”
Even in a crowded market that established podcasts such as “This American Life” and “RadioLab,” her content and work spoke for itself, gained sponsors and joined a larger podcast network, Radiotopia.
Rather than just go on about how much I love this podcast, I’m going to talk about one particular episode:
“I Never Talk About Politics”, a story of Ben Chin, a 29-year-old Asian American who ran for mayor of Lewiston, ME, the most central city of the state with a population of about 36K. (iTunes Link)
He knew it would be an uphill battle, appealing to the primarily white, working class voters of the area, but there were flashes of hope and inspiration along the way.
One morning, signs went up saying “Don’t vote for Ho Chi Chin: Vote for more jobs and not welfare.”
Note: Ben Chin is a second-generation Asian American, his grandfather immigrated here.
After talking to his wife about how hurt they were about this, Ben Chin said (at 20:53) “Here’s how my dad…raised me to think about this. Do not expect the world to be fair for you. Expect that you will have to work twice as hard as everybody else to get the same thing. You’ve got a choice. You can either get really discouraged or depressed, and feel sorry for yourself, or you can roll up your sleeves and work twice as hard as everybody else. The only emotion that I really allowed myself to have is…determination…just resolve. People are coming at you and every single ounce of smarts and strength that you have, focus, and determination need to be marshalled, and win this.”
There’s no need to listen to this podcast in order, just pick one. (30 minute listen time)
I’m inspired that somebody has the courage to put themselves out there, create something, and also provide a voice for others. Growing up, Asian Americans didn’t have a lot of people to look to in the public sphere and think, “Hey! That person looks like me, and I’m different! That’s who I want to be like.” I’m happy to be living in an American era where exactly that is starting to happen.
The upcoming episode will be about activism—so I’ll be listening.