FROM K-TOWN TO SAN SALVADOR

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In the first full episode for J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast this 2024, which is also doubling as an episode for K-Town Is OK, we sit down with filmmaker and journalist Vladimir Santos—who also forms one half of Ey Foo You a Rocker?—as well as Indigenous Arts and Healing Practitioner, the one and only Monica Garcia.

Plus, the latest from via Making a Neighborhood on LAUSD elections this March. Then, yours truly returns to El Salvador for just the second time in almost six years. More on Los Cuentos en El Salvador soon.

(0:31) Can you hear yourself? I can
(2:53) Meet Vladimir De Jesus Santos, Straight Outta K-Town
(6:35) Meet Monica Garcia, Marriage and Family Therapist, and a Mayan
(11:06) Speaking of culture, did anyone make tamales this holiday season?
(13:42) Making tamales isn’t all that easy, actually
(15:23) Vlad makes our discussion on tamales more controversial
(18:13) Jimmy maintains the peace
(20:03) Get us more food trucks, less gentrification please
(24:10) Give K-Town back to the people, like Maqueos music!
(26:26) Real families have been displaced by gentrification in K-Town, including Vlad
(31:20) How racial violence against communities of color continues being unaccounted for due to gentrification
(35:42) In a world of individuals, what happens to the community?
(39:14) This is America, a place that works extremely well, if you’re rich
(42:23) This dialogue matters too, though
(43:57) Shout out to my noona as well, Helen H. Kim!
(44:40) How to keep up with Vlad and Monica in the days ahead
(45:05) Monica is doing healing practices and workshops
(48:19) Vlad is working on those 🎥🎥🎥, obviously
(50:27) His work is also at the Academy Museum though!
(53:30) Yours truly has a flight to catch soon, to San Salvador!

To make a one-time donation to my fundraiser for Los Cuentos in El Salvador, please do so through my GoFundMe. To support the production of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, check out my PATREON.

J.T.

THE CHAT-GPT EPISODE

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A special, December 1st episode with my good friend, collaborator and noona, Helen H. Kim. Enjoy!

(1:16) Hello, if that’s OK
(1:53) Living for and loving awkwardness
(2:27) Shout out to the Robinson S.P.A.C.E.
(3:26) Loving noona’s smiley-face sweater
(3:58) Providing people with the opportunity to turn their necks
(4:37) Items on yours truly’s to-do list going forward
(6:48) Two opposite things for the body
(7:44) Items on Helen’s to-do list going forward
(9:20) Supplements and meal-prep
(10:53) The way we speak to ourselves
(15:04) Reclaiming our wellness from our productivity
(18:20) Being two older siblings who have internalized the older sibling complex
(20:58) Moving towards resolutions for ourselves today, not tomorrow
(21:44) Checking in on ourselves as well as our friends
(23:27) Older siblings unite!
(25:10) Family matters and ourselves
(27:59) Okay, checking in with Chat-GPT; proving Chat-GPT WRONG
(29:10) How many officials from California have run for the presidency and won?
(30:21) So Richard Nixon honeymooned in a funky Riverside hotel, actually
(31:29) I have a good Chat-GPT story too, you know
(34:24) Chat-GPT’s politically correct scripts on race and ethnicity
(36:27) Culture colliding today and the Cambrian explosion of yester-age
(38:55) Chat-GPT supporting the Korean/Laos Storytelling Project
(42:16) Okay, getting back to our to-do lists over these next few weeks
(44:01) The appendectomy is more common than you may suspect, actually
(45:47) Getting off auto-pilot because enough is enough (for me too)
(48:05) Seriously though, change starts today, tonight, right now
(49:56) Honestly though, let’s just warm up with some tamales

To make a one-time donation to my fundraiser for the 9th anniversary of JIMBO TIMES, please do so through jmbtms.com. To support the production of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, please check out my PATREON.

J.T.

KOREATOWN SPEAKS UP

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This is a special rebroadcast episode for the first ever panel-discussion by K-Town Is Oaxacan Korean.

On Thursday, November 2, 2023, K-Town Is Oaxacan Korean, also known as K-Town Is OK, brought together long-time and former residents of Koreatown into conversation. The panel, free and open to the public, was held just over a year after the public release of a private discussion between L.A. City Council Members Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo and Kevin De Leon, and Federation of Labor leader Ron Herrera, in which they dismissed Korean-American residents of the area and ridiculed Oaxacan or Mexican-American members of the community as “short, dark people” and “feos (ugly).” The panel discussion was held online and featured a line-up of guest speakers, culminating a year-long effort by my colleague Helen H. Kim and I documenting Oaxacan-American, Korean-American and other voices in Koreatown through our website and podcast, K-Town Is OK.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Quien Es Tu Vecindario to support this panel and help create more such dialogue for our communities.

J.T.