

Escape From Plan A
Escape From Plan A
Escape From Plan A is an ongoing discussion of life and politics in America from the perspective of Asian people living here.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 16, 2020 • 10min
Ep. 210 (Preview): Racism Isn't a Ladder. Racism Is a Stool.
Adam and Diana discuss three readings:
"Ghost Dance Prophecy," Chapter 10 of "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States," by Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz;
"Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy," by Andrea Smith; and
"The Racist Origins of U.S. Policing: Demilitarization Will Require Decolonization," by Julian Go.
The core of the United States' identity is white supremacy. Its growth as a nation has always depended on genocide, enslavement, and colonization, beginning in indigenous American land, and now globally. To fight them, we need to understand how our oppressions differ, interact, and enable the others. White Supremacy is not a ladder we can climb to the top of. It is a 3-legged stool.
REFERENCED RESOURCES:
"An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" (Chapter 10 attached) https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/indigenous-peoples-history-of-the-us/
"Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy" https://cpt.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/Undoing%20Oppressions%20-%20Three%20Pillars%20-%20Smith.pdf
"The Racist Origins of U.S. Policing: Demilitarization Will Require Decolonization" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-07-16/racist-origins-us-policing
TWITTER: Adam (@snbatman), Diana (@discoveryduck)
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Sep 13, 2020 • 2h 21min
Ep. 209: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Chinese in America (ft. Emily Dong)
Emily Dong returns to continue the discourse with Diana and Teen. What is Sinophobia and how does it differ from and interact with anti-Asian racism? How do we process such antagonism as Chinese Americans? How do we relate to Black Radicalism and police violence? There are no easy answers, only another sprawling conversation.
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Sep 10, 2020 • 11min
Ep. 208 (Preview): Inventing Reality: The Politics of New Media
Mike and Q discuss Inventing Reality: The Politics of New Media, by Michael Parenti. The book pulls no punches in explaining exactly how the people who own the news media creates what is (and isn't) news. What is news invariably serves elites, their investments, and right-wing corporate interests. What gets twisted or isn't shown at all is usually the information necessary for the people to collectivize and organize in our own interests. This is the story of how social and political justice is undermined in "The Free World." It also explains a lot of why and how Asians in diaspora are trained to hate their home countries.
REFERENCED RESOURCES:
"Inventing Reality: The Politics of New Media"
https://b-ok.cc/book/3525906/3999bb
TWITTER: Mike (@ChuNghiaCafein), Q (@allyouneedis_q)
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Sep 7, 2020 • 2h 18min
Ep. 207: Mixed-White/Asian Perspectives on Mental Health (ft. Dr. Joshua Blum)
Psychiatrist Joshua Blum joins CS and Teen for an expansive discussion that begins and ends with Asian American mental health and covers pretty much everything that Plan A has been pondering for the last three years.
TWITTER:
CS Taniguchi (@c_taniguchi)
Teen (@Mont_Jiang)
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Sep 3, 2020 • 45min
Ep. 206: Racist Invaders From The Porn Dimension (Extended Preview)
This is a free extended preview. The full conversation (runtime ~2h51m) is available to Patreon supporters. Support us at https://www.patreon.com/planamag and get access to a private discord chat and all of the bonus episodes of Escape From Plan A.
*****
It's estimated that porn constitutes ~30% of all internet traffic. One company dominates much of that traffic -- MindGeek -- but is not a household name. There are very few discussions about porn, yet porn is being consumed in huge amounts. It's as if porn does not exist in our regular everyday dimension, yet its influence can be felt everywhere. It has a particular effect on Asian American men, where discussions about masculinity, race, and social status are seemingly inflected by porn, yet porn itself is conspicuously absent from view. Jong, Diana, and Teen break this silence and step into the Porn Dimension to try and figure out what this tsunami of porn is doing to us as Asian Americans and the way we relate (or don't relate) to one another.
REFERENCED RESOURCES:
The Joy Fuck Club, Darrell Hamamoto
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07393149808429832
Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Andrea Dworkin
https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Andrea-DWORKIN-Pornography-Men-Possessing-Women-1981.pdf
The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf
https://shamelesslyunladylike.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/the-beauty-myth-naomi-wolf.pdf
Pornography, Margaret Atwood
https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/92.html
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Aug 31, 2020 • 1h 45min
Ep. 205: Race Realism and the Pet Arguments of Right Wing Chuds (ft. Kang)
*TECHNICAL NOTE* if you've had problem accessing episodes in the past couple of weeks, it's because we messed up a setting on our end and the URL's stopped working. We have it fixed now -- if you're still having trouble in your podcast app, (1) refresh the feed, and (2) clear out any 'downloading' Plan A episodes that are still trying to download, and try again.
Friend of the pod Kang joins Teen all the way from Sydney to dissect the way right wing people talk "frankly" or "realistically" about race and gender. From the way "obvious" differences in race are supposedly ignored, to the way gender "clearly" is a binary matter, the right wing accuses 'social justice warriors' of adopting 'cultural marxism' to erode foundational pillars of the 'Western society.'
It's all too common, but what to make of race realism, and how to see through it?
Support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/planamag
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Aug 24, 2020 • 1h 3min
Ep. 204: Everyone Was Falling (ft. JS Lee)
Author JS Lee joins Diana and Adam to premiere her soon-to-be-released novel, Everyone Was Falling. The book is a suspenseful thriller and jumping-off point for discussions of transracial adoption, trauma and recovery, and staying true to your artistic vision by any means necessary.
TWITTER:
JS Lee (@jessicasunlee)
Diana (@discoveryduck)
Adam (@snbatman)
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Aug 20, 2020 • 12min
Ep. 203 (Preview): Dealing in Desire
Sen, Filip, Diana, and Jess discuss "Dealing in Desire: Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline, and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work" by Kimberly Kay Hoang. Asians in the diaspora are often highly critical of the exploitation of white "sexpats" in Asia. While the criticism is completely justified, it is also an incomplete and western-centric perspective. Dr. Hoang's exploration illuminates Vietnam's sex work industry as dynamic, multifaceted, and directly tied to capital flow and nation-building. What can diaspora men and women learn from this research to better support ourselves, each other, and the workers in our homelands?
TWITTER:
Sen (@sen_goji)
Filip (@filipgwriting)
Diana (@discoveryduck)
Jess (@cogitatotomato)
REFERENCED RESOURCES:
-"Dealing in Desire: Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline, and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work" https://b-ok.cc/book/2489099/848263
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Aug 17, 2020 • 1h 50min
Ep. 202: Looking Back on 200 Episodes
(Almost) the whole team piles into this podcast to look back on 200 episodes of Escape From Plan A, dating back to September 2017. Jess, Chris, Diana, Filip, Teen, Adam, Q (and our friend Nia who just dropped by) talk about sticking it out for 3 years, what we think we accomplished, and what we see for the future.
Support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/planamag
TWITTER:
Filip (@filipgwriting)
Chris (@JesuInToast)
Diana (@discoveryduck)
Adam (@snbatman)
Teen (@mont_jiang)
Jess (@cogitatotomato)
Q (@allyouneedis_q)
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)

Aug 13, 2020 • 1h 3min
Ep. 201 [UNLOCKED]: A Critique of Ultra-Leftism, Dogmatism and Sectarianism
NOTE: We have unlocked this bonus episode to inaugurate EPFA's Book Club Bonuses. BCB episodes will critically analyze the existing scholarship on the topics that Plan A keeps coming back to over and over, and contextualize key points to our present circumstances.
This session, Mike Nguyen joins Q to discuss "A Critique of Ultra-Leftism, Dogmatism and Sectarianism" by Movement for a Revolutionary Left, edited by Paul Saba. What are the perennial problems of the left? What is holding back revolution today? How do we negotiate our present circumstances and what is the work we can do today that will help rather than hurt future revolutionary change?
Next session will discuss "Dealing in Desire: Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline, and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work" by Kimberly Kay Hoang
TWITTER:
Mike (@kevineuthanizer)
Q (@allyouneedis_q)
REFERENCED RESOURCES:
- A Critique of Ultra-Leftism, Dogmatism and Sectarianism: https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-4/mrl/index.htm
SUBMISSIONS & COMMENTS:
editor.planamag@gmail.com
EFPA Opening Theme:
"Fuck Out My Face" by Ayekay (open.spotify.com/artist/16zQKaDN5XgHAhfOJHTigJ)