Time To Say Goodbye

Hello from the East Bay! It’s just Jay this week, chatting with friend of the pod Darrell Owens, a Berkeley-based housing expert. We discuss a new study from the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at UCSF on the causes and consequences of homelessness in California. In this episode, we ask:  Can the revelations in this study—or any new evidence, for that matter—finally move the needle on reducing homelessness? How do “Housing First” advocates address the desire for immediate solutions to a crisis that has been decades in the making? Why are people who are older, disabled, and from certain racial and ethnic groups so vastly overrepresented among the homeless population? For more, see: * The full UCSF study, Toward a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness * Our previous episode with Darrell, from July 2021: The Fight to End Single Family Zoning and the YIMBY/NIMBY/PHIMBY War* The book Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern * California YIMBY’s December 2022 report on Housing First policies Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the Hill! This week, we’re joined by Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project (WJP), a group that organizes low-wage, immigrant workers in New York City, including the app-based delivery workers who call themselves Los Deliveristas Unidos. WJP and the Deliveristas just won the passage of a mandatory minimum wage, a huge improvement for e-bike and car delivery workers on GrubHub, Uber Eats, and other platforms. (13:30) Ligia details the unique dangers that spurred the emergence of the Deliveristas as COVID hit New York and (31:00) offers some lessons learned from going against these big-tech titans and their algorithms. In this episode, we ask: How substantial was the shift towards app-based gig work during COVID, and what did that mean for  workers?  Is it necessary to focus on fighting worker misclassification?How did delivery workers overcome the immense challenge of organizing in a disparate, deliberately siloed workforce? For more, read: * A 2021 piece in The Verge about the early days of organizing among Los Deliveristas Unidos * Another horrific fire this week that may have been caused by improperly maintained e-bike batteries* A report on the backlash that threatened to derail WJP’s minimum-wage fight * News that the NLRB recently reverted to an Obama-era test that could make it easier for gig workers to organize Thanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

The podcast discusses complex cultural shifts in Asian American food and education, including the dominance of Thai food in the US, the concept of 'authentic' Asian food being cheap, and the likely end of affirmative action. They also touch on topics such as panic caused by smoke from wildfires, generational voting patterns, and the fusion of different cuisines in Portland's food scene.

Hello from Montréal! 🥳 Reminder: Join us THIS SATURDAY, June 10th, in Brooklyn, for our subscriber picnic! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. This week, we welcome back our friend Max Read—dad, Twitter lurker, hat seller, and creator of the incredible Read Max newsletter—for an anniversary chat. (12:30) We speculate about the next phase of A.I. ascendancy and (28:25) large language model pioneers, and (44:00) unpack the labor dimensions of these technological shifts. Speaking of labor, (45:30) we get Max’s inside perspective on the WGA strike (in which, again, A.I. …) and express solidarity with the Insider journalists who just went on strike for a fair contract! In this episode, we ask: Will the next generation be expected to know how to write? Who will ChatGPT threaten to (awkwardly, inadequately, terrifyingly) replace? Is A.I. doing to writing what earlier technologies did to the music industry? Are we getting schooled in notions of collective authorship? For more, see: * Max’s newsletters on the WGA strike and A.I.: * Why I'm on strike* I cannot believe the s**t that morons are getting up to with ChatGPT* Yet more of what I'm reading about A.I., a great mixed-reality TV show, and a great new music newsletter* His previous TTSG appearances! * Crypto fraudsters with Max Read* TTSG disinformation campaign with Max Read * John Herrman’s New York piece about Google’s in-search generative A.I. experiment* Our last episode about A.I., in which Ben Recht gets skeptical: What can’t A.I. replaceThanks for listening! Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Jay’s dried-out basement (finally)! This week, writer Hua Hsu joins us for a record fourth appearance on the pod as part of our neverending anniversary celebration. In a wide-ranging chat, we touch on (7:08) how podcasting has influenced our interview styles, (16:55) the "Succession" series finale [SPOILER ALERT], and (27:30) Tammy’s accidental encounter with edibles. (38:22) We also look back at a previous conversation with Hua, from January 19, 2021, and reflect on major changes in Asian American media representation.In this episode, we ask: Which “Succession” character deserved to win?!Whom has the Internet erased from Asian American art?  Who is Jay's (extremely specific) target audience?For more, see: * The full episode we excerpted, from January 2021: "That identity s**t, that’s old news, man": belated Capitol takes + "Chan is Missing" with Hua Hsu* Our longer convo (and Jay’s full rant) about drugs, from July 2022: More Dem failings + a shifting drug culture  * Hua’s piece on Frank Chin and “Aiiieeeee!”, plus his profile of Maxine Hong Kingston* Jay’s profile of Zappos executive Tony Hsieh* A 1993 performance by Lynbrook’s local ska band, Janitors Against Apartheid * The 1990s Godzilla collective Join us on June 10th, in Brooklyn, for our subscriber picnic! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from Mai’s COVID den! It’s just Jay and Tammy this week. (3:25) First, we chat about a mini-generation of Asian women named after Connie Chung and the news anchor’s professional legacy. (22:18) Then, we discuss the public killings of Banko Brown in SF and Jordan Neely in NYC—and the disturbing turn against poor (particularly Black) people in our cities. We ask: Has America so devalued the lives of homeless people that any offense now seems to warrant vigilante murder?How do these conversations play out on the West versus the East Coast? Does urban topography affect these dynamics? For more, read: * Reporting from the S.F. Chronicle: Banko Brown: Video shows what led to S.F. Walgreens shooting; D.A. won’t file charges * Jay’s recent New Yorker piece on Jordan Neely’s death and an older article that discusses California’s housing-first approach to homelessness * Friend-of-pod Darrell Owens’s take on homelessness and vigilante violence on public transitSome TTSG housekeeping: First, we’re having a subscriber picnic on June 10th in NYC! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. Second, get a TTSG tote for yourself and all your pals! You can either get it shipped to you directly or select "Ship to TTSG" and pick it up at the June 10th picnic. If you’re shipping internationally, use this link instead. Order by this Friday and rep the pod wherever you go!Thanks as always for listening! Keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the vault! In the first of a series of episodes commemorating TTSG’s third anniversary, OG Andy Liu returns. 🎉We look back at the first episode we ever released, on April 13, 2020, and ask: (9:30) Was Andy right to attribute both the spread of the coronavirus and the backlash against Asian Americans to China’s growing power? (34:30) Has COVID diminished the concept of U.S. exceptionalism—if not within the U.S., at least in the rest of the world? (56:30) Is it possible for leftists to embrace national industrial policy without replicating the same kinds of neoliberalism that led us here?  For more, see: * That fateful first episode, Pangolin Panic and Why the West Said "No" to Masks * Our episode analyzing Dan Wang’s U.S.–China 2020 newsletter, plus his 2022 assessment * Commentary on recent China-related legislation and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s speech, outlining a new Washington consensusA couple big TTSG announcements! First, we’ll be having a subscriber picnic on June 10th in NYC to celebrate our anniversary and Jay’s “American Son” premiere (movie tix here!). Subscribe on Patreon or Substack for more details. Next, we’re finally releasing TTSG MERCH, starting with a PMC staple: a TTSG tote! When you place your order, you can either get it shipped to you directly or "Ship to TTSG." Please only select the latter option if you plan to attend the NYC picnic on June 10th! (Apologies to all non-locals.) Buy one (or two or three) to rep the pod, and share the link with friends & family! As always, keep in touch via Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

The podcast discusses U.S.-Korea relations, the sanitizing of human rights realities in Asia, controversy over an article about Tucker Carlson, the tiptoeing endemic to our fractured news industry, and the frustrations of writers in navigating cancel culture and provocative arguments.

Hello from a cruise ship! This week, we welcome book critic and Philly basketball devotee Jennifer Wilson back to the show. We discuss [1:00] the epidemic of belligerent airline passengers; [6:25] the surprising (and not so surprising) firings of Tucker Carlson from Fox News and Don Lemon from CNN; [15:10] Jen’s favorite 76er, James Harden, and his ejection for nut-punching; and [27:40] journalist Lauren Oyler’s recent piece on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop cruise and the sexist genre of wellness writing.  In this episode, we ask: Why do so many basketball players punch and kick one another in the crotch? Are the Tucker Carlsons and Don Lemons of the world easily replaceable?What (besides capitalism, duh) makes us so obsessed with wellness? How is vulnerability (especially in women) used to sell products, activate people online, and smooth out social relations? For more, see: * This week’s viral airplane video (baby screams; man yells) * A breakdown of James Harden's and Joel Embiid's fouls * Lauren Oyler’s dispatch from the Goop Cruise* The David Foster Wallace cruise piece that the Goop story references * Oyler’s 2021 essay on writer W. G. Sebald * How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner * The TikTok influencer video that led to the intense doxxing of two young women * A rumination on the rise of astrology among millennials by Christine SmallwoodThanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from a 90-degree day in New York!This week, we’re joined by Alex Han, executive director of In These Times and a longtime organizer based in Chicago. Alex previously worked for Bernie’s 2020 campaign and SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana. We get into the context behind the surprise mayoral win by former teacher and organizer Brandon Johnson, over “corporate reformer” Paul Vallas. We discuss [15:45] the values (neoliberal versus progressive) at stake in this race, [25:08] which strategies can, and can’t, be reproduced by other candidates, and [1:01:30] the role of left-labor publications like In These Times in counteracting corporate media.In this episode, we ask: What made the Chicago Teachers Union become such a central player in city politics? How has “defund the police” evolved, rhetorically, on the left? How do you build a coalition that’s led by progressives but populated by centrists? What should left media do to engage young people and other big yet hard-to-reach groups? For more, read: * Alex’s post-election editorial for In These Times* This reflection on bargaining for the common good and the influence of the CTU * More on the deep, grassroots organizing behind Johnson’s victory: 'It Was 100-Percent People Power' (Block Club Chicago) and Chicago’s Rich Organizing Tradition Paid Off (The Nation) * An interview with Alex on the past and present of In These Times: What Do Movements Need from Progressive Media?* The book Jay mentions, After Black Lives Matter: Policing and Anti-Capitalist Struggle, by Cedric G. Johnson* Horrifying news of the shooting of 16-year-old Ralph Yarl in Kansas CityThanks for listening! Subscribe on Patreon or Substack, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Email us at timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe