Reppin

i was there. this is my city. this is what i actually remember. this is the real moments i had. i'm re-releasing this one for the 25th anniversary. it's just me this time, no guest — my own reflections on 9/11, as a new yorker, in my home, twenty-five years later. i don't want to give you the highlight reel version of that day. i want to tell you what it actually felt like to live here when it happened — the fear, the quiet, the way the whole city held its breath together for a while. and i want to talk about what's changed since, and what hasn't. because twenty-five years is long enough to ask a harder question than "where were you." it's long enough to ask: what did we actually learn? and are we still living like we learned it? this isn't a history recap. it's personal, and it's a little uncomfortable in places, because i think it should be. i'm asking you to sit with your own memory of that day too — what it changed in you, what it didn't, and whether the way you're living right now is actually in line with whatever you promised yourself back then. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

**listener discretion is advised. twenty-five years ago, rais bhuiyan was shot in the face, ten days after 9/11, just because he looked different. i'm re-releasing this conversation for the 25th anniversary — him telling you what happened next, in his own words. rais came to america for the idea of it — the cowboys, the fairness, the wide-open promise of the whole thing. in the fear and anger after the attacks, people who looked like rais became targets. a man walked into his gas station, asked where he was from, and pulled the trigger. rais survived. a few other men weren't as lucky. here's the part that doesn't leave you: rais forgave him. not quietly. he campaigned to keep his own shooter off death row, wrote him letters--forgiving him, he fought the state of texas — and lost. the execution happened anyway. rais kept going: a nonprofit, a documentary, a fight in congress to get these hate crime victims recognized by name. this isn't just about 9/11. it's about what a person does that day, the day after. and the day after that. and the twenty-five years after — carrying trauma that could easily define you, and choosing not to let it. it's the difference between forgiveness as a feeling and forgiveness as something you decide, again and again, on purpose. rais made a choice. then he made it again. every day since. which is the only question that matters: what have our choices been, since that day? because rais understood something before most of us do — we don't have to agree, or look alike, or worship alike, to choose not to destroy each other over it. that's not weakness. that's the harder, stronger path. and he's also figured out how to transform that pain into purpose. listen to the whole conversation. think about what you've overcome, and what's still asking to be overcome. look at the choices you've made, and the ones we've made together. sit with someone different from you. extend the hand first. it doesn't have to be big — just make it your choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

a kid threw away his mother's Hmong food so no one would see it — the same food just made his restaurant one of Time's "World's Greatest Places." yia vang is a Hmong chef in Minneapolis, a James Beard semifinalist whose restaurant vinai has landed on the New York Times Restaurant List and Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurant. he named it after Ban Vinai, the refugee camp in Thailand where his Hmong parents — refugees who fled Laos after the Vietnam War — met and where he was born. he calls it a love letter to them. but before any of that, he hid his lunch for years — rice, fish sauce, anything that made him look like the Hmong kid instead of a normal one. he'd toss it, keep the empty containers, tell his mom he ate. then he trained in every cuisine that wasn't his — Italian, French, Tex-Mex — before he'd go near the food he grew up on. what brought him back wasn't a lesson. it was an egg his grandmother handed him every time he left her house. he thought it was the saddest gift a kid could get. he didn't understand it until decades later, standing in his own kitchen. we all did some version of this too — shortened a name, dropped an accent, swapped a lunch for one that wouldn't get you laughed at, wore your hair differently. this episode isn't about a chef. it's about what it costs to go back for the thing you gave up and finally, embracing who you are. all of you. no matter your race, gender, background, orientation to social status. there are no apologies. here, we're human first. watch and listen on spotify : ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠⁠ reppin's gram jam: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/reppin_podcast/⁠⁠ follow yia on social: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/yiavang70/⁠⁠ yia's restaurant: vinai https://www.vinaimn.com/⁠⁠⁠https://www.vinaimn.com/⁠⁠⁠ music by dj ace the cut lieutenant Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

she's blonde. she's australian. and she's been living in china for over a decade. turns out being the outsider has given her the inside track. amy lyons built Blondie in China from the outside in — nearly 600,000 subscribers who show up every week because she takes them somewhere real. street food. local neighborhoods. conversations with strangers. the China you don't see on the news. but here's what nobody tells you about being the one who gets stared at. ten years of walking into rooms where everyone turns to look. of being the curiosity. the outsider. the one who doesn't fit — and never will. most people would shrink. amy got more curious. and what that did to her is the whole conversation. being the one who doesn't fit forced her to figure out who she actually is. standing out when you just want to blend in builds something in you that comfort never could. and the view from the outside — the one nobody chooses — turns out to be the sharpest one in the room. 🎙️ listen to reppin Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8?si=0fb38eeff9b249ce Apple Podcasts → podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reppin/id1480913421 reppin.tv 📲 follow reppin Instagram → @reppin_podcast YouTube → youtube.com/@reppinpodcast Substack → reppinafterhours.substack.com 🎙️ follow amy YouTube → youtube.com/@BlondieinChina Instagram → @blondieinchina Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

some people wait for permission. these six didn't. osric chau bought a one-way ticket to a country he'd never lived in — and bet on himself. laura sohn walked away from a hit network show in her 20s to build a life on her own terms. chris pang's own team told him to pass on crazy rich asians. he trusted his gut instead. six people you know from the credits, on the exact moment they chose courage — what it took, what it felt like, and what it made possible. no highlight-reel versions. the real ones. this is reppin presents: the moment they chose courage — from reppin, the podcast about the person behind the headline. featuring osric chau (supernatural) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/3lYpczPxR0Kq2rEpOhKgnp⁠ yvonne chapman (avatar kyoshi) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/1jiQWmHgLBoXBBnPpmgBjf laura sohn (the blacklist) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bARaZUVlu2yhSWsnHsBmX⁠ gia kim (xo, kitty) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/5SbuRWbiI71JbfGlyVBfQJ⁠ amy lyons (blondie in china) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/0jaOubMJN5guSrVtgYpWSH ⁠ chris pang (crazy rich asians) — full conversation: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/episode/6IbnuLSkTfL0iuV96JVXck⁠ new conversations twice a month. subscribe here, or listen on apple spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠ apple:⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1tq2vuZiWLvhmTMaaWX2w8⁠ here, we're human first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices