Podcast / Sifu Mimi Chan

Sifu Mimi and Oscar in the Azores Islands

59. Adventures of Mimi and Oscar: The culture of sea life, Italy, and Spain

Oscar and I just returned from our transatlantic cruise to Italy and Spain. We love talking about our travels and today we are sharing stories about our recent adventure. Listen in for more on Italy, Spain, Azores Islands, life at sea and learn why we call Oscar the ‘taxi cab whisperer’. Warning: We do discuss a lot of amazing food, so do not listen to this episode hungry!

58. Vinny Vurro on the power of language

Vinny Vurro is the owner of Felice Center for Pediatric Rehabilitation in Orlando, which offers speech, occupational, and physical therapy for children. Vinny believes in treating his patients like family and strives to help each patient reach his/her maximum potential in speech and language development.

57. Ricky Watters on football and life after the NFL

Ricky Watters is a running back who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Seattle Seahawks. As a football fan, I enjoyed learning more about Ricky’s journey to the NFL and the hard core training it took to play at an elite level. We also talk about life after the NFL and his current passion for helping others through motivational speaking. I met Ricky and his family when they joined Wah Lum many years ago, and although they have moved back to the West Coast, I am happy we have kept in touch. It was fun to learn about what really happens when you are on the field on ‘Any Given Sunday.’

56. Rowena Norman of Feeding America

Rowena Norman is a Director of New Corporate Partnerships for Feeding America. She initiates authentic and meaningful partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. She loves utilizing her strong consultative fundraising, relationship management, and negotiation skills to forge innovative partnerships and make a difference every day. I enjoyed talking to Rowena about Feeding America, and the growing issue of hunger that faces so many in the US today. I was surprised to learn about how many people are hungry in the US today, and that many of the kids in school or people we interact with on a daily basis are food insecure. I love learning, and am grateful for the opportunity to constantly have my eyes opened through these interviews. Warning: Rowena’s passion and enthusiasm for her work is contagious, so be prepared to feel inspired to make a difference after listening to this podcast.

55. Teens on why they Walkout

On March 14, 2018, one month after the shooting in Parkland, FL, over 3000 Walkouts took place around the world. For 17 minutes students walked out of their classrooms to honor the 17 lives that were lost in the brutal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

54. Survivors helping ISIS survivors

I had the pleasure of sitting down with director Kristen Blalock and associate producer Mickie Garcia to discuss their film in the making: Survivor in White. I was grateful they reached out to me about their all female crew that is venturing to Iraqi Kurdistan to share the stories of women who are victims of sexual assault. The all female crew is not just in place to sport #girlpower, but is an important factor in their access to the survivors without re-victimizing them in any manner.

53. Chinese New Year Wrap Up

Happy New Year! After a week of celebrations, I am exhausted and happy to be finished with most of our shows. This year, we welcomed the Year of the Dog. While most of Asia takes a week long vacation for the Lunar New Year, Wah Lum works over time. Oscar and I sit down to discuss the ins and outs of Chinese New Year celebrations, Wah Lum Style. We recorded this episode on Facebook LIVE, so we apologize if we are jumping around a bit in this episode. We enjoyed interacting with our audience as we answered listener questions and reacted to comments that were being posted throughout the podcast.

52. Happy Birthday-Anniversary to me

Hi Everyone! It’s my 52nd episode of Culture Chat! I can’t believe it has been a year of podcasts. Today, I am answering listener questions and will be joined with my occasional co-host Oscar Agramonte. I am so grateful to all of you who have been tuning in each week THANK YOU so much. I have enjoyed learning from all of my guests, but have also learned a lot about myself. Although I still have a long way to go, I know that I am trying to become a much better listener. Thank you to all of my guests who graciously shared their stories with me, and thanks again to all of you for listening. Special gratitude love to those who have supported this podcast through Patreon and donations. Thanks to all of you, I hope to bring you more interesting podcasts in 2018. If anyone else is interested in donating please visit my website www.culturechatpodcast.com

51. Dr. Chad Eldridge, on moving to be pain free and love for the 80s

If you were to ask chiropractor Dr. Chad Eldridge about his practice, he would simply state his philosophy: Getting the masses off their asses. As you can tell, Chad, is not your ordinary chiropractor. He calls himself rather, the Movement Mechanic. And rightly so. His goals are to get people moving towards being pain free pain free. The key word here being moving! Chad does not just lay you on a table and give you a conventional adjustment, nope, at his practice you will often leave feeling as if you’ve had a 1 hour work out! I chat with him on his methods and philosophies and how we can incorporate them in our everyday lives. If you still haven’t kicked started your new years resolutions, listen on for some valuable information on why movement is just what the doctor ordered.

50. Chong Kim, from victim to survivor of human trafficking

January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Human trafficking is definitely a subject that makes people, including myself very uncomfortable… but like so many issues of today, we need to speak about things that make us uncomfortable. Chong Kim speaks to me today about her experience as a victim of child abuse and human trafficking in the United States. Chong has appeared on CNN, Tyra Banks, and CNBC, and recently authored her memoir Broken Silence. She also speaks at colleges around the country to advocate against human trafficking and child abuse. Her story was used for the film Eden, starring Jamie Chung.

49. Toan Lam on finding your unique power to inspire

Today I had the pleasure of talking with Toan Lam. He is currently the host of the “Truth Dare” podcast, which is a series of intimate conversations with “bad asses” who have found their true calling, are using it to serve others and daring listeners to find their truth. He is also a motivational speaker, university instructor, and founder of the nonprofit, Go Inspire Go (GIG), a multimedia platform that highlights everyday heroes to inspire the hero in each of us. These stories have appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CNN, Disney and Hallmark Channels and Yahoo. Toan also shares his immigrant story and the challenges he faced in bringing to fruition his version of the American Dream. I am truly inspired by his accomplishments and admire the work he has done through his nonprofit Go Inspire Go and urge everyone to check it out. I am grateful I had the opportunity to chat with him, and know you will find his energy and positivity as contagious as I did.

48. Oscar Agramonte on health and fitness

How can you stick to your New Year resolutions? Should we make resolutions, or are we just setting ourselves up for failure? Oscar Agramonte of Control Your Health discusses the common pitfalls of setting resolutions and how we can avoid them. We talk nutrition, exercise, and mindset to start you off in the right physical and mental state for 2018.