The Americana Sundai: Recent Episodes
Ken Vu and Denise
From the minds of "The Autism Experience" podcast host Ken Vu and newcomer Denise, The Americana Sundai is a place where we talk about all things related to America - politics, YouTube trends, college life as a mathematics major, and anything that fancies our mind and broadens our interests into the unique and introspective quirks of America. It's a bi-weekly podcast where we'll pick one random topic from pop culture or our own personal experiences and explore it together from a cultural or social standpoint.
Welcome back, everyone! Sorry for the delay, but here's another episode from The Americana Sundai. In this episode, we discuss our thoughts on the idea of bearing children and having families as well as look into interesting films and pop culture phenomena over the past couple of years. Some examples include Lin Manuel Miranda's early break into the musical world with the musical In the Heights, discussing Kingsman: The Secret Service and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, and many other films as well.
In this episode, we'll explore our thoughts on the pseudo-midlife crisis that affects many graduates, especially in the midst of COVID-19 and the ensuing shakeup of the job market. One of the challenges that many graduates face is deciding on how to advance their career and personal lives going forward after obtaining their degree. While some graduates may spend time traveling, exploring their career options, get a job, and/or go to graduate school for a Master's or PhD, not every graduate manages to figure out their post-graduate lives successfully. Even worse is the timing of graduation during a global pandemic that's devastating the economy, making it harder for graduates to find steady work and/or go to school. Yet despite these unprecedented challenges, COVID-19 brought about a wide variety of opportunities that could benefit one's personal and professional life.
In this podcast, Denise and Ken are happy to announce that they've successfully graduated from San Jose State University with a BS in Applied Mathematics as well as a minor in Computer Science (both of us) and Economics (Denise only). We discussed ways in which COVID-19 would affect the rest of the college experience for future and current students, such as the loss of in-person activities for student organizations and a decline in students studying abroad/out-of-state. In addition, we looked at our own lives now and disclosed some ways in which we're continuing to stay productive during COVID-19, including taking The Data Science Bootcamp 2020 course available on Udemy for as low as $10 during weekly discount periods. We're excited to do it and look forward to coming out with a better understanding of Python, the theory of data science, and its data science capabilities - all the more relevant for Denise's and Ken's interests in business analytics and statistics respectively.
NOTE: Mind the feedback from my end. I was eating while doing the podcast so it may be a little too loud for some of you. Apologies for the sudden changes in volume during the podcast.
In this podcast, we will reflect on our college experiences overall at San Jose State University (SJSU) as undergraduate Applied Math majors. We discussed briefly about how we came to become math majors, the wide array of courses we took there, the challenges of standing out in a competitive job market (particularly one that's heavily skewed towards business and tech majors), and many other valuable insights and lessons we've learned from our time there. While it's certainly too early for us to do this kind of reflection (as the Spring 2020 semester doesn't end until towards the end of May), we've learned enough to be able to discuss and describe our experiences at SJSU. We both started out unsure about what to major in until we ended up settling on Applied Math - a versatile major that's splash-able in any industry (i.e. computer science, economics, healthcare), which allows us to learn a variety of different things from different fields and give us enough exposure to then determine which field we're interested in. For Ken, he's leaning towards data science and higher education (namely, institutional research and reporting) based on his work experience, volunteering experience, and coursework. On the other hand, Denise unexpectedly developed a liking for economics, which is driving her to consider business as a potential field to explore in the future (i.e. business analysis, applied economics, supply chain).
In this podcast, we will dissect rave culture, using their own personal experiences with it (Denise from her time at raves, Ken from his research and observations made from interactions with fellow ravers). From Denise's perspective, she covers how much rave culture has shaped her friendships and in some cases, forged new ones with people she met through it, which is accurately represented by the widely accepted acronym PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect - the general "philosophy" of rave culture). Part of this phenomenon can be attributed to the basis of rave culture - an opportunity to connect and reach out to hundreds of thousands of people of different cultures and different backgrounds, all united in their love of music and being true to themselves without the constraints of say, a 9-5 job, familial traditional values, and other aspects of society that could stress out or trouble someone. In particular, we look at the essence of what makes raves resonate with many college students by looking at a significant cohort of the raver population - Asian Americans. Although not all Asian Americans go to raves, part of the common appearance of Asian Americans at raves (especially those in California) can be attributed to the early history of Asian Americans in the United States. Specifically, some Vietnamese Americans in rave culture are drawn to it because of their desire to free themselves of the challenges of living under traditional Vietnamese values they may not necessarily identify with and to find a sense of belonging that's irrespective of their race, their adherence to traditional and/or progressive values, and other distinctions. Since raves generally focus less on the appearance or identity of artists and other people and more on the quality of the music presented (a universal experience all participants can enjoy), it is a unique opportunity for not just Asian Americans, but for anyone looking to find a sense of community and belonging, much like the Hippie movement and the counter-culture movement of the 1960s-1970s in the United States.