Episode 93 - Kaila Yu

About this episode

Kaila Yu shares her journey from a troubled youth in Southern California's rave scene to becoming a sober writer exploring the oversexualization of Asian women.

Kaila Yu used to tell people that she was born in Tai Pei, she was actually born in Lawence Kansas and moved to Southern California at a young age where she was reared by her tiger mom parents until she discovered ecstasy and cocaine in Socal's rollicking rave scene of the early aughts. She dropped out of UCSD and became an import model making money as a pinup girl in the underground world of street racing. She eventually got sober and worked every twelve-step program under the sun before finding her footing as a writer. She's just written a new memoire published by Penguin Randomhouse called- "Fetishized - A reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism and Beauty" which explores how media, pop culture, and colonialism as well as her own behavior have contributed to the oversexualization of Asian women.

People in this episode

Host: Nick Morton

Guest: Kaila Yu

Topics covered

• addiction
• recovery
• Asian women
• pop culture
• feminism
• media representation

Keywords

• Kaila Yu
• addiction
• recovery
• Asian women
• feminism
• pop culture
• memoir

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: UCSD, Penguin Randomhouse

Books & works: Fetishized - A reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism and Beauty

Places: Tai Pei, Lawence Kansas, Southern California

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