Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we'll wrap up today's show with a call-in and event preview with the founders of a group called the Mash-Up Americans, which describes itself as your guide to hyphen-America. They've got some fun and interesting questions for you right now, and they'll be doing Artist in Residence shows at The Greene Space this fall, our latest Artist in Residence series.

With me now are Rebecca Lehrer - same spelling, no relation - co-founder and CEO of the Mash-Up Americans, as well as Amy Choi, also co-founder and the company's editorial director, and also no relation. Rebecca, Amy, welcome back to WNYC.

Amy Choi: Thank you, Brian.

Rebecca Lehrer: I'm so excited, cuz, to be here with you.

[laughter]

Brian Lehrer: For listeners just meeting you here for the first time, can you explain what exactly is a mash-up American, and how our listener would know if he or she or they are one, if you want to?

Rebecca Lehrer: Thank you so much for asking. Giving us this chance. A mash-up American is somebody who is living in a culture that's different than the one their parents are from. Who's in a relationship with somebody who's from a different cultural background. Then the broader culturally curious group, I think a lot of WNYC listeners are in that, is a broader community who is excited about being in this mash-up world.

I, for example, am a first-generation American. My mom is from El Salvador. I'm a Latin Jew from Los Angeles. Lived a long time in New York City as well. That's some of my hyphens and that's what my mash-up is.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to share your own hyphen, Amy, just so people know where both of you are coming from to start at?

Amy Choi: Sure. I would love to. I am a first-generation Korean-American. I'm the first person in my family to be born in the US. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and found my way here to New York right after college. I am also married to a first-generation Colombian-Mexican-American, so I have Colombian-Mexican-Korean kids. We're living in Brooklyn and we're just figuring out what our family and our traditions look like, and how we're shaping new traditions for the future.

Brian Lehrer: Are you getting an earful at home about Mayor Adams leaving for Colombia and Mexico today? You don't have to--

Amy Choi: I don't think I can talk about Mayor Adams. The profanity that will come out of my mouth, I don't think it's appropriate for public radio right now.

Brian Lehrer: Not revealing the dinner table [laughter] conversation with our Colombian-Mexican spouse. Listeners, we want to explore this sentiment of feeling interconnected with previous generations of our families and mashing those up with our current realities in a couple of ways. Thanks to some questions that our guests in The Greene Space have planted for you right now for a call-in as we continue to describe their project and preview their events.

Listeners, call in on any of these three questions. Pick one. What do you spend money on that your immigrant parents never would? Did your parents or grandparents offer any dating advice as you grew up? What was it, and did you actually follow through? Maybe there's a more general piece of ancient advice that you do follow, which may or may not be true. Dating advice trickling down from the generations, and does it apply to your current world?

Now that the weather is changing, what advice did your family give you as it started to get cold out? Were there any meals that got passed down from your culture or household equivalent to the pumpkin spice latte that keeps you warm and signified the start of cold weather in generations past in your hyphen-American family? 212-433-WNYC. Pick any one of those questions to call in and answer. 212-433-9692 for a quick story on what you spend money on that your immigrant parents never would.

Did your parents or grandparents offer any dating advice as you grew up? What about advice for what to eat or what to do now that the weather is starting to get cold at this time of year? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 for Rebecca Lehrer and Amy Choi, co-founders of Mash-Up Americans. They are the Artists in Residence this fall at The Greene Space. Amy, what kind of events are you going to have?

Amy Choi: Oh, we are so, so, so excited to be curating these programs for The Greene Space. I think thematically we are looking at all fall. What is the ultimate guide to a mash-up life? What are the rules that we live by? What are the wisdom traditions that we can carry forward? What do we see as the most essential aspects of living a good, vibrant, technicolor, culturally fluid life? For us, that revolves around books and stories and food, and just really honest and hilarious conversations with mash-up luminaries.

Our very first event, which will be on October 11th at 7:00 PM - everybody, please buy tickets - is going to be featuring the very, very, very incredible Min Jin Lee, who wrote Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires. We'll be in--

Brian Lehrer: Oh, you've got Min Jin Lee, huh?

Amy Choi: Oh, we got Min Jin Lee, and--

Rebecca Lehrer: Queens, you must be proud. A Queens girl.

Amy Choi: A Queens native. The queen of Queens. We adore her so much. It was just a real testament to her own extraordinariness that we were in such awe when we first spoke to her that we went on a diatribe of who we were and trying to defend-- not defend, but explain what the Mash-Up Americans was, and she was like, "Girls, I know who you are." Then Rebecca and I basically fell out of our chairs.

We have Min Jin Lee. We will also have the internet's favorite astrologer, Chani Nicholas, talking to us about the stars and how we all fit into the larger universe and the larger fabric of the world, which is I think a lot of what the Mash-Up project is. Like placing ourselves and being really close in and intimate with our identities, and also figuring out our relationship to other people and to the world.

Brian Lehrer: You have an astrologist?

Amy Choi: Yes.

Rebecca Lehrer: Oh, yes.

Brian Lehrer: An astrologist?

Rebecca Lehrer: You know, Brian-

Brian Lehrer: If you expect to talk about it--

Rebecca Lehrer: -you're a suspicious man. [laughter]

Brian Lehrer: By the way, no, no. I just want to say happy birthday to all my fellow Librans out there.

Rebecca Lehrer: Okay.

Amy Choi: Libra? We're going to get you a reading, Brian.

Rebecca Lehrer: We were going to do you-- We'll get you a reading with her. We all are very-- I think one of the questions we have today for our callers is also like some of the bubbe meises that came down to you about weather and changing things or about dating. We come from superstitious peoples. That's a lot of mash-ups, thinking about what the stars are telling us.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. Min Jin Lee and an astrologist, October 11th in The Greene Space. Denise in Brooklyn is going to answer one of those questions. Hi, Denise. You're on WNYC. Hello.

Denise: Hi, Brian. Happy to talk to you. Originally my family is from Haiti, so coming here I'm always cold during winter. I'm more cold than the normal person. [laughs] When I finished college, I started buying cashmere sweaters, scarves, and hats at Bloomingdale's or Saks Fifth Avenue, and my parents were livid. [laughs] It was like, "You're spending what? $495 on a sweater? That's an annual salary for a family in Haiti." It was like, "You can't do that. You can't do that." That's my experience.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, answer to that first question. What your immigrant parents never would spend money on but you would. Reema in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Reema.

Reema: Hi there. I'm answering the same question-

Brian Lehrer: Sure.

Reema: -about what our immigrant parents would never spend money on. Eating out. Never.

Amy Choi: Oh.

Brian Lehrer: That's a good one.

Reema: My father is rolling in his grave, I promise you. [laughter] Why eat out when you have all this food at home?

Amy Choi: Because it's different when somebody else cooks it. That's a simple answer.

Reema: 100%. Or when you live in a studio apartment and you don't have a dining table. Regardless, yes, that is the number one thing. I think in my entire life I have been in a restaurant with my father maybe 10 times. I'm in my 50s and he's gone now, but no, absolutely not. No eating out.

Brian Lehrer: My sister-in-law-

Rebecca Lehrer: Very relatable,

Brian Lehrer: -Judith Sloan, a performer, has a line that-- She plays an old-world Jewish character sometimes, and the character says, "In the old country, we ate our meals in the house and we had to go out to go to the bathroom. In this country, we go to the bathroom at home and we eat out."

[laughter]

Rebecca Lehrer: That's so true.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Reema, thank you very much. This is the question that people seem to be calling to answer the most, is what would your immigrant parents never spend money on that you would? Let's take another one. Sophia in Leonia, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Sophia: Hi. My parents didn't really enjoy traveling for leisure or they didn't really value it, so it does feel like I'm a little bit wasteful when I do that but I enjoy it.

Brian Lehrer: Traveling for leisure.

Sophia: Yes, that's right. Just going on vacations and sightseeing. We never did that growing up.

Brian Lehrer: Sophia, thank you very much. All right. Well, there's a little smattering of that, Rebecca. You're relating to these?

Rebecca Lehrer: Oh, yes. Especially for those of us who were so lucky if we could go to visit family because we're diasporic peoples who are all over the world, there was always like if you're doing it there it's very purposeful. Like you were going to visit your grandmother or a family member in whatever part of-- If you could get there. Also, when at least we were growing up, a phone call felt almost as much as an airplane ticket at the time.

For me, the primary thing I spent money on my parents never would is booze. Just drinking, which I hope that no one diagnoses me on this call, [laughter] but was one thing. They would never order alcohol if we were eating out. The idea that that's something we would pay for and who are you?

Amy Choi: Oh, that's the judgy glance that I get from me and Michael whenever we're asking that [crosstalk]. [laughs]

Rebecca Lehrer: That's the side eye. A little wine at the table side eye for you.

Amy Choi: Oh, yes.

Brian Lehrer: What's yours, Amy, from your parents?

Amy Choi: Well, I would say that for me, the thing that I adore and love most in the world is really beautiful paper. Then also stationery products. Just notebooks and notebooks and Post-its and stickers and pens. I think it's because I'm traumatized that my entire childhood through high school I never had an-- All we used were those free giveaway notepads that were from the First Bank of Chicago or First Chicago Bank. We only used the freebies. My parents owned a convenience store, so I also had freebie T-shirts and freebie backpacks that were maybe labeled by tobacco companies, but the stationary remains a big one. I will spend any amount of ludicrous dollars to buy myself a beautiful notebook.

Brian Lehrer: Hahaha, beautiful notebook. We have so many like this coming in on this particular question. One listener writes, "My parents never ever purchased paper towels. We always had dish rags to clean up counters, et cetera." Someone else says--

Amy Choi: Here's a good question, is how often do you reuse your Ziploc bags?

Brian Lehrer: That's a question for one of our plastics reduction projects. [laughter] Another listener says, "My father was shocked when we bought bags of ice. Couldn't believe we spent money on that." Another one says, "I get my laundry done. Parents would not approve." Here's Monty in Manhattan, who's calling to answer one of the other questions, which is about dating advice from her immigrant parents. Monty, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Monty: Hi. How is everyone? [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Great.

Rebecca Lehrer: Hi.

Amy Choi: Hello.

Monty: Hey. Hi. No, I love this segment. It's wonderful. I was thinking of course there are a lot of things like cleaning lady, whatever, what we spend on that our parents wouldn't, but I thought the dating advice one was interesting because in my culture, which is Indian, arranged marriage is huge. We even have shows like Indian Matchmaking where it's centered around that. My parents have always given me dating advice because they've never wanted me to have an arranged marriage, so they did.

They always say no matter who you date, no matter what their background or race or religion, make sure that when it comes to the financial outlook and approach, whether it was how they were raised to spend money or how their families are with money, that that's going to be a huge signifier of how compatible we are long term. Whether it's decision-making or goals or ambition. They've been really accurate about it. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: That is very good dating advice.

Amy Choi: That is solid dating advice. [laughter]

Rebecca Lehrer: Yes. I would say top-notch dating advice. Thank you to Monty's parents.

Brian Lehrer: That's right. Let's sneak one more in here because Layla in Sunnyside is calling on the third question, which is advice from the generations on how to get ready for this season as the weather gets colder. Right, Layla? Hi, you're WNYC.

Layla: Hi, Brian. Yes. My parents are Mexican and every winter they remind me, "Bundle up so you don't get cold, and also don't forget to wear slippers inside the house so you don't catch a cold." They hate cold floors.

Rebecca Lehrer: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Hate cold floors with slippers or flip flops.

Rebecca Lehrer: Oh, absolutely.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Take our last minute and give everybody some more information about other events you have coming down the pike at The Greene Space. We know now about the October 11th one with Min Jin Lee and an astrologer. What else?

Rebecca Lehrer: That's Chani Nicholas, astrologer for our fans. We have a program on November 16th and 17th on the ethnic aisle. We're making our own ethnic aisle. Together, we are the Hispanic kosher foods and Asian part of the ethnic aisle, but we think that it should be organized a little differently, so we're really excited about that. We are obsessive readers and believe that telling stories is how we really explore our humanity. We're doing a little book fair, an exploration with a bunch of incredible authors in early December.

Those are a couple of the events. We have a new season of our show out right now of a podcast with Randall Park, the first episode. A dear friend wo-- It's all about what it means to live a good life. You can read more and answer some of these questions. Wait, but Brian, I have a question for you, What do you spend money on that your parents never would?

Brian Lehrer: Oh, I don't have time to answer that question because All Of It is about to start. [laughter] I thank Rebecca Lehrer - no relation - co-founder and CEO of The Mash-Up Americans, and Amy Choi, co-founder and editorial director of The Mash-Up Americans. You can find their podcast series or see their events at The Greene Space as Artists in Residents this fall. Tickets @thegreenespace.org. I'm going to go out to lunch now. Don't tell my parents.

Amy Choi: Spend all the money, Brian. Do it, you've earned it.

 

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