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This episode is brought to you by 7or9 heels — an innovative brand that’s dedicated to making more comfortable high heels for women. Our podcast was invited to participate in their brand campaign with the theme “from pain to joy.” In this episode, we discuss the feminist awakening of female protagonists — specifically Harley Quinn and Black Widow. In the context of Hollywood’s movie-making industrial complex, paired with the awakening of the female consciousness, these two have evolved and became beloved characters that suit the female audience’s requirements. From the design of their storylines to their motives, to the clothes they wear when fighting — everything reflects the current gender dynamics, and we dive right into this discourse. Listen till the end for an Easter egg about our hosts’ fashion ideals.  Our Editor Valerie  Support Us Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 Read More Check out 7or9 heels: https://7or9.com/Collaborate with Us Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

[Episode theme] In this episode, we talk about the latest Marvel blockbuster, “Shang-Chi: legend of the ten rings.” At the time of publishing, Shang-Chi has become the first pandemic film to gross over $200M at the box office. We dive deep into what we love and appreciate about this film — the various styles of fight scenes, Tony Leung, care paid to language and dialect. And where we find the movie to be falling short — the ambiguity of Taluo, the tired narratives when it comes to womanhood, motherhood, and a woman’s role in the marriage.  [Timecode] 1:19 — Guest intro and first impressions 8:00 — How Marvel creates an “anti-hero” the audience loves (Wenwu) 15: 00 — Are the Chinese dialogue and dialects in this film legit?26: 24 — The references of Wuxia style in this film, and a smart appropriating of Chinese fantasy elements  32: 21 — Awkwafina is the first female Asian character whose main use is to be a getaway driver (we dig) 34: 11 — Is the story of Taluo holding up under scrutiny? What are the weaknesses of world-building in this film, when compared with “Black Panther”? Do we need this type of ambiguity in geography and history? Do we need an Asian “Wakanda”? 49: 00 — Marvel commoditized the identity movement of Asian Americans but did not dig deep into their stories in this film 51: 20 — The movie’s polite but ultimately inadequate nod to feminism 56: 16 — Are we tired of the same old narrative of a woman sacrificing herself for a relationship 59: 00 — As a part of the Chinese audience, how should we understand cultural creations that belong to Chinese Americans? [Guest introduction]  Frankie: Chinese American illustrator   Kao: Host of the podcast “Overcooked” https://overcooked.typlog.io/  [Audio editor] Joshua Odgen-Davis [Be our sponsor] Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 【Links & resources】 越烤越糊 https://overcooked.typlog.io/ 清醒梦播客救母那集https://hekukaixin.com/2021/05/22/%e6%b8%85%e9%86%92%e6%a2%a6-e18%ef%bd%9c%e4%b8%ad%e5%9b%bd%e6%96%87%e5%8c%96%e7%9a%84%e6%95%91%e6%af%8d%e4%bc%a0%e8%af%b4/ 【Business collab】 Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  【Listen to LMM】 Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

In this ambitious three-part series, we want to talk about time travel through some of our favorites ---- Tenet, Loki, and Interstellar. As viewers, we experience movies frame by frame; as human beings, we experience time through the relentless one-way time arrow. Through subverting our familiar narrative structures and disrupting causality, time travel can raise important questions about the universe we live in and its physical rules. Time Code 2:07 A cool anecdote about Chien-Shiung Wu, the female Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist7:14 Our third category of time travel stories, as presented in Interstellar 11:16 Fascinating understandings of time and space that came from the elegant principles of Special Relativity19:00 "High-dimensional creatures" in pop culture and in religion21:10 The inherent tragedy in time -- Eternalism vs. Presentism26:48 The sincerity and fragility of "Interstellar" -- is Sci-fi telling us to be more afraid to face our own vulnerabilities than exploring the end of the universe? Our Guest Shelly Shi - Ph.D. candidate in UCSD, with research interest in Philosophy of Physics Edited By Valerie Chen Support Us Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 Business collab Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  Listen to LMM Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

In this ambitious three-part series, we want to talk about time travel through some of our favorites ---- Tenet, Loki, and Interstellar. As viewers, we experience movies frame by frame; as human beings, we experience time through the relentless one-way time arrow. Through subverting our familiar narrative structures and disrupting causality, time travel can raise important questions about the universe we live in and its physical rules. Time Code 1:45 Our second category of time travel stories, as presented in Loki 4:45 The quantum mechanics behind the multiverse theory, which contrary to popular belief, has more to do with Schrödinger's than Rick Sanchez9:26 What is the Tesseract stolen by Loki? Why can it help Loki travel through time and space?14:23 The existential philosophical question raised by Loki in the multiverse narrative: What makes a Loki Loki, and what makes me me?25:08 Loki’s redemption arc makes for a perfect multiverse story31:44 "Time" under the capitalist system and "nowness" as the way out Our Guest Shelly Shi - Ph.D. candidate in UCSD, with research interest in Philosophy of Physics Edited By Valerie Chen Support Us Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 Business collab Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  Listen to LMM Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

In this ambitious three-part series, we want to talk about time travel through some of our favorites ---- Tenet, Loki, and Interstellar. As viewers, we experience movies frame by frame; as human beings, we experience time through the relentless one-way time arrow. Through subverting our familiar narrative structures and disrupting causality, time travel can raise important questions about the universe we live in and its physical rules. Time Code 1:43 So what is “philosophy of physics”?4:35 Time travel as a genre, and our first category of time travel stories as represented in Tenet 7:19 The logic of "traveling through time" and "changing the past"12:23 The Closed Time Loop in Tenet16:47 "bUt wHat aBouT FReE WiLl"22:10 The symmetry of Protagonist’s journey and Time Reversal Symmetry ---- where did the Arrow of Time come from anyways? ? Our Guest Shelly Shi - Ph.D. candidate in UCSD, with research interest in Philosophy of Physics Edited By Valerie Chen Support Us Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 Business collab Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  Listen to LMM Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

[Episode theme] We talk about Netflix’s “The Chair” with two female professors, about the show’s portrayal of female allyship, discrimination against faculty of color, the debate over free speech on the American campus, and why we think the show missed the mark.  [Timecode] 2:00 Our first impression of the show 3:40 What is it like to be a mother and a college professor in the show vs IRL 6:20 In just six episodes, this show attempts to capture the complexity of contemporary U.S. campus politics  10:30 Our issues: an over-simplistic portrayal of students demands, an unrealistic solution to Yaz’s stalling career  13:20 Anachronism in the plotline: some depictions are outdated 18:30 Entering one room filled with whiteness — our PTSD and imposter syndrome 24:45 Why is Bill the most authentic, and the fullest character in a show about Ji-yoon? Why do we keep loving and forgiving “Bills”? 29:05 Ji-Yoon obsession with perfectionism and assimilation reveals our society’s double standard towards scholars of color  34:30 Ji-Yoon and Bill’s on-screen chemistry, and real-life examples  39:40 Allyship between female professors in universities  41:50 Joan’s conflicted relationship with feminism  56:25 The cruel, blatant ageism in the show   1:01:10 The role of university administration in the show vs. IRL [Host] Afra & Juan Qian [Guest introduction] Yuan Yuan: Recently graduated from Yale with her Ph.D in philosophy, now teaches at NYU-Shanghai Eileen Chow: Associate Professor of the Practice in Chinese and Japanese Cultural Studies at Duke University [Audio editor] Joshua  [Be our sponsor] Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 【Business collab】 Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  【Listen to LMM】 Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

[Episode theme] RGB has left us for a year. At this moment, when the Texas abortion law diminishes her political legacy, we re-upload this episode we recorded the second day she passed away.  In this episode, we looked back at Ginsberg’s life, as well as the many landmark cases she participated in. We know history is composed of light and shade, the future is blur and fragile. But people like Ginsburg paddled through the countercurrent. And we want to make her struggle more visible.  [Content] -How we learned of RBG’s death and how we processed the news -What RBG means to each of us personally  -Ginsburg’s greatest contributions to women’s rights  -Why the soft-spoken justice became an unlikely pop culture icon in her last years -How did the 2018 documentary R.B.G and the 2019 film “On the Basis of Sex” tell her story? -Why is her death politically significant? What does it mean for our future in the U.S.  [Be our sponsor] Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 【Links & resources】 2019 “On the Basis of Sex” https://www.focusfeatures.com/on-the-basis-of-sex 2018 documentary: R.B.G  https://www.rbgmovie.com/ Notorious R.B.G: https://notoriousrbg.tumblr.com/ Nina Totenberg on the death of RBG:  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-gender-equality-dies-at-87  【Business collab】 Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  【Listen to LMM】 Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

[Episode theme] This episode is a part of “RM conquers the podcast universe series”, a series by ten Chinese podcasts, each taking one episode from the latest season of Rick and Morty.  In this episode, we discussed the 8th episode of Season 5 of “Rick and Morty.” This episode reveals the history between Rick and his dear friend Birdperson. In this “Inception” parody, Rick dives into Birdperson’s memory to rescue his consciousness. We talked about the epitome of the characters, and why we are so underwhelmed by season 5 overall, which is stacked with predictable tropes and a derivative of previous seasons. [Timecode] 2:50 Our first reactions  5:34 A summary of episode 8 7:07 Birdperson vs. Klara in Klara and the Sun 9:58 Birdperson as a manifestation of classic heroism 20:26 Why is Season 5 underwhelming to long-term RM fans? Too many old tropes? 23:58 Are we abusing the usage of nihilism?  27:00 Sci-fi as a genre represents backward ideologies toward race over time 30:35 The Southparkanization of RM - from an apolitical stance to awkward injection of political discussions  39:00 The meta-humor and its toxicity [Guest introduction] Wei Ye: an anthropologist who lives in Minnesota; co-creator of TyingKnots, an independent group committed to introducing anthropological perspectives, studies, and engagements to the Chinese-speaking public. Daniel: a data scientist, a cinephile, and a cyber dumpster diver. [Audio editor] Lu Xiaoniao Hehe [Be our sponsor] Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 【Business collab】 Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  【Listen to LMM】 Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

On August 13, 2021, Britney Spears' father, Jamie Spears, announced that he is stepping aside as Britney Spears’ conservator. This news comes after a social media movement known under the hashtag #FreeBritney.  According to her testimony to a Los Angeles judge, Britney Spears has been drugged, compelled to work against her will, and prevented from removing her birth control device under the conservatorship. In the meantime, she was able to release four albums, hold a global tour, and run a successful Las Vegas residency for four years.  How did a world-renowned superstar become a prisoner of a structure set up by her family to protect her? In this episode, we reflect on Britney’s career, what we owe her as a society that tolerated casual misogyny and ignored her pleas for help. We also ask ourselves the uncomfortable question: how many more young women are currently left in the prison of society's cruel and omnipresent scrutiny? What role are we playing in this?  02:00 - Introduction to “Framing Britney” and “Britney Spears’ Conservatorship Nightmare” 06:50 - What does Britney Spears mean to us — millennials who grew up in China? What do we owe Britney?  14:30 - Britney’s journey from a small town girl to international stardom  19:00 - American society’s attitude towards sex in late 1990s and early 2000s 26:00 - Britney’s marriage and her very public experience with motherhood  29:00 - How did Britney go “insane”?  32:20 - How did Britney get into a conservatorship? What was the motivation? 41:00 - How did #FreeBritney become an actual social media movement? Why now? Why is it the perfect movement for 2021?  47:00 - How many more young women have we put in a prison of “omnipresent surveillance”? 54:00 - Why so many celebrity teenage girls struggle to grow into women under the public’s omnipresent judging eyes [Audio editor] Joshua Ogden-Davis [Be our sponsor] Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.):   Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： [Links & resources] Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare by Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino Framing Britney Spears by Samantha Stark [Business collab] Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  [Listen to LMM] Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)

In this episode, our hosts Izzy, Diaodiao and Ina, joined by our guest Alex Lawyer, dive into HBO’s new limited series, “Mare of Easttown.” We dissect character arcs and plot points to dig deeper into the real story: the story of a blue-collar mostly-white community that’s plagued by the opioid crisis.    What we discussed 2:27 First impressions, potential spoiler warning 05:30 What makes this show a good thriller? Entertaining plot points, can spur in-depth discussions around social issues, and framing the thriller within familial and community relationships8:57 The show is actually a career-oriented show that focuses on Mare, her role as detective and the glue that brings the town together14:09 The deeper social issue: how the opioid crisis impacted Easttown15:43 Society’s reaction/policies to the opioid crisis, progressing from “war on drugs” to seeing it as a public health issue 22:25 “Hillbilly Elegy”, “Tight Rope”, and social darwinism27:58 Opioid crisis in China 32:54 There’s no real “big bad” in this show 34:42 Easttown as an example of a swing town/county and the lack of politics in the show39:12 What’s the verdict? (spoiler alert, we discuss the ending of the show) Our Editor Zhang Quan Support Us Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in USD, suitable for listeners who live in the U.S.): https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs.  Please consider supporting us on Patreon (in RMB)： https://afdian.net/p/e0a54e82ebd111e9bd2d52540025c377 Read More Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn Collaborate with Us Please reach out to us at [email protected] for any business inquiries.  Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review.  RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs)