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This week, NüVoices podcast host Stephanie Tam interviews Lillian Li, the author of the new novel Bad Asians, which was released in February 2026. Lillian is also the author of Number One Chinese Restaurant which was selected as an NPR Best Book and longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.  In this episode, Lillian discusses writing fanfiction as a teen, writing about friendships and finding unique perspectives in Asian American literature.

This week the Nüvoices podcasting team is thrilled to share a special crossover podcast episode from The Polycrisis.  Our Nüvoices podcast interview with Kate McKenzie, co-founder of The Polycrisis, an independent publication, newsletter, and podcast, aired on June 2, 2026, and can be found here.  Stay tuned for new Nüvoices episodes next month as we start our fall season. — Learn more about this episode of The Polycrisis, originally aired on April 15, 2026, here.  A key theme of our first podcast series is that China's world-changing production of clean energy and electrification tech had little to do with solving climate change or even being seen as a leader in climate diplomacy. Instead, it's mostly a byproduct of the country's economic strategy and quest for energy independence. But the US has also played a big role in China's strategy. The two countries were in a pro-globalisation, free-trade partnership back in 2001 when China joined the WTO; but the global financial crisis, the US shale boom, and increasing hawkishness from US administrations of both sides were all factors in the central Chinese government's decisions to become a high end electrotech manufacturer, and to ramp up its energy security with clean and local power. Subscribe to the podcast: Apple; Spotify; all platform links. Featured this episode:   Jessica Chen Weiss  - Professor of China Studies and the faculty director of the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Jake Werner - Director of the East Asia Program, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft Hosted by Tim Sahay and Kate Mackenzie Produced by Sarah Allely Original music by Russell Stapleton Mixed by Bethany Stewart Contact us at: polycrisispodcast (at) gmail.com OR the.polycrisis (at) gmail.com

This week, NüVoices podcast cohost Chenni Xu interviews M Lin, author of the recent short story debut, Memory Museum, out everywhere where books are sold. Chenni met M at her NY book tour stop at McNally Jackson Seaport where she read to a packed audience of friends, family, and new fans. The Beijing-born, US-based writer joins NüVoices Chair Chenni Xu to discuss how distance (from home, from language, from certainty) became the engine of her fiction. They also get into writing characters whose lives look nothing like your own, what "daughter" and "mother" mean for Chinese women today, and writing techniques.

This week, our host Solarina Ho is joined by writer, podcaster and consultant Kate McKenzie to discuss the business of climate change amid geopolitical competition and the global energy transition. In this episode, Kate McKenzie shares her insights into the latest trend of climate collaboration, renewable energy development, and how we could save our planet at a time of geopolitical uncertainty.

This week, we have host and Chair of NuVoices, Chenni Xu, discussing AI competition between US and China, technonationalism, writing and craft, with journalist and researcher Selina Xu (no relation). In this episode, Selina Xu discusses her views on the current AI competition, areas of cooperation, why Americans and Chinese view technology differently, her thesis on sinofuturism, and thoughts on writing non-fiction and fiction, including speculative fiction.

This week, hosts Solarina Ho and Rui Zhong speak with Yangyang Cheng, a Research Scholar at Yale’s School of Law focusing on science and technology development in China and US-China relations.  In this episode, Solarina, Rui, and Yangyang speak on the struggles of scientists in the current political climate, the place of women in the intersection of politics and science, and China’s history and future in the geopolitical landscape. They also discuss Yangyang’s career as a researcher, writer, and academic, and delve into her tips for aspiring writers.

As a bonus episode series for the NüVoices podcast, we have invited three winners of our 2025 NüStories personal essay contest to read out their essays. In this episode, you will hear from Chris Yitao Shen, who won first place for her essay, "What You Know (And Didn’t Know)." Chris Yitao Shen is an international student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s a junior. She’s a creative writing major. She writes to remember. She writes quietly and deletes all exclamation marks. Her favorite book is Slaughterhouse Five. Not really a nonfiction but as thick. She has written a lot and will keep on writing.

This week, NüVoices editor and freelance journalist Jessie Lau speaks to Yi-Ling Liu, a writer covering technology and Chinese society, about her debut book “The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet”.  In this episode, Yi-Ling discusses how communities from the margins navigate censorship on the Chinese internet. She also describes how her own experiences reporting for Chinese and Western media shaped her approach to Wall Dancers, her debut book.

As a bonus episode series for the NüVoices podcast, we have invited three winners of our 2025 NüStories personal essay contest to read out their essays. In this episode, you will hear from Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray, who won first place for her essay, "You need glasses for Asian faces." Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray is a writer and comic artist. She won Singapore’s 2023 Golden Point Award and co-authored two books on the arts in Singapore, "Semionauts of Tradition" and "Reimagining Singapore."

This week, NüVoices host and founder Joanna Chiu joins NüVoices editor and board member Jessie Lau to discuss their exciting new life chapters that extend their vision of NüVoices. From launching the website of NüVoices in a cafe in Beijing in 2018, to now creating two new initiatives that continue to amplify women’s and BIPOC voices, Joanna and Jessie discuss what drove them to begin this more entrepreneurial chapter of their lives. They also reflect on their China reporting in the past decade and their takeaways for emerging China journalists and professionals.

This week, NüVoices host and co-founder Joanna Chiu joins China human rights researcher Maya Wang to discuss the current state of China human rights advocacy amid Beijing's growing transnational oppression and the US cut of international aid.  Joanna and Maya also discuss China's latest approach to Xinjiang and other ethnic minorities, and the global rise of extremism and political polarization. In a world of chaos, unreliable leadership and rising technological authoritarianism, what is the future of China human rights advocacy?

This week, host Solarina Ho and her guest, Hong Kong filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, discuss the director's award-winning new documentary, 'Mistress Dispeller', which premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival last September. The film is now playing in select theaters across the United States.  The intimate film follows a middle-aged couple and Wang Zhenxi, a "Mistress Dispeller", who is hired by the wife to end the husband's affair with a younger woman. Solarina and Elizabeth discuss the film's meditative exploration of relationships, how Wang inserts herself into this couple's life, and how the couple — and the mistress — navigate the complex dynamics and emotions of marriage and infidelity, and their place within broader Chinese society. Elizabeth also discusses the painstaking, years-long process of finding her central characters, and the remarkable trust and sensitivity required that allowed her to tell their stories.

This week, NüVoices editor and board member Jessie Lau speaks to returning guest Barbara Demick about her new book, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins. In this episode, Barbara describes the journey of writing about twin sisters who were born in China, forcibly separated, and finally reunited through her investigative reporting. She and Jessie discuss how the book explores the historical and political nuances regarding China's One Child Policy and Family Planning institution, as well as challenges common narratives about Chinese adoptees in the US. Barbara also zooms into the powerful, emotional moment of the sisters reuniting and the two families meeting for the first time.

This week, Tiffany Ap speaks with Grace Shao on the causes and development of AI in China. In this episode, Grace Shao walks us through the divergent approaches to AI deployment in China and the US, the domestic AI talent in China and the future of robotics. Grace also talks about running her newsletter AI Proem while providing consulting to tech companies and raising a toddler while being 8 months pregnant on the podcast.

This week, we have NüVoices host and board member Sophia Yan in conversation with Amanda Hsiao, director in Eurasia Group’s China practice. In this special episode, Sophia talks to Amanda on the new and old tactics used by Washington and Beijing in the latest rounds of US-China trade disputes.