Ep 0.5 – Introduction

Welcome to the World of Stories podcast! This is a biweekly show hosted by Hudson Lin and Margrit Talpalaru. Join us as we discover diverse stories the world over.

Transcript

Margrit 0:00
Welcome to World of Stories. I’m Margrit.

Lin 0:03
I’m Lin. And we’re here to talk about diversity and storytelling.

Margrit 0:06
This is our first episode!

Lin 0:08
It is! And we should probably introduce ourselves. I’m Hudson Lin and I write romance novels with queer characters from all across the LGBTQ spectrum. A lot of my characters are Asian, because I am Asian. And so it’s important to me to include that kind of representation in my writing. A little bit about my background is that I grew up in Toronto with very conservative immigrant parents. So I always felt like I was straddling two very different cultures as a kid. Being from a Chinese family and also being Canadian, I was sometimes both and sometimes felt like neither. So that kind of tension and dichotomy is something I try to bring to my writing.

Margrit 0:55
And I’m Margrit Tapalaru, and I dare you to say that three times fast. I’m a writer. I’m a professor, a translator and a parent. And in my ample spare time, I’m an avid but slow reader. What I’m looking for most in those moments are stories that reflect my world, rich with cultures and wide with perspective. As an immigrant and a queer person who’s always felt on the outside looking in, I seek some version of our shared humanity, but something that’s not simplified. I want something that’s nuanced, complex and presented in really subtle ways. So let’s talk about our origin story. Lin, what gave you the idea to start this podcast?

Lin 1:42
So actually, I love what you mentioned about feeling like you’re on the outside looking in because I have often felt that way too. And I think that’s something that I’d like to include in this or address in this podcast because… Don’t we all sometimes feel like we’re on the outside looking in.

But anyways, back to where I got the idea to start this podcast. It was after one of our lunch dates because we go on lunch dates every once–every so often. And what we do is–when we meet up–is we talk about books we’ve read or movies we’ve watched or TV shows we’ve watched and what we thought about the represent– diversity representation in those stories or lack thereof. And I felt like this was a conversation that I wanted to have. Not just with you, not that I don’t love having this conversation with you, but that–

Margrit 2:40
It’s okay, it’s okay to get bored sometimes at the same person.

Lin 2:43
No, not at all. You have wonderful insights. You know, we’re just two people with two perspectives. And there’s a whole world of people out there with different ideas that I thought maybe they would like to join in on our conversation and because I appreciate your insight so much. I approached you to see what you thought of this podcast idea.

Margrit 3:06
And basically this is the whole idea of the podcast is that there is a whole world of people out there with their own experiences. And stories allow us to see these different experiences that we might not otherwise have access to. And I thought, this is a fantastic project. This little intro is about what to expect from us in terms of the podcast going forward.

Lin 3:31
Yeah. And so we talked a lot about this analogy of stories being both mirrors and windows. And that’s what we want for this podcast and what we’d like to get out of it ourselves. You know, we want to talk about stories that mirror our own experiences as members of minority communities. But we also want to talk about stories that are windows into other experiences, because I know that I certainly am no expert in diversity. In fact, I think I know very, very little. And so I’d like to use this podcast as a way to explore what diverse stories can look like.

Margrit 4:07
Are there experts in diversity? I think I find the idea, the very idea of somebody who’s an expert a little bit suspect. I totally endorse the idea of expertise but I think it’s hard to be an expert in anything these days. But I love the freedom of not being an expert, because this way we can explore and use our curiosity and our feelings and our likes to encounter ever new stories and characters.

And in all seriousness, I’ve always been fascinated by the stories that we tell about ourselves. And the stories that others tell about us. Whoever us and them is in this case, because stories can really make our experience and they can become the lens through which we view ourselves. And so that kind of goes both ways. If you always see yourself or people like you at the center of a story. You kind of probably get this feeling of entitlement that you are always the center of a certain story. And so conversely, if you don’t, or if you never see yourself or if you always see yourself abridged or in sort of as a sidekick in these stories, then what do you think about yourself? And so I think this notion of the mirrors and the windows is fantastic.

And so I wanted to–my bent is to read stories that are diverse, and I think this is a great place to talk about stories that do not have that dominant voice, you know–great white, middle class, educated, abled, straight, cis male. And so I think we’ve all been ready and pining to hear all kinds of other voices and open up our windows to receive them.

Lin 5:56
Yeah. And I think that it’s not just books because, honestly, I think I watch more TV than I read books. So we want to include TV shows and movies and theater, and storytelling of all sorts, but not just fictional stories, but also stories that are told about current events and history because, you know, the people who write the stories, write it not in–stories are not written objectively. So the story that’s told is highly reflective of who is telling it. And so we want to look at how the storyteller influences the story that’s being told, and how we understand the world around us by stories that are told by specific people.

Margrit 6:47
Totally, I couldn’t agree more. Stories are basically the pinnacle of subjectivity.

Lin 6:52
Yeah. And I’d also like to get a global perspective too, right, because I grew up in the West and, you know, we both of us currently live in Toronto. And so a lot of the conversation that’s around us is from a Western perspective, but there’s stories being told in cultures all over the world that are really interesting and really have important lessons to tell us. And I think that it’s, I think it would be interesting to challenge ourselves to get to the place where we’re consuming stories from other places and being able to make connections between different cultures and different people and learn that maybe the world doesn’t look quite the way we thought it did.

Margrit 7:38
Absolutely, there are different ways, myriad ways to interpret the world because so often, we–readers and writers alike–find comfort in the same type of story that gets retold and refashioned and reimagined, but at its root is still kind of a Eurocentric problematic narrative that’s been sort of sometimes bedazzled in rainbow colors or represented with an ethnically diverse cast. So I’m here for talking about fundamentally different stories in all kinds of media, you know, give me silkpunk, and afrofuturism and stories in which disabled characters get to live fulfilling lives.

Lin 8:15
Yeah, so I’m really looking forward to this journey we’re about to embark on. And I hope that people will want to listen to us and I hope they’ll want to join in on the conversation.

Margrit 8:26
I hope so too. And so if you are listening to us right now, stay tuned for our next episode, where we’ll actually talk about some of the stories we like.

Lin 8:35
Thanks for listening.

Margrit 8:36
Bye!