This was recorded the day after Chef Earl presented at Litfest for the Polyglot's launch of Issue 13: MANAIG, along side WTT co-producer Ryan Lacanilao (@ooakosiryan). Chef Earl also refers to "the dinners" in this episode, by which he means his "Rice & Mysticism" popups where he explores the rich traditions of Filipino cuisine, all the way back to pre-colonial times.

From funny nicknames to cultural traditions, we explore how our names are a reflection of identity, family, and connection. Don’t miss this conversation about the stories behind the names we love (and sometimes hate)

For Ryan, the process is what makes the tattoo so meaningful. He told Kuya Mayo about where his parents come from in Pampanga, how his dad played in the Pampanga river and his mom played in the rice fields. Then Mayo designed a unique tattoo by hand on the spot to represent Ryan’s story.

This episode was recorded at the 2024 Edmonton Filipino Fiesta.

What do you do when your student era is coming to an end and you want to step into a career, but there’s not a lot of Filipino representation in your field? Joshua Bolofer is finishing up a masters in media production and is trying to find Filipino stories to put on a platform. How should he go about finding community and kicking off his ‘career guy’ era?

In this episode, “Magmahal at mahalin / To love and to be loved”, Micah explores the question: what parts of your childhood have you kept with you throughout the years, and how do you honour your inner child now as an adult?

Our guests Jessica Somera and Vincent Malazo take us back to Manila, Toronto, Edmonton and to growing up on reserve to explore how individuals shift throughout the eras - for better or for worse.

So for you, what does it mean to love your inner child and your younger self? What would your younger self say to you now?

Ryan then brings Micah’s past to the present by tracking down people from her stories and arranging surprise zoom reunions that you can listen in on! Listen in as she talks to former bestie Natalie Czuczman about a shared crush and some dress drama (#dressgate). And feel all the feels as she talks to her Grade 9 Social Studies teacher, Kendra Van Leeuwen, about the lasting impact she had on her life.

Rae and Nikki dive into the feats, barriers, and nuances with being a creative- let alone being a FILIPINO creative. This is merely the beginning of a vast conversation! (Season 5 hint hint?)You can find ICYT on @illcallyoutomorrow and give Rae a follow @raelandmendzoza. You can bet for more collaborations in the future!

Stepping foot into a Filipinx space can be just as daunting to those that are familiar with it, even as much as the next stranger. Titas, Lolos, and even your own mom tend to say the most unpredictable and unprovoked sh*t about your physical appearance. “Tumaba ka” (you got fat). “Ang laki ng legs mo” (your legs are huge). Sometimes, they will even try to get creative. 

Many Filipinx women can relate to feeling immeasurable pressure to fit into the beauty standard of thinness. What the f*ck? We’re sour to say the least!

Central questions woven throughout the episode include: 

1. What is the importance of lupa (land)? 
2. Why are the children of Filipino immigrants often on the hook for becoming the next generation of land caretakers?
3. What would happen if future caretakers of familial land decided to sell the lupa (land)?

WTT is bringing to light the spicy conversations that often occur in whispers and unpacking the emotional and practical background information surrounding familial land inheritance. Get ready, this is a complex one and we haven’t even scratched the surface.

In this episode Arianne Barroma and Micah Leonida dive head first into the thoughts of North American travellers as they share their negative experiences with Filipino (Street) Food. 

A blog describes Filipino food as “disappointing” and “fatty”. The authors even go as far as to state they would “starve before eating Filipino food again”. 

How can blogs like this impact our community?

How can blogs like this deter others from celebrating our culture?

Will Arianne and Micah agree with the travel authors?

Will you?

Listen now to hear the reactions and unhinged thoughts of our WTT producers!

Click here to read the blog: https://etramping.com/rather-go-hungry-eat-filipino-food-again/

Ryan Lacanilao meets his fellow WTT producers Arianne Barroma, Nikki Mendiola, and Rajah Maggay for the first time in person! As they walk through a path in the forest, they draw random SOUR lyrics and tell relatable stories about their past.

Listen in to hear about that time Arianne was the friend who talked to her crush about his crushes, that time Nikki was called the wrong name (an ex!), that time Rajah had a Valentine's Day mishap, and that time Ryan dated an Asian who doesn't date Asians. Also, find out about the genesis of the hashtag #RyanIsEnough. And you'll hear the WTT team belt out SOUR lyrics along the way.

Acknowledgement: All lyrics referenced, read, or sang in this episode are from Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR album.

Follow us on Instagram at @whatsthetsismis for more news about the upcoming season!

Ryan Lacanilao sat down with Simon Bondoc and Axella Apostol from Pinoys on Parliament to talk about the work they do and their upcoming virtual conference. Register for their virtual conference now!

When: May 20-21, 2022 and May 27-28
Cost: Free
Theme: Pagitan: Near, Far & the Spaces in Between

Some news since this chat: What’s the Tsismis will be hosting one of the workshops at the conference! This podcast is all about storytelling, so if you want some experience telling your stories and creating a safe space for others to tell their stories, register for the conference and join us on May 28th! (and if you join us, you might find yourself on one of our future episodes) 

In today’s holiday special, Ryan Lacanilao and Nikki Mendiola look back at their favourite Filipino traditions during the holiday season—from decoration, mass, and food!

A Filipino Christmas is like no other! Feasts, music, festivals, karaoke, games, and house parties are just the tip of the iceberg. As soon as the first ‘ber’ month hits, it's well known that the tunes make a grand turn for the festivities.

Tune in as we chat about carolling, parol, bibingka and puto bumbong, monito monita, simbang gabi, am pao, noche buena, and more!

Right now we are asking for your support to keep the station up and running. Fundrive ensures that we can continue to stay on the air for another year. Our program’s goal is $700. That’s basically 70 people with $10 donations! Fundrive ends on November 6 so get your donations in! Call (780) 492-2577 extension 0 or visit www.cjsr.com. Salamat!

In this week’s episode Arianne Barroma sits down with Ida Beltran-Lucila & Erica Cawagas to discuss the challenges and revelations of representation in the performing arts. With special commentary by Jem Golveo Toribio & Katelyn Cabalo, we take a dive into what’s happening in our arts community, and exactly why representation matters. 

With the success of movies and tv shows such as: Crazy Rich Asians, Kim’s Convenience, and Shang Chi (and the Legend of the Ten Rings) - where do we as Filipinx fit into the new era? 

Do our own stories have a place?

Can our own culture stay resilient?

In this episode we explore how the entertainment industry has shaped us, how it’s evolving, and above all, where else it could go.

Resilience is often attributed to experiences of adversity and pain. It is commonly described as bouncing back from your hardships, and the tremendous strength one demonstrates, allowing them to continue trekking forward.

The Philippines is said to be a widely Catholic nation. Nevertheless, many also remember the folk legends and superstitions that their Lolas (grandmas) told them as they were growing up.

There is a growing community of Filipinxs retracing their roots to pre-colonial beliefs. Lost records or a disconnection to family ties are only some of the challenges facing them. In spite of countless barriers, folks remain dedicated to reconstructing these systems of beliefs.

This episode hopes to open the door for more conversations in the future about reclaiming our Filipinx identities and its close relationship with rediscovering spirituality/faith/religion.

If you’ve been on social media lately, there’s been an influx of people teaching you how to be ‘financially free’ or becoming ‘your own boss’. This episode aims to peel the curtains back a little bit to demystify the realities of ‘hustle culture’. 

This season, the team is covering resilience and this episode shows that sometimes resilience isn’t about overhauling your life to something brand new. Sometimes, it’s about recognizing where you’re stretched thin and hunkering down to reinforce those areas. 

It’s quite common for children in the Philippines to grow up with one or both of their parents working in another country. This is because many families find it hard to make ends meet while working at local jobs with local pay, so they go overseas.

This season’s theme is resilience, and this episode touches on it on multiple levels. Parents faced with limited local options find a way to make things work by going to where there’s more opportunity to provide for their family and give future generations more opportunity. And the children of migrant workers find a way to deal with growing up without their parent and the toll that takes on their relationship.

Francesca and Ericka talk about what it was like to grow up without their mom. How did they deal with bullying at school, how did it affect their relationship, and how did it shape their views on family and future plans?

DJ talks about what it was like to grow up without his dad. What milestones did his dad miss, what was it like when he visited, and what kind of things do they do now that they live together again?

Listen to find out!

Produced by Rajah Maggay with guests Micah Leonida and Arianne Barroma.

Resilience is inherently tied to being wounded. Resilience implies being strong enough to surmount challenges along the way.  How do our guests navigate new cultures, traditions, and harmful assumptions and stereotypes? What are their thoughts, and how have their relationships evolved since day one? 

This episode is ultimately about centering love, and having open conversations with others in order to break down commonly held ideas about inter-racial relationships.

We’ve defined resilience as a characteristic that is tied to strength, the ability to adapt, survival but also hospitality, kindness and care. The team at What’s The Tsismis also understands that resilience can be a double-edged sword. Resilience can be used to minimize or reduce people’s struggles. We see this in our community. Filipinos are often considered hard-working people. We take pride in our work, and are usually prepared to go above and beyond what is asked of us. It is important to note that sometimes resilience can be used to brush off the struggles Filipinos experience. Yes, we’re hardworking, strong, and able to surmount challenges. However, we are also people who need rest, care, patience and understanding.

We hope to explore resilience in our episodes this season. We’ll be covering topics like femininity in the Filipino community, migration and the impacts of one-parent households, inter-racial relationships, and Asian representation along with so many more stories from the community.

We hope that you continue to listen in and share your experiences with us. Thank you, Maraming Salamat! 

Filipinos working abroad, like in Canada, often send money to their relatives in the Philippines. It’s part of our culture. We take care of each other.

In this week’s episode, our host, Ryan Lacanilao, talks to Calvin Barroma and Arianne Barroma about the good and bad of sending money to relatives in the Philippines: motivations, what can go wrong, and how it affects relationships.

For information about Ida and her community work please visit https://www.philippineartscouncil.com/ , www.epicalberta.com, and https://www.thelucilaproject.com/. 

Also, keep an eye out for the video release of “Paglalayag: The Philippines to Canada Journey” on February 20 to 28, 2021. You can register for the free online screening at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/paglalayag-the-philippines-to-canada-journey-registration-131706833685 today!

In this week’s episode, our host, Ryan Lacanilao, asks family and friends about their best and worst money moves: buying a brand new car; buying a bike; getting a fine arts degree; going to a multi-level marketing session—three of these were blunders, and only one was a great money move. Listen to find out which one!

Giselle General is back to talk about utang na loob (debt of gratitude) and that time she lent her relatives her vacation money. She recommends the following resource: Relationship Matters Ph.

Heads up, we talk about some difficult topics in this episode, including financial abuse. If you think you might be experiencing financial abuse, check out the following resource: It’s Your Money: Protect yourself from financial abuse.

To learn more about Giselle, you can find her column, “A General Point of View” in the Alberta Filipino Journal, on her personal blog, www.filipinayeg.com and on Twitter @GiselleGeneral 

What’s The Tsismis is happy to be part of the CJSR FM 88.5 community. Our training, equipment, podcasting software, air time, and more is all made possible by Edmonton’s volunteer-powered radio station. The WTT team is helping the station raise $75,000 to continue challenging the status quo on Edmonton’s airwaves. 
Fundrive runs Oct 30 - Nov 7.

How you can help:
-Visit CJSR.COM/DONATE to donate
-Private message us on social media or email us at tsismis@cjsr.com if you’d like to pre-pledge
-Call in during Fundrive 780-492-2577 x0
-Donate $10 by texting CJSR to 41010 (it will be added to hour phone bill)
-Tell your friends!

In this episode, Jenna Propp chats with her mom, Tess Propp; Cynthia Palmaria from Migrante Alberta; and Maria Monana, a current live-in caregiver under Canada’s Caregiver Program. Their stories take us on a journey as we get to hear the tsismis on what it’s like to come to Canada as a caregiver from the late 80’s until now and how the process and program have changed.

Jenna’s mom tells us her inside story of working in Dubai and Hong Kong before coming to Canada. She talks about leaving the baby girl she raised for two years, while just being a kid herself. She then goes on to tell us what working in Canada was really like.

Cynthia takes us through what the Caregiver Program entails and how it has changed over the years. She includes personal stories of how she got into organizing and what it means to receive Permanent Residency in Canada.

Lastly, Maria sits through the wind to tell us about her experience working in Canada right now, in 2020 and the sacrifice that comes along with it.What is the Canada’s Caregiver Program really like? Listen to Find out!

In today’s episode, host Cherie Island talks with her sister Courtney. Together, they discuss growing up in a Filipino household and how Filipino-ness might not be seen on the outside.
Listen in as Cherie delves into cultural identity, choosing sides, and whether her niece and nephew know where they come from.

This is What’s the Tsismis, a podcast on Pilipinx identity in the diaspora. Tsismis is the Tagalog word for gossip. Each week we’ll release a new episode that dives into a new topic, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s tsismis!

Today’s episode host is me, Ryan Lacanilao. And the idea for this episode started with singing in the shower. The other day I was singing in the shower, and I thought of all the talented Filipinos out there: if you find a random Filipino on the street, there’s a good chance they can sing better than the average person. And they can probably dance, perform, play instruments, draw, or paint better than the average person too. So you would expect to see a lot of Filipinos in the professional arts community. But that’s not really the case. We Filipinos love the arts, we just tend to not do it for a living. To help me understand why this is, I needed to talk to a Filipino with a career in the arts here in Edmonton, so I gave Gina Puntil a call.

Gina is the artistic director and program coordinator at the Alberta Workers’ Health Centres Workplace School Program, where they take professionally sculpted plays into junior highs and high schools to empower young workers through education and knowledge of their rights. She’s a Pinay boss—a badass Filipina decision maker in the professional arts community. I wanted to collect her story to get an insider’s perspective on why we don’t see more Filipinos in the professional arts community.

Listen in as Gina tells me about her journey. She starts by telling me about what she wanted to be when she was a kid. She tells me about why she chose to pursue a career in the arts.

How did her parents react to her decision to go into theatre? And what’s this about her being a teacher? Listen to find out!I ask Gina if it’s true, from an insider’s perspective, that there aren’t as many Filipinos as we’d expect in the professional arts community. She tells me about what it was like being a kid wanting to pursue a career in the arts. She tells me about what it was like being an adult working in the theatre community, and how it can be difficult to prioritize your heritage and your identity.Did Gina end up deciding to embrace her heritage in her theatre work? Listen to find out!

Gina has developed a number of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) productions during her time at the Alberta Workers’ Health Centre, including the following:
Working it out by Beth Graham
THAT’S DANGER! By Dave Clark
SAFE & FAIR: SCENE AT WORK by Jane Heather 

This is What’s the Tsismis, a podcast on Pilipinx identity in the diaspora. Tsismis is the Tagalog word for gossip. Each week we’ll release a new episode that dives into a new topic, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s tsismis!

Heads up: Today’s episode goes deep into the topic of mental health, including discussions about harm and suicide. It also includes some explicit language.

Today’s episode host is me, Ryan Lacanilao. And the idea for this episode started with Facebook creeping. The other day, I was scrolling a year and a half down my sister-in-law Mm’s timeline when I came across my wedding video. Her sister Ailee and I got married in 2018, and Mm had posted our video. I watched it and had a good cry. I noticed Michelle, their younger sister, was so bright and full of life in the first half of the video. But in the second half, she was absent. I remembered how she missed our reception because she was crying in her room. You can watch the wedding video here: https://vimeo.com/293527930

So that's how Facebook creeping led to me wanting to call Michelle and ask her about that time when she was struggling and what she did when faced with the decision about whether to seek professional mental health support.

Listen in as Michelle tells me about a difficult time in her life. She tells me about crying in the bathroom of Padmanadi (a restaurant) and joking about it to cover it up. She tells me about who she called and who she visited when she was having suicidal thoughts. She tells me her thoughts about therapy, psychiatrists, and medication. She tells me about breaking her arm after she punched a car. She tells me about going to the ER for her broken arm and what she did when faced with the decision of whether or not to seek mental health support.

Did Michelle end up seeking mental health support or not? Listen to find out!

After talking to Michelle, I gave the other sisters a call to get their perspectives. I found out they too have their own mental health journeys to share. Being nine years older than Michelle, Mm had a different experience. Mm was a young adult when they moved to Canada from the Philippines, while Michelle was still a child. They have different personalities and perspectives. So how did all this affect their mental health journeys? What did Mm do when faced with the decision of whether or not to seek mental health support?

Listen in as Mm and Ailee tell me about their mental health journeys, how mental health is viewed in Filipino culture, and their thoughts about mental health services like counselling psychology as part of Alberta’s health care system.

If you are struggling and wondering if you could benefit from mental health supports, check out these resources:

Mental Health Help Line: Call 1-877-303-2642, toll free 24/7 from anywhere in Alberta for information about mental health programs and services and referrals to other agencies. Confidential and anonymous.

Alberta Health Services, Help in Tough Times: https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/amh/Page16759.aspx

Alberta Health Services, Addiction & Mental Health: https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/amh/amh.aspx

In this episode, Mishma Mukith sits down with fellow production teammate, Jenna Propp, to unpack the big “I” word: identity. As the half-white daughter to an immigrant Filipina, Jenna speaks candidly about navigating her identity as a mixed race individual.

Being white-passing may come with its’ perks and privileges, but it also denies Jenna from claiming her Filipino heritage. From plucking her eyebrows and straightening her hair, Jenna’s made many attempts to “look more Asian,” yet she is still met with shock and disbelief when strangers try to guess her ethnicity.

Listen in as Jenna discusses her recent trip to the Philippines,  where she travels to for the first time as an adult without her parents, and find out why this trip has taken so much time for her to process.