Not Too Sweet

About Not Too Sweet

Certified thought daughters Miranda Park and Scarlette Do bring their training in feminist advocacy and humanities research to unpack everyday Asian Australian experiences.

Publisher

Not Too Sweet

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

31 Jan 2025

Latest episode

5 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

19 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Mar 2026

   Coda: Bridgerton reactions and the politics of beauty

   We conclude this jam-packed season of Not Too Sweet by reviewing the latest season of Bridgerton ft. Korean-Australian queen Yerin Ha!!! We love seeing fellow Asian women on screen, especially in the notoriously white period romance genre. But does Bridgerton’s depiction of a race-less society and the show’s choice of colourblind casting signal a promising future for racial diversity and inclusion on screen? Or does it unfairly gloss over the socioeconomic and political issues that defined the Regency era and ignore the implicit biases we bring as viewers who live in a racialised world? And how does this all feed into the broader politics of beauty that we’ve been unpacking across NTS season 2? Tune in to hear our hot takes on the Bridgerton universe, our fave moments from this season and more! Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Stephanie L. Hanus, ‘Interracial romances and colourblindness in Shondaland’s Bridgerton’ (2024) Emma Lynn, ‘Quasi-color consciousness: Casting, race, and sexual violence in Netflix's Bridgerton’ (2024) Piia K. Posti, ‘I Get to Exist as a Black Person in the World: Bridgerton as Speculative Romance and Alternate History on Screen’ (2024) William Joseph Sipe, ‘Post-racial politics and the mandate to desire: interracial love as liberation in Bridgerton’ (2023) Patrick Michael Teed, Marcelle-Anne Fletcher & Joshua Falek, ‘The Ruse of Love: Intimacy, Captivity, and Racial Slavery in Netflix's Bridgerton’ (2023) Tre Ventour-Griffiths, ‘The “Whites” Who Loved Me: How Bridgerton Facilitates Digital Lynching’ (2025) This podcast was produced by Miranda Park and Scarlette Do on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

2. 

   26 Feb 2026

   Bittersweet: beauty and wellbeing with Meg and Alex Lee

   To help expand our understanding of beauty and wellbeing beyond aesthetics standards and practices, we are joined by early career researchers Meg and Alex Lee. In this episode, we discuss issues of access, mobility and belonging shaping the experiences of migrant youth in rural communities and Asian Australian young adults. We explore what wellbeing feels and looks like for those living on the margins and how we can find beauty in everyday life. Check out Meg’s awesome publications: Not settlement but movement: Exploring mobility as central to the wellbeing of young people from migrant backgrounds building lives from rural Australia.  (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2025.2549691) Being human and 'hanging out': Mutuality, trust, and 'voice' in youth participatory research.  (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/16094069241296192) ‘The little things’: The temporality of young people’s strategies for existential, grounded, and expansive wellbeing in rural Australia.  (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43151-024-00150-1) Meg’s research took place on Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Ballarat) and Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia, and Jupagalk Country (the Wimmera region). Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Sara Ahmed, ‘A phenomenology of whiteness’ (2007) Rose Butler, ‘Migration, class and intra-distinctions of whiteness in the making of inland rural Victoria’ (2022) Kathryn Edgeworth, ‘Black bodies, White rural spaces: Disturbing practices of unbelonging for ‘refugee’ students’ (2015) DV. Stead, L. Taula and M. Silaga, ‘Making place in a place that doesn't recognise you: Racialised labour and intergenerational belonging in an Australian horticultural region’ (2022) R. Wilding and C. Nunn, ‘Non-metropolitan productions of multiculturalism: Refugee settlement in rural Australia’ (2018) D. Bargallie, N. Fernando, & A. Lentin, ‘Breaking the racial silence: Putting racial literacy to work in Australia’ (2004) Ghassan Hage, White Nation (1998) Aileen Moreton-Robinson, The white possessive: Property, power, and indigenous sovereignty (2015) Helen Ngo, The Habits of Racism: A Phenomenology of Racism and Racialized Embodiment (2017) J. Wyn, S. Lantz, & A. Harris, ‘Beyond the ‘transitions’ metaphor: Family relations and young people in late modernity’ (2012) This podcast was produced by Miranda Park and Scarlette Do on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

3. 

   12 Feb 2026

   The personal is instructional: beauty vloggers with Tisha Dejmanee

   ‘HIGH MAINTENANCE beauty habits that will make you look LOW MAINTENANCE’. ‘The 6 PROVEN ways the heal your gut health’. ‘POV: A week in the life of a Victoria’s Secret model’. Beauty vlogs play an important role in how young women see themselves and practice their femininity. This episode, with the help of Dr Tisha Dejmanee from the University of Technology Sydney, we unpack vlogs’ role in the neoliberal postfeminist and postrace era. Amongst the deep dive: 🌮 How Tisha’s PhD journey in the United States inspired her research on food blogs 🥐 Fleshing out postrace and postfeminist thinking 🍕 Digital media and how influencers balance being relatable and aspirational 🍝 Vloggers’ display of credibility and why this expertise is so appealing in the age of neoliberalism 🧋 Beauty vlogosphere and Asian Australian racial politics 🍮 Tisha’s advice on mindfully consuming beauty vlogs 🥞 Trad wives in the era of food and time precarity 🍫 Taking long walks in nature, a certain problematic podcast that might or might not have a name synonymous to Journal of an Executive, and traditional Chinese medicine Dr Dejmanee is a Senior Lecturer in Digital and Social Media at the University of Technology Sydney and Co-Chair of the Asian Australian Studies Research Network. Check out Tisha’s awesome publications. ‘Everyday multiculturalism on Asian Australian food blogs (https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003396727-32)’ ‘Fantasies of food work and digital entrepreneurialism: postfeminist time panic on food blogs (https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2024.2392109)’ ‘"An Australian beauty-lover based in Singapore": negotiating Asian Australian identity in the beauty vlogosphere (https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcae009)’ Postfeminism, postrace and digital politics in Asian American food blogs (https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003302278) Her email address if you are a young Asian Australian wanting to discuss your relationship to social media: Tisha.Dejmanee@uts.edu.au (mailto:Tisha.Dejmanee@uts.edu.au) The Asian Australian Research Network (https://aasrn.wordpress.com/) and conference call for paper (https://aasrn.wordpress.com/2026/01/23/2026-aasrn-conference-sticking-points/) Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Margaret Henderson and Anthea Taylor, Postfeminism in Context: Women, Australian popular culture, and the unsettling of postfeminism (2019) Kim Dasol, ‘Racialized Beauty, Visibility, and Empowerment: Asian American Women Influencers on YouTube’ (2023) James Palmer, ‘Traditional Chinese medicine needs its own revolution,’ (2013) https://aeon.co/essays/traditional-chinese-medicine-needs-its-own-revolution (https://aeon.co/essays/traditional-chinese-medicine-needs-its-own-revolution) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

4. 

   29 Jan 2026

   Liberating our libido? Race and desire with Tandee Wang

   Why are there so many white man/Asian woman pairings? Why are Asian men always ranked last in terms of desirability? From University of California Santa Barbara, history PhD candidate Tandee Wang shows Miranda and Scarlette how historical patterns of migration, military occupation, and settler colonial policies in the United States and Australia shape our desires and dating preferences. Amongst the deep dive: 🌹Australian and American history’s role in the stereotypical hypersexualisation of Asian women and negation of Asian men’s desirability 🐯Orientalism, Yellow Peril, Asian Invasion 🙅The dreadful Oxford Study meme and its use to police Asian women’s agency 🍷Finding the fine line between understanding historical impacts and dictating others’ dating preferences 🌶️ABC’s White Fever review, especially its confused approach to strategic essentialism Check out Tandee’s latest publication: ‘At the gate to Australia’s heavenly peace: Asian racialization and Australia’s Tiananmen Chinese (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2024.2369252)’ in Ethnic and Racial Studies. Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Murali Balaji and Tina Worawongs, ‘The New Suzie Wong: Normative Assumptions of White Male and Asian Female Relationships’ (2010) Ruth Balint, ‘Aboriginal women and Asian men: a maritime history of color in white Australia’ (2012) Steffi Cao, ‘Trolls are citing an ‘Oxford study’ to demean Asian women in interracial relationships. But it doesn’t actually exist’ (2024) Ra Chapman, White Fever (2024) Chris Haywood, ‘Exploring Men, Masculinity and Contemporary Dating Practices’ (2020) Anglea Liu, ‘MRAsians: A convergence between Asian American Hypermasculine Ethnonationalism and the Manosphere’ (2021) Helena Liu, ‘Sensuality as Subversion: Doing Masculinity with Chinese Australian Professionals’ (2017) Karen Pyke, ‘An Intersectional Approach to Resistance and Complicity: The Case of Racialised Desire among Asian American Women’ (2010) Arissa H. Oh, ‘From War Waif to Ideal Immigrant: The Cold War Transformation of the Korean Orphan’ (2012) Matthew Raflow, Cynthia Feliciano and Belinda Robnett ‘Racialized Femininity and Masculinity in the Preferences of Online Same-sex Daters’ (2017) Eve Tuck and Wayne Yang, "Decolonization is not a metaphor (https://ikdll.nau.edu/id/eprint/84/)" (2012) David Walker, Anxious Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850-1939 (1999) The "Mongolian Octopus" cartoon: https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/images/anti-chinese-cartoon-titled-mongolian-octopus-published-bulletin-1886 (https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/images/anti-chinese-cartoon-titled-mongolian-octopus-published-bulletin-1886) SBS video on Yellow Fever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcNkbY_kbWU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcNkbY_kbWU) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

5. 

   15 Jan 2026

   The weight of whiteness: unpacking colourism and fatphobia with Devni Vihara

   We’re kicking off 2026 with a fabulous guest Devni Vihara, a lawyer and content creator, who’s internationally recognised for her advocacy regarding gender equality, anti-colourism, and access to justice. In this episode, we tackle issues entrenched in Asian communities’ perception of beauty: colourism and fatphobia. Amongst the deep dive: 🌺 Why fatphobia is so difficult for feminists to unlearn ☀️ The role ‘control’ plays in our relationship with food and our bodies 🦀 Body positivity vs body neutrality: which approach is better? 🥥 The fucked up history and impact of the Body Mass Index (BMI) 🐠 What colourism means and how it shapes our lives 🌻 Devni’s strategic decision to become an advocate for ‘melanin beauty’ You can find Devni on social media platforms using this handle @devnivihara_ Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Susan Bordo, ‘Reading the Slender Body,’ in Unbearable Weight (1993) Carolyn Bronstein, ‘Fat Acceptance Blogging, Female Bodies and the Politics of Emotion,’ (2015) https://feralfeminisms.com/fat-acceptance-blogging/ (https://feralfeminisms.com/fat-acceptance-blogging/) Bronwyn Carlson, ‘Indigenous Fat Rebellion: Rejecting Settler Fatphobia and Reclaiming Body Sovereignty’ (2025) May Friedman, Fat Studies: The Basics (2025) Margaret Hunter, ‘Colourism and the racial politics of beauty’ (2021) Carla A. Pfeffer, ‘Fat activism and beauty politics’ (2021) K. M. de Silva, ‘Sri Lanka: National Identity and the Impact of Colonialism’ in The Sri Lanka Reader (2011) Jamie Steele, ‘The Weight of Whiteness: Fatphobia and the Psychosocial Disavowal of the Ancestral Body’ (2025) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

6. 

   25 Dec 2025

   (Un)skilled labour: immigrants in the beauty industries with Emma Do

   What’s the connection between the Vietnam War, Dakota Johnson, and Australian KFC taking on the bánh mì? The answer is South Vietnamese refugees working in service industries. Joining us in this episode to parse out this rich history is fashion journalist Emma Do. As a writer and editor from Naarm/Melbourne, whose work covers fashion, arts and culture, Emma helps Scarlette and Miranda rethink the ‘Made in Australia’ label. We scrutinise the history behind Australian manufacturing and labour policies, which left a negative impact on the wellbeing of Vietnamese textile outworkers, whose experiences Emma captured with her book Working from Home (or May o Nha) with illustrator Kim Lam. Scarlette takes us on a wild ride connecting the establishment of Vietnamese nail salons in the United States to the first shop opening in Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne, 1998. We also discuss the racism underlying the reactions (or the lack thereof) to ‘Made in Vietnam’ or ‘Made in China’ label, the uncomfortable conversation around Uniqlo and fast fashion, and how to shop mindfully when brands gamify consumers’ experiences. Special shoutout to the Joe Rogan Experience listener who also listens to Not Too Sweet! Check out Emma Do’s fabulous work: Website: https://emmaqdo.wordpress.com/ (https://emmaqdo.wordpress.com/) With Kim Lam, Working from home (may ở nhà) (2021), https://mayonha.com/ (https://mayonha.com/) Her infrequent fashion podcast Smart Casual: https://omny.fm/shows/smart-casual/playlists/podcast (https://omny.fm/shows/smart-casual/playlists/podcast) Her substack: https://spacesbetween.substack.com/ (https://spacesbetween.substack.com/) Her article in the Griffith Review: https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/buyer-beware/ (https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/buyer-beware/) Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Emma Do and Kim Lam, Working from home (may ở nhà) (2021) Susan Eckstein and Thanh-Nghi Nguyen, ‘The making and transnationalization of an ethnic niche: Vietnamese manicurists’ (2011) Milann Kang, ‘The Managed Hand: The Commercialization of Bodies and Emotions in Korean Immigrant-Owned Nail Salons’ (2003) Regan Morris, ‘How Tippi Hedren made Vietnamese refugees into nail salon magnates’ (2015), https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32544343 (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32544343) Ingrid Piller, ‘The sociolinguistics of nail care’ (2012), https://www.languageonthemove.com/the-sociolinguistics-of-nail-care/ (https://www.languageonthemove.com/the-sociolinguistics-of-nail-care/) Najma Sambul, ‘How Vietnamese Australians came to dominate the nail salon industry’ (2024), https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-01/how-vietnamese-came-to-dominate-australian-nail-salon-industry/104263066 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-01/how-vietnamese-came-to-dominate-australian-nail-salon-industry/104263066) Jesse Adams Stein, ‘Rethinking “Made in Australia”’ (2022), https://www.uts.edu.au/news/2022/06/rethinking-made-australia (https://www.uts.edu.au/news/2022/06/rethinking-made-australia) Fiona Tregenna, ‘Characterising deindustrialisation: An analysis of changes in manufacturing employment and output internationally’ (2009) Myf Warhurst, ‘The history of the Vietnamese nail salon’ (2019), https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/myf-warhurst/nails/11161086 (https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/myf-warhurst/nails/11161086) Sally Werner and Phillip O’Neill, ‘De-industrialisation, financialisation and Australia’s macro-economic trap’ (2014) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

7. 

   11 Dec 2025

   Material girls

   In this episode, Scarlette and Miranda teach the girly pops about Marxist historical materialism! Just kidding. But really, we go to town on Rini: how the face mask brand’s marketing co-opts the language of self-care and play to integrate beauty regimes into children’s lives. We unpack our changing perceptions of plastic surgery, its manifestation in ‘unproblematic’ and ‘problematic’ Hollywood celebrities. We think through the decision to get beauty procedures via the theories of our old mates Karl Marx and Pierre Bourdieu, who are actually helpful for understanding contemporary conversations around pretty privilege, the pilates body, and clean girl aesthetics. Scarlette traces the roots of the clean girl back to the classical Renaissance body and to the ideal of a virtuous white woman within European colonialism. In response to respectability politics, Miranda fleshes out rationales behind cosmetic surgery in South Korea and how this might be perceived in Australia, all of which helps us tackle the racism underlying responses to the Australian Golden Bachelor. And Das Kapital, baby! Important disclaimer: Miranda and Scarlette are not THAT kind of doctors so any discussion of cosmetic procedures are cultural commentary and should not be taken as medical advice. Support the podcast by rating and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Dana Berkowitz, ‘Botox and Beauty Politics’ (2021) Alexander Edmonds & So Yeon Leem, ‘The racial politics of plastic surgery’ (2021) Joanna Elfving-Hwang, ‘The body, cosmetic surgery and the discourse of “westernization of Korean bodies”’ (2021) Joanna Elfving-Hwang & Jane Park, ‘Deracialising Asian Australia? Cosmetic surgery and the question of race in Australian television’ (2016) Ruth Holliday and Joanna Elfving-Hwang, ‘Gender, Globilization and Aesthetic Surgery in South Korea’ (2021) Mary Russo, The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess and Modernity (1995) Helen Wood, ‘Beauty and Class’ (2021) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

8. 

   27 Nov 2025

   Cultural appropriation with Lauren Nilsson-Siu

   Beauty practices often involve cultural appropriation: the ‘Scandinavian’ scarf, box braids, the 1990s Asian chic qipao. But what does ‘cultural appropriation’ mean and why is it so difficult to talk about? Helping us flesh out this topic is Dr Lauren Nilsson-Siu, an Anglo-Indian Australian researcher who lives and works on Gadigal and Wangal Land. Drawing from her expertise on gender and cultural studies, as well as critical race and ethnic studies, Lauren leads Miranda and Scarlette through why we have such strong emotions regarding cultural appropriation. Importantly, we discuss how ‘cultural appropriation’ is a Trojan horse for thinking about racism in postracial and multicultural societies like Australia. Support the podcast by rating and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004) Sara Ahmed, ‘Affective Economies’ (2004) D. W. Anselmo, ‘Gender and queer fan labor on Tumblr: the case of BBC's Sherlock’ (2018) Lauren Berlant, ‘Cruel Optimism’ (2006) Rina Deshpande, ‘What’s the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation?’ (2019) https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/yoga-cultural-appropriation-appreciation/ (https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/yoga-cultural-appropriation-appreciation/). Nadia Khomami, ‘“Cultural Appropriation”: Discussion Builds over Western Yoga Industry’ (2022), https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/12/cultural-appropriation-discussion-builds-over-western-yoga-industry (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/12/cultural-appropriation-discussion-builds-over-western-yoga-industry) David Knox, ‘Vale: Swami Sarasvati’ (2023), https://tvtonight.com.au/2023/03/vale-swami-sarasvati.html (https://tvtonight.com.au/2023/03/vale-swami-sarasvati.html) Lauren Nilsson, ‘Critiquing Cultural Appropriation, Building Community: Desi Online Activism on Tumblr Shame Blogs and #reclaimthebindi’ (2022) Lauren Camilla Nilsson-Siu, ‘“I Don’t Want to Look Too Fresh off the Boat, You Know?” Nationhood and Belonging: The Cruel Optimism of Contemporary Australian Multiculturalism’ (2024) Minh-Ha T. Pham, ‘Racial Plagiarism and Fashion’ (2017) Elspeth Probyn, Blush: Faces of Shame (2005) Elspeth Probyn et al, ‘Productive faces of shame: An interview with Elspeth Probyn’ (2019) James O. Young and Conrad G. Brunk, eds. The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation (2009) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

9. 

   14 Nov 2025

   Beauty: an introduction

   Not Too Sweet returns for a new season, this time with a focus on ‘Beauty.’ Join co-hosts Scarlette Do and Miranda Park as they unpack their experiences growing up watching Disney movies, dealing with Australian beauty standards, and the lessons they learned about surveillance, morality, class, and race. Scarlette and Miranda think about whether K-Beauty offers a path towards diverse beauty standards and the role of neoliberal postfeminism in all of this. Support the podcast by rating and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode: Ana Sofia Elisa, Rosalind Gill, and Christina Scharff, eds, Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism (2017) Rosalind Gill, ‘Post-postfeminism? new feminist visibilities in postfeminist times’ (2016) Rosalind Gill, ‘Neoliberal Beauty’ in The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics (eds. Maxine Leeds Craig, 2021) Patrick O’Keeffe, ‘Power, Privilege and Place in Australian Society’ (2024) This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

10. 

    25 Apr 2025

    Celebration

    In this final episode of the season, we explore the concept of ‘celebration’ and the significance of celebration in our every-day lives. We unpack the various rituals associated with certain cultural celebrations and personal milestones, our feelings about ATAR reveal videos, the politics of gift-giving and which Australian public holidays we’d like to fuck, marry or kill. Scarlette discusses the importance of remittance to Vietnamese transnational families and Miranda explores the significance of a baby’s first birthday in Korean culture. A disclaimer for explicit language at the start of the episode and Scarlette mentions “Hobshawn” in reference to the historian Eric Hobsbawn. Sources: The Invention of Tradition by Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger ‘Establishing Hồ Chí Minh's Cult: Vietnamese Traditions and Their Transformations’ by Olga Dror ‘The Tensions of Diasporic ‘Return’ Migration: How Class and Money Create Distance in the Vietnamese Transnational Family’ by Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar

11. 

    18 Apr 2025

    Bonus Episode with Jessie Liu

    Our final bonus episode this season delves into Jessie Liu’s fascinating PhD research in the daigou trade and her postdoctoral fellowship with the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion at Work. Where the PhD project led Jessie to important questions about her disciplines and the questions of race and labour in Australia, her postdoc investigates how rostering impacts the wellbeing of midwives. Jessie speaks to the hybridity, expansiveness, and inclusivity of the ‘Asian-Australian’ category for those who have experienced demands for racial purity in their societies. Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast .

12. 

    11 Apr 2025

    Disavowal

    In this episode, the co-hosts put on their smarty-pants to unpack how the term ‘disavowal’ can illuminate Asian Australians’ role in settler colonialism. Jessie Liu helps us flesh out this psychic structure–an active suppression or forgetting–through ideas of depoliticisation, class, and localisation. The hosts return to the topic of names and how, although English names help us access certain privileges, this is also an act of symbolic death and haunting. Jessie explores how Asians’ disavowal of generational wealth maintains narratives of meritocracy and Scarlette joins in with her reflection of using the ‘first gen academic’ label. Miranda draws on Claire Jean Kim’s research to think about Asian Australians’ solidarity with other minority groups before we contemplate the difficulty of sitting with painful knowledge and heavy responsibilities. Sources: ‘The Vanishing Half’ by Bennett Brit ‘Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism’ by Iyko Day ‘Asian Americans in an Antiblack World’ by Claire Jean Kim ‘Introduction: Public Policy and Indigenous Futures’ by Nikki Moodie and Sarah Maddison ‘Decolonization is not a Metaphor’ by Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang ‘Introducing: settler colonial studies’ by Lorenzo Veracini ‘Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native’ by Patrick Wolfe Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast

13. 

    4 Apr 2025

    Bonus Episode with Varsha Yajman

    In this bonus episode, we chat with Varsha about how being an Indian Australian has shaped her advocacy. She reflects on the need to direct our energy towards important battles, the joy of community, and how Asian Australians can learn from First Nations groups in our fight for climate justice. Varsha stresses the importance of listening to those impacted by climate change and the freedom of rising above cultural expectations. Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast and Varsha @varshayajman .

14. 

    28 Mar 2025

    Diversity

    As the Trump administration continues its attacks on DEI, it's more important now than ever to think critically about what these terms mean. Join the co-hosts and special guest Varsha Yajman as they unpack the good, the bad, and the ugly of ‘diversity’. We uncover how while diverse representation matters, it can be co-opted by institutions like school, university, and corporations. Varsha draws on her experience as a climate change and body image youth advocate of Indian heritage to explore politics and reality TV. Miranda walks us through Sara Ahmed’s important frameworks for thinking about ‘equity fatigue’ and POCs’ minimising their presence using ‘institutional passing.’ Scarlette reflects on why ‘equity’ is a confronting term and we discuss ways of resistance against white supremacy, even if that just includes insisting that people call us by our names. Sources: ‘On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life’, by Sara Ahmed ‘Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place’, by Nirmal Puwar Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast and Varsha @varshayajman . Disclaimer: this episode was recorded before the Trump admin's onslaughts on DEI. In hindsight, there are things that could have been better examined. But we'll save that for another episode!

15. 

    21 Mar 2025

    Bonus Episode with Caroline Wang

    In this special bonus episode, Caroline shares more about her exciting PhD project, which investigates the rise of diasporic Asian cinema from the 2010s onwards and their portrayals of Asian femininity under the influence of neoliberal feminism and multiculturalism. Caroline discusses the huge cultural and personal impact ofCrazy Rich Asians, a movie that sparked her interest in what is now her doctoral research. We talk about the accomplishments Caroline is most proud of, including her beloved cat, Bagel. Follow Caroline on Instagram @caroline_wyq or on LinkedIn Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast⁠

16. 

    14 Mar 2025

    Stereotypes

    We are joined by special guest, Caroline Wang, as we examine stereotypes of Asian people in film, television and musical theatre. Caroline brings her expertise as a Film Studies scholar to help us unpack the various and often problematic stereotypes of Asian women in musicals like Miss Saigon and films like Charlie’s Angels, Set It Up, Joy Ride and Crazy Rich Asians. We discuss the complexities of the chaste and self-sacrificing Lotus Blossom, the hypersexualised and fierce Dragon Lady, and the empowered Model Minority, along with related issues such as type-casting and self-representation. Sources: ‘The Bind of Representation: Performing and Consuming Hypersexuality in "Miss Saigon"’ by Celine Parreñas Shimizu ‘Equal Access to Exploitation and Joy: Women of Color and Hollywood Stereotype’ by Celine Parreñas Shimizu Identities in motion: Asian American film and video’ by Peter X. Feng ‘Between the perfect and the problematic: Everyday femininities, popular feminism, and the negotiation of intersectionality’ by Akane Kanai ‘Compositional Subjects: Enfiguring Asian/American Women’ by Hyun Yi Kang ‘The Chinese Exotic: Modern diasporic femininity’ by Olivia Khoo ‘Romance and the yellow peril: Race, sex, and discursive strategies in Hollywood fiction’ by Gina Marchetti ‘The Chinese Diaspora on American screens: Race, sex, and cinema’ by Gina Marchetti ‘Lotus blossoms don’t bleed: Images of Asian women’ by Renee Tajima Follow Caroline on Instagram @caroline_wyq or on LinkedIn Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast⁠

17. 

    28 Feb 2025

    Authenticity

    In this episode we discuss the concept of ‘authenticity’, covering everything from our visceral reactions to being asked that annoying ‘where are you from?’ question, to our love-hate relationship with Asian fusion cuisine. Miranda talks about her fears of being seen as a ‘fake Korean’ and Scarlette explores how language, accents and appearance have shaped other’s perceptions of her ‘authenticity’ as a Vietnamese-Australian. We ask: is our so-called ‘authenticity’ (or lack thereof) something that is always defined by forces outside our control, or do we have power over what it means to be our authentic selves? Sources: ‘Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place’ by Nirmal Puwar ‘Eating the Asian Other? Pedagogies of Food Multiculturalism in Australia’ by Rick Flowers and Elaine Swan ‘Exotic Appetites: Ruminations of a Food Adventurer’ by Lisa Heldke ‘Eating the Other’ by bell hooks Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast⁠

18. 

    14 Feb 2025

    Liminality

    Thanks for tuning into our first full episode of Not Too Sweet! This week we talk about ‘liminality’ and what it means to inhabit liminal spaces as Asian Australians. We share experiences of border crossing, learning to fit into white educational and social settings, navigating cultural differences and language barriers with our families, and encounters with old Vietnamese men playing chess on the sidewalk. We explore liminality as a wonderfully expansive concept that encompasses everything from grief to adaptability and possibility. Sources: ‘Unclaimed Experience: Trauma and the Possibility of History’ by Cathy Caruth ‘Rites de Passage’ by Arnold Van Gennep ‘Liminality’ (https://www.liminalmag.com/blog/liminalities#:~:text=Salman%20Rushdie,cultures%2C%20whilst%20simultaneously%20falling%20between.) by Leah Jing McIntosh ‘Betwixt and Between: the Liminal Period in Rites of Passage’ by Victor Turner ‘The Cultural Negotiations of Korean Immigrant Youth’ by Yeh et al. Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast (instagram.com/nottoosweetpodcast)

19. 

    31 Jan 2025

    Introduction

    Introducing Not Too Sweet, a podcast from two friends, feminists, and grad students. Join Miranda and Scarlette (and their very fabulous guests) as the co-hosts talk about everything related to Asian Australian experiences, from the banal strawberry matcha to the not-so-mundane issue of settler colonialism, and ideas like 'neoliberalism' and 'disavowal'. Follow Not Too Sweet on Instagram (instagram.com/nottoosweetpodcast).

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.