The Takeaway Table Podcast

Dealing with culture shock isn’t easy but it always leaves you with a funny memory or a lesson or two! In this episode, we are joined by Melody and Natalie who have both spent time abroad. Melody shares about her time in Oklahoma and how tipping is a thing in the states, Natalie tells us about her experience with racism and Ming Yue got flashed by a guy!?

You guys loved them on the episode where we talked about hurt so we invited Raj and Sophira over again to talk about - everything and anything under the sun! We answered some questions submitted by you guys and this episode turned out to be a rojak of chaos, funny stories, wise advice and whole fun conversation!

Shoutout to Joyce for suggesting this topic!   Being in a long distance relationship is quite possibly one of the toughest obstacles a couple has to go through. Ming Han sat down with Naomi and Jeremy who both went through long distance relationships under different circumstances. They discuss their experience with it, how they dealt with time differences amidst the long distance, recognizing when it's getting unhealthy and how to know if you can get through it.

More often than not, we tend to question if we truly belong in our community, circle of friends, country or even home. As we go through seasons of change, we find a rift between who we "used to be" and our current self. We sat down with 2 of our team members, Maxine and Kimberly who both struggle with feeling a sense of belonging and how they're coping with it.

Getting emotionally hurt is quite possibly one of the worst feelings to experience. We've all been hurt or have inflicted hurt on people but no one tells you how to heal, move on and learn from the hurt. Today, we got Raj and Sophira on the table with us today to discuss getting hurt, what to do we inflict hurt on others and how to heal.

Dating apps - you're either on it or you're thinking of trying it. It has become an easy way for people to get to know each other without being in a social setting but do the cons outweigh the pros? Raj and Vivian join Ming Yue on this episode of Table Talk to discuss the pros and cons of dating apps, question if millennials are afraid of love and why you need a strong support group to when it comes to dating.

This special episode goes out to Ming Yue! He celebrated his birthday over the weekend so we got together to talk about what it's like to celebrate our birthdays during MCO and lament over how birthdays gradually lose its magic as we grow older. We also reminisce about our birthdays when we were younger and got sidetracked with finding out what happened to the OG McD gang. For real, what happened to Hamburglar and Birdie?

Yet again we are reminded of how it's just impossible for some people to be decent human beings! In this episode, we got into our role of being social justice judges and discussed a recent controversy surrounding an individual who was shamed by a local gym for offering to pay a smaller fee and to be the face of a training program in exchange to be part of it. We got into every detail of the exchange and shared our honest opinions on being entitled, treating your customers right and the importance of being decent and kind.

Be it baking, assembling puzzles or levelling up on your favourite game, hobbies are something we find joy in but what happens when our finance, emotions and happiness are at stake at the expense of our hobbies? In this episode, we share our hobbies, our thoughts on whether hobbies do actually bring you happiness and Ming Han reveals how he spent 5 digits worth of money on claw machines!

Over the past week, there was a lot of discussion over local Youtube content in Singapore which sparked a debate about how local content is undervalued by local viewers. We dive deep into this topic from our perspective as fellow content creators and talk about the unseen discipline needed to curate content, juggling between making content that works and making content you're passionate about and also the need to support your local creators.

From Aliff Syukri's RM25 face mask to the boy who claimed he was offered a NASA scholarship and a whole marketing controversy around a peanut butter brand, we cover every scam, hoax and controversy that has happened thus far in Malaysia. 

Growing up in an Asian household pretty much means you're tied to staying at your family's home until you either (1) start a family of your own or (2) move out for studies or work. But let's be real, who hasn't dreamed of living on their own free from the watchful eye of their parents? In this episode, we weigh in on the idea of moving out from our parent's home, set out a realistic look of actually living alone and how to tell if you're financially and emotionally ready to be out on your own.

With the rise of people using social media to document what they're cooking, their workout routine of the day, or a new skill they've picked up, we can't help but sometimes feel an inkling of guilt because we're not doing just as much with our lives. In this episode, we discuss productivity guilt, why it's toxic to compare our productivity to others and the need to shift our focus to our own wellbeing instead!

We're one month into the MCO and as put by our PM, it's time to get used to "The New Normal". In this episode, we dive into what the new normal could be and how this will change the way we live, how us and many other local businesses are coping with the current economy and the importance of recognizing your privilege during this period. On a non-MCO related topic, we also addressed PETA's article on Animal Crossing (a video game) being not vegan. Truly, what a time to be alive. Here's the link to the article Ming Yue was referencing: https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/social-class-is-key-in-asias-new-marketing-reality/3497

With the extension of MCO, we knew it was important to keep the show running so welcome to the home edition of Table Talk Podcast!  We're kicking off our first episode from home with a recap of what has happened so far during the MCO. We shared our thoughts on the good, bad and ugly that has come out of MCO, the need to support our local businesses and questioned why women were supposed to sound like Doraemon.

It's no secret that both Ming Han and Ming Yue are brothers and have been working together for almost a decade and sometimes personal relationships can get in the way of work. Raj Mahal joins us on this episode to discuss the dynamic between balancing a professional relationship and the relationship outside of work and making sure the line isn't overstepped.

You know it's gonna be a good one when Desmond joins us for an episode! In this episode, we share stories about the shenanigans we got into during our time in high school! Oh yeah, this episode may or may not involve a lot of poop stories.

How is it going, fam? We shot this episode literally a day before the movement control order (MCO) started and fast forward to almost a week later, times are indeed getting tough but we’ll get through this! In this episode, we talk about our reaction to the MCO, the panic buying, misinformation that followed and suggested ways for you to get through this time!

There's no better time to take steps to leading a healthy lifestyle than NOW! In this episode we talk to Jowynna Yeo, a practicing dietician and Mei Ching, a nutritionist from Nestle about all things health! We debunk health myths like whether cutting carbs will actually help you lose weight and if sugar actually isn't as bad as you think! We also shared tips on how to read nutritional labels and also how to eat healthier!

The past month has been a pretty wild ride for Malaysians because of the sudden shift in our political scene. This has kept everyone on their toes and has unfortunately caused more negativity among the people. In this (rather serious) episode of Table Talk, we talk about the rise social vigilantism on the Internet, reigniting hope in the nation and ways to curb negativity by being a good rakyat!