Best Of: The Luminaries (Signal Awards Last Day to Vote!)

Today is the last day to vote for Big Asian Energy in the listener choice awards!

We recently was nominated for the Signal Awards — one of the largest awards in podcasting— and I’m so grateful to be listed alongside so many incredible voices, especially as one of the only AAPI-focused podcasts on the list this year. We’re fully independent. In four years we’ve never taken a sponsor or done a paid promotion, so we’re here because of you.

Being a finalist also puts us in the running for the Listener’s Choice Award, so if you want to support this show (or AAPI podcasters in general):

VOTE HERE by Oct 15:
https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/genre/culture-belonging-inclusion

Best Of: The Luminaries

In honor of our nomination, we went back through the past few years of interviews to pull our favorite moments for our “Best Of” series.

In this second compilation, we celebrate The Luminaries: storytellers who turned their own journeys into something the rest of us can learn from.

• Vicky Nguyen, Emmy Award-winning NBC News correspondent, co-anchor of NBC News Daily, and author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Boat Baby
• Jane Chen, co-founder of Embrace, Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year (World Economic Forum), and author of Like a Wave We Break
• Jackie Kai Ellis, designer turned pastry chef, founder of Vancouver’s Beaucoup Bakery, and author of The Measure of My Powers

Listen to their full episodes here:
Vicky Nguyen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUi1TxxX_yM
Jane Chen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHWIoXlyito
Jackie Kai Ellis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEDgEjhT7M

When we rise, we rise together.