Phone-a-Friend: K-Drama with Dodai Stewart

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1/15/16 - For this week’s phone-a-friend edition of Call Your Girlfriend, Amina calls up A++ lady and writer Dodai Stewart to talk about their mutual love of all things korean: k drama, k pop, tony moly face masks. Plus, personal dramas and mishaps on Tinder. 

Transcript below.

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CREDITS

Producer: Gina Delvac

Hosts: Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman

Theme song: Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn

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TRANSCRIPT: PHONE-A-FRIEND: K-DRAMA WITH Dodai Stewart

Ann: Welcome to Call Your Girlfriend.

Aminatou: A podcast for long-distance besties everywhere.

Ann: I'm Ann Friedman.

Aminatou: And I'm Aminatou Sow.

Ann: And every other week we'll be bringing you a special phone-a-friend episode between either Aminatou and me and one of our rad pals.

Aminatou: Hey Ann, this week . . . 

Ann: [Laughs] Hey Amina.

Aminatou: Hey Ann, this week I called up the ridiculously awesome and fun Dodai Stewart who is literally one of my favorite people in the entire world.

Ann: Who I've been admiring on the Internet for like a decade.

Aminatou: Yes. When people you admire on the Internet become your IRL friends it's so sweet. So we talked about our favorite K-dramas. We're really deep into the Korean drama world so that was great. A love of all other things Korean including the band Big Bang and a lot of our Tinder mishaps.

Ann: Oh my god, I cannot wait. I feel like also maybe this will be a primer to those of us who have no idea what's happening in the world of Korean pop music or soap operas. Is that the right term? Is it really -- are they kind of like soap operas? Or is it like a category unto itself that cannot be defined that way?

Aminatou: I mean they're kind of like soap operas but I think making the comparison solely to American soap operas is really uncharitable because they're their own universe.

Ann: Sure, or telenovelas or whatever kind of fits that serialized drama framework which to be fair there are differences within it. It's a big genre too. But I will be taking notes. What are the points of entry for someone like me?

Aminatou: Yes, we discuss the main point of entry which is this show called Heirs. I hope that one day when you are sick next you will maybe emotionally invest.

Ann: [Laughs] Yes.

[Theme Song]

[Interview Starts]

Aminatou: Hi Dodai!

Dodai: Hi!

Aminatou: Thanks so much for coming on Call Your Girlfriend.

(2:12)

Dodai: I'm so excited to be here.

Aminatou: I am super thrilled to have you. You're like one of my favorite people in the whole world.

Dodai: Yay! Can we just squee the whole time?

Aminatou: I don't think I'm capable of the squeeing noise but inside I'm squeeing. [Laughs]

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: Well one of the big reasons I wanted to talk to you is I feel like our friendship and bonding and falling in love moment was all around watching Korean dramas.

Dodai: [Laughs] It's true.

Aminatou: Outside of the woman who introduced me to K-dramas, shout out Britney Calendar for changing my life, you were kind of the first person that I admitted to that I watched -- I have this alternative TV watching experience. [Laughs] I'm like I am obsessed with K-dramas right now and you're the only person I can talk to about it.

Dodai: I feel the same way. [Laughs] I keep saying that like oh, I'm not going to watch any more. Then I feel like you're like "But wait, have you seen such-and-such?"

Aminatou: It's a drug. Are you kidding me?

Dodai: Then I just get dragged back in. I don't even really want to stop. I'm faking it. I love it so much. [Laughs]

Aminatou: No, you know, so it's like they just have the science down to a T because even with really soapy TV I give up a lot or I just take really long breaks. Like I couldn't handle watching Scandal anymore. Even Gossip Girl which I love at points got really tedious for me. And K-dramas just incorporate all of the worst habits of all of these TV shows and just relentlessly push them out to you and I can't stop watching.

Dodai: Yeah, I mean the truth is it's really just expertly structured where every single episode is a cliffhanger. [Laughs] And in the middle of a conversation that you need to know how that conversation ends.

(4:05)

Aminatou: Oh my god, no, it's so true. Okay, to back up a little bit, what was your introduction to K-dramas? What was the first one that you watched and how did that all happen?

Dodai: The first one I watched was Boys Over Flowers and basically it was wintertime and I was asking people what to binge watch on Netflix because it was snowing. I think that I didn't like any of the recommendations that people were giving me.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Dodai: And then I Googled literally "What to binge watch Netflix" and I was on some list that had a bunch of shows and it was like Homeland or this or that and they all seemed really depressing or stressful. Like Homeland, I was like that's too stressful. I just want to be snuggled up in my pajamas.

Aminatou: Yeah, Homeland is very stressful. As somebody who watches and identifies with the lead character, it takes a full 20 minutes of every therapy session I have to just run down through the plot.

Dodai: Yeah. [Laughs] I really -- I was looking for something escapist. And so the write-up, it was actually on Refinery 29, the write-up said "This is the Korean Gossip Girl." And I was like well I like Gossip Girl. I like the sound of Korean Gossip Girl. I used to be a really big -- just teen TV in general and YA.

Aminatou: Yeah.

Dodai: So I was like that sounds like the perfect kind of escapist thing. Like it's a different country. [Laughs]

Aminatou: Literally escapist. [Laughs]

Dodai: Yeah. And it's like teen problems. It's not Homeland where it's like oh my god, the world is blowing up. Just like teen problems. Those are the kinds of problems I was ready to watch. And it was perfect. It was exactly what I needed.

(5:50)

Aminatou: That's so perfect because the show that I watched, the first Korean drama that I watched, was Heirs and that's also billed as the Korean Gossip Girl. [Laughs]

Dodai: Yeah, exactly.

Aminatou: And I would actually argue that that's . . .

Dodai: Immediately after. I watched it immediately after Boys Over Flowers.

Aminatou: Yeah, and I would argue that that's the actual real Korean Gossip Girl.

Dodai: Yeah, I think you're right.

Aminatou: Both are fantastic, but Heirs just blew my mind Dodai. First of all it has the handsomest man on all of television, a.k.a. my boyfriend Kim Woo-bin.

Dodai: I know you love him so much.

Aminatou: I love him so much. He plays such a great villain. And, oh man, also I'm just obsessed with his face structure. It's crazy. I have a whole folder on my phone that's called Woo-binfluenza that's just like Kim Woo-bin photos.

Dodai: I have to say that I wasn't into him. I was into Lee Min-ho who is also in Boys Over Flowers. And then because you told me that Kim Woo-bin was your favorite I sort of warmed to him and now I like him.

Aminatou: I like him in every single thing. So yeah, you know, Heirs is just amazing. Like I think you or maybe somebody else at Fusion wrote this Best K-Drama write-up. It was probably you, let's be real.

Dodai: It was me.

Aminatou: Obviously.

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: I'm trying to be surreptitious about it. No, it was probably you. I remember the first line about the Heirs review where it says "Devastating right from the beginning."

Dodai: Yes!

Aminatou: And I was like yes, these are my people.

Dodai: [Laughs] Yeah, everything is so high-stakes. Okay, it's not Homeland high-stakes, but it's like emotional high-stakes. It's all the stuff that could be really cliché about love and money but it feels so real. The girl who has no money, has this really actually loving, stable family situation, and then these rich boys have cash and cars and all this stuff at their disposal and a serious lack of affection and no idea how to be in love. I don't know, I love it.

Aminatou: Yeah, it just hits you against all the things, right? It's like rich versus poor, functional versus dysfunctional.

(8:50)

Dodai: Yeah.

Aminatou: Then it's like loyalty, duty, family. Basically, yeah, for me I'm like I'm also an immigrant so all of these things are real to me even though the context is different. I'm just like oh, man, this is just like African dramas except set in Korea. I love it.

Dodai: [Laughs] Yeah, and I mean I'm not an immigrant but I feel like there's some black family stuff in there where it's like all that stuff about not letting your family down and knowing what your duties are I feel like is very American black family. So to me it's still super relatable. But it is also escapist because, you know, they're living in hotels and driving sports cars and . . .

Aminatou: Yeah, it also just opens up this world where you're like oh, there are people on TV who are not just like white, you know?

Dodai: Yes.

Aminatou: And I think that that's something that I've deeply imprinted onto where I'm like oh. And it sounds so naïve and stupid almost but it's really refreshing to just be reminded of that, that everybody's not having white people HBO problems.

Dodai: No, completely. And even beyond that it's not even bound to this black/white dichotomy which is I write a lot about black people on TV and white people on TV and how white people are portraying black people on TV and blah, blah, blah. And it's like hey, guess what? There's a whole other world of things happening that don't have to do with black people or white people.

Aminatou: Oh man.

Dodai: And are completely fascinating.

Aminatou: Mind-blowing. What other dramas do you like?

Dodai: That are not Korean?

Aminatou: No, I mean obviously Korean.

Dodai: [Laughs] Okay, well I really enjoyed Mary Stayed Out All Night.

Aminatou: Yes!

Dodai: You recommended that to me and I got super, super into it. I loved that one because they're drunk all the time. [Laughs]

Aminatou: [Laughs] And also a very interesting take on a love triangle.

Dodai: Yes, really interesting. Because I had watched the teen ones before it was a nice . . . and then I watched a couple of more adult ones, and this one is kind of, because they're like 20-something, it was a nice in-between. And also the sad boy who's just so sad all the time.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

(10:10)

Dodai: Like all his character does is look forlornly into the middle distance.

Aminatou: Oh my gosh.

Dodai: Like wake up in the middle of the night and cry. So I like that one. I like Secret Garden which I think you haven't seen.

Aminatou: No, I haven't seen it. It's on my list.

Dodai: Yeah.

Aminatou: For everybody who's listening we keep a spreadsheet of Korean dramas that we're going to watch. [Laughs] That one's on the list.

Dodai: Yeah, Secret Garden is about a bad-ass stunt woman and an executive at a department store and their fate is intertwined, dun, dun, dun. I won't give too much away.

Aminatou: Ugh, so good.

Dodai: But there is a Freaky Friday body swap.

Aminatou: [Laughs] Okay, sold. I'm moving it straight to the top of the queue. I am currently watching as with you, it's funny because I think this is the first one that I'm watching in real-time, thank you to the Drama Fever app. God, I love Drama Fever so much. It rules my entire life.

Dodai: Yeah, shout-out to Drama Fever.

Aminatou: Oh my god. Also their email marketing is legit so good. But I'm watching a show as it's on TV called She Was Pretty.

Dodai: Yes.

Aminatou: And it's really funny because the first time I read about it I was like oh, she was pretty? And then Britney, the mastermind behind my K-drama transformation, was like "No, it's pronounced She WAS pretty."

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: That show is nuts.

Dodai: It's ridiculous.

Aminatou: It's basically a romantic comedy about these two kids who grew up together and then part ways and they meet again and they go through a reversal of fortunes. The boy who was really fat is now skinny and handsome and the girl . . .

Dodai: And legitimately hot. He was in the shower and I was like excuse me?

(12:00)

Aminatou: He is so hot. Yeah, no. And then the girl was this very beautiful -- was this very beautiful young girl. Now she's having issues with her perm. That's the extent to which she's not cute.

Dodai: Well, her skin. She has . . .

Aminatou: She has rosacea. That's fair. Which changes all the time. But then it's also set into the backdrop of a fashion magazine so there's just so much going on.

Dodai: It's crazy town. It's crazy town.

Aminatou: There's so much going on. Somebody was telling me the Korean translation for it is also Puzzled Lovers. [Laughs]

Dodai: Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

Aminatou: Yeah, that makes sense. And also there's this interloper other male character on it. He's the one I think is really hot.

Dodai: Okay, so he's my favorite. The motorcycle dumb-dumb? [Laughs]

Aminatou: Yeah, the motorcycle dumb-dumb. He's so handsome.

Dodai: I'm super into him.

Aminatou: Every time he opens his mouth, oh my god. He's so ridiculous.

Dodai: His dimples! He's so cute.

Aminatou: Yeah, no, this drama is great and I can't wait to see how it ends.

[Ads]

(15:55)

Aminatou: You know, and I've also gotten to the point where I've watched so many of these that I get really excited when I recognize a word now.

Dodai: I know. [Laughs]

Aminatou: Or I can pronounce something correctly. Because yeah, it's like you're watching with subtitles, which honestly if you know me and how much Internet ADD I have taking hours out of my day to not second screen and just really be focused on one thing can be hard. But for K-dramas, anything.

Dodai: I have to say that is one of the other appeals for me is that I have to actually focus and with a lot of American television that's in English I sometimes do look at my phone and drift off and pause and do all these things. And because I'm reading the subtitles and I have to focus I find it's like oh, okay, this is my dedicated K-drama time where I'm actually going to look at the screen and pay attention and not multitask and do several thousand things at once.

Aminatou: You know, the other thing that's happened through watching all these K-dramas is I'm obviously obsessed with all of Korean culture, right? And a lot of the music is bleeding in as well. I'm following a lot of these bands on social media and listening to them. I'll pull up a YouTube video of something that is new to me and see that on YouTube it has like 60 million views.

Dodai: [Laughs] Yeah.

Aminatou: And I just realize there's this whole alternative Internet experience that's happening and I have not been part of it.

Dodai: Yeah. I'm in the same boat. I'm in the same boat. When I discovered the Big Bang video that is pretty much my favorite video that's ever been made it already had 152 million views.

Aminatou: Yeah. For which song?

Dodai: For Fantastic Baby.

Aminatou: Oh my god, yeah, it's like 100-plus million views and this stuff is new to us.

Dodai: I love that. I love that video. I love Bang, Bang, Bang also. I've decided that I'm a Big Bang fan. Taeyang is my favorite. 

Aminatou: Oh. I'm a T.O.P. fan.

Dodai: Well he's definitely, definitely hot but I've decided that Taeyang is my one -- is my bias.

Aminatou: That's fair.

Dodai: And I have a phone case with his face on it and a necklace with his face on it.

(18:00)

Aminatou: Big Bang is so crazy. You actually went to a Big Bang show recently. How was that?

Dodai: I did. I did.

Aminatou: I think I would just die. I think I would die.

Dodai: I mean I felt like it was just anthropologically . . . it was fascinating. It was in New Jersey, in Newark. And I took the PATH train and I was with a bunch of other writers. The kids were so excited. There were parents there with kids. There were 20-somethings. It was a very mixed crowd.

Aminatou: Man. So how many people do you think were there?

Dodai: I think it was probably around . . . between like 10 and 12,000 people.

Aminatou: Holy crap.

Dodai: And it was really mixed. You know, I saw a lot of black girl posses and definitely Asian girls and boys and white people and it was just really mixed. Everybody was super-excited. They started screaming when I was going up the escalator to find my seats and I was like oh my god, it's starting. They're screaming.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Dodai: And when I got to my seat they were screaming because they were playing a Big Bang video on the screen.

Aminatou: That's amazing. Yeah, I saw that our mutual friend Rembrent Brown (?) was also there. I saw that on his Instagram and I died. I was like yes, all of this Korean fever is spreading to everyone.

Dodai: Yeah, it was great. And I have to say that I used to work at a teen magazine. I've been to NSYNC shows. I've been to Britney shows.

Aminatou: Yeah.

Dodai: I've been to Prince. I've been to George Michael. I've been to a lot of concerts. This is one of the best shows I've ever been to.

Aminatou: That's so amazing. I am so excited for you.

Dodai: It is, because they're like consummate professionals. They're really literally about leaving it all on the floor, you know? And there's no attitude. There's no them showing up late. It's so fan experience oriented and they're so professional about it. I don't know, I was really impressed.

Aminatou: Oh man. Also you and I have to go to Korea. We have to go.

(19:55)

Dodai: I really want to. [Laughs]

Aminatou: I think we'll die and never come back. We'll just be like somebody please send for our stuff. We're not leaving. The other thing that I'm also really into right now is obviously Korean skin products because they have that glow on the TV shows and I want that glow too.

Dodai: I do too. I haven't figured out how to get that glow. [Laughs] I feel like, I don't know . . . I don't know where this secret lies.

Aminatou: Well the secret is probably a lot of Photoshop.

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: And just like insane, insane photo experiences. When Britney was in town we went to the Japan Town mall here in San Francisco. There is a photo booth from this Korean company where you just go in and you take pictures and you can have different experiences where it's like "I want the K-pop look or I want straight-up head shots or whatever." And so we picked the one that was the easiest one to use and we asked for no makeup, a natural look. You saw my pictures that came out of that thing.

Dodai: [Laughs] Yes.

Aminatou: I am Photoshopped to the gods. My eyes are smaller, my cheekbones are doing something crazy.

Dodai: Yeah.

Aminatou: It's just that too cute aesthetic, you know?

Dodai: Yeah, I don't know what's happening over there but I love it.

Aminatou: Yeah, no. It's like east Asia has just commodified cute in a way that makes me uncomfortable yet I just yearn to participate all of the time. [Laughs]

Dodai: [Laughs] Yeah. I think the thing with the skin stuff is that definitely with some of these K-drama stars and some of the K-pop stars too, a lot of them have nose jobs.

Aminatou: Oh yeah, there's so much surgery.

Dodai: And who knows what else? Chin implants. Yeah. So it's hard to tell . . .

Aminatou: Because they all look the same. It's a factory look. It's straight off the . . .

Dodai: Yeah, where you're like I know which doctor you went to because you have the same nose as the other guy.

Aminatou: Yes.

(21:55)

Dodai: So it's hard to tell what is like oh, you know, clean living and a lot of water and fresh fish and what is straight-up chemical peels.

Aminatou: Totally. I'm just pretending that it's all sheet masks so I just . . .

Dodai: [Laughs] I want it to be.

Aminatou: So I just do a sheet mask every single day.

Dodai: Do you?

Aminatou: Pretty much.

Dodai: Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

Aminatou: You know, it's like my relaxing time. This is actually forcing me to wash my face every single day which was my sole New Year's resolution. Like I need to wash my face every night. I'm a grown-up now. And let me tell you, it is harder than it looks.

Dodai: I bet.

Aminatou: My entire budget, it's cheap, cheap masks.

Dodai: Tonymoly? That's . . .

Aminatou: Tonymoly, that's the brand, yo. I've never had an immersive experience like this with an entire country and culture so I think that's new for me. I'm like oh, this is how all those white kids I went to college with and they're like "I'm going to India after college to find myself . . ."

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: And I was always so dismissive of them. I'm like no, no, now I understand what you were talking about.

Dodai: Yeah.

Aminatou: I will be going to Korea next year to find myself.

Dodai: I think the only other time that I've had this kind of feeling about something in some other place and some other culture is Hawaii which . . .

Aminatou: Oh, good one.

Dodai: Yeah, I visited there for the first time when I was a teenager and then my sister lived there for, I don't know, like five years? And I went to visit her every year and I was like I'm going to get a Hawaiian driver's license and I'm going to find my boyfriend.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Dodai: And I knew my way around the island and I was driving barefoot, windswept . . .

Aminatou: Living your best life.

Dodai: Yeah, windswept ocean hair. People thought I was local and they were asking me for directions and I was like I'm just going to like -- I'm destined to be Hawaiian. Like I really thought . . .

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Dodai: I really thought I was going to move there.

Aminatou: Oh my god, that's so amazing. You know, another thing we bond over a lot is that you're the person that I send all my Tinder mishaps to.

Dodai: [Laughs] Yes.

Aminatou: To you and my friend Marisa because you ladies understand.

Dodai: Yes.

Aminatou: You understand that it's a war out here.

(24:05)

Dodai: It's crazy out there and people would not believe the kinds of things we're being subjected to. [Laughs]

Aminatou: I know. I sent you the ISIS fighter. [Laughs] I had to close my phone. That's like I can't do this anymore.

Dodai: Wait, and so I send them to you but I also send them to my sister who is in Dubai and Tinder Dubai is . . .

Aminatou: Tinder Dubai is crazy. Please give us the highlights from your sister's Tinder Dubai experience.

Dodai: I mean here's the thing: there's a lot of people who are posing with weapons and that happens in the states too but hers are like traditional Yemen swords and stuff.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Dodai: You're just like I don't feel safe. Maybe this is your thing but I don't feel safe meeting you for coffee when your photo shows you with some curved sword from Yemen.

Aminatou: That's like how guys in L.A. always have tigers in their photos.

Dodai: Yeah. But I also see a lot of . . . I see a lot of weaponry. I see a lot of guns. I see a lot of rifles. I saw a guy who had an axe and I was like you know what?

Aminatou: I feel so safe dating you. Of course.

Dodai: Maybe you're trying to show me that you're rugged but I really just feel like I don't feel comfortable messaging you.

Aminatou: Yeah. On some level I hope the dudes never get this tip because it's such a good way to weed out anybody I don't want to talk to, right?

Dodai: True.

Aminatou: I'm like how many nunchakus can one person own?

Dodai: Yeah.

Aminatou: I don't want to be implicated in this person's life. But also men are just so bad at profile pictures. It's like when I talk to women they're always workshopping what their look should be. They're taking professional pictures and all of that stuff. And you'll have a dude who's surrounded by four women in his profile photo and I'm like why are you even trying to date right now?

(26:05)

Dodai: But can I tell you what's worse to me? What's worse to me is front seat of the car with the seat belt on.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Dodai: And the camera from a low angle so that it's mostly under the chin.

Aminatou: Oh my god.

Dodai: What is that? I see that so much. What is that? And you're wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap so it's like witness relocation program moment in your car. Like that's what I see.

Aminatou: It's so crazy. It's like I wish too these apps would force you to upload a ten-second video of yourself saying something.

Dodai: Ooh. Oh no, that would be bad. That would be bad for me because right now I'm messaging that dude whose English is so terrible. So hot though.

Aminatou: [Laughs] No, it's not. You're the total complete package.

Dodai: No, but . . .

Aminatou: You know, it's like with these guys I'm like just please express yourself. I want to hear what your voice sounds like. I want to know what your story is.

Dodai: Yeah, true.

Aminatou: Beyond this picture of you holding your dog climbing a mountain. What are you about?

Dodai: Oh yeah, no. But I just meant that like . . . I was talking about the Buddhist monk. [Laughs]

Aminatou: Dodai, you're going to marry the Buddhist monk. I'm shipping it now on Call Your Girlfriend.

Dodai: I just -- I feel like if I had seen video I don't know if I would've messaged him.

Aminatou: Are you serious? He's so handsome though.

Dodai: I know. I know. I saw his picture and I super-liked him right away.

Aminatou: He's so hot. He's the only person I've ever seen that has pictures of himself surrounded by children and that was a turn-on for me as opposed to a turn-off.

Dodai: It's almost too much.

Aminatou: So you went on a date with that guy. You sent me a selfie. You guys looked so happy. But I thought that was a very successful Tinder date.

(27:50)

Dodai: It was, actually. It was. We went on two dates and his English is really not great and he's not a monk anymore. He used to be. He's from . . .

Aminatou: I know, I had so many questions. I was like can Buddhist monks date? I don't even know. I don't know the answer.

Dodai: [Laughs] No, I didn't know. I wasn't sure. How do you put the moves on a former monk? I don't know.

Aminatou: Yeah, I know. I was Googling some crazy stuff. I was like Dalai Lama wife, Dalai Lama girlfriend. [Laughs]

Dodai: [Laughs] So basically, yeah, then we went to the movies and he requested that I choose a movie that wasn't violent which was almost impossible to do.

Aminatou: What? Also my kind of man. Hello.

Dodai: But everything was like killing in it and he doesn't like that.

Aminatou: What did you watch?

Dodai: We went to see The Martian.

Aminatou: [Laughs] Violent in its own way.

Dodai: No, but I think Buddhists like space. I think it's okay.

Aminatou: That's amazing.

Dodai: It's also in 3D so we're like putting on the glasses and I was like what am I doing here?

Aminatou: Movie dates as first dates is kind of hard though because you don't get to talk to the person.

Dodai: No, that's true, but we had dinner first.

Aminatou: I support this. I'm so happy that someone out there is going on good Tinder dates.

Dodai: Well he's going to Europe to teach some meditation course.

Aminatou: [Laughs] Of course. As a former Buddhist monk would.

Dodai: So I'm not going to see him for a little while, but he was like "Let's go -- I want to take you to a tea house that I like when I get back." And I was like okay.

Aminatou: Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, that's crazy. My Tinderoni right now tried to take me to lunch with his parents.

Dodai: Oh, ooh.

Aminatou: And I was like what a high-stakes move. It kind of accidentally happen but the fact that it didn't alarm him that I would be meeting his parents was not okay with me.

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: And I had to be like hello, Mr. Tinderoni, please slow down. And he was like "Oh, you know what? You're right. That's kind of weird."

Dodai: Pump the brakes.

Aminatou: And I appreciated that that was possible for both of us.

Dodai: So you didn't? You didn't meet the parents.

Aminatou: No, I'm not going to go meet your parents when I don't know when the next time is that I'm going to see you.

Dodai: True, true.

Aminatou: Parents are like sacred moves for me. I'm just like if I meet your parents then I feel like I have to be even more on my best behavior/pretend this can last longer than it should.

(30:18)

Dodai: I understand that. I'm such a like go with the flow person that I probably would've been like "Sure!" and then revealed something horrible about myself and then ruined everything.

Aminatou: No, I'm like the guarded, crazy person who has too many rules. So, you know, as the Buddhists say know yourself. [Laughs]

Dodai: [Laughs]

Aminatou: Famous Buddhist saying. So ridiculous. Well, hey, thanks so much for coming on the show. This made my day.

Dodai: Oh my god, delightful. Delightful.

Aminatou: I'll see you on the Internet.

Dodai: I'll be there.

Ann: All right, you can find us many places on the Internet, on our website callyourgirlfriend.com, you can download our show on the Acast app, or on iTunes where it would be awesome if you left us a review. You can also tweet at us at @callyrgf or email us at callyrgf@gmail.com. And you can even leave us a short and sweet voicemail at 714-681-2943. That's 714-681-CYGF. This podcast is produced by Gina Delvac.

Aminatou: Gina!

Ann: Gina!

Aminatou: [Laughs]
2016, interviews, pop cultureCall Your Girlfrienddodai stewart, k drama, k pop, face masks, Tinder