40. With Simon Tam

Were You Still Talking?

Episode 40

On this episode I had the pleasure of talking to Simon Tam about his new book Slanted: How an Asian American Troublemaker Took on the Supreme Court

Tam has been a keynote speaker, performer, and presenter at TEDx, SXSW, Comic-Con, The Department of Defense, Stanford University, and over 1,300 events across four continents. He has set a world record by appearing on the TEDx stage 13 times.

We talked about the band The Slants, jumping on drumsets, being an Asian American, racism, and how the battle with the trademark office all started.

The trademark battle has been featured on NBC News, NPR, The Washington Post and Wikipedia (so you know it’s for real, right?).

From his website:

Simon Tam is an author, musician, activist, and troublemaker. Tam is best known as the founder and bassist of The Slants, the world’s first and only all-Asian American dance rock band. He helped expand civil liberties for minorities by winning a unanimous victory at the Supreme Court of the United States for a landmark case, Matal v. Tam, in 2017. He also leads The Slants Foundation, a nonprofit that supports arts and activism projects for underrepresented communities. Tam has been a keynote speaker, performer, and presenter at TEDx, SXSW, Comic-Con, The Department of Defense, Stanford University, and over 1,300 events across four continents. He has set a world record by appearing on the TEDx stage 13 times.

As a communications expert, Tam designed one of the first college-accredited social media and digital marketing certificates in the United States. His approach to cultural competency in marketing has been taught to hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and public service organizations. In 2016, Simon joined President Barack Obama, George Takei, Jeremy Lin, and other celebrities in the #ActToChange campaign to fight bullying. Simon Tam continues to fight for justice by serving on multiple nonprofit boards, developing innovative solutions to social problems, and sharing a message of radical optimism.

https://www.simontam.org/

Social media: @simonthetam

Book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3i2j39A

Music for all episodes by Jon Griffin.

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugOLERePPuD4nwtZO-Zwnw?view_as=subscriber

My Instagram: @joelyshmoley and @slideswithjohn

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/wereyoustilltalking/

Twitter: @JoelAAlbrecht