In this episode of Firelight Chats, Jerry Ku stops by the Spacelab to chat with Kane & Mocha about growing up as a Taiwanese Third Culture Kid. Jerry shares stories about being tricked into moving to another world, assimilating & adjusting, language learning, Singaporean accents & education, representing Singapore in the World Inline Cup Hockey Championships, ambitious hoop dreams & facing the realities of adulting, eventually living his childhood dream & working for NBA China, Covid and cat smuggling, adjusting to life back in Taiwan, and the prospects of growing a business, golfing, and becoming an international boss.
Jerry Ku was born in Taiwan, but spent a significant amount of his formative years growing up in Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Singapore; and Shanghai, China. He is now back in Taiwan, managing a family business called Rayxin Products, located in the Neihu district of Taipei.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Caren Chen stops by the Spacelab to chat with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. As two passionate founders in the field of education, Caren and Kane dive head and heart first into the complex yet potentially transformational intersection of education, business, and technology. Caren also shares some personal stories about her early experiences with education; grappling with the notions of privilege, inequality, and responsibility; her father's cowboy immigrant experience; working for a pool start-up; her years of service in the corporate game; and her inspirations, hopes, and plans for making a lasting difference both in Taiwan and beyond.
Caren Chen is the founder and CEO of Sensay, an EdTech company based in Taiwan that aims to help English language learners around the world speak more confidently, as well as to help educators achieve progress faster and more effectively. Caren is a Taiwanese-American, California native who has earned both an undergraduate degree and MBA from the University of Southern California.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Chris Armsden stops by the Spacelab on a rainy day to chat about animation and movie making with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. They discuss the business of animation, the impacts of technological advancements, the importance of education and having the right mindset, creative freedom, searching for passion, traveling the world, and his dreams of creating something magical in Taiwan.
Chris Armsden is an award-winning animation and visual effects professional who has worked on some of the most famous animated films in the world while working for companies like DNEG, MPC Film, DreamWorks, and Weta Digital. Chris is a Taiwan Gold Card holder and is the founder of Rising Star Creative, an animation and creative arts studio based in Taipei.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, international artist Kacey Wong stops by the Spacelab to laugh hard, wax poetic, connect deeply, and chat surreptitiously by the fireside. After presenting Kane & Mocha with a magical passport, they dive into a philosophical meandering about art, culture, language, education, history, geopolitics, resistance & revolution, and the incessant search for the meaning of life. Towards the end of the podcast, Kacey recounts his real life story about escaping from Hong Kong and finally making it to Taiwan, which he now calls home.
Kacey Wong is an artist and educator originally from Hong Kong. He is a Taiwan Gold Card holder and has, after 6 long months of waiting, finally been reunited with his beloved wife and cat. He will be participating and showcasing some of his artwork in a joint exhibition at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei until Sunday, June 12th, 2022.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Kane and Mocha sit down by the fireside to chat with James C. After starting off with some small talk about the Covid situation in Taiwan, they dive into James' stories about attending West Point, serving in Iraq and the Philippines, and explore the topics of management, leadership, government, degrees of corruption, and the transition back to civilian life. The two also reminisce about coincidentally living in Beijing at the same time and laugh about James' Turkish-Ukrainian wedding adventure, getting a Taiwanese Gold Card, living out of a suitcase for over a year, being married to a mainland Chinese woman and navigating cross-straight relations, and the infinite challenges of learning Chinese.
James C. is a Taiwanese-American, United States Military Academy graduate from Chicago. He has an MBA, is a Taiwan Gold Card holder, and has already bought his tickets back to the United States, where he plans to play everything by ear until he sees another opening.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Kane & Mocha welcomed Mai Bach into the Spacelab for a chat by the fireside. Besides talking about the environment, food, culture, sustainability, and education, Mai also shared some stories about her journey from California to Taiwan, making mistakes and learning from them, and the challenges & opportunities of establishing a social enterprise, being a female entrepreneur, running a restaurant during a global pandemic, and creating a meaningful community space.
Mai Bach is the founder of Ooh Cha Cha, a B Corp-certified, plant-based cafe located in Taipei. This episode was recorded one week before the official May 31st, 2022 closing of their flagship location in Da'an. The original Guting location will remain open and other projects, including a new joint venture called Hsinchuku, have either already broken ground or are in the works.

In this late-night episode of Firelight Chats, Kane & Mocha sat down by the fireside with Chuck Garcia, Alex Olin, and the ladies over Taiwanese-style pizza, beers, wine & Coke, and some different mozzarella sticks. What started off as a chill, post-game night huddle ramped up into a hard-hitting, wide-ranging, and laughter-filled chat about arts & crafts, movies, childhood stories, growing up in South Central LA, tattoos, world travel, Taiwan, basketball journeys, meditation, life & death, facing the greatest adversities with grace and power, exclusive revelations, the championship mentality, and becoming a superhero.
Chuck Garcia is a 2x champion with the Taipei Fubon Braves of the P. League+ and just finished his season with the Tainan TSG GhostHawks of the T1 League. Alex Olin works for the East Asia Super League (EASL) and is a notable fixture in the Taiwan basketball world. Mid-cast, dear friend of the Firelight family, Lester Prosper, called in shirtless from Miami Beach and kept the fire lit with his incorrigibly infectious energy. This episode was recorded at the Spacelab on Wednesday night, May 18th, 2022 - right after the final season game between the Taipei Fubon Braves and the New Taipei City Kings.

In this special episode of Firelight Chats, host Kane sat back with Mocha by the fireside to enjoy an off-the-cuff freestyle chat between two teammates from the Tainan TSG GhostHawks: Lester Prosper and Charles "Chuck" Garcia.
Among other things, the two big men discuss the different professional leagues in Taiwan, the passion of the fans, leadership & mentorship, communication styles and cultural adaptation, Chuck's favorite player on the team, the power and pitfalls of ego, winning championships and chasing triple crown status, getting rough and rowdy at practice, being a devoted student of the game, potential endorsement deals, returning to the Drew League, playing for a legendary Taiwanese coach, Chuck's championship ring, and the potential opportunities for life after basketball.
This freestyle chat was recorded on Friday, May 6th, 2022, on the eve of Lester's flight back to Indonesia. Charles "Chuck" Garcia is a two-time champion for the Taipei Fubon Braves of the P. League+ and is currently finishing up his 2022 season with the Tainan TSG GhostHawks of the T1 League.

To kick off the inaugural episode of Firelight Chats, Lester Prosper stopped by the Spacelab to spark it up with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. They chatted about his first experience playing for a Taiwanese professional basketball team, travelled around the world via his career WikiHistory, dug deep into some personal stories, and commiserated about the trials, tribulations, and ecstatic volcanic dangers of being an internationally renowned, handsome island boy.
Mr. Prosper is a professional basketball player who has played in 13 countries around the world, including this latest stint with the Tainan TSG GhostHawks of the T1 League. The chat was recorded early in the morning of Monday, May 2nd, 2022, about a week before he took off from Taiwan back to Indonesia. We expect Mr. Prosper to make a triumphant return soon enough and we look forward to warmly welcoming him back when he does.