Episode 183: Three Ways of Looking at Bruce Lee (with Jeff Chang)

A mural of Bruce Lee in San Francisco’s Chinatown (photo by Charlie Jane Anders)

Bruce Lee changed American pop culture forever, and his incredible legacy is more relevant than ever. But how did he go from child actor in Hong Kong to one of the most important action-movie stars of all time? To find out more, we talk to Jeff Chang, author of a new book called Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. Plus contributing host Naseem Jamnia tells us everything science has learned about fungi recenlty — and explains why science fiction has a lot of catching up to do.

Notes, citations, etc.

Jeff Chang on Instagram and Bluesky, plus Jeff's newsletter and podcast, The End of Reason

Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America by Jeff Chang is available now

Jeff’s book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, A History of the Hip Hop Generation, won the American Book Award

Naseem Jamnia. Naseem is @jamsternazzy on Bsky, Instagram, etc.

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

Frequent OOAC guest host Bethany Brookshire has a really fantastic article in National Geographic that gives a great overview on mycorrhizal fungi.

Fungus sources: Hibbett et al. 2025, Huey et al. 2020, Hunter 2023, Cooper 2013, Vitriol and Zheng 2012, Kolodkin and Tessier-Lavigne 2011, Steinberg et al. 2017, Sutherland et al. 2014, Jackson and Heath 1993, Torralba and Health 2001, Brand et al. 2007, Dehshibi and Adamatzky 2021, Adamatzky 2022, Corratgé-Faillie et al. 2010,

Merlin Sheldrake wrote Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures

“Fungi in Fiction” by Carrie Sessarego appeared in Clarksworld

Some giant mycelium, like in Oregon, have grown as large as 10 sq. km