The Duchess spoke about growing up in LA.
Meghan Markle's podcast is back!
After a four-week hiatus to honour a mourning period for the late Queen Elizabeth, a new episode of Archetypes has hit Spotify. In it, the Duchess of Sussex notably speaks to comedian Margaret Cho and journalist Lisa Ling about the harmful stereotypes that are often directed at Asian and Asian-American women in the media, the workplace, and beyond.
By way of introduction, the Duchess recalls the melting pot that was her upbringing in Los Angeles, and her early experiences of the rich Asian culture that exists there.
She remembers all the different languages she used to hear around her, and getting to taste various cuisines from around the world, and also tells the story of a moment she had to overcome her teenage discomfort during a spa trip.
"My mom and I, we would often go to the Korean spa together," Meghan says.
"Now, for those of you who haven't been to one before, it's a very humbling experience for a girl going through puberty, because you enter a room with women from ages 9 to maybe 90, all walking around naked and waiting to get a body scrub on one of these tables that are all lined up in a row. All I wanted was a bathing suit. Which you're not allowed by the way.
"And once I was over that adolescent embarrassment, my mom and I, we would go upstairs, we would sit in a room and we would have a steaming bowl of the most delicious noodles. And we'd look around at all of these other women. These beautiful Korean women who had embraced the generational tradition of the jjimjilbang and shared it with one another. Now, that was a part of the Asian-American culture that I knew."
The Duchess then explains that as a young girl, she didn't know about how stereotyped people of Asian descent were in the predominantly white culture in the U.S. especially, and how dangerous and pervasive these stereotypes could be. During the remainder of the episode, she and her guests work to debunk some of those harmful preconceptions, and remind listeners that every person is more than the labels that are forced on them.
All Archetypes episodes are available to listen to via Spotify.
