Ep. 11: Howard Schultz communications manager Lin Yang started hometown newspaper to fight misinformation that harms local election

Chinatown 2.0

Lin Yang is a grassroot political organizer who also works in tech. Lin had a full-time job working for Howard Schultz, helping him explore a presidential run. For those unaware, Howard Schultz was the founder and previous CEO for Starbucks.

Lin also participated in campaigns for President Obama and Senator Ted Lieu from California. He also worked as a journalist in Asia for a while, writing articles for various newspapers like New York Times when was stationed in Taiwan, and the Strait Times in Singapore.

Lin is also the founder of a local newspaper for the town of Sammamish, where he currently lives. He started the paper after seeing that a lack of objective information led to a local election where the citizens were either uninformed or misinformed.

Lin is a Joe Biden supporter. Today we discussed his experience campaigning for elections, working as a journalist in Asia, how he started a local newspaper, why he wanted to vote Biden, and his view on the contentious California proposition of Prop 16 that wants to re-introduce racial preference in public employment and public education.

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YouTube: https://youtu.be/hc2f9BZ52hA

* Newspaper of Lin's hometown (Sammamish, Washington): https://sammamishindependent.com/

* Podcast associated with the Sammamish Independent newspaper: https://anchor.fm/indyonair

* Letter from Howard Schultz about his decision to not run for President: https://www.howardschultz.com/onwardwithgratitude/

0:00 Teaser

0:46 Host monologue
4:07 Breakdown of left-leaning vs right-leaning students at Harvard's public policy school

3:37 Enjoying grassroot politics by doorbelling for Obama

7:47 Discussion of whether the left tends to encourage people to vote more than the right

12:31 Observation of efficient and trustworthy elections in Taiwan

14:46 Helping Starbucks founder Howard Schultz explore a Presidential run

22:44 Becoming a journalist in Asia - wild goose stories in Singapore / Foxconn coverage in Taiwan

28:48 Started local newspaper in hometown (Sammamish, WA) to combat mis-information that influences local elections

35:33 Supporting Biden for his bi-partisan, centrist platform, similar to Howard Schultz's approach

42:30 Enumerating good policies during Trump years

46:24 Debate on California's Proposition 16 that will reintroduce racial preference to public employment and public education