The week of Jan. 23, 2016 was: Winter Storm #Jonas strikes with a fury; the Academy takes steps to address diversity gap; NBA players celebrate Chinese New Year; and Colbert and Palin, a match made in heaven!

“Thank you to all the straight white guys who dominated movies and TV so hard and for so long that stories about anyone else seem kind of fresh and original now.” – Alan Yang. (Congrats Master of None!)

Mash-Ups in the News:

Millennials Will Make Up Almost Half of Latino Voters in 2016

There are more than 27 million eligible Hispanic voters for this year’s election. And 44 percent of them are millenials. This is what America looks like.

via The Flama

Idris Elba’s Powerful Speech on Diversity to UK Parliament

“Thing is, when you get out more, you see there’s a disconnect between the real world and TV world. People in the TV world often aren’t the same as people in the real world. And there’s an even bigger gap between people who make TV, and people who watch TV. I should know, I live in the TV world. And although there’s a lot of reality TV, TV hasn’t caught up with reality. Change is coming, but it’s taking its sweet time.”

via Deadline

How Persian Culture Brought You Many of The Foods You Eat

Oh, is it mint julep, the classic Kentucky cocktail, or julab, a centuries-old Persian rosewater drink? During this past week’s start of America’s new relationship with Iran, it is interesting to note that many of our foods have their origins in Persian culture — from naranj/orange toquand/candy to sharbat/sherbet.

via NPR

Woody Guthrie Despised His Landlord — Donald Trump’s Racist Father

Like father, like son. We’ve talked about Donald’s Mash-Up family, but it seems some of the candidate’s current hateful rhetoric stems directly from Fred. Woody Guthrie wrote powerful lyrics in the 1950s about “Old Man Trump” and his deeply discriminatory landlord policies.

via Gawker

Here Are 14 Badass Historical Women To Name Your Daughters After

For us, it’s a toss-up between Madam CJ Walker and Yaa Asantewaa.

via Buzzfeed

News Flash: It’s a Bad Idea To Wear Shoes Inside the House

File under, duh. Asians don’t wear shoes in the house and it’s obviously for good reason. In a recent study, 96 percent of shoes were found to have E.coli and other harmful bacteria that come from contact with fecal matter and who the heck knows what else.

via NextShark

“Japanese Schindler” Saved 6,000 Lives During World War II

Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, issued visas to more than 6,000 Jews to flee the Nazis and take refuge in Japan in the early days of WWII; those survivors now have tens of thousands of descendants. Ordinary people do extraordinary things.

via Huffington Post

The Fantasy Coffins of Ghana

In Ghana, a death is as much about mourning as it is an opportunity to celebrate a life and carry that person to the afterlife. What better way to do that than with a boat-shaped coffin for a former fisherman, or a potato-shaped coffin for someone who just loved those chips.

via Roads & Kingdoms

Why Koreans Use Metal Chopsticks

Apparently the royal family in ancient Korea would use silver chopsticks to detect poison in their food … and it was on. Everyone wanted metal chopsticks! These days, they’re made of steel, but still we recommend them and the long spoons.

via FoodBeast

A Cooking Class Where Immigrants Learn the Recipe for English

Nothing like the shared language of food. You know ginger. You know garlic. You know onions. But as a new immigrant, you may not know what to call them in English. We cried reading about this wonderful class in Philadelphia that helps immigrants and refugees learn English through food.

via NPR