Welcome back to the show and welcome to 2025! Thank you for being with us all throughout this season.

Today, we’re talking with Justine Abigail Yu, the founder of Living Hyphen, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere.

Justine is a Filipina-Canadian and in our conversation, we discuss identity and belonging in the diaspora communities, radical imagination, and storytelling as a soft landing.

This conversation was so big and important that we're breaking it into two equally powerful parts. In the next two episodes, Justine shares with us a healing and hopeful way to approach the new year.

Get 20% off of any issue of the Living Hyphen magazine with code GOINGPLACES at the Living Hyphen online store. The beautifully produced magazine features artists and writers from all across Canada hailing from over 30 ethnicities, religions, and Indigenous nations who explore various themes of this multi-hyphenated identity in a collection of poetry, prose, photography, and visual art.

Announcement: my 10-day group trip to Jordan in May 2025 is now open! Get more details here.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

Growing up in between cultures
Connecting the dots between local and global struggles
Why travel is an inherently political act
Expanding the idea of what activism looks like
How Justine holds multiple truths at the same time
How Vent Diagrams can help us with the complexity of the world
The origin of Turtle Island and the power of words
The practice of pleasure activism

Featured on the show:

Follow Justine on Instagram: @justineabigail
Follow Living Hyphen on Instagram: @livinghyphen
Learn more about Justine on her website
Follow the work of Living Hyphen
Check out the Living Hyphen podcast
Read Justine's 3DR newsletter
Check out Vent Diagrams on Instagram: @vent_diagrams
Read Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown

Get more information at: Going Places website

Join our Going Places newsletter to get updates on new episodes and Yulia's travel storytelling work. Subscribe at goingplacesmedia.com/newsletter!

For more BTS of this podcast follow @goingplacesmedia on Instagram and check out our videos on YouTube!

Please head over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE to the show. If you enjoy this conversation, please share it with others on social and don’t forget to tag us @goingplacesmedia!

And show us some love, if you have a minute, by rating Going Places or leaving us a review wherever you listen. You’ll be helping us to bend the arc of algorithms towards our community — thank you!

Going Places with Yulia Denisyuk is a show that sparks a better understanding of people and places near and far by fostering a space for real conversations to occur. Each week, we sit down with travelers, journalists, creators, and people living and working in destinations around the world. Hosted by Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel journalist, photographer, and writer who's worked with National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Travel, and more.

Learn more about our show at goingplacesmedia.com.