Tyler Thompson attends the Oakland School for the Arts. He's been learning Chinese since he was young and now can sing complex roles and often is invited to perform for Chinese officials. See Tyler sing Chinese Opera.
Dick calls Japanese farmer Mitsuo Sato, who lived close to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor before the tsunami in 2011. He is part of a crew that is decontaminating the soil in his farming community.
Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello are husband-and-wife opera singers. They talk with Dick about the peculiarity of their relationship, which includes competing to see who can hold the longest notes, and trying to get cast in the same productions so that they can spend time together.
The 1800s composition “Vexations,” by Erik Satie, comes with a cryptic instruction to perform the piece 840 times in a row. Many thought that it couldn’t be done.
John Kamm was a longtime businessman based in Hong Kong. One day he stood to make a toast to Chinese officials and ended up asking for the release of a political prisoner.
