Ube Industrial Complex - Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture

Ube Industrial Complex is a light-hearted, food-motivated show that explores culinary scenes and other pop cultural appetites from Filipinx American and Canadian points-of-view.

Co-hosted across three cities by writers, scholars and food enthusiasts, Karen Tongson (L.A.), Adrian De Leon (NY), and James Zarsadiaz (SF), the show boasts both local perspectives, and a worldy sensibility across generations, migration routes, foodways, trends, tastes and desires.

Season 1

Release Date: 10/1/2026

Welcome to Ube Industrial Complex, a food-motivated limited podcast series that explores culinary scenes and broader pop cultural appetites from a Filipino American and Canadian POV. Co-hosted across three cities by Karen Tongson (L.A.), Adrian De Leon (NY), and James Zarsadiaz (SF), the show boasts both local perspectives, and a worldly sensibility across generations, migration routes, foodways, trends and tastes. In episode 1, we talk about ube, its origins, its role in food trends and why we think it has evolved into an “industrial complex” in Filipino food cultures. Plus, we offer scene reports about the places that have our attention in L.A., N.Y. and S.F., while bringing in some observations from our recent travels beyond our home cities.

Contact Us

Gender & Sexuality Studies
University of Southern California
Mark Taper Hall of Humanities, 422
3501 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California 90089-4352

gssconsortium@usc.edu

The Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture is generously funded by USC Dornsife and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.