Shows / Awkward Asian Theologians
Awkward Asian Theologians
Awkward Asian Theologians is the audio project of AwkwardAsianTheologian.com, and is a collaboration between Matthew Tan (Dean of Studies at Vianney College Seminary in the Diocese of Wagga Wagga) and Daniel Ang (Director of the Archdiocese of Sydney's Centre for Evangelisation). Each fortnight, the podcast brings academic theology to lived life as seen through the eyes of two Australian Catholic laymen, and doing so asianly.
Episodes
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E8 The New Mother Tongue?: Money
First, the Asians pursue oneness: one heads to Asia; the other turns to quintessentially Asian pastimes. Ducks may or may not be involved. Then they turn to…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E7 When the Curry Runs Dry: Failure
Matt and Dan contemplate the great Asian inheritance: failure. The failure to live up to expectations, the failure to make your parents proud, the failure to…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E6 Does Heaven Care About Catering: Persons
The Asians emerge from their pause, presumably from somewhere between the kitchen and the metaphysical realm, to talk about food. Except, as usual, the food is…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E5 In the Beginning Was Not the Algorithm: AI
The Asians make up for their suspiciously short episode on priesthood by serving a banquet-sized discussion of AI—or, more precisely, Pope Leo’s first…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E4 Priests, Potatoes and the People of God: Priesthood
In this episode, Matt and Dan contemplate two of life’s great mysteries: plants and potatoes and, by a winding path that would make perfect sense in a Chinese…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E3 Everything Everywhere All at Mass: Complexity
Matt and Dan begin by demonstrating that they learnt absolutely nothing from their previous episode, returning almost immediately to their unconscious devotion…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E2 Kowtowing to Succulent Gods: Idolatry
In this episode, Daniel and Matt begin with the enduring contribution of Chinese cuisine to Australian civilisation before taking an unexpected detour into the…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S4E1 Jesus, Giussani & the Asian Auntie: Presence
The Asians are back! Armed with highlighted books, unearned anxiety, and the emotional resilience of jasmine tea, Matt and Dan kick off a new season reflecting…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E10 Back To Where We Came From: Home
The Asians close the season by talking about life’s ordinary things. Matt insists the meaning of life is steam - the sigh above a bamboo basket, - but beneath…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E9 The Theologians Behind the Asians: Influences
In this episode of Awkward Asian Theologians, things get personal - or at least as personal as Asians tend to get: somewhere between offering you fruit and…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E8 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Panda: Power
It begins, innocently enough, with the weather – autumnal and aggressively mundane. The kind of long-weekend observation that should go nowhere. And yet, set…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E7 The Great Catholic Bake Off: Parishes
Man and Dan return again to the basics. This time it is the parish, less like a system and more like a crowded yum cha table. You arrive and the dishes are…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E6 Metamucil for the Asian Soul: Beauty
The Asians step into the strange gravity of beauty, the transcendental that turns vibes into metaphysics. Engaging beauty as the "Metamucil of metaphysics"…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E5 The Broth that Warms: Eucharist
Matt and Dan begin, as serious Asians often do, over a bowl of pho - debating broth, coriander, and the hierarchy of condiments - before realising they’re…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E4 Vanity of Vanities: Celebrity
Matt and Dan begin with a mid-Lent wrist inspection, checking for spiritual pulse and early signs of influencer disease. It’s that penitential time of year…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E3 Does Everybody Hurt: World Pain
On the cusp of Lent, with a culture and a world sparring with itself like an uncoordinated kung fu film, Matt and Dan cheerfully wander into very heavy…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E2 So Worth It: Bodies
In this hot and saucy episode, Matt and Dan talk about the body, clearing their throats and looking briefly at the floor. They note how ideas of the body have…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S3E1 Blindfolded by Dental Floss: Racism
Welcome to our third season. The Asians (no longer Matt and Dan as unique individuals) look at racism, not so much as a political issue, but an issue that is…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E10 Dreaming of Dumplings: Nostalgia
Matt and Dan close out the season by steaming up a conversation on nostalgia. They start with food (of course) and how something as simple as a bowl of congee…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E9 Pray, Pay & Obey: Laity
In this episode, Matt and Dan do what good Catholics do: overthink their vocations. But this time, they’re not just being Catholic laymen but being Chinese…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E8 Heaven's Tiger Mum: Mary
Matt and Dan (yes, the Asians) go full Catholic and talk about Mary, “the tigerest of tiger mums”. The one who said “yes” to God with the kind of fierce…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E7 Woe is (Hokkien) Mee: Suffering (Part II)
Matt and Dan are back at it again — stir-frying their brains in the theological wok of suffering. This week, they dig deeper into Pope John Paul II’s Salvifici…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E6 Lotus in the Fire: Suffering (Part I)
It’s September which, as every Chinese auntie knows, means ghost month is over but the suffering of the long year has just begun. In this episode, Matt and Dan…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E5 Love in Translation: Feels
Welcome to Awkward Asian Theologians, where Matt and Dan embark on their most swoon-worthy, heart-fluttering episode yet - a theological deep dive into love…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E4 Bubble Tea After Mass: Migrants
Matt and Dan sit down with a pot of oolong and a question: What happens when people move – and the Church moves with them? In this episode, they poke around…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E3 There Is No Asian, Only Duty! Mission
Matt and Dan kick things off by casually showing off their wristwear, channelling peak Asian salaryman energy, before limping valiantly into the Church’s…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E2 How Yellow Was My Mochi? Representation
Matt and Dan go meta, like two lost dumplings floating in a bowl of hot broth, trying to figure out what it means to do things “Asianly.” They untangle the…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S2E1 Jesus Was What? Christology
Matt and Dan kick off the new season by going full ying-yang – back to the basics. And by basics, we mean Jesus. That’s right: before we talk Resurrection…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E10 What Christians Believe: Faith (Part II)
In this second instalment of the two-part meditation on faith, Matt and Dan move from Asia’s unique spiritual terrain toward a more universal grammar of…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E9 Making Asians Great Again: Faith (Part I)
Our most Asian episode yet! Matt extols the hidden mystery of Australian country Chinese cuisine, while Dan riffs on the situation of Christians across Asia…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
SPECIAL The Pope Who Shook Our Aunties: Francis
Matt and Dan light a joss stick for the ancestors and crack open a very special (and slightly spicy) episode of Awkward Asian Theologians - this time, in…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E8 Aren't We There Already: Mystery (Part II)
This is the second installment of a two-parter on the theme of mystery. Matt and Dan use more big words to talk about how divine mystery makes itself incarnate…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E7 Are We There Yet: Mystery (Part I)
Matt and Dan begin a two-parter on what mystery is and entails. They use big words like "epistemology", and warn us about the risk of reducing mystery to a…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E6 Asian Flexing: Evangelisation
Matt and Dan talk about the finer details of asian dinner conversations, before speaking about the Christian task of evangelisation. They clarify the important…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E5 The Ancestors!!!!: Tradition
In this episode, Matt confesses to being a sedevacantist, discusses with Dan why Catholic tradition matters, and how it can be the cause of maximum emotional…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E4 This Time With Feeling: Sacraments
In this episode, Matt and Dan talk about the sacraments, try not to offend Protestants (and like good Asians, fail), and ponder if mere culture can save us…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E3 Karaoke With Sacraments: Parishes
Matt and Dan discuss what to order at Yum Cha. They also speak of other things good, true and beautiful, jumping off their previous episode on Theology and…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E2 Asians Seeking Understanding: Theology
In this episode, Dan incurs Matt's jealousy by discussing his favourite dim sum, and also laying claim to all things Asian. They also discuss other steamy…
- Awkward Asian Theologians
S1E1 Dishonouring Cows Since 2025: Pilot
Leave your shoes at the door! Matt and Dan introduce themselves, the podcast and, like good Asians, justify their own existence. They also speak of the…