Dr. John Cha, faculty member in the Department of Religion and Japanese Studies program at Gustavus, talks about the challenges and impact of growing up Asian-American on Chicago's South Side and in Quincy, Illinois; the influence in his teen years of Huey Newton and Bruce Lee; his academic path to philosophy and religion; being hired by Gustavus; understanding and teaching phenomenology; his comparative research on the 20th-century French phenomenologist Michel Henry and the 8th-century Indian philosopher Śaṅkara; teaching students about non-Western religions; and why learning about religion in general is important.