Josh Burstein talks "Hebrew-nese" identity, Dem politics, and (basically) living in space
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 27 Dec, 2025

Josh Burstein — a Chinese Jewish stand-up comedian who has worked for Barack Obama, lived on a space simulation in Hawaii, and is heavily involved in climate activism — may be the most interesting man in the world.

Josh Burstein — a Chinese Jewish stand-up comedian who has worked for Barack Obama, lived on a space simulation in Hawaii, and is heavily involved in climate activism — may be the most interesting man in the world. 

Romen (00:00)

Welcome to the Gold Sea podcast. Today's guest is my friend Josh Burstein. Josh is very well a candidate for the most interesting man in the world. Josh, you worked in politics and campaigns. You have won a game show. You have simulated in space. Pretty much anything cool I could imagine, you've done.

Josh Burstein (00:19)

Accurate.

Romen (00:26)

So thank you for joining us.

Josh Burstein (00:26)

Of course. Honored to be on the pod. Podhead with you.

Romen (00:32)

So, I will start by asking you about your identity because I find it absolutely fascinating. You are Chinese and Jewish. Is that right?

Josh Burstein (00:43)

Yes, I'm glad you started with the "where are from?" question that we all love.

Romen (00:47)

I feel as though I can do that because I get that question a lot.

Josh Burstein (00:53)

Yeah, yeah, no, my beige brothers can ask me whatever. So I'll say I am Hebrew-nese or Jewish. I have a Chinese mom and a New York Jewish father. I think the 23andMe is actually pretty down the line of just basic Eastern European and very, mainland China.

And the way they met is an incredible story where funny enough what led me to meeting you and my desires to work in Hollywood were because my mom was the first Chinese woman to come to America for the explicit purpose of marrying an American man. And so the New York Times covered it when he, I'll get to the story a little bit, but like the point is, like. Yeah, yeah.

Romen (01:42)

I'm just unpacking that statement for a second, sorry, I know you'll explain it, but in my mind, I'm like, excuse me?

Josh Burstein (01:46)

Yeah. So the the MacGyver producers were looking to develop it into a Hallmark movie of the week, but they couldn't find the right writer. So the poetic sort of bookend was that I, the offspring, would be that writer.

That's what I drove myself to Hollywood for the first time to write. But it is very weird to write a screenplay romance about your parents right around page 68. And so I kind of shelved that, because also I didn't know love myself.

So basically my dad was doing business in China. He studied Chinese history and was fluent as to somebody really fascinated with the culture and history. And before the Nikes of the world were doing all their import export through China, he was a liaison.

And largely just getting screwed by these big corporations who once they got connected, you know, X'd him out. But he sprained his ankle while jogging around Westlake in Hongzhou, China and struck up a conversation with a beautiful 24-year-old studying her engineering homework and struck out pretty hard, but he asked to be her pen pal to practice his Chinese and apparently…

Romen (03:15)

Man, what a consolation prize. Will you go out with me? No. Okay, but can I be your pen pal? Like I gotta respect the, you know, sticking with it.

Josh Burstein (03:20)

Yeah. It's a weird cold mountain kind of thing though because after two years of trading letters they got a little more romantic and he flew back and he proposed and that basically set off a chain reaction because it's like isolationist China with materialistic 80s.

America and the equivalent of the Chinese KGB assumed that my mom is some concubine and they're trading secrets and he's some FBI agent or something and it's just yeah the ostracization of a Chinese national who was like a princess in her, like model citizen, and then just kind of gets extradited because of this.

And it raised to a level of interrogation and challenge that, of course, white boy just Columbused around and made some trouble here. So Jimmy Carter actually got involved and wrote a note of like "I wish you and Wei the best on your pending nuptials" and that was like the carte blanche of like don't mess with this let her you know immigrate and

Romen (04:35)

That is incredible. Is that letter like framed somewhere in the house?

Josh Burstein (04:40)

Yeah, that's in the Hall of Sons, we call it, in the basement of my mom's place, along with a picture of me meeting Bill Clinton when he told me to Eat My Broccoli, when I was 10 years old. It's the original Let's Move campaign. And then, you know, picture of me and Barack. So we got a lot, we got all the Dems, except for Joe Robinette, down there.

Romen (05:03)

That's relegated to the basement?

Josh Burstein (05:06)

It's a nice, well-lit basement, but yeah, you know. ⁓

Romen (05:11)

Wow, that's incredible. As a Chinese Jew, are there certain commonalities between the two? So I'll give you an example. As an Indian Italian, people are constantly like, "you must eat very well." And there is something to be said about us talking with our hands a bit. What would you say the main similarities are of your two sides?

Josh Burstein (05:25)

Mm-hmm.

You know, the tiger mom and overbearing Jewish mother tropes, I would say there is something about expecting a lot of yourself and your kids and fierce loyalty to family, which is maybe ubiquitous across all cultures. There is definitely. Yeah.

Romen (06:02)

Some more than others though, I mean, some have different ways of showing it, right? So I guess I'm curious. Some would say that…I was reading Simu Liu's book and he talks about how he told his parents he got cast as a Marvel superhero and they were like "okay." I would assume if he was in your predicament, the Jewish side would be maybe a little more profuse with their excitement?

Josh Burstein (06:09)

Mm-hmm.Yeah. I mean, normal is in the eye of the beholder and I grew up all across the US crisscrossing around with my dad, but I never felt like the pressure. I felt an expectation because the son of an academic kind of academic brat going campus to campus.

I was always going to go to school. But it wasn't, I've never questioned if my parents were proud of me and that sort of again trope of expectation. But at the same time when I did apply to college and I got into University of Wisconsin and I told my mom she's like, "Why not Harvard?" this is like, you know, I think that that's just a…she was crushing it in terms of a one in a billion power ranking when she was in school.

Romen (07:18)

Also, a little late in the game to drop the "why not Harvard," too. I feel like that's maybe a like freshman year of high school, "hey, go to Harvard" rather than I got my acceptance letter and I'm deciding where to go.

Josh Burstein (07:22)

Yeah. Yeah, and I think that there was definitely some hesitations around less conventional less safe, you know, pathways not that there are a whole lot of ladders left in career opportunities now outside a doctor But they definitely would have wanted to push me more towards computer programmer or things that they were familiar with then nondescript new media opportunities for charming Muslims from Kenya running for president.

Romen (07:59)

Right. and we'll get to that more in a second, you spending a lot of time in Obama land, as we call it. But were your parents, I mean, did it take some persuasion to be like, hey, this is what I want to do, when as digital was coming up, which is what you did, you worked in the digital space.

And truly I got to give you your flowers because like it changed the game. This, were, you know, flying, you were going in blind here, right? Like people didn't really know what digital was and that it would change the world in the way that it did. So to support that would require taking a leap of faith, right? From your parents.

Josh Burstein (08:42)

Yeah, I mean, and a lot of people continue to swing the almighty Obama as their ⁓ ace in the hole of, it you or was it Barack Obama in terms of this strategy? And I will say, it was me. It was because of me that he won, exclusively.

Romen (08:59)

I wrote some postcards to potential voters too, so you know, we're both, I think we both deserve equal credit.

Josh Burstein (09:04)

Yeah. He at least single-handedly kept the USPS in service. I feel like the big challenge for me was being unemployed every Thanksgiving of my 20s, right? That it wasn't so much that they weren't proud. Eventually, they just understood, this is unconventional, but he seems to always be able to leverage this into the next thing.

Romen (09:09)

Yeah.

Josh Burstein (09:34)

There are no five-year plans that work out exactly. I barely can predict one year in the future of anything. So I think that that's why I learned early in the 20s of just being radically adaptive. And eventually, they came around to accept that, yeah, this is just modern, or at least in my path, the way it's going to work. And they definitely were very proud.

Romen (09:59)

You were not saying that totally randomly about being unemployed around Thanksgiving time because for those who are, you know, less politically nerdy than us, the campaigns almost always happen at the beginning. They happen at the beginning of November. And no matter how well you've done, right? Like you could have just won an historic campaign. It feels like you always end up back at being unemployed.

Josh Burstein (10:20)

Win or lose, it's a weird thing where every campaign basically tries to build the best startup company in the world, an IPO on the specific date. And regardless of performance, you all fire and dissolve the entire operation right after. And so that's why there's a lot of problems and less cohesive infrastructure, that I could go riff on for forever.

As far as the impact on the 20-something who's just giving their entire life to an idea of Obama, Inc. or another candidate, yeah, their walking home in the holidays, completely uncertain and probably trying to collect unemployment. ⁓

it's Sisophus-ian to try and consistently have work. But there's always another campaign. There's always one around the corner. So you can, if you want, live out of your car in rural Iowa for someone at any given point.

Romen (11:20)

I'm sure. This was my experience: I would finish a campaign again. Maybe it'd go great, maybe it'd go horrible, but I would tell myself "I am never doing that again." And then like a couple months later, like, all right, maybe just one more.

Josh Burstein (11:33)

Yeah, I very much felt like a Brett Favre, Philip Rivers coming out of retirement. Like, "ugh, all right, well, do you guys give me benefits?" Like, I guess I could use some this Cobras running out. Let's hit this trail one more time. Like Phelps to the pool on Pachypheal.

Romen (11:48)

Well, that's why we passed Obamacare, right? It was really just selfish. You were like, I'm going to be unemployed so much that I'll need health insurance.

Josh Burstein (11:55)

Yeah. Everyone's inherently selfish. I mean, we were fueled with self-righteousness to know we were going out and working for the president. And I need that kind of direction because I know I'm getting paid less than minimum wage.

Romen (12:12)

I want to make sure I'm getting my timeline right. So you worked for Obama. When did you start on the Obama campaign?

Josh Burstein (12:19)

I mean, I was the first new media guy for students for Barack Obama while I still in college in 07, and then continued to help with videos on 08. But I really didn't get immersion into Obama land until the 2012 campaign, where I came back around and then served in the Obama administration as the Director of Digital Strategy for the Department of Labor.

Romen (12:46)

And then you've since worked on additional campaigns. worked for ⁓ Tony Evers who won in Wisconsin and defeated Scott Walker. You helped out with that race and just countless more.

Josh Burstein (12:52)

Yeah. Yeah, you got a good memory for those. I don't even keep that on the LinkedIn anymore. But yeah, I think I have been the senior creative advisor for the DNC and sat on my hands and went crazy for that. I helped launch Michelle Obama's When We All Vote initiative, digital strategy for March For Our Lives with the Parkland students, most recently was creative director for the DNC convention, which I say is the last time we were all truly happy and really stuck the landing held my end of the bargain there.

Romen (13:26)

It was a bright spot in a sea of things that could have gone better.

Josh Burstein (13:32)

Yeah. And then, I'll also help some AAPI efforts, and I'll be a E-list surrogate anytime somebody needs me to stump for Asian-Americans anywhere.

Romen (13:42)

You'll often do stand-up comedy, right, at events and fundraisers and… which is very cool.

Josh Burstein (13:48)

Yeah, yeah, there's also a cool Asian Comedy Festival here that I've emceed. basically just, ⁓ I'm Brooklyn now. I was tired of being happier and healthier in LA and moved to New York. And lived all across the Midwest and parents are all in Virginia now. So I've seen this great nation and everyone drives terribly everywhere.

Romen (13:54)

Wait, what's the AAPI event that you MC in?

Josh Burstein (14:17)

Asian Comedy Festival, I'll plug. Yeah, they're great.

So this is something interesting I'll share about the Jews versus the Asians. I have, growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, struggled with a sense of belonging. I think there's a lot of mixed ⁓ kids out there that don't necessarily identify fully with one identity or the other because they don't necessarily feel like 100 % accepted. And that's true for if you're half black and Jewish or what have you.

So the difference I've noticed was as someone who didn't get a bar mitzvah because the nearest synagogue was 45 miles away when I was 13, finding birthright and a bunch of other organizations, you know, for all their ailments, it's like, oh no, there was like this unconditional love and somebody willing to help me connect with my culture and find community and create alumni bases and like support with like little micro grants of like, here's $500 so you can go to a conference or like bring together folks on a Friday night for dinner. And there wasn't a whole lot of agenda and at least I didn't have to opt into propaganda to get those things. And it was wonderful to feel that, especially coming out of a time in Oklahoma where I didn't feel like I belonged.

And on the Asian side, I have tried very hard to get engaged with some of these larger organizations and it feels like my criticism is they will take all the credit for you on the back half. They will claim Simu once he gets the Marvel thing and nothing before. Right. So all the Asian Illuminati stuff is is great. I love that we're getting more representation. I love that we are supporting each other, but it feels like everything's just very top layer, and we're also so hypercritical of our heroes because it's just that weird monolithic strategy of like, I supposed to be rooting for Kal Penn here? I don't know. Is he Asian enough for me? And where does this all the above constituency start and stop?

Romen (16:48)

We could spend, we could spend a week having a podcast conversation about like the South Asian of it all versus the East Asian of it all. I mean, I, for the final four. "wow. Major upset, the Laotians have, have beaten the Chinese…"

Josh Burstein (16:57)

Sure. And then we could do like some brackets, you know, and just kind of figure out who actually is, yes, ultimate warrior.

Yeah, yeah. think, you know, Filipinos are a dark horse. Definitely 12th seed, but I could see them going far.

Romen (17:16)

Are you familiar, Josh, with, you've really reminded me of this, the Washington Post search for the happiest person in the world a few years ago?

Josh Burstein (17:28)

I vaguely remember that.

Romen (17:30)

So the Washington Post set out, they just one day were like, let's find the happiest person in the world. So they surveyed a bunch of people and they came back and they were like, okay, we've decided these are the criteria that make people happy. And again, they just like bringing in all this data, they were like, the happiest person in the world will be a man in his like 50s or 60s. He will be Jewish and…

Josh Burstein (17:55)

Hmph.

Romen (17:56)

Chinese and Hawaiian and it'll have like two kids and so they literally they sent someone to Hawaii to call around to different synagogues and said do you have anyone

Josh Burstein (17:58)

"Find this man."

Romen (18:10)

That meets this criteria and they found a man named Alvin Wong who they deemed the happiest person in the world or in the US rather.

But it turns out that the happiest person in the country at least ⁓ is an Asian Jew like yourself.

Josh Burstein (18:30)

Wow. Maybe the only way out of crippling anxiety and being hard on yourself is through and some great yams and poke bowls on the big island. But yeah, I love that. I love that this could be my pathway. And it sounds like I'm on my new 10-year plan to…

Romen (18:59)

He'll need a successor at some point. The heir apparent. Yyou could be the second happiest man in the US.

Josh Burstein (19:06)

Yeah, yeah.

Romen (19:08)

Okay, so I want to ask you a question about your political activism and I want to make sure I phrase this question correctly. So let me ask it…. Are you a political hack? Or wait, no. Let me rephrase it. Are you a shill for the Democratic Party?

Josh Burstein (19:12)

Yeah. Well, that's actually a great question because I did run for DNC vice chair at the top of this year, but I have always wanted choice.

Romen (19:34)

Sorry was that election that race that was the one where David Hogg won?

Josh Burstein (19:39)

Yeah. Hogg, yeah, yeah. I actually ran in a different lane as him. But yes, this is why we can't have nice things. There's actually been a whole lot of hullabaloo about the internal struggles with the voting structure of all that. And I would concur that some of it's pretty messed up.

Romen (19:42)

Because that was an interesting key one and more or less got pushed out for ⁓ wanting to primary certain Democratic candidates.

Josh Burstein (20:01)

Yeah. And there's some, yeah, I don't want to go too far into that, not we're just like, we're focusing on this with generational pillars of democracy crumbling. And I think that was the whole point of running, which was to say we are critically inept. There has been criminal negligence from the old white people at the top that have not learned how to be digitally native and showing up in a modern messaging strategy for an investment in the infrastructure and the trainings necessary across the board, we have zero trust for spending billions of dollars for no results. So the list goes on. It's easier to be critical.

But I've always tried to be like, I'm just going to show not tell a better path. This was me stepping in as a candidate that only had to run for six weeks, didn't have to beg people for money, and could just do what I need to do to get my tight five in front of the Democratic establishment and tell them they all suck at the internet. And held my own on these MS Now stages with sitting Congress people because I had something to say that wasn't just the same talking points. It was like I owe it because to your question, am I a proud Democrat? No, I am a loyal Democrat in a toxic relationship and I want choice. That's what I saying before. I have gone to Republican rallies. I am interested in independence. And will talk with anybody exploring additional parties as long as they're willing to barrack with ⁓ the closest thing to it when it comes down to it, which is why I'm interested in how Working Families Party works, for example. The Democrats, for me, it's "I can't quit you." It's that thing. I know that there's no cavalry, and I know the people involved. So my other option to caring and trying to do what I can while protecting myself for all the battles to come.

Is just screwing all the way off and starting a jet ski business in Guatemala. I'm like, there's no in between. I either have to keep paying attention and keep punching back a little bit. That's not a bad deal, now that I know.

Romen (22:37)

Why not Hawaii?

I obviously asked that question tongue-in-cheek ⁓ about being a political hacker or show for the Democratic Party because that is something that I am personally accused of frequently and I've always felt I say always, we haven't known each other that long, but I have felt a serious kinship with you because I think you and I are similar in that we keep doing like to the outside world. If you knew nothing about politics, it'd be like, this guy keeps working for these, ⁓ you know, Democratic campaigns or helping candidates, especially when the Democrats images in the toilet. And you and I are like, yeah, but we're also progressive. We want the same things as you. We're just sort of realistic about, you know, getting to get, you know, getting something like, sure, we may not get Medicare for all, but working for this candidate will extend Obamacare subsidies, that sort of thing.

Josh Burstein (23:36)

Well, I really love me, Bernie, and Zohran for painting a brighter future and a possibility. I also want a value experience. And I think it's hard to hold those two things as like, I want to be a moderate that can reach the furthest middle and advocate for the most progressive strategies that I think I can get everyone on board for. And it's far less fun. I can't be on the Crooked Media preach to the converted train.

You know, it's like I want to live in ⁓ what I think most people do, which is to say we can have a difference of ideas on tactics, but we basically agree on the same things. And so where…

I don't want to get into fighting comments with people. like, I'm sorry. I am a hack because I've done five presidential campaigns. I've been willing to actually show up and not spend my time here on this TikTok talking to you. I'm doing the work. And if you want to show up with me, I would love to get you on your first volunteer shift so you can actually talk to real voters and get off your high horse. And I definitely add to that. Yeah.

Romen (24:42)

And you do the work. You knock doors too, in addition to like the fun. You were out for Zohran, right? Like canvassing and not just doing the fun, like making… Your video was phenomenal, by the way, when you ran for DNC vice chair. Anyone listening to this should watch it. It was very fun, upbeat, inspiring. was, you said it was like a tight five. It was like, here's who I am. Here's what I believe in. But you know, it was like perfectly… It was optimistic while being critical of the things that aren't working.

Josh Burstein (24:48)

Sure. Here's ideas, here's practical things we could do right now. Mm-hmm. Yes, I did say that the DNC had the brand viability of Nickelback. And what I found out this year is in my Spotify unwrapped, Nickelback hit the top five. So, you know, I…

Romen (25:15)

Hahaha Because of, wait, because you're a Nickelback fan or because you were listening to it for research purposes?

Josh Burstein (25:29)

I think it's a guilty pleasure now.

Romen (25:31)

So we've talked about your political stuff. You are also, how do you feel about the word activist? Some activists hate the word activist, but for better or worse, you are an activist when it comes to especially climate, right? You're very involved in climate causes and ⁓ we can plug this show that you and I, the pilot we just developed that I'm really excited about.

Josh Burstein (25:34)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Totally.

Romen (25:53)

You're also obsessed with space, right?

Josh Burstein (25:56)

I love the idea of us improving our world so that we don't have space as our only option and we can just go there out of curiosity and not requisite. So ⁓ that's kind of what got me on the space train and cold calling NASA.

Romen (26:10)

I was wondering how you would tie the two together, space and the environment.

Josh Burstein (26:14)

Yeah, well, it was like, what's the cost of total inaction on climate? Is we can't live here anymore. So how would the average person live off planet? And that's kind of what sent me there. But as far as activist, I help a lot of people with their brands. I struggle with my own because I do have too many multi-hyphens, and I need one of them to stick first.

Romen (26:37)

It's too, it's so much. How do you keep up with?

Josh Burstein (26:39)

So yeah, I am an analog astronaut, and that's just one of the many things while I've Forest Gumped my way through life. It's a more interesting life than just doing one thing all the time. activists, there's a lot of talkers who say they're activists that are making awareness.

I am a doer. I would much rather be known as somebody who's like, he is willing to live in this coal mine and work the coal mine for a month to connect and understand what's going on there and maybe help nurture a dialogue and not try and change entire worldviews overnight, but just open up and blunt the edge on maybe renewables aren't the worst and we can have a couple ⁓ solar panels out here. So yeah, I think after Obama, I spent a lot of time thinking, what do I actually care the most about?

Above all else, was climate because it was like, if I care about health care, well, that's an issue. If I care about just anything, it all just boiled up to the top of the pyramid being climate. So yeah, I felt like I've been on the bleeding edge with a butter knife trying to get people to care. And now I do think people are a little more aware. And you've got climate Coachella happening every UN climate week in New York.

Romen (28:05)

Who would be the equivalent of an Al Gore headlining climate Coachella this year?

Josh Burstein (28:07)

At Client at Coachella? It's Neil Young every year. No,

I… But that's the thing. It's like, I actually credit Leo for being an early adopter on this stuff of like, I'm gonna use my platform and I'm gonna make a Prius look cool because I'm in it. know, there's… That feels like actual good activism, you know?

Romen (28:27)

And as, you've made the that Tesla owners went from being Leo to Leo's character in Django Unchained.

Josh Burstein (28:41)

Yeah, life comes at you fast. Well, and so that's the thing that we did in Tomorrow Today, which I hope anyone goes to YouTube and checks out the pilot. We're planning the whole first season right now for next year. But we wanted to depoliticize EVs in a post-Musk world. I still think you can use things and hate the founders. I don't think about.

Zuckerberg while I touch my Instagram, you know? And maybe that's sort of like globally part of it, right? Especially when we are hopefully still proud to be an American and don't want to necessarily be represented by our lead mascot in everything.

⁓ more…

Romen (29:27)

You gotta just explain really quickly the living in space experience. Please.

Josh Burstein (29:32)

Sure.

I cold called NASA and sweet talked my way onto a simulated moon based mission out on an active volcano in Hawaii with five European scientists as guy who's never gotten better than a B in any high school science class. And I was really just expecting to be able to do like the MTV Cribs visit before they went in the thing. But by the time I was talking to the commander, they were like, well actually we have one spot available. Do you want to just embed on this?

I was like, uh-huh, yeah, let's try it, sure. And one lunar day, so two weeks. The original simulations were for Mars, which were eight months. I would not have had the stomach for that. Two weeks was enough to forget everything about your life. Forget.

Romen (30:08)

How long was it? That experience.

Josh Burstein (30:26)

Fresh, forget smells, forget the color green. I there was just really wild things that were just not gonna be able to take a Noah's Ark to a new planet with giraffes and such. I would caution anybody who would look at it as like, that's so cool, I wanna do that. I'm like, you wanna go up and do the Katy Perry version for a day. You don't want the Oregon Trail version of your life where you are never allowed outside of your prison that's the size of a small Brooklyn apartment with six people and all their body odors.

Romen (31:04)

Well, this conversation ⁓ has reinforced my idea that you are the most interesting man in at least the country, even if you are not the happiest man in the country,

thank you for joining Josh. This has been a really fun conversation and

Josh Burstein (31:17)

Of course.

Romen (31:19)

And everyone should check out. It's on YouTube tomorrow today. ⁓ Which is our funny, fun, informative climate late night show.

Josh Burstein (31:29)

JBurstOFA for all the things on all the socials.

Romen (31:33)

Awesome, thanks man.