Simon Fung and Joyce Calvo’s friendship became a partnership when Fung pitched the idea of a podcast delving into Alana Chen’s life — a years-long project that evolved into the eight-episode …
shared their experiences with conversion therapy in a Post articleFung was a first-time podcaster, but he felt Chen’s story would be best told through audio to allow for nuance and length, he said.
Calvo said Fung was the first person who seemed to truly understand what her daughter had gone through and, in turn, what she was going through in the wake of Chen’s death.In the summer of 2022, Fung moved to Colorado to pursue the podcast full-time. The commitment proved to Chen’s family how serious Fung was about the project, and they ended up providing Fung access to Chen’s journals, cellphone and emails to help tell her story.
In college, Fung found a Catholic community on campus he described as more conservative that appealed to him and nurtured his desire to pursue the priesthood. When Fung confessed he was having feelings for men to a priest who he considered to be his spiritual director, the priest slipped him resources on conversion therapy and told Fung to come back when he was “fixed.”
Eventually, Fung took a new job in the Bay Area and found himself growing increasingly depressed about his future.