Tao po.
I'm Sherwin.

I grew up between the Philippines and Chicago. I moved to the US as a kid, but Palawan — that long island strip on the west side where my dad is from — is still the place I mean when I say "home." I started this podcast in 2017 partly because I wanted to document the small cultural things I was afraid my own kids would miss: mano po, pasalubong, kain tayo, Filipino Time, Ber-month Christmas that starts in September, dried pusit with eggs for breakfast. The stuff that never makes it into a Wikipedia page but is the entire texture of being from somewhere.

By day I'm a software engineer, mostly building for the web and figuring out what AI can do. I maintain a few other corners of the internet: the SherwinM world — sherwinm.com, @sherwinm on YouTube, and @sherwinmdev on social — is where I cover EVs and whatever else I'm into; Smartin Up Creations is where I pull back the curtain on being a content creator — workflows, tools, reviews, and what it actually takes to build things online; and Sherwin Travels (with a YouTube channel to match) is where we document family adventures.

The podcast went quiet in late 2018 — we bought our first house, life happened. It was always meant to come back. In 2026 I rebuilt the site from the ground up: new design, full transcripts, modernized feed, no more WordPress running in the background. Same 16 episodes, same feed URL, same MP3s. Just a better home for them.

What to listen to first

If you're new, I'd start with Episode 01: Tao Po (the origin story), Episode 06: Kain Tayo (why Filipinos always invite you to eat), and Episode 16: Pasalubong (the tradition of bringing something back).