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Oliver Buchannon
Debbie Yong

Editor and brand strategist crafting narratives to connect Asia geopolitics, business, and culture.

The Human Remains After An Industry Quake

Jan 5, 2026

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4 min read

The Human Remains After An Industry Quake

A reflection on media disruption, career pivots, and the human skills that endure (like a journalistic penchant for unfortunately morbid headlines).

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
The Day I Met Indonesia’s Smoothest Talker

Dec 21, 2025

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6 min read

The Day I Met Indonesia’s Smoothest Talker

How Gita Wirjawan made me rethink Southeast Asia’s power shift — and its glaring communication gap.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
Stories For The Grandchildren

Dec 7, 2025

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5 min read

Stories For The Grandchildren

A dispatch from cyclone-ravaged Sri Lanka, and a reflection on finding resilience through storytelling.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
Welcome to Once Upon a Human

Nov 21, 2025

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2 min read

Welcome to Once Upon a Human

A newsletter on the art of storytelling — helping people and brands show up more human in the way they work, lead, and communicate in the age of AI.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
How to Tell Hard Truths

Apr 16, 2025

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7 min read

How to Tell Hard Truths

As global geopolitical fault lines shift beneath our feet, a few Asian leaders showed us how to hold the line when the world gets messy.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
Caught Sleeping on the Job?

Apr 10, 2025

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7 min read

Caught Sleeping on the Job?

Would you go to bed in the middle of a crisis? The CEO of London's Heathrow Airport did just that.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
Misogyny and a Missed Opportunity

Mar 28, 2025

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8 min read

Misogyny and a Missed Opportunity

Senior lawyer Chia Boon Teck’s LinkedIn blunder — and his subsequent silence — is a textbook example of how not to handle a crisis.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
How Mixue’s Founder Built a $16.5bn Empire Around $1 Ice Cream

Mar 7, 2025

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6 min read

How Mixue’s Founder Built a $16.5bn Empire Around $1 Ice Cream

Zhang Hongchao’s path to success was paved with setbacks, but he saw them as fuel for growth.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong
What Bybit’s $1.5B Hack Can Teach Every CEO About Crisis Management

Mar 6, 2025

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3 min read

What Bybit’s $1.5B Hack Can Teach Every CEO About Crisis Management

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou turned the largest hack in crypto history into a masterclass on crisis comms.

Debbie Yong
Debbie Yong

Once Upon A Human

A newsletter for founders, leaders, and quiet achievers who want to use storytelling to stay visible — and authentically human — in a world of algorithms and AI-generated sameness.

© 2026 Once Upon A Human.

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