Balisong Media founder Lee Troxell recently had the extraordinary honor of joining business leader, lawyer, author, philanthropist, and Filipino-American trailblazer Loida Nicolas Lewis for an episode of The Loida Lewis Podcast.

The conversation explored the experiences, values, and creative influences that led to the creation of Heroes of Balisong—an original entertainment universe inspired by Filipino history, mythology, folklore, culture, and community.

For Lee, the interview was more than an opportunity to introduce Balisong Media to a larger audience.

It was a deeply meaningful conversation with a woman whose life has demonstrated the power of courage, leadership, service, reinvention, and cultural pride.

Affectionately known to many viewers as Tita Loida, Loida Nicolas Lewis has built a remarkable life across law, business, philanthropy, authorship, civic leadership, and Filipino-American advocacy.

Born in the Philippines, she earned her law degree from the University of the Philippines and became the first Asian woman to pass the New York State Bar after receiving her legal education outside the United States. Her career included service as a general attorney with the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. 

After the death of her husband, pioneering entrepreneur Reginald F. Lewis, she assumed leadership of TLC Beatrice International, a global enterprise valued in the billions of dollars. She later continued her work as a philanthropist, author, community leader, and advocate for Filipino Americans and other underrepresented communities. 

Her official website describes a life shaped by adaptability, hard work, faith, authenticity, and the willingness to accept unexpected responsibilities—qualities that made this conversation especially meaningful for Lee and the mission of Balisong Media. 

The Loida Lewis Podcast features inspiring conversations about life, love, laughter, learning, leadership, identity, resilience, and personal growth.

Through interviews with artists, entrepreneurs, public servants, cultural leaders, and other accomplished guests, Tita Loida creates a welcoming space for people to share not only what they have achieved, but the experiences and values that shaped them.

The program launched in 2024 and is available through YouTube and major podcast platforms. Its central spirit is one of wisdom, encouragement, connection, and lifelong learning. 

That made it a natural home for a conversation about teaching, Filipino representation, creative responsibility, and the power of stories to transform the way people see themselves.

During the episode, Tita Loida and Lee discussed the personal and creative journey behind Heroes of Balisong.

Lee spoke about being raised Filipino American and hearing the stories, folklore, memories, and beliefs shared by his mother, who came from Leyte.

Through her stories, the Philippines was never simply a distant place on a map.

It became a world of mystery, beauty, danger, humor, faith, family, supernatural possibility, and extraordinary imagination.

Those childhood experiences became part of the creative foundation for Heroes of Balisong.

The universe does not treat Filipino culture as a decorative influence placed around conventional superheroes. Its characters, conflicts, values, environments, and mythology grow directly from Filipino history and identity.

The conversation also explored the Filipino concept of kapwa—the understanding that our identities are connected and that another person is not entirely separate from ourselves.

That value has shaped Lee’s career as an educator for more than 26 years.

Teaching, for him, has never been limited to software, design techniques, or professional preparation. It is also about helping young people recognize their ability, develop confidence, find their voices, and understand that creative power carries responsibility.

That same philosophy lives within Balisong Media.

The goal is not simply to create successful characters.

It is to create stories that serve people.

Lee introduced Tita Loida and her audience to the eight heroes at the center of the Balisong universe.

These characters include a former pop star transformed by a Manananggal curse, an ancient guardian of the Philippine seas, an immortal pre-colonial weaver, a healer inspired by the spirit of service, and a former boxer who hand-builds armor from the reclaimed body panels and mechanical parts of a jeepney.

Each character represents a different aspect of Filipino culture, history, ingenuity, resilience, or identity.

But their powers are not what ultimately make them heroic.

Their choices do.

The Heroes of Balisong are built around leadership, redemption, resilience, wonder, compassion, hope, remembrance, and loyalty.

They are not intended to stand outside mainstream superhero storytelling as cultural curiosities.

They belong at its center.

One of the most memorable parts of the conversation centered on Wrex, a former championship boxer and gifted mechanic.

Wrex does not possess unlimited resources or futuristic technology. He uses what he has.

He disassembles a jeepney, hand-hammers its body panels into armor, and adapts its pistons, hydraulics, wires, cables, and machinery into a powerful protective suit.

The design reflects something deeply Filipino: ingenuity under constraint.

Wrex does not wait for perfect circumstances.

He creates possibility from what others might discard.

His armor is not sleek because it was not manufactured in an advanced laboratory. It was built through persistence, craftsmanship, failure, improvisation, and bruised hands.

Every dent tells a story.

Every weld means he kept going.

Tita Loida and Lee also discussed artificial intelligence and the growing tension between technological convenience and authentic human creation.

Lee spoke about the ethical dangers of plagiarism, careless image generation, and technology that imitates artistic labor without honoring the people whose work made that technology possible.

He also discussed familiar visual warning signs—such as distorted anatomy and extra fingers—but emphasized that the most important distinction is not technical perfection.

It is intention.

Human artists bring memory, culture, emotion, experience, struggle, judgment, and meaning to their work.

Technology can generate an image.

But the human creator must still determine why that image should exist, what it communicates, whose story it tells, and whether it has been created responsibly.

For Balisong Media, artificial intelligence may assist parts of a creative process, but it cannot replace cultural understanding, lived experience, authorship, or the moral responsibility of the artist.

The episode also included Lee’s personal memory of meeting Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee.

The encounter reinforced one of the central principles guiding both his teaching and his creative work:

With great power comes great responsibility.

That idea applies far beyond superheroes.

A teacher has power.

An artist has power.

A designer has power.

A storyteller has power.

A business owner has power.

Technology gives people power.

The question is what we choose to do with it.

That responsibility is at the heart of Heroes of Balisong—and especially Heat, the team’s leader, who understands that becoming a visible symbol of hope is not an act of self-importance.

It is an act of service.

Being invited to speak with Loida Lewis was an extraordinary and humbling experience.

Tita Loida brought warmth, curiosity, intelligence, generosity, and genuine enthusiasm to the conversation. She did not simply ask what Balisong Media was creating. She wanted to understand why it mattered.

The discussion moved naturally between childhood, identity, education, artistic responsibility, Filipino culture, emerging technology, and the future of representation.

For Lee, one of the most meaningful aspects of the experience was having the opportunity to share Heroes of Balisong with someone who has spent much of her life opening doors, challenging limitations, leading through adversity, and encouraging Filipino Americans to recognize their own value.

It felt less like a conventional interview and more like a conversation across generations about service, purpose, responsibility, and what Filipino stories can contribute to the world.

Being invited by Tita Loida to appear on her podcast was an honor I will always remember.
She has lived an extraordinary life, but what impressed me most was her warmth, her curiosity, and the generosity with which she welcomed my story.

We spoke about my mother, the stories of Leyte, my students, kapwa, Stan Lee, artificial intelligence, and the responsibility I feel to help Filipino stories claim their rightful place in the world.

What made the experience so meaningful was that she understood the larger purpose immediately.
Heroes of Balisong is not simply about creating Filipino superheroes. It is about showing young people that their culture is a source of possibility. It is about honoring the generations who came before us while creating something new for those who will come next.

I am deeply grateful to Tita Loida and her entire team for giving me the opportunity to share that mission.
This conversation reminded me that our stories do belong on the world stage—and that we have a responsibility to tell them with courage, imagination, and love.

                                                                                 — Lee Troxell