Ok so my opinion, the above intro from Meghan does qualify as tokenism.
Whilst food is incredibly important in all the East Asian cultures (although I can't speak for all, only Chinese) talking about the food at length like this does feel reductive. This may be just me, but for me it's reducing East Asian culture to a service industry.Which absolutely is a trope that has often been used in a racist way. I wouldn't feel like this if she'd talked about the food at specific Chinese festivals, of which there are many and which the food plays an inherent part. Nor is she even for example talking about having Sunday dim sum, which would be an equivalent to talking about the British cultural tradition of having a Sunday roast.
Throwing in her friend's name there is very cringeworthy, especially if we don't know if CW gave permission. It is very 'my Chinese friend', and I absolutely think that if a white person had done it, then they would have been called out more. Of course Meghan growing up where and when she did would have had Chinese/Chinese American classmates and acquaintances and friends. She doesn't need to try and authenticate her experience by naming them.
An argument made elsewhere as to why this isn't tokenistic is that Meghan was setting out the stereotypes and then allowing her guests to talk about them. But that isn't happening! She talked about stereotypical things from (East) Asian culture that revolve round services where you pay East Asian people to provide you with things (food or massages). This could have been a really interesting point that she made and which threaded into the discussion with her guests, but she didn't do this. Instead Meghan says that she wasn't aware of the stigmas and stereotypes that boxed in Asian women. She wasn't aware of it. And she or her staff should have been.
The main 'archetype' of the show - the dragon lady - did not tie into the above. The other main stereotype of East Asian women, that is much more racist in my view, is that of the submissive 'Lotus Blossom' or 'Lotus Flower'. That could have been tied in well to the above in the way I talk about - servicing Westerners - but it only got a 7-word specific mention. Which would be OK if it wasn't then muddled in to the discussion of the dragon lady trope somewhat.
Another point made elsewhere was how far Meghan can go with this podcast if discussing stereotypes that aren't in her experience. I think there's no problem with her leaving it to her guests to talk about their experiences and the stereotypes they experienced. However unfortunately in this, we didn't get enough of their voices. I would have like to have heard Lisa Ling and her daughter's own voices describe themselves, not hear the descriptions in Meghan's voice. I guess that is a problem with the format of her podcast and it being driven by Meghan being Meghan (this sounds snarky, I don't mean it like that, I mean by her as a worldwide 'personality'). I liked her as a conversationalist and interviewer, but the intro was a bum note. Shame as it wouldn't have taken much for it not to be.