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Ruby Jaffrey is a talented, contemporary calligraphy artist who has exhibited her artwork worldwide, including in London, LA, New York, and Karachi. Like many of us who rely on art for expression and play, Ruby describes hers as celebrations of color, spirituality, faith, and stylistic zeitgeist.    Ruby specializes in Arabic script and modern Islamic art. Visual art, calligraphy, and architecture...

Our guest, Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada, is a Colombian-American athlete, activist, and environmental sociologist who is always on the move. From the freezing valleys of Alaska to the cloud forests of Colombia, Vanessa spends her days' hiking, skiing, mountaineering, running, and ice skating through beautiful landscapes.  But at the same time, her travels go beyond mere wanderlust. Through her work...

Our guest is Israa Nasir, a psychotherapist, and mental health educator. She is the founder of Well. Guide, a digital mental wellness brand on Instagram. Situated at the cross-section of technology and mental healthcare, Israa specializes in applying her knowledge of working with intersectional identities to improve the framing and delivery of mental healthcare to BIPOC individuals. Israa and I ta...

Our guest today is an expert on self-expression-Taiwanese-born Romana Lai, a renowned editorial makeup artist who has worked with many of the fashion industry’s leading names and publications, including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In addition, she has worked on shows for New York Fashion Week, French Connection, FCUK, and many others. She is also a published author: her book ‘New York Style’ is a w...

Today's guest Michelle Li is a broadcaster, founder of the "Very Asian Movement" &  Foundation and author of the upcoming book ‘A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food’. The "Very Asian movement" initially started as a hashtag in which other members of the Asian diaspora share solidarity with Michelle and united in a means of sharing Asian pride. Michelle's book is another response to the initial bi...

Our Today's guest is Mathangi Subramanian. She is an award-winning writer of adult, young adult, and children's stories. But, just as she runs the gambit in authorship, she is also a former policy analyst and public school teacher. Her book "Dear Mrs. Naidu," which won the South Asia Book Award, is her most notable young adult work. Her recent book is "A People's History of Heaven," about five gir...

Today's episode is in collaboration with the Oyate Group, a community-driven foundation dedicated to empowering youth and small businesses across New York City with career support and critical resources. One of their initiatives is the "Beyond Rising" internship program in partnership with the "Center for Engaged Community Learning."   From a competitive pool of candidates who identify as undocume...

Our guest, Elaine Castillo, is the author of the newly released book "How to Read Now: Essays," which attempts to observe American books and movies through a BIPOC lens. Elaine takes a close look at TV shows like "The Watchmen" and writings from Joan Didion to explore the politics of reading and how to read with intent.  Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from UC Be...

Today's episode is the second part of our two-part series. If you are tuning in now, please be sure to listen to the first part of this series titled "Human Rights be Damned-Part One." In the episode, I had a stimulating and insightful conversation with our guest, Rana Ayyub, the widely known Washington journalist and columnist. In our discussion, we talked about the human rights violations occurr...

Welcome to Immigrantly's fall guest lineup. In part one of a two-episode series, my  Rana Ayyub, an Indian journalist and opinion columnist with The Washington Post, joins me to discuss the inherent paradox in geopolitics, prioritizing strategic allyship over human rights. As a child, Rana witnessed the demolition of mosques and riots. Then, she worked as a relief worker during the Gujarat riots....

Dear Immigrantly family, as you know, we are not releasing any new episodes this week; our fall lineup starts next week, August 23rd, with our conversation with Rana Ayyub. Nevertheless, I have exciting and fun audio to share today. In April this year, one of our previous guests and patrons, Paula Wood, hosted a fundraiser for us at her house. At the fundraiser, we asked the guests to define the U...

Today's guest, Thea Pham, shares her journey in discovering and defining what mental health means to her, how it fits in the complicated puzzle of her upbringing, and why she has felt immense emotional and psychological strains being the first generation. As an accomplished biotech entrepreneur, Thea was the youngest in her class to graduate with a Ph. D. in neuroscience at UCLA and currently work...

For Neda Toloui-Semnani, our today's guest, understanding who her parents were and what motivated them to participate in the 1979 Iranian Revolution as young Iranian activists became a crucial step to making sense of her own present. Born to a nation marked by political upheaval and now a Brooklyn-based emmy-winning writer & reporter, Neda is no stranger to the fabrics of social change and the...

Today I am sharing another gem from the Immigrantly vault. It’s our conversation with Abubakr Ali. He is an actor, writer, and singer. Last year, he landed a significant role in the upcoming Netflix series Grendel as the anti-hero, Hunter Rose. This opportunity is historic because Abubakr is the first Arab Muslim actor to lead in a comic book adaptation. As he steps into the spotlight, Abubakr was...

Today we have a fellow podcaster in our midst. Ramtin Arablouei is the co-host and co-producer of NPR's podcast Throughline. This show explores history through creative, immersive storytelling designed to reintroduce history to new audiences.  Ramtin embodies this perspective personally and professionally. Born in Iran, he immigrated to the U.S. with his family as a child and later graduated from...

The first time I introduced today's episode was in September 2020, when we recorded the interview on abortion access with Dr. Meera Shah. She is the Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic in New York and the author of "You're the Only One I have Told: The Stories Behind Abortion." Meera is a tireless advocate for accessible, safe abortions. The episode was released only a few d...

On June 24th, 2022, the hyper-conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs. Wade and took away a woman's constitutional right to abortion. Thirteen states with trigger laws will ban abortion instantly. As a woman & a mother of two girls, I am angry, annoyed, devastated, and more uncertain about the safety of my kids now than ever before. It feels unreal that my daughters will have fewer rights...

In September 2021, when the images of border patrol agents whipping a group of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, came to light, national outrage broke out. But as all news cycles go, the rage eventually died out. The publications moved on to other stories, and the social media posts changed.  But the reality is, there was so much more to the story.  What happened to these migrants after they wer...

Thimali Kodikara is the series producer of "Mothers of Invention," hosted by former Irish president Mary Robinson and comedian-writer Maeve Higgins. Their platform uncovers stories of climate justice heroes, focused on Black, Brown, and Indigenous women holding up the microphone to climate action in the boardroom, at marches, with their peers, and beyond. In addition to her podcast, Thimali advise...

Today's guest, Dr. Anthony Ocampo, was raised in Los Angeles as the only son of two Filipino immigrants. He attended Stanford University for Comparative Race and Ethnicity and later received his master's in Modern Thought and Literature. He eventually received his Ph. D. in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Ocampo focuses on race, immigration, and LGBTQ issues as a writer...

Our guest, Stephen Satterfield, has dedicated his career to organizing, activating, and educating people about the origins and cultures of food.  He founded Whetstone Radio Collective, a food magazine and media company that explores the history of American cuisine through the lens of cultural, socioeconomic, and human connections. Stephen's work disrupts the food canon in more ways than a few: wri...

In honor of May being the Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (API), the National Hockey League (NHL) and Immigrantly joined forces to bring you two special episodes celebrating the role of the API community in hockey. Today's guest is Jordan Spence. He is a defenseman for the Los Angeles Kings. Now 21, Jordan picked up the puck at 5 years old, and just recently had his history-making debut...

In honor of May being the Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (API), the National Hockey League (NHL) and Immigrantly joined forces to bring you two special episodes celebrating the role of the API community in hockey. Today's guest is Aisha Visram. She is Head Trainer for the L.A. Kings' American Hockey League affiliate in Ontario, California. On January 13, 2022, the Los Angeles Kings scor...

Today we are sharing an episode from "Bad Table Manners," a podcast that pushes the boundaries of food storytelling in South Asia, produced by our friends at Whetstone Radio Collective. Enjoy! Thanks to the cool-ification of Indian food, traditional ingredients from the subcontinent, like turmeric and ghee, are now repackaged and resold in Western and Westernized markets as if they were “new” disc...

Sports are undoubtedly one of the most prominent cultural phenomena in the US. They enjoy tremendous popularity and are considered a means to promote fair play, teamwork & camaraderie. But how have our perceptions of the games and players evolved? What does it mean to be a South Asian Basketball player on the court? How do race and identity intersect within the sports realm? And what does it m...