Difficult-ish

this episode on toxic masculinity in south asian households was HEAVILY requested and y'all went ham in our story replies. in this ep., we talk about how mashnun didn't have a traditional "toxic" male upbringing because of the heavy influence of women in his life and some of his tips on how to discipline these entitled sons. we have so many experiences with toxic masculinity and we...

WE'RE BACK!!<3 we took the last month off to reflect on the progress of the pod and think bout how to make it even better for u guys. we're so so excited to have u guys a part of the next chapter with us and even more excited for u guys to see what we got in store!  in this ep, we're reminiscing on a lot of the happier stories that have always stuck out to us throughout our lives. w...

it is officially the end of the season after about a year of straight podcasting and we are so excited to answer your questions and give advice in our last ep. of season one! what do u do when you feel lonely? how to pursue your dreams in a south asian household?? are y'all dating? we give you the tea and our thoughts. hope y'all enjoy and see you for season 2 on july 1st! thank you for yo...

a lot of us struggle to connect with our roots and be "brown" cus of the internalized racism we had towards ourselves. we never rly saw healthy forms of representation that made us feel seen. SO, in this episode, we dive deep into what caused us to drift away from our culture, but small things that we do now to keep us close to our culture, and the important of holding culture close in gen...

now that we're older, we understand the importance in participating in the little joys that used to make us happy as kids. we were never able to have our own identities outside of our south asian families and mashnun, who just came back from a solo colombia trip and mohuya, who just graduated with her masters, has a lot of new insight on how to live life and find yourselves. hope u enjoy! rate...

we have @jananisings talking about her journey and mindset shift to success! we talk about how the arts and music were ingrained in her from a young age, how her culture drives her passion, her experience with getting a mega viral tiktok video that brought her to stardom, combining social media with passion, her degree in biomedical engineering, and SO. MUCH. MORE. this episode has to be your next...

a highly requested ep! therapy is still so taboo and inaccessible in the south asian community. we wanted to open up the conversation to all of the benefits therapy has brought us and how important it is to find someone of the same background who understands us. listen to us yap away about how our parents struggled to take mental health seriously, our experiences with therapy, and so much more! th...

with the two of us graduating super soon (mohuya with her masters and mashnun with his bachelors), we decided to redo our very lackluster second episode on the pod where we talk bout our relationships with schooling and education, and how toxic the chase towards academic success has been throughout our lives. there's nothin we love more than seeing someone that looks like us find success in an...

there are a ton of south asian parents who feel entitled to their children's lives and privacies, despite not having valid reasoning to even do so. we been subject to our parents going through our personal belongings, reading diaries, opening letters, not respecting our boundaries, and its been a tough journey getting them to realize that it aint okay. in this episode, we talk bout why we thin...

a lot of y'all and a lot more south asians were never taught about money from school or from our family, and have to constantly depend on their parents or husband for any financial assistance. though we are also fairly new to being financially independent, we talk about all the steps we took to provide for ourselves and create healthy spending habits. in this episode, we talkin all about our f...

making friends when you're older is tough. finding your identity as a south asian person is already hard, but finding trustworthy friends as you grow is even harder. we've had our fair share of growing out friendships and feeling lonely thinking we won't find people like us. in this episode, we talk about our tips to making friends, why we outgrew old friendships, and all the TEA.  kee...

ramadan mubarak to all of our listeners <3 ramadan gets shrouded with the idea of fasting from food and water during the day, but the older we get the more we realize its so much more than that. its about reminiscing happy times, spending more time with your family, realizing life is still fine without your desires, finding purpose through faith and religion, and so much more. with both of us l...

model minority is the stereotype placed on the asian community that labels us as obedient and soft spoken individuals, and the two of us have come across quite a few people recently who've tried to take advantage of that. needless to say, in this ep, we essentially rant about recent experiences with ignorant (white) people, how it was tricky to always give them a proper response when they were...

in this episode, we go more in depth on our experiences in the workplace and how it sucks being the only (or one of few) poc around. with mohuya working at an elementary school in new york city, and mashnun working in an office setting in downtown orlando, we got a whole lot to share about not being able to relate to anyone around us, not being fully recognized, or embraced. when a poc gets to a s...

farhan yousaf (@fs.yousaf) is a best selling south asian author of 4 poetry books, a mens mental health advocate, a lover of breakfast pastries, and one of the realest individuals we've come across in the south asian community. we're thrilled to finally have him on as our 3rd guest on the pod!! recently releasing his newest collection of poetry titled 'serenity', farhan tells us hi...

since both of us moved out of our south asian homes on our own, we're always asked questions on how we went about the process. we've given this topic attention twice already but we're always happy to speak on moving out some more since we recognize how much we all think about it. in this episode, we went deeper into the guilt we feel with leaving our parents back at home, how we go abo...

with over 900k+ followers on social media, shihan chowdhury (@chilipeppercooks) is a bangladeshi cinematographer, home cook, and entrepreneur, and we’re grateful to have him as our second guest on the pod!  in our 90 minute convo with him, we learned how he went from working at a fast food restaurant at 14 to becoming one of the most prolific figures in our online bangladeshi community, about his...

a lot of people have an identity crisis because they don't know who they are without their parents. south asian families usually teach children to be dependent on them and attach their beings to helping them. in this episode, we talk about some of the reasons on why we're feeling like this, how it's affecting our mental health, and what we're doing to try to get out of it. we hope...

in this episode, we talk about our journey towards becoming closer to our Islamic faith and religion. although we're fairly happy with where we are today, and where we see ourselves going, we don't hesitate to speak on the difficulties and frustrations we've had throughout the process. with faith and religion being forced upon us throughout our upbringings, we grew resentment and often...

advice sesh numba 3! in our highly favorited advice sesh series, we ask our listeners through our instagram (@difficultish) about things they're seeking advice on, and we answer the best we can as the extremely non-professional experts we are! some of our topics of discussion this ep include: learning how to embrace our culture rather than just being conscious about it, finding the balance wit...

our very first guest on the pod! robin dey is a bangladeshi musician from southside jamaica, with roots in an extensive lineage full of musicians, one being the infamous manna dey. after his recent tour with anik khan performing in cities like los angeles, nyc, and london, we sat down to talk about the weight behind our family's traditions and values, the process of pursuing careers that aren&...

it has been ingrained in us that we have to continuously work and if we take a break, we're considered lazy or we don't deserve it. south asian culture makes us feel like you have to work until you can pay back your parents' sacrifices and guilty if you want to rest. in this episode, we talk about how we unlearned that self care is bad and how we implement our small acts of self care i...

it often feels like you are living a secret life when you are interacting with your parents, especially if they're south asian. they don't know your true identity whether it comes to your sexuality, hobbies or interests, your clothing preferences, and so many other things. in this episode, we talk about how hard it is to live a secret life with our families and our own experiences with the...

a lot of people's goals for 2022 revolve around social media. growing this many followers on this platform, growing this many followers on that platform, and it got us thinking about how serious this social media thing will be this year. and with that, comes all of the downsides of trying to grow your social media in the brown community, and how a lot of these side effects are so ingrained wit...

in this episode, we wanted to highlight some of the failures we've had and all of the goals we couldn't reach this year. priorities changed and we had to alter our perspectives when we realized that we wouldn't be able to reach a goal. we give you our tips on making really great new years resolutions and steps on how you can make them easier to reach. this is our last episode of the ye...