Riya's Ramblings

I am so excited that I got to see the Australia vs Egypt FIFA football (or soccer) match in person at the Dallas stadium! I have been playing soccer since I was in pre-school and this was a bucket list moment for me, I will never forget it! The best part was the energy and the atmosphere of being surrounded by all the fans. The music, the costumes, the dances, the cheering - all amazing! And to to...

I can hardly believe it! This is the 100th episode of this podcast!! A big THANKS to all of you for listening, supporting and writing in to me. Couldn't have done it without you. When I first started this podcast in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had no idea I would talk to so many people about so many things. I have interviewed NASA scientists, local politicians and even the winne...

I have been telling all my friends and family about Project Hail Mary and now I am telling you :) I LOVED the movie - I have not read the book but my family has and they were hyped for the movie. I didn't know what to expect but I walked out a SUPER FAN of the movie. I loved the music, the story, the acting and the message of working together to solve the biggest problems. "You just have...

I want to ramble about the Artemis II mission I will be honest - I didn't know enough about the mission till my dad told me about it. And I found out that my friends had no idea either So I want to share Friends, this is HUGE news! It is a BIG DEAL! 4 astronauts, a big rocket, 10 days and a trip around the moon. The crew for the mission was: Reid Wiseman - the commander: he named one of the cr...

I was in Austin recently to cheer my brother run his full first marathon - 30,000 participants (across 5K, half and full marathon) - 100000 fans - 1050 feet of elevation - 4000 volunteers - 22 aid stations - 11 cheer stations - $64 million in economic impact - 1st place men's full marathon: 2 hrs and 13 min - which is a course record The expo before the race was a lot of fun - got to see some...

In this episode, I talk about a recent movie I had the privilege of watching, Laalo. This movie is in my mother tongue - Gujrati - and teaches a very important lesson through the Hindu religion. In this episode, I talk about the movie, the records it broke, and how the movie affected me personally. Email - Riyaramblings@gmail.com Listen, rate, and share!

Happy 2026!! In this episode, I stay true to my name and ramble about everything I've learned whilst having this podcast. Additionally, I share my visions for the upcoming year! Email: Riyaramblings@gmail.com Listen, Rate, and share!

Hi, this is part 2 of a series about my family's recent vacation to Italy. Part one was about Florence, a fantastic experience. This one is about the Amalfi region - near Naples, in the southwest part of Italy. We took a train from Florence to Naples and enjoyed the experience. From Naples we took a taxi to the town of Praiano, about 90 min away. The drive was along the side of a mountain with...

Hey friends, I just got back from an amazing vacation to Italy. Our first stop was in Florence. What an amazing place! Full of history and culture and art and natural beauty! I enjoyed the food (pasta! gelato! panini!), the Tuscan countryside, the stunning art. Here's my description of my amazing few days in Florence. Have you been there? What do you think? Email me at RiyaRamblings@gmail.com...

I am a member of the Harvard Microbiological society and I recently wrote an article about vaccines fort their blog. In this episode, I read the article out loud! You can also read the entire article titled "Vaccines - More Than Just a Needle" at  https://medium.com/@harvardmicrosociety/vaccines-more-than-just-a-needle-b586b26c9a2d Overall, I think vaccines is one the most interesting to...

I finished Freshman year of HS! It wasn’t exactly what I had expected but to be honest, But I am not exactly sure what I expected.     Here's my main tips:  Be open – to people, to try new things, to new experiences Be open to new friends and friendships Be involved with school activities – sports, clubs etc. – which helps you meet different people. I really enjoyed homecoming because it creat...

Shout out to Ms. Daisy – I love how she tells everyone about my podcast. Thank you, Ms. Daisy!! And shoutout to Emma from Ohio – who listened to the podcast episode of my mom discussing her composting and emailed me!! In today's episode, I talked about my experience in speech and debate. My older brother did debate in HS and loved talking to me about his experiences. When I was in middle schoo...

I learned so much in this chat with Coach Calie – about managing stress, my diet, about giving myself grace, about focusing on the full picture. Let me know what you liked about this episode.   Here’s some highlights from our discussion: - We have over complicated our lives. And focusing on habits has a huge impact on our lives        - Typically, when we think of health, we think "doctors&qu...

I got to see Lebron LIVE! O M G! So much awesomeness!   We went to a Dallas Mavericks – LA Lakers basketball game last week and it was SO MUCH fun! Unfortunately, both Luka and Kyrie were injured. But we did get to see LeBron and Bronny play. It was pretty cool to see Lebron dunk. That clip that went viral? I saw that in person!   And then Bronny came in for a few minutes too. How cool is that! To...

In this episode, I talk about my fun trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. I “ramble” a lot about food options, overall activities, and give my honest, non-biased opinion about the city. For food, I think there are a lot of options, but make sure to make reservations beforehand to limit wait times. I personally loved Alexis, a yummy breakfast place! For day-to-day activities, the main thing is visiting other...

In this episode, I talk to my mom's aunt - my grand aunt about her amazing experiences and life journey. She is 83 years young and has been in the US for 53 years. Woah!! She learned conversational American English by watching TV shows like "The Price is Right" (super cool), started work as a sales clerk in the department store and went to college in her 50s. She is also a world traveler! Her favo...

In this episode I talk about my trip to Chicago! This time, I went with my cousins, whom I interviewed in episode 49 about their dog treat business. Here’s the highlights of my visit to Chicago: Chicago’s trains are amazing, they are so convenient and easy to use. Overall, a really good fun trip with my cousins! Have you been to Chicago? What did I miss? Email me at RiyaRamblings@gmail.com Emmalin...

We spent two really fun days in Busan during our week-long trip to South Korea. Listen to the previous episode about our stay in Seoul! Busan is on the southern coast of South Korea and is the country's 2nd largest city. To get there, we took a high-speed KTX train from Seoul to Busan (No, I did not watch the movie). The train was super nice with free wifi as well! Our hotel in Busan was also...

This episode is about my recent vacation to... South Korea! We spent 4 days in Seoul and 2 in the city of Busan. The first couple of days we stayed in the Myeongdong area and visited a few very different places. We visited the Myeongdong palace, Bukchon Hanok village (a traditional Korean village) and the Namsam Tower. We then went to the Jogyesa Buddhist temple which has 3 very large Buddha statu...

I really enjoyed talking to him about the the 24-hr race called “Death by 5K”. (It started on 8 AM Sat and he ran till 8 AM Sunday) You are supposed to complete a 5K race every 2.5 hrs for 24 hours!! If you finished sooner than 2.5hrs, you can rest, eat etc. till the next start. As if this wasn't tough enough, the entire race is on asphalt, so it got really hot during the day. Even though I di...

Recently, my brother graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and I graduated from 8th grade. While the events were similar, they had their differences. The UPenn ceremonies were bigger and fancier but we had a really good ceremony in our school gym too. :) Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee spoke at my brother's commencement and my principal spoke at mine! Both speeches were awesome and very enga...

This is Teacher's Appreciation Week and I am really thankful to all my teachers! I have enjoyed learning about US history this year and this is an episode about one of my favorite topics - the Lewis & Clark expedition to explore the western parts of the US in the early 1800s. A big thanks to my history teacher - Mr. Matuska - for making history so interesting. Email me - RiyaRamblings@gmai...

This is part 3 of my 3-part series about my family’s visit to India! The finale!! (The first 2 parts were about Mumbai and Pune) This one is about Vadodara in Gujarat, where my mom grew up.   We took the train from Mumbai and had a great time on the train. I loved the long distance train travel in India, so comfy!   Our Vadodara trip was bitter-sweet because my grandfather (my mom’s father) had pa...

In this episode, I ramble on and on about the solar eclipse!  I was in kindergarten in 2017 when we had a partial solar eclipse in our area. Today's was a total eclipse!   Since I was in the path of totality, it was a breathtaking, once in a lifetime experience. It was so pretty, and I just wanted to share my experience with it!   Remember, you can email me at  RiyaRamblings@gmail.com  about a...

This is part 2 of my travel series about my recent trip to India with my family. (Part 1 was Mumbai).   My father’s younger brother (my “kaka” in Gujarati) lives in Pune, so that was our main reason to visit. Pune is about 4 hours by road from Mumbai. It’s higher in elevation and has a cooler climate than Mumbai. This was my first time visiting Pune and it was so fun! I loved the vibes of the city...