Tuckered Out with Ami Thakkar

It's a special LIVE episode coming to you from East coast!  The lovely and brilliant Sheetal Sheth hosted our team for her Always Anjali event, where she talked to kids from the tri-state area about her book and answered all their insightful, and honest, questions. Her co-host, Hasan Minhaj is an actor, comedian, writer, and political commentator who uses his prowess in the art of storytelling to...

New trailer, new headshots, same uncle jokes. To all the new listeners, welcome to the Tuckered Out with Ami Thakkar—where we interview trailblazers, experts, and prominent voices from the South Asian diaspora to discuss the messiness of growing up Brown, find inspiration, admiration, and most importantly, tons of laughter. To all those who have stuck with me this long, thank you from the bottom o...

Aparna Shewakramani had a career in law before going on a little show called Indian Matchmaking. Overnight, she became an ambassador for women and a voice contributing to the ongoing conversations concerning sexism. She is the best-selling author of the non-fiction memoir called, “She’s Unlikeable: And Other Lies That Bring Women Down,” which discusses her experience on the show, the tired and neg...

Rishi Rajani is the CEO of Hillman Grad Productions, a full service media and production company with a mission to empower underrepresented artists and amplify the stories of diverse historically marginalized communities across all industries.  In the 5 years since starting at Hillman Grad,  Rishi has not only learned the ropes of what it takes to be a successful producer, he also has had a crash...

Satnam Singh is an Indian professional wrestler and former basketball player who is currently signed to the American professional wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling. He became the first Indian player to be drafted into the NBA when the Dallas Mavericks selected him with the 52nd overall pick of the 2015 NBA draft. He’s also the first athlete I’ve ever interviewed on the podcast.  What we tal...

I have been following my next guest for quite awhile now through social media and mutual friends.  He has been doing some amazing work and also.... throwing some amazing parties- I definitely was trying to get invited to one. Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Maneesh Goyal is a self-acclaimed "insatiable people-person,"  and was determined to open the next great restaurant in NYC, which had to be Indian...

New trailer. Same uncle jokes. Auntie approved. Welcome to the brand new and sparkly trailer for the pod! To all my new listeners, WELCOME to the Tuckered Out family, where we interview, trailblazers, experts, and prominent voices from the South Asian diaspora to find inspiration, admiration, and most importantly....tons of laughter. To all of you who continue to listen and support, a huge THANK Y...

Aizzah Fatima is an actress and writer from New York City by way of Mississippi. Aizzah has appeared on numerous television shows and films and is the lead actor/writer and producer of Americanish, which follows two sisters and their cousin as they navigate love, careers and familial pressures, a lot of which was personal to Aizzah.  The film has already won 26 awards and will be released by Sony...

It's a special LIVE episode coming at you from the very FIRST ever South Asian House at SXSW 2023! It was a fantastic weekend in Austin celebrating South Asian thought leaders in the business, tech, film, TV, theater, music, and fashion industries including seven countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The South Asian House took place at fourth + co in the he...

So, you may notice we’re using some different music than our usual jam, that's because it's the first single (Anokha) from our next guest and his new platform, Indo Warehouse. Kunal Merchant is a multi-hyphenate creative marketer with deep experience building and launching products, growing brands, and ensuring that his passion for music never drifts far from his focus. He is a partner and artist...

Nishat Kurwa is the SVP and Executive Producer of Vox Media Podcast Network, leading podcasting across Vox Media's house of editorial brands and its network of outside partners, overseeing programming strategy, new show development, and the Vox Media Studios' podcast production team. They have over 150 active shows — from daily news and policy, to tech and business, to culture and sports. Let me p...

Aravind Ravichandran is the founder of TerraWatch Space, an independent advisory and communications firm focused on Earth observation. He considers himself a Earth observation evangelist, satellite data strategist, a space consultant, and a generalist - jack of many trades  and a master of none. His mission is to make earth observation mainstream by improving the awareness and adoption of satellit...

Samip Mallick is the co-founder and executive director of SAADA, which he has guided from its inception in 2008 to its place today as a national leader in community-based storytelling. SAADA, stands for South Asian American Digital Archive.   SAADA uses the power of stories to create belonging to the 5.4 million South Asian Americans by documenting, preserving, and sharing stories from the South A...

I’ve completely lost my voice after this episode. That should help me with the whole podcasting thing…what a weekend! Sundance Institute Film Festival has been on my bucket list since I was small enough to bathe in buckets. So, a very long time. We were super excited to participate in the first-ever South Asian Lodge hosted by filmmaker and director Shruti Ganguly , author, writer, and producer Ta...

Bharat is the award-winning author of Privilege: A Trilogy, an #ownvoices thriller about an Indian-American set in modern-day NYC. He calls himself a professional storyteller and amateur cook. After 10 years of working in politics, Bharat tried to explain how the country went from Barack Obama to Donald Trump by writing Confessions of a Campaign Manager. Then he began writing polemical fiction, su...

In honor of our upcoming LIVE episode from Sundance, I wanted to repost our first live episode from Diwali On The Hudson back in 2021! Stayed tuned for new episodes starting next week! Editor's Note- This is a live podcast so please excuse all the extra background noise. It is our first live podcast!!  We had the honor to attend Diwali On The Hudson this year, NYC's premiere Diwali event hosted by...

Indian-born artist Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee settled her roots in the beautifully diverse city of Houston, TX in 2012. She is strongly influenced by marine life, drawing abundant inspiration from her experiences with scuba diving expeditions and with the ocean itself. In her work, Folmsbee creates ethereal, intricate shapes, which she calls characters, that are meant to invite the public into some...

Hello 2023!!  I could not think of a better guest to kick off this new year than Naomi Shah. Naomi is the Founder and CEO of Meet Cute, a modern entertainment company that produces original, scripted rom-coms that are delivered in podcast format. Meet Cute has the largest global creative network of writers, actors, and directors and has produced more than 450 rom-com stories with over 3.5 million...

It's our special Holiday Bonus Episode! We’re so excited to bring you this bonus episode that will hopefully uplift your spirits like it did ours. Today, I interview Anisha Abraham, a pediatrician and author of Raising Global Teens- A Practical Handbook For Parenting In The 21st Century,  and Jo Chim, an actress turned producer, director.  They are team behind the short live action film One Small...

Guys, it’s the 100th!!!   I am SO excited and honored to have the next guest close out this year and celebrate this milestone with me.  Rishi Malhotra developed HBO's first Subscription Video On Demand platform HBO On Demand, co-founded and led JioSaavn, one of the largest distributors of Bollywood and other Indian entertainment in the world, and also played an integral role in JioSaavn's transact...

Dr. Tanaya Narendra is an internationally trained medical doctor, author, embryologist, and scientist, who is passionate about medical education. For her ground breaking work in medical education, Tanaya has been awarded Sexual Health Influencer of the Year 2020 by SH24 - the online sexual health partner of the NHS, Top 25 Disruptors of India 2021 by Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Health Influencer Of...

Rohit is the Founder and Chief Trend Curator of the Non-Obvious Company and is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original speakers on trends and marketing in the world. Rohit believes the world needs more Non-Obvious thinking. He helps leaders and professionals to be more open minded, see what others miss and learn to anticipate the future. He is the author of seven popular busine...

It's a reunion!   Twenty years after being his production assistant on a film set in Austin, TX, Kal Penn and I get a chance to sit down and catch up about it all. Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. You may know him from television shows such as House, Designated Survivor, Sunnyside, and How I Met Your M...

Nish Acharya is a Senior Fellow, Inclusive Economic Growth at the Clinton Foundation. He is also one of the OG Indian-Americans who has worked with two different presidents during his career. Nish leads Equal Innovation, which advises some of the world’s leading universities, governments, foundations and companies to assist them with innovation, entrepreneurship and globalization strategies. The C...

S. Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, prolific commentator and author of two books.  She is the co-founder/ CEO of URL Media , a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue. Mitra is also the co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC , a newsletter to help New Yorkers get through the pandemic, and an inaugural member of the URL Media network...