Sit With Aqsa

Aqsa Ghouri

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Personal Journals
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Sit With Aqsa is a podcast about the people you walk past every day without knowing their story. I call them silent giants - ordinary people quietly building, growing and navigating life in their own way. Each episode is a conversation that reminds you how extraordinary the people around you actually are.

Oct 5

Learning to Dream for Little Heidy | Heidy De La Cruz | SitWithAqsa | Episode 10

Heidy De La Cruz, the voice behind The American Dream in the Eyes of Immigrants, on learning to dream for little Heidy and the faith that holds all of it together. I get to sit with the woman who has been sharing your dreams for a while now, in particular, the immigrants' dreams. Heidy De La Cruz started working at the age of 14, and since then she has been like a river, nourishing and supporting every person who came into her life. I asked her if she ever got to ask her parents about their dreams, because it did seem like she has been carrying the weight of those dreams on her shoulders, even if it was never said out loud. That made me think she must have given thought to her own dream too, right? But when I asked her this, she said, "no, little Heidy has been surviving and not dreaming," and that is so powerful and worth sitting with. I think that line explains a lot about the stories she chooses to tell. Most of us, when we see immigrants, carry this perception that their life must have changed for the better because they are in the US, right? But that's barely scratching the surface. She talked about how some people, even if their home country does not provide huge opportunities, go from having a well known position to reaching a level where they start questioning themselves, and that does have a toll. That is when it hit for her, the last nail in the coffin, when she had a conversation with her husband about what it was like for him when he moved to the US at the age of 9. And it's true, that emotional journey and that vulnerability reached so many people that her podcast has won two awards, is recognized as top 5% globally, and is the number one immigrant podcast on GoodPods, reaching 100+ countries. And yet that is only one part of her life. Apart from a full time job, she is a wife and a mother of two, she has a second podcast with Latina CEOs, and a weekly Substack newsletter, so the question we all have on our minds is, "how does she do it all?" What I noticed is that she does not hide the weight of it. She openly shares her struggles so people can see that things like imposter syndrome, stress, and even anxiety reach the people you think have it all together. Even after all of this, all she mentioned was that faith has been the ultimate anchor in her life. Even though she is serving others and highlighting their stories for people to find solace, she derives her worth from God instead, and that hit home so deep. That is where I found myself in her story. I am a Muslim, and finding Islam later in life has made me learn about God in a way that I end up learning about myself. It's weird how Heidy, a totally different person with a different background and a different upbringing, somehow had something that connected us even miles away. I also asked her about a post-it note her daughter left her that said, "love yourself no matter what, if someone tries to put you down remember you're a baddie, diva and queen, and don't let them dim your sparkle," and that was so pure, especially coming from her daughter. We sometimes strive to make sure our kids don't see our lows or struggles, but this is the prime example of how she is mothering her daughter, and how her daughter is growing up to be a woman who understands emotions, knows how hard her mother works, acknowledges it, and still chooses to help her see her worth. This is the story of Heidy, a woman sharing the dreams of immigrants, and throughout that process, as she mentioned on her Substack, she is healing little Heidy, the same little Heidy who was surviving and not dreaming. Find Heidy: https://www.heidydelacruz.com/ | https://intomythoughts.substack.com/ | https://open.spotify.com/show/1cieU8Wg7IRJG33nn0cAzP Sit With Aqsa is a podcast of conversations with ordinary people and the stories they carry. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WK8hcZxKPNg?si=5HFhLBGrYuACsgEI
Jul 31

A Builder's Blueprint Drawn from His Faith | Farhan Hossain | Ep. 9

"My conversation will mostly be about Islam because nothing else really matters." That is what Farhan Hossain said before we even began. This is not a story of someone achieving so much. This is a story of how a creation fell in love with his Creator. From an eight year old boy dismantling toys to a man who sees 200 hands inside a single pen, who got rejected 11 times and still showed up, who left one of the most coveted jobs in tech because he understood that what Allah built inside a human hand no engineer could ever replicate.
Jul 3

Two Sisters From Gaza Who Chose to See a Beginning | Tala and Farah Mousa | Ep. 14

Tala Mousa is 17. Farah Mousa is 15. They are sisters from Gaza whose home was bombed five times. Tala carries everything she owns in one backpack because even now, living in a tent, she doesn't know what the next minute holds. And yet - they built something. Build Hope Palestine is their project: crushing war rubble, mixing it with clay and ash and straw, turning it into reusable construction blocks. Out of 6,095 teams across 169 countries, they won the Middle East regional title of The Earth Prize 2026. The first team ever from Gaza in the prize's five year history. In this episode I didn't want to talk about the prize. I wanted to sit with two teenage girls and understand who they actually are. What they dream about. What they think about. What it feels like to build something when everything around you has been destroyed.
Jun 16

A Perspective of Colours | Amber Greene | Ep. 8

Amber Greene is an artist, a poet, and someone who sees the world in colours. Not as a metaphor but as her actual language, the one she reaches for when words feel too small for what she is carrying. She has been open about her DID, her seizures, her financial reality, and the rejection she carried from both her birth mother and her adopted mother. She ran from home during COVID with almost nothing, and the strangers she met along the way became her community and her proof that kindness is never wasted. She started Period Bliss for women going through debilitating period pain because she once went through it alone. She made a colouring book for survivors because that act pulled her through her darkest days and she wanted to hand that same thing to someone else. And after everything she has been through, the colour she gives herself is yellow. Bright and welcoming. That is not a small thing to claim after the life she has lived. That is someone who chose, on the other side of all of it, to come home to herself. This is Amber. A ray of sunshine healing out loud so that you do not have to feel alone in the dark.
Apr 30

The Healer on Her Way to Healing | Vanessa Spelman | Ep. 7

The healer on her way to healing - a title I gave to Vanessa before we even got connected. She is a clinical psychologist, a holistic coach, a consultant, an artist and a single mother. 16 years of holding space for other people. A private practice she built from the ground up. Years inside NYC foster care, Brooklyn schools, NYU Langone. Free mindfulness groups for mothers. Resources for parents learning how to talk to their children about divorce. Room after room, role after role, each one asking her to carry something heavy for someone else. And she does. Every single time. But to understand why that title fits her the way it does, you have to understand what she walked through to get here. Vanessa gave birth to her daughter and came out the other side with sepsis. And if that alone was not enough, everything that follows a birth that hard was waiting for her too. Postpartum. Her body changing in ways she had to learn to accept. Her identity shifting in ways nobody really prepares you for. The bad days outnumbering the good ones. Not once. Consistently. For three years. And after three years she made a decision that I think took more courage than most people will ever understand. She chose to leave. Not because she gave up. But because she finally saw clearly enough to know what staying was costing her. The early days after that were hard in their own way. Her daughter not there on certain holidays. Learning what co-parenting actually looks like when you are both still figuring it out. And now she shares this so proudly - we are better friends than we were ever spouses. That line I felt was the bravest thing Vanessa said. She was also honest about something very important that I think, a lot of women feel but rarely say out loud. The fact that she misses companionship. Not in a way that means she cannot handle things. Anyone who has spent five minutes with Vanessa knows she can handle anything. But she said something about walking into a car dealership alone and I understood exactly what she meant. There is a difference between being capable of doing everything yourself and not wanting to have to. And she said that without apology. But the moment I keep coming back to is something so beautiful her daughter said to her. They were driving somewhere and passed a woman sitting outside her home just reading. The perfect house, the trees, the greenery, the sky holding the whole scene together. And her daughter looked at it and said, I want that for you... A child raised between two households, navigating what divorce means at an age where she should not have to carry that. And she still had that much room in her heart to want peace for her mother. You do not raise a child like that by accident. I have always said with hardship comes ease. And I think Vanessa is living proof of that. Not because everything is easy now. But because everything she walked through shaped her into someone who could hold space for every woman sitting across from her going through the same thing. The divorce. The identity loss. The body that does not feel like yours anymore. The rebuilding. She chose healing. And somewhere in healing others, I could see it was quietly healing a little bit of her too. That is what this podcast is for. Not to show you someone who has arrived. But to sit with someone long enough that you can see the road they are walking and recognize your own. Vanessa is the healer on her way to healing. And honestly, aren’t we all.
Mar 30

A Supply Chain Mind That Sees the World Differently | Danish Hasan | Ep. 6

Danish went full detective mode on me for going full detective mode on him. Of course I did. What kind of host do you think I am. He has more than a decade of experience and is a Senior Manager at Gul Ahmed. But not every manager is a leader. And he truly is one. His passion for supply chain has spread so far that his wife now sees the world through the same systems lens. Whenever he needs clarity he sits alone in a dark room and just thinks. No distractions. Just himself. He once shared a piece about leaving his childhood home in Islamabad. Written before AI and the social media rush. Raw, emotional and powerful without trying to be. In it he honored every woman who shaped him. Anyone learning under Danish wouldn’t just learn supply chain. They would learn responsibility, discipline and the quiet work of becoming better every day.
Feb 26

From $37 to Seven Figures | The Example He Saw at Home | Adam Scheauble | Ep. 5

Adam’s story didn’t start with Podcasting Business School. It started with watching his parents earn an honest living and embedding that belief within himself. He has been working since he was 7 or 8 years old. Between 2015 and 2017 he had just $37 in his bank account. Responsibilities were real. Resources were limited. And he chose to hold onto his vision anyway. Today Podcasting Business School has crossed 1 million downloads. But what stayed with me wasn’t the number. It was the moment he mentioned working three days a week and never missing his son’s soccer matches. If you truly believe in yourself and set boundaries around what matters, you can disrupt the trends people have followed for years.
Feb 5

Choosing What to Protect | Rohma Haq | Ep. 4

When I first met Rohma I’ll be honest - I had the wrong impression. She seemed a little childish, a little annoying even. Sorry Rohma. But you know those moments when you suddenly realize how off your perception was? That’s exactly what this conversation was for me. She’s an architect who loves what she does but is very clear about what work should not take away from her. She grows vegetables, shows up for her family, says no without guilt and knows exactly when work ends and relationships begin. That clarity is rare. Her freedom doesn’t come from having no boundaries. It comes from knowing exactly where they are.
Jan 8

Becoming Steady in a World That Rewards Noise | Saad Qureshi | Ep. 3

Saad and I come from the same hometown, studied at the same university, grew up in similar environments. On paper nothing about this conversation should have surprised me. But what I once mistook for silence was depth. He spoke about writing, creativity and abstract thinking - parts of himself he still misses. About privilege and the responsibility that comes with it. About being the only male child in a desi household and quietly redefining what that means. Every role he has taken has been rooted in impact rather than optics. And today he is simply giving that identity a name. Some conversations don’t rush because they don’t need to.
12/16/2025

Learning to Take Up Space in Work and Life | Yumna Haq | Ep. 2

When I first met Yumna she came across as quiet, almost withdrawn. It would have been easy to underestimate how much depth was beneath that calm exterior. Her growth didn’t come from trying to be seen or heard more. It came from being intentional, taking responsibility, and knowing when she was learning and when she wasn’t. We talked about careers but we also talked about the things that rarely come up honestly - mental health, faith, and women navigating work and identity in Pakistan. Someone somewhere is walking a similar path and needs to hear that their way of growing is valid.
11/04/2025

From Karachi to Abu Dhabi | The Youngest Who Became the Strongest | Nawal Haq | Ep. 1

From the outside Nawal looks like someone who has it all figured out. But sit with her long enough and you realize how much work went into becoming that person. Every role, every toxic environment, every setback, she came out stronger without ever letting it define her worth. She was the youngest at home and at the hostel but somehow became the strongest one in the room. This is a conversation about what it actually looks like to rebuild yourself quietly. About going through the worst of it and realizing the earth didn’t rip open. Nothing collapsed. Life went on. And so did she.

11 Episodes

Sit With Aqsa is a podcast about the people you walk past every day without knowing their story. I call them silent giants - ordinary people quietly building, growing and navigating life in their own way. Each episode is a conversation that reminds you how extraordinary the people around you actually are.

Creator

Aqsa Ghouri
Years Active

2026
Episodes

11
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Aqsa Ghouri 2026
Show Website

Sit With Aqsa