Insight with Emma

Emma Sargsyan

INSIGHT is the first Armenian-English language power and culture podcast in the United States. Hosted by Emma Sargsyan - media founder, PR strategist, and owner of Tribune.am, one of the world's most widely read Armenian-language platforms with 30 million monthly readers , INSIGHT brings you long-form conversations with extraordinary guests at the intersection of business, identity, leadership and culture. Each episode goes beyond the résumé. Beyond the highlight reel. Into the real story - what it actually cost, what it actually took, and what the person sitting across from Emma learned that they could not have learned any other way. Guests include Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Marine veterans, fashion designers who kept their dreams secret through military deployments, Freemasons, political activists, financial economists who survived war and revolution, and the builders — seen and unseen — who are shaping the Armenian diaspora and the broader world. INSIGHT is distributed globally and amplified through Tribune.am's editorial reach across Los Angeles, Yerevan, Moscow, Beirut, Paris and the Armenian diaspora on four continents. New episodes every week. If you have ever built something from nothing — or wanted to — this show is for you.

Episodes

  1. Jack Topalian: From Business to Euphoria, Unscripted

    6h ago

    Jack Topalian: From Business to Euphoria, Unscripted

    Let us know what you think! Hollywood has been casting this man as the villain for 12 years. The mob boss. The criminal. The dangerous one. His family fled the Armenian Genocide. His uncle fought the Nazis. And this country looked at him and decided he was the threat. Jack Topalian plays Nasim/Naz in HBO's Euphoria — a role that became one of the most talked-about Armenian moments in television history, almost entirely by accident. The Armenian coffee cups, the cigarette, the unscripted Armenian dialogue with his on-screen bodyguard — none of it was in the script. He asked for it scene by scene, and the show's creator said yes. In this episode of INSIGHT, Emma Sargsyan sits down with Jack Topalian for a conversation about Hollywood, identity, masculinity, fame, fear and what it actually costs to keep being cast as the villain. ABOUT JACK TOPALIAN Jack Topalian is an actor known for his roles in Argo, Shock and Awe, True Detective, Ray Donovan, Emily the Criminal, Clipped, Duster and HBO's Euphoria, where he plays Naz. Born in Soviet Armenia, he came to the United States at age ten and spent over four decades in business before pivoting to acting. ABOUT INSIGHT INSIGHT is the first Armenian-English language power and culture podcast in the United States, hosted by Emma Sargsyan. Distributed across all major podcast platforms and across the global Armenian diaspora. TIMESTAMPS 00:30 How the Euphoria role happened 04:00 The unscripted Armenian coffee scene 09:00 Has he ever been the villain in his own story 12:00 The biggest lie successful people tell 16:00 Why he pivoted to acting after 40 years in business 21:00 Being Armenian in America at age 10 27:00 The night he drove home drunk 31:00 Method acting and what it does to the mind 36:00 The critic question 38:00 Masculinity in Hollywood today 42:00 Why Armenians keep playing the villain 48:00 What he actually sacrificed 51:00 The accidental audition through his children 55:00 If social media disappeared tomorrow #Euphoria #JackTopalian #Hollywood #ArmenianAmerican #INSIGHT #EmmaInsight #Acting #Masculinity #ArmenianCommunity #Identity Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    46 min
  2. Winning Isn't Everything. Wanting to Win Is. A Former Pro Athlete Explains the Difference

    Jun 13

    Winning Isn't Everything. Wanting to Win Is. A Former Pro Athlete Explains the Difference

    Let us know what you think! His name is a mountain in Armenia. When his family moved from Iran to Los Angeles, there was no English equivalent for the letter. So his parents invented one. Aragad. It became his identity — which is exactly how he has approached everything since. Aragad Abramian grew up in Los Angeles as an Armenian-American kid born in Iran who was not the tallest player on any court he ever played on. He was the point guard. The coach on the floor. The one responsible for making every person around him better. He played professionally in Kazakhstan. He travelled twelve times a month. His coaches did not speak English. His teammates did not speak English. When he stepped on the court none of that mattered. There is only one language on the court — and he spoke it fluently. When COVID shut down professional basketball he did not wait. He pivoted in days — completely, fully, without one foot still in the door — into financial services and real estate investing. The same discipline that built his basketball career built his investment firm. He also coaches youth basketball in the Armenian-American community because there were not enough coaches and somebody had to show up. In this episode of INSIGHT, Emma Sargsyan sits down with Aragad Abramian for a wide-ranging conversation about hunger, discipline, losing, leadership, motivation and what it actually takes to rebuild yourself when the first plan does not work out. ───────────────────────────────────── ABOUT ARAGAD ABRAMIAN Aragad Abramian is a former professional basketball player who competed in leagues across the United States, Armenia and Kazakhstan. He is the founder of a real estate investment firm and runs Mini Ballers Academy USA — a skills development programme for youth basketball players in the Armenian-American community of Los Angeles. He is based in Los Angeles. ───────────────────────────────────── ABOUT INSIGHT INSIGHT is the first Armenian-English language power and culture podcast in the United States, hosted by Emma Sargsyan. Each episode is a long-form conversation with an extraordinary guest at the intersection of business, identity, leadership and culture. Distributed across all major podcast platforms.  Subscribe for new episodes every week. ───────────────────────────────────── TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Cold open  00:38 The name — a mountain in Armenia  03:00 Where the hunger came from  08:00 The Armenian household and education  13:00 Kazakhstan — grinding where nobody is watching  20:00 Motivation is a match — discipline is the candle  26:00 Losing, scars and learning from wins  32:00 Coachability and the two types of coaching  38:00 When the game is on — personal problems do not belong on the court  43:00 Blaming and taking responsibility  47:00 Leadership as action — leading from the front  51:00 No plan B — transition 100% or not at all ───────────────────────────────────── FOLLOW EMMA SARGSYAN Instagram: @emmasargsyan  ───────────────────────────────────── This episode is for everyone who is grinding somewhere nobody is watching — and wondering if it is worth it. It is. #Basketball #Entrepreneur #INSIGHT #EmmaInsight #Motivation #Discipline #Leadership #ArmenianAmerican #Kazakhstan #RealEstate #AragadAbramian #PersonalDevelopment #GrowthMindset #ProfessionalAthlete #SportsToBusiness Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    56 min
  3. What Your Family Called Protection Was Actually Control

    Jun 7

    What Your Family Called Protection Was Actually Control

    Let us know what you think! What your family called protection was actually control. And most of us spent years - sometimes decades - believing the two were the same thing. Dr. Pauline Yeghnazar Peck is an Iranian-Armenian psychologist, coach and speaker who specialises in helping daughters of immigrants break cycles and bridge gaps. She grew up as the sensitive child in a family where emotions were seen as a problem. She resisted therapy when her mother died because she thought it was "a white person thing." She became the psychologist she needed. And in this conversation — she named things she has never said publicly before. In this episode of INSIGHT, Emma Sargsyan sits down with Dr. Pauline for the most honest conversation this show has ever had about guilt, narcissism, shame, women's bodies, abusive relationships and the cost of breaking cycles inside families that do not want to be broken. WHAT WE COVER How the overachieving eldest daughter drive becomes a pathway to burnout — and what is actually fueling it Why the sensitive child in an immigrant family is taught that her emotions are a problem What happened when her mother died and she refused therapy — and what finally changed The difference between narcissistic tendencies and narcissistic personality disorder — and why social media is confusing the two Why guilt is a byproduct of trauma, and how the Armenian Genocide is still transmitting guilt through generations into women alive today Whether it is possible to love your child and cause them significant psychological harm simultaneously,  regularly - without knowing it What growing up in a family where a woman's body is simultaneously her family's honour and something never discussed does to her relationship with her own body and sexuality Why shame around sex and the body leaves young women unable to protect themselves The trauma bond - what it actually is versus how social media uses the term Why leaving an abusive relationship is sometimes the most dangerous moment The woman who waited until her father died before she could live the life she wanted What the overachieving woman who has everything and feels hollow is actually running from The hardest thing she has had to name in her own family — including something she revealed for the first time in this conversation TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Pauline analyses Emma live 04:00 The survival tactic, you cannot be mediocre 08:00 The sensitive child and what shame does to a seven year old 16:00 Her mother's death and the resistance to therapy 22:00 Narcissism - tendencies versus disorder 29:00 Guilt as a byproduct of the Armenian Genocide 36:00 What is normalised is not always healthy 42:00 Can you love and harm simultaneously 49:00 Overprotection versus resilience 55:00 Women's bodies sexuality and shame 65:00 Purity patriarchy and the outfit in the backpack 70:00 The milestones burden 74:00 Trauma bonds and abusive relationships 84:00 Family approval and intercultural couples 89:00 Unprocessed trauma in the body 94:00 The overachieving woman and conditional love 99:00 The hardest thing she named in her own family ───────────────────── If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. ───────────────────── ABOUT DR. PAULINE YEGHNAZAR PECK Licensed psychologist, coach and speaker based in Los Angeles. Founder of Noor Therapy and Wellness. Creator of Bridging Gaps Breaking Cycles — a coaching and community program for daughters of immigrants. Follow her at @paulinethepsychologist ───────────────────── Follow Emma: @emmasargsyan Podcast: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · I Heart Radio · All major platforms ───────────────────── #Psychology #MentalHealth #Narcissism #Trauma #ArmenianWomen #IranianAmerican #DaughtersOfImmigrants #BreakingCycles #Therapy #WomensMentalHealth #INSIGHT #EmmaInsight #PaulineYeghnazarPeck #IntergenerationalTrauma #GuiltAndShame Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    1h 25m
  4. He Said Facebook Knows Things About You That You Cannot Even Say About Yourself

    Jun 1

    He Said Facebook Knows Things About You That You Cannot Even Say About Yourself

    Let us know what you think! This conversation was filmed two years ago in San Francisco. I am sharing it today because everything Raffi Krikorian told me then is more relevant now than it was when we recorded it. Raffi Krikorian was employee number 50 at Twitter. He became the company's Chief Technology Officer. He then left to become CTO of Uber — overseeing self-driving car development at one of the most ambitious technology projects in history. Then he left that to become Chief Technology Officer of the Democratic National Committee — integrating AI into American politics at the highest level for the first time. Today he is Managing Director and CTO of Emerson Collective and has spent over twelve years as a board member of TUMO in Armenia. He helped build the internet we have today. And in this conversation — filmed two years ago, republished this week as X is back in every headline and AI deep fakes are reshaping elections around the world — he said it is broken. He also said Armenia could be the AI powerhouse of the world. He said that before ChatGPT existed. He still believes it. In this episode of INSIGHT, Emma Sargsyan sits down with Raffi Krikorian for one of the most wide-ranging and honest conversations about technology, power, privacy, children, politics and the future of the internet that this show has ever produced. ───────────────────────────────────── A NOTE ON TIMING This conversation was recorded two years ago when Raffi was Managing Director at Emerson Collective. Since then the world he described — the broken internet, the AI deep fakes in politics, the data privacy crisis, the question of children and screens — has not improved. If anything it has accelerated. I am sharing this episode now because the questions he raised then are the questions everyone is asking today. And his answers hold up completely. ───────────────────────────────────── ABOUT RAFFI KRIKORIAN Raffi Krikorian is Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer of Emerson Collective. He previously served as CTO of the Democratic National Committee, CTO of Uber's Advanced Technologies Group, and Vice President of Engineering and CTO at Twitter where he was one of the company's first fifty employees. He has been a board member of TUMO Center for Creative Technologies in Armenia for over twelve years. ───────────────────────────────────── ABOUT INSIGHT INSIGHT is the first Armenian-English language power and culture podcast in the United States, hosted by Emma Sargsyan. Each episode is a long-form conversation with an extraordinary guest at the intersection of business, identity, technology, leadership and culture.  Subscribe for new episodes every week. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    52 min
  5. Without Armenia There Is No Diaspora. A Man Who Has Spent 30 Years Proving It With His Own Money

    May 23

    Without Armenia There Is No Diaspora. A Man Who Has Spent 30 Years Proving It With His Own Money

    Let us know what you think! Adam Kablanian has spent his career building things nobody can see. Microchips. Molecular layers that make screens produce light. Embedded memory inside the devices billions of people hold every day. The infrastructure nobody notices until it stops working. He grew up in Aleppo as an Armenian — which means he grew up as the grandchild of people who survived something unsurvivable, in a city that no longer exists as he knew it. He watched Artsakh fall too. He visited in 1998 and saw that there were not enough people to defend the land. He told people. Nobody listened. He left Aleppo at eighteen to study astrophysics at Berkeley. He wanted to understand how the universe works — where it started, what the forces are, what the fate of everything is. He recognised at Berkeley that his classmates were smarter than him. So he found what he was actually good at. Circuit design. Fifteen patents. A company he started as a consultant that he took public on NASDAQ in four years. He hired his first Armenian engineering team in 1998 over five days of cognac and lunch at a colleague's house in Yerevan. At the time Armenia had no cellular network. The government had no idea what IT was. The tax authority tried to get bribes. He set boundaries and they never tried again. Those engineers designed three chips that ended up inside the first Apple iPod. Billions of people held that device. None of them knew. He then built and sold companies to Cisco, Samsung and Aixtron. He invested in quantum computers in Finland when the field was a decade from viability. He is the founding chairman of Paradromics — a neural interface startup competing directly with Neuralink on a fraction of the funding. He brought broadband internet to Armenia. And then he planted vines. Not in Napa Valley — in Proshyan, Armenia, on a parcel of land he already owned. His first Chardonnay was not good enough. He sold it as bulk wine and started again. His 2024 White Cuvée — a blend of Chardonnay and Armenia's indigenous Voskehat grape, east meets west — won double gold and champion in class at the Houston Rodeo wine competition. He also founded Friends of the Armenian Soldier and Family three months after the 44-day war ended. He personally pays every overhead cost — every dollar of administration, marketing and operations — so that one hundred percent of every donation reaches the families of fallen and disabled soldiers. He has raised over $300,000 and run six programs. He stepped down from the Zinapah board after five years deliberately, to let others lead. He said in this conversation: without Armenia there is no diaspora. In another hundred years there will hardly be any. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    1h 9m
  6. A Real Freemason Was Asked Every Question You Were Never Supposed to Ask. He Answered All of Them.

    May 23

    A Real Freemason Was Asked Every Question You Were Never Supposed to Ask. He Answered All of Them.

    Let us know what you think! Armenian Freemasons and the men who orchestrated the Armenian Genocide sat in the same Masonic lodges. Both believed in brotherhood. Both professed a belief in God. Both paid their dues. And one side used that same network to try to destroy the other. My guest today is Vram Martirosyan — Freemason, diaspora activist, and one of the most honest people I have interviewed about what this brotherhood actually is and is not. We talked about everything. Whether Freemasons control governments and elections. Why you cannot become a Freemason if you are an atheist. Why the Illuminati and Freemasonry are not the same organisation. Why Iran banned Freemasonry and the Grand Lodge of Iran operates in exile in California. What actually happens in a lodge. How you get expelled. The full and almost unknown history of Armenian Freemasonry going back centuries before the First Republic. Why Armenian and Turkish Freemasons were in the same lodges and working toward completely opposite ends. Why he said Armenians who didn't join the Sacred Struggle lack national dignity — and whether he still stands by it. Why Pashinyan went after the Armenian church — and what the real calculation was. Why the diaspora is losing its ability to influence Armenia. And what every Armenian watching this needs to understand right now. This is the conversation about Freemasonry that nobody else is having. Subscribe. Share this with someone who thinks they already know what Freemasonry is. Leave a comment with the question you would have asked. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    1 hr
  7. They Dropped Us Off at the Airport. That Was It. | George Young | Vietnam Veteran

    May 23

    They Dropped Us Off at the Airport. That Was It. | George Young | Vietnam Veteran

    Let us know what you think! George H. Young was 19 years old when he was drafted into the United States Army. He didn't choose Vietnam. Vietnam chose him. In this episode, George - a decorated Vietnam veteran, wounded in action, and current Chaplain of Burbank VFW Post 8310  sits down for one of the most honest conversations about war, coming home, and what happens after that we have ever had on this show. He talks about the moment his innocence was gone. About being dropped off at an airport with no debriefing, no ceremony, no support — just a bus ticket and a life to figure out. About watching his buddies not come home. About the 41-year marriage that saved him. About holding the flag at funerals and what it costs him every single time. And about why he still shows up. Every single day. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    52 min
  8. The Man Managing Your Neighbour's Millions Has One Rule Nobody in Finance Talks About.

    May 23

    The Man Managing Your Neighbour's Millions Has One Rule Nobody in Finance Talks About.

    Let us know what you think! What does it take to be truly unbreakable? Vahick Yedgarian has survived war. Revolution. Financial collapse. A gun held to his head. He built a financial empire from nothing, earned five advanced degrees while working full time, and turned a small soup brand into a major operation in Russia. He thought he had seen everything. Then his wife got sick. In this episode of INSIGHT, Emma Sargsyan sits down with Vahick Yedgarian — CFP, financial economist, and lecturer at five universities — for one of the most honest conversations about money, resilience, love and legacy ever recorded on this show. This is not a finance episode. This is a masterclass in what it means to build a life. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    1h 1m
  9. The Untold Story of Yura Movsisyan. The power of not having a plan B

    May 22

    The Untold Story of Yura Movsisyan. The power of not having a plan B

    Let us know what you think! This is not a football story.Yura Movsisyan arrived in California from Baku as a refugee with no organized football experience, no academy, no structure. He became the 4th overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft. He signed for Spartak Moscow - Russia's most iconic club - for €7.5 million, and scored a hat-trick on his debut in front of 80,000 people. Then he was publicly accused of match-fixing by the very federation he had given his life to. FIFA investigated. They found nothing. He was never apologized to.Then he came back. And scored 4 goals in 70 minutes.In this conversation, Yura Movsisyan teaches us 8 lessons about discipline, sacrifice, pressure, losing, injustice, and what it means to never give up — not as a motivational phrase, but as a lived decision.This is one of the most honest conversations I have ever had. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    56 min
  10. He Managed a $1 Billion Budget at Amazon and Said It Was Killing Creativity| Leo Macias

    May 22

    He Managed a $1 Billion Budget at Amazon and Said It Was Killing Creativity| Leo Macias

    Let us know what you think! advertising, creativity, Amazon Prime Video, Snapchat, creative director, TBWA, Latin American creativity, AI and creativity, brand marketing, immigrant entrepreneur. Support the show Subscribe to the Youtube Channel  Follow me on Instagram

    1h 3m
  • 10 Episodes

About

INSIGHT is the first Armenian-English language power and culture podcast in the United States. Hosted by Emma Sargsyan - media founder, PR strategist, and owner of Tribune.am, one of the world's most widely read Armenian-language platforms with 30 million monthly readers , INSIGHT brings you long-form conversations with extraordinary guests at the intersection of business, identity, leadership and culture. Each episode goes beyond the résumé. Beyond the highlight reel. Into the real story - what it actually cost, what it actually took, and what the person sitting across from Emma learned that they could not have learned any other way. Guests include Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Marine veterans, fashion designers who kept their dreams secret through military deployments, Freemasons, political activists, financial economists who survived war and revolution, and the builders — seen and unseen — who are shaping the Armenian diaspora and the broader world. INSIGHT is distributed globally and amplified through Tribune.am's editorial reach across Los Angeles, Yerevan, Moscow, Beirut, Paris and the Armenian diaspora on four continents. New episodes every week. If you have ever built something from nothing — or wanted to — this show is for you.

Information

  • Creator
    Emma Sargsyan
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Insight with Emma
  • Show Website
    Insight with Emma