263 episodes
Modern Minorities Sharon Thony & Raman Sehgal
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- Society & Culture
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4.8 • 134 Ratings
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Sharon Lee Thony and Raman Sehgal are two MODERN MINORITIES - Asian-American industry pros "making it" (?) - even though they never became the doctors their parents wanted them to be. Each week, they are joined by folks of all stripes - entrepreneurs, corporates, athletes, reporters, politicians, entertainers, and more - to uncover how our different cultural backgrounds shape how we uniquely experience the world. MODERN MINORITIES is a collection of conversations about work and life through the lens of race and gender. It is a show where we talk about “the thing” that everyone is thinking about, but nobody is actually talking about it. New episodes drop weekly.
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Perspolis’ (perplexing) Persian protagonist
“The normalization of things being taken away. You see all the things going on in Tehran in 1979 — you see them here as well, which makes it a sad, scary, and timeless tale.”
PERSEPOLIS, by Marjane Satrapi is an award winning, now banned graphic autobiography from the early 2000s about a young girl growing up in Iran, and becoming a woman overseas, returning home, and dealing with everything in between.Originally published in French, Persepolis has sold millions of copies worldwide, and Satrapi also produced an award-winning film of the same name. In Persepolis, we meet young Marjane “Marji” Satrapi growing up in Tehran just before and during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, as well as thru the start of the Iran + Iraq War in the 1980s. Her parents are secular, upper-middle class activists, who worry for their precocious daughter's safety in the increasingly conservative and dangerous Iran, so send her off to Austria to become a teenager. Her teen years are fraught with all the drama you can expect from such an experience, but Marji - now becoming a young woman - always maintains the experience of an outsider looking in - with her feet in both worlds. Marji eventually returns to Iran to find that not only has her mother country changed, but she as well. This book was a surprise and illuminating for us in many ways, making us question - what would WE do in such a situation?
This conversation is originally from from Quarantined Comics, where Raman + friends read comics that are so much more than just superheroes. PERSEPOLIS is a very Modern Minorities appropriate work, especially for the times we’re living in, which you’ll get to here us reflect on. Longtime friend of THAT pod Joshua joins from his most excellent podcast RABBIT FIGHTERS, where they pretty much do the same thing, but about movies and music.
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Veera Hiranandani’s (writing) identity
“What happens after we've survived? What's our responsibility to somebody suffering more than I am? For kids it’s like, ‘Let's just go over and help them — like, why wouldn't we?’ “
Veera Hiranandani is an award-winning author of several books for young people - one of the most recent of which is THE NIGHT DIARY - a must read. While the novel is a historical fiction geared for adolescents and young adults, it’s a a heart-warming read that will pull you into a singular story through the eyes of a young girl experiencing one of history’s greatest traumas.. Veera went on to win the prestigious Newbery Award for the book, as well as the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award, the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature, and several other honors and state reading list awards. Veera’s work speaks to the power of stories to spark conversations. Veera’s written a number of other award-winning books - including “How to Find What You're Not Looking For,” and “The Whole Story of Half a Girl. ”Her latest novel - AMIL & THE AFTER, is a follow-up to The Night Diary and it does what not many other books do - it examines the immediate AFTERMATH of a generational - and historical trauma. Again, through the eyes of a child. Veera’s journey - and story is a one that crosses cultures and generations - and it’s interesting to see how she pulls at the threads of her life to inform her work, and ask lots of hard whys - and why nots.
LEARN MORE
veerahiranandani.com
instagram.com/veerawrites
BOOK: The Night Diary (2018): goodreads.com/book/show/35464020-the-night-diary
BOOK: How to Find What You're Not Looking For (2021) goodreads.com/book/show/56912931-how-to-find-what-you-re-not-looking-for
BOOK The Whole Story of Half a Girl (2012) goodreads.com/book/show/11164727-the-whole-story-of-half-a-girl
BOOK: Amil & the After (2024): goodreads.com/book/show/139400607-amil-and-the-after
MENTIONS:
BOOKS: All-of-a-Kind Family Series (Sydney Taylor): goodreads.com/series/49417-all-of-a-kind-family
BOOK: the Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri) - goodreads.com/book/show/33917.The_Namesake
ACTOR: Irfan Khan - imdb.com/name/nm0451234/
BOOK: Moon Palace (Paul Auster): goodreads.com/book/show/447.Moon_Palace
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USA Travel (Learnings) from Nebraska to Wyoming
“Make the time to scratch beneath the surface in each state. Spending time with the people - in the cities, in the towns, at the restaurants - you're always going to uncover something.”
Summer marches on, and we’re making plans to get out and about. Hear part TWO of Raman’s USA Travel series (from his other pod LEARNINGS FROM LEADERS) - covering the second half of stories and learnings from Raman + co-host Drew’s travels across America - from Nebraska to Wyoming. The only way to truly understand all that is this big, wonderful, and diverse country of ours is to get out into it - and go beyond your comfort zone. Be sure to check out part one for more on the United States of Laughter - and Learnings...
LEARN MORE
BOOK: United States of Laughter (Drew Tarvin): goodreads.com/book/show/36269422-the-united-states-of-laughter
SONG: Home (Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeroes):youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8
CO-HOST: drewtarvin.com
OTHER POD: pgalums.com/podcast
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USA Travel (Learnings) from Alabama to Montana
“It's so easy to go onto the next thing - but take that moment to stop and celebrate small and big wins.”
Summer is here, which probably means many of us are thinking about our next trip. As we continue our pod sabbatical / vacation, Raman’s other podcast LEARNINGS FROM LEADERS continues a series on one of his favorite pastimes: TRAVEL — turning our focus to the strange and foreign land known as the United States of America. Joining him is co-host Drew Tarvin - author of “The United States of Laughter” - as they share stories and learnings from their travels to all 50 American states, in the first of a TWO-part series, covering from Alabama to Montana, with some occasional plugs for a big conference from last year =)
LEARN MORE
BOOK: United States of Laughter (Drew Tarvin): goodreads.com/book/show/36269422-the-united-states-of-laughter
SONG: Home (Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeroes):youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8
CO-HOST: drewtarvin.com
OTHER POD: pgalums.com/podcast
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Our kids (rewired) with Claire & Seif
”I'm grateful she doesn't have that crazy addiction - they are getting a new relationship with technology. Smartphones and social media have basically caused a great rewiring of childhood.”
As parents today, Blippi & Taylor Swift aren’t all we have to worry about. When it comes to our (young kids), it’s near impossible to avoid TV, tablets, and video games - we’re increasingly anxious about the role of smartphones, social media, and ultimately their mental health. For many of us these devices and apps start creeping into elementary school, and with middle and high school right around the corner, a thoughtful vigilance is required at home and school. Longtime friends of the pods Claire Yoon Elvers & Seif Hamid join Raman for an important chat we ALL need to be having in our communities with our fellow parents.
Author Jonathan Haidt's recent book — THE ANXIOUS GENERATION The Anxious Generation — has ignited some much needed conversations - online, and in communities. provides hard evidence to show the linkage between smartphones/social media to the decline in adolescent mental health. It's the data we needed to support what many of us already knew. And like many other parents we're chewing on this with mixed emotions - excited that the conversation is front and center with the potential to spark change over time. Yet also feeling a bit stuck given we're in the throes of parenting tweens/teens NOW.
We don’t pretend to have the answers to ANY of this, but it’s a conversation we ALL need to be having with each other, because the companies behind these technologies aren’t incentivized to help. While there is some cautious optimism that our governments will help (shoutout to NY governor Kathy Hochul), we have to be have to be raising these issues in our homes, schools, and communities. We hope this open and honest conversation inspires you to start your own, and is the first of many...
LEARN MORE
BOOK: the Anxious Generation: goodreads.com/book/show/171681821-the-anxious-generation
ARTICLE: End The Phone-Based Childhood Now: theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/
INTERVIEW (Daily Show): youtube.com/watch?v=tcr0yg7Mvg8
NY NEWS: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/30/new-york-smartphone-school-ban-bill
CLAIRE & SEIF - PAST POD APPEARANCES
Claire Yoon Elvers (Jan’22): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/claire-elvers-wayfairs-head-of-global-brand/id1509346585?i=1000547310780
Seif Hamid (Oct’20): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seif-hamid-and-sound-as-a-ny-arab/id1507595726?i=1000495612657
Ramadan (Apr’21): podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ramadan-mubarak-for-us-all/id1507595726?i=1000556141573
Seif + Arab of the Future (Jan’21)
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-arab-of-the-future-vols-1-4-culture-clashes-everywhere/id1516509265?i=1000505705732
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Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s (written) Partition
”Being a writer is just bloody hard work and passion. It is a kind of madness, which compels you every day to go to say, ‘OK, let's do it again today’ “
Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s the author of nine novels - including the Long Walk Home, Radiance of a Thousand Suns, and most recently the Partition Trilogy - a historical fiction novel series which Raman is a BIG fan of. Manreet’s articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and the South China Morning Post, among others. She has taught for the New York Public Library and the City College of New York - and she’s a former corporate citizen having done stints in Asia, and a parent grappling with the world our kids will inherit. Manreet’s recently complete Partition Trilogy - a series of 3 books titled Lahore, Hyderabad, and Kashmir - are a historical fiction set during, before, and immediately after the Partition - and independence of - India and Pakistan of 1947. Partition is among the the great humanitarian disasters of the 20th century - and the largest mass migration in history
The history of Partition is a topic near and dear to Raman - and impacts and informs much of what is happening today, in both Asia, and the United States - from the tensions between India and Pakistan, and the rise of nationalism / extremism in our politics around the world. Manreet’s unique voice focuses not just on the personal musings of these larger than life historical figures - like India’s founding fathers Gandhi & Nehru, but she also breathes life into characters who represent the stats and figures that we sometimes gloss over when we hear of a tragedy (including the role - and subversion of women by history). We talked a lot about the weaponization of history, and how storytelling - and fact-checking - have to work hand in hand. You’ll enjoy this candid and thoughtful conversation with Manreet, who's using her creative drive to make a statement for the world today - including the next generation.
LEARN ABOUT MANREET
Lahore (book): goodreads.com/en/book/show/59617445
instagram.com/manreetsomeshwar
goodreads.com/author/list/265630.Manreet_Sodhi_Someshwar
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Customer Reviews
That Kenyatta episode was 🔥
Always good conversations on relevant topics handled in a thoughtful way. Maybe disproportionately more comic book/graphic novel content that one would expect. Enjoyable.
Utter garbage
Title says it all.
Great heartfelt stories help me grow as a parent too
I love love love this podcast! Due to personal issues, I need to rest my eyes often preventing me to read books for leisure or down time. I’m a visual “learner” and never enjoy audiobooks and so I was a bit skeptical with podcast. But this podcast got me hooked! Wonderful guests sharing their perspectives and stories, some of which I can relate to as a female immigrant making into the mainstream America and other perspectives I’m intrigue to learn or never have time to digest or think through before. The bonding of Both hosts is genuinely real with deep relationships. Perhaps an unintended consequence - listening to these stories help me think deeper about what kind of parents I want to be for my two kids (one in college, one in high school). I’m hooked with this podcast, will go back and listen to the old episodes! Raman, yes, I’m hooked with Warriors now, thanks for recommending it! Great job, look forward to hear from this podcast! So true, this is “about all of you for all of us”!!!
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