BOTA | World Views & Culture

Today's episode I sit down with Arbër admin for an instagram page called "Balkanism__".

He is a history major and has a passion for the Balkan region. He is originally from Kosova, living in the United Kingdom. He expresses the complexity of this region and how he wanted to show that there can be a place for people to come together respectively to learn about each other, and show the positive sides of the re...

Sania's Brow Bar opened in 2004 and took the beauty world by storm with the full, luscious, thick eyebrows.

Sania is a mom of four, a wife, and an entrepreneur who  built a loyal & loving clientele & landed celebrity clients. She is humble, a hard worker, and her motto is allowing your natural beauty to shine. She is a master at her craft and now she is teaching her two daughter and niece the tricks of the tr...

Klodjana was born in a small city of Kuçovë, Albania. When she was 12 years old her parents moved to Canada. From there they ended up moving to different cities in a short span of time, only staying in the city for a few  years at a time. This was a difficult time as she was in a stage of life where she was figuring things out as a teenager. Since she was the eldest of three, her parents looked to her for help with translating and ...

Ledi Vokshi's family is originally from Kosova. Her family moved to Albania and her parents where born in Durres, Albania, where she was also born. She came to New York as a young kid with her family.

She became a trained opera singer and that was her passion. One day she got an opportunity to sing on a track of a famous Albanian hip hop artist. She took the chance and sang on this track. A year later, to her surpris...

Armando moved from Albania to Italy with his family as three year old. He grew up there and speaks fluent Italian, and learned to love many different languages. A passion for languages. He speaks Italian, French, Albanian, and English.

His other passion is Martial Arts. So instead of pursuing soccer like all the other kids in Italy, he practiced jujitsu in his early teens. After taking a break and coming back to it after ...

Alma has learned that through her life she dealt with trauma and found a way to heal, and to help others heal became a passion her her. She displays poise and insight on her life and how people and events (such as communism) effected the ones around her. Not only her own family but so many people and families all over Albania.

We discuss mindfulness, awareness, minimalism, struggles Albanians face with mental health, the ...

Todays episode I sit down with the co-founder of Balkan Bites, Ariana Malushi. She was born in the US and her dad is from Kosovo and her mom from Croatia. She always had a love for balkan food, and enjoyed traveling.

On one of her ventures she discovered that she wanted to learn how to cook some traditional family foods. She would meet with her grandma and Aunt Alida and talk about food, cook with them, and started writin...

Comedian Leonarda Jonie, also known by her instagram handle, @leonardaisfunny, or even better as the hilarious and totally familiar "Albanian Mom" is our leading act on our newest episode on Bota Podcast.

She's way more than what is portrayed on her social media and comedy shows. Through learning about her up-bringing, struggles with being raised with two cultures, and triumphs of overcoming childhood traumas, we real...

DJ Jack, also known as Gjoka Nikac, was born and grew up in Queens, New York. His parents are Albanian and moved to Montenegro and then to New York at a young age.

He loves the Albanian culture and family is very important to him. He is married with 2 kids, and has a passion for music. He loved listening to old school Albanian music that his parents would play, but felt the beats could be updated and would make remixes of...

A dream of becoming a doctor and standing up against violence. This is a journey of strength and inner beauty. Florinda is gorgeous, a true beauty, but with an even more beautiful heart. She was crowned Miss New York USA 2019 and could see many wonderful opportunities open up. She describes herself as always being a tomboy and not wearing much makeup or wearing heels. She also had stage fright, so getting up on stage in heels and a...

On this episode I sit with the co-founders of Grupi Krenaria, Melisa and Kristian. They tell me all about how they got started on making this group get together. They both share a passion for dance and seeing Albanian dance at their local church, St. Pauls Albanian Catholic Church in Rochester. Where they do much of their dance practice.

Kristian is born in USA, and his parents are originally from Mal i zi (Montenegro) an...

@Healthillie is a holistic health coach from New York, who started off wanting to get abs, and super fit and was living that hard core fitness life. Supplements, bulking and cutting to gain muscle. However she found that even though she looked fit on the outside she was feeling crappy on the inside. She went to may doctors trying to figure out why she felt crummy and had terrible gut issues, migraines, and acne. Not one doctor coul...

Kristina found a way to heal by tuning into her breathe, listening to inspirational and motivations speakers, and working with healers to help guide her on her path. She realized that her calling is to help her family and to help others. She shares insight on how she came to this realization, how she found breathwork to be a huge impact to her mindfulness and life. She is so down to earth, and receptive, and has a way of making you...

Ina has been a Registered Yoga Instructor and working at her craft for the past 7 years. She came to USA from Albania when she was 7 years old and found a passion for yoga when a friend begged her to join her for a class. That moment she got on the mat she knew this was for her and she went on to get her training in New York and became a registered yoga instructor. 

She discusses how she got into yoga, the way benefits of...

Kerolin came to Canada from Albania when she was 7 years old with her family. When she was a teen she began lifting weight and become obsessed in not so healthy way. She then got married and now has 2 kids. She decided she would get back into fitness, which she did really enjoy, but do it for the right reasons. To be strong physically and mentally. She began sharing her progress and last May 2020 she began her tiktok journey. There...

Merita Dovolani comes from a big Albanian family - the youngest of 7 children - from the Dibër part of Albanian and married into another big family - her husband is from Dibër, Macedonia. She was born in Italy and came to the United States when she was 7 with her family. Keeping traditions alive became very important to her and her family. She raised 4 children and enjoyed cooking and making traditional foods for her children, and ...

Krenare is someone who is always striving and doing the things she enjoys. She has a graduate degree in higher education and works in University recruitment, but has a passion for her artistic side. She believes you can have a side hustles and enjoy your passions in any way that will leave you inspired and happy. She started photography in 2014, and was blogging for a time, but found there was something missing. She wanted somethin...

Vilma is a millennial having been immersed into the new age of technology and finding a way to give her real estate work a modern touch and always recognizing a traditional approach. 

Vilma was figuring out what she wanted to do in her career life, when one day she got a slight nudge from her dad, a seasoned realtor himself, and decided to give real estate a shot. She soon discovered she truly enjoyed helping others find a home, and...

Elona Lopari came to the US from Tirana Albania when she was 15. After graduating college with a Business, Management and Finance degree she began working at a Drug and Beauty Retail Company named Walgreens Boots Alliance and then promoted to human resource roles, and eventually in leadership roles within the company. She worked in the corporate world for over 13 years. She was no longer feeling fulfilled in this career and started...