Unsilent Women

Welcome back to the second season of Unsilent Women! This season, host Poorva returns with a fabulous new co-host Nashina Merani Miranda, to have an impactful conversation on a topic that resonates deeply with women of color around the globe.

 Our inaugural episode dives into the complex issue of labels and reclaiming identity.

In this episode, we explore how labels, often thrust upon us by society or self-imposed, can infl...

We are in the era of swiping left to find the right person. An endless digital scrapbook of options for every taste, interest, physical, social or lifestyle preference. But what does this era of dating through a portal mean for finding love. Poorva talks to Nikoletta Erdelyi, a self-proclaimed shit disturber in the digital dating space, who specializes in trolling f*** boys. Nikoletta uses her boundless reserves of humor and wit to...

Where is the line where you end and another person begins? Why do we struggle to identify our limits? And how do we establish effective and healthy boundaries with the people we love, in personal and professional relationships, and even with ourselves?

In this episode Poorva and Dr. Tracy Dalgleish dive into understanding boundaries and why women especially, struggle with them. What's the social conditioning that gets...

Did the Sweet Valley series inform a young girl's ideas of dating and romance? Does Harry Potter have anything to do with how we think about elite education? Is Bella Swan, a love-obsessed teen really an accurate portrayal of a teenage girl?

The stories we grow up with, stay with us our entire lives.  They are our first window into the world and so much of what we learn and how we grow up is shaped by children's ...

 Representation and diversity have become major talking points over the last year. Phrases like “if you can see it you can be it,” are popular platitudes of support, offered at diversity seminars and plastered in Millennial pink quote backdrops on Instagram. 

But all of this talk around diversity has made it this silent thief in the night. Like a diverse world is aspirational. When the reality is that diversity is already ...

The tech world is full of upstarts and startups, and might look something like — a young, college dropout, disproportionately white and male.  Those are the stories that make the news, the tech darlings that get funded. But what about the side of the tech world that isn't seen? The 38-year-old Black mother with two STEM degrees who starts a business? The Latinx girl with an engineering degree under her belt who starts a tech c...

The writer's journey is long, serpentine and lonely. No one really becomes a writer. You simply write. If you love it  and you write long enough there might be a future in the books. But what happens when rejection is name of the game, book-deals aren't written in stone and  writers see dreams evaporate in a puff of smoke?

Marissa Stapley is an internationally bestselling author of four novels. Her latest novel L...

In our pandemic world  where work is digital, people are stretched, and job security feels like a thing of the past, entrepreneurship is exploding. In a world of tech-lords and big business, we are seeing the rise of a new kind of “nation-state,” — billionaires. How do entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and small businesses navigate a world where some people have more capital and clout than some countries? How do entrepreneurs remain daun...

What does winning look like? The abundance mindset has become a popular phrase to encourage people to view their lives from a place of plenty instead of scarcity. Yet our systems make it so that the feeling of scarcity and the need to compete are always top of mind. Coach and certified nutritionist, Mariam Qizilbash talks about how women can reframe their ideas of success, tap into their innate feminine qualities and skillsets and ...

What are women's bodies? In this episode, Poorva talks to Brazilian screenwriter, animator and director Camila Kater about her animated short Portuguese language film, Carne or Flesh.  The film, told in vignettes shares five personal stories of women's experiences in relation to their  own bodies, from childhood to old age.  Poorva and Camila explore how women's bodies are codified, commodified and consumed by the fa...

In Episode 11 Poorva talks to Sophie Beren, the founder and CEO of the Conversationalist, a Gen-Z platform dedicated to amplifying Gen Zers voices and helping them break out of the echo chamber. They talk about what it means to be in an echo chamber, how we can all listen to more diverse opinions and whether Gen Zers and Millennials really are that different. They discuss important topics like side-parts vs middle parts and how Gen...

In this episode, Poorva talks to Jessica (Jess) Gaffney, CEO and Executive Director of Beam (formerly Women in Austin) a not-for-profit that aims to close the venture capital funding gap for women-owned businesses.  They talk about the importance of early, seed funding for women and unconscious biases towards women-owned businesses. They discuss the importance of "thinking big," at an early stage and the impact women lead...

What does it mean to be complicit in your own oppression? What does racial assimilation or performing "whiteness," look like? What does it mean to be an artist of color in our world today? Poorva explores these themes and more with actor, writer and activist Jasmine Sharma. Jasmine's play Radial Gradient has been performed all over the country and was a Top 20 Finalist at the 21st Century Voices New Play Festival, Am...

Rule breakers, gender fluid, tech natives and social entrepreneurs are all words we can use to describe Gen Z. In this episode Poorva talks with Naomi Porter, a 16 year old serial entrepreneur and Girl Scout who is passionate about helping young girls reach their full potential through creativity and social change. A founder of two businesses, Spice it Up and Bright Futures and co-host of the Today is Her Story podcast, Naomi is br...

In this episode, Poorva talks to writer, actor and filmmaker Catherine Eaton about her directorial debut, The Sounding. An exquisite meditation on the meaning and subjectivity of language and its importance in how we relate to each other, the film has been on the festival circuit and is now available for streaming. Poorva and Catherine talk about the themes and metaphors explored in the film, its feminist undertones and what it mea...

In this episode Poorva talks about perfectionism in the workplace with writer and self-care guru Elizabeth Su. They explore the many ways in which women and BIPOC women in particular conform, repress and pretzel themselves to fit into spaces that weren't designed for them. They examine racial trauma, inherited trauma and the culture of assimilation and overworking that is upheld as the standard in corporate culture. They also ...

This final episode of the year encapsulates everything 2020 has been about. Poorva talks to writer and disability advocate Lene Andersen about the fear and anxiety of being someone who is high risk in the pandemic. They discuss the many ways in which our collective actions can not only be the difference between life or death for someone but also how that behavior impacts the day-to-day mental and physical wellbeing of those around ...