Brown People We Know

Brown People We Know

Brown People We Know is an interview podcast with South Asian Americans taking non-traditional paths. Past guests include a a world-touring Death Metal guitarist that retired and became a dentist, a single mother that became a Hindu priestess at age 62, and a professional dancer blending Bharatanatyam with Tap Dance on large stages like NYC's Lincoln Center. By sharing these stories, the podcast aims to break down stereotypes about South Asians and to reduce social pressures from within the diaspora community to take a certain path. BPWK has been featured in Forbes and News India Times, and in 2021, we received the Lions Share Podcast of the Year award.

Episodes

LIVE: Armaan Gupta - Artist Kahani on Building Products, Switching Careers, and Bringing South Asian Creatives Together

January 13, 2022 • 71 mins
Armaan aka Kahani is the founder of NONRESIDENT, an alternative record label for diaspora artists. Armaan started his career with a decade plus in the VC/Tech industry where he’s held numerous roles building and growing digital products for companies like Lumenary, Jakt, and Mapfit, which was acquired by Foursquare. In the last two years, he took a leap and shifted his focus to music full-time. As the artist Kahani, Armaan has spen...
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Annika Sharma - Author & Podcaster On Building A Career As A Creative & Discussing Complicated Topics

January 6, 2022 • 78 mins
Annika has built a career with her love for health and for words. With an M.Ed from Penn State and a MPH from George Washington University, she currently serves as a Communications Project Manager at Weill Cornell Medicine. In that role, she helped build the comms strategy for the Office of the Research Dean and to revamp the website for the health system’s research arm. Aside from this work, Annika is an author and a content creat...
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SAU: Education, Immigration, and International Student Exchange w/ Rajika Bhandari

October 22, 2021 • 54 mins
Rajika Bhandari has spent over 25 years studying international education programs and student mobility. She’s served as Director of Research and Strategy for The Institute of International Education, received an IIE Centennial Medal while serving on the US National Commission for UNESCO, and has had her work and words featured in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Guardian, and other major publications. On top of all that, Rajika is...
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Dan Abraham - Management Consultant on Moving to Colombia, Impact Investing, & Multifaceted Identities

October 14, 2021 • 68 mins
Dan is a management consultant turned company builder. After majoring in Cognitive Sciences at Rice University, Dan went on to work as an associate with the consulting firm Oliver Wyman. There, Dan took a secondment where he was shipped off to Colombia to work in the impact investing space. He got hooked. Dan left consulting and today, he lives in Colombia working as Chief of Staff for Polymath Ventures, an investment firm that bui...
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PWK: The Carolina Desi (Jessica Kumar)

September 28, 2021 • 28 mins
Carolina-based Desis Gurtej Singh and Rashmili Vemula explore life as the children of Desi immigrants in their podcast, The Carolina Desi. With their guests, the dynamic duo discuss the double life that so many of us live while navigating the cultural and societal differences that surround Desi Americans. On today’s episode, Gurtej and Rashmili interviewed Jessica Kumar. When Jessica was 23, she decided to begin her journey pursui...
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Anu Sehgal - South Asian Culture Educator On Sharing South Asian Diversity And Shifting From Corporate Life To Entrepreneurship

September 21, 2021 • 65 mins
Anu Seghal is a cultural educator that grew up in India as the daughter of an Hindu Army soldier and a Muslim gynecologist. She moved to the United States over 20 years ago to complete her education and began working as a brand manager for major companies including Colgate and Mattel. In those roles, Anu honed her entrepreneurial skills, something she’s had since childhood, to then launch The Culture Tree. Since 2015, she’s spearhe...
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PWK: Mild Mannered & Timid (Basmati Wars)

August 10, 2021 • 76 mins
Mild Mannered & Timid is a conversational show where hosts Kunal, Kush, and Ria share their unfiltered takes on anything and everything related to the diaspora. If you don’t believe it, just check out the names of their episodes: Jalebis Look Like Poop, What The F Is Holi, Cockfighting, Women Should Not Wear Ripped Jeans, and Baba F*ckdev. Today’s episode is called “Basmati Wars,” because Kunal did some research and reveals to us ...
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Yawar Charlie - Gay Actor and LA Realtor on First-Time Home Buying & Wearing His Pakistani Heritage Proudly

August 3, 2021 • 59 mins
Yawar is a Gay Pakistani American actor-turned-real estate agent. Acting, for him, is a family business. Yawar’s grandfather, Noor Mohammed Charlie, was a pioneer in the Bollywood film industry until the India-Pakistan partition. And though his parents, successful actors themselves, discouraged Yawar from pursuing acting, he built a successful career in the industry. You may have seen him on shows like NCIS Los Angeles, Heroes, and...
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PWK: South Asian Stories (Romen Borsellino)

July 29, 2021 • 54 mins
South Asian Stories is an interview podcast where Sameer Desai chats with artists, entertainers, athletes, scientists, and even a former surgeon general to discover South Asians who have taken a different path. Join him as he uncovers their identities, success, and failures through their stories. Romen Borsellino is a staff writer on NBC’s A Little Late with Lilly Singh and was executive producer and co-creator of Freeform’s 2020 ...
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Sujata Day: Actress, Writer, and Director On Making an Independent Film & Telling South Asian Stories Through Independent Film

July 27, 2021 • 51 mins
Sujata is a performer, writer, and director for TV & Film. You may know her from the Upright Citizen Brigade’s Asian AF show, from her involvement with Sundance as a Lab Fellow and a Film Festival influencer, or from her characters in film and TV. Those include Cece in The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl or Sarah in HBO's Insecure. More recently, she acted, wrote, and directed in her first independent full-length feature film, ...
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SAU: South Asian Representation in Media and What Ethical Representation Looks Like w/ Madhavi Reddi

July 22, 2021 • 43 mins
Madhavi is an interdisciplinary artist. She’s the producer on two documentaries: What’s Your Name and Through Fish Eyes. She’s done photography exhibits, Bharatanatyam and theater performances, and has even dabbled in podcasting. She’s also a PhD student at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, School of Media and Journalism, whose work focuses on identity and representation, particularly in entertainment media, art, and ...
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Anish Mitra - Ex-Goldman Sachs VP On Living Intentionally & Breaking Down The World Of Finance Using Comedy

July 16, 2021 • 56 mins
Anish is a NYC Queens-raised Bengali that built a career in finance, working for Barclays and Goldman Sachs. While he still wears Ferragamo and advocates for crypto, he’s not your typical finance bro. Before leaving his job as a VP at Goldman, Anish started building a second career in standup comedy. He’s performed at Gotham Comedy Club, The Village Underground, and at many corporate gigs. He even ran a monthly show, called The Sur...
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Two New Segments!

July 14, 2021 • 1 min
Another exciting announcement for BPWK listeners! Check your podcast feed in the upcoming weeks for the launch of our two new segments. South Asian University - an interview series where we bring in academics and discuss cultural or historical topics that affect the diaspora. SAU episodes will come out every five episodes in lieu of our regular interviews. The first one is with Madhavi Reddi, a PhD student studying ethical media r...
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Anushay Hossain - Journalist On Objective vs. Opinionated Reporting & Raising Bangladeshi-Persian Children In America

July 9, 2021 • 59 mins
Anushay is a feminist Op Ed Journalist that has appeared on CNN, PBS, Forbes, Huffington Post, and the iconic Bangladeshi newspaper - the Daily Ittefaq. She’s also the host of the Spilling Chai podcast and the author of The Pain Gap, her upcoming book on the state of Women’s Healthcare in America. As the granddaughter of one of Bangladesh’s founding fathers and the daughter of a famed Bangladeshi feminist, her interest in impact an...
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Shivani Bafna - Influencer On Becoming A Bollywood TV Host & Bringing Authenticity to Social Media

July 2, 2021 • 59 mins
Shivani is a social media influencer that built her following when she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a Bollywood TV Host. She spent two years in Mumbai, where she hustled with no industry connections, to become an interviewer for the Asian Variety Show. In that role, Shivani went on to interview stars like Varun Dhawan, Ananya Panday, and Shah Rukh Khan. She vlogged this journey on YouTube and joined Instagram in 2014, so...
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Raj Kalra - Media Executive on Being in a Same-Sex Interracial Marriage & Living in Korea

June 25, 2021 • 60 mins
Raj is a television executive with over 12 years of experience working for companies like Disney, Marvel, and A+E Networks. He’s currently living in Korea, working remotely to help the UK company Particle 6 expand to the US. We chat about getting to LA to start his career in the media industry, about being one of the only South Asian executives on the creative side of a media company, and about his career tips. Raj also has a uni...
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Surbhi Sahni - Michelin Chef on Making Mithai Mainstream in America & Employing Immigrant Women

May 28, 2021 • 57 mins
Surbhi Sahni is a chef with over two decades of professional culinary experience. She served as the Creative Director behind the Michelin-starred New York restaurants Devi and Tulsi. Today, she continues to work her magic at Saar Bistro in Midtown, New York. Surbhi is also the founder of Tagmo Treats, a small-batch South Asian food company, through which she creates delectable mithai confections like burfi in chocolate, pistachio, ...
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Vikas Arun - Pro Dancer on Blending Bharatanatyam with Tap Dance & Representation as a Gay South Asian Male

May 21, 2021 • 53 mins
Vikas is a groundbreaking tap dancer that has performed on So You Think You Can Dance, done commercials for J. Crew and Vogue, and is the first South Asian artist-in-residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation. Aside from performing, Vikas teaches at the Broadway Dance Center and is a guest lecturer at Columbia University. Most recently, he founded Project Convergence with Ramita Ravi, a dance company that blends Tap Dance with ...
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Ranjan Ravaliya - Retired Chemist on Becoming a Priestess at 62 & Her Family Fleeing Africa During Idi Amin

May 7, 2021 • 45 mins
Ranjan is a retired engineer who earned her PhD in Chemistry in India during the 1980’s. At 62, she decided to come out of retirement by visiting Haridwar in India and training to become a priestess. Today, at 67, she goes by the moniker The New England Priest as she officiates weddings. It was interesting to hear about her motivation for becoming a priestess and how she has adapted her learnings from Haridwar for the unique weddin...
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Prince Bhojwani - Investor From a Pakistani Hindu Refugee Family on Burnout And South Asian Activism

April 15, 2021 • 53 mins
Prince’s parents are Hindus that fled Pakistan, so he grew up in the States and lived through experiences like the backlash after 9/11. Today, he’s lifted from that experience as one of the co-founders of ASANA Voices, a South Asian organization impacting political, economic, and social issues. By 30, he also sold one of his business ventures and currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of The Graywall Company. In this episode...
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