Brown Mom with Raakhee Mirchandani

In our first episode of the new year, we caught up with Brown Mom favorite, Dr. Saumya Dave to talk about mental health and rejection. We've all been through a lot over the past year and sitting down with Dr. Dave was just what the doctor ordered.

We also talk about setting boundaries, therapy, Instagram and why she kept trying to get her book published, even after more than 200 rejections. (I took her advice about doom scrolling, btw. It's brilliant.)

Dr. Saumya Dave is a writer, psychiatrist who does therapy and mental health advocate. Her debut novel, Well-Behaved Indian Women, was released last year and featured in Elle, The New York Times, Today with Hoda and Jenna, and more. Dr. Dave has written for The New York Times, ABC News, Refinery 29, and others. She is a practicing therapist and an Adjunct Professor at Mount Sinai.

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Supriya Kelkar is an author, illustrator, and screenwriter who grew up in the Midwest, where she learned Hindi as a child by watching three Hindi movies a week.

Supriya’s books are exceptional. There’s the award-winning Ahimsa, the darling and important The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh and American As Paneer Pie, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2020. And she's got three books coming out this year: Strong As Fire, Fierce As Flame, Bindu's Bindis and That Thing About Bollywood, all available for pre-order now.

In this episode, I talk to Supriya about Bollywood, Bakwaas and Brown stories. We also talk about Sridevi, bringing PB&J for school lunch, Amar Chitra Katha comics and dive into our complicated love of 90s Desi movie classics.

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Brown Mom is back for Season 2 and we're kicking it all off with Satjeet Kaur, Executive Director of the Sikh Coalition. On this episode, we spill the chai about Pandemic holidays, Khalsa school, growing up Brown in New Jersey, Sikhi and lots more.

Satjeet Kaur serves as the Executive Director of the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the United States. Though she became Executive Director in 2018, she has worked in nearly every core facet of the organization’s work throughout her more than 10 years on the team. During that time, Kaur has served as a leading organizer and activist providing direct support to Sikh communities across the country, from responding to crises such as hate crimes to organizing advocacy campaigns for Sikhism to be accurately included in education standards and mobilizing Sikh civic engagement. Last year, she was named as one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress.

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Never did I ever think that we'd be kicking off Brown Mom with Poorna Jagannathan. Poorna is all of the good things: an actor, a producer, a supporter, a mama and a friend. She stops by to talk about names, working for Mindy Kaling and what it felt like on that beautiful brown set of Netflix's Never Have I Ever.

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Aarti Virani is an arts and culture writer, covering the South Asian diaspora. Born and raised in Kobe, Japan, she now lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with her husband and son.

Steered by curiosity, empathy and cross-cultural communication, Aarti tells stories that shine a light on people and communities that are often overlooked. It’s a passion she's nurtured since arriving in the United States nearly 20 years ago. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Saveur, Surface, Endless Vacation, and Travel + Leisure, among other publications.

In this episode we talk about immigrant parents, diasporic Desis and hyphens.

You can find Aarti in Vogue India, where she’s a contributing editor, and at aartivirani.com.

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