Roots with South Asian Today

Australian media is overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic and European. Why does a country that claims to be multicultural find itself to be white-dominated time and time again?
In the podcast's fourth episode, we speak with Afghan-Australian lawyer and the brand new CEO of Media Diversity Australia, Mariam Veiszadeh.
Mariam was born in Afghanistan and she came to Australia in 1990 with her family as a refugee. She talks about what her vision to diversity Australia's journalism sector is, when does she feel seen, and whatever shall happen to the many international students who come to Australia to study media but are not qualified to apply for any internships or cadetships - much like our host, Dilpreet.
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In the eight episode of Roots with South Asian Today, Dilpreet speaks with renowned Australian journalist Bhakthi Puvanenthiran. A part of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, Bhakthi is the editor of ABC Everyday and has worked with Crikey, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. The conversation explores being a South Asian journalist in Australia, how do we tell our own stories and the possibilities around breaking structural barriers.

India has the largest Tribal and Indigenous population globally, yet there are only 20 National Open Scholarships for about 110 million Tribal people. Why?
Our third episode is a special interview with social justice scholar Ashok Danavath about the lack of tribal representation in Indian embassies in the west and the institutionalised casteism many Indigenous, Dalit and Tribal students face. Those who screen students, take care of administration, or are responsible for allocating funds are overwhelmingly upper caste. As we know, wherever South Asians go, they pack caste along.
Ashok Danavath is a Tribal graduate scholar currently at the international institute of social studies in the Netherlands. His ongoing research pertains to the marginalisation of Tribal communities in India, and the host for this special episode is Mudit Vyas, a graduate researcher at Monash University. He specialises in the anthropology of creative industries.
They talk about the role of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs of India, how the lack of further support affects students who do get the scholarships, and what happens to the many students who don't.
Ashok's Twitter.
Mudit's Instagram.
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Our guest today Leeza Mangaldas, is one of India’s foremost sex educators. She wants us to imagine a world where all sexual experiences are consensual, safe, and pleasurable. We talk about the western gaze on sex in India, why cis-het men dominate the comment section of a sex educator, and how we should listen to our bodies.

Leeza's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leezamangaldas/
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In the fifth episode of Roots with South Asian Today, we speak with Afghan journalist Ariana Abawe, who founded the first-ever print and digital magazine exclusively focused on Afghanistan, Ariana Magazine, in 2020.
We dig deep into Afghan representation and what the magazine's purpose is.
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