Tuckered Out with Ami Thakkar

One of our favorites from the past year, our interview with Malini Agarwal.....

We're talking to a media mogul!! Malini Agarwal, aka MissMalini, is India's most famous blogger with a following of 7.5 million worldwide.

We start out talking about how her "diplobrat" life growing up has helped shape her into the women she is today.

Malini discusses living through a civil war in Lebanon, how her mom has been her rock and champion FOMO queen, and what led her to the City of Dreams.

She tells me why radio is still her favorite medium, the bucket list of 24, her book, To The Moon: How I Blogged My Way To Bollywood, and some epic stories that you can only experience in Mumbai.

We of course dive into her best and worst interviews, what it is really like to work with her husband, and her plan to shed light and start conversations around cyber bullying and sexual harassment in India with #ignorenomore.

Malini is a staunch supporter of women supporting women, as can been seen with MissMalini's Girl Tribe, and she tells me what she regrets the most throughout her legendary journey.

And guys, there's so much more....

Anu Seghal is a children's author and the founder of The Culture Tree, a cultural literacy and language education company that celebrates South Asian culture. Priya Krishna is a food reporter and video host for the New York Times and the best-selling author of multiple cookbooks, including Indian-Ish and Cooking at Home. Her latest book is Priya's Kitchen Adventures.

The Culture Tree will be hosting their first annual AAPI Children's Literary Festival in collaboration with the Asia Society. This is a unique gathering place for writers, illustrators, publishers, and fans of AAPI literary works. It features readings, meet-and-greet sessions with authors like Priya, illustrators, panel discussions, and writing workshops, engaging the youth with the full diversity of South Asian culture.

Anu and Priya delve deep into how The Culture Tree and the AAPI Literary Fest will help immerse children in South Asian culture through the love of reading and food. We talk about the importance of food in our culture and what comfort food we still love, Anu shares her journey with The Culture Tree , and Priya discusses how her dad gets stopped at Costco to discuss his recipes that are now shared worldwide.

The AAPI Children’s Literary Festival will be in person Saturday, May 11th from 1 to 5 p.m. at 725 Park Avenue, New York City.

What we talked about:

• Growing the Culture Tree: Anu breaks down the Culture Tree’s mission of celebration and education + the importance Anu places on the languages of South Asia + how South Asian culture is one of the most diverse in the world and the need to celebrate it all + the heartwarming support the Culture Tree receives from the wider community (3:28)
• Anu’s Journey: Growing up in an inter-religious, multilingual family and her passion for teaching South Asian languages + how having children inspired her to challenge South Asian stereotypes + her pride in seeing her kids haggling in a Delhi bazaar (7:33)
• Lit Fest: Putting Kids First: The original inspiration for the Lit Fest + TikTok and teaching middle schoolers the lost art of recipe reading + having children do their own writing and illustrating + how children run their panel discussion in the Festival (18:12)
• Priya's Kitchen Adventures: How Priya’s created an interactive cookbook that normalizes South Asian cooking from a young age + how she came to be involved in the Lit Fest + how she refused to bring Indian food to school so she could fit in + how she first promoted Indian cooking + celebrating the support she has received from Madhur Jaffrey and other South Asian cooking experts (23:15)
• Priya’s Further Adventures: Priya describes how her local Mutai shop was her first New York Times project + Her pride in her YouTube videos highlighting the unseen labor in the food industry + her latest project exploring identity beyond the South Asian American paradigm + her parents suddenly becoming famous (30:51)
• Final Goals: Anu and Priya express their hopes to promote the Lit Fest annually for children as young as five as well as middle schoolers + their wish for parents to join in the fun (35:17)
• Rapid Fire Round: (37:43)
• Anu’s Bucket List: (40:39)
• Priya’s Bucket List: (40:46)

Connect with Anu:

• Linkedin
• The Culture Tree
• Instagram
  

Connect with Priya:

• Website
• Instagram
• Linkedin
• Twitter
• YouTube

Let’s talk Connect:

• Instagram

This podcast is produced by Ginni Media.

Maryanne J. George is a Grammy Award-winning artist and a clinical mental health therapist. With five Grammy wins and nine nominations attributed to her collaborations with Maverick City Music, her impact on the music industry is undeniable. Together with Maverick City Music, she has helped redefine the boundaries of contemporary Christian music (CCM) earning critical acclaim, widespread recognition, and a dedicated fan base.

Maryanne has released a brand new independent track called Labor, just in time for Mother's Day, and this song really captures the journey not just of motherhood but womanhood and personal growth.

In this episode, we talk about motherhood and the journey we thought it would be, the journey that it is, and all the beauty and ugliness of it. We talk about how motherhood is the hardest thing you'll ever do, and the most rewarding. Finally, we go deep into how we navigate the expectations of being South Asian, career, and motherhood, and how they shape the lessons we teach our children.

What We Talked About:

• A Labor of Love: Maryanne reflects on being a mom at the height of her career, the expectations and judgments about motherhood, and her desire to give a gift to her daughter inspired her new song, Labor (4:48)
• The Great Journey of Motherhood: Maryanne and Ami talk frankly about the challenges of motherhood, including not wanting children and a career, difficult pregnancies, and post-partum depression, and how they would never go back and make a different decision + motherhood as the highest form of growth: how being a parent helps you reflect and heal in your own life, how children teach you what matters + Maryanne describes being a mother has made more confident and comfortable in her skin than she has ever been (7:42)
• South Asian Motherhood, Then and Now: Ami and Maryanne acknowledge how the sacrifices of their South Asian parents enabled them to pursue their dreams + the conflict between the traditional expectations of South Asian motherhood and the need to be happy and fulfilled for oneself and one’s children + how their pursuit of career and motherhood can help their children grow and live their dreams + how Ami is being a cool mom (11:47)
• Growing Up Brown in America: Maryanne opens up about the expectations of her culture and her constant fear of how her decisions would impact her wider family + the balance between being American and celebrating and defending her culture + navigating the music and gospel worlds while being neither white nor black (17:13)
• “You Know What, Girl? There's No Typical South Asian:” Maryanne celebrates her multiple identities of being South Asian, Christian, a female artist, and a mother all in one (19:53)

Connect with Maryanne:

• https://maryannejgeorge.com/
• Instagram
• Twitter/X
• YouTube Channel
  

Let’s talk Connect:

• Instagram

This podcast is produced by Ginni Media

Nisha Pahuja is a writer, an artist, and director and now an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. Her passion for social impact is marked by a quiet courage towards exploring complex social issues that often breed division through the lens of her camera. We chat about her latest award-winning documentary "To Kill a Tiger," which has won 19 awards from prestigious festivals such as TIFF, Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Canadian Screen Awards, and Doc Aviv and has names like Dev Patel and Mindy Kaling attached to it. The film earned its way on The New York Times Most Anticipated Fall Releases list and Anne Thompson at the IndieWire’s Oscar Contenders list.

I had the pleasure of moderating the premier of the film here in Dallas with some of the executive producers and was absolutely blown away by the film.

Nisha's storytelling prowess goes beyond this latest project, with notable credits like the Emmy-nominated "The World Before Her," the documentary "Bollywood Bound," and the insightful series "Diamond Road." Her work doesn't just capture stories; it sparks conversations and challenges perspectives, especially around themes of cultural evolution, the reality of stereotypical depictions, and the grip that shame has on so many of us. As an immigrant from India to Canada, Nisha's unique vantage point enriches her narratives, bridging diverse worlds with empathy and insight. Her journey is not just about making films but also the art of fostering understanding, catalyzing change, and alchemizing adversity into inspiration.

We talked about:

• How Nisha got involved with Kill A Tiger and what she feels were the hardest parts to film (4:16)
• Western and eastern societal parallels around discussing and handling sexual assault (8:10)
• Nisha’s relationship with shame and the concept of shame as a cultural inheritance (12:05)
• How Karen and her family are doing now and current projects in the works (17:20)
• What experiencing immigrating from India and growing up in Canada was like (18:50)
• Nisha’s relationship with our culture (23:50)
• The World Before Her, the initial journey to documentary making, and her perspective on representation (29:30)

Connect with Nisha Pahuja

• Instagram
• Linkedin

Let’s talk Connect:

• Instagram

This podcast is produced by

Ginni Media