Immigrantly

Our guest today is an expert on self-expression-Taiwanese-born Romana Lai, a renowned editorial makeup artist who has worked with many of the fashion industry’s leading names and publications, including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In addition, she has worked on shows for New York Fashion Week, French Connection, FCUK, and many others. She is also a published author: her book ‘New York Style’ is a worldwide best seller. I am so happy to welcome Romana to Immigrantly today!  Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Ziya Jaffrey & Saadia Khan I Editorial Review: Kylee Roberts I Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest Michelle Li is a broadcaster, founder of the "Very Asian Movement" &  Foundation and author of the upcoming book ‘A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food’. The "Very Asian movement" initially started as a hashtag in which other members of the Asian diaspora share solidarity with Michelle and united in a means of sharing Asian pride. Michelle's book is another response to the initial bigotry that she faced. Set to be published in October this year. "A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food" is a children's book detailing many traditional and modern Korean staples, with pronounciation guides for each. In the book, you can also find descriptions of the origins and customary means of preparation of different dishes, brought to life with colorful illustrations. Join the conversation: Instagram | Twitter |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Ziya JaffreyI Editorial Review: Yudi Liu ISound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Today's guest is Mathangi Subramanian. She is an award-winning writer of adult, young adult, and children's stories. But, just as she runs the gambit in authorship, she is also a former policy analyst and public school teacher. Her book "Dear Mrs. Naidu," which won the South Asia Book Award, is her most notable young adult work. Her recent book is "A People's History of Heaven," about five girls in the slum of Bangalore, India. Today, we talk about Mathangi's experience in the field of education, how it has become politicized, how books are vehicles for sharing lived experiences, and what it means to foster a curiosity for reading.  Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Yudi Liu I Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is in collaboration with the Oyate Group, a community-driven foundation dedicated to empowering youth and small businesses across New York City with career support and critical resources. One of their initiatives is the "Beyond Rising" internship program in partnership with the "Center for Engaged Community Learning."   From a competitive pool of candidates who identify as undocumented, twenty students are selected and provided with funds and resources to aid in their journeys into the workforce.  Joining us in the studio, we have two wonderful students who participated in the program: 17-year-old Shayla Leticia Victoria Valdez and 17-year-old & Eistgcher D' Jesús Ogando Parache.  Our guests are high school students in New York City. We talk about their experience at the internship, their hobbies, and how they engage in self-care.   Join the conversation: Instagram | Twitter |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Ziya Jaffrey & Saadia Khan I Interpreter: LymarieI Editorial Review: Yudi Liu ISound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest, Elaine Castillo, is the author of the newly released book "How to Read Now: Essays," which attempts to observe American books and movies through a BIPOC lens. Elaine takes a close look at TV shows like "The Watchmen" and writings from Joan Didion to explore the politics of reading and how to read with intent.  Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from UC Berkeley and obtained her MA in Creative Life and Writing at the University of London, Elaine is a second-generation Filipino American. Her parents migrated from the Philippines in the 70s during the Marcos dictatorship, a story that inspired her 2018 debut novel, "America is NOT the Heart." Praised by NPR, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and others, Castillo's book follows Hero, a Filipino immigrant born to an established family and later radicalized during the Marcos Regime, and her escape to the Bay Area after being captured and tortured by the dictatorship.  Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Ashley Lanuza & Saadia Khan I Editorial Review: Yudi Li I Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is the second part of our two-part series. If you are tuning in now, please be sure to listen to the first part of this series titled "Human Rights be Damned-Part One." In the episode, I had a stimulating and insightful conversation with our guest, Rana Ayyub, the widely known Washington journalist and columnist. In our discussion, we talked about the human rights violations occurring in India along with a broader conversation surrounding foreign response or, as discussed in the episode, the lack of response. Today I talk with Brent Huffman, an American director, writer, and cinematographer. His work has been featured on Netflix, Discovery Channel, The National Geographic Channel, VICE, NBC, CNN, PBS, Time, The New York Times, Al Jazeera America, and Al Jazeera English and premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and many other U.S. and international film festivals. He is also a Professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he teaches documentary production and theory.  His new documentary, "Strands of Resistance" (2021), examining China's economic relationship with Pakistan, premiered on Vice and Vice News Tonight. An episode of the documentary "Uyghurs Who Fled China Now Face Repression in Pakistan" won a Rory Peck Award in the Best News Feature category at the British Film Institute in London in 2021. Given Brent's firsthand experience in China, filming this documentary Today's episode will center on what's happening in China to Uyghurs and Pakistan's response or lack thereof. Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Sana Khan & Saadia KhanI Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Immigrantly's fall guest lineup. In part one of a two-episode series, my  Rana Ayyub, an Indian journalist and opinion columnist with The Washington Post, joins me to discuss the inherent paradox in geopolitics, prioritizing strategic allyship over human rights. As a child, Rana witnessed the demolition of mosques and riots. Then, she worked as a relief worker during the Gujarat riots. She later authored the "Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-up," an instant bestseller and an investigation into the reality behind the 2002 Gujarat riots. Most recently, Rana has been outspoken about the growing violence toward Indian Muslims and the impediments journalists like her face when trying to uphold freedom of the press and democracy amidst global political pressures. Lastly, Rana & I  talk about mental health and Rana's newfound desire to be seen not just as the brave journalist she is but as a human being who struggles, feels, and hurts. Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Sana Khan & Saadia KhanI Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dear Immigrantly family, as you know, we are not releasing any new episodes this week; our fall lineup starts next week, August 23rd, with our conversation with Rana Ayyub. Nevertheless, I have exciting and fun audio to share today. In April this year, one of our previous guests and patrons, Paula Wood, hosted a fundraiser for us at her house. At the fundraiser, we asked the guests to define the US in a word or a phrase. Here's a compilation of their responses. The audio is raw, and there is some background noise, but the spirit of the conversation & the diversity of thought is beautiful. Enjoy! Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest, Thea Pham, shares her journey in discovering and defining what mental health means to her, how it fits in the complicated puzzle of her upbringing, and why she has felt immense emotional and psychological strains being the first generation. As an accomplished biotech entrepreneur, Thea was the youngest in her class to graduate with a Ph.D. in neuroscience at UCLA and currently works for a biotech venture capital start-up in LA. She has won numerous awards for her research and was featured in the LA Business Journal's 20 entrepreneurs in their 20s.    A month ago, Thea received viral attention after sharing an emotional TikTok about her challenges as the daughter of Vietnamese parents. In that video, she highlighted some common expectations that fall on children of immigrants, such as academic excellence and financial support. But in Thea's case, they have caused guilt, mental illness, and more. Atlhough, Thea and I come from diametric points of view in our status as daughter and mother, respectively but our dialogue was fruitful. I want you to stay after, to hear me unpack this conversation with our content editor and this script's writer, Yudi Liu, who is an immigrant daughter herself. Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Yudi Liu I Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Neda Toloui-Semnani, our today's guest, understanding who her parents were and what motivated them to participate in the 1979 Iranian Revolution as young Iranian activists became a crucial step to making sense of her own present. Born to a nation marked by political upheaval and now a Brooklyn-based emmy-winning writer & reporter, Neda is no stranger to the fabrics of social change and the equally important need to document such history.   Her father was imprisoned and killed by the Islamic Republic, while her then-pregnant mother and three-year old Neda escaped Iran for America. After her mother passed away, Neda tried to comprehend why her parents did what they did, which could be argued as both brave sacrifices and selfish risks. Her book, THEY SAID THEY WANTED REVOLUTION: A Memoir of My Parents, published this past February, details her rediscovering of personal history against a larger political backdrop.  Neda works for Vice News Tonight and has appeared in numerous publications such as The Washington Post, Kinfolk, and The Week as well as platforms like The Rumpus and This American Life. We had a fantastic conversation where we talked about the literary and emotional journey behind the memoir and what intersections exist between journalism and storytelling and how they are tools for uncovering the truth and preserving memory.  Join the conversation: Instagram @immigrantlypod | Twitter @immigrantly_pod |  Please share the love and leave us a review to help more people find us! Host & Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Ashley Lanuza & Saadia Khan I Editorial Review IYudi Li I Sound Designer & Editor: Manni Simon I Immigrantly Theme Music: Evan Ray Suzuki I Other Music: Epidemic Sounds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices