Amituckeredout

Bharat is the award-winning author of Privilege: A Trilogy, an #ownvoices thriller about an Indian-American set in modern-day NYC. He calls himself a professional storyteller and amateur cook.After 10 years of working in politics, Bharat tried to explain how the country went from Barack Obama to Donald Trump by writing Confessions of a Campaign Manager. Then he began writing polemical fiction, such as Oasis - a desert-fantasy novel that examined what makes a family and how refugees should be treated. Bharat is always looking to make a political statement with his writing because he knows politics seeps into every aspect of society and believes we can’t understand each other without a firm, constant understanding of how politics affects us in all ways.

In honor of our upcoming LIVE episode from Sundance, I wanted to repost our first live episode from Diwali On The Hudson back in 2021! Stayed tuned for new episodes starting next week!Editor's Note- This is a live podcast so please excuse all the extra background noise. It is our first live podcast!! We had the honor to attend Diwali On The Hudson this year, NYC's premiere Diwali event hosted by The Desai Foundation. And let me tell you, we had some good times. Diwali On The Hudson celebrates love, light and of course the very important work of The Desai Foundation. This year, appearances by the talented Falu and The Resistance Revival Chorus graced the stage and we had some fantastic jams courtesy of DJ Suhel! The Desai Foundation’s main focus for over 20 years has been empowering women and girls through community programs to elevate health and livelihood in India & U.S. During the 2021 COVID crisis, they shifted their focus to address the needs of the communities we serve, while also leveraging the prog

Indian-born artist Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee settled her roots in the beautifully diverse city of Houston, TX in 2012.She is strongly influenced by marine life, drawing abundant inspiration from her experiences with scuba diving expeditions and with the ocean itself. In her work, Folmsbee creates ethereal, intricate shapes, which she calls characters, that are meant to invite the public into something very private. Her painting intend to take the viewer into the work’s moment of origin.This year, Folmsbee has become actively more involved in the marine community by working with conservation organizations such as the Galveston Bay Foundation and Correa Lab, with the hope of creating awareness about the struggles face by the marine world.We talk about her recently commissioned 240-ft project at Houston's IAH, why her father made her host an art show at 16,  what she discovered attending art school in Chicago, and what the definition of failure really means to her.She talks about being bullied growing up because

Hello 2023!!  I could not think of a better guest to kick off this new year than Naomi Shah.Naomi is the Founder and CEO of Meet Cute, a modern entertainment company that produces original, scripted rom-coms that are delivered in podcast format.Meet Cute has the largest global creative network of writers, actors, and directors and has produced more than 450 rom-com stories with over 3.5 million listeners. The company is focused on diverse storytelling and characters as well as expanding the definition of what "well-being" means for audiences.She talks to me about the "secret sauce" she believes has made the company such a success, why she finds the audio medium so exciting, her experience being on "two sides of the table" at her former investment firm, and what keeps her up at night.We talk about some new projects in the pipeline for 2023, how we both feel like "Jess" from Bend It Like Beckham, which rom-com she would star in, and her dream collaboration for 2023 (Hi, Mindy:)).

It's our special Holiday Bonus Episode! We’re so excited to bring you this bonus episode that will hopefully uplift your spirits like it did ours.Today, I interview Anisha Abraham, a pediatrician and author of Raising Global Teens- A Practical Handbook For Parenting In The 21st Century,  and Jo Chim, an actress turned producer, director.  They are team behind the short live action film One Small Visit which is currently in the running for the Oscar short list!  It is a sweet film about my Anisha’s parents visit to Neil Armstrong’s parents house in the 1960’s, right after the moon landing, and the impact it had on both families. One Small Visit embodies this fight and to keep believing in coming together because fundamentally, we have a lot more in common than we have differences.It’s a story of hope, shared humanity, and how small acts of openness and kindness can make a difference.  Lord knows we need all of those thing now more than ever.www.onesmallvisit.com

Guys, it’s the 100th!!!  I am SO excited and honored to have the next guest close out this year and celebrate this milestone with me. Rishi Malhotra developed HBO's first Subscription Video On Demand platform HBO On Demand, co-founded and led JioSaavn, one of the largest distributors of Bollywood and other Indian entertainment in the world, and also played an integral role in JioSaavn's transaction with Reliance Industries, leading to a billion-dollar integration with JioMusic in 2018.Though JioSaavn, he has brought legends such as U2 and Beyonce to India. This man’s journey started  from launching an NYC start-up to becoming Rolling Stone's Future 25 for Music. Currently, he is CEO of Luminary, audio home to Dave Chappelle and a collection of original shows from iconic talents such as Lena Dunham, Russell Brand, Masaba Gupta, Roxane Gay, Radio Rahim, and a ton more.We talk about working with a once in a lifetime talent like Dave Chapelle, how everything really comes down to energy transfer, how JioSaavn beca

Dr. Tanaya Narendra is an internationally trained medical doctor, author, embryologist, and scientist, who is passionate about medical education.For her ground breaking work in medical education, Tanaya has been awarded Sexual Health Influencer of the Year 2020 by SH24 - the online sexual health partner of the NHS, Top 25 Disruptors of India 2021 by Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Health Influencer Of The Year by the IHW Council, supported by the Niti Ayog and Ayushman Bharat.She is now the most popular medical professional on social media in India. Dr. Tanaya runs @Dr_Cuterus, which has garnered over one million followers on instagram and over 50 million views on Youtube. She uses fairytales, mannequins, fun GIFs, and hilariously relatable examples to talk jargon-free and scientifically about complex medical and sexual education topics, all wrapped up with an inclusive and gender-neutral bow.Establishing the medical content creation niche in India, Tanaya has built a thriving community that provides a safe place

Rohit is the Founder and Chief Trend Curator of the Non-Obvious Company and is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original speakers on trends and marketing in the world.Rohit believes the world needs more Non-Obvious thinking. He helps leaders and professionals to be more open minded, see what others miss and learn to anticipate the future. He is the author of seven popular business books, including his signature Non-Obvious Megatrends which has been read or shared by more than 1 million people and was a #1 WSJ bestseller + USA Today bestseller earlier this year.Outside of speaking and consulting, Rohit is also the co-founder of Ideapress Publishing - a fast growing independent publisher that specializes in working with top authors to publish beautiful business books.We talk about what a Futurist does, why he is the trend  guy, what the Human Mode trend is and why it's here to stay, how starting a publishing company kept him from becoming an a&&hole, and the reasons he wanted to start

It's a reunion!  Twenty years after being his production assistant on a film set in Austin, TX, Kal Penn and I get a chance to sit down and catch up about it all.Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. You may know him from television shows such as House, Designated Survivor, Sunnyside, and How I Met Your Mother. He is also recognized for his performance in the film The Namesake and of course the Harold and Kumar series (I personally still love Taj Mahal Badalandabad). Penn has taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturerWe talk about it all from our first impressions, to those fantastic middle school years, to his job as a farmhand right before he went to UCLA. He talks about the meaning behind the Brown Catch-22, his journey with stereotyping in Hollywood, his experience going to India with President Barack Obama, and why he needed a mini-fridge in the White House.We of

Nish Acharya is a Senior Fellow, Inclusive Economic Growth at the Clinton Foundation. He is also one of the OG Indian-Americans who has worked with two different presidents during his career.Nish leads Equal Innovation, which advises some of the world’s leading universities, governments, foundations and companies to assist them with innovation, entrepreneurship and globalization strategies. The Clinton Foundation is becoming a platform for new voices, emerging communities and finding economic development models to include in international policy discussions.We talk about all the work that CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) is doing and what it was like to bring the band back together this year, his takeaways from working with President Clinton and Obama, how Diwali has become mainstream, and he shares some pivotal middle school moments that defined his identity as Indian-American. 

S. Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, prolific commentator and author of two books. She is the co-founder/ CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue. Mitra is also the co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter to help New Yorkers get through the pandemic, and an inaugural member of the URL Media network.We discuss the impetus for launching URL Media, how Jackson Heights (her hometown) became ground zero during the pandemic,  what she realized about national news outlets, and how first serving her community led to the launching a company.I ask Mitra if people are truly interested in Black and Brown stories, why she would love to work with Byron Allen, and what she would put up on her very own billboard.

Not many people can say that they are part of building the audio reflection of the ENTIRE country. Rahul Sabnis can. Rahul is the Chief Creative Officer of iHeartMedia, an American mass media company that currently reaches 9 out of 10 Americans every month. 9 out of 10.  Let that sink in.Rahul explains how the role of Chief Creative Officer not only means being a champion of the audio medium, but also means being the bridge that gives diverse voices a platform. He also breaks down of the iHeartMedia family tree, democratizing content, and the amazing new projects they are working on in the Metaverse (which he kindly tried to explain to me).He recalls the night he called his father to let him know he would no longer be  pursuing his engineering degree (one of the many “good Indian boy” career paths), what it means to discover that you’re Indian-American, our relationship to both cultures and the fact that we’re definitely NOT confused desis (Indians), packing peanut butter in suitcases for his trips to India,

Puja Shah is a visionary poet who shares her voice through written and spoken word, guided meditations, and teaching. Born in Queens, New York, to immigrant parents, she defied teachers who questioned her English skills by winning countless poetry and short story awards in her youth. With over 10 years of nonprofit experience and a long public health career, she has created a campaign aligned with girl trafficking awareness causes for her upcoming debut novel, For My Sister, which launches on October 18th 2022.We talk about our relationship to our culture as adults and parents to daughters, how there was always an undertone of some traditional expectations growing up, why she wanted to work in public health, and her eye-opening experiences in Uganda and India.She talks to me about what drove her to write her debut novel, why other South Asians still  have a hard time supporting one another, how her online community, Chai Mommas, was built, and our mutual love for Zarna Garg and Alka Joshi. We also agreed that

It's always nice to interview someone who has nicer equipment than you.Today I talk to fellow podcaster, Ginni Saraswati. She is Founder and CEO of Ginni Media, a podcast production company whose motto is, “Made Offbeat”- which I can relate to. She is also a contributor to Entrepreneur Media and Rolling Stone Magazine.We talk about everything podcasting, her thoughts on the industry, and where she sees it going in the next 5 years. She also talks about growing up brown in Australia, coming out to her family, and what she would like to be known for at the end of her career.Most importantly, we figure out who the OG influencer really is and I talk about the time I shook Madonna's hand, which can be a whole other podcast episode.

Today I talk to the co-founder of India Rising, Gautam Kapur.India Rising is the home for brown athletes. It is a media platform designed to develop Indian basketball, showcase next-level talent, and compete in professional tournaments around the world.We talk about whether our genes allow Indian people to be true athletes, the impetus for starting India Rising, the highs and lows of building a very new start-up in the "brown space", and what they hope to accomplish in the next 5 years.Gautam tells me about how they assembled their team by looking at over 60 competitive pros around the world,  how they had 7 days to create a unified team chemistry before playing in the TBT- The Basketball Tournament, and when they will start working with brown female athletes.We talk about our college days and why joining an Indian dance team seemed to be the only way to show your "brownness" and he tells me more about the work he's doing with NBA's Asian Professional Exchange (APEX).https://www.indiarising.co/

Welcome back Tuckered Outers!As many of you know, India just celebrated her 75th year of independence. Our fall season begins with one of India's most renowned authors, Suketu Metha. Suketu  is the New York-based author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, which was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. The book was based off of two years of research and was an account of his personal experiences living in Bombay.He talks to me about his latest article in which he shares his concern about the future of India, why it is crucial that India remains a democracy for all its citizens and the world, and the two biggest threats facing India today.He gives me an update on his close friend, Salman Rushdie, tells me why storytellers are more powerful than we think, and how he handles our volatile environment as a writer. I ask him what Bombay and New York City mean to him, what his favorite memories were growing up in Bombay, and about his current project that he refers to as a love letter to NYC.His latest book Th

It's a reunion!  Twenty years after being his production assistant on a film set in Austin, TX, Kal Penn and I get a chance to sit down and catch up about it all.Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. You may know him from television shows such as House, Designated Survivor, Sunnyside, and How I Met Your Mother. He is also recognized for his performance in the film The Namesake and of course the Harold and Kumar series ( I personally still love Taj Mahal Badalandabad). Penn has taught at the University of Pennsylvania in the Cinema Studies Program as a visiting lecturerWe talk about it all from our first impressions, to those fantastic middle school years, to his job as a farmhand right before he went to UCLA. He talks about the meaning behind the Brown Catch-22, his journey with stereotyping in Hollywood, his experience going to India with President Barack Obama, and why he needed a mini-fridge in the White House.We of

Hey guys! Just wanted to really quickly to let you know that we've got a very special conversation coming out this week!Twenty years after being his Production Assistant on a film in Austin, TX, I got a chance to sit down with my old pal with Kal Penn to talk about his book, You Can't Be Serious, and breadth of work throughout his careerWe touched on so many important topics, including his time at the White House and the challenges he faced as an Indian-American in Hollywood.  My conversation with Kal was uplifting, funny and real.  I wanted to give you just a little teaser today to get you excited because I definitely am!The full episode will be coming out tomorrow, July 20th, so before then, make sure that you're subscribed wherever you're listening to my voice right now, and that you tell a friend about the show so they can listen too.Also,  I'll be doing a giveaway for Kal's book, "You Can't Be Serious", so stay tuned all week for content surrounding the interview!Enjoy the clip and be sure to listen to t

One of my favorite things about doing this podcast is reconnecting with people who have been part of different phases in my life. Dr. Sumun Pendakur and I met 20 years ago when I was a production assistant on her hubby’s film set. Needless to say, I knew she was a rock star even then. She is a #dei strategist, consultant and trainer who has spent the last 20 years focusing on building community strength as well as institutional capacity for #socialjustice and #racialjustice in the #highereducation sector. She was the #chieflearningofficer @uscraceequity center and has built programs that address underserved needs and communities. We talk about the influence her parents had on her career, how they were definitely both “woke” back in the day when a lot of #southasianimmigrants were not, how she got involved in amplifying the #asianamerican voice, and the history and true meaning of the term “model minority”. I admit that I have had a certain narrative in my head about the South Asian community, we discuss the a

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