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Stories Seldom Told

Stories Seldom Told

By Smita Tharoor

Host Smita Tharoor asks guests from around the world to share their story and to reflect on their life experiences with unconscious bias.

"We are defined by our narrative, our personal story, our experiences. These have an impact on how we make judgements and form opinions. A lot of time that’s just fine but every once in a while, we make snap conclusions that have a negative outcome either for the other person or ourselves. Just one particular experience can lead to a lifelong belief. That is our unconscious bias."
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Maria Arpa

Stories Seldom ToldAug 28, 2021

00:00
31:52
Rachel Thomas

Rachel Thomas

"At 28 My marriage broke. So those days,to say that you're divorced was very difficult. At this point. My son was about ten, My daughter was about nine. They were young and I thank God that my mother and my sister was there to give me support and help me and you know, be there for me because I had to keep going for training . But to lift my head high and walk in Agra, the place where I was in was difficult." It is 1979, a small-town young lady, a mother of two small kids, just 23 years old, decides one evening at an Army Party, to join a Skydiving Course at Agra. Unknowingly history was created. Rachel Thomas was the first Indian woman to compete for India in a skydiving competition in 1987. After 23 years, she ended her career in 2002, when she skydived from 7,000 ft over the North Pole also creating the record of being the first Indian female to skydive over the North Pole. During her career, Rachel has completed 650 jumps in 18 countries. She has won multiple awards including the winner of the National Adventure Sports Award and is a TedX speaker. In 2005, Rachel was honoured again by the Government of India, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award - the Padmashree   To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Jan 28, 202441:16
Maggie Steber

Maggie Steber

" " Maggie Steber is an internationally known documentary photographer, educator, and photo editor whose work has appeared in major magazines, newspapers and book anthologies as well as national and international exhibitions. She has worked in 72 countries specializing in telling the stories of underrepresented people and her work has been seen in 70 exhibitions in 35 countries. Best known for her photo essays in National Geographic Magazine and her humanistic documentation of Haiti, she published Dancing on Fire: Photographs from Haiti with Aperture. Her nine-year project on her mother’s melancholic voyage through memory loss was made into a multimedia presentation by MediaStorm and won a Webby award. In her career Maggie has worked as a picture editor for Associated Press, a contract photographer for Newsweek, and as the Director of Photography at The Miami Herald. Maggie is a member of VII Photo Agency. Maggie has received numerous awards, too many to mention here but they include a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Guggenheim foundation fellow and a medal of honour for contribution to journalism. To see some of Maggie’s moving photographs just check out her website. https://www.maggiesteber.com/main.html Maggie lives in Miami, Florida in the United States To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Dec 09, 202343:49
Nematullah Ahangosh

Nematullah Ahangosh

"People around me, including my family, they believe that one day, a miracle will happen to me and that will treat & cure my disability. But I don't want that right now. I have accepted myself through my disability. I really care for empowerment; I want to be empowered and I want other people with disabilities also be empowered." Nematullah Ahangosh is from Afghanistan. Nemat studied school in Kabul and from 2014- 2018 worked as a young member with a group of peace activists in Kabul. Subsequently Nemat went to Chennai in India to study a Bachelor of Social Work at Madras School of Social Work where he was awarded the Budding Social Worker Award and the Best Library User Award in 2021. This was followed by a one-year diploma course in Trivandrum, Kerala in leadership and social entrepreneurship. Nemat has been busy writing poems in English since 2017, mainly about the day-to-day life of refugees, women and overall life in Afghanistan alongside studying an MA in Conflict, Security and Development at the University of Sussex. Apart from this, Nemat is a good swimmer and coach. He is the founder of Stretch More, a mobile empowerment parkour that empowers people with disabilities to survive natural and man-made disasters. Parkour (French: [paʁkuʁ]) is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Nemat’s first and upcoming poetry book, The Color of Peace, will be published by Haley’s Publishing, a company based in Massachusetts, USA. He is 28 years old. He says his ambition is to bring about change in the future leadership of Afghanistan, mainly in the social sector. "Of Women and Courage" -By Nematullah Ahangosh "that night when curtains were dancing in the presence of moonlight nobody was watching frogs and dogs outside creating a poetic jingle and anarchic music 'woof, woof' 'ribbit, ribbit' 'woof, woof' 'ribbit, ribbit' 'woof, ribbit, ribbit', woof' this moment! this small happy moment did not last, was taken away! " To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Nov 25, 202341:34
Kevin Mc Arevey

Kevin Mc Arevey

"What would you do if you had a ring of invisibility? And the children will say, well, I would rob a bank. I would go into a shop and Steve chocolate. I would have a stigma favorite packet of crisps. I would be going in and stealing money out of my mommy's purse. I would do all this and I do not moralize with the federal budget. Yep, I will turn and I read it up on the board. And then I say well, what should you do?" Kevin Mc Arevey is the Principal of Holy Cross Boys’ School in the Ardoyne area in Northern Belfast in Northern Ireland. Kevin has been a teacher in the Ardoyne area for 26 years with the last 10 as the Principal. Kevin has written a book "Think Think Respond (slow thinking) and TTR (fast thinking)". This can be purchased at the school at a price of £20. It’s a big book and all proceeds go to HCBoys. Kevin is also the main protagonist in the Film documentary Young Plato - a film about hope, peace and reconciliation. https://youngplato.com You are able to stream Young Plato by renting or purchasing on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play The Troubles, also called the Northern Ireland conflict, was a violent sectarian conflict from about 1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland between the overwhelmingly Protestant unionists (loyalists), who desired the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the republic of Ireland. Some 3,600 people were killed and more than 30,000 more were wounded before a peaceful solution, which involved the governments of both the United Kingdom and Ireland, was effectively reached in 1998, leading to a power-sharing arrangement in the Northern Ireland Assembly. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Nov 12, 202354:14
Onir

Onir

"I suddenly felt that I don't belong, till then I felt that I was a part of this group. And at that moment, for me, it was like, no, I don't belong. I don't feel that I would want after the two got over to continue. You know, my friendship, you know,because very often people say that it's important to have discourse, have discussed with people. And then if you really think that I've spent my lifetime doing that, and at some point, you're exhausted in constantly trying to validate your identity. And now I'm at a point of life where I am like, it's your shortcoming. And it's not my job in life. It's not my duty, to spend my time energy effort to constantly educate people, about learning to respect someone else." Onir is an Indian filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor. Born as Anirban Dhar in Samchi, Bhutan, Onir spent much of his childhood going to the cinema. He received a scholarship to study film editing at SFB/TTC in Berlin but returned to India and worked as an editor, scriptwriter, art director, music album producer and song/music video director. In 1992,Onir directed and produced his first Documentary film on the painter Bijon Chaudhary, “Falling Hero”. He is best known for his film “My Brother...Nikhil”, based on the life of Dominic D'Souza, starring Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla and Purab Kohli. It was one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships. Onir won the Indian National Film awards for Best Film in Hindi for the anthology “I AM” in 2011. I AM is considered one of the first and largest crowd-funded and crowd-sourced film through social media in India. The film dealt with single motherhood, child sexual abuse, displacement and LGBTQI rights. Onir has also the received Likho Award (Trailblazer Award), the Diversity Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in 2019 and in 2020 the Engendered Spirit of Independent Cinema Award at the Engendered Human Rights Film Festival in Delhi. In June 2022, Onir finished shooting, PINE CONE, a queer love story which is written by Ashwini Malik and Onir. It is currently in post-production. It is loosely based on Onir’s memoir; I Am Onir and I Am Gay which he has co-written with his sister Irene Dhar Malik and published by Penguin Viking. In August 2023, PINE CONE, a queer love story which is written by Ashwini Malik and Onir received the "Rainbow Warrior Award” and the "Rainbow stories Award" given by the Minister of Equality, Australia at IffMelbourne. This was followed by Honorary mention Best Feature at the International South Asian Film festival, Canada. It premiered at The KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival in June 2023. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Oct 27, 202333:05
Kushanava Choudhury

Kushanava Choudhury

"I went back to Calcutta and I found a little magazine where they had published an issue on the Bengal famine. And in that issue, there were 16 interviews of people who were witnesses of the family, who were still alive, they had their photographs, and testimony. And these people are in their 90s, one person was 112 years old. And I just could not believe that these people were alive to tell the stories. These are just ordinary people who were farmers in the countryside.What happened when the rice disappeared, what they did, how they sold their house and home, fled for their lives, many of them went into the jungles in the Sunderbans, with the Tigers. And when I read those stories, I really did not want to read them. Because in a way that was shocking to me, but in another way, there were stories I wish did not exist, because the fact that they existed, meant that there were 10s, 100’s, 1000s of people who were out there who had stories to tell, who had simply not been asked, and one of the people who had not asked them was me."


Kushanava Choudhury is the writer of the Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta (Bloomsbury 2017). He has worked as an academic and a journalist in India and in the US. Most recently he was the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He spent much of the last decade living in India and is currently working on a book about what he witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic in New Delhi, and how it changed him. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Oct 15, 202353:56
Annette Smith

Annette Smith

"I also think that if you're positive, more people are likely to help you when you need help. Because they think, Oh, I'm having somebody who's benefiting from this, you know? Oh, yes. They don't want to come and see an old lady. She sits in her chair and wounds all the time." Annette Smith nee Julien was born in Dec 1927 on the small Caribbean Island of Grenada into a privileged family. She was educated in Trinidad and returned to Grenada where she completed a year of Nursing before embarking on her journey to England aged just 18. She travelled completely alone and this was her first trip abroad. In 1946,post the 2nd world war, Annette became the only black nurse at the Guildford Royal Surrey Hospital. She married a Londoner and had three children before returning to her nursing profession as a community nurse. She has many interests including Poetry, singing, the Arts, Sport and continues to be a positive member of the community. In case you are wondering, Annette had Bells Palsy in her 50's which affected her face. This has not affected her attitude towards life. Bell's palsy is a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face. In most cases, the weakness is temporary and significantly improves over weeks. The weakness makes half of the face appear to droop. Smiles are one-sided, and the eye on the affected side resists closing To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Sep 30, 202330:17
Akkai Padmashali

Akkai Padmashali

"Now the simple question is very clear, Smita. Just for my audience to really rethink about this. From criminalisation to decriminalisation to re-criminalisation. How do you accept why your society is so rigid in deciding your identity? Lakhs of people have been killed,have been assassinated. Even in the United States of America or different parts of the world, people who are black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex people are being killed" Akkai Padmashali is a Social and Political Activist She is the Founder of Ondede an organization that works with Intersex Transgender and Sexuality Minorities on the idea of convergence. Akkai Padmashali has written a memoir : A Small step in a long journey To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Sep 23, 202346:30
Anthony Anaxagorou

Anthony Anaxagorou

"I think affinity bias is the one where I feel is the deal breaker , if you can meet someone, and you can see something in them, that reflect you be a principle, be a belief, be it a way that you would like to be seen. I think that's the one that draws you in, you know, we talk about being charismatic, we talk about being charming,some people are very naturally charismatic, which means it's not, you know, they're not learned. It's not trained. But I also think there's an element of how does that charisma impact and affect us in different ways?" Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. Anthony is the winner of the 2023 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje prize for his most recent poetry collection “Heritage Aesthetics” published by Granta. The chair of judges, journalist Samira Ahmed, said Anthony’s poetry “is beautiful, but does not sugar coat. The arsenic of historical imperial arrogance permeates the Britain he explores in his writing. And the joy of this collection comes from his strength, knowledge, maturity, but also from deeply felt love.” His poetry has been published in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, New Statesman, Granta, and elsewhere. His work has also appeared on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4, ITV, Vice UK, Channel 4 and Sky Arts. His second collection After the Formalities published with Penned in the Margins is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize along with the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. It was also a Telegraph and Guardian poetry book of the year. In 2022 he founded Propel Magazine, an online literary journal featuring the work of poets yet to publish a first collection. Anthony is artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press. This is what one reviewer says of Anthony and his work ‘One of the most politically engaged poets of our time, Anthony holds the busy intersectionality of history, politics and ideology in poems that remain fresh and open. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

May 21, 202338:49
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

"I think because I had such a difficult childhood. I have a very strong centre. And it was destabilised by Oxford, but it wasn't destroyed. And that kind of self belief I have, saved me.I don't think I'm better than anybody else, or I'm a superwoman or any of that. But I do know that the stuff I do, I can do, and I'm good at it. And that the b_stards will not beat me, that really drives me" Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was exiled from her birthplace, Uganda, in 1972.Yasmin is a journalist, broadcaster, author and part time professor of journalism. She writes for the I newspaper and Sunday Times magazine and has written for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, New York Times, Time Magazine and other publications She has won several awards including the Orwell prize for political writing and in 2017, National Press Awards columnist of the year prize. She was specially commended for this award again in 2018. She is a national and international public speaker, a consultant on diversity and inclusion and trustee of various arts organisations. She is also the co-founder of the charity British Muslims for Secular Democracy. Their new report The Inner Lives of Troubled Young Muslims was published in November 2020. Her recent books include Refusing the Veil, Exotic England about England’s infatuation with the east, In Defence of Political Correctness and Ladies Who Punch. She has twice been voted the 10th most influential Asian in Britain. She has eight Hon degrees and sits on the boards of arts organisations. She is also a keen cook and theatre buff. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

May 13, 202340:11
Charmi Chheda

Charmi Chheda

"I feel somewhere, since everyone is constantly putting up a show, the world expects you to constantly put up a show. And now with social media platforms, I wouldn'nt be surprised that people are confused about the reel and the real, as time passes . This judgement about one's intelligence really comes out of show. If you are sitting in a meeting or you're with friends, you need to have something to say, if you don't have anything to say & decide to be quiet, that " oh, this person is not smart enough." will be your identity." Charmi Chheda is a filmmaker, writer, theatre Director in Bhutan. Charmi moved to Bhutan 10 years ago from India and now sees Bhutan as her home. Charmi has made two feature films, Ganganam Girl and Bulwa and is currently working with Samuh, Bhutan’s first OTT platform as a Creative Director To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

May 06, 202343:01
Anthony Swann

Anthony Swann

"And so my dream was to become a teacher and I would play school every single day. And I could go places in my mind. All I was in foster care, although I was not having the best situation with my life. I began to dream and I would play school every day and when I would play school it would take me away from foster care. It will take me away from the abuse. It will take me away from the neglect. It will take me away from the feelings of wishing that I was dead and so playing school All was my safe place. And so I just realised that I could go anywhere if I just dream" Anthony Swann became the first sitting teacher ever to be appointed to the State Board of Education by the Governor of Virginia, USA in 2021. Anthony has been in education for 16 years as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. He has had the privilege of teaching every elementary grade except kindergarten. Anthony is currently the assistant principal of Monterey Elementary in Roanoke, VA. In 2018, Anthony began a program entitled “Guys with Ties” to teach boys the importance of honesty, integrity, and character inside and outside of the classroom.In 2021, Anthony was elected by his peers to be the Teacher of the Year in two different schools. If those accolades were not enough, Anthony then became the 2021 Virginia State Teacher of the Year. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Apr 29, 202331:24
Remona Aly

Remona Aly

"I have always loved my faith, and I have wanted to fully embrace who I am. So wearing a headscarf, praying, being Muslim is just, it's literally acore part of who I am & I want to be able to write about anything I want to with passion, authenticity & honesty. I also want to be able to communicate with people, I don't want to create a barrier between me and anybody else. Even though, my physical appearance might create certain barriers, but I work really hard to remove them" Remona Aly is a journalist and broadcaster in the UK with a passion for faith, lifestyle and identity. She writes for The Guardian, is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and has been a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Something Understood, a half hour programme which explores a theme across different faiths and traditions through music, prose and poetry. She is also a podcast host for various platforms.

Remona is Director of Communications for Exploring Islam Foundation which specialises in PR campaigns and creative resources to better understand Islam. For example, one of her campaigns highlighted untold stories of solidarity between Muslims and Jews, with a focus on the Albanian Muslims who sheltered Jews from the Nazis in World War II.

Remona is the former Deputy Editor of Emel, a vibrant and glossy British Muslim lifestyle magazine which was the first of its kind to launch nationwide in the UK. To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Apr 22, 202343:08
Ayisha Malik
Apr 15, 202336:39
Dr. Oshrit Birvadker

Dr. Oshrit Birvadker

"Sometimes beautiful people are less likely to be heard. One study has suggested that highly attractive people are rights a disadvantages in the hiring process when the decision makers are the same sex for example, but highly attractive people of the same sex were judged as less talented than average looking people" Dr. Oshrit Birvadker is a foreign and defense policy expert, with expertise in the area of India and the Persian Gulf.Oshrit is a regular columnist in Haaretz, a writer of the “Miss India” Column in the leading business news website in Israel-“The Marker”. Oshrit is the first Bene Israeli Indian Jewish person who has appeared on Israeli news channels as a commentator for India’s affairs, written pioneering articles for top newspapers in Israel and continues to break new ground with her social and cultural enterprises. She considers herself a bridge between the ancient civilisations, the Indian and the Jewish ones. For many years Oshrit has helped connect the members of the Indian diaspora, especially the younger generation, to Indian culture by organising open dialogue in various forums, conferences, and activities to preserve Indian Jewish culture. Oshrit is currently focused on a social project operating in the periphery of Israel and helping to empower Indian women in their fifties. She is the Founder of the Social Project “Mantra”.

Follow Dr. Oshrit Birvadker on Dr. Oshrit Birvadker (@birvadker) / Twitter & ‏‎Oshrit Birvadker‎‏ | פייסבוק (facebook.com) To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Smita Tharoor (@SmitaTharoor) / Twitter or Smita Tharoor (@smitatharoor) | Instagram

and follow the podcast on your favorite streaming service.

Apr 08, 202337:24
Jodi Anderson Jr.

Jodi Anderson Jr.

Jodi Anderson Jr. is the CEO and Co-founder of Rézme, an EdTech platform that facilitates economic and social mobility through specialized recruiting, professional development, and personalized learning for justice-impacted citizens. After serving ten years in juvenile and adult prisons, Jodi earned his BA in Political Science and an MA in Education from Stanford University.

His non-profit PipeDreamers helps to coordinate diversion programming in the Bay Area while bringing coding and design courses to youth incarcerated in juvenile facilities across Northern California. As an alumnus of Cornell University’s Prison Education Program, he continues to be an advocate for criminal justice reform and access to higher education.

"And so our heroes as youth were not doctors and lawyers, or engineers, or politicians. They were quite literally like mobsters, and mafia types. Because those were individuals in our neighbourhood who had any kind of social standing influence and access to capital. They also knew how to make money, and they often provided opportunities, both financially and socially, for everyone in the neighbourhood. And so those are my early heroes. And often how they're portrayed in the media, you know the common conception, as he's kind of like ruthless, cold hearted. Lacking a moral compass kind of characters, who just have it on neighbourhoods and manipulate people and destroy society."

Apr 01, 202342:25
Paul Stevenson
Mar 18, 202331:55
Valson Thampu

Valson Thampu

“So, when you get embedded in a network, what happens is your freedom to think wider than what the interests of the network represents is compromised. What happens is that your faithfulness to a tradition becomes unfortunately, unfaithfulness to your own personal integrity. Because there are very many questions with which you’re struggling in your life. And no system in the world, no religious institution or structure in the world can accommodate those questions, much less answer them.”

 Professor Valson Thampu is a former teacher and academic administrator in higher education, as well as a theologian and freelance contributor to the national print media. He was a member of the Delhi Minorities Commission (2000-2004) and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (2004-2007). He was nominated twice to the National Integration Council (2004-2014) under the category, ‘distinguished citizens of India’. He now lives in retirement in Kerala, South India, actively addressing issues pertaining to religious reform. His recent book titled Beyond Religion: Imaging a New Humanity is the manifesto of his reformist agenda.  

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Mar 12, 202342:18
Seema Anand

Seema Anand

Seema Anand is a  mythologist, a storyteller with a focus on women’s narratives and a specialty in the erotic literature of ancient India.

Seema believes that the narrative of the Kama Sutra was deliberately silenced. It was a brave book that tried to change the position of women in society, and was the first text to give women a platform of equality.

Her seminal work ‘The Arts of Seduction’, is a commentary on the metaphors and lost narratives of the Kama Sutra is an effort to reclaim the book for its intended purpose.

"And hence, I am giving you a compliment  that in spite of your grey hair, you look amazing. That you must have looked so much better when you were younger. And that's another unconscious bias that we automatically assume that youth is prettier. And I have to agree that youth is beautiful anyway, but to think that you looked better then is what I'm getting to."

To stay up to date, follow @SmitaTharoor on Instagram or Twitter.

Mar 04, 202332:45
Octoli Tuccu

Octoli Tuccu

Octoli Tuccu is a Learning & Development expert with over a decade of experience. Octoli is originally from Nagaland in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, in the northeast of India. She has lived in five countries including the USA, Qatar, Thailand, China and India. Octoli has trained over a thousand professionals globally on various leadership development subjects.

"People would constantly ask me where I'm from, or like what my education background was. And for me, that was them asking me his questions to almost belittle me. Until that day that I met you, and you asked me, what if they just want to know where you're from and what your background is, just out of curiosity? I had never thought of it like that. And it was such a liberating experience for me because I had created this bondage for myself. And I was living in it, believing that I will never be taken seriously because I'm not a man and I'm not of a certain age. So all of these stereotypes that I have of people buried deeply in my mind, they do impact the way that I treat people and the way I think. As unintentional as they are, I definitely don't believe that they're harmless. So this, for me, is unconscious bias."

Dec 08, 202234:58
Jo Uff

Jo Uff

Jo Uff is a Confidence Coach based in England for women who want to lead a more fulfilling life, but feel that something is holding them back from being, doing, and having more of what they want.

Jo supports them to reignite their interest in life, move forward, and achieve the changes they want to make. She works with them to define their future with intention, overcome the personal blocks holding them back, and take actions towards achieving what they now want in their personal or professional life.

"It was small things, it was kind of telling me that I wasn't good at something, or even teachers telling you that you could have tried harder, or you should have done better at that. And you kind of build up, and I built up, these just small things, bit, by bit, by bit, that led me to a stage of thinking. Well, I'm just no good at anything. And I'm just not confident and everything fills me with fear."


Dec 01, 202236:34
Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas and his wife Susanna have led Hillside Church in Wimbledon for 27 years, where he is the pastor. Richard also serves as chaplain to The Priory Hospital, the Royal Marsden Hospital and Cancer Centre London. He is passionate about how we respond spiritually in our darkest hours.

"Historically, epilepsy was believed to be caused by demons. So that automatically put anybody who had a seizure, or a fit, as in the evil camp. Now we sort of know that it's caused by an electrical imbalance in the brain. But still, it's a disease that's stigmatised and looked down upon. I remember when I was diagnosed, the doctor could not have done a worse job of telling me. He almost couldn't look me in the eye. He avoided any deep conversation about it and I was in and out of the office in just a few minutes, and then saw him treating an old lady with so much tenderness and care. I wondered what was wrong with me and, of course, it was epilepsy."

Nov 23, 202231:00
Christos Demetriou

Christos Demetriou

Christos Demetriou is an entrepreneur, music producer, songwriter and pastor.

Chris’ commercial history embraces multiple areas of business activity, including a sports promotion and public relations company, a television broadcast network (with affiliates in 28 countries), an entertainment exchange portal, a media rights and brokerage business (still active after 32 years) and a registered charity (celebrating 32 years).

Chris is also the author of four books and hosted “It’s All Greek to Me,” a TV programme which is aired in 36 countries.

Chris is responsible for three top 5 chart hits and two number 1 songs. One of Chris’s compositions featured in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games and appears in Q magazine's Top 100 Singles of All Time (at number 77). Guinness Book of Records cited the original version as being the first ‘sample’ ever used in a music production.

Having worked in different capacities with many well-known celebrities, Chris is professionally linked to world renown music artists such as Cat Stevens, David Bowie, Mike d’Abo and John Kongos.

In 1990 Chris and his wife Loraine founded Cornerstone Ministries, a registered charity and Evangelical Christian church based in Surrey. Cornerstone Ministries started as a small Bible Study that grew rapidly to a congregation now exceeding 600 people. Cornerstone is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community made up of 41 nations.

Here is a link to the song he mentions in this interview: He’s Gonna Step on You Again

"And I remember when I was working with Cat Stevens, and he found Islam. And he tried to convert me to Islam. And then he said, Chris, you're still searching, and until you find that, you're not going to be settled. And I agreed with it. But he couldn't persuade me to lead my whole life and take on this new life. So I had to have an encounter with God that was personal and real, which I did have, and that's what turned me around."



Nov 11, 202237:26
Nicola Horlick

Nicola Horlick

Nicola Horlick is a British investment fund manager nicknamed 'superwoman' in the media for balancing her high-flying finance career with bringing up six children. She graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a degree in Jurisprudence, later joining SG Warburg as a graduate trainee in 1983.

She was initially placed in the asset management division of Mercury Asset Management, where she stayed for the following 8 years, becoming a director at the age of 28. In 1991, she moved to Morgan Grenfell Asset Management and in 1992 was made Managing Director of the UK investment division.

In 1997, Nicola was asked to set up a UK investment business for SocGen, a French bank, with the aim of accumulating £5bn of funds under management over the following 5 years. In 2013, she founded Money&Co, a peer-to-peer lending platform where she remains as CEO today. 

"Diversity comes in many forms and one of those forms is not having everybody going down the same funnel. Doing their GCSEs, doing their A-Levels, doing a degree going and doing internships during their holidays. Going on the milk rounds and choosing a bank to work in. You know, it's all very narrow, isn't it? Actually if somebody's been a professional musician for a number of years, they've had all sorts of adversity to overcome and. And having different life experiences really adds to a team and to a business."

Nov 02, 202234:28
Ashok Ferrey

Ashok Ferrey

Ashok Ferrey is the author of five books, all of them nominated either for Sri Lanka's Gratiaen Prize or its State Literary Award. He read pure mathematics at Oxford and was a builder in London before becoming a writer. Ashok Ferrey's new book, The Unmarriageable Man just won the Gratiaen Prize - Sri Lanka's premier literary prize founded by Michael Ondaatje.

In a parallel world Ashok is an architect whose last building, The Cricket Club Cafe, was nominated for a Geoffrey Bawa Award for Excellence in Architecture. By day Ashok is also a personal trainer.

"And herein lies the rub. I mean, once you get used to [technology], you absolutely cannot do without them. And then you wonder how you managed before. They are absolutely beautiful but what they also do is they take possession of your soul. Even the very fact of writing a novel on a computer. I think I must be the last person on Earth, well, maybe I'm not - I write with a pencil in an exercise book. Why? Because it seems to be more expendable. When you write on the computer, there's an air of finality about it. And I don't want that, because at that first draft stage, it's a slippery fish that can go in any direction."

Oct 26, 202235:44
Vanessa Maria

Vanessa Maria

Vanessa Maria is a DJ, Broadcaster at Foundation FM, and a host at Resident Advisor.

Named as one of the most important young people in music, Vanessa has made her mark on radio stations across the country sharing her love for underground UK music. She’s been busy making appearances at Boiler room, Dazed Magazine, Warehouse Project and HÖR in Berlin. 

Vanessa’s work in and around mental health has also not gone unnoticed.

As the key presenter at Resident Advisor, she currently hosts a music and mental health-related podcast and documentary series. She has been named as a leader in shaping the future of London’s nightlife by The Face Magazine.

"It means feeling so othered that you clearly stick out in a certain context. That might be the way you look, your race. In my case, it was being black at university. But in that same context, even though I was so visible - and it was so clear that I was present and there because I stuck out - I was also so hyper-invisible because I was in the minority. My voice was felt so insignificant, and I felt so unimportant and I felt so undervalued in that same context. So it was a weird feeling to navigate, to feel visible and invisible at the exact same time."

Oct 19, 202231:27
Mónica Alcázar-Duarte

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte

Monica Alcazar-Duarte is a Mexican-British multi-disciplinary visual artist, whose work acknowledges her indigenous heritage while exploring current ideals of progress. Her work references Western society’s obsession with speed, expansion, and resource accumulation as an index of advancement, at a time in which ecological disaster looms. It considers other ways of seeing, knowing, and being in the world.

She embraces themes related to science and technology and their influence over society and the natural world. In her projects she mixes images and new technologies, such as Augmented Reality, to create multi-layered work, producing meaning through seemingly disconnected narratives. Monica’s work has been exhibited and collected throughout Europe, Mexico and the United States.

"We live in a in a post-colonial society. So for example, every time I come back to the country, there are a series of signs that come to the surface of my skin, in almost a hurtful way. And that is in that every person that I see, for example, in advertising or TV, is aspirational. And they look very European, and usually they're kind of light skin, and their features have nothing or almost nothing to do with 90% of the population in the country. And I find that shocking, that it is still very accepted."

Oct 12, 202243:15
Carlos Hidalgo Sr.

Carlos Hidalgo Sr.

Carlos Hidalgo has more than four decades of executive management expertise and development of strategic programs for Fortune 500, mid-market  companies and non-profits.

With an extensive knowledge of Latin America, Carlos has developed programs for Logoi (publishing), the Government Tourist  Office of Mexico, and for bus builders in Mexico and Brazil.

He also has widespread experience of the non-profit sector having served as the Chief Operating Officer of Word of Life, an international non-profit organization. In that capacity, he directed long range and day-to-day operations in 81  countries around the world.

Carlos was appointed Commissioner on the Michigan State Commission on Spanish Speaking affairs by Michigan Governor John Engler and served one term.

Carlos presently serves as a member of the governing board of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

“The things that we lost are not the important things in life. The important things in life, first of all, is the love that you have seen in your  home. That's one, number two, is the integrity that you have seen in your home, and the integrity that you have seen in your mother, the integrity that you have seen in me, the integrity that we have taught you over the years to you and your siblings, that matters.

What also is important is the truth and the ability to speak the truth, always speak the truth, even when the words that you speak, will come back to harm you. You speak the truth.”

Oct 05, 202236:36
Carlos Hidalgo Jr.

Carlos Hidalgo Jr.

Carlos Hidalgo is a Life Design coach, a Corporate Culture Development Consultant, two-time author, TEDx speaker and international keynote speaker.

Over the span of the last 25 years, Carlos has held corporate roles, started his own entrepreneurial ventures, led his company to receive multiple Inc. 5000 awards and has served in non-profit organisations. Carlos is now dedicated to helping others design a life they love to live, through his Life Design coaching and Corporate Culture services.

Carlos’s last book, The UnAmerican Dream details his journey from a workaholic to a life that he loves.

You can follow Carlos on Twitter @cahidalgo or on Instagram @life_design_living

“And so, throughout my teen years into college, and even into adulthood, my entire drive was about just proving them wrong, or trying to shake in a very improper way and very useless way the weight that was in my backpack. Rather than dealing with it and addressing the self-limiting beliefs head on and addressing that unconscious bias head on, I carried it around with me. And that's the thing, it became such a weight on me because I refused to deal really with the hurt and the pain that went with all those things.”


Sep 28, 202232:27
Laura Kavanagh

Laura Kavanagh

"We all have an unconsious bias, where we're walking down the road, and I could see somebody and I will just presume their life, or wonder what they do, or how many kids they have. I will just be inquisitive like that, because it's in my nature, I think, as a barber."

Content warning: This episode deals with themes of sexual exploitation and death.

Laura is a competitive powerlifter, mother of four and grandmother of two. She lives in Dublin, Ireland. Laura Kavanagh is the co-host of the 'Talk of the Town' podcast that features "3 Dublin girls addressing different issues of daily life".  It can be found on Instagram at @talkofthetown_podcast_, as well as her personal handle @Thismammy.

Laura has many stories to share.


Sep 20, 202243:31
Puneet Singh Singhal

Puneet Singh Singhal

Visit www.audibletrial.com/tharoorassociates for a 30 day free Audible trial and one free book token! #Sponsored

“And then when my turn was there, I go to the stage, I realised that I couldn't utter a single word. I was completely, like, nervous, and I couldn't. I was stammering as you know, I was stammering , I was spitting. A lot of struggle was there. So the words were not  coming out of my mouth. And everyone was simply - they were laughing. And when I saw some teachers, they were hiding their faces, but I could see them giggling as well. I was trembling, but I finished my speech, I didn't give up.  In that moment, that very moment, I decided that I'm going to become a leader.”

Puneet Singh Singhal was born and brought up in a slum called Sangam Vihar in South Delhi,India.

He grew up facing domestic violence and poverty. Due to his stammer, he also faced a lot of bullying.

Despite these early years, Puneet went on to complete his undergraduate degree in English Honours from the University of Delhi.

He then worked in the Royal Bank of Scotland as an operations Analyst in the Anti-Money Laundering Department.

After a year of working there, he realised that corporate life is not for him. He has since worked with organisations like Amnesty International, Action Aid India, Vision India Foundation and Association for democratic reforms.

He is a former member of the Delhi Minority Commission and a current member of International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

He is currently running a social organisation working towards normalising speech and communication disorders and advocating for a more inclusive and accessible society for people with disabilities.

May 28, 202242:24
Robin Shohet pt. 2

Robin Shohet pt. 2

Visit www.audibletrial.com/tharoorassociates for a 30 day free Audible trial and one free book token! #Sponsored

“Forgiveness is quite different. First of all, we do it for ourselves. So, I had to get rid of the bias that I am doing it for somebody else. I am doing it for myself. I don’t want to be carrying around this anger inside me. It’s like a form of taking poison when we are angry with anybody. For a long time. I am not talking about just in the moment - for a long, long time. We keep telling ourselves a story about what they did and we are engaging in victim consciousness.”

This is part 2 of my podcast interview with Robin Shohet.  Robin is a therapist, supervisor, trainer and author of the book he co-wrote with his wife:In Love with Supervision. Creating Transformative Conversations.

In the last episode, we discussed the idea of what unconscious bias meant to him. What is individual consciousness and how does this affect all the decisions we make? This interview can be found in Season 4, episode 3.

This time, Robin will share some stories of a more personal nature. His understanding of the word forgiveness and how that may affect his unconscious bias.

May 21, 202235:14
Ethan Nadelmann

Ethan Nadelmann

Visit www.audibletrial.com/tharoorassociates for a 30 day free Audible trial and one free book token! #Sponsored

“There is a basic core principle of the work that I have done all these decades. It is the principle that nobody should be punished simply for what we put into our bodies. There is no legitimate basis in science, in medicine and ethics, the Bible, you name it, for distinguishing between or discriminating against people, based upon which substance they put in their body.”

Described by the American magazine Rolling Stone as "the point man" for drug policy reform efforts and “the real drug czar,” Ethan Nadelmann is widely regarded as the outstanding proponent of drug policy reform both in the United States and abroad.

He founded and directed first, The Lindesmith Center and then the Drug Policy Alliance from 1994 to 2017, during which time he and his colleagues were at the forefront of dozens of successful campaigns to legalize marijuana and advance other alternatives to the war on drugs.

Ethan currently hosts the leading podcast on all things drugs: PSYCHOACTIVE.

May 14, 202238:12
Lynn Paltrow

Lynn Paltrow

Trigger warning to listeners. This episode deals with stories around abortion and racism that could be distressing to some listeners.

“Here's an unconscious bias and a cognitive phenomenon.The human brain likes simple causality.So if a case got in front of a jury, the experience from talking to lots of people, including on long flights from one part of the country to another is that, if it comes out of your vagina, it must be your fault. The ability to think in any complexity about pregnancy doesn’t really seem to exist.”

Lynn Paltrow is an attorney and the founder and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a non-profit advocacy organization. NAPW works to ensure that no one is denied civil or human rights because of pregnancy or any outcome of pregnancy including birth, miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion.

May 07, 202241:00
Kate Kinoshita

Kate Kinoshita

This week’s episode is sponsored by Audible, Visit www.audibletrial.com/tharoorassociates for a 30 day free Audible trial and one free book token!

“I don't have to become British, I don't have to become Japanese and I don't have to put on a front or a mask in order to just exist. This is the centre in my body that gives me the validation that I need. That it's fine to just be exactly who I am. And that changes day to day as well, there's a fluidity to it.

Kate Kinoshita is a writer, movement artist and mentor based in West Yorkshire.

She is of Japanese and white British descent and graduated from Oxford University in Chinese Studies.

Her chronic health conditions led her to explore ch'i-based movement practices in Taiwan, and to living and working in rural Japan.

She is interested in non-dual animist frameworks and the impact of colonialism upon the collective and individual soma.

Kate runs regular online group classes exploring meditative movement.

~ you can find details via her Instagram @_oakshine.

Apr 30, 202233:10
Between: Us Stories of Unconscious Bias - Podcast Trailer
Apr 23, 202201:36
Damion Taylor

Damion Taylor

This week’s episode is sponsored by Audible, Visit www.audibletrial.com/tharoorassociates for a 30 day free Audible trial and one free book credit!

“Feeling a heightened sense of my family being in peril really made me realise that a lot of what people were doing and saying and reacting to was based on a couple of things. One, a lack of experience with the groups or the cohorts that they were rallying against. And the second, being their only exposure to those people or concepts was through media, which is common through so many people's lives.  If you don't have access to a specific culture or group or cohort, the little bit that you do becomes the whole, the totality of your perception of that group.”

Damion Taylor has spent the last 15 years applying data and technology to entertainment. Both analytical and creative, he brings a unique skill set that’s in high demand for brands and media companies.

However, being Black in media and technology, Damion has experienced first-hand the impact of pervasive unconscious biases.

Damion has now begun the journey of helping to bring those biases to light for himself and for others. He hosts a podcast : Professional Confessions.

Where to find Damion’s Podcast - https://shows.acast.com/Professional-Confession

The Professional Confessions Website - https://professionalconfession.com

Apr 16, 202239:19
Simone Sultana

Simone Sultana

“And we have centuries worth of information at our hands and we really don't find time to do the sort of work we should, as individuals, to make this world a more thoughtfully choreographed place rather than one where we have existing inequalities and the powerful manage to control media and the way we think. I think we have it all in our power to actually be more informed.”

Simone, a Bangladeshi-Brit, is an economist and photographer and grew up in North London in the 1970s.

Aged 5, Simone along with her family escaped from persecution during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war and moved to London.

She grew up in a fairly politicised family, her parents influenced by the left politics of the 1960s, and their activism grew with the movement to liberate Bangladesh.

She herself married a South African involved in SA’s liberation and has spent much of her working life working in the consensus building space with different stakeholders on economic policy, gender rights, climate and worker safety.

After the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh and the tragic death of over 1000 workers, Simone has been working with safety for workers in the global supply chains with some of the largest global brands and local industry.

She chaired BRAC UK for ten years, was on its global board and is now on the founding governance body of BRAC which is the world’s largest development NGO.

BRAC is ranked number 1 in the Top 100 NGOs for the last five years running - with scaled impact on health, education, livelihoods, gender rights and a trailblazer in eradicating extreme poverty.

Apr 09, 202228:54
Sonia Dandona Hirdaramani

Sonia Dandona Hirdaramani

“When I first heard the term unconscious biases, it actually had a negative connotation to me, as the word bias often does. But after some thought, I realised that unconscious biases are actually very natural. What separates us as humans is our ability to learn from our experiences, both good and bad. Now, like emotions, we have positive ones and negative ones, the problematic ones are the bad ones, like for example, anger. How do we deal with that negative emotion, we have to acknowledge it, we have to manage it.”

Sonia Dandona Hirdaramani had a career in finance, fashion and entertainment before pivoting to personal investing and non-profit work after her move from New York to Sri Lanka.

When she was working in entertainment and fashion, she was commended by Hillary Clinton for building bridges between South Asia and the USA

She currently lives in Sri Lanka with her husband and two young sons.

An occasional writer, Sonia writes a column, Island Life, Global Views, in the Daily Mirror, the English newspaper with the highest circulation in the country.

She also wrote a chapter for Anupam Kher’s best-selling book, “Your Best Day Is Today.” She is a graduate of Columbia University and completed a Harvard University Graduate Proseminar in Journalism.

Apr 02, 202230:33
Cyrus Broacha

Cyrus Broacha

“So here's the question, the unconscious bias is not that, that you got a tendency to go for the, smaller dog in the fight. The question is whether you do it to glorify and validate yourself. In which case, you know, there’s no real pure energy involved in that. As some selfless Jesus like figure, who is willing to give his life to save humanity, because that's what he wants to do.”

Cyrus Broacha is an Indian TV anchor, theatre personality, comedian, political satirist, columnist, podcaster and author.

He is also a prankster, best known for his show Bakra on MTV and his show The Week That Wasn't on CNN News18.

He is also the host of #CyrusSays on IVMPodcasts which is one of the best podcasts of the country.

Mar 26, 202233:38
Marguerite Richards

Marguerite Richards

"I recently read how it's only .01 percent of our DNA that's responsible for the expression of our skin colour and our traits, all of which are our outward appearance that we define as race. But those things are the things that we use to define each other. We are biased when we look at a person, when we are talking specifically about race"

Marguerite is an American writer and editor with a background in literature, translation, and magazine publishing.

Marguerite currently has a book out titled The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human, which you can locate at here website linked below.

Focusing on world cultures, she aims to understand the nuances that separate us, with the resolve to further our understanding of each other through her work.

Marguerite has spent many years living in different environments that are & foreign to her -  Holland, Chile, France, and now lives in Sri Lanka.

She is currently editing memoirs by Iranian, Kuwaiti-American, Bangladeshi, and Ugandan-American authors, and gathering writings for an artist book about birth traditions around the globe.

Marguerite recently curated a collection of diverse stories by authors from many Muslim worlds, entitled The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human, which was published by Penguin in December 2019.

She says her mission is to try to promote cultural awareness by supporting the voices of those heard less often than her, specifically through literature.

Marguerite’s website - https://www.margueriterichards.com/

Marguerite’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/margueriterichards/?hl=en

Marguerite’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT9ESu76fwhqn9_NRndQ2Eg

Mar 19, 202232:14
T.M. Krishna

T.M. Krishna

“So, I think the first thing we must realise that there is no end-game here. It’s not like 10 years, practice this and in 10 years you’re going to be relieved of all unconscious biases, thats never going to happen. First to understand that, that’s a perpetual operation within our, our mind, it’s going to always be there. So I think what it requires is, I mean, you know, kind of acute awareness of it, I mean, can we be aware of it?”

Thodur Madabusi Krishna or T.M. as he prefers to be known is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, writer, activist and author. As a vocalist, he has made many innovations in both the style and substance of his concerts and is known for his individuality. His concert stage, whether in his hometown of Chennai or anywhere else in the world, is wholly classical but his concert practice is uncompromisingly his own.

In the year 2016 he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for “his forceful commitment as an artist and advocate to art’s power to heal India’s deep social divisions, breaking barriers of caste and class to unleash what music has to offer not just for some but for all” In 2017 he received the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration Award for his services in promoting and preserving national integration in the country. In 2017, he has also received the Professor V Aravindakshan Memorial Award for connecting Carnatic music with the common man.

T.M. speaks and writes about a wide range of issues, not confined to the cultural sphere. His interests span the breadth of left-wing activism, be it the environment, the caste system, social reform, religious reform, combating communalism, innovation in classical music and more. He has started and is involved in many organisations whose work is spread across the spectrum of music and culture. Recently, he has spoken out against the destruction of statues of Lenin, Ambedkar, Gandhi and Periyar

In collaboration with Ashoka University, T.M. Krishna is now involved in The Edict Project, an attempt to reimagine Ashoka’s edicts in musical form. The project aims at creating vibrant aesthetic, socio-political and academic conversations around the edicts.

Mar 12, 202228:60
Syima Aslam

Syima Aslam

Syima Aslam is the founder and director of the Bradford Literature Festival (BLF), a 10-day literary and cultural celebration, which she established in 2014. The BLF welcomes more than 70,000 visitors to Bradford annually and is celebrated as the most socio-economically and ethnically diverse  literary festival in the UK.

Under Syima’s directorship, the BLF has made a significant impact on the country’s literary landscape. It has been hailed as ‘one of the most innovative and inspirational festivals in the UK’, bringing together literature from all genres, promoting intercultural fluency, providing a platform for marginalised voices, and reflecting the changing face of contemporary Britain through a programme which celebrates diversity, empathy and artistic excellence.

"I went to nursery in the UK,  but when I came back at the age of eight, I'd lost all my English. So the perception and the way you see a culture at that point is different. But I had my memories of that culture having had those younger years. One of the things that I find quite interesting is the way that you are viewed changes with the way that you are dressed. I grew up in Halifax, and my parents did what a lot of first generation migrants do which is desperately try and hold on to this culture that they had in their heads. So, if I was at home, I was dressed traditionally, if I was at school, I was dressed in my uniform, if I was with my friends, I was dressed in my jeans. And I have found that when people meet you, depending on how you are dressed, they will talk to you differently, they will relate to you differently."


Dec 19, 202140:44
Nick Pendry

Nick Pendry

“For me, one of the many things that is most significant about being a person of colour, a brown person, having been brought up in the ‘70s, in an exclusively white English family, but in an almost exclusively white English context, is that the ideas and beliefs that I have gained and have been transmitted down through my parents, my grandparents, have influenced the way in which I think and behave. Not only towards people of colour, but to other people too.”

Nick Pendry identifies as a brown Indian man. He is married to a woman, and lives in southeast London with his two teenage children. Nick was adopted as a baby by a white English family. He is a social worker and family therapist, who has spent his entire working life in the public sector.

Dec 04, 202137:25
Annette Smith

Annette Smith

Annette Smith (née Julien) was born in December 1927 on the small Caribbean Island of Grenada into a privileged family. She was educated in Trinidad and returned to Grenada where she completed a year of nursing before embarking on a journey to England aged just 18. She travelled completely alone and this was her first trip abroad. In 1946, post-WWII, Annette became the only black nurse at the Guildford Royal Surrey Hospital. She married a Londoner and had three children before returning to her nursing profession as a community nurse. She has many interests including poetry, singing, the arts, sport and continues to be a positive member of community.

"I arrived to do my nursing training in England, and we got into Southampton. And of course, in those days, everybody came by ship. And I remember standing on the deck and looking at the luggage being handled by white porters. And I never, ever thought white porters would do that job. Because out in the West Indies and the Caribbean, black people always did that. So that was an example of unconscious bias. And I just couldn't get over it."

Nov 21, 202129:37
Sabriye Tenberken

Sabriye Tenberken

Sabriye Tenberken, from Germany, knows what it is to be marginalised after becoming fully blind at the age of 12. She studied Tibetology/Central Asian Sciences at Bonn University and helped develop the Tibetan Braille Script. In 1997, Sabriye travelled on horseback through the Himalayas and in 1998, along with her partner Paul Kronenberg, started the first school for the blind in Tibet. This school formed the foundation of Braille Without Borders, an organisation that empowers blind people to take their lives into their own hands. In 2005, Sabriye and Paul founded Kanthari in Kerala, south India, a leadership institute for social change makers. Kanthari fosters individuals from all over the world who have overcome adversity and because of that, carry a desire to create social change.

Sabriye is a public speaker, the author of My Path Leads to Tibet, a book that has been translated into 16 languages. She has also taken part with Paul in the award winning documentaries BLINDSIGHT and KANTHARI – Change from Within.


"We had little children who, who came and would say, why do they throw stones at me? And then other children who were longer in our place, they say, because they are stupid! They don't know who you are, and they don't know that you're a human being. And they don't know that blindness is something that has also a lot of advantages. For example, you can read and write in the dark. Who can do this? So I do feel that especially working with kids - back then I've worked with kids, but for adults it comes the same - I think it's very important that we are constantly reflecting on what people try to make us believe. And how is the reality for us? What do we believe? What do we make out of it? And this is getting out of the unconsciousness of our biases into the consciousness of our biases."

Nov 06, 202142:20
Q

Q

Q, also known as Francesca Mudannayake, is a Sri Lankan based singer/songwriter who has been performing since she was 6. After honing her skills at the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in the UK and singing at the Barbican Theatre, Q released her debut EP Hysteria in April 2021.  Blending alternative R&B with lyrics on female sexuality and independence, Rolling Stone India described it as “everything you want to hear in music of empowerment”. In addition to this she has modelled for fashion brands and has appeared in magazines like L’Officiel Italia and Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka. An actor too, she was most recently featured in Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy.

"I can speak from my own self, that I am a bit of a weird, complex creature that is very emotional and very sensitive to things. So for the past couple of years, I've just been going through all of those emotions and thinking, well, I should just really put this all down in an EP. Because these are all my lived experiences. And maybe, just maybe if a girl is listening to it, they might be a bit more comfortable with themselves, you know, and think to themselves, oh, I don't need to be just this, and I don't need to be just that. I can be all of this. If you can come to that sort of point where you're at peace, with all of these different personalities that you have, I think it's a better way to live."

Listen to Hysteria, her debut EP here: https://li.sten.to/hysteria/. Follow her on Instagram https://instagram.com/musicby_q or Facebook https://m.facebook.com/musicbyq

Oct 23, 202132:41
Safiya Yasmin Badzhva

Safiya Yasmin Badzhva

Safiya Yasmin Badzhva (pronounced Bajwa) is a 22-year-old marketing student from Moscow. She was born and raised in Moscow to a Russian mother and a Pakistani father. Safiya sees herself as 100% Muscovite, but her appearance doesn’t fit into the stereotypical image of a local Russian. Safiya feels that Moscow is getting more diverse, so it's important to question the idea of xenophobia and racism in modern Russian society.

"I define myself as a local as a Muscovite and person with the Russian mentality. And my first language is Russian. But despite all this, people don't perceive me as a local, much less as a Russian person. First of all, my appearance is not typical for a Russian person, also, my name and my religion. And every time I meet a new person, I feel like I have to prove that I speak language well, that I know this city and old traditions. And sometimes many people are simply surprised. They say how well you speak Russian, they compliment my Russian. It could be perhaps an example of a positive unconscious bias. And sometimes they think that I'm a liar, and some people could be just, frankly, rude to me."

Oct 09, 202124:20
Priyanca Radhakrishnan

Priyanca Radhakrishnan

Priyanca Radhakrishnan is a Member of Parliament in the New Zealand Labour Party and a Minister of the Crown. Her portfolios include Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities. She is the first person of Indian origin to become a Minister in New Zealand.

Born in India, Priyanca went to school in Singapore, and then moved to New Zealand to further her education. She has spent her work life advocating on behalf of people whose voices are often unheard, including survivors of domestic violence, and exploited migrant workers. She strongly believes that everyone has the right to live with dignity - meaning equitable access to affordable housing, quality education and decent, secure work.

"So it's this whole process of negotiating your identity. Who are you? When I came to New Zealand, I realised that I wasn't quite as Indian as I thought I was. I had lots of friends who were international students from India, and I felt that I was, again, a little bit different from that. I had to then acknowledge the fact that growing up in Singapore means that had shaped my identity and who I was, as well. It's actually when I moved here that I even acknowledged that which was quite a revelation for me. So this whole process of negotiating that, and then coming to a point in my life, where I thought, well, no, I'm not going to conform to something that people want."

Sep 25, 202136:38
Papa CJ

Papa CJ

Papa CJ is an award-winning, international stand-up comedian. He has performed over 2000 shows in over 25 countries. Forbes Magazine called him ‘the global face of Indian stand-up’ and Harvard Business Review called him 'one of the most influential comedians around the world’. He has won awards for both Asia and India’s best stand-up comedian. He is also a motivational speaker and corporate training coach.

"Even in our [Indian] education system, when we grow up, we are told these are the answers. Suddenly, you go abroad and study, and your faculty member asks you, what do you think? And the first thing that comes to your mind is like, what do you mean, what do I thin? You're supposed to tell me what's right. So when you get to this point in this profession, where there are no boundaries. You tend to start looking inwards. And you really start to question, what are the things that I value? What do I believe is right? And eventually, even your audience doesn't matter. Because you present your truth. And what you're saying is, this is what works for me, if you like it fine. If you don't like it also fine, I respect that."

Sep 12, 202138:20