Shows
Cultured, or Nah?S4 E10: Perceptions of Love Growing Up South AsianBollywood, our parents' marriages, Disney movies, Hollywood - all of it would have been enough to throw us into a doozy. How did you think about love and dating growing up? What has changed for you, and what do you hope for now? In this episode, Shabnum sits down with fellow podcasters Lahari Rao (of Down to Brown podcast) and Mitali Dargani (of Brown Game Strong podcast) and the three compare their childhoods, influence of their parents' relationships, what they saw in the media, and the impact of their relatives' perceptions and relationships on their conceptions of love both...
2022-11-161h 31Cultured, or Nah?S4 E9: Not Wanting Kids as a South AsianDo you ever feel like our collectivist cultures and all the models we grew up with of what a fulfilling life could be make it seem like not having kids is a strange, or even selfish choice? How do we talk about not wanting kids and still being able to live fulfilling lives without feeling like we're missing out on something or feeling guilty? Listen to this episode where Shabnum and her friend Avani Patel speak candidly about when they started to feel they may not want kids and how they think this choice is perceived by their family...
2022-09-1957 minCultured, or Nah?S4 E8: Dissecting & Understanding CasteIn this episode, Shabnum compares two books: The Doctor and the Saint - Caste, Race, and the Annihilation of Caste (the Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi) by Arundhati Roy, and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander to get a deeper understanding of the way in which we can define caste. Shabnum is no expert in caste, nor someone who has personal experience with any of the issues highlighted, and wants to call that out upfront. This episode is Shabnum's journey through reading the two books mentioned, and sharing her learnings and personal opinions with...
2022-09-121h 05Cultured, or Nah?S4 E7: What do Web3 and NFTs mean for South Asian brands?Today we're joined by Payal Shah - Founder & Designer of L'Dezen and Psylish Jewelry, fashion influencer, and Web3/NFT enthusiast! Payal talks through the basics like what even are NFTs? She then proceeds to explain how she has been looking into and experimenting with Web3 and the blockchain to future proof her own business, and why she enjoys the world of NFTs so much. Payal will talk us through an endless world of possibilities when it comes to this space, and even highlight some South Asian artists she specifically likes. I personally learned a lot in this conversation, so...
2022-09-051h 02Cultured, or Nah?S4 E6: "Not a regular mom" - Redefining the New Age South Asian MomWhat do you think when you hear the term "mom"? What do you picture when you picture a desi mom? Taking the previously uncool to cool, we're seeing a new generation of women claiming all aspects of their identity - motherhood, South Asianness, their hobbies, their kids, and everything in between. Today we have on Jyoti Chand (@mamajotes on Instagram) and we talk about how and why the image of what a South Asian mom is has changed. Jyoti talks about her journey as a creator and how she juggles the multiple identities and perceptions that come with being...
2022-08-151h 01Cultured, or Nah?S4 E5: South Asians in ComedyDoes your comedy always have to stem from your race / religion / culture? Join us as we talk to Meghana Indurti and Daman Bamrah about how they got started in comedy and what drives them. Meg and Damn will get into the good, the bad, the ugly of comedy and how they think about the content of their sets as they think about talking to different kinds of audiences.
2022-08-081h 03Cultured, or Nah?S4 E4: A Look Inside Brown Girl Magazine's UntoldPublishing a book is no joke - especially one that seeks to tell the stories of South Asian women across the world in all different phases of life - young, old, married, single, divorced, taking care of their mothers or mother-in-laws, maintaining friendships or struggling with the loss of them. Untold did what few other books have been able to do before - collect a series of varied experiences and bring them together to representatively try to present a point of view on the experience of growing up South Asian. In this episode, Shabnum sits down with Trisha Sakhuja-Walia...
2022-08-0156 minCultured, or Nah?S4 E3: The Weight of Non-Romantic Relationships as a South AsianJoin us as we talk to 3 writers from Brown Girl Magazine's Untold anthology who speak about unique experiences such as the expectations between a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, caretaking duties as a children of desi parents, and relationships with grandparents abroad. In this episode we'll dive into the relationships that define so much of our lives, and the way the expectations of those relationships are distinctly unique to being South Asian - often serving as extreme counter-types to the relationships we see portrayed in western media. Any relationship between two people is unique, and in this episode Shabnum gets a...
2022-07-251h 11Cultured, or Nah?S4 E2: Truth Telling on Social MediaEver been confused by how your parents can hate Trump but support Modi? How do we have difficult and honest conversations on social media given very real potential threats from the governments of South Asian countries, as well as the comment trolls? What started as a conversation about how these two accounts, Urban Asian and South Asian Nation, are working to amplify South Asian voices and building a brand blossomed into a much more important conversation on the importance of being able to amplify the areas of utmost attention in conversations about South Asian matters - but this isn't...
2022-07-181h 10Cultured, or Nah?S4 E1: Make it Make Sense - The Legalities of Roe v. Wade OverturningHow did this happen? What allowed this to happen? And what are the legal arguments that underpin such a momentous decision in American history? Back with a bang, Shabnum comes back for Season 4 with Seema Iyer, a lawyer and journalist with Queens City News as they explore what the legal arguments were that allowed Roe v. Wade to get overturned. Seems explains the fractious history behind America's abortion laws (or lack thereof) and how we are in the situation we're in, as well as what we need to do for the future to ensure that access to abortion is...
2022-07-111h 00
Down to BrownThe Secret Life of Bollywood (Shabnum Gulati, Cultured or Nah) Shabnum Gulati, host of Cultured or Nah, and Lahari continue their conversation in a new direction: Shabnum's year in Mumbai auditioning for Bollywood. They cover the experience she had living her childhood dream, approaching research and networking, acting/speaking in Hindi, body dysmorphia, and more. We ask the question...how does a brown, American-Indian gal make it in Bollywood?
2021-09-281h 08
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E10: Growing up Indo-CaribbeanIn this episode Shabnum is joined by Juanita Dudhnath of Brown Girl Magazine as both of them talk through the dark history of indentured servitude that led to Indian migration to the Caribbean, and how four to five generations onward the culture of Indo-Caribbean people has evolved. Juanita explains the term "Coolie," and how it can have both familiar and negative connotations, and she explains the hyphenated identity that Indo-Caribbeans have uniquely lived with for generations when the world is just now starting to normalize a hyphenated identity. We also talked a bit about the perception problem of other...
2021-08-091h 10
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E9: Effect of Religious Conversion on IdentityIn this episode, Shabnum interviews Jennifer Williams, Senior Foreign Editor of Vox Media on her journey with religious conversion to Islam. Jennifer grew up Southern Baptist, but through the course of her own work and research, found herself drawn to Islam. The best way to summarize Jen's journey is in her own words: "If you were to pass me on the street, you would never suspect I’m a Muslim: I don’t wear hijab. I have platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. And I am heavily tattooed. I grew up in Texas and was raised Southern Baptist. I use...
2021-08-021h 05
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E8: Growing up Biracial DesiIs the American dream for everyone? Does the color you are on the spectrum affect your place in society? In this episode Shabnum talks to Madison Natarajan and Alex Karjeker about their experiences growing up part South Asian. Madison is half white and half Indian, Alex is mixed race with multiple South Asian and part South Asian family members. Both of them talk to us about their experiences growing up and how they came to terms with the many different fragments of their identities. Madison talks through her childhood in which there was more of a "proximity to whiteness"...
2021-07-191h 13
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E7: Adulting - Raising Brown Children TodayA lot of us are first generation citizens of western countries where our parents were immigrants. Some of us have been parents for a few years while others are just now embarking on this journey; still others are a few years away. Gen X and Millennial diaspora South Asians are now having to grapple with questions of how we raise our own children: our second generation and sometimes biracial children in today's world where in many ways we have far more opportunities to provide them than ever before, but also brand new questions to tackle on race, feminism, climate...
2021-07-121h 11
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E6: Sufism and Modern ReligionIn this episode Shabnum sits down with Unitarian Minister Barbara Merritt, who is working on a collection of poetry from Rumi's Masnavi. She explains the persistence of Sufi poetry in our world and how and why it has survived the test of time. Sufi poetry has transcended organized religions and is widely read and used - the imagery being relatable and the lessons being easy to remember. Rumi is the most widely read poet in America, and Barbara explains why Sufi poetry which originated in the Islamic tradition has since overcome barriers of religion and been adopted by so...
2021-07-061h 04
Down to BrownShabnum travels to see if her childhood dream of Bollywood acting is her path (Shabnum Gulati of podcast Cultured or Nah?) Part 1 of 2. In their first collaboration together, podcasts Down to Brown's and Cultured or Nah's hosts, Lahari Rao & Shabnum Gulati respectively, come together to talk about Bollywood. Shabnum, who spent a year auditioning for Bollywood in Mumbai, and Lahari healthily critique the impact of the films they watched growing up in the 90s as kids: the role women played and the agism they observed, relationships and marriage, and divorce.Follow Down to Brown on Instagram @downtobrown_
2021-07-021h 04
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E5: Secret Diary of a British MuslimIn this episode, Shabnum interviews British standup comedian and now book author Tez Ilyas about his book "The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13 3/4." Cycling through a variety of topics, Tez and Shabnum exchange childhood stories of growing up South Asian (Tez still can't believe Shabnum would use the word "rice" to describe what she's eating for dinner instead of "chawal"). Tez talks about racism in a post-Thatcher Britain, the after effects of 9/11 and the 7/7 attacks, and the effects of American politics on the world. They of course wrap up with more on Man Like Mobeen and the...
2021-06-281h 18
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E4: the Evolving Role of Masculinity in BollywoodOriginally recorded for the South Asian Film Festival of America by Product of Culture, in this episode Shabnum & Rajiv take a magnifying glass to Bollywood films throughout time. With an almost academic fervor, they explore the relationship between the Hindi film industry and the Indian government while applying that lens to the tropes we've seen in Bollywood through the 70's - 2010s. They'll talk through the way India's relationship with the USSR impacted the type of Bollywood hero we saw in the 70s-80s, the way high rates of unemployment at the time landed us with iconic characters such a...
2021-06-2146 min
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E3: Perceptions of DivorceIn this episode Shabnum talks to Sabrina Lakhani and Malini Ramakumar Bartels. Sabrina is a behavioral scientist who specializes in helping people learn how best to navigate their own attachment styles in relationships. Having gone through a divorce herself, Sabrina shares the common pitfalls that South Asians may fall into due to cultural expectations and the marriages they would have observed of their own parents growing up. Malini is a 46 year old mother of two who shares more about her own journey growing up as a Gen X South Asian in the 80s and the experiences she's had with...
2021-06-1459 min
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E2: Indian Matchmade - The Arranged Marriage EpisodeIn this episode Shabnum talks to Supraja Seshadri and Darshi Shah in more of an anecdotal episode on their experiences going through the Arranged Marriage process. Supraja is Tamil and Darshi is Gujarati. They both talk through how the process works generally as well as some spicy, hilarious, and sometimes sad tales of the various dates they've been on and how the process has gone for them. This is a long episode, so feel free to skip to parts you'd find most interesting: 0:00-0:30 - Intros, how the process generally works 0:30-1:20- Various tales of arranged ma...
2021-06-081h 48Cultured, or Nah?S3 E1: Israel/Palestine, India/Pakistan: Divided LandsIn this episode, Shabnum sits down with her friend Khalil currently joining us from Ramallah, Palestine and they both explore the similarities between the Israeli/Palestinian and Indian/Pakistani conflict. Taking the stance that dividing countries up on religious grounds has not turned out to be the "clean" solution it may appear to be on paper, Khalil and Shabnum talk through family stories of the respective partitions and how the conflicts have a few features in common: colonization by the United Kingdom, a colonial empire falling apart in the wake of World War II, and a two state solution...
2021-05-311h 12
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E8: Sikh as an IdentityIn this episode, Shabnum sits down with Navpreet Sachdev (Nav the Poet) and Jaydeep Singh Ugra to talk about how being Sikh plays a role in one's understanding of identity. As a minority group within India as well as in the West, and given the Sikh community's at times strained relationship with the Indian government, we explore how being Sikh can sometimes be alienating from the identity of being "Indian", yet more intertwined with the cultural identity of "Punjabi." Jay and Nav tell us about their experiences growing up Sikh in the UK and US, and as a not-turbaned...
2021-03-221h 17
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E7: LGBTQIA+ Representation in South Asian MediaIn this episode, Shabnum is joined by esteemed film director Faraz Arif Ansari. Faraz has worked on numerous Bollywood projects, and most recently is known for their internationally award winning short film Sisak, Netflix's the Big Day, and their film Sheer Qorma (to be released later this year). Faraz and Shabnum talk about what's changing or not changing fast enough to allow for more queer representation in South Asian mainstream media, and how much further we still have to go. Faraz talks about their own journey coming out as a queer Muslim that is gender non-binary, and how they've...
2021-03-221h 04
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E6: So You Know You Can Dance?If you are Indian American, dancing is more than just a "hobby." It's a blood sport. How someone hasn't already made a reality TV show about the national Bollywood, Bhangra, and Raas competitions we all end up doing is a mystery to me (consider this my pitch, Netflix). Recently, on the Cultured, or Nah? story I posted a poll to ask if Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are also as into dancing as Indians. The results that came in explored a lot of nuance that goes back to how dance in India originally started, and the history of dance in itself...
2021-02-2258 min
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E5: Interracial Marriage & DesisIs there a racial hierarchy when it comes to dating outside of our community? How difficult would it be to go against the 20-30 years of conditioning we've all had on what an acceptable partner looks like? And how does religion add in a third layer where most in the West only struggle with the "interracial" aspect of a mixed marriage? These are the questions Shabnum explores on this week's episode with Zara, Angie, and Tej. Zara is a British Pakistani woman from the UK who fell in love with a white British man from a Christian family. Zara...
2021-02-151h 15
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E4: Toxic Masculinity in the Desi CommunityIn this episode Shabnum is joined by Rajiv Menon, a producer working in LA with a PhD from NYU in Masculinity and Global Pop Culture. Shabnum and Rajiv talk through a series of issues in our understanding of what Toxic Masculinity is today - starting with the question, "What is Toxic Masculinity?" We will deep dive into how a seemingly buzzworded concept can actually provide a rich vocabulary with which to have meaningful discussions on how masculinity, when purported in negative ways, can become harmful to both men and women in a society. We will also talk about how...
2021-02-0857 min
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E3: Eating and Not Eating - Equally Important for DesisIn this episode, Shabnum is joined by Masterchef star, author, and celebrated Instagram blogger Hetal Vasavada on the unique place food holds in our culture. Desis have a complicated relationship with food. We all know that our mothers and grandmothers will force feed us until we're about to explode, but are also the same women that will berate us for gaining weight. What we don't always talk about though is the social capital that food has in our culture. There are certain gender norms associated with food, and food is distributed as a means of celebration - often in...
2021-02-0158 min
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E2: History is Written by the SurvivorsJust as with Hollywood, the fiction landscape is changing rapidly! Just this year, we had a series of books by South Asian authors hit the literary landscape and make waves throughout the world. In this episode, Shabnum sits down with Alka Joshi, author of "The Henna Artist," and Saumya Dave, author of "Well Behaved Indian Women." Both of these pieces of work came out in 2020, are works of fiction that feature almost all South Asian characters and families, and explore the role of the South Asian woman and all that is expected of her. This is true in Joshi's "...
2021-01-251h 02
Cultured, or Nah?S2 E1: Empire & MigrationIn the first episode of Season 2, Shabnum sits down with Faiza Gul and Jibran Ahmed to talk about the factors that contributed to Pakistani migration to the UK, a demographic that is much more sizable in comparison to Pakistani immigrants to the US. We talk about how and why so many Pakistanis moved to the UK in the 60s - 80s, the racism they faced, and a deeper look into some of the nuanced issues that British Pakistanis face in their own community. We will talk about the relationship of different South Asian groups to each other in the...
2021-01-181h 07
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E10: No Nani, I Didn't Stand in the Sun!SEASON 1 FINALE! Thank you all so much for being loyal listeners! Can't believe we're already at the last episode of Season 1! In this episode, Shabnum talks to Priyanka Ganjoo, Pritika Gupta, and Seerat Saini about the evolving and widening beauty space as it relates to representation for South Asian women. Priyanka and Pritika are the CEO / Founder and Head of Partnerships of Kulfi Beauty, a budding beauty brand focused specifically on South Asian skin tones and undertones. Seerat is a fashion and beauty influencer and one of the co-founders of Brown Girl Memes who has been blogging about feminism...
2020-12-161h 03
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E9: "Look Ma, I made it" - Representation in HollywoodIn this episode we discuss the Golden Age of South Asian content that we seem to be enjoying in America. Shabnum and Khan talk to Sujata Day, (as seen on Insecure and Awkward Black Girl) who tells us about her latest venture writing/directing/producing Definition Please, and by Rajiv Menon, a producer that's had a windy path to a job in entertainment but loves to bridge the gap between South Asian and North American content. We talk about what kind of content inspired us all growing up to do what we do now, and how the small pieces o...
2020-12-0758 min
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E8: Hindu as an Identity, Muslim as an IdentityPerhaps our most important episode yet. There's a lot that comes with the identities of being Hindu and Muslim that we don't always discuss. Shabnum, Razib, and Khan discuss how deeply the religions are intertwined with our culture, since for desis culture and religion are deeply coupled in a way that is less common in the West. Razib and Khan will delve into tales from their childhood about coming to understand what Islam is, and the different interpretations of what the principles of Islam are by different ethnic groups of people. Shabnum will talk about how she a...
2020-11-301h 08
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E7: the Devil Wears Holi ChicOne of the most vibrant aspects of our culture is our fashion - our fine textiles, our rich and colorful fabrics, and the unique cuts of our clothes that separate South Asian couture into a class of its own. It's no secret that even our couture has evolved to meet the modern world - not just in the actual styles, but in the way the fashion is consumed and distributed. Remember when we would have to travel across oceans to go back home, haggle in alleyways, and trust the tailors to ship our precious cargo back to us...
2020-11-2241 min
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E6: The Next BillionIt's no secret that the next billion people to come on the internet are going to come from developing countries: likely South Asia. What is the role of India and Pakistan on the tech world stage today? In this episode, Shabnum (Product Manager at Facebook and host of Cultured, or Nah?), Faizan (Founder of Halo and Head of BD at Lyft Media), and Charlie (Chief Architect at Mettle) have a discussion on what the West needs to watch out for in tech when it comes to India/Pakistan. We'll talk about the Jio Phone and its revolutionary effect of...
2020-11-161h 01
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E5: Why is Gender Violence so Prevalent in India?In this episode, Shabnum interviews Dr. Swarna Rajagopalan, founder of Prajnya Trust and a political activist currently working with the UN whose life's work on gender violence helps to provide a great deal of perspective on why gender violence is such a problem in India and South Asia as a whole. Shabnum and Dr. Rajagopalan will talk through what has or hasn't changed in the understanding of femininity and masculinity in India, the portrayal of sexual assault in Indian cinema, and how most of the issue boils down to an issue of patriarchy. They will also talk through how...
2020-11-0944 min
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E4: Don't Forget Your BadaamIn this episode, Khan and Shabnum explore the nuances in Desi groups when it comes to academics - we all know the pressure to perform academically for all Asian groups is quite high, but what accounts for the differences in actual results? We explore why different sub-groups of South Asians have materially different performances in UK GCSE exams, and what potential causes for these differences might be. In the second half of the episode we're also joined by fitness titleholder and influencer Nika Sedghi, who shares her own journey of balancing academic success and her fitness dream: h...
2020-11-0248 min
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E3: Fresh Off the VoteEverything you need to know about the upcoming 2020 US Elections, and everything South Asians had to do with them. Ever wondered about the rising significance of South Asians in America as a voter demographic? Or about the increasing number of South Asians we see running for political office? We're gonna talk about all of it. We're also going to touch on the role of the South Asian community in a major referendum like Brexit in the UK. This is a power packed episode, so here is your guide to navigating it as you see fit! 0:00...
2020-10-261h 02
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E2: Art & Desi-gnJoin Shabnum and Khan in conversation with Manal Mirza and Hanifa Abdul Hameed, two exceptional, rising South Asian artists. We'll talk about the changes in landscape that have allowed the proliferation of South Asian art we see today, how art can be a medium to express opinions that may otherwise seem controversial, and what bothers us about the portrayal of South Asians in the media. Host: Shabnum Gulati Regular Contributor: Khan Asghar Guests: Manal Mirza, Hanifa Abdul Hameed Illustration: Hanifa Abdul HameedMusic: AnAkkiN on Soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/user-77559481
2020-10-1951 min
Cultured, or Nah?S1 E1: Tale of Two BrownsMeet Shabnum and Khan as we talk about what it was like to grow up as an Indian in the US and as a Pakistani in the UK. We're going to cover why filling out the race form was so hard growing up, what it means to be "Asian", and how the different immigration patterns of our respective countries have shaped the way American Desis and British Desis are so different. Did you know that the highest recipients of H1B visas in the US are Indians? Or that immigration to the UK from India, Pakistan, and B...
2020-10-1233 min
Cultured, or Nah?Cultured, or Nah? Season 1 TrailerCultured, or Nah? is a podcast about understanding and challenging some of the truisms we've come to believe are inherent in desiness. In this trailer, get a sense of what Shabnum and Khan will talk about throughout the season. We'll cover a range of topics: everything from the rise of South Asian art on Instagram, to gender violence in India. From the role of South Asians in US and UK elections, to the increasing visibility of South Asian stories told by South Asians in the mainstream media. We can't wait to go on this journey with you! H...
2020-10-0503 min
RogueCast[S1 E6] Shabnum Gulati // How to generate disruptive product ideasIn the sixth episode of RogueCast, Jay is joined by Shabnum Gulati, Product Manager at Facebook to discuss the topic of “How to generate disruptive product ideas”.
Shabnum explains that her key motivation for doing what she does is to “democratise solutions for people through technology” and to “do so in a way that the underserved are given access” to a variety of tools to help them solve important problems in their lives. She outlines the concept of a Product by explaining that in the physical world, whilst a “wrench is a tool that helps us build something, in...
2020-07-0129 min