Welcoming Ish, aka my twin, to the podcast! She and I dive into how our values as our south asian immigrant parents, her's from Punjab and mine from Pakistan, raised us in the Bay Area while implementing their cultural values.

We touch on the differences in how boys and girls are raised and the challenges in those differences of expectations and treatment. We both offer unique perspectives that align and misalign at times and shifted the conversation to specifically how it has translated into our friendships, college life, perspective of life, and dating. Further topics on childhood trauma, societal pressures, self-perception, desi values, the American system, the different versions we live of ourselves, building a relationship with your parents, and the importance of cultural exposure. We hope to open these conversations within our Desi American community.

I cannot thank Ish enough for joining on the episode. Her perspective is so unique from my own that I really valued having her on, especially because we have so many of these productive conversations all the time, and I am ecstatic to share our ideas with my listeners. Love you, Ish!

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Welcoming my roommate to the podcast, I was truly grateful to hear her story. We began by sharing how we met and became roommates, reflecting on the value of living with people from similar backgrounds—how we all in a way automatically understand each other as we make some of the best college memories that we will remember for many years to come.

Merriam opened up about her hardships and how she overcame them, highlighting the skills she developed through her journey with therapy. We discussed the importance of falling, getting back up, and growing from challenges, as well as the internal struggles from childhood that many of us are still learning to heal during college and early adulthood. This episode was incredibly playful, heartfelt, and therapeutic, and I was honored to have her on.

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Welcoming 2025 in basically March... but HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway as I haven't recorded since last year and wanted to share how I celebrated in Pakistan and Malaysia. After a quick reflection on my trip, I share how much perspective it gave me as I came back to my college routine. The two main pressures I talked about in my last semester of college are post-college plan (JOB) and marriage which is a conversation my parents sprung on me. I discuss quite a bit on Pakistani American marriage and my opinions on finding my person, but I'm also curious to know what my fellow Desi Americans feel about this. A quick side step to how my cut is going, losing weight and going to the gym. Also, RAMADAN MUBARAK I hope this time brings lots of peace to everyone celebrating. Welcome back to TMT :) ENJOY

"Do it sad, do it tired, do it unmotivated. Just do it!!" This has been my new motto because being a young adult has not been the easiest thing with so much of my life left to plan and figure out and it feels like it needs to be done now, specifically career plans post-grad and finding my husband. I wanted to label these feelings and talk about what I expect most 21 year old, about to graduate, college students must be feeling. I hope this reaches my target audience and pulls my fellow bed-rotters out of their slumps. YOU HAVE COME SO FAR. Also, I know the audio sucks but it's auditorially legible, I will fix it for the next one ;) ENJOY

I often describe eras of my life as the aura of an animal and recently I have been feeling like a sloth. That's a rough thing to accept when I felt like a piranha the majority of the year, especially interning in DC, fighting obstacles and seeking opportunities. I describe how I feel like my slump is most likely due to things coming easy this year, resulting in a lack of hard work and making the reward less rewarding and not even worth trying. I recount on my piranha mindset and create a game plan that looks forward, with the gym being a huge contributor to that mentality. In this last year of college and looking forward to post-grad life, I think many of you will relate to this odd transition period and relate to the mentality. ENJOY

Sit down with Ameer and I as we chat about his passion for music. It started with family dinners with his parents singing, to him performing at non-profits in Lahore, Pakistan, to serenading PSA (Pakistani Student Association) at the Mehndi Ki Raat event at UC Berkeley where he is now pursuing his career goals in public policy in the Haas School of Business. I respect him for putting himself in the spotlight and showcasing his talent on Instagram where I first met him. We also touched on the many famous brands he's represented as well as his singles and music video released. I am honored to call him one of my good friends and his life goals inspire me and I'm sure they will inspire you too, but you'll have to listen to find out. ENJOY

I grew up very very independent & being surrounded by so many people this year who have been so loving and welcoming, I've been learning how to balance letting myself be dependent on others without relying on them too much. Also, while continuing to practice always being able to support myself when I need to. This comes out with simple things like grocery runs to having mental breakdown therapy sessions. I feel that many of my first-born, desi girls will relate to this episode as all our fathers raised us as if we were sons (but honestly we have an elite mentality). ENJOY

Reading the title of this episode is the best way I can describe it. ENJOY