We had the amazing opportunity to speak with Dr. Meera Shah (@mjshah8) on IGTV. She's a family medicine physician, abortion provider, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic (@pphphealth), and the author of "You're the Only One I've Told: The Stories Behind Abortion." One of our takeaways from this episode is: you can be a doctor like your parents want, and still speak up for injustices.

Make sure to buy her book on @bookshop_org! Also support @sakhinyc, @sistersong_woc, @wwhalliance, and @prhdocs.

Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

In this episode, we speak with Prince Bhojwani from ASANA Voices (@asanavoices). We dive into a topic that's a little out of left field for this podcast: heart health! But as Prince walks us through, South Asians have a big problem with hearth health, and relevant legislation to increase research in this area has unfortunately been stymied in Congress (the South Asian Heart Health Awareness and Research Act). What's the big deal, and what does it say about minority communities and health?

• • Find ASANA voices at asanavoices.org or at @asanavoices

• • Call your local congresspeople in the US about the South Asian Heart Health Awareness and Research Act! www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative and https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

In this episode, we have the privilege of speaking with Meenakshi Krishna, Founder and CEO of My Mantra Wellness (mymantrawellness.com), on the topic of grief. We dive into Meenakshi's own personal story, as well as how she navigated the grief process as a Desi-American. We dive into cultural competency (or lack thereof) in therapy, where she was able to find help for herself, and how her journey led to her founding My Mantra Wellness to help get people culturally-sensitive and community-based therapy and support.

• • Find My Mantra Wellness at @mymantrawellness or mymantrawellness.com

• • Fill out our community survey! This will help us get you more relevant content and help us serve the community better: bit.ly/SASMHAsurvey

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

We welcome our friend and the amazing dancer, choreographer, and teacher Amit Patel to this week's episode! We discuss Amit's journey towards creating the groundbreaking Bollywood Heels class in LA, what their experiences are teaching dance classes in a Desi space, how we met back at the SAAN conference in 2019, and about the impact that queer Desi art and art spaces in general have on the community.

• • Find Amit Patel at @_amitdances on IG and at his website, Amitpateldanceproject.com

• • CW: Drinking

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

In this week's episode, we react and discuss the tragic shootings that occurred on 3/16 at Asian-American businesses in the Atlanta metro area. We get into what solidarity means, why intersectionality matters, and the reaction from within our community.

• • Check out the book mentioned by Sriya in this episode called "Things I’ve Been Silent About” by Azar Nafisi.

• • Find the amazing org Red Canary Song at redcanarysong.net

• • If you're interested in donating, head over to https://linktr.ee/sasmha to see a few options.

We recently asked our followers about questions they had, and we got a lot of traction on a question about how to go about dating in your 30s. We answer the question from our personal experiences and our professional knowledge about relationship building.

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

Join us to talk with Kirpa Singh (@writtenbykirpasingh), who reached out to us to share her experiences living with schizoaffective disorder. We touch upon her whole journey from elementary school to adulthood learning about and getting care for her severe mental illness, and how her experience has been informed by culturally-incompetent medical professionals, Desi parents, friends, co-workers and more! CONTENT WARNING: In this episode, we discuss suicidality and experiences with severe mental illness including paranoia and depression.

Kirpa Singh can be found at writtenbykirpasingh.com, and is in the process of writing her first book, Reality Check!

In this episode, we also mention the book "The Center Cannot Hold" by Elyn Saks. Check it out!

If you or someone you know is in danger of suicide, please call the suicide prevention hotline in the US: 1-800-273-8255, or find international hotlines here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines.

Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

February 21st is International Mother Language Day, inaugurated by UNESCO to follow Bangladesh's Language Martyr's Day or Language Movement Day (ভাষা আন্দোলন দিবস). In this bonus episode, we wanted to shoutout the history of this day and have an informal chat about what this day means for us as Bengali diaspora.

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

Are you plugged into the Farmers' Protests? Some of us here at SASMHA have been following closely, and some of us not so much (till now!). In this episode, we learn from each other about what the farmers' protests are about, what the politics around it are, and dive into how we as diaspora are reacting to and consuming this news!

• • To check out the same resources that we used to inform ourselves this episode, head over to bit.ly/BTP-FarmersProtestsSources.

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License. • •

We welcome our first guest of the season, Dr. Nisha Gupta (nishagupta.org), to discuss a huge gamut of topics around erotic power and liberation psychology. We dive into Nisha's topic of expertise and research: erotic power among South Asians, the history of sexuality in terms of religion and colonialism, and (sexual) healing through empowered art and religion. Nisha is an assistant professor at the University of West Georgia who focuses on healing and power in a traumatic world through liberation psychology. She has done many arts-based research projects such as Desi Eros, which aims to reclaim the erotic power of South Asian Diaspora women.

• • Content Warning: We do mention trauma, PTSD, and societal oppressions in this episode, including sexual assault, slut-shaming, gender roles, religiosity, and more.

• • Explore Nisha's website, the Desi Eros Project, and buy some dope ass art by South Asian women here: https://nishagupta.org, https://desieros.com/, https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtbyNishaStore?ref=search_shop_redirect

• • Also mentioned is MaryAnneMohanraj (@mamohanraj)!

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License.

In this episode, we kick off Season 3 with some quick updates of what we've been doing at SASMHA in the past year and how we’ve navigated the sh*tshow that was 2020. Tune in to hear some exciting updates we have as an org, our thoughts on bellybutton humor, and how we personally have gotten through the pandemic so far!

• • Intro and Outro Music adapted from: "DJ" by Jazzhar, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License. • •