American Desi

Welcome back to Season 2 of American Desi! During this episode I interview my friend Prerna. We talk about their identity and their experience discovering themselves. Prerna is Indian and identifies a they/them. 

I talk about the power of words, how words can really hurt you. We should all be kind to one another. I quote Selena Gomez's song "Kill 'em with kindness" and I talk about Jay Shetty, who is a Podcaster, former monk and author. 

This is the last episode of season, I'll be back in September. I want to thank you all for listening. I really appreciate all your support. If you have any questions, ideas  or comments for next season, you can email me at [email protected] 

I interviewed my friend Emily and we talk about mental health issues. It's not a topic that is generally discussed in the Indian community, but it is very important to educate ourselves and remove the stigma around it.  Trigger Warning: We talk about suicide rates in Asian countries vs. Western countries. We also talk about suicide in the LGBTQ community. 

Sources mentioned/used in this episode:

“Differences between patterns of suicide in East Asia and the West. The importance of sociocultural factors

Author links open overlay panel”. John Snowdon. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2018.08.019

“Family Acceptance Saves Lives”. Human Rights Campaign. HRC Staff. 2017. https://www.hrc.org/news/family-acceptance-saves-lives

“Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults”. Caitlin Ryan et al., Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Volume 23, Number 4, pp. 205–213. 2010. https://familyproject.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/FAP_Family%20Acceptance_JCAPN.pdf

Chen, X., Graham, S. Doing better but feeling worse: an attributional account of achievement—self-esteem disparities in Asian American students. Soc Psychol Educ 21, 937–949 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9447-9

Chang, M. X.‐L., Jetten, J., Cruwys, T., and Haslam, C. (2017) Cultural Identity and the Expression of Depression: A Social Identity Perspective. J. Community Appl. Soc. Psychol., 27: 16– 34. doi: 10.1002/casp.2291.

In this episode I talk about the pressure to succeed in Indian culture. I mainly analyze the movie "Candy Jar"  (SPOILER ALERT: I give away the whole movie!) I also talk about a scene from the show "Never have I ever".

In this episode, I have a conversation with my friend Shakthi about our chronic pain, being Indian and our friendship.

I talk about how in Indian culture, we are not very expressive with our emotions. I discuss when sometimes people try to make you feel gratitude, they inadvertently make you feel guilty. I also touch on failure, success, conflict, judgement and vulnerability.

I talk about how my abdominal pain started and progressed. From High School through College, along with the remedies that helped me. I touch on some other health issues as well.