Hey all! I'm here with the incredibly talented Mariam Ahmed, a San Diego-based poet and author of the new collection Hidden Parts, published by Broken Tribe Press in January 2025. Mariam holds an MFA in Poetry from San Diego State University, and in this episode, we dive into the stories, silences, and truths behind her writing. We talk about identity, healing, and what it means to share the parts of ourselves we often keep hidden. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful conversation — you won’t want to miss it.

You can follow her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/myfavoritemariam

To purchase her book, please go to Amazon: https://a.co/d/03dqBrV

Hey all — this episode has been a long time coming. I’ve been wanting to shine a light on Muslim women entrepreneurs for a while now, and this conversation is exactly that. It’s all about support, storytelling, and showing up for the women building incredible things.

Back in March (yes, March — life’s been lifing, y’all), I recorded a conversation with the amazing Sara Ahmad. She’s a powerhouse — a serial entrepreneur who’s doing the most in the best way. We talked about her digital marketing agency Ekko Media, the heart-centered women’s space she founded called Ummati Community, and her upcoming venture, a food-focused social media app called Bite Reel.

Sara’s building with purpose, and I know so many of you will resonate with her vision as I have.

You can connect with her on Instagram: @ekkomediainc

To connect with me or to be a guest on my podcast, please message me on IG @thedraasiyah

Join me for a great conversation with Uneeb Khan from Muslim Matchmaker! You might recognize him from the show that aired earlier this year on Hulu—I watched it last month and was really drawn in by the journeys of everyone searching for their better half. In this episode, Uneeb shares his experience being part of the show and what it was like behind the scenes.

We also dive into some other interesting topics beyond the matchmaking world. Full disclosure—I was battling a cold while recording, so I had to cut out a lot of coughing (you're welcome 😅), but the final episode turned out amazing!

Give it a listen, and don’t forget to subscribe or follow so you don’t miss future episodes!

To follow Uneeb, please check out his two IG accounts - one that features his podcast, Salaam Nerds and the other that's his own account.

https://www.instagram.com/salaamnerdspodcast

https://www.instagram.com/watchwithneebz/

Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to the podcast! On today's episode, my friend Dr. Meira Yasin and I dive into mental health, the effects of mental health, especially within the cultural context, and her work to help people as a coach. Dr. Yasin and I also get into the nitty-gritty of why people are still single today, some of the most common issues in finding a spouse and how we need to reflect on ourselves during this process. This podcast is an hour and a half, one of the longest podcast episodes here on AYP, but it's chock-full of gold for all of you! Please listen and share it with everyone you know!

A little bit about Dr. Meira Yasin:

Dr. Meira Yasin is a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. She has worked in the mental health space since 2017 and recently transitioned to a role as Clinical Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her areas of interest include holistic wellness, global mental health, caring for vulnerable populations, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and helping people become the best version of themselves. She also does life coaching for women, focusing on holistic wellness, overcoming stress and being overwhelmed, and letting go of the past to help women level up in their journey to love and marriage.

You can find her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/meira.yasin/

If you liked this episode, please send me an email to [email protected] or follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thedraasiyah

Welcome back to the AYP podcast!

I am back in 2025 with a brand new episode, with my guest and good friend, Zunera Ghaznavi! In this episode, we have a candid chat about her background in drugs, being a data scientist. We talk about what she does, how she finds out and understands trials and the research that goes behind the medicine we take, and then we talk about women empowerment all while discussing Islamic thoughts. Please enjoy this episode! If you would like to get in touch with Zunera, you can find her on IG at https://www.instagram.com/zuneraaah/

If you want to know more about her work, you can find her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zuneraghaznavi/

If you would like to follow me on IG and DM me about being a potential guest on my show, please click here: https://www.instagram.com/thedraasiyah/

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, my guest is Sabha Fatima, who I met virtually a few months ago. We finally met in person when she visited Southern California for a conference back in July. From there, we became fast friends and I've gotten to know more about her, and how at such a young age (she's only 22), she started her own AirBnB business called Rest Assured Rentals. This episode chronicles her journey of how she started this business, the challenges she's faced, the successes she's seen and her main purpose of starting this business, because there is always a WHY with anything we do. Sabha leaves us with words of wisdom and encourages us that we can do anything we put our mind to if we are excited about it and have a purpose. Join in and listen to how she started her business, and see how you can learn from her if you're interested in starting your own AirBnB business as well.

You can follow Sabha on her IG, https://www.instagram.com/restassured_rentals

Feel free to reach out to her there if you have any questions or want mentoring from her. Thanks for listening and as always, please share this episode with everyone you know and follow my podcast so you can get notified of new episodes. It helps my podcast grow.

Health and wellness encompass not just what we put into our bodies when it comes to food but everything else, too - our spiritual health, physical health, mental well-being, mental acuity (having a better mindset), and emotional well-being are essential in upgrading our lives. Join me as I talk about how taking care of yourself in these areas will help you amplify your life so you can be a better version of yourself each day when you choose yourself. We cannot be influential leaders or entrepreneurs or have financial well-being if we aren't focusing on other areas of our lives that need our attention.

While this is a long episode, I hope you enjoy every minute of it. I share bits and pieces of my life and I thank all of you for subscribing and listening to my podcast. Leave me an email and let me know what you think - [email protected].

Welcome to another episode with my friend and colleague, Dr. Sonya Sharififard! We talk about support systems, the importance of having a good support system, mentorship and more. This episode was actually recorded last June, a little while after my mom's passing (hence you will hear me speak on this in the beginning of the podcast), but I did not have the chance to share our episode until now. Please enjoy this amazing episode!

Join me on this episode - it's a solo episode again where I talk about what's going on with the phenomenon that I've been noticing (and not just me, all of my single and married friends included) with single men and women and issues with connecting, creating relationships and more. Today, more people are single than ever, and its becoming harder for people to find each other despite their future spouse being right under their noses. I share what I think is happening, why and my own experiences being single, ready to mingle and what needs to be done to hopefully bring people together.

Feel free to follow me on IG and on TikTok for more videos and reels on this topic, on my Chais, Chats and Rishtas series on TikTok and more.

https://www.instagram.com/thedraasiyah

https://www.tiktok.com/@thedraasiyah

Join me on today's episode as I talk about the importance of creating a life plan, which is similar to a business plan. I call it the business life plan for this reason.

I go through the steps on why we should create a life plan, and then the steps to get it going. Have pen and paper, feel free to pause the episode as you need to, to reflect and write and create your life plan today.

If you want to share your life plan with me, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram - my LinkedIn is https://www.linkedin.com/in/draasiyah

My instagram is https://www.instagram.com/thedraasiyah

Follow/Subscribe to this podcast, follow me on my social media accounts and share this episode with everyone in your life today!