Assyrian Podcast

Episode 184 - On this  episode of the Assyrian Podcast, Steve and Adessa take a walk down memory lane as they reflect on the past five years of the Assyrian podcasting journey. In this special episode, they delve into what worked, what could have been better, and share some fascinating stories that have helped shape the podcast's growth.

As part of their celebration, they invite some of the hosts to join in the fun and share their favorite interview moments. Listeners will get to hear the unique perspectives and insights from the show's top contributors.

As an added treat, the episode includes the top five most downloaded episodes, providing a glimpse into what topics and conversations resonated most with listeners.

Join Steve and Adessa as they celebrate their journey and take you behind the scenes of the Assyrian Podcast.

Episode 183 - Andre David is a retired Major League Baseball player who played for the Minnesota Twins in the 1980’s. He played in 38 games and had 13 hits with 1 home run and a .245 batting average during his career. His sole home run was hit during his first official at bat in the Major Leagues. Andre currently serves as the assistant hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals. 

Episode 182 - Tenise Marie is an Assyrian Canadian singer-songwriter, performer, and recording artist based in Nelson, British Columbia. She grew up in the remote community of Argenta. In this episode, we discuss her and her family’s fascinating journey in putting the pieces together of their Assyrian heritage and what the journey has been like. 

Her songwriting is influenced by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Amy Winehouse, and Allison Russell. Tenise has been performing for the last ten years, touring Western Canada for the last five, playing instruments since high school, and singing for as long as she can remember. 

She earned a diploma in Contemporary Music & Technology from Selkirk College, where she studied Vocal Performance. A multi-instrumentalist, but a vocalist first, Tenise primarily sings in Folk, Soul, Jazz, and Pop styles. As a young adult, she sang in two local youth choirs: Corazon and Lalin, where she first developed an affinity for vocal harmony, performed World Music, and became comfortable approaching new languages through song. More recently, Tenise joined the Assyrian Arts Institute’s vocal ensemble "Assyrian Women". 

Tenise is also the Director of Human Resources at the Kaslo Jazz Etc. Festival, a music festival showcasing Jazz, Folk, Blues, and Funk performances from around the world in a scenic, mountainous outdoor venue. 

Note: This episode addresses adoption trauma

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenise.marie/ 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ZVSZBiHqVdAhXIevVL9dV?si=IJGBDxqOQpOcDbdkf73Gog 

Website: www.tenisemariemusic.com 

“Aghalare” Cover: https://youtu.be/J81annidbUU 

December 3rd San Jose Assyrian Women concert: https://assyrianartsinstitute.ticketleap.com/joy-of-christmas-choral-concert/dates/Dec-03-2022_at_0700PM 

Kaslo Jazz Etc. Festival: https://kaslojazzfest.com

Episode 181 - Carmen Lazar was born in Tehran, Iran and migrated to Australia in 1971. After teaching at the Assyrian School in Sydney and serving in the Assyrian Australian Association, Carmen then became the lead for the Assyrian Resource Centre (ARC), established by the Association to serve and empower Assyrians recently arrived in Australia. Carmen has worked at the ARC for over 20 years, helping thousands of Assyrian families settle in Australia.

In this interview, she discusses the many rewarding moments in her work, as well as challenging topics such as domestic abuse and how she’s created opportunities for more people to feel comfortable to speak up.

Socials:

FB: Assyrian Resource Centre - Assyrian Australian Association | Facebook  

Assyrian Resource Centre — Assyrian Australian Association

Episode 180 - Annukina Warda is a long-time policy analyst from Sydney, Australia. She explores ancestral recollection, recovery and renewal for Indigenous Peoples facing mass displacement from their traditional homelands, and cultural and linguistic erasure. 

Annukina provokes a cultural re-emergence through storytelling. She grapples with the themes of memory and loss through the famous Assyrian myth “The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld”. Annukina uses a unique combination of collective storytelling, collage, and decolonial map-making to support a redefinition of Assyrian cultural identity on her own terms. 

Her passion project, the Assyrian Priestess, can be found on Instagram @the_assyrian_priestess or on Patreon: TheAssyrianPriestess

Patreon: patreon.com/theassyrianpriestess/posts

Instagram: @the_assyrian_priestess 

Episode 179 - For Assyrians, volunteering is not just something optional but necessary to keep our communities tight knit and allow us to grow closely within our heritage. In this episode, we hear from different perspectives on the how and the whys of contributing and volunteering in the Assyrian community. 

Guests: Rami Noori, Melissa Farhad, Sargon Younadim, Marna Khamis, Shemeram Khoshaba, and Rochelle Yousefian. 

Episode 178 - Martin Yousif Zebari was born in Iraq and immigrated to the US in 2002. While attending Niles North High School in Skokie, IL, he began studying theater and acting, which led him to pursue acting in college, both in Illinois and abroad in England. In this episode, we talk about his upbringing, pursuit-of acting, and broader topics like intersectionality, storytelling, queerness, and his play Laylina, which opens at the Goodman in Chicago in March 2023. 

martinyousifzebari.com

https://www.instagram.com/martinyousifzebari 

https://www.facebook.com/people/Martin-Yousif-Zebari/1435143504/ 

Episode 177 - Babylonia Bhugwansing is an Assyrian intercultural coach and speaker for women from the Middle East and beyond. She was born and raised in Germany and now lives in Rotterdam, Netherlands with her husband and two kids. They are a mixed family of multicultural backgrounds, Assyrian and Surinamese. During the Covid Pandemic, she quit her corporate job in order to do what she felt she was always meant to do: to work with women, helping them overcome their fears and trauma that stand in their way of feeling confident in expressing their most authentic selves. 

Episode 176 - Ken Ibrahim has worked for over two decades at the emerging intersection of technology and art spanning a career in film, games, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and robotics. His career includes being a Visual FX Technical Director at numerous studios on some of the highest grossing movie franchises to date including Star Wars, Star Trek, The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers and Shrek as well as being a software tool developer for games teams at SEGA on breakout hits such as SEGA Rally Championship for which he also provided the voice. Ken has a computer engineering degree and began his career in Japan where he worked as a programmer and application engineer. In his free time he has joined archaeological teams around the world performing digital scanning of ancient structures for cultural preservation, developed Assyrian-themed Snapchat and Instagram AR filters with over half a million views, created a Japanese word of the day Twitter app with 25K followers and makes electronic music in his home studio.

Twitter: @twittiamo

Instagram: @awdemo

Web: https://imdb.me/kenibrahim

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kenneth-ibrahim/sets/shuri-ken-tracks

Snapchat Assyrian Face Flag Filter: https://lens.snapchat.com/3586de377b734161a5577240180e6dfe?sender_web_id=6d3829f7-3f4f-43af-9ad3-4333f5ce47df&device_type=desktop&is_copy_url=true

Instagram Assyrian Face Flag Filter:https: //www.instagram.com/ar/1498809973876772/

Episode - 175 Barseen Oshana was born in Sydney, Australia and heads the Assyrian Students Association of Australia. The ASAA is an independent student-led organisation that facilitates the presence of Assyrians at universities in Australia, as well as coordinating external events to bring Assyrian students together. He also serves as a board member of the Assyrian Australian Association and has been involved in the Assyrian Football community in Australia. Barseen works in the construction sector and enjoys watching his beloved Fairfield Bulls.

Socials:

FB: @AustraliaASA

IG: @asaaustralia  

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