Zach and Michael Zakar call themselves the "Middle Eastern Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen,"  which gives you a taste of how funny they are. Writers, models, and actors, the Zakar Twins most recent book, "How to Be Fucking Happy," is out now. I love this line from their book description, "Happiness takes practice, so grab a pen because you're writing this story too."

As you'll tell by watching this interview, I have a ton of fun with these Iraqi brothers. Based in Detroit, their first book, "Pray the Gay Away" dug into their experiences growing up in a conservative family and coming to terms with their sexuality (and finding out they were both gay after hooking up with the same guy!).

The Zakar twins are like fun friends you want to discuss your own mental health journey with as they share theirs. We'll be hearing more from them.

Links
- Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578937379/
- Instagram: @zakartwins

Maurice Chiang is the CEO and Co-Founder of Prairie Health, a new startup bringing genetic testing to a patient-centered approach to mental health. This is incredibly promising and forward-looking! Genetic testing provides useful information to psychiatrists and prescribing physicians about  to how to treat people with varied cultural backgrounds.

Did you know that American women are often prescribed SSRIs at inappropriate dosages, for example, because of a "one size meets all" mentality that pervades our health system? Using data from genetic testing is a great first step toward addressing this issue.

Maurice earned his undergraduate degree in bioengineering at Stanford (which is where he met his co-founders), then got a master’s in computer science. In this podcast, we talk about where the team is now, and where they're going. I will definitely be keeping my eye on Prairie Health as I really admire their approach and work.

Links
- Prairie Health: https://www.prairiehealth.co/
- Prairie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prairie_health/

Kevin Dedner is the Founder & CEO of Hurdle, a startup dedicated to building a pipeline of mental health professionals who understand how to help people  with varied cultural backgrounds. On the Hurdle website are the thoughtful words: "Your culture will always be honored."

Kevin's path to this work is fascinating. In this interview I describe him as a superhero who has fought some of the biggest enemies of our time including childhood obesity, HIV/AIDS, and tobacco control through the lens of public health policy. He's worked clients like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on political campaigns, and successfully led health policy wins.

Having conversations with people like Kevin is incredibly energizing for me. I think you, too, will be inspired to hear about the growth of Hurdle and where the company's going in the future.

Links:
- Hurdle's site
- Hurdle's Instagram

Pelumi, whose full given name is Oluwapelumi Ajibade, is a research coordinator at the University of Washington, where she is involved in fascinating work about interracial communication and anxiety. In this conversation, we cover all kinds of things including Pelumi's experiences as a Nigerian-American woman, her future as an obstetrician (fingers crossed), the podcast she started when COVID hit, and her life as an overthinker.

Links
https://www.instagram.com/pelums_posts/
https://anchor.fm/pelumi03

Do you or someone you love have bipolar disorder? If so, this episode is for you. 

Dr Bill Selig is a clinical psychologist in the Bay Area and author of the new book "When Your Partner Has Bipolar Disorder." In this episode Bill and I talk about changing perceptions of bipolar disorder, the best new treatments, and the relationship to creativity (which was also the topic of his dissertation at Stanford University’s Bipolar Disorders Clinic).  He co-led a 2014 revision of the psychotherapy for bipolar disorder treatment track at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, where he later cofounded the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program. 

This is a great conversation with a very knowledgeable man.

This episode, which will be simultaneously released here and on Vanessa Soto's new book coaching podcast, is a behind-the-scenes on book publishing.  In it we discuss how I approached writing GET OUT OF MY HEAD, the stops and starts of the process, and surprise learnings along the way. 

Vanessa is a Managing Director at Charles Schwab and Book Proposal Coach. Follow her on @vanessasotobookcoach on Instagram to learn more!

Suhail Rasheed is an Indian writer, editor, and curator currently living in Dubai. A longstanding member of the Beautiful Voyager community, Suhail has written about his mental health journey in the past, but in this very special and personal interview he covers new terrain. Childhood abuse is not a topic that is often  discussed in his culture. He is incredibly courageous to open up about his own experience of abuse in this interview. He says he is doing it "in order to connect with others who have had similar traumatic experiences in their past." 

I admire Suhail. He brings a voice to things that others have experienced but might feel too ashamed to share. He fights against stigma and shares a perspective on mental health in Dubai and India that is rarely heard.

It was such a treat to have this conversation with superstar Product Manager Anamita Guha. Anamita is the Global Lead of Product Management at IBM, where she focuses on Quantum computing (yes, we talk about what that means) and she's dedicated to inspiring the next generation of female innovators and pioneers. 

As a national ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Anamita serves as a role model and advocate for women in STEM. She's been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, Marie Claire, Lifehacker, and was named one of the “Top 25 Software Product Executives Of 2020”, “9 Millennial AI Leaders to follow” in 2019, and “6 Women in STEM to watch out for” in 2018.

We discuss overthinking and how anxiety may be holding women back from studying science and technology while brainstorming what we can do about it. We can all learn from Anamita, take a listen!

Joshua Kemble lives in Antelope Valley, California, where he is an Art Director and illustrator. A Xeric Award Winning Cartoonist, Josh's newest book is a labor of love: an autobiographical graphic novel about depression and panic attack called Two Stories.

In this conversation, Josh and I talk about the comic book artists he admires, why "making" is good for mental health, and how his son helped him take action on his own mental health needs. Follow Joshua on Instagram: @joshuakemble and learn more about his work on his site. And take a look at his book Two Stories. 

Dr. Tameika Lawrence holds a doctoral degree in counseling psychology and is a member of the Hudson Valley Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. She's the author of Outgrow Your Comfort, a 6-step self-help model and book. In this conversation, Dr. Lawrence and I talk about how she felt "different" growing up, and how it helped later in life. We also talked about her dissertation work about African-American fathers, and what being a role model means in single-parent families.