BOTA | World Views & Culture

Emina is originally from Bosnia. Her parents moved to the USA a few years before she was born due to conflicts during the Yugoslavian war in the mid 90s. Her parents drove from Seattle, Washington to Atlanta, Georgia. She was born in '96 and grew up in the US. Her family kept many Bosnian traditions alive and Bosnian was her first language. She found a balance of expressing her Bosnian heritage and living that American lifestyle. She graduated with a degree in Marketing from Kennasaw State Un...

Today's episode I sit down with Arbër admin for an instagram page called "Balkanism__".He is a history major and has a passion for the Balkan region. He is originally from Kosova, living in the United Kingdom. He expresses the complexity of this region and how he wanted to show that there can be a place for people to come together respectively to learn about each other, and show the positive sides of the region, but also the real issues that sometimes arises in such a vast and complex place. ...

Sania's Brow Bar opened in 2004 and took the beauty world by storm with the full, luscious, thick eyebrows. Sania is a mom of four, a wife, and an entrepreneur who built a loyal & loving clientele & landed celebrity clients. She is humble, a hard worker, and her motto is allowing your natural beauty to shine. She is a master at her craft and now she is teaching her two daughter and niece the tricks of the trade & building a legacy. She is an inspiration, and offers so much a...

Klodjana was born in a small city of Kuçovë, Albania. When she was 12 years old her parents moved to Canada. From there they ended up moving to different cities in a short span of time, only staying in the city for a few years at a time. This was a difficult time as she was in a stage of life where she was figuring things out as a teenager. Since she was the eldest of three, her parents looked to her for help with translating and she had many responsibilities. She feels this made her gr...

Ledi Vokshi's family is originally from Kosova. Her family moved to Albania and her parents where born in Durres, Albania, where she was also born. She came to New York as a young kid with her family. She became a trained opera singer and that was her passion. One day she got an opportunity to sing on a track of a famous Albanian hip hop artist. She took the chance and sang on this track. A year later, to her surprise visiting Albania she heard her song on the radio and it was a huge hi...

Armando moved from Albania to Italy with his family as three year old. He grew up there and speaks fluent Italian, and learned to love many different languages. A passion for languages. He speaks Italian, French, Albanian, and English. His other passion is Martial Arts. So instead of pursuing soccer like all the other kids in Italy, he practiced jujitsu in his early teens. After taking a break and coming back to it after 16, he realized he wanted to learn about all kinds of fighting technique...

Alma has learned that through her life she dealt with trauma and found a way to heal, and to help others heal became a passion her her. She displays poise and insight on her life and how people and events (such as communism) effected the ones around her. Not only her own family but so many people and families all over Albania. We discuss mindfulness, awareness, minimalism, struggles Albanians face with mental health, the progression of self, finding confidence, and ways to find healing. Follo...

Todays episode I sit down with the co-founder of Balkan Bites, Ariana Malushi. She was born in the US and her dad is from Kosovo and her mom from Croatia. She always had a love for balkan food, and enjoyed traveling. On one of her ventures she discovered that she wanted to learn how to cook some traditional family foods. She would meet with her grandma and Aunt Alida and talk about food, cook with them, and started writing down recipes. After her grandma passed, she spent even more time with ...

Comedian Leonarda Jonie, also known by her instagram handle, @leonardaisfunny, or even better as the hilarious and totally familiar "Albanian Mom" is our leading act on our newest episode on Bota Podcast.She's way more than what is portrayed on her social media and comedy shows. Through learning about her up-bringing, struggles with being raised with two cultures, and triumphs of overcoming childhood traumas, we realize she is just like us. We get in depth with Leonarda to learn what dri...