Half Past Chai

This week on Half Past Chai… we're answering YOUR questions, and some of these stories left us speechless! 👀

What do you do when your Indian in-laws refuse to accept you? How do you navigate cultural differences in an interracial marriage? And how would you react if someone admitted they were secretly in love with your spouse?!

We're diving into family drama, controlling parents, marriage boundaries, cultural expectations, relationship green flags, running motivation, and so much more.

We also answer your questions about how we met, starting our podcast, introducing your partner to a South Asian family, and when we might finally leave Indiana!

💬 Question for the Half Past Crew: How would YOU handle these situations? Let us know in the comments!

🎙 Submit your stories and questions: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

🏃 Support our NYC Marathon fundraiser:

Hallie — Therapists Beyond Borders: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

New episodes every Monday at 7 AM ET. Don't forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us. 💛

So settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

We’re 29 and 27, we’ve been together for over a decade, we’re married, we have a house, we’re building our careers… and naturally, everyone keeps asking us the same question: “So when are you having kids?”

And the answer is… we don’t know.

In this episode, we’re having an honest conversation about why we don’t feel ready to have kids right now, even though we may want them someday. We talk about the cost of raising children, giving up freedom, career timing, family and cultural pressure, whether there’s ever actually a “right time,” and the things about becoming parents that genuinely excite us.

And apparently, we’re far from the only couple having this conversation. Younger Americans are delaying parenthood, and more people are questioning whether they want children at all.

So… are people choosing not to have kids? Or has having kids simply become harder?

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

3:00 - When are we having kids?

5:33 - Ask yourself these questions

8:23 - Stats on having having babies today

11:24 - Money and kids?

16:15 - Do we have to give up our life?

19:27 - Im scared to have kids because…

24:21 - Why we WANT kids.

27:40 - to anyone listening to this

This week we're celebrating five years of marriage and with the five years, we've learned a few things along the way, and we wanted to share those lessons with you. 

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

5:05 - Lesson 1: Date each other

9:03 - Lesson 2: Sleep together

14:06 - Lesson 3: Why are you actually mad?

18:07 - Lesson 4: Push each other to be better

24:55 - Lesson 5: Discover Change together

This week… my wife left me. I know, I can’t believe it either.SIKE! Let's talk about the importance of spending time apart.

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

This week… we’re sitting down with Monica Sunny, founder of The Chai Box, who just opened Atlanta’s first dedicated chai cafe

We’re getting her full story like where she’s from, how a family chai ritual turned into a nationally recognized brand, and everything that went into opening the cafe

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

The Chai Box Socials 👇

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/thechaiboxWebsite: https://thechaibox.com/

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

4:22 - What is the chai box?

8:37 - Where were you born and how did you end up here?

10:47 - Taking the leap into start a chai business

15:20 - Going viral in costco

21:29 - Oprah loves your chai??

28:48 - Was a cafe a part of the plan?

33:20 - What is it like running a cafe

37:39 - Rapid Fire questions

42:35 - What would your younger self say right now

This week on Half Past Chai… we're doing a full Q&A! We are talking hate comments, our finances, and we're reading a few real, anonymous stories from listeners navigating love across culture and family, and giving our honest takes.

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

3:24 - Dealing with hate comments

8:57 - How are you so comfortable sharing your life online?

13:03 - Running advice?

16:12 - Where does our cat go when we travel?

17:36 - What did we study and what were our jobs?

20:10 - What does your business do?

22:10 - Boyfriend is keeping me a secret

26:04 - Daughter-in-law duties?

This week on Half Past Chai…

We’re joined by Nate Spangle. He is THE Indiana guy.

Hallie and Suketu have lived in Indiana their whole lives and this guy has dedicated his life to telling the stories of Indiana to the world. We are going to ask him the hard questions like WHY Indiana, and WHAT is Indiana and Where is Indiana.

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

Nate’s Socials 👇

YT - https://www.youtube.com/@natespangle

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/natespangle

Tiktok -https://www.tiktok.com/@natespangle

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

3:33 - Nate is NOT from Indiana

5:25 - What do you want to be when you grow up

8:42 - Why Indiana?

13:19 - When did GetIN start?

16:58 - Why are we still in Indiana?

18:38 - Why you should visit Indiana

26:02 - Did you think you’d ever do this?

32:55 - What was it like quitting your job to do podcasting?

41:38 - How do you manage everything?

44:07 - This changed the way I live my life

50:24 - Rapid Fire questions!

58:32 - Where can people find you?

Today we're breaking down the biggest lessons from 5 of the most-listened-to podcasts in the world - Jay Shetty, Mel Robbins, Steven Bartlett, Alex Cooper, and Andrew Huberman  and how you can actually use them in your everyday life. Discipline, honesty, habits, boundaries... we're pulling out the real, usable takeaways so you don't have to binge 5 different shows to get them. If you've been wanting an episode packed with tools you can actually apply, this is the one. 💛

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Suketu’s NYC Marathon Fundraiser: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Hallie’s NYC Marathon Fundraiser: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

3:22 - Jay Shetty, On Purpose

6:37 - Mel Robbins

9:15 - Diary of a CEO 

12:43 - Call her daddy

16:07 - Huberman Lab

This week on Half Past Chai… we're pulling back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a home out of two cultures.

When an American girl and an Indian guy fall in love, "home" becomes a beautiful negotiation - and over the years we've figured out the little (and big) things that make our house feel like both of us. From the mandir and Bible upstairs, to chai every single morning, to the very Indian rule that shoes come off at the door, we're giving you the realistic list of how we've blended our worlds under one roof.

Some of it came easy. Some of it we had to figure out the hard way. All of it made us who we are.

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

2:34 - Learning to make chai

3:46 - We got a pet

6:45 - Shoes off at the door

10:52 - Celebrating both sets of holidays

12:27 - The food that we eat

15:07 - Mandir and Bible?

16:30 - We are close with both Families

What We'd Tell Ourselves a Year Ago When We Quit Our Jobs

One year ago, we did the scary thing instead of the safe thing… we both quit our 9 to 5 to chase this podcast full time. We talk about what it's really like working as a married couple, why you don't get sick days anymore, and why health has to come first even when work never stops calling.

We also look back at the success we had like the brand deals with companies like Honda, Perplexity AI, and COROS, growing to 350K+ followers, marathon training, meeting people we've admired for years, and even a spot on the Today Show.

Now settle in, get cozy, and grab your chai. 💛

New episodes every Monday at 7 am. Don’t forget to subscribe, and as always, we love you! Thank you for spending your Monday with us 💛

🎙 Submit your stories: https://www.halfpastchai.com/

📲 Follow us: https://bio.site/halfpastchai

Donate to Team For Kids here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/suketu

Donate to Therapists Beyond Borders here: https://givebutter.com/hallie-patel-therapists-beyond-borders-nyc-marathon-2026-xtuif8

Time codes

0:00 - WELCOME TO HALF PAST CHAI

4:07 - How this started

5:45 - We are learning to be okay with instabilities

7:56 - We work all the time

10:59 - Don’t do this if you want to have an easy life

14:26 - Brand is everything

16:08 - Work for free to get paid

19:38 - No one is going to tell you you did a good job

20:42 - It’s easy to not do work

23:20 - Working as a couple is hard

25:25 - Health is wealth

27:28 - NO MORE SICK DAYS

30:16 - ALL THE SUCCESS!