Modern Minorities

ROAMING is the graphic novel winner of three 2024 EISNER awards for best graphic novel, best writer, and best penciller/inker - by cousins Mariko + Jillian Tamaki. It's a book about three young women touring New York City in the late aughts, and it's both a love letter to New York City and a nostalgic look at the relationship between three friends who are about to follow very different paths in life. You can’t read this book and not see yourself in it at a younger, more awkward phase of your life - whether or not you’ve even spent any time in NYC. 

This is another episode from Raman’s other podcast, Quarantined Comics. And as you already know from our LAST episode - we're big Tamaki fans. We've actually covered some of Mariko’s other award-winning work like Skim, This One Summer, and more on other episodes of Quarantined Comics. So be sure to check out ALL of Mariko Tamaki's work wherever you get your favorite books

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"The idea that a person can't relate to something because it's not directly about them is a misunderstanding of who's been reading books this whole time."

Mariko Tamaki is an award-winning Canadian comics creator and writer — known for works like Skim and This One Summer (with her cousin Jillian Tamaki). Her latest novel is Cold, a haunting YA novel about four students who knew too much and said too little. AND Mariko’s also the Co-founder & Editor of Surely Books - a comics imprint of LGBTQIA+ creators. Mariko’s ALSO known for comics like Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Emiko Superstar, and several prose works of fiction and nonfiction. AND since 2016, Mariko’s been writing for Marvel & DC comics - on powerful books like I Am Not Stafire, and Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass. Mariko’s also only the second woman to write Detective Comics - the 1000+ issue flagship DC series about the Dark Knight. If you can’t tell by now, one of us has been a BIG Mariko Tamaki fan for awhile, and after hearing her approach to writing and sharing personal stories, you soon will be too. 

This is a replay of an earlier chat from 2022 - we’re airing it in honor of Marikos’ winning of the Eisner Award (among comics most prestigious honors) - for the 2023 graphic novel ROAMING - which she co-created with her cousin Jillian. We’ll be airing the Quarantined Comics episode on Roaming next! 

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MENTIONS

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“The normalization of things being taken away. You see all the things going on in Tehran in 1979 — you see them here as well, which makes it a sad, scary, and timeless tale.”

PERSEPOLIS, by Marjane Satrapi is an award winning, now banned graphic autobiography from the early 2000s about a young girl growing up in Iran, and becoming a woman overseas, returning home, and dealing with everything in between.Originally published in French, Persepolis has sold millions of copies worldwide, and Satrapi also produced an award-winning film of the same name. In Persepolis, we meet young Marjane “Marji” Satrapi growing up in Tehran just before and during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, as well as thru the start of the Iran + Iraq War in the 1980s. Her parents are secular, upper-middle class activists, who worry for their precocious daughter's safety in the increasingly conservative and dangerous Iran, so send her off to Austria to become a teenager. Her teen years are fraught with all the drama you can expect from such an experience, but Marji - now becoming a young woman - always maintains the experience of an outsider looking in - with her feet in both worlds. Marji eventually returns to Iran to find that not only has her mother country changed, but she as well. This book was a surprise and illuminating for us in many ways, making us question - what would WE do in such a situation?

This conversation is originally from from Quarantined Comics, where Raman + friends read comics that are so much more than just superheroes. PERSEPOLIS is a very Modern Minorities appropriate work, especially for the times we’re living in, which you’ll get to here us reflect on. Longtime friend of THAT pod Joshua joins from his most excellent podcast RABBIT FIGHTERS, where they pretty much do the same thing, but about movies and music.

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“What happens after we've survived? What's our responsibility to somebody suffering more than I am? For kids it’s like, ‘Let's just go over and help them — like, why wouldn't we?’ “

Veera Hiranandani is an award-winning author of several books for young people - one of the most recent of which is THE NIGHT DIARY - a must read. While the novel is a historical fiction geared for adolescents and young adults, it’s a a heart-warming read that will pull you into a singular story through the eyes of a young girl experiencing one of history’s greatest traumas.. Veera went on to win the prestigious Newbery Award for the book, as well as the 2019 Walter Dean Myers Honor Award, the 2018 Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature, and several other honors and state reading list awards. Veera’s work speaks to the power of stories to spark conversations. Veera’s written a number of other award-winning books - including “How to Find What You're Not Looking For,” and “The Whole Story of Half a Girl. ”Her latest novel - AMIL & THE AFTER, is a follow-up to The Night Diary and it does what not many other books do - it examines the immediate AFTERMATH of a generational - and historical trauma. Again, through the eyes of a child. Veera’s journey - and story is a one that crosses cultures and generations - and it’s interesting to see how she pulls at the threads of her life to inform her work, and ask lots of hard whys - and why nots.

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“Make the time to scratch beneath the surface in each state. Spending time with the people - in the cities, in the towns, at the restaurants - you're always going to uncover something.”

Summer marches on, and we’re making plans to get out and about. Hear part TWO of Raman’s USA Travel series (from his other pod LEARNINGS FROM LEADERS) - covering the second half of stories and learnings from Raman + co-host Drew’s travels across America - from Nebraska to Wyoming. The only way to truly understand all that is this big, wonderful, and diverse country of ours is to get out into it - and go beyond your comfort zone. Be sure to check out part one for more on the United States of Laughter - and Learnings...

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“It's so easy to go onto the next thing - but take that moment to stop and celebrate small and big wins.”

Summer is here, which probably means many of us are thinking about our next trip. As we continue our pod sabbatical / vacation, Raman’s other podcast LEARNINGS FROM LEADERS continues a series on one of his favorite pastimes: TRAVEL — turning our focus to the strange and foreign land known as the United States of America. Joining him is co-host Drew Tarvin - author of “The United States of Laughter” - as they share stories and learnings from their travels to all 50 American states, in the first of a TWO-part series, covering from Alabama to Montana, with some occasional plugs for a big conference from last year =)

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”I'm grateful she doesn't have that crazy addiction - they are getting a new relationship with technology. Smartphones and social media have basically caused a great rewiring of childhood.”

As parents today, Blippi & Taylor Swift aren’t all we have to worry about. When it comes to our (young kids), it’s near impossible to avoid TV, tablets, and video games - we’re increasingly anxious about the role of smartphones, social media, and ultimately their mental health. For many of us these devices and apps start creeping into elementary school, and with middle and high school right around the corner, a thoughtful vigilance is required at home and school. Longtime friends of the pods Claire Yoon Elvers & Seif Hamid join Raman for an important chat we ALL need to be having in our communities with our fellow parents. 

Author Jonathan Haidt's recent book — THE ANXIOUS GENERATION The Anxious Generation — has ignited some much needed conversations - online, and in communities. provides hard evidence to show the linkage between smartphones/social media to the decline in adolescent mental health. It's the data we needed to support what many of us already knew. And like many other parents we're chewing on this with mixed emotions - excited that the conversation is front and center with the potential to spark change over time. Yet also feeling a bit stuck given we're in the throes of parenting tweens/teens NOW.

We don’t pretend to have the answers to ANY of this, but it’s a conversation we ALL need to be having with each other, because the companies behind these technologies aren’t incentivized to help. While there is some cautious optimism that our governments will help (shoutout to NY governor Kathy Hochul), we have to be have to be raising these issues in our homes, schools, and communities. We hope this open and honest conversation inspires you to start your own, and is the first of many...

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CLAIRE & SEIF - PAST POD APPEARANCES

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”Being a writer is just bloody hard work and passion. It is a kind of madness, which compels you every day to go to say, ‘OK, let's do it again today’ “

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s the author of nine novels - including the Long Walk Home, Radiance of a Thousand Suns, and most recently the Partition Trilogy - a historical fiction novel series which Raman is a BIG fan of. Manreet’s  articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and the South China Morning Post, among others. She has taught for the New York Public Library and the City College of New York - and she’s a former corporate citizen having done stints in Asia, and a parent grappling with the world our kids will inherit. Manreet’s recently complete Partition Trilogy - a series of 3 books titled Lahore, Hyderabad, and Kashmir - are a historical fiction set during, before, and immediately after the Partition - and independence of - India and Pakistan of 1947. Partition is among the the great humanitarian disasters of the 20th century - and the largest mass migration in history

The history of Partition is a topic near and dear to Raman - and impacts and informs much of what is happening today, in both Asia, and the United States - from the tensions between India and Pakistan, and the rise of nationalism / extremism in our politics around the world. Manreet’s unique voice focuses not just on the personal musings of these larger than life historical figures - like India’s founding fathers Gandhi & Nehru, but she also breathes life into characters who represent the stats and figures that we sometimes gloss over when we hear of a tragedy (including the role - and subversion of women by history). We talked a lot about the weaponization of history, and how storytelling - and fact-checking - have to work hand in hand. You’ll enjoy this candid and thoughtful conversation with Manreet, who's using her creative drive to make a statement for the world today - including the next generation. 

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"It truly is a matter of exploring, discovery, knowing your boundaries - to gradually get there. The key is to keep your eye on the North Star - what is it that makes you come alive?”

In this personal conversation from Raman’s other podcast “Learnings from Leaders” - Raman chats with Bernice Ang, an Executive Coach who helps senior leaders design a purpose-centered personal brand, enabling them to integrate their work and personal lives so they can thrive, not just survive. Bernice started her career in Brand Management in P&G Asia Pacific. From there, she took on several Global Marketing leadership roles in the US with Coca-Cola, Pepsico, and Mars-Wrigley. Five years ago, Bernice left her corporate career to pursue her dream of becoming an Executive Coach. Today, Bernice is among the top 4% of professional coaches who holds a Master Certified Coach designation, the highest credential awarded by the International Coach Federation. Bernice also helped co-found the P&G Alumni Network Coaching program, ringing together Professionally certified Executive Coaches with proven track records. You’ll enjoy this candid and very personal conversation about IKIGAI - the Japanese concept which encourages people to discover what truly matters to them - to live a life filled with purpose and joy.

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"How do you express what you want in a way that activates you, is unignorable, and automatically aligns your beliefs, your values, and how you show up in the world?”

Bonnie Wan knows what it feels like to struggle with burnout and uncertainty about where to go next. As a celebrated advertising strategist she spent years helping brands like Pepsi and BMW get clarity on their values and purpose, but she one day found herself mired and directionless in her own life–a “recovering perfectionist” with a crumbling marriage, a big job, and three young children. So she put her “work brain” to work - and sketched out a creative brief (one of the key tools of the ad trade) for herself, granting clarity on what was missing and what she really wanted in her life. Not only did “the Life Brief” save Bonnie’s marriage, recenter her parenting, and catapult her career (she was named Ad Age’s Chief Strategy Officer last year)—it has since gone on to help thousands of others through her speaking at Apple, Bain & Co, Change.org, Google, Goop, Jane Goodall’s “Activating Hope” Summit, SXSW and more. Her new book — “THE LIFE BRIEF: A Playbook for No-Regrets Living “ — creates a clear guide for anyone to break through life’s clutter and create deeper meaning through three simple stages: Get Messy. Get Clear. Get Active. This is a perfect conversation to help so many of us who seem to “have it all” yet feel restless or rudderless. 

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