Modern Minorities

“Seek things that challenge you to think differently, in a new and better way. Seek to understand and empower the people closest to the real knowledge source, the people that do the work every day. Instead of being right, do right.”

David Taylor & A.G. Lafley are two of P&G's Emeritus CEOs, who joined Raman on-stage at the recent recent P&G Alumni Global Conference in Washington DC for a candid conversation going beyond their personal stories - or even the stories of the day - to discuss their approaches to some of the broad challenges we have to face together, to meet the moment.

This is NOT a Modern Minorities conversation. Raman’s third podcast (not about comics) is “Learnings from Learnings from Leaders: the P&G Alumni Podcast” (pgalums.com/podcast) - where Raman and his P&G Alumni pals sit down with top leaders in business about not just their professional experiences, but their purpose, values, and principles in their personal lives

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“Playing Jasmine, and meeting mixed kids and parents saying, ‘my kid has never had someone to look up to,’ — we're creating space for people to see themselves."

Join us as we take on the wonders — over, sideways and under on a magic carpet ride — with the cast of Aladdin on Broadway! In a candid conversation Sonya Balsara and Don Darryl Rivera star in Disney’s hit musical Aladdin on Broadway, which since 2014 has welcomed more than 10 million people and grossed over a billion dollars. Sonya Balsara made her debut as Jasmine earlier this year, bringing the beloved character to life on a magic carpet. An alum of NYU Tisch, Sonya’s theater credits also include work and performances in "The Karate Kid," "Sense and Sensibility," "West Side Story" and has TV appearances on "FBI" (CBS) and "Mozart in the Jungle" (Amazon). Don Darrly Rivera, aka DDR, has been playing the role of Iago for over 10 years. An Asian American pioneer within the entertainment industry, he’s one of few AAPI cast members representing the Filipino community, and has been featured in news outlets from Broadway.com, ABS-CBN to Asian Journal. Sharon, Sonya, and DDR talk about their theatrical journey - the experiences, challenges and successes that got them to a whole new world...

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AladdinTheMusical.com

instagram.com/sonyabalsara

instagram.com/dondarrylrivera

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“It sucks that a lot of times when POC want to break into the industry, we have to publish a memoir first. But I personally had to — I've been needing to do this for a very long time.”

Deb JJ Lee, is an award-winning graphic novelist and artist. Their young adult IN LIMBO tells Deb’s Korean American coming of age story - covered by Quarantined Comics. When we shared that episode, they got in touch. Deb shares their experiences growing up between two cultures. For a while, Deb’s English wasn’t perfect. Teachers could not pronounce their Korean name. Her face and her eyes―especially her eyes―feel wrong. As we learned in this ranging conversation with Deb - this was a work they had to do, to not just work through a story, but to find closure in the aftermath. IN LIMBO is moving work of mental health, gender identity, and growing up. For many of us who have often felt like outsiders, this story is painfully familiar, and brings forth a lot of empathy for those around us invisibly struggling. 

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Thanksgiving’s always been special because it combines two universally loved things, being around friends and family, and food — some of the very topics we talk about the most on this show. So we decided to revisit of our favorite questions with some of our favorite FrieMMds of the Pod over the years: 

Raman Sehgal (UK edition), Jieun Kirtley, Justin Richmond, Tyanne Benallie, Andres Barragan, Paris Hatcher, Steven Wakabayashi, Mira Jacob, Jonathan Hill, Gina Brillon, Ian Haddock, Dani Goulet, Gene Luen Yang, Sara Alfageeh, Bhavik Kumar, Aaliyah Habeeb, Tolentino, Seif Hamid, Nidhi Chanani, Victor Luckerson, Chirstina Lee, Sung Kang, and Mandi Sehgal

So enjoy some delicious - and not so delicious recos as you make your final run to pick up some last minute cranberry sauce. We hope you’re making the time to be with folks you care about, and find a moment to enjoy some great food with them. Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours...

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“That's the thing about fiction — you can hear the same story at different points in your life and you bring something different to it every time you hear the story.”

Justin Rueff is an artist, designer, educator and creator. Justin paints murals and signs, he draws comics and illustrates books. Justin’s the co-creator and artist for LESS DESOLATE, a new comics haiku project he brought to life with Seattle poet laureate Shin Yu Pai, a past FrieMMd of the Pod. Justin’s created hundreds of hand-painted signs and murals for businesses across Oregon and California — on a variety of surfaces including glass, stone and vinyl. He’s the author and illustrator of a few 'zines and comics including Brother Crow, A Guide to Understanding the Never-ending Story and Heroes & Lovers. Justin’s thoughtful work mixes traditional Mexican Art, comics, and album covers - running from people nature to food - and LESS DESOLATE is a powerful work worthy of any bookshelf. You’ll enjoy this candid conversation about collaboration, inspiration, comics and poetry

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MENTIONS

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“Even to this day, the cool thing about Diwali is that I can't wait to add to the traditions I learned from my parents.”

Diwali - the Festival of Lights - is celebrated by more than a BILLION people worldwide. And like so many of our traditions with roots in religion, Diwali is ALSO similar because it’s a cultural celebration where stories of family, friends, fun and yes, food, play a big part. So we asked for a little help from our FriMMds (of the Pod) - old and new. Huge thanks to everyone for sharing their Diwali stories...

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LEARN ABOUT OUR FRIENDS 

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“Jokes are subjective anyway, but laughs are as objective as you can get — as long as the joke is funny and the audience is laughing. That's where the line is, if people laugh or not.”

Jocelyn Chia is a New York-based lawyer-turned-comedian, who's a regular at the Comedy Cellar and Gotham Comedy Club, and has been featured in Vulture, Vice, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, Sirius XM, MTV, Fox News, TMZ, Vice TV, and Comedy Central. Now if the name Jocelyn Chia sounds familiar - or even if it doesn't, you've heard of her. That's because she really is infamous...at least in Malaysia. You see, back In June 2023, Jocelyn made the front page of The New York Times. The Singaporean comedian got into hot water when she told a series in NYC that went viral with Malaysians, but not in a good way. And we're not talking about just a few Malaysians. We're talking about pretty much the entire country. So FrieMMd of the Pod and THE Funny Indian Rajiv Satyal reached out to have her on HIS TanGent podcast - because he admired her willingness to stand her ground and not apologize for a joke. You'll hear Jocelyn's deep-dive into what happened, how she dealt with it, how the levels of trust about the media among Asian and American comedians differ, and how Jocelyn's mental health preparation enabled her to not only weather the storm but also to capitalize on the moment. This is a great conversation between two comics not just talking about their craft, but on the very merits of free speech in our increasing global - and social - society. 

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“There's nothing that opens up your mind, even your heart, to new and unknown things than travel. Get outside your comfort zone.”

S. Qaisar Shareef is P&G’s former head of Pakistan and Ukraine, author of “When Tribesmen Came Calling,” and a longtime friend of Raman’s other-other podcast (not the one about comics). But more importantly, Qaisar is also a fellow lover of travel. Specifically in how travel allows each of us to experience new and different cultures. Qaisar is based in Washington DC, and a frequent columnist in News International Pakistan, and his recent article about his travels in Egypt speaks to the importance of experiencing new and different cultures. Whether hitchhiking from Germany to Belgium, traveling the silk road thru Uzbekistan, wandering Afghanistan, or roaming ruins in Syria and Spain, Qaisar shares lessons and learnings from a world well traveled. 

This is NOT a Modern Minorities conversation. Raman’s third podcast (not about comics) is “Learnings from Learnings from Leaders: the P&G Alumni Podcast” (pgalums.com/podcast) - where Raman and his P&G Alumni pals sit down with top leaders in business about not just their professional experiences, but their purpose, values, and principles in their personal lives

LEARN ABOUT QAISAR

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“Reading a comic book isn't going to solve peace in the Middle East.  But I do think part of the solution is understanding both sides.”

We're all shocked and saddened by the attack on Israel - and as of this episode, war with Hamas. Officials and aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis, where escalating violence has already killed thousands of people and wounded and displaced many others. And that's a longer conversation that we're not going to have on this podcast. We pray for peace, and encourage you to reach out to the people in your respective communities to check in. But we know many of you want to know how you can help. 

The internet - particularly social media - is awash with misinformation, so it's especially important to verify that your contributions are going to organizations that are legitimate as well as effective. The Federal Trade Commission recommends searching charities' names alongside "complaint," "review," "rating" and "scam" to see if any red flags come up. You can also run a search on websites like like CharityWatch.org and CharityNavigator.org

Beyond that, we're just a podcast. So we decided to re-air an earlier Quarantined Comics conversation about the graphic novel PALESTINE — Joe Sacco's seminal work of cartoon journalism from 1993. PALESTINE covers Sacco's travels thru occupied Palestine territory - and Israel - to embed himself with the Palestinian people - hearing their stories first-hand to understand how they lived their every day lives. Sacco wanted to get around the sanitized story the Western Media was potraying — to emphasizes the history and plight of the Palestinian people, as a group and as individuals. In PALESTINE Sacco positions himself as the westerner confronting a reality unfamiliar to most Americans at the time - concentrating on his personal experience and perspective, as well as the stories of the people he encounters, with some light history thrown in for good measure. Conversations are documented over tea, roadblocks, police action, taxis and checkpoints - which become all too familiar set pieces in Sacco's narrative journey. The book was published as 9 issues by Fantagraphics from 1993 to 1995, with a graphic novel published later to a much wider audience. Palestine is the recipient of the American Book Award, and was named as one of the Top 100 English-Language Comics of the last Century. Sacco has since gone on to publish numerous other works of cartoon journalism - covering the Middle East, Bosnia/Serbia, and the Native American plight. for which he's received recognition from TIME Magazine, the Eisners, the Harveys, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

This is exactly the kind of conversation we want to have on Modern Minorities, which felt appropriate at this moment. This comic is relevant but distant to the ongoing crisis unfolding in the Middle East. While war and peace are not easy things to resolve, listening, learning, and reading with an open heart and mind is. We definitely encourage you to check out “PALESTINE” by Joe Sacco wherever you get your favorite books. But most of all, we hope for peace - as our thoughts are with the people of Israel and Gaza.

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“Israel’s very similar to the US - it's super complicated.”

We're all shocked and saddened by the attack on Israel - and as of this episode, war with Hamas. Officials and aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis, where escalating violence has already killed thousands of people and wounded and displaced many others. And that's a longer conversation that we're not going to have on this podcast. We pray for peace, and encourage you to reach out to the people in your respective communities to check in. But we know many of you want to know how you can help. 

The internet - particularly social media - is awash with misinformation, so it's especially important to verify that your contributions are going to organizations that are legitimate as well as effective. The Federal Trade Commission recommends searching charities' names alongside "complaint," "review," "rating" and "scam" to see if any red flags come up. You can also run a search on websites like like CharityWatch.org and CharityNavigator.org

Beyond that, we're just a podcast. So we decided to re-air an earlier Quarantined Comics conversation about the graphic memoir “How To Understand Israel in 60 Days.” - the 2007 comic by Jewish American cartoonist Sarah Glidden which chronicles Sarah's birthright trip back to Israel. As you can imagine, it’s a loaded story that had us out of our depth, one of our close Jewish friends Jon Kriner joined to give his take, reflecting on his own experiences in Israel. Exactly the kind of conversation we want to have on Modern Minorities, which felt appropriate in this moment. This comic is relevant but distant to the ongoing crisis unfolding in the Middle East. While war and peace are not easy things to resolve, listening, learning, and reading with an open heart and mind is. We definitely encourage you to check out “How To Understand Israel in 60 Days.” by Sarah Glidden wherever you get your favorite books. But most of all, we hope for peace - as our thoughts are with the people of Israel and Gaza.

LEARN MORE

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.