SBS Spice

Bangalore-born comic Jo Gowda joins SBS Spice to talk about her new show Export Quality at the Sydney Comedy Festival — a sharp, funny take on the migrant experience in Australia. From navigating Brisbane’s eerie quiet to decoding how Aussies talk (and eat), Jo unpacks the layered reality of life as an outsider looking in. Offstage, she’s also raising a full-blown Aussie kid who loves Vegemite — and no, she still hasn’t made peace with it. Plus: a rapid-fire round as your favourite Bangalore dad. Listen wherever you find your podcasts.

Rattan Virk is contesting the seat of Greenway for the Liberal Party ahead of the 2025 Australian federal election, campaigning on cost of living relief, small business support, and strengthening trade ties with India as key priorities. She speaks with Dilpreet Kaur Taggar about what she believes matters most to Western Sydney voters. Please note: This conversation was recorded before recent developments involving the candidate. Due to availability issues, SBS Spice was unable to secure a follow-up response regarding the Liberal Party’s proposed cap on international student numbers.

Labor MP Cassandra Fernando has represented the seat of Holt in Victoria since 2022. As Labor seeks a second term in government, she makes the case for her party’s record and its promises to voters. In this episode of SBS Spice, she speaks to Suhayla Sharif about Labor’s plans to tackle the cost of living crisis, HECS debt, and the national housing shortage. Fernando, who migrated from Sri Lanka as a child, also discusses the role of representation in Australian politics and the challenges of connecting with an increasingly diverse electorate.

Singapore-based comedian Kumar has been pushing the boundaries of Asia's entertainment landscape for over three decades. Performing as a drag queen and comedic entertainer, his unfiltered yet effervescent humour has never bowed down to binaries and boxes. Just before taking to the stage for Sydney Comedy Festival, he sat down with Suhayla Sharif to explore how old school humour is shaping the future of being funny. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you find your podcasts.

Stand-up comedy royalty Prashasti Singh makes her Australian debut with Divine Feminine — a show delivered entirely in Hindi (with a little Hinglish). Ahead of her performance at the Sydney Comedy Festival, she joins Dilpreet Kaur Taggar on SBS Spice to open up about language, longing, and the layered experience of connecting with desis abroad. Together, they dive into age anxiety, algorithm-induced identity crises, and the unexpected comfort of finding “your tribe” far from home. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you find your podcasts.

Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor over Palestine. Now she’s leading her own party. In this episode of SBS Spice, she tells Suhayla Sharif why she walked, what it cost her, and how it led to the formation of Australia’s Voice. From HECS relief and supermarket price gouging to Gaza and foreign aid, she outlines her party’s vision—and what she believes young Australians should be pushing for at the ballot box in the upcoming federal election. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you find your podcasts.

Writer and digital creator Ruchi Page joins SBS Spice on the long, messy journey of making peace with your body. Growing up as a brown girl in a predominantly white town, Ruchi learned early on how body image is shaped not just by mirrors, but by the people we love, the cultures we come from, and the spaces we’re told we don’t belong in. In this conversation with Dilpreet Kaur Taggar, we talk about softness, shame, and the power of real storytelling — both online and in Butterfly Foundation’s new campaign The Changing Room, which Ruchi is part of. Listen now on SBS Spice, wherever you get your podcasts.

What makes a joke travel? Urooj Ashfaq and Anirban Dasgupta, two of India’s most distinctive comedy voices, are touring Australia and figuring that out in real time. From navigating diaspora nerves to resisting the pressure to “perform Indian-ness,” they talk about what lands, what doesn’t, and how the rules of the stage shift depending on where you are—and where you’re from. In the lead-up to their Sydney Comedy Festival show, they join Dilpreet Kaur Taggar on SBS Spice to unpack silence, self-censorship, and the strange freedom that comes with being funny far from home.

Not your aunty’s idea of stand-up. Daizy Maan and Niv Prakasam are carving out space on Australia’s biggest comedy stages with Brown Women Comedy—one sharp, subversive set at a time. They join Suhayla Sharif to chat about the politics of palatability, turning silence into laughter, and what happens when you take your story and make it the punchline (on your own terms).

A 13-year-old boy, a murder, and the internet—where does the blame begin? Suhayla Sharif and Dilpreet Kaur Taggar break down Adolescence, Netflix’s chilling dive into the manosphere, incel culture, and the online rabbit holes shaping young men. When ideology turns dangerous, who’s really in control?