Episode 52: Sharon Mashihi's "Appearances"| A Jewish Currents Collaboration

In collaboration with Jewish Currents, Vaybertaytsh is pleased to present a special English episode with audio artist Sharon Mashihi (one of Sosye’s main inspirations for creating a podcast in the first place!).

Sharon Mashihi’s new audio series, Appearances, is decidedly not a documentary. Mashihi, an Iranian Jewish artist and podcast producer best known for her work on The Heart,  places it at “6 out of 10 on the truth spectrum.” The series’ protagonist of the series, which was produced by Mermaid Palace and Radiotopia,  is a lightly fictionalized version of Mashihi named Melanie, and wrestles with questions drawn from her creator’s life: whether to have a baby  as a single mother or with her non-Jewish, non-Iranian, much older boyfriend; and how to build a family that both reflects and departs from the struggles she witnessed growing up in an immigrant household. 

Mashihi has made art from complicated family dynamics before; her 2017 audio documentary Man Choubam (I Am Good) followed her efforts to bridge a painful divide between herself and her mother. But fictionalizing aspects of Appearances—in which she performs the voice acting for all the characters, including Melanie’s mother, father, and brother—allowed her to write freely about the hurt that comes with seeking to know and be known by immigrant parents who occupy a very different cultural milieu. Through the intimacy of the medium, Mashihi draws the listener into Melanie’s mind as a proxy for Mashihi’s own desires and imagination. What results is nothing short of audio and story-telling genius, a stunning portrayal of a first-generation Iranian American reconciling the life her family wishes her to live with the one she wants to build for herself. Mashihi and I spoke recently about immigrant communities, Jewish and Iranian identity, and the ethical quandary of making art from your life without hurting the ones you love.