Spilling Chai

Hello My Dear Listeners! How are you? Welcome to Episode 12, the season finale of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.

For so long, journalism in America has been defined and run by white men-- and some white women. But where do the rest of us fit in and what happens to our stories?

No one is poised to better answer this question than our guest today who is the founding mother of the 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy. I am talking about the one and only, Errin Haines!

Hello Spilling Chai listeners! How is everyone? Welcome to Episode 11 of Season 2 of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain!

When we first launched this podcast and we were setting up our social media accounts, on Instagram I kept finding myself reposting these incredibly colorful, vibrant, and super-feminist images with this very cool South Asian vibe.

The account was called “Colors of Honey” and the artist’s work led me down this rabbit hole of Desi artists on Instagram whose talent is not only beautiful but makes powerful social & political statements.

Hello Everyone! How are you? Welcome to episode 10 of season 2 of the show coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.

One of the things I love about having this podcast is getting to invite people whose work I’ve admired and fan-girled from a far to be a guest on Spilling Chai. So, of course, I would take this opportunity to reach out to a woman who proudly calls herself an anarchist and a feminist.

I am talking about feminist writer and author, Mona Eltahaway.

Hello fabulous listeners of Spilling Chai! Welcome to Episode 9 of season two of the show. You guys have such great taste in podcasts and I am so happy to have you with us!

It is no secret that publishing in America, much like Hollywood, is not the most diverse business. In fact, a 2016 Diversity Baseline Survey examining race and gender in book publishing found that 79% of the industry is made up of white women.

The nationwide protests against racial injustice over the summer set off conversations in nearly every industry about the treatment of Black workers-- and book publishing was no exception.

Hello Fabulous Spilling Chai listeners! How are you? Welcome to Season 2, Episode 8 of the show coming to you from Washington, DC. I am your host, Anushay Hossain.

While many of you who follow my work may know that I am a massive feminist, how many of you know that I am actually a raging feminist? Feminism for me is more than just believing in women’s equal rights as human beings. I also rely on it in a very spiritual way as well-- to hold me up, to give me hope, inspiration, and motivation.

A lot of this comes from the women in my life, especially the feminist writers and authors who over the course of my career have become mentors and friends, and whose work--and words-- feed my soul. One such person for me is Soraya Chemaly and she is our guest today!

Hello My Spilling Chai, listeners! How are you? Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 2 of the show.

Is there a group of women more stereotyped or more misunderstood than Muslim women? From being collectively labelled as subjugated, oppressed, uneducated, helpless victims, despite the fact that Islam spreads from America to the Middle East to South Asia to Indonesia, when it comes to Muslim women we are immediately reduced to a collective offensive, and incorrect, stereotype.

Well, contrary to well-established misconceptions, Muslim women are not a monolith, and no one’s life and career embodies that truth more than our guest today. I am talking about Saudi businesswoman and activist, Muna AbuSulayman!

Hello my Spilling Chai listeners! How is everyone doing? Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 2 of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. The word “immigration” brings up so many different kinds of emotions and images for people. In Trump’s America, for me the word brings to mind families being tear-gassed and separated at the border; children in cages sleeping under aluminum blankets. Under Donald Trump, even legal immigration and seeking asylum is treated as criminal.

Well, our guest today knows and understands this issue perhaps better than anyone because of all the time she spent researching and studying Stephen Miller-- Senior Policy Advisor for the Trump admin, and the man in charge of formulating immigration policy.

Hello Spilling Chai, Listeners! Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 2 coming to you from Washington, DC.

Being a writer during a pandemic has made me think a lot about not just our stories but who gets to tell them. Being a brown person in America, an immigrant, a person of color, means that narratives are often framed for you by well, your brownness.

But the work of our guest today has been instrumental in reminding people not only how important representation is but how important it is that we ourselves get to choose, and own, how our stories are told.

I am talking about author and New York Times writer, Sopan Deb!

Hi Spilling Chai Listeners! How are you? Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 2 of “Spilling Chai” coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.

I’ve been a feminist for such a large part of my life and one of the things that makes me the happiest is when men not only support women’s rights but openly call themselves feminists. One of the most frustrating things I have dealt with in my career is having to repeat that being a feminist does not mean hating men. [Insert massive eye roll gif please].

Thank goodness it is a new era because now not only do men openly identify with feminism but people are finally getting the message that when women win, everyone wins.

Hello Everyone! How are you? Welcome to Episode 3 of Season 2 of Spilling Chai! I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.

To say that things are hard right now might just be the greatest understatement of all time. While living in a pandemic intensifies the struggle for all of us in different ways, the gendered impacts of COVID-19 means pivoting around the pandemic has been uniquely difficult for women.

Now we are having to juggle even more from home, with everyone at home, working from home at the same time, it’s unequally falling on women and moms to figure out how to keep our families healthy, safe, fed, alive, and educated.