Hellloooo - we are back this week and we are ft. a very special guest Sameera Khalid. She is an amazing friend of ours, that made time to be on this podcast - so pleaseeeee listen to it. Okay besides that, Sameera has a degree in Neuroscience, works with a crisis line, and has constantly advocated for mental health - so if that doesn't make you think she is creditable - we don't know what will. But on the reals, this week we discuss the complexity surrounding brown (South Asian) mental health, the different approaches to mental health in our South Asian community, and if the healthcare system really looks to accommodate immigrant mental health. Additionally, we share our thoughts on intergenerational trauma, discuss the therapist's inability to understand the effects of culture on mental health, and how assimilation and acculturation have affected our mental health. So tune in this week, for a thought-provoking episode where we share our views and experiences with our own mental health and brown culture. Since we are talking about a sensitive topic, we have listed resources and tips in the link below that could help you on your own mental health journey: https://linktr.ee/strugglingoptimists. And as always - we hope you enjoy this episode!

Soooooooo yeah, it has been a minute - we know, we know but come on, were you really expecting us to be consistent with OUR TRACK RECORD?! But okay hear us out, we got hit with final year uni syndrome, and it definitely was not a vibe. Whoever tells you that your final year of uni is about to be the best year of your life - IS LYING TO YOU - leave that bish on read and run fast as you can in the opposite direction. But on the reals, if you want to know where we have been, why it's been radio silent for like 4 months (but who's counting?) and as the youth say "what's poppin?", give this episode a listen. We also give you tips on what not to do when moving out in less than 12 hours (which could prevent you from experiencing a dislocated shoulder), the piping hot tea about our last 4 months (mostly on how a crisis line basically hung up on Rukky) and give you an in-depth review of our vaccinating experiences. We are back (hopefully), we are better (this is a big maybe), we are gucci or whatever (honestly this statement is a little bold, now that we think about it). Anyways guys, as always we hope you enjoy this episode with your fave idiotic duo :)

Hey guys! Welcome back to the Struggling Optimist Podcast - we know, we know we haven't posted in a while now - but we promise we will let you know why and catch you guys up in the future. This week we really wanted to educate everyone with the ongoing issue in Palestine, and spread some knowledge and awareness to our users. We were lucky enough to have Esraa educate us about everything going on, and provide us with an ample amount of resources to help. All the resources would be found on our instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strugglingoptimists/?hl=en. Catch you guys soon! 

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Hey everyone, we’re beyond excited to finally share the Mental Health Series with you!! This has been in the works for a very long time, so we hope that we’re able to properly convey the sentiment behind it. The series started as a way to dissect the mental health of average, everyday twenty year olds (and one high school student lmao) and understand how different aspects of their life affect them. We wanted to be able to showcase how diverse mental health is for everyone and how, no matter how different or similar you may be from one another, we’re all in this together. You’re not alone in your experiences or your thoughts, there’s 7 billion people in the world, someone is bound to relate to you (and according to Rukky’s Tiktok FYP, she has never had one original thought in her life). Hopefully, you can relate, at least partially, to the experiences being shared by our participants and come away from this with a better understanding of yourself and the collective struggles of young adults. And if none of that happens, we at least hope you can enjoy hearing our participants stories as much as we did! Thank you so much for listening! Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Azz1VelrtHDjYEBK87pIiB93JRt7Px_gkZb8mDrwFWU/edit?usp=sharing

Happy New Year everyone! Thank god 2020 is finally over; the systemic and capitalistic factors that created a lot of the major issues we faced in the year haven’t disappeared but the bad vibes are finally gone 🥰. Let’s hope that 2021 turns out to be a better year for all of us. We thought that for this episode it would be a good idea to reminisce on 2020 and talk about what we hope 2021 will bring us. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

Hey guys, we’re back with another this week! We decided to keep the casual conversations going while we reminisce on Rukky’s near death experience, how Shafa has no trust in Rukky for saving her in dangerous situations, Second-hand Stress Syndrome (aka being friends with Rukky), and whether we would have been friends in middle school/how we became friends in uni (i.e. that one New Girls episode we plagiarized). If you’re interested in any of these topics then be sure to check out this episode!

Hey guys, we’re back with another episode! This week, we’re back with our favourite guest (who at this point is basically our third host), Esraa!! In this episode we take casual to a new level - we ditch our bullet points and our PG-13 conversations and bring you along with us as we have a genuine conversation between friends (disclaimer: we do swear quite a bit in this episode). We cover topics such as Team Edward vs Team Jacob (the obvious and correct answer is Team Jacob according to Rukky), Rukky’s horrible luck when choosing K-Pop biases (trust us, it’s bad), Shaf’s daily breakdowns, K-Dramas and their very unique kiss scenes, whether we want kids and if we’re interested in adopting, and much much more! So be sure to tune in for this week’s episode!