In Episode 2 of The Magic Pod we sit down with Rukhsana Khan — born in Lahore, Pakistan, and raised in Canada from the age of three. She is the author of Big Red Lollipop, King for a Day, Rabia's Eid, and Honk Honk Beep Beep Putter Putt, an official selection for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in 2025, and many more.

Rukhsana takes us back to a small town in Southern Ontario where she was told as a little girl that she was brown because she was dirty. She survived that through books. She went on to write stories that changed what Muslim children's literature looks like — quietly, powerfully, one book at a time.

We talk about everyday heroes, the library card that changed everything, and what it means to write from the inside of a culture the world gets wrong.

This episode is for every child who has ever felt like an outsider — and every grown-up who fought their way through anyway.

In honor of South Asian Heritage Month, welcome to The Magic Pod — the first podcast fully dedicated to South Asian and diaspora kid lit creators. In our very first episode, we sit down with Suma Subramaniam — author of Namaste is a Greeting, She Sang for India, The Runaway Dosa, and the V. Malar series.

Suma takes us back to moonlit terraces in India, a grandmother who told stories from memory, and a bicycle ride to the library that changed everything. We talk about writing from longing, using your voice for change, and why 12 minutes a day is all it takes to become a storyteller.

This episode is for every child who has ever found a safe haven in a book — and every grown-up who remembers what that felt like.

Namaste.