TPR Pod

Marium Hosein is on the show! You know her from her super popular Instagram account where she's always ready to dish out everything from recipes, to parenting updates, to glam wedding dispatches, all the way to real life's ins and outs. She brings her mahaul-raising vibes to the show to talk about all of this and more!  

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Intro 

02:07 Where EXACTLY does Marium live 

06:17 Growing up all over Pakistan because she was an army kid 

10:11 Where is home, and expats romanticizing Pakistan 

18:18 Getting serious on social media in late 2019, and then COVID arrives 

32:23 Her relationship with the audience, as the audience went from 2500 to 90k 

38:23 Realizing the potential trap of chasing audience validation 

47:56 How her sponsored work began, and how the Pakistani and International markets differ 

57:59 Looking at hiring people, her work split between US & Pakistan 

1:02:30 Valuing her own brand, trying balance real life with social media and product development 

1:07:05 How do her kids feel about her social media work, and how does that make her feel? 

1:10:31 Food talk! What does she like, and Karachi’s food scene - Xanders, Wang Wang, sheermal 

1:20:25 Marium has a couple questions about us and the podcast scene 

1:28:58 The immense pressure on content creators to have OPINIONS about ISSUES 

1:38:15 Jinn story! 

1:41:12 Outro  

LINKS: 

Marium's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariumhosein/ 

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Thanks to our sponsor Manscaped - Check out the Performance Package 4.0 at https://Manscaped.com and use our offer code! * Get 20% off + free shipping with the code TPR at manscaped.com.   * That’s 20% off + free shipping with the code TPR at manscaped.com.  Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupperRizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkharSarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Uzair Younus is the host of the excellent podcast focused on Pakistan's economic and geo-political situations, Pakistonomy. After his appearance on our 2021 Podcast Panel last year, we had to have him on for his solo episode. In this chat Uzair talks about how he ended up in the US, how the podcast started, misinformation in Pakistan, and also his hopeful contribution in tackling some of these issues. 

Things discussed in this episode:

00:00 Intro AND SPONSORED SEGMENT

03:15 Talking about the war in Ukraine

05:21 Who is Uzair and how did he end up working in consultancy in DC?

15:09 How the Pakistonomy podcast came about, ignorance in discourse in Pakistan

21:09 How “real” news is rarely discussed on tv and is our culture anti-questioning?

28:44 How’s the podcast reaction been, how does he handle disagreements, and does he have a niche?

37:29 Has anything he learned via the podcast surprised him? (Pakistan’s wheat shortage)

43:10 How Pakistan’s exclusionary system of government keeps policies anti-public

47:34 Things won’t get better in Pakistan will they? Some ways they might

56:52 A system of governance that might be Pakistan’s only way of improving things

1:01:55 Uzair’s report on how Web3/crypto investments can bring in billions for Pakistan

1:10:18 What are the hurdles in adopting Web3/crypto frameworks in Pakistan?

1:13:51 Pakistonomy’s future-facing plans for upcoming episodes, brief chat about Pakistan’s startup economy

1:18:15 Outro

LINKS: 

Pakistonomy: https://www.youtube.com/pakistonomy

Uzair's paper on Web3's potential for Pakistan: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/realizing-the-promise-and-potential-of-web3-for-pakistan/

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Thanks to our sponsor Manscaped - Check out the Performance Package 4.0 at https://Manscaped.com and use our offer code!

* Get 20% off + free shipping with the code TPR at manscaped.com.  

* That’s 20% off + free shipping with the code TPR at manscaped.com.

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupperRizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkharSarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Momina Munir returns! Two years after her first episode on the show, Momina is back to talk about pretty much everything that's happened since then. The high highs, the scarily low lows, and everything in between. Jump right in!  

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Intro 

01:39 Momina had a very rough 2020 - how bad things got 

08:19 Her experience with going to therapy for a year 

10:52 How she ended up dropping plans to study psychology 

17:44 Skipping the IBA test and deciding which business degree to pursue 

26:59 Finding exciting things in her degree that relate to her existing career(s) 

31:05 Trading YouTube “cOnSiSTEncY” for self-care in 2020-21 

40:27 How did she come up with the idea of starting her own podcast? 

49:43 Hosting a Young Stunners concert  

52:46 Her first scary/awkward/eventually-good experience acting in a scripted production 

1:02:56 Her path to financial independence 

1:09:04 Running her business and all the learning that went into it 

1:17:03 Outro and a semi Jinn story  

LINKS: 

Momina's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MominaMunir

Momina's Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIDOyA-MOI1Ieq8GEad8Spw/about

Momina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mominamunir/

Modifiers: https://www.modifiers.online/ 

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupperRizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkharSarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

The last of our live recordings from Pakistan is out! The audio isn't GREAT because we're in a house not a studio but it's fine you'll be fine. There's Rizwan, Ali, Nadir, all our wives in the background, a dog named Gul, a cat named Changez, and just madness. Jump right in!  

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Introduction to new location, new cast, new animals 

01:44 Driving from Lahore to Islamabad, shoutout to Barfaani Reech Ajao, Rizwan’s road rage 

07:04 How will Humayun Saeed do in The Crown?? 

10:12 Random Islamabad and COVID updates 

12:44 Our Spiderman No Way Home experiences 

19:10 Spiderman review and The Problem with the MCU 

24:33 A rant about people who spoil things 

30:39 What is the best pizza in Pakistan? 

38:48 We’re all getting hair transplants 

42:05 Rizwan’s concerns about getting old and the audience jumps in 

47:24 An overly chaotic outro   

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpod Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod  Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupper Rizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkhar Sarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Karachi's 2022 live recording session is over. We're in Lahore now. WITH JINN STORIES. And stories about Lahore, and Islamabad, and Dubai. And we're in Rizwan PEHELWAN Takkhar's home!   

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Intro 

01:46 The problem with Jinn Stories 

03:03 Ali’s Lahore review - smog, what we ate, food trends in the city, hotpot wars 

10:00 All Pakistani drive-thru places are failures, Lahore’s traffic is mental 

14:02 Worst jinn story we’ve ever received 

14:55 “Jinn on a postman’s bike through a graveyard” 

19:19 “Dadi’s grandchild’s Nana’s khandaani jinns” 

21:18 “Deceased grandparents never left”, or something of that sort 

23:06 “Laughing invisible children in Hassan Square” 

24:32 “Naughty jinns get scolded”, what if they scold you back? 

27:00 “Air guitar storey”, what does ‘shit-scared’ mean? 

29:19 Specific insanities old people develop in Pakistan 

33:37 Trash people being trash in Pakistan 

38:00 “Counting crows”  

39:08 Suddenly talking about Bahria Enclave Islamabad’s bird aviary 

41:40 “Waseem Bonafied Badawe” 

44:15 “Laughing, talking, walking office cool ghost” 

47:38 Summarizing the jinn stories scene 

50:16 Imran Khan was in Lahore!

52:23 Rizwan worked with The Wedding Filmers! 

57:51 Outro   

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupperRizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkharSarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Welcome to the first (hopefully not only) episode of our brand new series called the TPR Roundup! Here we'll be talking about a whole bunch of pop-culture including music, movies, tv-shows, and anything else in between we can think of.   

Starting off the idea right, we're covering Coke Studio's season 14! Or at least, as much of it as we had available up till the 1st week of February. Jump right in!  

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Intro 

01:36 Xulfi has declared martial law on Coke Studio 

4:24 The evolution in the “Coke Studio sound” 

9:19 Directed versus collaborative approaches to production 

12:26 “Tu Jhoom” is Sarfaraz’s favourite song so far 

16:09 Arooj Aftab’s own music versus her Coke Studio appearance 

20:12 Atif Aslam’s hiphop-adjacent rebranding 

24:01 Is Coke Studio not “live” anymore? Was it ever? 

27:28 Talking about the video-work and set design 

39:50 Ranking our favourite Coke Studio seasons so far 

32:58 Outro  

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupperRizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkharSarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Back again with another annual YouTube roundup, this is the YouTube Panel for 2021. We're joined by Kazi Akber, Irfan Junejo, Nazar Syed & Gul Zaib to talk about the year that's just passed in their YouTube lives. How their year went in terms of growth, what the brand scene was like, what is the state of the community and more.   

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Intro

01:28 Small talk and setting up the discussion

2021 summary:

04:04 Irfan junejo: tried to make a comeback, YouTubers getting mugged in Karachi, equipment downgrades

06:21 Teeli: COVID slowed down early quarters, Q4 got super busy, even brands appreciate consistency

12:09 Irfan agrees there is significantly increased branding spending, and audiences also seem more accepting of this

14:08 Nazar/Vaguely Familiar: defining a Pakistani vs global audience, rebranding the podcast, does their relatively smaller size prevent guests from coming?

20:52 Kazi: losing his studio, taking a break, audience accepting the concept of conversations, brand deals

Brand environment:

28:03 Gul/Teeli: brands seem more aware of the sort of content Teeli makes and how best to integrate their aims with the product

35:04 Irfan: only perhaps 20% of brands really care about the product, all others just care about the views his face can bring regardless of content nature

37:38 Gul & Irfan: appreciating native vs digital advertising, are brands moving spend from TV to digital creators?

41:34 Kazi: people have approached him for sponsored conversations with guests, would he be open to pre-decided questions p1rovided by the sponsors?

48:34 Irfan & Gul: brands treating creators as employees vs collaborators

52:05 Kazi: Is there a financial feasibility angle with his vlogging channel?

56:12 Podcasters can/should have personal brands and associated content that will push the popularity of their podcasts

Community:

1:00:21 Does Teeli consider themselves as part of the wider YouTube community or is that only for individual creators?

1:03:37 Irfan thinks generic “collabs” aren’t happening and that’s a good thing, but also that the YouTube scene seems stagnant in terms of new faces and innovation

1:07:19 Kazi thinks that if people can get over themselves and be more PR-savvy, more nuanced and intertextual collaborations are now possible

1:11:08 We all talk about a perceived lack of innovation and new entrants, Irfan & Gul mention brands being aggressively conservative in what they will support

1:14:04 We try and figure out why Teeli does not have several full-fledged competitors

1:18:34 Do people (big, small, individuals, companies) in Pakistan understand how YouTube works?

1:28:00 Lightning round 2022 plans

1:30:26 Outro  

LINKS: 

Irfan Junejo: https://www.youtube.com/IrfanJunejo 

Kazi Akber: https://www.youtube.com/KiyaKaheGaKazi 

Nazar Syed: https://www.youtube.com/TheBrodcastPodcast 

Teeli: https://www.youtube.com/Teeli  

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpod Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod  Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupper Rizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkhar Sarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Kazi Akber returns! A little over a year after his first solo episode with us, Kazi is back on the show to talk about everything that's happened in between. How his experience has been over the +100 episodes of his podcast, why he's vlogging, about his "self hate", about how sometimes the audience can be disappointing and more! Jump right in!  

Things discussed in this episode:  

00:00 Intro 

01:30 Small talk 

04:47 Why does Kazi specifically like ‘portrait’ photography? 

09:07 Feasibility of flips in front of a father 

10:09 How our podcasting styles differ 

14:43 Guests acting in bad faith, things seeming easier than they are 

17:52 +100 episodes in, how does he feel about people’s understanding of conversations? 

25:52 Anti-intellectual sentiments in the general public and on social media 

30:02 People are unable to appreciate others doing different things 

34:28 Performative accusations and confessions of privilege, the internet is all fake 

37:54 Saviour complex discussion 

41:10 Short interlude on conversations getting heavy 

43:43 What has Kazi learned through all his conversations? 

50:31 Why does Kazi not make chapters? 

57:03 Why did he start vlogging + fans not understanding what creators want 

59:54 Trying to talk about age, experiences, and trying to contextualise life while not being patronising 

1:04:30 Trying to break down the reality behind his “self-hate” branding 

1:10:31 Do people treat him differently now that he has lost weight? 

1:12:49 Plans for 2022 and outro  

LINKS: 

Kazi's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/KiyaKaheGaKazi

Kazi's second channel: https://www.youtube.com/KaziAkber

Kazi's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaziakber/

Kazi's second Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kazisphotos/ 

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)!   

Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!  SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupperRizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkharSarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan

Friend of the podcast and recurring guest Gul was finally trapped into making an appearance for a full episode about her. We're very impressed by her becoming the General Manager at Teeli, an outfit we're big fans of like many thousands of other people, so we had to have her on to figure out how she did it. From her childhood, to A-levels, to the job and her promotions, we got most of it. 

As before, the YouTube cut is a shorter version of the full chat which can be found only on our audio platforms.

Things discussed in this episode:

00:00 Intro

02:11 Double barrel names, chai discussion, giving babies Pepsi

05:57 Gul’s current job at Teeli, how we met

10:40 Gul’s early life, writing at a young age, internships

13:49 Talking about our A-levels results & competition with siblings/cousins

16:15 Gul goes to SZABIST, how she chose media sciences, first job out of Uni

23:50 Working Geo Films

33:00 Joining KGS to teach Media Sciences to A levels kids

35:16 Joining Teeli, working in an unproven company in a new field, doing comedy

39:13 People/Society questioning careers in the arts and media

43:22 Joining Teeli

47:52 The at-times horrific experience of table reads for a comedy script

57:23 The multiple moving pieces when making sponsored content vs originals

1:01:34 How did she become GM?

1:07:57 Sudden flashback to becoming head-girl

1:11:41 Flashforward back to Gul becoming GM

1:12:22 Ali asks Gul the heaviest question he’s ever asked anybody

1:19:04 She has a jinn story!

1:23:37 Trying to ask about the future and Areeb Tariq (sudden guest) has a “good question”

1:27:52 A very long and chaotic outro

LINKS:

Teeli's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Teeli

Teeli's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teelipk/

Support the podcast by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/tprpod) or send a one-off token on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/tprpod)! 

Find all our previous episodes on SoundCloud, Spotify & Apple Podcasts and follow us all on Twitter! Links to everything below!

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/tprpod

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PvTahp...

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tprpod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TPRPod

Ali: https://twitter.com/themaholupper

Rizwan: https://twitter.com/RizwanTakkhar

Sarkhail: https://twitter.com/Sarkhail7Khan