Vivek Shraya wants to talk about failure. She has a new TV series on CBC called “How to Fail as a Popstar”. Vivek says that failure is what keeps her up at night. Why didn’t she become the next Madonna? Did people think she was too brown? Too queer? Or maybe she was too held down by people’s expectations? Vivek embraces the failure, and argues we need to stop focusing on resilience and allow for disappointment.

Meanwhile, Vivek is an associate professor, a filmmaker, the author of several books, a musician, and a huge success. She’s also written, produced and starred in this new series. Vivek talks to us about what it’s like to cast herself, starting out as a nerdy little brown boy singing at the West Edmonton Mall, to the transgendered woman she is now with a big story to tell.

You can watch the video of the recording here on YouTube.

A transcription of the show is available here.

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