Nadia Irshaid Gilbert is Palestinian from the American south. She is a creative director, chef, immersive and visual artist, and storyteller. She is also a trained Reiki Master and embodiment facilitator. Nadia combines multiple modalities of study in her life’s work, producing visual media and facilitating multi-sensory experiences that invite us all to dive deep and transform. She believes in changing the world through our grounded, open hearted presence. 

Nadia’s food, presence, and spirit are simply delicious.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Nadia Instagram

Nadia Links

Nadia YouTube

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Joél Leon also known as Joél L. Daniels, is a Bronx born and raised performer, father, author, and storyteller who writes and tells stories for Black people. Joél specializes in moderating and leading conversations surrounding race, masculinity, mental health, creativity, and the performing arts, with love at the center of his work and purpose. He is the author of Book About Things I Will Tell My Daughter, God Wears Durags, Too, and Everything and Nothing at Once: A Black Man's Reimagined Soundtrack for the Future. His TED talk on healthy coparenting has been viewed over 1.5M times. He’s worked with The Gates Foundation, HBO, Nike, Twitter, and the TODAY Show, and has been featured in EBONY, The Independent, Newsweek, Medium, BBC News, Sirius XM, Forbes, the Huffington Post, Blavity, and others. Joél currently works as the Creative Director at the NY Times T Brand Studio.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Joel's Links

Joel Instagram

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Jungwon Kim is an award-winning writer and cultural worker. She is also a communications leader, organizational strategy consultant, and journalist who has dedicated her professional life to human rights and environmental advocacy. As Head of Creative & Editorial at the Rainforest Alliance, she directed a multimedia team of writers, videographers, and graphic designers. Earlier in her career, she served as the editor of Amnesty International USA’s human rights quarterly that featured the work of award-winning journalists and documentary photographers (circulation 300,000). She began her storytelling career as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and on-air correspondent for nationally syndicated public radio programs. 

Through her consulting practice, Next Wave, she develops tailored impact strategies (social, environmental, narrative), facilitates organizational and team retreats, and provides mindfulness-based leadership coaching to individuals. Jungwon currently serves as the board chair of Peace Is Loud, a nonprofit organization that builds narrative impact in the documentary film sector, and a board member of the Fund for Public Health NYC, which works to build racial and socioeconomic equity in public health outcomes. She did her undergraduate and graduate studies (B.A. Philosophy, dual M.J./M.A. program in Journalism and East Asian Studies) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in support of her graduate research on self-censorship in the Hong Kong news media, a Foreign Language Area Fellowship, and a Korea Foundation Fellowship.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation. 

Links

Jungwon Website

Laura Instagram

Laura Website

Laura YouTube

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

Our first guest on Cha is our friend, Naley by Nature. Naley is the founder of NaleybyNature , an independent project to document stories from different corners of the world. She is a filmmaker, producer, and writer and is currently working on bringing greater awareness of the Palestinian genocide to Western audiences. Born and raised in New York, Naley studied media and journalism at Iona College. With the rise in social media, Naley was drawn to all the perspectives traditional media fails to report on. During the pandemic, Naley and her co-founder, Sadia, quit their jobs and started traveling the world to create their documentary.

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation.

Links 

Naley Instagram

Naley Substack

Naley YouTube 

Laura Instagram

Laura Website 

Laura YouTube 

Leah Instagram

Leah Substack

Leah YouTube

logo designed by @grime_ninja

Welcome to 차 with Laura and Leah! Cha is a podcast and video series featuring conversations with our friends over tea. We are two diasporic Korean women who were inspired by Nina Simone's quote, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.” Cha is our offering to the collective and we hope our conversations inspire you to start having meaningful dialogues and reflections with your own communities. So make sure to brew a pot of cha and join our conversations about art, spirituality, culture, and liberation.

Links 

⁠Laura Instagram⁠

⁠Laura Website ⁠

⁠Laura YouTube ⁠

⁠Leah Instagram⁠

⁠Leah Substack⁠

⁠Leah YouTube⁠

Logo designed by @grime_ninja

Alexandra is a somatic artivist dedicated to liberation through somatic education and care, mahayoga, body temple dance, and ritual arts. Although we recorded this conversation a few months ago, everything we discuss is as relevant as ever, especially as we try to stay grounded amidst these times.

Alexandra and I talk about our yoga practices, processing the grief of witnessing gen ocides, and community. Oh — and our shared love of the moon!

TW: We talk about mental health issues including OCD, especially in the first 13 minutes, but we touch back on trauma throughout the episode.

Alexandra’s IG

Leah’s IG

Sarah is a Tony-winning performer, writer, and director and the host of the America, Who Hurt You? podcast. As a Black woman from a multicultural background, she is devoted to building a movement that promotes collective healing and affirmation for all people, starting with Black women and femmes.

Our conversation was in the wake of the election results, and both Sarah and I were navigating the weight of what was to come. Sarah’s guidance to stay grounded through grief and fear is crucial for all of us in this current moment.

We talk about the intersection of politics, identity, trauma, and wellness, as well as the over-saturation of information, misinformation, and disinformation. 

Sarah’s ultimate call is one of hope: What is the healing that will bring us home to ourselves and to each other?

Some thoughts as we enter into this year.

May we all find ourselves and one another.

We’ll be back with full episodes soon.

Let’s stay in touch: Substack or my blog

Jonathan is a father, writer, professor, astrologer, numerologist, and diviner. This was a magical conversation about so many real life issues through the lens of spirituality and through nerding out (in Jonathan’s words) about astrology.

From politics to systemic oppression to spiritual practice, we exchange thoughts on all the intersecting aspects of being human. Jonathan gets real about his own emotional state post-election and we talk about the need to connect with those that we are in disagreement with. 

Jonathan shares his analysis on the much talked-about Pluto in Aquarius season we are now in. The revolution is here, it is inevitable, and it is becoming irresistible.

Book a reading with Jonathan

Jonathan’s IG

Leah’s IG

Rolla is an award-winning filmmaker, a Sundance alumna, and a Palestinian American with deep, maternal roots in Jerusalem. She is the founder of the Safina Filmmaker Project, an initiative to raise the voices of Palestinian filmmakers through free artistic mentorship.

We talk about what it takes to continue to ignore and be silent about the suffering and oppression of others, the way we as a society are lulled into complacency, and the hope we have in seeing the world come together as it has never before. Rolla’s storytelling is rooted in heartbreaking truths as well as inspiring artistry, which we’ll surely be seeing in her next feature film, The Visitor.

Rolla's joy in her Palestinian heritage is palpable and I am honored to share our conversation with you here.

Rolla’s IG

Leah’s IG