Today, I’m speaking with Grace Talusan, the author of the memoir The Body Papers. Grace is a professor at Tufts University in Boston, and the Body Papers is her first book. In 2017, the yet unpublished manuscript of the Body Papers won the 2017 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. It has been incredibly well received and has been written up by such publications as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Nylon Magazine. Grace’s story is one about overcoming abuse and trauma and comin...
Aug 06, 2019•44 min•Season 3Ep. 39
Born and raised in Iran, and having attended the University of Tehran where she received a BS in Industrial Design, Shiva is an entrepreneur. She later moved to the US, where she received her Masters in Industrial Design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Shiva currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is working on a host of projects including in-it, a video-based social media campaign that’s intended to help individuals spread awareness about issues they are pass...
Jul 30, 2019•47 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Jon Aragón is an entrepreneur who specializes in multidisciplinary design and branding. Intriguingly, Jon is also a preacher, which is a rather unconventional combination in my opinion. As a second-generation Colombian-American and as a part of the Afro-Latinx community, Jon’s background allows him to offer a unique perspective when approaching design and problem-solving. Jon’s spiritual identity wholly informs his work as a designer; he sees himself as a servant of Christ and works with the goa...
Jul 23, 2019•47 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Aymann Ismail is an award-winning podcast host, video editor, photographer, and writer at Slate whose work focuses on identity and religion. As a kid of Egyptian Immigrants, Ayman's early childhood experiences reflect reconciling with the duality of his identity. He wrote and produced "Who's Afraid of Aymann Ismail?" a video series that negates stereotypes of both American Muslims, and those are scared of them. He currently hosts "Man Up," a weekly interview podcast about men, relationships, fam...
Jul 16, 2019•55 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Yousef Bashir is the author of the memoir “The Words of My Father.” Yousef’s story is one that showcases the inherent complexities of what it means to be a Palestinian American, particularly one that grew up in the Gaza Strip. From a young age, he was brought face to face with the harsh realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that experience has very much informed the work that he does today. In an op-ed that he wrote in the New York Times this spring, Yousef says that his father taug...
Jul 09, 2019•41 min•Season 3Ep. 35
Jennifer Asif's story was first reported by the Huffington Post. Her husband was recently deported by ICE due to an apparent error in their system. Jennifer is trying to reunite with her husband! You can support our podcast by donating to the gofundme. Here's the link Our music is composed by Basim Usmani, one of the lead vocalists of the punk band "The Kominas" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 02, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Malaka Gharib is a journalist at National Public Radio. She reports on topics such as the humanitarian aid sector, gender equality, and innovation in the developing world. She is also the founder of Runcible spoon food zine and She has written a graphic memoir "I was Their American Dream" about family, identity, and fitting in as a Filipino Egyptian American kid of Immigrants. You can support our podcast by donating to our gofundme https://www.gofundme.com/manage/the-alien-chronicles-pod Learn m...
Jun 25, 2019•26 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Basim Usmani is one of the founders of the punk band "The Kominas" that was born out of Massachusetts in the early 2000s. Since their inception, the Kominas were lauded for breaking cultural boundaries and turning that which is unexpected into a new reality. Saadia Khan talks to Basim about his music, sense of belonging within and outside immigrant communities, and how he balances his American and Pakistani identities. You can support our podcast by donating to our gofundme https://www.gofundme....
Jun 18, 2019•44 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Saadia Khan talks to Saadia Faruqi. Saadia is a Pakistani American author, essay writer, and interfaith activist. She writes children's early reader series "Yasmin" published by Capstone. She has also written "Brick Walls: Tales of Hope & Courage from Pakistan" a short story collection for adults and teens. As part of her activism, Saadia trains various audiences, including faith groups and law enforcement on topics about Islam. She was featured in Oprah Magazine in 2017 as a woman making a ...
Jun 11, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Today's guest Nevsah Fidan is a spiritual healer committed to personal enlightenment. Her focus is optimal breathing for improving health and performance. She is an internationally renowned breath expert, a meditation teacher, a well-known author of 9 best seller books, a mother and a wife. She was born in Izmir, Turkey, she is an architect who decided to create her org focused on breathing and thinking habits in 2004. She is a global citizen who travels between London, Istanbul, and NewYork. Ne...
Jun 04, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 30
I recorded my interview with Gosia Labno, a couple of months ago, but I am releasing it today because of its relevance to the current discourse on immigration. When I spoke to Gosia, The Dream and American Promise ACT HR 6 was introduced. We spoke briefly about its impact. Recently the House Judiciary Committee passed HR6. With the Democratic majority in the house, it will most like pass the chambers but not move forward in the GOP controlled Senate. Nevertheless, I am excited to publish the epi...
May 28, 2019•39 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Immigration has been a contentious topic in the United States for a few years now. However, the dialogue has, for some time, focused on legal vs. illegal immigration. In very recent years, the focus has shifted not only to criminalizing illegal immigration into the United States but also curtailing legal migration altogether. We see this in the current discussion around asylum seekers, especially those who are migrating from Central America trying to escape horrid conditions. Our next guest is J...
May 21, 2019•27 min•Season 3Ep. 28
"What's in Name" is a special edition of The Alien Chronicles Podcast. It centers on the discussion around how some people who migrate to America change their names to more mainstream American names. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 15, 2019•41 min•Season 3Ep. 27
In this episode, Saadia Khan talks to a Syrian refugee living in Berlin. Thair Orfahli grew up in Syria, in a middle-class family. His childhood was relatively normal, and he was studying law in Lebanon when the Syrian war broke out, what ensued was a series of fateful events which led him to leave everything behind, risk his life by riding a flimsy boat across the Mediterranean to get to Germany and seek asylum. He is a refugee who was granted political asylum in Germany. His story is that of r...
May 08, 2019•36 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Saadia interviews Jade Chang. Jade is the author of The Wangs vs. the World. The book has been named a New York Times Editors Choice as well as best Book of the Year by Amazon, Buzzfeed, NPR, and others. Jade has appeared on national programs and she has spoken to audiences at universities and book festivals. According to NPR "Her book is unrelentingly fun, but it is also raw and profane—a story of fierce pride, fierce anger, and even fiercer love." She is also the contributing writer to The Goo...
May 01, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Priya Minhas is a writer and producer from London. Her writing explores South Asian immigrant identity. Priya is a contributing writer to The Good Immigrant USA, an American edition of an award-winning best-selling anthology exploring race. Her writing is featured in BuzzFeed, Burnt Roti, Kajal Magazine and Brown Girl Magazine. She is currently based in New York where she works with artists producing and directing original music content at Vevo. Saadia talks to Priya about her writing, her dual ...
Apr 24, 2019•29 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Huda Al-Marashi is the Iraqi-American author of First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story, a book the Washington Post called "a charming, funny, heartbreaking memoir of faith, family, and the journey to love. If Jane Austen had grown up as a first-gen daughter of Iraqi parents in the 1990s, she might have written this.” Her other writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the LA Times, al Jazeera, Refinery 29, the Offing and elsewhere. Huda currently resides in California wit...
Apr 17, 2019•45 min•Season 2Ep. 23
In this episode, Saadia talks to Chimene Suleyman. Chimene is the editor of The Good Immigrant USA, and a contributing writer to the original best-selling award-winning British anthology The Good Immigrant (Unbound, 2016). Chimene’s work has also appeared in the Guardian, Independent, IBTimes, The Quietus, News night, BBC Radio 4’s Today Program, NPR, and Sky news. Chimene and Saadia talk about the intersectionality between gender and race. Chimene explains how she felt embarrassed about her par...
Apr 10, 2019•37 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Beth Schuman and Nizar Farsakh are part of an organization called Combatants for Peace.The egalitarian, bi-national, grassroots organization was founded on the belief that the cycle of violence can only be broken when Israelis and Palestinians join forces. Committed to joint nonviolence since its foundation, CFP works to both transform and resolve the conflict by ending Israeli occupation and all forms of violence between the two sides and building a peaceful future for both peoples. Nizar Farsa...
Apr 03, 2019•53 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Saadia Khan changes the format for this episode. She introduces three immigrant stories. Each immigrant shares their experiences in the US in their own words from a different vantage point. You will hear from them what it's like to be an immigrant in the US. Each perspective is unique in that it unravels the complexities of being an immigrant through the lens of the narrator without any leading questions or any set direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Mar 27, 2019•30 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Sanjana Bhatnagar and Stephanie Munn are high school students and Students for Refugees (SFR) representatives. S.F.R. is working to raise funds to support educational facilities and individual student programs in affected countries as well as supporting local refugees. There are a broad range of things that SFR engages in, but their primary goal is to get students involved in helping refugees. SFR works in three areas: resettlement, advocacy/education, and fundraising In addition to SFR, they ad...
Mar 20, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Saadia Khan talks Susan Muaddi Darraj, a Palestinian American. Susan talks about her experiences as a child of immigrants and how her dual identity has shaped her life. Susan is an Associate Professor of English at Hartford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland. Susan is also a Lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University’s MA in Writing program. In 2014, her short story collection, A Curious Land: Stories from Home won several awards and accolades. Her previous short story collection, The Inherita...
Mar 13, 2019•34 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Samira Sadeque is a New York-based Bangladeshi journalist and poet focusing on migration, the refugee crisis, gender, and mental health. She completed her M.S. in Journalism from Columbia Journalism School in 2017. Samira began her journalism career in Dhaka, Bangladesh, covering the 2013 factory collapse, the country's ethnic and religious minorities, and its LGBT community. Her work appears in Reuters, NPR, Al Jazeera, Quartz, The Lily, and the Dhaka Tribune among other publications. Her story...
Mar 06, 2019•35 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Saadia Khan talks to Suzie Afridi. She is a Palestinian American stand up comedian. She was born and raised in Jericho, in the West Bank. Her dad was a Welder, and her mom was a farmer. When she was fourteen, her family immigrated to San Jose, California. She attended San Jose State University. Suzie is an accountant by profession, but she realized she was terrible at her job and decided to pursue another career. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and kid. Suzie talks about her journey to A...
Feb 27, 2019•44 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Saadia Khan talks to Tahmina Watson about pressing immigration issues. Tahmina is a nationally acclaimed immigration attorney and the founder of Watson Immigration Law, in Seattle, Washington. She was a barrister in London before immigrating to America. Tahmina is also the author of “The Startup Visa: Key to Job Growth & Economic Prosperity in America.” In addition to appearing on CNN, Forbes and other media platforms, she is the host of “Tahmina Talks Immigration” a radio show turned podcas...
Feb 20, 2019•54 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Saadia Khan reminisces about her trip to Turkey as she interviews Melike Ayan. Melike is originally from Turkey. She is the New York Correspondent for Bloomberg HT Television where she provides in-depth coverage and analysis of major economic and business trends, including in-depth reporting on global corporations. Additionally, Ayan established her own company, Mel Strategies, which specializes in media relations and crisis communications Become a supporter of this podcast: Learn more about you...
Feb 13, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Saadia Khan talks to Lisa Genn. Lisa was born in Russia, she and her parents left Moscow in December 1989 on the verge of the collapse of the Soviet Union in hopes of resettling in America under a program for bringing Soviet Jews to the United States as refugees. Lisa is a lawyer by profession but has worked on human rights issues throughout her career. She is a city girl who spends most of her time in Manhattan but now lives in Westchester County in NY with her husband and two young children. L...
Feb 06, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Saadia Khan talks to Edafe Okporo, an LGBTQ refugee from Nigeria. He is a fierce advocate for Human rights specifically those of LGBTQ community in NY and around the globe including West Africa. His passion to help others like him stems from his struggle which propels him to stand up for the defenseless. Currently, Edafe is the Director of RDJ Refugee Shelter. He is the author of BED 26: A Memoir of an African Man's Asylum in the United States. He also serves as a Board Member of First Friends o...
Jan 30, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Saadia Khan talks to Reshad Ahmedi, an immigrant from Afghanistan. Reshad worked for ten years on U.S.-funded re-construction projects in Afghanistan, until insurgents targeted him for his affiliation with the United States. Reshad is in the US on a Special Immigration Visa (SIV) to the United States. He is now an Assistant Project Manager at a local Tectonic Engineering & Surveying. Reshad is also an Ambassador of the Westchester Refugee Initiative, helping to spread the word about refugees...
Jan 23, 2019•43 min•Season 2Ep. 11
In this first episode of Season 2, Saadia Khan talks to Alyssa Mosley. Alyssa was born and raised in the homeland of Lenape people, also known as Bridgeton NJ. She is the enrolled member of the Nanticoke Lenni- Lenape tribe; it’s the largest Indian tribe in NJ. The history of the Lenape tribe goes back over 10,000 years. Most of Lenape people faced forced migration to Canada or midwestern US but some still left behind. In 2015, Alyssa was crowned princess to represent her people. She is studying...
Jan 16, 2019•31 min•Season 2Ep. 10
