Victoria Virasingh was born and raised in Arlington, VA, and is the daughter of immigrants from Ecuador and Punjabi Sikhs. She earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from Stanford University on a full scholarship. After completing her education, she worked for Senator Diane Feinstein and then pursued a career in technology at Palantir where she founded and led the Future of Work team. She returned to her home in Arlington to focus on community building, local politics, and working with n...
Apr 28, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Omi is an accomplished actor who has worked in both film and television in the United States and abroad. He has had roles on hit TV shows including, “The Office,” “Arrested Development,” and “Bones.” He is best known by Bollywood fans for his performances in “3 Idiots,” “The Desert Rose,” and “American Aliens.” We talked with him about his experience growing up in the high desert of California and his acting career. We discuss his time on “The Office” as the only Sikh character and he also share...
Jul 30, 2021•40 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Ben Rekhi is an award-winning Sikh filmmaker from northern California. From working with the Coen brothers to producing Hindi horror films, he has made a name for himself in the film industry. His notable past work includes Waterborne (2005) and The Ashram (2018), and most recently, he directed Watch List (2019) in Manila, a crime thriller set in the drug underworld during the time of Rodrigo Duterte's extrajudicial killings. The film was nominated for a Jury Prize at the Seattle International F...
Jun 11, 2021•36 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Retired Colonel G.B. Singh is the highest-ranking Sikh to serve in the U.S. Army. As you'll hear in this podcast, he repeatedly demonstrated the tenacity, courage, and eternal optimism of Sikhs while maintaining his peaceful, positive demeanor when confronted with discrimination and ignorance. He successfully fought the pressure to conform to the Turban Ban and stood out for years as the only person with a turban and beard. To combat the ban, he invented safe methods for Sikhs with beards and tu...
May 13, 2021•59 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Manmeet Singh is a filmmaker, musician, activist, world traveler, and much more. He has been on the frontlines in the United States on the farmer's protest in India and Sikhs in Afghanistan who experience horrific discrimination and recently experienced a brutal attack from ISIS. In this podcast we discuss his career and activism on the issues of the day. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/sikhmeetsworld . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 12, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 1
On this episode, Valarie Kaur chats with National Sikh Campaign co-founders Gurwin Singh Ahuja and Shawn Singh Ghuman to discuss her cure for our polarized political climate, thoughts on cancel culture, and how young Sikh Americans can pursue activism. The renown filmmaker and activist is also a newly-published author with her new autobiography, See No Stranger , which she discusses on the pod, as well as her Revolutionary Love Project . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/sikhmeetsworl...
Aug 21, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Simran Jeet Singh is a professor at Columbia University, a Senior Fellow at the Sikh Coalition, the host of the Spirited podcast, an author, a father, and a devout San Antonio Spurs fan. He joined the pod to discuss his American story, the reasons that pushed him to embrace advocacy, and his new book, Fauja Singh Keeps Going , which releases on August 25, 2020. We recorded this discussion in March 2019 before the pandemic and protests, but Simran naturally touched on rising hate crimes, the attr...
Jul 08, 2020•40 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Randeep Singh Sarai MP (born April 15, 1975) is a Canadian politician who was elected as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada to represent the federal electoral district Surrey Center during the 2015 Canadian federal election. Randeep was recently re-elected and on this episode he talks about his rise to power as a Member of Parliament, his prime minister, Justin Trudeau, his thoughts on Jagmeet Singh, the Sikh NDP leader, and his advice to Sikh Americans on how to build poli...
Dec 16, 2019•59 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Sandy Kaur Gill (SKG) better known as TheSandyLion is a stylist and image consultant with the simple goal of helping people look and feel the best about themselves. She has worked closely with public figures including Lilly Singh, Beena Minhaj, Nabela, and Humble The Poet. Sandy is a brand ambassador for Nike, Gillette and Neostrata, and has worked with other notable brands including Apple, Guess Jeans, Aldo Shoes and Hayley Elsaesser. She also works as an elementary school teacher in Brampton, ...
Jun 25, 2019•36 min•Season 2Ep. 4
While Babbu is known for his hilarious roles in Jus Reign's YouTube parodies of western South Asian culture, he is also an entrepreneur and a major influencer for young Sikhs around the world. He stars in the National Sikh Campaign's "Diversity Day" video created by the renown Funny or Die production studio, where he takes on the challenge of educating others on what it means to be Sikh and what the turban represents. Our interview touches on not only what he hopes to do with this role but also ...
Jun 17, 2019•31 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Ravi Bhalla, is an American civil rights lawyer, politician, and the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey . Prior to becoming mayor, he served in the city council of Hoboken, New Jersey since 2009. On November 7, 2017, he was elected New Jersey's first Sikh mayor, as well as the first elected mayor in the United States who is a Sikh and wears a turban . In this wide ranging interview, we discuss Mayor Bhalla's childhood, why he pursued politics and public service, his various initiatives as Mayor for th...
Apr 09, 2019•46 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Although lesser known than his contemporaries, Dalip Singh Saund and Bhagat Singh Thind, Dr. Amarjit Singh Marwah has had an extremely interesting and impactful life and career. Not only was he a successful dentist in Malibu, California but he was also the City Commissioner of Los Angeles and the campaign manager behind the election of the first Sikh, Indian, and Asian man to the U.S. Congress. Sikh Meets World sat down with him over the course of a few interviews to get an inside look at his li...
Feb 23, 2019•41 min•Season 2Ep. 2
A prominent voice for the Sikh-American community both in the United States and abroad, Dr. Rajwant Singh plans to use all of the remaining time on causes that will positively impact the world for Sikhs and others. Having acted as a bridge between the Sikh community and the White House for over two decades, Dr. Rajwant wants to leverage his platform to help direct Sikh philanthropy and create a society where Guru Nanak’s wisdom is shared with everyone. We discuss his story as an activist, the tr...
Jan 24, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Attorney General Grewal is the highest-ranking Sikh public official in the United States since Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, also the first Asian American Congressman, who served in the late 1950s. In the hour-long interview, the Attorney General shares his childhood struggles with bullying & harassment, his motivation for pursuing public service and law enforcement, and his unlikely path to the heights of New Jersey politics. Attorney General Grewal also details his policy agenda for the s...
Nov 15, 2018•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Outside of equality and the turban, Sikhs are most known for their prowess in battle. In this episode, we chat with a real-life warrior, Arjan Singh Bhullar, who is an Olympic freestyle wrestler and the first Sikh fighter signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)— the premier mix martial arts (MMA) promotion in the world. According to MMA World Ranking, Arjan is currently ranked #21 in the heavyweight division and recently fought in Phoenix, Arizona. Sikh Meets World caught up with him ...
Oct 23, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3
As the first Sikh elected to a State Senate, Manka Dhingra is on well on her way to a successful political career in her hometown of Redmond, Washington in the suburbs of Seattle. In the 2nd edition of Sikh Meets World , we talk with the recently-elected State Senator to understand her American story and what drove her into public office. Manka details how she immigrated at an early age to her time finding love at U.C. Berkeley. We touch on how she ended up starting a nonprofit as well becoming ...
Sep 17, 2018•55 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Released after the sixth anniversary of the Oak Creek, Wisconsin Gurdwara shooting, the first episode of Sikh Meets World sits down with Pardeep Singh Kaleka, whose father was shot and killed in the hate-fueled attack, and Arno Michaelis, the former white supremacist who created the racist, skinhead organization which Michael Wade Page, the attacker, belonged to and believed in. Pradeep shares his family’s story in America, his struggles after the shooting, and how he has tried to make an impact...
Aug 08, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 1
