Sarika D. Mehta » Podcast

Air date: 6/15/2018  **Read the transcript of the feature: CymaSpace Transcript CymaSpace is a non-profit performance venue & technology incubator in Portland, Oregon. The organization is dedicated to making the arts accessible to Deaf… Continue reading →

Air date: 4/30/2018 Read the transcript of the episode: 051618 intersections with Las Cafeteras Las Cafeteras, the Chicano band from LA, and what I like to think of as unapologetic political folk music for… Continue reading →

Air date: 4/30/2018 **Read the transcript of the episode: 051618 intersections with Brenda Rufener Brenda Rufener’s debut YA novel, Where I Live,  follows the story of Linden Rose, a clever and witty teenager who… Continue reading →

Nidhi Chanani is a survivor. She survived a traumatic childhood and the loss of her first baby. That doesn’t stop her from finding and celebrating the beautiful, everyday moments. That’s how she created… Continue reading →

Shanthi Sekaran is the author of the novel “Lucky Boy”, about adoption, immigration and motherhood, in Berkeley, CA. Two mothers’ paths cross unexpectedly due to their love for this boy, Ignacio – the lucky… Continue reading →

The last time I spoke with Celeste Ng was for her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, which won critical acclaim and in fact was featured in one of the first episodes… Continue reading →

  Alia Malek is the author of The Home that was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, in which she she weaves the personal history of her family – particularly her maternal grandmother –… Continue reading →

Back in August, the day before their latest digital album was released, Bomba Estéreostopped by Portland to start their extensive international tour. This new album, Ayo, differs from previous ones with heart-wrenching melodies… Continue reading →

Rene Denfeld won critical acclaim for her first novel, The Enchanted, inspired by her experience as an investigator on death penalty cases. Her second novel, The Child Finder, is the story of missing children:… Continue reading →

Dr. Vanessa Grubbs is one of the rare few black doctors in nephrology (specializing in the kidney) and that’s just the beginning. She recently published a book looking at racial disparities in kidney… Continue reading →

Jonathan Sun is a doctoral student in Urban Studies at MIT – but he’s better known as @jonnysun, the alien character twitter phenomenon with nearly 500,000 followers. Jonny Sun’s profile self-describes as “aliebn… Continue reading →

The Chicago Quarterly Review is a literary anthology that invites aspiring and established writers to submit fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Any writer can tell you the challenges of getting published and the topic… Continue reading →

Did you know that July is the anniversary month of the Americans with Disability Act (1990)? July is also the anniversary month of Intersections Radio (2015)! What better way to celebrate than airing… Continue reading →

Sandhya Menon is the author of the young adult romance novel When Dimple Met Rishi, her debut novel. The story follows two Indian American (Gujarati, in fact!) teenagers from the San Francisco Bay… Continue reading →

Nina Diaz, lead singer of the indie punk rock band, Girl in a Coma has been on tour for her debut solo album, The Beat is Dead. This album tells the story of… Continue reading →

Sometimes I have the opportunity to host badass South Asian artists in studio, and it is always a very good day. It’s one thing we get to take over the airwaves with this,… Continue reading →

Boston-native Jennifer Yu has had quite an eventful year: She published her debut young adult novel, Four Weeks, Five People, just before graduating from college at the University of Pennsylvania. Getting to graduation… Continue reading →

Last month, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and chat with Malian blues guitarist extraordinaire: Vieux Farka Touré. Mali is home to so many outstanding blues and Tuareg artists and Vieux Farka… Continue reading →

Since moving to Los Angeles from her native Guatemala, singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno has achieved remarkable success as a musician. She has been nominated for a Grammy (2017) for her latest album, Ilusión, an Emmy (2010) for… Continue reading →

  The last time I talked about the protests at Standing Rock, ND, there was a victory of sorts: the Army Corps of Engineers had denied easement to build the Dakota Access Pipeline… Continue reading →

One of the longest running stories of 2016 was the protest at Standing Rock, ND – to reroute the Dakota Access Pipeline. This protest gathered indigenous communities, environmentalists and allies from all over the… Continue reading →

**This is the second episode in a two-part series that discusses the Deaf community’s complicated relationship with the Justice System. The Deaf community is at a unique intersection of linguistic minority and disability… Continue reading →

**This is the first episode in a two-part series that discusses the Deaf community’s complicated relationship with the Justice System. The Deaf community is at a unique intersection of linguistic minority and disability… Continue reading →

Anat Maytal is the president of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association and an attorney with Baker Hostetler in New York City specializing in Business Litigation. You might recognize her as… Continue reading →

**This is the second episode in a two-part series examining the intersection of sexuality with faith and ethnicity. You can listen to the first episode in the series here. Daayiee Abdullah is a religious and… Continue reading →

**This is the first in a two-part series examining the intersection of sexuality with faith and ethnicity.  I first met Sapna Pandya, very briefly, when she officiated my friend’s Deaf, gay, (“big, fat”)… Continue reading →

The disability community comprises of the world’s largest minority. Thanks to the efforts of Alice Wong, Gregg Beratan and Andrew Pulrang, the community has a political voice and base in this national election… Continue reading →

For my podcast, Intersections Radio, I’ve been doing a three-part series on South Asian comic/graphic/cartoon artists who use their talent and artwork for social justice. This is the last in the series: Vishavjit Singh… Continue reading →

For my podcast, Intersections Radio, I’m doing a series on South Asian comic/graphic/cartoon artists who use their talent and artwork for social justice. You can check out the first episode. This is the… Continue reading →

For my podcast, Intersections Radio, I’m doing a series on South Asian comic/graphic/cartoon artists who use their talent and artwork for social justice. This is the first in the series: Gauher Aftab is… Continue reading →

Chaitali Sen is a writer from Austin, TX. Her debut novel, The Pathless Sky, is the story of a couple navigating their relationship through a country’s political turmoil. Although the country is fictional,… Continue reading →

D’Lo is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor, writer, and comedian. The first time we met was back in 2013 during the Dis/Orient/Ed comedy tour, which features all Asian American trans and female comics. D’Lo… Continue reading →

Nayomi Munaweera is a brilliant author whose writing draws from her life experiences in Sri Lanka, Nigeria and California. The first time I met her, we talked about her debut novel, Island of a… Continue reading →

One of the topics I’ve been exploring on this show is the relationship between police and people of color with disabilities – and the dearth of coverage in the media. For this episode, I… Continue reading →

For International Women’s Day this year, I am showcasing an interview with Virginia Espino: she’s UCLA scholar and Program Coordinator of Latino & Latina Studies and producer of the film, No Más Bebés.… Continue reading →

We’re closing out Black History Month and I wanted to feature another set of superstar Bay Area activists who have invested in recognizing our community’s history as a result of the Civil Rights… Continue reading →

Leroy Moore is a superstar disability justice activist and hip hop artist from the SF Bay Area and also, was a guest on the inaugural episode of Intersections Radio! Since then, he’s published… Continue reading →

Something I love about interviewing authors is learning actual histories of different lands through the power of fiction. I had this opportunity again with author Tanwi Nandini Islam’s debut novel, Bright Lines. Tanwi… Continue reading →

Well it has been an awful year with regard to mass shootings around the US – and we’re not even finished yet. So it is timely that Deepa Iyer’s book, We Too Sing America, was… Continue reading →

People all over the United States are hunger striking for Deaf children’s education at Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. This program has come under scrutiny due to its low Deaf representation in… Continue reading →

Celeste Ng‘s debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, has been making waves! This title won the New York Times Bestseller Book Review Notable Book award for 2014, the Asian American Award for Literature in… Continue reading →

Sara Nović is an impressive writer with a unique perspective on language and writing. She recently graduated from Columbia University with an MFA in Creative Writing and Translation Studies. Her debut novel, Girl… Continue reading →

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians & Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing racial group in the United States, and have grown to over 220,000 in Oregon. Despite generations of contributions to our economy, culture… Continue reading →

I’ve had the fortune of talking to very cool people about Cuba, including journalist Julia Cooke and inaugural poet Richard Blanco. And I had the opportunity once again thanks to the Artists Repertory… Continue reading →

First things first: Read, listen to and watch everything here for the back story on the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center and Deaf India’s fight to run this establishment. Now that you’ve done… Continue reading →

Deanna Fei is a writer, known for her debut novel, Thread of Sky. In fact, that’s how I came to learn about her in the first place, when she was a guest on APA… Continue reading →

Back in September, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a call to action: Step it Up. In an effort to encourage a health lifestyle, he’s encouraging us to not only be outside walking… Continue reading →

Chicago’s southside neighborhood of Bronzeville has been making waves: a group of parents from the community engaged in a 34 day hunger strike to fight for their neighborhood high school, Walter H. Dyett… Continue reading →

Sonia Faleiro is a journalist and author of 13 Men, which investigates the brutal gang rape of a tribal woman in West Bengal, and the complex political intent involved in the story. She is based out… Continue reading →

Michele Friedner, Medical Anthropologist and author of Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India. She’s faculty at the StonyBrook School of Health Technology and Management and an expert in investigating Deaf Communities in India. This… Continue reading →

I happened to visit New Orleans in early August for an Interpreting conference. In fact, I was in New Orleans on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and was… Continue reading →