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APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. Over the past few years, a series of popular uprisings across the world have been described by mainstream media as “Gen-Z Uprisings” – movements led by young people and described in western media as generally being against government corruption. These movements have been most notably visible in our own media due to their use of technology, including platforms like Discord and TikTok, and internationally consistent adoption of pop culture symbolism, like the flag of the “straw hat pirates,” a black flag depicting a grinning jolly roger wearing a straw hat. The flag is the banner of the protagonists of the long-running hit anime series One Piece whose adventures often find them coming to the defense of marginalized communities around their world. But these movements didn't come out of nowhere (or the internet for that matter). Understanding their origins – and the elections that have resulted from their successes – can shed light both onto the international struggle against authoritarianism and the challenges we face building an alternative. In this episode we are looking at two countries, Nepal and Bangladesh, where popular uprisings in the summer of 2024 and fall of 2025 have led to elections this year. In this episode, we are joined by two US based organizers, Sharmin Hossain and Samir Shrestha, whose work as part of South Asian diasporas has rooted them in movement work here in the US while maintaining relationships and solidarity abroad. Sharmin Hossain is a Bangladeshi Muslim organizer from Queens, New York, who is currently the Organizing Director for 18 Million Rising. To learn more about 18 Million Rising, check out their site at www.18millionrising.org. Follow Sharmin on all platforms at @sharminultra Samir Shrestha belongs to the indigenous Newari tribe of Nepal, where he was born. He has spent the last 18 years involved in movement work here in the US. To learn more about The Ruckus Society and request a training, visit: www.ruckus.org/training-action-support/training-requests/ To learn more about Convergence Magazine and the Block and Build Podcast, follow them at @_convergencemag and @blockandbuildpod. Check out Covergence's work at www.convergencemag.com. Transcript Swati Rayasam: [00:00:00] welcome fellow travelers to Apex Express. It's been a minute, but in case you don't remember, my name is Swati Rayasam, and I'm gonna be your conductor tonight. I have been very excited about this week's episode for a few months because tonight Apex is featuring Convergence Magazine's Block and Build podcast. Block and Build is creating a roadmap for the movement that's working to block the impacts of [00:01:00] rising authoritarianism while building the strength and resilience of the broad front that we need to win. And both the team at Convergence and the guests for tonight's show are close comrades and friends of Apex. On this episode, Cayden Mak, podcast host and editor-in-chief of Convergence, is joined by Samir Shrestha and Sharmin Hossain, two US-based organizers from the South Asian diaspora, Nepal and Bangladesh respectively. Sharmin and Samir will talk about the history and continued struggles of the international Gen Z uprisings, which have only really made a blip in Western media coverage. They'll discuss the history of those movements and the political conditions which created them, as well as help us understand how Americans can be in meaningful solidarity with people's movements abroad. Without further ado, I'll hand it over to Cayden. Cayden: Over the past few years, a series of popular uprisings across the world have been described by mainstream media as the Gen Z uprisings, movements led by young people and described in Western media as [00:02:00] generally being against government corruption. These movements have been most notably visible in our own media due to their use of technology, including platforms like Discord and TikTok, and internationally consistent adoption of pop culture symbolism. but these movements didn't come out of nowhere, or out of just the internet, for that matter. Understanding their origins and the elections that have resulted from their successes can shed light both onto the international struggle against authoritarianism and the challenges that we face building an alternative. In this episode, we're looking at two countries in particular, Nepal and Bangladesh, where popular uprisings in the summer of 2024 and fall of 2025 have led to elections this year. I was recently joined by two US-based organizers, Sharmin Hossain and Samir Shrestha, whose work as part of the South Asian diaspora has rooted them in movement work here in the US while maintaining relationships and solidarity abroad. Sharmin Hossain is a Bangladeshi Muslim organizer from Queens, New York, who's currently the organizing director for 18 Million Rising. Sharmin, thanks so much for joining us today  Sharmin: Thank you for having me. I love Convergence.  Cayden: Thank you. [00:03:00] And, Samir Shrestha belongs to the indigenous Newari tribe of Nepal, where he was born. He spent the past 18 years involved in movement work here in the US, and Samir, it's really good to see you this morning.  Samir: So good to see you too, Cayden.  Cayden: Well, to start us off, let's try and set some context Sharmin. I'm wondering if you can give us kind of a quick gloss of the 2024 uprisings in Bangladesh, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her party were ousted from power. What are the sort of themes of the protests, and then the way that the state responded, and where are we kind of now? Sharmin: Wow, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to talk about my country and all the amazing things that happened, because I think the Global South really forges, like, new possibilities as far as, like, what we can do and, and consolidate as far as power goes. So today is actually March 26th, and it's Bangladeshi Independence Day, coincidentally. Cayden: Happy independence Day.  Sharmin: Happy Independence Day. I find it very serendipitous for us to delve into this layered and complex history, um, of the student movement. So [00:04:00] the Bangladesh student protests of July 2024, were deeply rooted in systemic inequalities that the young working class and the poor faced. Nearly 32 million young people were actually out of the workforce, or education in a population of a country of 170 million. So that's a pretty significant number. And so that issue was a focal point for widespread discontent in the country. In July of 2024, the High Court of Bangladesh actually reinstated a quota system for government jobs after an appeal was made when the then-ruling Hasina government abolished the quota system, um because in 2018 she faced a lot of pressure from student protesters. But this quota system is really interesting, and it represents a lot. It reserved 30% of government jobs for descendants of freedom fighters. And in Bangladeshi history, that's a very complex and layered identity. Millions of our [00:05:00] ancestors actually fought in the liberation war against the US-backed Pakistani military, and the Bangladeshi Liberation War, and genocide in Bangladesh actually resulted in the death of over three million people who sacrificed for the birth of our nation. And so for the Hasina government, the quota system was actually what she used to appoint a lot of her loyalists and her supporters to high levels of government, the military, and it basically created the political ecosystem for the Awami League, her party, to maintain dominance. And the Awami League actually was the party that once led the liberation struggle, and over the course of 15 years, we actually saw how much they consolidated power through political repression, the Digital Security Acts that was surveilling and targeting freedom of speech, as well as the corruption and fear that they [00:06:00] stoked against their opposition. And these government jobs, like most of us, it represents many things. It represents the government's responsibility to take care of poor people, um, economic and political opportunity, and it also represents, like, the corruption and the authoritarian rule of the Awami League, and how they were rigging elections, and how the court systems, and even entrance exams for the Bangladeshi civil service, were actually regularly leaked and compromised. And so -within that background, that's when you have the Students Against Discrimination movement take the streets in July demanding fair access to government jobs. And things actually got violent really fast. Within seven days, nearly 174 people were murdered, and thousands were injured. There was an indefinite curfew, social media blackouts, and then a military occupation with shoot on sight orders. And of course, the bullets that were raining upon, Bangladeshis were US, [00:07:00] arms. So students were terrorized by these vigilante groups that were collaborating with the Bangladeshi police. And these student groups were actually organized by the Bangladeshi Awami League. These student groups were notorious for repressing student elections, sexually assaulting students, um really threatening people that were running for student elections. And so there's already this, like, vigilante ecosystem that exists within the campuses that was weaponized during the student protests. And then you have a climax moment on July 14th. Sheikh Hasina went on television accusing the students of being Razakars, and Razakars are collaborators of the Pakistani army, and it's a very derogatory term in Bangladesh, and it refers to people who support the Pakistani military's operation to suppress the Bangladeshi Liberation War. They're also accused of heinous crimes. And so when students were accused of being Razakars, it, like, [00:08:00] lit a fire. Millions took the streets that day, and they were like, “Oh, hell no.” Like, “How dare she disrespect us?” While there's thousands of people who are on the streets, blood, everywhere. Rickshaw wallas are having to pull students into hospitals. There's just so much violence happening on the ground. And so on that National Day of Action, July 15th, clashes happen. Multiple deaths are live-streamed, and one of them, Abu Sayeed, he was a university student at Rangpur University in northwest Bangladesh, really galvanized the country because we watched this student, who is not armed, surrender and get sh- shot, by the Bangladeshi police. And we know what these spontaneous moments of violence do to the public, right? It usually always sets fire to another wave of social protests and action. And so then millions start marching to Sheikh Hasina's home, and [00:09:00] really, her brutal and arrogant response sealed her fate. And the protesters, and at this point, this is a populist movement, millions of people that are rickshaw wallas, working-class people, students, teachers, are taking the streets, marching towards her house. And they demand her resignation. And on August 5th, within 36 days of the movement, she resigns and flees to India, our neighboring country. Over 1,400 people have been killed, under her brutal repression. And so that's some of the background of the student movement, and we can talk more about some of the dynamics of it. Cayden: Yeah, that's super helpful, and I think reflecting on the ways in which also the sort of, like, escalation on the part of the government is, I think, a really important story here, for sure. Samir, I'll also now turn it to you. What should our listeners know about last fall's uprisings in Nepal, which also ousted the sitting government of, K.P. Oli and his, his party and how they led to [00:10:00] elections, earlier this month, in March of this year?  Samir: Thanks, Cayden, and Happy Independence Day to you, Sharmin. I am somebody who was born and raised in Nepal, and am spending most of my life in the diaspora now, and I wanna name the limitations of, uh, my understanding of what's going on in Nepal because of me not being on the ground organizing with the masses. And, I wanna honor the work that's been happening in Nepal, on the ground one of the big things that, that's really n- is important to name is, like, it's only been 20 years since we abolished monarchy. Uh- Mm-hmm. … uh, 2006, right? That is a big thing for us to understand. And the party that was in power, and has been in power since, was the party that has been organizing our movements, and that is the organized left in Nepal, and, like, really betrayed our people once we, once they got into power, right? And, like, started kind of veering towards the right once they got in power. So 20 years later The economic conditions of our people on the ground are really dire. There's no jobs available. People are migrating. A lot of our folks, one of the biggest source of economy and source of money for our, [00:11:00] our people back home is, like, migrant work, uh, in Dubai and, traveling to Dubai, Qatar, and working under very bad conditions. So one- that's one of the big things that's also been informing,, lot of the consciousness of the- our young people in Nepal, right? And then one of the other things that's named really important is, so since the election, since 2006, the Communist Party, the Congress Party, and the Maoist Party have been, they're the only ones who have been in power for the last 20 years, and these are all old upper caste men, even though they were the ones who were leading the movement and were organizing at left. But these were s- the representation and the leaders in these parties were all upper caste, caste Arya people, which is the dominant caste in Nepal, right? And that's a very important layer to name. And that really informed, I think, a lot of the ways they showed up after we won. And, and that's one, one big question that we always have in the left, right? What do we do after we- Yeah … abolish monarchy? What do we do after we win? And we haven't figured that out too, as does any other movements, right? And 20 years later, the frustration is on the very high, against the status quo. And then we, and there [00:12:00] was a lot of, like, obviously there was a lot of inspiration from Bangladesh, like Indonesia, and, like, the uprisings there. And, like, this one, uh, thing started trending the young people started organizing around Nepo babies. There's like, you know, “Yeah, you don't have access to we do, you're gonna take our access away from social media while your kids, and people who have connections to you and have, access to you are just posting about the life, the lavish life they're living abroad and in my homelands,” right? So that's one of the places where it started. And once that started, there was online campaign. And there was already conversations around banning social media in Nepal, and they were- Hmm … finding, like, different ways around it, and that really escalated the way people really responded to the situation, is like once they started organizing around Nepo babies and how they were, like, getting momentum around that, that's when exactly the social media ban went into effect, right? And that's a really important name because, like, one of the biggest pet peeves for me as a diaspora person has been this idea of people only started the uprising and took the streets because of the social media ban. [00:13:00] But just- Hmm. Mm-hmm … all these other things really added up to it. That was just the, just the point of escalation, right? So fast-forward, people started organizing on Discord. Uh, also the irony of it is that was one of the apps that was banned, uh, in Nepal as, uh… And people started organizing in Discord. And also wanna name the reality of, like, the only people who had access to Discord are also, like, privileged folks like us- Sure like younger, upper middle class people. So we were not really getting folks from outside Kathmandu and from our villages and from rural areas, right? So they didn't really have any say in what the organizing would look like. So it happened very, organically, very decentralized. So there was a call for people to show up at Maitighar which has been a popular protest space in Nepal, for a very long time. And it was like at the, at the center of Kathmandu. So there was a call out september 8. A lot of folks came out, and then people from outside Kathmandu that couldn't make it to Kathmandu started coming in big numbers. And the goal of the protest was peaceful protest, right? [00:14:00] And one of the things that happened, don't quote me on this, but my understanding of it from, talking to people there is, like, a lot of political parties who had, who were the opposition from the Communist Party at that time started infiltrating the protest, and the protest started becoming, quote-unquote, “violent,”, which was not, uh, what the young people wanted. So fast-forward, that led to 19 deaths on the first day of the protest, which led to the home minister resigning, at the end of the day. But Oli, the prime minister, is so arrogant and really didn't figure out the power of young people and, like, how they could keep mobilizing and organizing. He decided to just downplay them and say, “I'm not resigning,” which led to more heightened escalated protests the second day, where people started marching to the parliament buildings and started burning down buildings. And people started, people got to a lot of, like, the political parties' political party leader home and started burning them, and, really started, holding them accountable. And also , there was videos of clips of, like, people torching into people's homes and, like, [00:15:00] Sher Bahadur Deuba, who has been in power for the last 20 years in different, ways, who's one of the, considered one of the most corrupt leader in Nepal, from Nepali Congress party, got attacked by the protesters. So fast-forward, more escalation led to, like, 52 more deaths, and the Oli party finally decided to resign at the end of that night, and that's, that's when curfew was impo- imposed by, the army. So that led to, like, a total of 72 deaths. I wanna name, like, in just the two days of mobilization, two days of organizing, because sometimes in the left we don't understand. We talk about the similarities of our struggles but we don't really talk about the conditions that led to it and, like, the level for the risk that our folks leveraged, to be able to topple the government, right? So I just wanna name that out loud and honor that part of, like, how the, how people, like, really leveraged risk. And then fast-forward, people started organizing. The conversation kept going on on Discord, and then there was, like, a town hall style meetings happening on Discord where, like, I think 7 to 8,000 people were on it. And also I still wanna name again, the people who didn't have access to the internet and [00:16:00] phones were not able to part- participate in that. And decided Susila Karki, who was a chief justice 10 years ago, a woman, who also joined protesters during the first day of them mobilizing in the street. They decided, they voted, to hold her as the interim prime minister for now. And There was also one other layer is like a lot of people wanted Balen Sah, who is our prime minister now, but constitutionally if he was part of the interim government, he wouldn't be able to run for prime minister. So that was like a strategic decision that, uh, like he made, and the movement made around not electing him as part of the interim government. So one of the big responsibilities of the interim government was to hold elections in six months, which honestly I was not very-  Cayden: That's hugely ambitious. Samir: It is hugely ambitious, right? And also the reality is it happened, and also there are questions around, yeah, were we able to hold elections in a way where everybody had access to it, right? And that is a big question that I'm still asking, I'm still sitting with. But there were like record numbers that showed up to the polls, but [00:17:00] we haven't really, like we still really don't have answers around what accessibility looked like for people to show up at the polls. And fast-forward now, the Rastriya Swatantra Party which emerged at like a, at a very popular party in 2022, won with majority. And we just sworn in our new Prime Minister Balen Sah yesterday, we can talk about more later. Cayden: Well, thank you for summing up, both of you for summing up- Pretty long, complex histories fairly quickly for us. I've been thinking about the way that, like, Western media largely reports on these kinds of uprisings as if they come out of nowhere. And, like, we know as movement people that rarely, if ever, like, do they truly come out of nowhere. So, like, yeah, I wanna dig into what the longer arc of these stories really is. And I, I really wanna talk about, I guess, like, the specific texture in both Bangladesh and Nepal about how these protest movements position themselves against the government, against, like, other social forces, and, like, how kind of, like, other social phenomena acted on and shaped [00:18:00] these movements as well. Sharmin: I love that question 'cause it allows us to see, like, also the rich history of our, like, respective areas, and how much, like, young people have always been at the forefront of so many revolutionary struggles. And we often, um, you know, uh, post social media era like to make generalizations that this never existed before. But actually, you know, in Bangladesh, students are the most incredibly organized force that has shaped much of our history since 1947. The 1969 uprisings against Ayub Khan, the 1971 Liberation War, and then the , 1987 protests against the military dictator Ershad. And then later, our return to democratic governance in 1990 and the road safety protests of 2018, which actually laid the groundwork for so much of the student, frustration with the government not being able to keep students safe because of road safety issues and [00:19:00] just, the general mismanagement of transportation and, public resources. And so the campus has always been a key space for the pulse of the nation. But it's also a key space for goons and vigilante groups to organize their forces. So the Bangladesh Awami League has their faction, the Chhatra League, and then there's, you know, the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is the right-wing Islamist group of Bangladesh that has been growing, has their faction, the Chhatra Shibir. And then the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which, you know, has been in opposition to the Awami League, also has their goons on campuses. And so one of the major, trends you'll see during these moments is how these factions are actually weaponized to make sure that the violent state apparatus is deployed within public spaces. And, you know, you asked about, like, missteps and some of the things that political formations, might forget to plan for or think [00:20:00] about. And, you know, one of the things that I, I'm sure Samir can relate a little bit is, like, a lot of these student organizations, you know, students against discrimination, there was a group of men who claimed leadership of the student movement and formed, a party, the National Citizens Party. And you notice quickly the contradictions of their formation. All the women leaders were either asked to leave or they left because of what an undemocratic, unfeminist space it was. And then you noticed quickly that the National Citizen Party started allying itself with the right-wing forces to gain a populist base. And that, to me, is the, one of the biggest contradictions of what do leftists do when we gain power? And also, like, the sober conversation is, are these leaders leftists? Or did-  Cayden: Yeah, were they ever? Were they ever?  Sharmin: Or did we project our leftist dreams onto them and I think one of the things that [00:21:00] we've been doing for many generations, and I think Vincent Bevins' work really synopsizes this well, in looking at the last decade of popular uprisings, is that we've been doing politics without ideology, right? Mm-hmm. That these political for- formations actually don't have a coherent theory of change when they're contesting for power. And so you notice quickly the National Citizens Party was very reactionary, and it was very anti-fascist by, their vernacular, but what anti-fascism meant was that we hate the Awami League, we're gonna ban the Awami League, and the Awami League is no longer going to exist. And then we're- Yes … gonna fight for Sheikh Hasina to be hanged, right? And so that became their populist slogan.  Cayden: Hmm.  Sharmin: And so, you know, there is no left force in Bangladesh, and that's something that we have to name, that for sure there are garment workers that are organizing a party. There's a communist league that does not actually grow in their base. Um- Hmm … and that is why coming out of [00:22:00] the July uprisings, you notice this leadership actually turned center right really fast because they didn't have a, a vision that was rooted in economic and political struggles of the working-class students who made up majority of the base of people that were on the streets. Um, and you know, it was surprising, Cayden, I'll just say, like, after the, the NCP was getting ready for elections that just happened this past February, they joined a coalition with the largest Islamist force of Bangladesh, and this is such a misstep, right? To join forces. W- your enemy of your enemy is not your friend, right? Like, wh- where, like, where, when has that gotten us anywhere? It falls into the traps of organizing without a clear, coherent ideology, and then the post-uprising impact is weakened. And so a lot of that groundwork of, like, theoretical work, we actually have to do that to be able to be ready for fights that take power in the way that [00:23:00] feel, restorative and generative, instead of what we're seeing now, which is a populist right-wing growth in Bangladesh. Cayden: That feels like such an important lesson that we need to learn, unfortunately, over and over again, and I feel like this theme of, the enemy of my enemy is sometimes still my enemy has been coming up on this show a lot lately. That like, it, I, uh, you know, we see it happening in our movement politics here too, especially in, in this sort of moment of authoritarian retrenchment in our own government, that like, there are, there are challenges around that, and there's like ways that I think, yeah, it makes sense that it feels good in the moment to be like, “Yeah, there's more of us than there are of them.” But it's like, well, who, who are us? Like, what is the us that we're talking about? Samir, I will pass it to you to talk about, I guess, some of the texture that we should know about the protest movement in Nepal, and like what are the ways that, other social forces also outside the state have shaped the way that the protests have played out there. Samir: I was listening to Sharmin, and I was like, “Oh, there's so many similarities,” [00:24:00] like in a lot of the political forces that led our movements and also like talking about K.P. Oli, there's so many similarities of like how they were the face of the movement. And as somebody who really admired K.P. Oli because, you know, he was part of the social movement left. He was part of , like the first people's movement struggles, uh, that happened in the '90s that got rid of absolute monarchy. He was the face of the Communist Party. He did take up arms, right? So all of the tools that our revolutionary histories have used to, find liberation, right? So he used a diversity of tactics. Like, he started as somebody who believed in picking up arms. And then he led a people's movement in the '90s of, like with other political parties to get rid of the Panchayat system, which was a system of absolute monarchy and where all the political parties were dissolved right by the king from the 1960 to 1990, right? But one of the big things that I think we didn't think about when our movements were being led, when our movement ancestors were organizing and like really thinking about is like what does identity mean for our movements. There's political forces, [00:25:00] the social movement parties that are leading our people and organizing our people, and they did the organizing that happened in Nepal, the door-to-door, the base building that happened, if that was done by political parties, right? Which is true, and we need to name that layer, too. And I think one of the things that we're missing in this moment right now is we have been so, so frustrated by the last 20 years of governance by these forces. We wanna forget the political history of how we got here, right? Mm-hmm. And that has been one of my big critique of the young people in Nepal, right? And for me, I also think about as somebody who's getting older and also had access to my dad who was part of this movement, right? He was a big force as part of the Communist Party, and now he's heavily traumatized because of the way he got betrayed by his comrades, right? And I think one of the forces I was talking about identity is, like, all of these political forces were led by upper caste Brahmin men, and there was no indigenous representation. So finally, the 1990, we were able to get rid of absolute [00:26:00] monarchy. By '96, we still don't have full democracy in Nepal, so, you know, the Maoists decided to wage a civil war where they really organized the masses, and really created conditions for the monarchy, to bow down, right? And the Maoist party came out of this forest and, like, built a coalition with the Communist Party and the Congress Party to take the streets again. In 2006, we finally were able to get rid of monarchy, but 2006 to 2014 was a struggle to, like, really, draft a new constitution for us, where we made some progress and where we also did some things where it took us back around, like, women's rights, right? And so there was a big feminist movement that really created, like, organizing conditions of 2026 in so many ways, right? And one of the things that we were seeing during the last 20 years is what's happening is all the communist parties, the people who led our movements and uprisings were veering towards the right, right? Hmm. Because they consolidated more power, like, you know, exactly what happened with, uh, Bangladesh. They consolidated more power where, you know, they could stay in power [00:27:00] for long. The indigenous folks were part of the struggles and the uprisings in the 100 years of our movement struggles. But once we won and they got, the Communist Party got into power, they started, like, pushing policies that would not benefit indigenous peoples, right? And then one of the big things that Nepal wanted is federalism in terms of, like, one of the big critiques of Nepal has been the government is so centralized in Kathmandu. Other people outside of Kathmandu really don't get to take part in politics. And, so federalism was one of the big things that we pushed for, right? At Indigenous Struggles, that is the one thing that we pushed for so that we can govern our homelands, and that was the one thing that Oli was, like, against too, and that was also one of the reasons why he started becoming less and less popular, right? But one of the things that's 2026 was, I think it's also really important to understand, is the 2026 uprisings were led by youth who I believe, I dare to say, didn't have, the full understanding, the political understanding of our political histories in that way. And there's this, like, disconnect in terms of, like… it's hard for me to bridge the 100 years of left in Nepal [00:28:00] and like, you know, this youth uprising that's happening in Nepal that has no connection because it's not an organized group, right? It's very decentralized. Right. It happened on Discord. And that is one of the big questions we have now is, like, how do we as young people, the young people who led this uprisings, how do they stay organized, right? And that is a big question we still don't, we don't have answers to, right? The movement histories and, you know, the last 20 years has been very traumatizing, but there's also so many lessons and so many beautiful things that happened during the organizing, right? So how do we make those connections? How do we ask those questions? How do we talk to this feminist group? How do we talk to, like, workers, right? We need to figure that out. And I think one of the big things, like Sharmin talked about too, is like the student protest student movements were a big part of how we got liberation in Nepal, and the student movements are like directly connected to political parties because they have the student wing. But that also doesn't mean they are not organized. Yes, they were organized, and they really figured it out, but they have gotten corrupt. There's goons there, there's only men there. [00:29:00] And, like, how do we really ask those questions as a movement now and start building on some of our social movement histories? And that is a big question. And I haven't heard anything, and I'm very curious what's gonna happen on that, and I've been sitting with that a lot, too.  Cayden: Yeah. No, I, I mean, I feel like thinking about the challenges in remembering and then sometimes, like, having movement history misremembered to us by people with motivations. I can see how in that way for these young people who are getting organized, who are, like, trying to figure out what they want from the government in the future . there's some real, delicate territory for them to negotiate around, like, understanding themselves in a lot of ways as political and historic actors, which is really interesting. Swati Rayasam: You are tuned in to Apex Express on 94.1 KPFA, 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno and online@kpfa.org.  Cayden: One of the other trends that [00:30:00] I would love to talk about is this, sort Western media trend where, an uprising happens somewhere, a protest movement happens somewhere, and they're like, “Oh, there's an interim government. Great.” And then, like, in the US, we don't hear anymore the establishment of interim government is, first of all, deeply informed by the social movements and social forces that are already moving on the ground and also glosses over the way politics is done in a particular place. I'm wondering if there's stuff that you've noticed that has really been lost from the international media discourse about the politics of both Bangladesh and Nepal since the sort of student uprising moment. And if there's stuff that you've been seeing in the like, interim government moments that you're like, “Oh, this is something to watch out for.” Like, “This is something that we can draw some lessons from.”  Sharmin: Yeah. Well, in Bangladesh we had a United States favorite Nobel Laureate, you know, Muhammad Yunus- Mm-hmm as our interim government. And, and I think what's so fascinating is that, you know, he is the world's sweetheart because he created [00:31:00] this, like, you know, microfinancing program that is, a program that they say, you know, empowers the poor people. And, we know that in practice it actually did not reverse poverty, and it actually left millions of people in more debt, than, they or- originally were projected to gain. And so I think what's very fascinating about having such a pro-capitalist, figure that is, a sweetheart of empire, it spoke to his legacy in office, you know? During his time, he also signed one of the most devastating US-Bangladesh trade agreements with Trump- Hmm … which actually, further isolates China from the Bangladeshi trade market and, forces Bangladesh to do all of our trade deals with the US. And it's a non-binding agreement. And so it is, deeply unlawful and also devastating to the economy of this area of Southeast Asia that actually needs China as, an ally, as a country that has, contributed a lot to the development of [00:32:00] our, transportation systems and, so for us it- it's also about how much of this interim government was, you know, representing the interests of the global elite and what he was willing to do to be able to s- to, to squash, revolutionary energy within the country. The Women's Commission was one of the most powerful consolidation of feminist leaders under the interim government that were looking to reform land laws for women. And similar to what, Samir was saying, right? Women's rights just are the first thing that these governments throw under the bus and that- women's commission report that was looking to really examine land laws and inheritance laws and and the rights of women economically like actually triggered one of the largest anti-feminist rallies in the country's history- Wow … where millions, millions of Jamaat-e-Islami men and their supporters took the streets in [00:33:00] protest of women having rights. And that was something you did not see the Western media touch, even-  Cayden: No …  Sharmin: even though the Western media was, like, so excited for this revolution, right? You know, on the ground too, you have those people that are like, “This is a CIA-backed, like, uprising,” right? And then on the ground you see, like, oh yeah, people actually don't want to touch the complexities of this country because it is layered within, like, religious nationalisms- Mm-hmm ethnic nationalisms, and caste. And so in my experience, I would just say that people know very little of the political forces within this, greater West Asian political landscape and how it connects to US imperialism here and abroad, you know? Pakistan was once the CIA's closest ally in the Cold War, and they continue to be during the war on terror right now, right? Mm-hmm. The United States provided Pakistan with military, diplomatic, and economic support because a [00:34:00] pro-US military dictatorship in this region that was a staunch anti-communist ally created a buffer between the axis of the USSR, China. Cayden: Hmm.  Sharmin: And then I'll say at the same time, on the ground, there were dozens of reports of mobs that were attacking temples and Hindu leaders. Hindus are a minority in Bangladesh that have been historically, marginalized, and these contradictions were, were getting highlighted, right? Because that violence was eerily similar, right? The partition of South Asia- Yeah …  Cayden: excluded  Sharmin: Hindu-Muslim communalism, and there were tensions and divides that fell across class lines. And for Western and, hegemonic media outlets, this looked like, oh, the Muslims are attacking the Hindus again.  Samir: Right.  Sharmin: And so for me, like, the being able to reckon Islamophobia, communal violence, identity and class politics, but also the way nationalism operates in South Asia, it, it's a tricky dance [00:35:00] And I've been learning how to really convey this complex history because the country's, uh like, beautiful history of, like, using guerrilla warfare to defeat US-backed forces in the region, it also represents something different from its neighbors, India and Pakistan. Mm-hmm. And within that, you know, we have Bangladesh joining the PLO in Lebanon to fight on behalf of Palestinian liberation. We have the fact that the country's actually i- inception was based on a socialist vision, right? And it's now one of the fastest-growing economies in the world with the fast fashion garment industry that's also ravaged by climate crisis and mass displacement. And so for me, it always just comes back to anti-war and anti-imperialism, like all the nodes of my brain, because I'm like, “Here's this US global death-making machine and this defense industry that sells tear gas shells to my country and [00:36:00] sells Israeli surveillance technology to my country.” And then there's this Bangladesh trade agreement that Trump was able to wager during this vulnerable moment for our country and it's at the core of all the political and economic violence within my country. And so the neoliberalization of our campuses and what these students are facing is because of the war economy. And so, so I just, like, zoom out in those moments, and I'm like, “Oh, this, this feels very much so like Cold War politics and the aftermath.”  Cayden: Yeah, like the politics of the Cold War have just simply never left us. Like, they're still here, and it's like we've sort of swapped in China as the big bad in a lot of ways.  Sharmin: Right.  Cayden: Samir, I wonder if there's, stuff that you've been seeing about the interim government in Nepal that you think are worth our sort of examination as kind of like lessons that we can draw from what happens after the protest, and yeah, like how that has been part of the electoral moment also we're in in Nepal right now. Samir: Yeah, [00:37:00] well, the interim government was, what was it, about five months. I think we didn't really see a lot of work that happened from the interim government, but obviously one of the big wins of the interim government was they were successfully able to hold elections. And the Western media has only focused on Balen Saha, this, quote-unquote, “rapper,” this charismatic guy who is gonna, who's 35 years old and is gonna lead. And then like Sushila Karki, I mean, one of the big things that everybody is like, “Oh, she's the first woman prime minister of Nepal, and what does that mean for us?” And, you know, this identity politics of like, “Oh, we finally got a woman president.” And for us it's like when we talk about it, that's the only thing we see in the discourse. But the reality is she was also a woman prime minister in an interim government that she knew was gonna last for six months, right? And also one of the things that a lot of people don't think about and realize is like the youth really didn't know who she was. And I think that's one of the big things that Sarmin talked about too, is like how do our youth have the consciousness? And do we have a left, social movement left, that's actually supporting them to really understand, you know, the conditions [00:38:00] of our people and who we're electing and, like, how we're organizing and what that means for us, right? But one of the big popularities about her was, like, she was not a career, jurist as she was appointed, was a lawyer that was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009 by the Judicial Council, and she had this reputation of pushing back against some of the political parties and some of the establishments in that time. So that was, like, one of the big things that really lured our folks, there was this one interview of her that went really viral about how she talks about, you know, establishment parties and how she challenged, some of the status quo while she was… Because a lot of times what happens with some of these appointments are people who are loyal to the to the parties, right? That was the one big thing that really attracted a lot of our young folks, to mobilize around her being the prime minister. And it's just, like, a lot of unknowns around, like, we still don't know because with the older parties, it was very clear to us that the Communist Party was, like, more loyal to China, right? And the Congress party was more loyal to India. And then one of the things a lot that we don't see in the discourse even in left spaces, right? Even [00:39:00] in, like, media spaces is, more than US imperialism, India and China is also waging some form of imperialism in our homelands, right? And that we don't wanna name that layer because in the US, as, us being in the belly of the beast, our only responsibility is to fight US imperialism. And then for me, as somebody from the Global South, I understand that how that impacts our movement and how that is dangerous and harmful to our people in our, back in our homeland. Because China and India are bullying Nepal in a lot of different ways politically, right? Because nothing happens in Nepal without the consent of India and China, right? And India obviously has more power, and they're, like, fighting over that power in Nepal right now. And the other thing that I wanted to name is, I was hoping K.P. Oli, during our interim prime ministership, during that interim government, would be held accountable, which didn't happen. And we're not talking about that, right? And also she [Karki] had a lot of limitations, and we still are figuring out what, like, what kind of power she held, right? But the hope was for me was, like, that she would hold the people who were responsible for our people's deaths accountable during the six months she was there, which [00:40:00] really didn't happen and really moved. And that's one of the things that hasn't been talked about, and I think that was a big political opportunity for her to do some of that work to push K.P. Oli out of power because he, after doing all of this, was still able to contest the elections and lost really badly. But one of the things for me, the inspiration was, like, how Sheikh Hasina was pushed out of the country, right? Like, that was one of the hopes and dreams, and that didn't really happen, during this interim government.  Cayden: Hmm. That's interesting that there's, like, a possibility that he might be back. Well, I wanna turn a little bit to thinking about this history that's been unfolding and, like, what it is like to be observing, talking to comrades and loved ones as an organizer who's based here in the US as part of your diasporic community. One of the things I think a lot about is, like- When we talk about solidarity with people's movements internationally in the US, sometimes we forget that, like, people from those diasporas are our comrades. They are here. And that we have a lot to, [00:41:00] like, learn from them. What has it been like watching the sort of, like, social movements in Bangladesh and Nepal respectively, and what has it been like to have that consciousness as an organizer here in the US dealing with all of the political stuff that we've been dealing with here? Samir: I love that you asked that question, Cayden, and also, like, yes, I just wanna start with, like, this layer of like, oh, yes, we have comrades here who are from these diasporic communities who actually can inform us in this. And to add another layer to that, even with, with my, you know, my history of being born and raised in Nepal and, like, being connected to our movements there and, like, living here for the last 20 years now, right? That also creates another layer where I don't have access to everything, and that also creates a layer of, like, that I don't have to know everything, right? And I wish our left- Mm-hmm … Western left understood that layer sometimes because – In our movements, I'm gonna go be a little– I'm gonna little shit about our movements here, you know? Because one of the things that happens is, like, the romanticization of what's going on in our homelands without understanding, and this idea- Mm-hmm of, like-like, we have to know the answers to every… It's okay to not have answers. I think that's a big thing that I reflect on a lot as somebody here, [00:42:00] right? And also, the reality is I have access to my father, who is, for me, the only revolutionary that I know who was part of, like, social movements and who, like, really spent his whole life to the movement and is now still doing things after being betrayed by his party, right? So I think that's one of the big things. I think it's okay to know that. I think the second thing for me as somebody in the diaspora, it's my role in the diaspora. It's also what is my role in the diaspora to inform my comrades. If you're an upper-caste person, it is your responsibility to name that in the movement spaces that you hold and name that layer- Mm … and inform people about that layer. I think about that a lot. I sit up, I sit with that and reflect on that a lot, and that really informs the way I show up as somebody in the diaspora. And my responsibility, one of the things that we saw when all of this was happening you know, the movements, the social movement left was so fast, got into this train of, like, it's a Color Revolution [i.e., the revolution is backed by the US government/is a US-led intervention], as if our peoples don't have the capacity to organize. Yes, there was infiltrations. Yes, India was involved. But yes, there was also uprising where 70 people died, right? So just, bringing it down to, like, it's not really being complex and, like, [00:43:00] being nuance about that. And that really is harmful to our people back home, right? Because that, in that, when we're doing that, we're taking away, like, access from our people in terms of, like, how they are doing things. And also, like, really, I think invalidating the fact that our, the governments that was being oppressing against the uprisings are oppressive. So that just, like, invisibilizes, uh, what the state is doing, right? Because it is a Color Revolution, you know. The, it is not led by the people. We're, there was even sign, things like they said, like, “Oh, there were signs in English.” Like, can you just think about, you know, the, the orientalist, uh, you know-  Cayden: Yeah …  Samir: orientalist way that you are thinking even as somebody who considers yourself a social movement left. So that's, I think, one my, that, for me, that is a big responsibility. And- And that is where I can also make an impact as somebody in the diaspora. I am not on the ground, that is the reality of it, and knowing where I can make impact and how I can make impact, and knowing very clearly that I don't have all the answers, and I'm not– I'm an outsider in so many… I go back home every time I go home for a couple of months, the way I show up in these movement spaces [00:44:00] is I'm here to listen and I'm an outsider, and I'm trying to figure out how I can support you, right? And that is, for me, a role as a diasporic person, and I'm very clear on that. And I think it's also because I have access to my dad who grounds me in that, and it's like- Mm-hmm “Samir, you don't live here anymore.” He will remind me very clearly. He's like, “You don't live here anymore.” And you need to understand that, and that's okay.” And he will ground me in that, and that really helps me in terms of thinking of how I wanna show up as a diasporic person.  Cayden: Yeah. No, that's, that's really helpful, and I think that, like, this thing that you're describing about the sort of like in some ways, like, healthy, but in other ways sort of, like, overblown skepticism that US observers can have about uprisings, revolutions in other countries just because, like… The, the word that came to mind as you were describing it was, like, infantilizing, right? That it's, like, as if people can't independently form their own political opinions without the intervention of the, like, global superpower is just sort of, like, baffling to me. You hit on something that, like, I think about a lot [00:45:00] also as somebody who is, like, a generation removed from the immigrant generation in my family. I don't have a ton of relationships with my family who are in Hong Kong and China, but, like, how do I, like how do I relate to that? It's very challenging, and it's- and I, I think that there's so much in, like, US like left social movement discourse that I'm just kind of like, “I actually don't know how to relate to this as a diasporic person sometimes.” Sharmin, I'm also interested to hear from you on this.  Sharmin: Yeah. Yeah, similarly, I feel, I feel like there is this, like, uh, relationality that it's pushing people that are here to really think about more clearly. I feel like some of the early '70s through the '90s was a very, like, symbolic type of solidarity that we had- Mm-hmm where, where, you know, we would do the cultural attire, the cultural associations, you know, the melas, which are, like, big fairs that we have in these hubs of, like, immigrant communities. And now I think the politics are coming back. Like, I think after the July uprising, [00:46:00] you actually saw solidarity actions popping up across hubs in, you know, New York and California where people were like, “Actually, this impacts me and I wanna talk about what this means. I wanna talk about the cultural and political organizations that run this local community.” And one thing that I really took back from the last two visits to Bangladesh is really learning the skills of talking to somebody who disagrees with me because-  Cayden: Hmm …  Sharmin: I think in the United States the left does not practice, being able to engage, talk, even, like, be in relationship with people that might be politically opposed to you. And so when I go to Bangladesh, I'm actually surrounded by a lot of homophobes. I'm surrounded by a lot of men who, like, support the Awami League, and I've had to kind of, like, sit in this in between of being like, “Oh, yeah, like, I actually have to learn how to debate better. I have to learn how to, like, you know, be that person that's, like, holding humanity but also holding the, the critical left analysis that I, I believed in to be right because I [00:47:00] know I'm right.” Right? And I know that, like, this is a hill that's worth dying on. And I think with Mamdani's win in, in New York, like, there's so many examples of how that, like, South Asian left politic that's actually talking about class exists- Mm-hmm.  Cayden: Yeah …  Sharmin: within the geography of our communities. And, you know, especially for, you know, Samir and I are, like, the minority South Asians, so we're not the Indian upper caste. And so for us, we're like, “This has always been the reality of our people.” They are working-class organizers. They're people who know how to talk about the intricacies of domestic labor, about the unorganized labor forces, about the people that are left out of the political agenda of our government. And so for me, like, I really take some of the lessons that DRUM [ Desis Rising Up and Moving]  is doing on the ground in New York around what it means to actually build a member base that's rooted in relationship, but also towards a North Star. And that North Star, it looks a little socialist. It looks a little working class. It looks [00:48:00] very deeply rooted in a feminist, anti-oppressive politic. And I think for someone in diaspora, that's been the biggest growth area for me, where I'm like, “How do I hold this vision and not lose hope that my people are not, like, all right-wing people that are out to, like, you know, destroy me and my people?” But we are in this center-right populous moment that will require us to do cultural shift. It will require us to do that, like, slow work of tilling the land, like Ella Baker spade work. And you know, a comrade of mine, Nafiz, who's a brilliant writer at Jamhor, when I was talking to him about processing the February elections, he was just like, “You know, I actually think, like, I'm seeing a lot of possibility right now because I saw what happened to Egypt after Tahrir Square, and I saw where Egypt went and what a military dictatorship did to that country.” And he was like, “And Bangladesh, that's not what happened to us.” And, and he was like, “And this is important for us to really reckon with how… Not to [00:49:00] say, like, ‘Oh, it could be so much more worse,' but it could be so much more worse.” And we have to work within these, like, terrains in a way that's, like, really reckoning with why are people wanting to find comfort in these right-wing religious social groups, because they are the only organized groups of people that are providing shelter and food. And so unless the left fills that gap, we are gonna see right-wing populism, and we've seen it within white supremacy here, but it translates to every Global South country, from Brazil to, you know, um, obviously South Asia. And so yeah, I just am trying to be more, like, relative in that way, where I'm like-  Cayden: Hmm Sharmin: “Oh, we're a lot more relative than we think we are.”  Cayden: Yeah. That is such a good insight about, like, having to context switch Across geography, across political context, like builds a, like a really important muscle for us as organizers. This has been an absolutely fantastic [00:50:00] conversation and I've learned so much from both of you. My one sort of like, well I have two outgoing questions and they're sort of related to one another. One is thinking about like as a monolingual English speaker, as somebody who's like in the US, I think one of the things that I've often felt a challenge around is like where do I look to for news, for updates, and for analysis about what's going on in the Global South, especially for places where I have no cultural or language connection. And like when you're assessing news and information that's coming out about movement politics. What do you consider, what do you think about, what are the questions you ask yourself when you're like seeing headlines, kinda day-to-day that you think would be useful for other folks to start thinking about? Sharmin: Yeah. I, I really think about, like, multiple nationalisms right now, that there's, like, these competing forces of, like, who gets to tell the story. And I always, like to think about, like, how, uh, US [00:51:00] interests, Chinese interests, or even, like, Indian interests are determining the news landscape right now. And I don't like to think about it, but I, I've been looking at so much coverage that feels very much like, yikes, like what is going on, with our, like, news ecosystem? And unfortunately, I think we need to get back on Facebook. Like, I think that the fact that- … progressives and the left have left Facebook, like, I get it. Fuck Meta, and Facebook is the main place for so much like organizing. And we-  Cayden: Contest every space.  Sharmin: Get back on Facebook. Who cares if there are right-wing trolls on it? You we have to create alternative like information systems that are, like, really amplifying to these networks and groups of people that are getting inundated with that information. And I think we're really lucky because there's a lot of leftist South Asian publications now, Himal South Asian, Jumphore, you could become Patreon supporter and really be a part of these legacy, South Asian [00:52:00] left, thinkers that are actually thinking about, like, the long-term arc, and they, they're contending with socialism. They're contending with the communist, like, legacies of our organizations. And so, I just really appreciate that they're doing political analysis with politics and not just focusing on, like, symbolic forms of, like, political analysis. So shout-out to them and, and their hard work because yeah, they, they're English media that is getting translated for this day and age, you know? Cayden: Yeah. I… It was really exciting to me to, like, do a lot of the sort of, like, background for this conversation and find, like, English language movement media coming out of South Asia. I was like, “This is so exciting.” Like, this is… I feel like in some ways the thing that they're trying to do is, like they're kind of our comrades- Mm-hmm in a sense, right? Like, they're trying to do a similar thing to the thing that we're trying to do at Convergence, and I was like, “Ooh, this is really cool. Like, I'm bookmarking this.” Yeah. So I don't know. Samir, do you have, do you have other thoughts about, like, what things [00:53:00] US people should be thinking about as they're kind of assessing news and developments? Samir: Yeah, big ups Himal Magazine. I think that is a big source of information for me too. And also as somebody who struggles with reading Nepali now, which I'm very embarrassed of it's really hard for me to get access. to. I have to sit with my dad to, like, really go through some of the news articles, which, you know, my dad gracefully agrees. Uh, I think one of the big things is, like, I do benefit a lot from his free labor. I'll just name that on this podcast. But I think, and one of the things I would say is like- Thanks,  Cayden: dad …  Samir: really, like, figuring out, like, I don't know, like, pushing through the binary of, like, what US imperialism means for Nepal and what also there's, there could be other forms of imperialism that I named earlier, that Sharmin named too. And also right now, I think there's a lot of unknowns for us too, right? We have this party that was not part of the political establishment that came into picture in 2024. So we are still grappling with the idea of, like, what does this mean for us? Who are they gonna be loyal to, and how does, what does this mean for geopolitics in Nepal, right? So we are still sitting with that question. And there is some clarity around, I think one of the things I would say is there's a [00:54:00] lot of excitement, even in diaspora community, and my role in the diaspora also has been talking to some of my friends who are stoked about this prime minister right now because we haven't built a left that is informing them of the nuances and, like, how we can actually figure out the critique of this person, right? Because for me, I think it's really important the social movement left to understand because even my friend, my comrades are sending me, “Oh, this rapper is a prime minister now.” It's somebody that I trust a lot, right? Yeah. And I have to do the work of like, “Hey, this person has this history of governing in this way when he became the mayor of Kathmandu, where he was against poor people,” right? He did some changes, structural changes that helped, upper middle class people. And using that as a way to, like, really assess what he's gonna do for Nepal, and I'm actually skeptical, right? He is somebody from the Madhesi movement, which is a indigenous group that is very marginalized in Nepal, but he also comes from a very upper class background, right? And that's also real. We have to name that. His party's ideology is to push us away from federalism in some sense, right? And also the reality is they had a majority, they won a majority because we didn't have a social movement left outside of political parties that would help us assess him, right? [00:55:00] So that's, I think that's the question. Those are some of the questions I would love people to ask, because I am asking those questions as somebody who is from Nepal and from the diaspora, and I check myself every time. And yeah, I will end it with, like, it's okay to not have all the answers, and just, yeah, do some of that work of, like, reflecting on, like, asking yourself how you are taking in some of the information that you're seeing. And obviously, Himal Magazine is a big source, and one of the Substacks that I would highly recommend too is, I think we could put it in the links later, it's called Kalam Weekly, which is on Substack. I have some critiques of their writing too, but that's really been helping me understand what's going on in Nepal right now.  Cayden: You both have been so incredibly generous with your time, and this has been such a rich conversation. I don't know if there are places also where if our listeners want to follow your work, I don't know, if there's organizations or places where you are publishing thoughts, either your own or organizationally that you wanna share. Sharmin, is there any place people can find you online? Sharmin: Yeah, for sure. We're building the Asian American left at 18 Million Rising, so you could follow us there, and I'm @sharminultra [00:56:00] on all social media.  Cayden: And Samir, is there a place people can find you?  Samir: Uh, yeah, I am a very quiet person. Uh, but direct action has been a big part of our struggles in the last few years, and we are really thinking about, like, how we can escalate strategically, so I am part of a network of direct action trainers called the Ruckus Society. Hit us up. We do trainings, go to our website, request a training if you need any direct action support. We love nerding out on action design and thinking about action curriculum and how we train our people to do action safely. And follow Ruckus Society, and I don't really have a social that's public, so…  Cayden: that's so fair. I respect your choice not to be perceived.  Samir: I mean, also, I'm not Sharmin, I feel I learn from her so much, from Sharmin, so I just wanna name that, and also just from how I- And  Sharmin: we're friends. Like, we, we've done direct actions together. Like, we've been arrested together. Like-  Cayden: Yeah. …  Sharmin: we're comrades, so it's just so fun to be able to talk about this- Well, I really-  Cayden: Yeah …  Yeah. Thanks again, Sharmin, Samir. Absolutely a pleasure to talk, and I'm, I'm sure we'll talk again soon.  Sharmin: Talk soon. [00:57:00] Thank you, guys.  Samir:

In this special highlight episode of The Modern Hotelier, hosts David Millili and Steve Carran take a look back at the first half of the year, revisiting standout moments from over 40 conversations with leading voices in hospitality.Across these curated clips, hoteliers, developers, and industry leaders share what it really takes to succeed in today's rapidly evolving hospitality landscape—from building authentic guest experiences and strong team cultures to rethinking branding, revenue strategy, and the future of hotel development.Guests explore key themes including the importance of curiosity, staying authentic in design and operations, empowering teams as the true “secret sauce” of hospitality, and how technology, data, and shifting traveler expectations are reshaping the industry.Featuring insights from leaders across boutique hotels, global brands, luxury operators, and innovative developers, this episode offers a powerful snapshot of where hospitality is headed—and what continues to stay timeless: people, purpose, and experience.In this episode, you'll learn: Why genuine success in hospitality starts with a simple but powerful principle: truly liking and prioritizing people  How curiosity, alignment, and shared goals across teams create stronger hotel cultures and better performance  Why authenticity—not checklists or trends—is the foundation of memorable hotel experiences and strong brands  The key strategies for legacy properties to evolve with changing guest expectations without losing their identity  How mindset, attitude, and culture directly impact long-term success in hospitality organizations  Why experience-led pricing strategies can sometimes outperform short-term revenue maximization Watch the FULL EPISODE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Cb1YFk2a_SkLinks:Ron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-pohl-8214205/WorldHotels and International Operations for BWH Hotels: https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US.htmlAlpha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alpha-midiaou-barry-42a6b014/Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Downtown Little Italy: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sandy-courtyard-san-diego-downtown-little-italy/overview/Bradley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-steward-7b829a23/Caravan Outpost: https://caravanoutpostojai.com/Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-harmon-2184851/Auberge Resorts: https://auberge.com/aka on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aka/posts/?feedView=allaka: https://www.stayaka.com/Kristie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristiegoshowLoews Hotels & Co.: https://www.loewshotels.com/Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskanderson/Cornell University: https://www.cornell.edu/Dr. Sharmin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmindharas/Hotel ZAZZ: https://www.hotelzazz.com/Bashar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/basharwali/Intersection Development: https://intersectiondev.com/Atari Hotels: https://invest.atarihotels.com/Roman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roman-pedan/Kasa: https://kasa.com/Dondra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dondra-ritzenthaler-a09158406/Azamara Cruises: https://www.azamara.com/homeCarmen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-a-581b02183/Ashburton Hospitality: https://www.ashburtonhospitality.com/Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-luersen-20839113/Coral Tree Hospitality: https://www.coraltreehospitality.com/For full show notes head to: https://themodernhotelier.com/episode/283Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-..Join the conversation on today's episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn pageConnect with Steve and David:Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E...David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mil.

In this episode, hosts David Millili and Steve Carran sit down with Dr. Sharmin Dharas, Chief Experience Officer at Hotel ZAZZ and Chief Storyteller at HERstory Hospitality.Sharmin's journey is anything but traditional. From growing up in a 13-room Route 66 motor lodge to becoming a physician, entrepreneur, author, and boutique hotel visionary, she shares how her diverse background shaped one of the most unique hospitality concepts in the country.The conversation dives into the creation of Hotel ZAZZ, a colorful and rebellious boutique motor lodge in Albuquerque that blends wellness, storytelling, and experiential design—including a hidden speakeasy unlocked by tapping the famous Golden Banana. Sharmin also shares how authenticity, creativity, and community partnerships helped the property gain global attention, including recognition from Forbes as one of the must-see hotels in the world.Along the way, the discussion explores entrepreneurship, Route 66 tourism, scaling independent hospitality brands, and Sharmin's mission to empower more women to become hotel owners through HERstory Hospitality.In this episode, you'll learn: How Sharmin transitioned from medicine to boutique hotel ownership  Why authenticity is the secret to creating viral, Instagram-worthy hospitality experiences  How Route 66 tourism brings international travelers to boutique properties  The importance of community collaboration and hyper-local experiences Watch the FULL EPISODE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SjlSwSoSD-M Links:Dr. Sharmin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmindharas/Hotel ZAZZ: https://www.hotelzazz.com/For full show notes head to: https://themodernhotelier.com/episode/264Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-...Join the conversation on today's episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn pageConnect with Steve and David:Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E...David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mil.

Tales of the Field is a podcast series which gives voice to social activists and social innovators who work in and with their communities to create social impact and sustainable change. They share with us their work in the field - where they  tackle complex social issues and aim to create sustainable change and social impact. At its core, their work is human-centered, systemic and always informed by a deep understanding of the context and people's lives.In this episode, we talked with In this episode, we talked with Sharmin Kabir, a social entrepreneur in Bangladesh. Sharmin shared with us how she founded Wreethu in 2016 with the goal to create a gender-equitable safe place for girls and women by educating them about their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and changing the Period narratives.She talks about her human-centered approach, working with the girls in the community to develop the first comic book on puberty and period for girls. Very aware that gender-equity requires a cultural shift, she emphasizes her community-centered approach to the systemic nature of the problem: she involves young boys, fathers, and community leaders in order to create deep sustainable change.To learn more about Wreethu, check their website: https://wreetu.org/Follow Sharmin Kabir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmin-kabir/Conception, Voice, Sound design, and Post-Production: Melchior Tamisier-FayardCo-conception: Anne-Laure FayardMusic : Guilhem TamisierArtwork: Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard

For this episode of WDx, Sharmin and Kaylin are joined by Dr Alice Mao to discuss what they have learned about burnout so far and how their perspectives have changed over time. Alice Mao’s Bio:Dr. Alice Mao is an internal medicine and geriatric medicine physician who is passionate about social equity, community empowerment, and innovations in… Read More »Episode 451: WDx #41: Burnout, Existential Dread, and Everything in Between

Ralph welcomes sociologist and historian Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi to discuss the United States' war of aggression on Iran.Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is an Iranian-born American historian and sociologist. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. He was the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Director of the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of four books on different aspects and historical context of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its aftermath.The only countries that I see that are in constant violation of international law is the United States and Israel. And frankly, I am speechless, although I'm speaking, but I am speechless—in what universe can this war be justified as self-defense? You listened to Secretary Rubio's speech in Munich where he laments 400 years of colonial rule being lost to this international law and laws of fighting wars because they want to go back to the way things were in the 18th and 19th century. This is a naked expansionist, extortionist administration here, and that's the only reason they have launched this war, and there is absolutely no justification for it.Behrooz Ghamari-TabriziFor years and years, the Israelis have been assassinating Iranian scientists. They were sabotaging Iranian industries. And actually, the Iranian government showed tremendous restraint in responding to these Israeli provocations because they didn't want to create the situation in which we find ourselves today. But then at the end of the day, calling Iran the aggressor here I think is a total ignorance of history and the context in which this war has started.Behrooz Ghamari-TabriziAll these things are not to suggest that the Iranian government in any form or shape is a democratic and just state. But the question here is about the sovereignty of the Iranian state. And the only inheritance of the revolution that has been kept throughout these forty-odd years was the question of sovereignty. Because that was one of the demands of the revolution. The question of social justice was thrown out of the window after the revolution. The question of civil liberties was thrown out of the window after the revolution. The only thing that is left is Iranian sovereignty. And according to every single intelligence study, what Iranians do outside their borders is a defensive posture. Iran does not have an expansionist agenda.Behrooz Ghamari-TabriziNews 3/6/26* Last week, Bill and Hillary Clinton testified before the House Oversight Committee on their respective relationships with financier and sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary Clinton, in a deposition described as contentious, maintained that she had virtually zero connections with Epstein, stating at one point “I am so tired of answering that question,” per PBS. Former President Bill Clinton meanwhile, tried to downplay his relationship with Epstein, describing it as “cordial,” and claiming that he had come to an arrangement with Epstein where the financier provided his private jet for humanitarian trips in exchange for Clinton discussing politics and economics with him. The committee pressed Clinton on this point, noting that Epstein visited the White House numerous times during Clinton's presidency and that there are photos of the two men shaking hands. Clinton told lawmakers he “did not recall those interactions.” These answers leave much to be desired.* Meanwhile, another Epstein associate occupies the Oval Office today – Donald Trump – and on February 26th the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice, under the stewardship of Attorney General Pam Bondi, has been withholding interviews with a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault back in the 1980s. As the Journal writes, the suppression of this interview “raises new questions about the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files release and the pages that have been kept private.” The Journal adds that “Trump officials initially opposed the release of the files and then fumbled their response, including inconsistent redactions that exposed dozens of Epstein victims and initially kept some prominent men's names hidden.” However, on March 5th, POLITICO reported that the FBI has now published a trio of FBI interviews with the woman who accused the president of sexually assaulting her in collusion with Jeffrey Epstein. Trump and his allies categorically deny any wrongdoing on the part of the president, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the allegations “completely baseless…backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history.” This story also highlights what is sure to be the next flashpoint in this saga: on Wednesday, a House committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about her handling of the Epstein files.* Turning to media news, last week we covered how Paramount-Skydance, led by the Ellison family and backed by the Trump administration, outmaneuvered Netflix to close a deal acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery – including CNN. Throughout this process, many have raised the alarm that if the Ellisons were to get their hands on CNN, they would turn it over to their ideological attack dog, Bari Weiss, as they did with CBS News. Variety is now echoing those concerns, reporting that “It's expected that Weiss will have a big role in steering CNN.” Just what exactly this role will be remains to be seen, but given her tenure as editor-in-chief of CBS News, there is much cause for concern.* In related news, Variety reports Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has filed to sell 4,004,149 shares – over $114 million worth of stock – in the company following the announcement of the sale to Paramount, including Paramount's eye-popping offer of $31 per share. Zaslav retains additional stock and options which he could cash out as the deal moves forward. Curiously, even as the Trump administration backed the Paramount buyout over the Netflix deal, the president himself continues to bank on the fiscal stability of the streaming giant, with the Hollywood Reporter documenting that Trump bought between $600,000 and $1.25 million worth of Netflix debt in January, adding to the $500,000 to $1 million in Netflix bonds that he purchased in December. This story notes that while the Netflix-Warner deal fell through, Netflix walked away with a $2.8 billion “break-up fee,” and an investment grade credit rating, unlike both WBD and Paramount.* Looking at domestic politics, this week primaries were held in Texas and North Carolina which yielded the nomination of James Talarico in Texas, beating out Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nod, and the razor thin victory of incumbent Valerie Foushee over her progressive challenger Nida Allam in the Durham-Chapel Hill region. But many more primary battles lay ahead, perhaps the most interesting of which is unfolding in Maine, where the Bernie Sanders-backed veteran-turned-oysterman Graham Platner is duking it out with Chuck Schumer's preferred candidate, outgoing Governor Janet Mills. Platner, despite damaging stories, has continued to draw massive crowds and enjoys a huge polling advantage. Last week, Platner's allies, led by United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain, staged a sort of intervention with Schumer, with Fain lambasting the “shortcomings” in Democratic leaders' approach to the 2026 midterms, “particularly their failure to adequately listen to working-class voters.” Michael Monahan, a high-level official in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, also sent a letter to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee strongly urging the DSCC to “refrain from intervening further in [the Maine] primary.” A mid-February independent poll found Platner with a 38-point lead over Mills among likely Democratic primary voters, yet the party continues to back Mills to the hilt. This from NBC.* Our remaining stories this week concern foreign affairs. First, in South Africa, it seems the forces of the Left are looking to pool their support by entering into a political alliance. According to TimesLIVE, a prominent South African online newspaper, the country's largest standalone Left party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has convened with the South African Communist Party (SACP) to discuss such an electoral pact. The SACP has long participated in a tripartite alliance with the African National Congress party (ANC), which has ruled South Africa since the end of Apartheid, but recently announced they would contest elections independently. The EFF and SACP emphasized that their priorities align on the “deep crises confronting South Africa: de-industrialisation, austerity-driven fiscal consolidation, collapsing energy security, mass unemployment, and extreme poverty.”* In another major political realignment, the Green Party of England and Wales is surging as the Labour Party, under the centrist leadership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, continues to lose ground to the Nigel Farage-led far right party, Reform UK. The rise of the Green Party has been bubbling for some time, as progressive voters feel betrayed by Labour and the momentum behind Jeremy Corbyn's “Your Party” has fizzled, but the first major test occurred recently in the Labour stronghold riding of Groton and Denton in Greater Manchester. According to the BBC, this marks the first ever win for the Greens in a by-election, with 34-year-old plumber Hannah Spencer becoming the party's first ever MP in northern England. Reform ran second, with Labour dropping by 25% into third place. Moreover, Zeteo reports the Greens have leapfrogged ahead of Labour in national polling, second only to Reform and has become the single most popular party among voters under 50. For the past five months, the Greens have been led by self-described “eco-populist” Zack Polanski, and have espoused policies including giving councils the power to control rents, extending free school meals to all children, and imposing a new ‘wealth tax' on assets above £10m.* In Congress, Representative Ro Khanna has introduced the West Bank Human Rights Resolution to Condemn Israeli Settlement Expansion. This resolution is described as utilizing far more specific language to condemn “Israeli settler violence and referencing potential sanctions tools while also calling for a review of US policies that may indirectly subsidise settlement activity,” per the Middle East Eye. In part, this resolution is a response to the Israeli government's February 8th approval of “sweeping changes to land registration and civil control in Areas A and B of the West Bank, which Palestinians say breach the Oslo Accords and advance de facto annexation.” This resolution was drafted in conjunction with Cameron Kasky, the survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting who has become a leading activist on rights for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. In a statement upon the introduction of this resolution, Kasky wrote “this is a necessary measure for Democrats and Republicans to unite behind the upholding of international law. Democrats and Republicans can agree that U.S. taxpayer money being used to subsidize the violation of international law is an outrage.”* Our final two stories concern the U.S. attacks on Iran. First, a bizarre sequence of conflicting claims between the U.S. and Spain have left many observers puzzled. First, on March 3rd, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the Iberian nation, saying “Very often great wars start with a chain of events spiralling out of control due to miscalculations, technical failures, and unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, we must learn from history and cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions.” Sánchez warned of “repeating the mistakes of the past,” and drew a comparison with the invasion of Iraq, concluding his government's position is “No to war,” per CNBC. More pointedly, the Spanish government prevented two jointly operated bases in its territory from being used in the strikes on Iran. Trump responded on the 4th by vowing to cut off all trade with Madrid, saying “Spain has been terrible…We don't want anything to do with Spain.” Then, on March 5th, Karoline Leavitt told the press that “With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president's message yesterday loud and clear, and it's my understanding, over the past several hours, they've agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military.” Yet, the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares immediately responded that “The Spanish government's position on the war in the Middle East ... and the use of our bases has not changed at all.” This also from CNBC. Trump's threat to cut off trade with Spain would be difficult to follow through on, given that the 27 nations in the European Union negotiate trade agreements collectively,* Finally, far from assuaging concerns about the attacks on Iran leading to blowback, the Hill reports that, when asked during a phone call with Time magazine about whether Americans should be worried about a potential strike on the homeland, Trump replied, “I guess.” Trump went on to say “We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah…we expect some things…some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.” Stunningly, despite Trump openly declaring that we are at war with Iran sans congressional authorization and even casually admitting Americans could be killed on home soil, the feckless Congress has voted down War Powers resolutions in the House and Senate. In the upper house, the bill introduced by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, failed 47-53, with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky crossing party lines to support it while Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania crossed party lines to vote nay, per the AP. A similar measure in the House, introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie – the duo behind the Epstein Files Transparency Act and other war powers resolutions including on Venezuela – failed by a vote of 212-219. In addition to Massie, Republican Rep. Warren Davison of Ohio voted in favor of the resolution, while four House Democrats voted nay, per Axios. Again the question is presented to us, if this won't shock Congress to action, what will?This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Kaylin, Sharmin, and Cheryl are joined by Kassidy Lovins, MS3, and Ann Marie Kumfer, MD, to discuss a case of a 35-year-old man with fevers, diffuse myalgias, and weakness. Bio:Kassidy Lovins is a third-year student at UNC School of Medicine, approaching the end of her clinical rotations and exploring a future in Internal or Family Medicine.… Read More »Episode 442: WDx #40: Clinical Unknown with Kassidy and Dr. Ann Marie Kumfer

In this episode of WDx, Cheryl, Kaylin, and Sharmin are joined by Kuchal and Ann Marie, two wonderful members of the CPSolvers Academy.  Kuchal presents a case of a young man with fevers to Ann Marie and Sharmin. Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Sharmin Díaz es la fundadora de Azul Podcast, un espacio que se dedica a través de la comunicación a crear conciencia sobre el TEA en la República Dominicana. Hablamos sobre las etapas de adaptación, el diagnóstico de su hijo, su carrera y mucho más.REDES:Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jorgechaljub YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvmw5p_mFlEC5XKEIqL1-TQInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/jorgechaljub/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jorgechaljubREDES Sharmin:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharmindiaze/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azul.podcast/ ALIADOS DEL PODCASTBrands Avenuehttps://www.instagram.com/brandsavenuerd/https://brandsavenuerd.com/ Música: Good for Nothing Safety de Twin Musicom

In this raw and unfiltered interview, Sharmin Ali shares how a chance encounter on a flight changed her life forever. From joining a startup that became a unicorn to surviving a cardiac arrest at 32, she reveals what founders never talk about: burnout, bad investor deals, and the price of ambition. 02:00 India → U.S.: Chasing Google, choosing startups 04:10 The plane pitch that changed everything 06:00 Finding the superpower: sales, growth, Fortune 500s 08:30 The $1M pharma pilot at age 22 10:45 Rocket ship to unicorn—then time to leave 13:20 First startup in India: OTT vision, ugly terms 15:50 Eight-figure exit, expensive lessons 16:40 Silicon Valley round two: Emotion AI begins 19:30 Hustle highs, burnout signs 21:10 $200M deal… then a cardiac arrest at 32 23:15 “Get me out”: bad venture terms & hard exit 25:40 Date your investors, lawyer up, founder gets $0 risk 27:10 The 15-month rebuild: therapy, travel, book 29:30 Startup #3: Video AI with better terms 31:20 Sora's shadow and a fast acquisition (Oct 2024) 33:40 “Bitch, Stop, Please” — why founders must pause 35:15 What's next: content, LinkedIn, community 37:00 Want an acquisition? Become attractive, not desperate 38:30 Don't raise just to be rich—entrepreneurship tradeoffs 40:00 Founder mental-health playbook (therapist, oxygen mask) 42:15 Final takeaways & sign-off

Kaylin and Sharmin were joined by UCLA Cardiology fellows, Drs. Rachel Ohman and Angela Duvalyan, to discuss a case of a 49 year old woman with acute chest pain. Angela Duvalyan, MD is a second year Cardiology Fellow at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her clinical interests include interventional cardiology, medical education, and clinical… Read More »Episode 422: WDx #38: Clinical Unknown with UCLA Cardiology fellows

In this episode of WDx, Dr Sukriti Banthiya joins Kaylin, Sharmin, and Cheryl and presents a case of a 78-year-old man initially presenting with generalized weakness and a fall. Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

That's the rule Sharmin Ali lives by — even when it almost killed her. Buy now the book ⁠Bitch, Stop! Please . . . : An Entrepreneur's Journey of Innovation, from Chaos to Clarity⁠ by Sharmin Ali In this raw and unfiltered conversation, Sharmin reveals what it takes to walk away from Google, build two multi-million dollar companies across continents, and face the brutal cost of ambition. We go deep into the art of negotiating exits, building trust from scratch, and why most people fail — not because they lack talent, but because they never learned to hear themselves. If you've ever felt like you're too intense, too chaotic, or too much for the system you're in... this episode is your permission to go all in — without losing yourself. Connect with Sharmin Ali sharminali.com Buy now the book Bitch, Stop! Please . . . : An Entrepreneur's Journey of Innovation, from Chaos to Clarity by Sharmin Ali Contact ANI ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠negotiateanything.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!

That's the rule Sharmin Ali lives by — even when it almost killed her. Buy now the book ⁠Bitch, Stop! Please . . . : An Entrepreneur's Journey of Innovation, from Chaos to Clarity⁠ by Sharmin Ali In this raw and unfiltered conversation, Sharmin reveals what it takes to walk away from Google, build two multi-million dollar companies across continents, and face the brutal cost of ambition. We go deep into the art of negotiating exits, building trust from scratch, and why most people fail — not because they lack talent, but because they never learned to hear themselves. If you've ever felt like you're too intense, too chaotic, or too much for the system you're in... this episode is your permission to go all in — without losing yourself. Connect with Sharmin Ali sharminali.com Buy now the book Bitch, Stop! Please . . . : An Entrepreneur's Journey of Innovation, from Chaos to Clarity by Sharmin Ali Contact ANI ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠negotiateanything.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!

Description: Kaylin and Sharmin are joined once again by Dr. Julia Armendariz to learn from her approach to a “struggling” learner. The discussion focuses on the value of using low-inference statements to accurately describe the behavior, how to identify the underlying problem(s) the behavior may represent, and tailoring a path to improvement based on the… Read More »Episode 398: WDx #36: How to Approach a “Struggling” Learner

Description: Dr. Julia Armendariz joins Kaylin, Sharmin, and Cheryl to discuss feedback. She shares why giving feedback is so critical as well as an approach to feedback and goal-setting with learners. She also debunks common myths, highlights potential pitfalls, and shares her strategies to create a positive team learning environment.   Julia’s bio: Julia Armendariz, MD, is… Read More »Episode 390: WDx #35: Demystifying Feedback

Maddy, Youssef and Andrew share their approach to neuropathy and frequent falls as they discuss a case presented by Sharmin. Polyneuropathy Framework To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE.  Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Description: Kaylin, Sharmin, and Cheryl are joined by Dr. Arghavan Salles. They discuss career transitions/pivots, challenging workplace experiences, social/digital media use, and thoughts on allyship and gender biases/stereotype threat as self-identified angry women. Bio: Dr. Salles is a minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon. She completed medical school and residency in general surgery at Stanford prior… Read More »Episode 374: WDx #34: It’s Not a Meritocracy

In this episode of WDx, Sharmin, Yaz, and Kaylin are joined by Dr. Laila Woc-Colburn. Tune in to hear Dr. Woc expertly discuss a case of a young woman with a worsening headache, followed by a roundtable discussion about what drew her to infectious diseases and her passions in medicine and life. Bio: **Laila Woc-Colburn,… Read More »Episode 370: WDx #33: Clinical Unknown Discussion with Dr Laila Woc-Colburn

Maddy, Youssef and Andrew share their approach to acute coronary syndrome as they discuss a case presented by Sharmin. Acute Coronary Syndrome Framework To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE. Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Kaylin, Sharmin, Cheryl, and Jane discuss two cases of volume overload. Kaylin reviews the pathophysiology behind constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy, normal pericardial and thoracic anatomy and pressure changes with respiration, and the difference in treatments between the two disease processes. Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

  Maddy, Youssef and Andrew share their approach to nephrotic syndrome as they discuss a case presented by Sharmin. Nephrotic Syndrome Framework To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE.  Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Sharmin Nasrullah, the GM of Life Sciences Clinical. In this insightful conversation, they explore how AI and data are revolutionizing the landscape of clinical trials, paving the way for holistic and personalized approaches in the pharmaceutical industry. Tune in to discover the innovations shaping next-generation trials and how organizations are leveraging technology to enhance patient experiences and outcomes.In this episode, they talk about:The birth of Salesforce's Life Science Cloud platformWhat Salesforce is doing in the clinical trial spaceUnderstanding recruitment processes in clinical trialsHow Salesforce eases the research burdens for sponsors and sitesPatient information transfer from providers to Salesforce Life Science Cloud PlatformThe impact of AI advancements on the clinical trial processSystems replaced by Salesforce's cloud applicationHow the cloud system matches patients with clinical trialsA Little About Sharmin:Sharmin Nasrullah is the GM of Life Sciences, Clinical at Salesforce. As General Manager, Sharmin leads the overall product strategy and go-to-market strategy for the R&D clinical suite of applications and products on Life Sciences Cloud, leveraging the best of the Salesforce platform and ushering in a new wave of innovations in clinical development.Before Salesforce, Sharmin held several leadership positions across the industry including leading digital health enterprise architecture at AstraZeneca, leading product and sales strategy in clinical data management at Veeva Systems, and leading clinical operations at Stanford University's academic research organization.Sharmin holds a Master of Science in Bioengineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

In this episode, Chris Koddermann interviews two members of the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics at Mass General Hospital: founding director, author, and co-founder of three drug development companies, Dr. Jerry Rosenbaum; and psychiatrist and associate director and director of cognitive neuroscience, Sharmin Ghaznavi, MD, Ph.D. Rosenbaum and Ghaznavi bonded over an interest in rumination, and wondered: How could the plasticity-inducing effects of psychedelics change these negative loops people find themselves in? How important is the ability to break out of those loops – and learn new patterns – when our concept of self is so central to who we are? Ghaznavi is studying the effects of psilocybin on rumination and scanning patients at multiple times throughout the process to track data we still don't really have: how psychedelic-induced neuroplasticity changes over time, and why. They discuss: How much of a role the default mode network takes in the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics: Is it overblown? Hyperscanning, which involves scanning two individuals at the same time, looking for potential concordance in signal and/or an increased alliance between the therapist and patient The Schultes Legacy Project and the work of Stephen Haggarty to explore the potential of largely unstudied psychoactive plants Critiques of the recent ruling on Lykos and MDMA-assisted therapy and the clash between the FDA and the advisory committee: Were they really on the same page? The false dichotomy of neuroscience vs. patient experience: Does the subjective experience actually increase plasticity and other measurable benefits? and more! For links, head to the show notes page.

 To celebrate the new academic year, Kaylin and Sharmin sit down with Dr. Alice Mao to share a few memorable stories from their intern year. They reflect on tough days, lessons learned, power moves, and the importance of community. We hope these stories and reflections make you laugh, feel connected, and inspire you to take gentle care… Read More »Episode 348: WDx #31: “Guardian Angels, Mistaken Identities, and Code Blues: Stories from Intern Year”

Sharmin, Jack, Maddy, and Youssef share their approach to retiform purpura as they discuss a case presented by Andrew Sanchez. To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE.  Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Sharmin, Kaylin, and Jane interview Anu Gorukanti, MD and Laura Holford, RN MSN, the co-founders of Introspective Spaces. They discuss their journeys in healthcare and what motivated them to build an inclusive space to foster connection, cultivate contemplative practice, and empower women in healthcare through introspective and reflection. Anu Gorukanti, MD is a public health advocate and… Read More »Episode 341: WDx #30: Introspective Spaces

In this episode of WDx, Dr Nidhi Patel joins Jane, Kaylin, and Sharmin and presents a case of a 23 yr old woman with worsening dyspnea and orthopnea. Nidhi is a current CPSolvers Academy member and a PGY2 in internal medicine at Emory University.  She grew up in South Florida and went to University of… Read More »Episode 335: WDx #29: The One Where Sharmin and Kaylin Discuss a Clinical Unknown

Maddy, Jack, and Sharmin share their approach to focal splenic lesions and splenic infarcts as they discuss a case presented by Youssef.   Frameworks Discussed in Case: Focal Splenic Lesion Splenic Infarct Splenic Infarct vs Abscess   To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE.  Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

In honor of Women’s History month in the United States, Sharmin, Kaylin, and Jane discuss the Matilda Effect, the current state of gender inequality, and reflect on some of the many incredible women scientists that came before us and helped pave the way for a better future. For more on the topics discussed, check out: Women… Read More »Episode 327: WDx #28: “Anonymous was a Woman”

Episode 6-565: Challenge Accepted - Legacy Let's Talk About Leaving a Legacy This episode is dedicated to the memory of one of my high school classmates, Sharmin who passed away last week. Sharmin loved her son fiercely and left a legacy of authenticity, positivity, and empowerment.  She took time to appreciate the beauty in others and the beauty of things around us. I will miss all her posts on Facebook, which left a beautiful legacy of her character. So, let's talk about accepting the challenge of leaving a legacy. Do you ever think about how your words and actions will impact others now and in the future? It's important to think in these terms because it helps gives us perspective about the impact we have and what things matter.  Have you ever noticed a small child mimic the actions of the adults around them?  Or maybe you've noticed an employee mimic the behavior of a prior supervisor. What we do matters not only for ourselves but for those who will be impacted by the outcomes of our actions.  We can help pave a way and clear a path forward for those who will come behind us.  We can help set up others for success, so that they can learn from the lessons we have already experienced. We can leave an example of how we have learned to approach life and work. When we learn life lessons, sharing those with others that might benefit, can help to leave a beneficial legacy.  When we make it through tough times, being authentic about our experiences can help others. When we are unsure, showing our vulnerabilities in a safe space can help to leave a positive legacy.  How we choose to spend our money and time, leaves a legacy about what we think is important. So, as you make decisions about the things you choose to do, and the words you choose to say, think about what legacy that will leave.  Are those behaviors and words the things that you want to characterize you and will they be beneficial in the future? Will you accept the challenge of being intentional AI Summary: Legacy of Authenticity and Empowerment Petrina began the session with a tribute to her high school classmate, Sharmin, who had passed away recently. She underscored Sharman's legacy of authenticity, positivity, and empowerment, and encouraged the audience to consider the impact of their own words and actions on others. Petrina then challenged the attendees to be intentional about leaving a beneficial legacy, encouraging them to think about how their choices and behaviors could positively influence future generations. She invited them to like and share her messages on social media and promised to share more information about her publications in future sessions. Do You Have a Couple of Minutes - Inspiring Topics to Help You Think, Learn, Grow, and Live Fulfilled ⁠⁠www.petrinagooch.com⁠⁠ Book Publications: Leading Self, Leading Others – 20 Inspiring Topics for Personal and Team Leadership and Professional Growth – available on Amazon and Kindle LiftOff to Landing – Revealing Stories of Strangers in Flight – Flight 2023 – available on Amazon, Kindle and Audible ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/author/petrinagooch⁠⁠ #DoYouHaveACoupleOfMinutes #Inspire #Think #Learn #Grow #Fulfilled #LiveFulfilled #Liberate #Illuminate #Amplify #PositiveChange #Leadership #Mentor #Coach #Develop #Lead #Listen #Encourage #Feelings #Intent #Expectations #PetrinaGooch #Petrina #TakeTheGoodTakeTheBad #Perfection #Imperfections #decisionmaking #relevance #approachable #collaboration #understanding #progress #BeNice #BeRespectful #BuildOthersUp #confidence #Courage #help #change #vision #Choice #Reponsibility #Clarity #Confidence #Committment #PayAttention #Opportuity

One in three women around the globe experience violence according to the World HealthOrganization. Women and girls around the world are victims of gender-basedviolence every day because it is considered acceptable in many cultures. SharminPrince experienced this herself in her native Guyana. She is now on a missionto stamp out GBV and the marginalization of women. Sharmin is a social justicewarrior committed to promoting healing and growth. She is the founder of EaglesEmpowered to Soar which works to level the playing field for gender equality,safety, and empowerment. Learn what still needs to be done to eradicate violenceagainst women and girls in Episode 120 of Women Road Warriors with ShelleyJohnson and Kathy Tuccaro when they talk with Sharmin.https://eaglessoar.org/https://sharminprince.utobo.com/#GBV #GenderBasedViolence #GenderEquality #ViolenceAgainstWomen #Women #Girls #SharminPrince #EagesEmpoweredToSoar #WomenRoadWarriors #ShelleyMJohnson #ShelleyJohnson #KathyTuccaro

Sharmin, Jack, and Youssef discuss their approach to joint pain as they reason through a case presented by Maddy.  Monoarticular Arthritis Framework To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE.  Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

  Sharmin and Kaylin sit down with Dr. Denise Davis to discuss communication as a procedure, continuous and incremental improvement, and the interrelationship between social and health justice   Denise L. Davis is a general internist and Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco. She serves as Associate Director for Faculty Development… Read More »Episode 320: WDx #27: “There is No Innocent Eye”

In this exclusive Valentine's Day episode of the "No Grey Areas" podcast, listeners are treated to the timeless love story of Patrick and Sharmin McCalla, who have known each other since the age of 12. Their son-in-law and host, Brandon Lopez, guides the conversation through the layers of their enduring relationship.The episode touches on intentional acts of love, debunking the romanticized notions of "fuzzy feelings" and "sparks." Pat and Sharmin delve into the concept of love languages, secrets to their lasting marriage, and highlighting that love is not just a feeling but an action.As the episode concludes, the McCallas share valuable insights on incorporating the spirit of Valentine's Day throughout the year. Don't miss this episode, on how through humor and wisdom, Pat and Sharmin McCalla offer a timeless perspective on love with a comedic twist.Be sure to like our podcast, share it with a friend, and leave a review!You can also watch the video versions on our YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on the next inspiring and motivating interview!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbnC2rjEumGJhqy54qazFFwConnect with us on our website and social media platforms for more engaging, inspiring, and motivating content.WEBSITE: https://www.nogreyareaspodcast.com/INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/nogreyareas_gagliano/FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/NoGreyAreasTIK TOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@nogreyareasgaglianoEMAIL: info@nogreyareas.comNo Grey Areas is a motivational podcast with captivating guests centered around how our choices humanize, empower, and define who we become. This podcast is inspired by the cautionary tale, No Grey Areas, written by Joseph Gagliano. Learn more about the truth behind his story involved with sports' biggest scandal at nogreyareas.com#habits #success #change #motivation #motivational #inspiration #difference #choices #nga #purpose #liveonpurose #lifestyle #better #mentalhealth #decisions #valentines #valentinesday #love #spouse #partner #lifepartner

Ann-Marie, Sharmin, and Maddy discusses their approaches to diverticulitis complications as they talk through a case presented by Jack.  Frameworks:  Diverticulitis Complications   Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Sharmin, Kaylin, and Jane are joined by Dr. Risheen Reejhsinghani, cardiologist extraordinaire, Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford, and Associate Program Director of the cardiology fellowship. They discuss her journey through medical training as an international medical graduate, how her love for cardiology developed, and how her career has evolved to allow her to combine her passions for medical education and mentoring into her daily… Read More »Episode 310 – WDx Episode #26: “You are Resilient, even if You Don't Know It”

Sharmin, Jack, and Maddy discuss their approaches to severe acute liver injury, abdominal pain, and hyperferritinemia as they talk through a case presented by Ann-Marie.  Frameworks:  Severe Acute Liver Injury Abdominal Pain To join us live on Virtual Morning Report (VMR), sign up HERE.  Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS  

Sharmin & Kaylin are joined by María Jimena Alemán, CPSolvers co-director of internal operations & future neurologist with a passion for global health. They discuss how her upbringing has informed & shaped her passions & values, how she got involved with CPSolvers, the growth that comes from being a leader, the power of community &… Read More »Episode 303: WDx #25: “Do Small Things with a Big Heart” with María Jimena Alemán

Jack, AMK, and Maddy discuss their approaches to cytopenias and DVTs as they talk through a case presented by Sharmin. Frameworks: Pancytopenia Thrombocytopenia Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

In this episode of WDx, Dr Casey Albin joins Kiara, Jane, & Sharmin to discuss a clinical unknown. Presented by Kiara, the case starts with the chief concern of difficulty recognizing family members. Casey Albin, MD is an Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine where she is a member of the department of… Read More »Episode 297: WDx #24 – Clinical Unknown Discussion with Dr. Casey Albin

Maddy presents a case to Jack, Sharmin, and Ann Marie of a patient who is found to have a mediastinal mass on imaging. Mediastinal Mass Schema   Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS  

In this episode of WDx, Dr Rebecca Berger joins Kara, Jane, & Sharmin to discuss a clinical unknown. Presented by Kara, the case starts with a young woman presenting with chronic isolated thrombocytopenia. Dr. Rebecca Berger Rebecca is an academic hospitalist and assistant professor of medicine at Weil Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian Hospital.… Read More »Episode 288: WDx #23: Clinical Unknown Discussion with Dr Rebecca Berger

Ann Marie presents a case to Dan, Jack, and Sharmin of a young patient with tachycardia, lower extremity edema, who later develops pharyngitis. Thyrotoxicosis Schema Pharyngitis Schema Peripheral Edema Schema Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Sharmin, Dan, Ann Marie, and Jack discuss an interesting case of non-resolving pneumonia with some radiologic surprises! Schemas: CAP Pulmonary Disease and Eosinophilia Lung Nodules Lung Cavities Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

Ann Marie, Jack and Dan discuss and delve deeper into hypokalemia and hypophosphatemia schemas based on a case presented by Sharmin.   Schemas Hypokalemia Hypokalemia a practical approach Hypophosphatemia     Download CPSolvers App here RLRCPSOLVERS

In this WDx episode, Sharmin and Dr Lekshmi Santhosh delve into the world of written evaluations: why are they important, implicit biases they can contain and how to do a better job in both writing and interpreting evaluations. Dr. Lekshmi Santhosh Dr. Lekshmi Santhosh is an associate professor of medicine at UCSF. She specializes in… Read More »Episode 260: WDx #20 – Exploring the World of Evaluations with Dr. Lekshmi Santhosh

Sharmin, Ann Marie, and Dan discuss a case that takes us on a journey through the pancreas and hepatobiliary systems with schemas at every stop of the way!   Schemas: Acute Pancreatitis Pancreatic Mass Pancreatic Mass (Simple) Jaundice   Download CPSolvers App here Patreon website