In this episode, I sit down with an inspirational former colleague and friend, Gabbie Stewart. Gabbie is originally from New Zealand but has spent many years in London with her husband and three young children. We talk about the inevitable juggle of life, personal identity, work, motherhood and everything in between.  We consider the evolution and revolution of pregnancy and motherhood over generations, overcoming myths and fears, alongside convention and personal choices. Working mothers are well acquainted with the term ‘motherhood penalty’ and within this context, Gabbie and I talk abo ..read more

Seetal Kaur is our next guest. She is Co-Director of Forward Culture, a social initiative focussing on the empowerment of South Asian women. Seetal explains Forward Culture exists not just for finding pride in our South Asian heritage, but also about critically evaluating previous traditions and evolving them in line with our own empowerment and identity. In this episode, we talk about our shared experience of something that nothing and no one can ever prepare you for: motherhood. We begin with learning from previous generations, examining what has fallen away and what has stood the test of ti ..read more

The first guest of season 6 is Sairish Hussain, author of ‘The Family Tree’ and ‘Hidden Fires’. Sairish shares her writing journey and the inspirations behind the characters and plots in both of her novels. We also discuss the depiction of negative South Asian and Muslim stereotypes in popular culture and how she has defied these narratives in her stories as well as the importance of authenticity and originality.  Diversity in publishing has been a longstanding and ongoing conversation. We look at Sairish’s experience of navigating the world of publishing and discuss the progress that has ..read more

Brown Don’t Frown is back again! Season 6 drops March 2024! Make sure you hit the subscribe button and you will be notified as soon as a new episode goes live.  This season is all about empathy and empowerment through various lenses, such as navigating our 30s, not just reaching life goals and milestones but making new ones, parenthood and reproductive health, spinning plates, challenges, fears, surviving, thriving, finding purpose and intention, gratitude, balance, calm, and rest. We’ve got some inspiring women including fellow South Asian podcasters, an acclaimed novelist, a reproductiv ..read more

Season 4 kicks off with Shalina Patel, an award-winning history teacher and co-founder of The History Corridor on Instagram. Shalina tells us about her career journey and what motivated her to become a history teacher. We talk about the tendency to be tokenistic when it comes to teaching diverse history, for example a gloss over the Windrush Generation or the glorification of the British Empire, without much reflection of the consequences of exploitation and racism. The relevance of these isolated stories is then buried within the broader curriculum. So I ask, how do we create spaces for impor ..read more

“Disabled people are infantilised, sensationalised or they’re just not believed.”   We end Season 3 on a thought-provoking note and I’m pleased to welcome Lucy Stafford to the show. Lucy is the Director of Patient Led Engagement for Access (PLEA), a non-profit which advocates for access to medical cannabis through mainstream healthcare. She speaks about her experience as a long-term patient of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare, life-long genetic disorder which can cause debilitating effects. Drawing from her own experiences, she explains how we can facilitate greater accessibility for those ..read more

To mark Black History Month, the final guests of season 5 are Alison Burton and Natalie Duvall, founders of March Muses, which produces luxury gifts representing people of colour and received backing from Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden. They are the only UK brand to have created a full range of Black Christmas decorations, shining the light on the need for diverse and inclusive figurines and baubles at Christmas time.  Alison and Natalie are single mums who also have full time day jobs and share their perspectives on balancing entrepreneurialism, motherhood and creativity ..read more

Our first guest of 2021 is Sangeeta Pillai. She is the founder of Masala Podcast and Soul Sutras, a feminist platform tackling taboos in South Asian culture. South Asia is made up of diverse countries, ethnicities, cultures, faiths, and traditions. One thing that we share universally across the continent and beyond, is patriarchy. It forms a part and parcel of our social fabric. As a Keralan born Indian having spent a large part of her life in India, and now in the UK, Sangeeta talks about what intersectionality means to her and the patriarchal values which hold all women back universally. &nb ..read more

Today’s guest is Jane Chelliah, a South Asian midlife influencer and blogger who talks candidly about motherhood, feminism and transforming the female midlife crisis into a happy phase in life. Jane didn’t always see herself as a mother but found that she was absolutely besotted in love with her daughter when she was born.  Jane describes herself as a Feminist mother. I ask her what that means to her and she shares an evocative metaphor: “It’s about putting that oxygen mask on yourself first before putting it on your child, and that way, you can not only be the best version of yourself bu ..read more

*Apologies in advance for the slightly off sound quality; we hope you still find the content meaningful.* What is Artificial Intelligence? What role can it play in ensuring information is factually correct (especially during a pandemic) and that data is gender disaggregated? Today I’m joined by our first honorary male guest, Freddie Kalaitzis, Senior Research Fellow in Machine Learning at the University of Oxford. We know that AI is modelled on human behaviour, and given that humans are innately biased, can we trust AI to be unbiased and neutral?  Freddie also talks about his work with Am ..read more