Originally aired October 19, 2021.
Amina Ahmed fills in for Bihi today and welcomes Aisha Chughtai on air. The two discuss Aisha’s campaign for City Council representing Ward 10, her values and goals, and her experience as a union organizer, as well as their shared experiences as children of immigrants and the unique community, challenges, and insights that come with it.
Originally aired August 10, 2021.
Plot twist! Amina (“Dee”) and Annie, who are usually behind the scenes producing and engineering the show for Bihi, are star players today. Bihi interviews them about their new podcast, Culture Shock MN, and why they decided to make a multicultural interview podcast.
Amina (aka “Dee”) and Annie are friends and Minnesotans who are always looking for that story—the one about you living through something that shaped how you see the world and yourself in it. This story has to be told in-person, so the laughs and the pain are coexisting right there.
Amina moved from East Africa (Somali and Kenya) to the United States when she was middle-school age. Annie is a longtime Minnesotan has never even been outside North America. That said, having mental health challenges while living on the East Coast definitely threw her for a loop.
Together, Amina and Annie get away from the bite-size, reductive stories we see on social media and clickbait news and have full conversations with friends new and old. We discuss the culture shocks we’ve felt—the ones that made us who we are, and the ones we can’t WAIT to forget! On the way, we dig into interracial friendships, what it is to feel “like home,” family (chosen and born). We also get into mental health across cultures, the social issues that affect us all, and the pop culture pieces we’re excited about.
On this first episode, Annie and Amina interview each other and introduce the show before we welcome guests in future episodes.
