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Hello My Amazing Chai Drinkers! How are you? Welcome to episode 2 of season 3 of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.If you follow me on Instagram, my favorite social media platform, you may have figured out that I am a big lover of all things food.I am not only an excellent eater and dessert connoisseur, if I do say so myself, but I am also a closet cook. Not something I do too often, but you’d be surprised at culinary talents.But when I come across the page or work of our guest today, I realize I am really nothing more than a mere mortal.

Hello Spilling Chai Listeners! How are you? It’s been three very long months. I’ve missed you but am so excited to be back on the mic with season 3 of the show coming to you LIVE from Washington, DC.You would think with the U.S. battling so many different kinds of pandemics-- from race to poverty to COVID-- that America’s love affair with guns would be cooling off. However, the numbers paint a very different reality.Not only was 2020 one of the deadliest years for gun violence in America, but gun sales, right alongside domestic violence numbers, surged even as COVID ravaged America and the world.There’s been a boom in gun sales as Americans armed themselves over worries about the rise of crime and protests over police brutality and the deadly Capitol riots of Jan. 6.But one woman remains as determined as ever to change America's Gun violence culture. I am talking about Shannon Watts, the founder of the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

Hello My Dear Listeners! How are you? Welcome to Episode 12, the season finale of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.For so long, journalism in America has been defined and run by white men-- and some white women. But where do the rest of us fit in and what happens to our stories?No one is poised to better answer this question than our guest today who is the founding mother of the 19th, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom reporting at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy. I am talking about the one and only, Errin Haines!

Hello Spilling Chai listeners! How is everyone? Welcome to Episode 11 of Season 2 of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain!When we first launched this podcast and we were setting up our social media accounts, on Instagram I kept finding myself reposting these incredibly colorful, vibrant, and super-feminist images with this very cool South Asian vibe.The account was called “Colors of Honey” and the artist’s work led me down this rabbit hole of Desi artists on Instagram whose talent is not only beautiful but makes powerful social & political statements.

Hello Everyone! How are you? Welcome to episode 10 of season 2 of the show coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.One of the things I love about having this podcast is getting to invite people whose work I’ve admired and fan-girled from a far to be a guest on Spilling Chai. So, of course, I would take this opportunity to reach out to a woman who proudly calls herself an anarchist and a feminist.I am talking about feminist writer and author, Mona Eltahaway.

Hello fabulous listeners of Spilling Chai! Welcome to Episode 9 of season two of the show. You guys have such great taste in podcasts and I am so happy to have you with us!It is no secret that publishing in America, much like Hollywood, is not the most diverse business. In fact, a 2016 Diversity Baseline Survey examining race and gender in book publishing found that 79% of the industry is made up of white women.The nationwide protests against racial injustice over the summer set off conversations in nearly every industry about the treatment of Black workers-- and book publishing was no exception.

Hello Fabulous Spilling Chai listeners! How are you? Welcome to Season 2, Episode 8 of the show coming to you from Washington, DC. I am your host, Anushay Hossain.While many of you who follow my work may know that I am a massive feminist, how many of you know that I am actually a raging feminist? Feminism for me is more than just believing in women’s equal rights as human beings. I also rely on it in a very spiritual way as well-- to hold me up, to give me hope, inspiration, and motivation.A lot of this comes from the women in my life, especially the feminist writers and authors who over the course of my career have become mentors and friends, and whose work--and words-- feed my soul. One such person for me is Soraya Chemaly and she is our guest today!

Hello My Spilling Chai, listeners! How are you? Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 2 of the show.Is there a group of women more stereotyped or more misunderstood than Muslim women? From being collectively labelled as subjugated, oppressed, uneducated, helpless victims, despite the fact that Islam spreads from America to the Middle East to South Asia to Indonesia, when it comes to Muslim women we are immediately reduced to a collective offensive, and incorrect, stereotype.Well, contrary to well-established misconceptions, Muslim women are not a monolith, and no one’s life and career embodies that truth more than our guest today. I am talking about Saudi businesswoman and activist, Muna AbuSulayman!

Hello my Spilling Chai listeners! How is everyone doing? Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 2 of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC. The word “immigration” brings up so many different kinds of emotions and images for people. In Trump’s America, for me the word brings to mind families being tear-gassed and separated at the border; children in cages sleeping under aluminum blankets. Under Donald Trump, even legal immigration and seeking asylum is treated as criminal.Well, our guest today knows and understands this issue perhaps better than anyone because of all the time she spent researching and studying Stephen Miller-- Senior Policy Advisor for the Trump admin, and the man in charge of formulating immigration policy.

Hello Spilling Chai, Listeners! Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 2 coming to you from Washington, DC.Being a writer during a pandemic has made me think a lot about not just our stories but who gets to tell them. Being a brown person in America, an immigrant, a person of color, means that narratives are often framed for you by well, your brownness.But the work of our guest today has been instrumental in reminding people not only how important representation is but how important it is that we ourselves get to choose, and own, how our stories are told.I am talking about author and New York Times writer, Sopan Deb!

Hi Spilling Chai Listeners! How are you? Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 2 of “Spilling Chai” coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.I’ve been a feminist for such a large part of my life and one of the things that makes me the happiest is when men not only support women’s rights but openly call themselves feminists. One of the most frustrating things I have dealt with in my career is having to repeat that being a feminist does not mean hating men. [Insert massive eye roll gif please].Thank goodness it is a new era because now not only do men openly identify with feminism but people are finally getting the message that when women win, everyone wins.

Hello Everyone! How are you? Welcome to Episode 3 of Season 2 of Spilling Chai! I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.To say that things are hard right now might just be the greatest understatement of all time. While living in a pandemic intensifies the struggle for all of us in different ways, the gendered impacts of COVID-19 means pivoting around the pandemic has been uniquely difficult for women.Now we are having to juggle even more from home, with everyone at home, working from home at the same time, it’s unequally falling on women and moms to figure out how to keep our families healthy, safe, fed, alive, and educated.

Hello My Dear Listeners! Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 2 of Spilling Chai, coming to you from Washington, DC. I’m your host, Anushay Hossain.Today we have a very special episode for you because not only is our guest a fellow Bangladeshi woman, but when I think of fearless journalism, this is who I think of. I am talking about award-winning journalist and producer, Tania Rashid! Rashid’s work primarily focuses on human rights and women’s issues, and you have seen her amazing reporting on Al-Jazeera English, CNN International, PBS Newshour, NBC News, the National Geographic Channel, MIC, Channel 4UK, and Vice News.

Hello, My Dear Spilling Chai Listeners! How is everybody? We are so excited to be back with Season 2 after such a fantastic first season of the show. Thank you for giving “Spilling Chai” so much love and support! When we came up with the concept for “Spilling Chai,” it was meant to amplify #BrownGirlMagic, a hashtag that has really become a mantra in my life, and our guest today really embodies all the qualities of being a true badass woman of color. I am talking about Asha Rangappa-- lawyer, Senior Lecturer at Yale University, and a legal and national security analyst for CNN. Rangappa was also a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI specializing in counterintelligence investigations; assessing threats to national security, conducting classified investigations on suspected foreign agents, and performing undercover work.

Hello Spilling Chai, Listeners! Welcome to episode 14, the season finale of the show. We hear so much about how the GOP under Trump is unrecognizable and basically just the party of Trump. But behind the spectacular rise of the political action committee the Lincoln Project, and their viral videos that mock everything from the president’s leadership to his intelligence to his patriotism, is a group of some of the most prominent Republican figures who call themselves “Never Trumpers.” While the Lincoln Project aims its content at Republican voters whose support of Trump is wavering and Trump himself, the group is attracting millions of dollars from both Republican and Democrat donors. Lifelong Democrats are even organizing fundraisers for the Lincoln Project. So does this super-PAC have the recipe to defeat Trump?

Hello, my Dear Listeners! Welcome to episode 13 of Spilling Chai. When it comes to the issue of immigration, we hear so much about the “Dreamers.” But who are they and what do they dream of? Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is the program that protects Dreamers, young, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children and grew up here, from being deported. Early this summer, in two separate cases, the US Supreme Court and a federal appeals court, both ruled that the Trump administration was unjustified in ending an Obama-era program that temporarily halts deportations for hundreds of thousands of “dreamers.” Not surprisingly, the current brazenly anti-immigration administration has refused to comply.

Hello, My Dear listeners! How are you? Welcome to episode 12 of the show, coming to you from Washington, DC on this blistering, corona-raging summer day. Be honest-- when you think of a country music-loving, Republican man, chances are you picture a white male. But our guest today not only breaks outdated stereotypes, but also broke with the Republican party and became a Democrat.  I am talking about Project Lincoln Senior Advisor, Kurt Bardella. Bardella is a former Congressional spokesman who is an MSNBC contributor to Morning Joe. He’s also a contributing writer for USA Today, and the creator and publisher of the country music industry publication, Morning Hangover. And he joins us today on Spilling Chai!

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s brutal murder at the hands of the police, a racial reckoning spread across the country which is frankly still going strong. But another reckoning is taking place in America’s newsrooms, calling out the media industry for how it contributes to a racist culture that renders Black journalists voiceless. Frankly, most people of color in the media can relate. Well, one journalist is taking a leading role in confronting outdated newsroom norms. I am talking about Wesley Lowery. Lowery is a journalist at CBS News, formerly with The Washington Post. He was a lead on the Post's "Fatal Force" project that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016 as well as the author of They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement.  After becoming a CNN political contributor in 2017, this year Lowery was announced as a correspondent for 60 in 6, a short-form spinoff of 60 Minutes for Quibi, and he joins us today on “Spilling Chai.”

Hello Everyone! Welcome to episode 10 of Spilling Chai. I would normally check-in and ask how everybody is doing, but as Corona rages across America and the world, (but really, America since we do have the highest number of cases), aren’t we all kind of living in the same uncertain-freefall-pandemic reality? Well, today’s show gives you a much-needed break from all things Corona as we discuss two of my favorite subjects--politics and journalism. And for those of you who say I’m hard on white men and always insulting them, I present to you my guest today-- iconic American political journalist, David Corn, who also happens to be one of my favorite white men. If you're not following him on Twitter, you are missing out.

Hello, My Dear Listeners! Welcome to episode 9 of Spilling Chai. If I close my eyes and try really, really hard I can (kind of) think back to 2016-- a time pre-Corona and pre- Trump when election campaigns were at fever pitch, the race for the White House was nearing the finish line, and everybody thought Hillary Clinton had the presidency in the bag. Ah, those were the days!Even though people, especially people of color, were sounding the alarm about the real dangers a Trump presidency would bring, too many of us just didn’t take him seriously and thought there was no way he’d actually win the election.Well, today’s guest, Sarah Kendzior, was never a part of that crowd. The American journalist, author, anthropologist, researcher, and scholar is widely credited with being the first person to call Donald Trump's election victory in 2016, and she predicted his rise years ago.