Benji is a musician, writer, and co-host of the White Homework podcast. As an adoptee, exvangelical, and spiritual abuse survivor, he advocates for justice and humanity through the lens of decolonization.

A week before we recorded this conversation, Benji's work was plagiarized by an account with over 1 million followers. As a fellow writer whose work has been plagiarized, I wanted to highlight this often quiet extraction of the labor and artistry of us folks of the global majority. I share one of my personal experiences in the introduction of the episode.

May we all continue speaking up for all injustices, big and small. It all matters as we work to build a more liberated existence for all.

Support Benji's work

Benji's Instagram

Leah's Instagram

Nancy Jooyoun Kim is the New York Times bestselling author of What We Kept to Ourselves and The Last Story of Mina Lee, a Reese’s Book Club pick. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives in the Bay Area and teaches at the University of San Francisco.

Our conversation calls in joy, art, ancestors, and a new world...the medicine we all need in this moment.

Nancy website

Leah website

Fariha is a Muslim queer Bangladeshi who is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Their work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, degrowth and queer identities.

Fariha’s published works include books of poetry, a journal called Being In Your Body, and a novel named Like A Bird which was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR, Globe and Mail, Harper’s Bazaar, among many other accolades. Their first work of non-fiction Who Is Wellness For? was released in 2022 and they’re currently working on multiple books.

PLEASE NOTE: This episode comes with **content warnings** as we talk about sexual abuse, parental abuse, suicide, and related topics. Both Fariha and I share experiences of our childhoods which have compelled and inspired us to write. It is a deeply personal and emotional conversation which ultimately lands on hope, healing, and love.

Fariha website

Leah website

Welcome to the Writers Series on Voices on the Side!

As part of celebrating my upcoming book - Mom, Unfiltered: Maternal Mental Health and Finding Freedom through Motherhood - I'll be focusing the podcast on conversations with fellow writers. From authors to essayists to journalists and professors, we are going to be talking about all things writing.

In this first episode of the series, Joon Ae takes the position of host and interviewer and asks me about the book and how I became a writer.

If you have a favorite writer you'd love to hear from or a specific question you're wondering about, leave it for me in the reviews (Apple) or comments (Spotify).

Joon Ae website

Leah website

Anjali Rao is an author, yoga educator and practitioner. She brings an intersectional and decolonial feminist lens to the study of philosophy and yoga history integrating storytelling, art and poetry.

Emphasizing an embodied approach, her work interrogates the link between religions, politics and yoga. She is on the faculty of multiple yoga teacher training programs—her areas of specialization includes deconstructing the dynamics between caste, gender, nationalism and colonialism. She is the host of The Love of Yoga podcast bridging scholarship, activism and yoga.

Anjali's book Yoga As Embodied Resistance: A Feminist Lens in Caste, Gender And Sacred Resilience in Yoga History was recently selected as one of the top 10 most insightful yoga books by Yoga Journal.

Anjali website

Leah website

Kavita Das is a an author and mother who has worked for social change for close to fifteen years, addressing issues ranging from community and housing inequities, to public health disparities, to racial injustice. Her first book Poignant Song: The Life and Music of Lakshmi Shankar tells the life story of Grammy-nominated Hindustani singer Lakshmi Shankar.

Kavita has been a regular contributor to NBC News Asian America, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Rumpus. In addition, her work has been published in Salon, WIRED, Poets & Writers, Catapult, LitHub, Tin House, Longreads, Kenyon Review, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Guernica, McSweeney’s, Fast Company, Quartz, Colorlines, Romper, and elsewhere.

Kavita created the popular “Writing About Social Issues” nonfiction seminar, which inspired Craft and Conscience, and has taught at the New School and continues to teach across multiple venues and serve as a guest lecturer.

Kavita Das is currently a Masters in Fine Arts candidate in creative nonfiction and screenwriting at Antioch University where she is the Eloise Klein Healy Scholar. Previously, she received a B.A. in Urban Studies from Bryn Mawr College.

She lives in her hometown of New York City and tries to keep up with the city that never sleeps and her six-year-old daughter Daya.

It was a delight to welcome Helio - aka @jupiterbaal - back to the show. Helio is a history and politics content creator and essayist. We can talk about anything and everything, and we pretty much do. It's a long one, so grab a cuppa or take us on a walk with you and join in on the conversation.

⁠Helio IG⁠

⁠Leah IG⁠

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Joanna Ho is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of many children’s books including my favorite, Eyes that Kiss in the Corners. She is a writer, educator, and mother with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism, and equity work. She co-hosts the Kidlit Happy Hour podcast.

In our conversation, we talk about the need to build against censorship and the hope we both feel in seeing the people - and especially the children - persist against silencing. We also hear about Joanna’s experience from ideation to publishing to becoming a bestseller. She is an inspiring example of someone who refuses to compromises her values and despite facing challenges, continues to bring her creative work to life.

Joanna is on the leadership team of Authors Against Book Bans, which she encourages all creators - authors, writers, illustrators - to join here.

Joanna website

Joanna IG

Leah IG