

Immigrantly
Saadia Khan | Immigrantly Media
Join Saadia Khan on Immigrantly, the award-winning podcast that dives deep into immigrant narratives and the messy beauty of identity, race, and belonging in America today. Each week, Saadia, a human rights activist, social entrepreneur, and proud cat mom, hosts unfiltered conversations with diverse voices: artists, academics, cultural disruptors, and everyday people with extraordinary cultural stories.At Immigrantly, we go beyond surface-level diversity to explore how culture, immigration, and inclusion shape real lives. We believe identity is powerful, but when unchecked, it can become an ego trap. That’s why every episode unpacks the nuance, humor, and contradictions of what it means to belong.Inclusive storytelling. Immigrant perspectives. Real talk—never flattened.To join this fun, thoughtful, and inclusive community, subscribe!
Producer & Host: Saadia Khan
Editorial Review: Shei Yu
Content Writers: Michaela Strauther, Bobak Afshari, Rainier Harris, Adiba Hussain & Saadia Khan
Sound Design & Content Editor: Haziq Ahmad Farid, Paroma Chakravarty, Steve Martin, Lou Raskin
Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson
Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Follow us on IG @immigrantlypodsTwitter @Immigrantly_podTikTok @ImmigrantlyYouTube: @immigrantlypodsSubscribe to our PatreonImmigrantly podcast is an Immigrantly Media production.For advertising inquiries, please email at info@immigrantlypod.com
Producer & Host: Saadia Khan
Editorial Review: Shei Yu
Content Writers: Michaela Strauther, Bobak Afshari, Rainier Harris, Adiba Hussain & Saadia Khan
Sound Design & Content Editor: Haziq Ahmad Farid, Paroma Chakravarty, Steve Martin, Lou Raskin
Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson
Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Follow us on IG @immigrantlypodsTwitter @Immigrantly_podTikTok @ImmigrantlyYouTube: @immigrantlypodsSubscribe to our PatreonImmigrantly podcast is an Immigrantly Media production.For advertising inquiries, please email at info@immigrantlypod.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 18, 2025 • 52min
Who Needs a Time Machine? I Changed Countries
What does it mean to belong in America without proving your worth? Why are immigrants still expected to be extraordinary just to be seen as enough? And what happens when we stop performing successfully and simply allow ourselves to be human?
In this deeply resonant conversation, host Saadia Khan is joined by Bilal Lakhani, Pakistani-American journalist, writer, and host of the podcast pehchaan, to explore identity, home, immigrant guilt, and the often-unspoken emotional cost of leaving the place you love.
Bilal shares how moving from Karachi to the United States led to clinical depression, why raising his daughter changed his understanding of belonging, and how many immigrants internalize the belief that they must achieve in order to deserve space in America. The episode unpacks
The pressure on immigrants to be extraordinary rather than ordinary humans
Why do many naturalized citizens hesitate to call themselves "immigrants?”
Why pauses, joy, and rest are a form of quiet protest
The evolving future of Pakistani-American identity and representation
Whether you identify as an immigrant, first-gen, third-culture kid, or simply someone trying to understand your place in the world, this conversation offers language, community, and comfort.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Want to go deeper into your own pehchaan? Download Belong on Your Own Terms, the app helping immigrants, first-gen, and third-culture kids reclaim belonging on their own terms. link below
studio.com/saadia/belong-app
Don't forget to subscribe to Immigrantly Uninterrupted for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 11, 2025 • 52min
Reproductive Care, Eugenics and the Myth of Too Many People
What if the story you’ve been told about “overpopulation” is a lie?
Historian Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo, author of Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands, joins Saadia Khan to unravel a century of reproductive politics that have shaped how we talk about abortion, contraception, and “desirability.” The episode exposes how eugenics quietly evolved into modern population-control policies and why blaming poor folks for “too many children” masks the real crisis: resource hoarding and racial capitalism.
From Mexican border clinics to U.S. legislative battles, this conversation challenges everything we think we know about reproductive rights. It’s uncomfortable, revelatory, and necessary.
Listen to understand why true reproductive justice means more than the right not to have children; it means the right to raise them in safety, dignity, and care.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to Immigrantly Uninterrupted for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 4, 2025 • 47min
The Quiet After Snowfall
Award-winning novelist Shobha Rao joins Saadia Khan to talk about the stories that define and defy us. In this wide-ranging conversation, Shobha reflects on immigrating to the U.S. at age seven, learning English through Little House on the Prairie, and how the quiet of her first snowfall changed her forever.
Her latest book, Indian Country, connects the legacies of British colonialism and American expansion while weaving a tender meditation on marriage, identity, and the longing for home. Shobha shares how failure shaped her writing, why language can both limit and liberate, and what “mutating through love” truly means.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to Immigrantly Uninterrupted for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 28, 2025 • 16min
What We Are Called: The Language That Keeps Immigrants Out
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below
https://hyphenly.beehiiv.com
In this powerful solo episode of Immigrantly, host Saadia Khan shares why she is angry and why she is paying close attention to the words we use around immigration. Prompted by a recent ProPublica investigation by journalist Hannah Allam, Saadia explores how government agencies like ICE use terms like “removable,” “alien,” and “target” to strip immigrants of their humanity.
From media narratives to political rhetoric, Saadia breaks down how language builds systems and why the shift in migrant demographics, especially the rise of families and children crossing the border, has triggered a more fear-based response in both policy and media.
This episode is a reflection, a call-out, and a call-in because changing the language is the first step toward changing the system.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to Immigrantly Uninterrupted for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 21, 2025 • 49min
Grief, Memory and the Art of Enough
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below
https://hyphenly.beehiiv.com
What does “enough” really mean? In this profoundly personal conversation, Saadia Khan sits down with Jaime Roque, musician, storyteller, and host of Recurrent. This Getty podcast uncovers the hidden stories behind monuments, places, and people.
Born to Mexican immigrant parents, Jaime grew up between California’s Central Valley and Los Angeles, surrounded by music, community, and the sounds of his family’s jewelry shop. From farmwork to fatherhood, he reflects on how loss, love, and art shape his identity and why he now embraces what he calls “the art of enough.”
Saadia and Jaime explore how storytelling helps us reclaim what’s sacred, challenge expectations, and honor the people who shaped us.
This episode is an invitation to slow down, find meaning in the quiet moments, and celebrate the fullness of our identities.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to Immigrantly Uninterrupted for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 14, 2025 • 1h 4min
Why We Don’t Act and How to Change That
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below
https://hyphenly.beehiiv.com
Most of us mean well. So why don’t we act when it matters?
In this episode, Saadia Khan sits down with philosophers Alex Madva (Cal Poly Pomona) and Michael Brownstein (John Jay College, CUNY), co-authors of Somebody Should Do Something from MIT Press. The episode unpacks the gap between good intentions and meaningful action, exploring why moral inertia is so common, how cynicism can masquerade as realism, and what it really takes to move from awareness to impact.
If you’ve ever wondered why doing good feels so hard, this conversation offers a mix of clarity, challenge, and hope.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to our Apple Podcasts channel for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 7, 2025 • 52min
How Priyanka Ganjoo Built Kulfi Beauty’s Inclusive Vision
Priyanka Ganjoo, founder of Kulfi Beauty and former Estée Lauder and Ipsy executive, shares her inspiring journey as a South Asian entrepreneur. She discusses how her wedding planning ignited her passion for inclusivity in beauty, leading to the creation of products like the cherished 'Nazar No More' kajal. Priyanka dives into the importance of cultural storytelling, challenges of representation, and how joy and self-expression are central to her brand, while reshaping the beauty industry to embrace diversity.

Sep 30, 2025 • 51min
How Sarita Ekya Built NYC’s Most Iconic Mac & Cheese Spot
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below
https://hyphenly.beehiiv.com
What happens when an engineer trades equations for macaroni? Immigrantly host Saadia Khan sits down with Sarita Ekya, co-founder of S’MAC, the iconic East Village spot that turned mac & cheese into a cultural phenomenon. In this episode, Sarita shares her experiences growing up as an immigrant kid in Canada, taking a leap of faith in New York City, and how comfort food became her canvas for creativity and community. From winning Food Network’s Chopped to running a community fridge during the pandemic, she proves that food is never just about eating—it’s about identity, belonging, and a whole lot of fun.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to our Apple Podcasts channel for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 23, 2025 • 58min
Tiff Soga on Fashion, Culture and Controversy
Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter, Hyphenly; it's our no-fluff love letter with hot takes, heartfelt stories, and all the feels of living in between cultures. Come for the nuance, stay for the vibes! Link below
https://hyphenly.beehiiv.com
In this thought-provoking episode of Immigrantly, host Saadia Khan sits down with Tiff Soga, Managing Editor at Who What Wear, for a raw conversation on fashion’s future. The interview peels back the glossy surface of the industry to reveal the politics, power dynamics, and cultural narratives woven into what we wear.
Soga, who entered the fashion world through a nontraditional path, talks candidly about imposter syndrome, performative representation, and the tension between editorial integrity and commerce. She explains how fashion is more than trends, it’s identity, agency, and sometimes exclusion.
The discussion covers everything from fast fashion’s hidden costs and the ethics of cultural appropriation to the challenges of making diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) more than a corporate checkbox. With stories from her academic background in literature and her current work leading editorial at a major fashion outlet, Soga redefines fashion as both deeply personal and politically urgent.
Perfect for fashion lovers, cultural critics, and anyone curious about where style meets society, this episode challenges the way we think about clothing, confidence, and community.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Jonas Langer I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to our Apple Podcasts channel for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 16, 2025 • 13min
Intuition, Fear and Finding Identity Beyond Work
In this solo episode of Immigrantly, Saadia Khan reflects on the power of intuition, the challenge of separating her identity from the company she built, and why messy, unpolished stories matter.
Drawing from her Eastern cultural roots, Saadia explores how intuition has long guided her personal life, yet often feels harder to trust in her role as an entrepreneur. She unpacks how fear can masquerade as intuition, what it means to stop equating her self-worth with Immigrantly’s ups and downs, and the tools she’s using to reconnect with her intuitive voice.
If you’ve ever felt torn between who you are and what you do, this candid reflection is for you. Tune in for lessons on listening inward, untangling identity from work, and embracing the imperfect middle of the journey.
Join us as we create new intellectual engagement for our audience. You can find more information at http://immigrantlypod.com.
Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us!
You can connect with Saadia on IG @itssaadiak
Email: saadia@immigrantlypod.com
Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound
Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production.
For advertising inquiries, contact us at info@immigrantlypod.com
Don't forget to subscribe to our Apple Podcasts channel for insightful podcasts. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices


