Pak-Cord: a Pakistani Podcast

Katie Finn is a philanthropist from the United States who has traveled with volunteer organizations through different countries. During her travels, she visited Bosnia and met refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries, who are living in life-threatening conditions. These individuals are engaged in a perilous endeavor known as "the game," where they risk their lives attempting to cross into Europe in search of better opportunities. This episode was recorded in early 2021, but was only published in 2024. THe situation in Bosnia has not changed much, Katie says, and the crisis remains unresolved. Want to help? Here are some resources from Katie: Katie worked for No Name Kitchen in Bosnia. "They help People on the Move all over Europe with medication, first aid, critical supplies, food and advocacy, all for free. They are awesome, grassroots and do everything through donations. " https://www.nonamekitchen.org "The next link is to my nonprofit in Tennessee that helps refugees and immigrants who are brought here or who settle here and need any kind of help. We deliver food, home goods, translation, diapers, transport, English classes and spiritual support to Muslim immigrants by connecting them to mosques and providing transport. " https://tennesseeresettlementaid.org Katie is also happy to help you directly! Feel free to email her Katie.finn@tennesseeresettlementaid.org

Follow the Balochistan times on Instagram. Further reading on the issues: Written by Sheraz: https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2022/02/reducing-environmental-social-costs-chinese-investments-pakistan/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/22/resolving-the-baloch-issue-is-in-pakistans-political-and-economic-interesthttps://thediplomat.com/2016/08/balochistan-and-the-killing-of-akbar-bugti-10-years-later/Sheraz also shared some books at the end of our episode listed here: The Baloch National Struggle in Pakistan: Emergence and Dimensions by Jan Muhammad DashtiBalochistan: At a Crossroads by William Merck

Watch this Episode on YouTube! https://youtu.be/AckWixGbzdQ Kennedy Horton was born in America, but from the ages of 7 to 15, he moved with his family to Sindh, Pakistan. Afterwards he moved across Thailand, China, and he now resides in Ireland. In this episode Kennedy shares a bit about his life in Pakistan, going to school and growing up there, and more. Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at hello@pakcord.com Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord Each episode of Pak-Cord takes several hours of editing, during which we carefully cut and tune-up the conversations for the best possible listening experience, and promotional content, images and videos. There are also various operating expenses: hosting fees, advertising fees, subscriptions, paid artwork, etc. We want you to be part of our journey to unite more young Pakistanis across the world - we really appreciate your help! Become a monthly patron of Pak-Cord, at patreon.com/pakcord

A fantastic conversation with Dr. Shabana Mir, from Chicago, U.S., who is here to unpack some of her knowledge and thoughts about various issues affecting Muslims and Muslim women today. Shabana Mir is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the American Islamic College, based in Chicago, IL. She teaches Islamic Studies, Gender Studies, Research Methods, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Muslim American and Muslim World Literature. She is the author of the award-winning book Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity, published by the University of North Carolina Press (2014). The book has received the Outstanding Book Award from the National Association for Ethnic Studies and the Critics’ Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association (2014). Follow Shabana on Twitter: @ShabanaMir1 Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at hello@pakcord.com Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord If you enjoy listening to Pak-Cord, please consider supporting us on Patreon! patreon.com/pakcord

A really thought provoking discussion about the most common challenges that affect our Pakistani youth today - lack of opportunities, fear of failure, family and parental pressure, anxiety, and more. Our guest, Mehmooda Shah from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, breaks this down with her own story, and shares her experience on dealing with obstacles, failure, and disadvantages in life. Email Mehmooda: mehmoodashah11@gmail.com Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at hello@pakcord.com Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord If you enjoy listening to Pak-Cord, please consider supporting us on Patreon! patreon.com/pakcord Each episode of Pak-Cord takes between 4 to 7 hours of editing, during which we carefully cut and tune-up the conversations for the best possible listening experience, and promotional content, images and videos. There are also various operating expenses: hosting fees, advertising fees, subscriptions, paid artwork, etc. We want you to be part of our journey to unite more young Pakistanis across the world - we really appreciate your help! Become a monthly patron of Pak-Cord, at patreon.com/pakcord

Ayesha Wahidi was born and raised in the midwest, U.S. Earlier in 2020, she moved to Korea for a teaching-abroad program. She shares her experiences in and out of Korea and her perspectives on common life struggles. Feel free to reach out to Ayesha ! Wahidi.ayesha@gmail.com Any questions / feedback for us? Email us at hello@pakcord.com Remember to follow us on Instagram! - @pakcord If you enjoy listening to Pak-Cord, please consider supporting us on Patreon! Each episode of Pak-Cord takes between 4 to 7 hours of editing, during which we carefully cut and tune-up the conversations for the best possible listening experience, and promotional content, images and videos. There are also various operating expenses: hosting fees, advertising fees, subscriptions, paid artwork, etc. We want you to be part of our journey to unite more young Pakistanis across the world - we really appreciate your help! Become a monthly patron of Pak-Cord, at patreon.com/pakcord

Watch the video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/5NSALKYBjz0 21 year old Noor-ul-Ain from Dubai went viral on TikTok after sharing her personal traumatic story of an ordinary wedding / shaadi visit to Pakistan gone wrong. Essentially , Noor and her family flew to Pakistan from dubai to attend her cousin's wedding, and unexpectedly, she found that she was getting engaged against her consent, at the age of 12, by her parents. Her TikTok video has over 1.5 million views as of this recording, and now, Noor is here to share her full story in detail with us, as well as her thoughts and learnings from this story of her life. Forced marriage of children (particularly girls) under the age of 18 is still a major issue in many countries, including Pakistan. Lawmakers and activists have made efforts over the last several years to alleviate this issue, with some (but not nearly complete) success. Noor's TikTok Username : @noor.ul.aiin Noor's Instagram: @noor.ul.aiin Noor's TikTok Part 1 : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJAx7SuR/ Part 2: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJAxxTSA/ Questions? Feedback? Email us at hello@pakcord.com! New - support Pak-Cord at Patreon. We are not generating revenue with this podcast currently, and would love to get your support to keep this show running and bring you more and more awesome episodes with interesting guests! Visit patreon.com/pakcord

Bilal Junejo was born in Pakistan, but grew up living in the southern region of Africa, namely the countries of Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Bilal gives us a glimpse of his life over there, including the people, the food, and the places.

Meet Fareeha, living in Japan. She hasn't spent a lot of time in Pakistan, grew up in Saudi Arabia, and then moved to Japan for her studies to a city called Sendai, and has been living there for 9 years, currently working at a lab while pursuing her PhD. Fareeha is an avid listener of the podcast herself, and is here to tell us all about her life in Japan. A very fun discussion with jokes and insights! Feel free to follow Fareeha on Instagram - @farri1002.

Note: this podcast episode exists in video form on our YouTube channel. We strongly recommend watching the video version, as it has more visual context around this topic. Find the video version on our YouTube channel or use the following link: https://youtu.be/D4cL62ulDDc Recently TikTok and other social platforms have exploded with viral memes of Pakistani kids taking pledges on stage at a school event. Popular lines include: "To sacrifice my own life for Pakistan!" "I pledge to be a pilot, and help everyone!" These videos have been traced to an event that took place at PISJES (Pakistan International School Jeddah English Section), in 2011. The school has many events that are often meant to promote Pakistani pride. For better or worse, after going viral this particular event has gained international meme spotlight, as well as criticism due to some of the messages. In this podcast episode we talk to Areej Khalid, who was one of the students at this school and also was present at this event. Areej answers many of the questions on our minds and offers her perspective on the controversy. Areej's TikTok Username: areeju.k IG: jeejskhalid

Meet Anam Khan, a Pakistani American currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. She has moved back and forth between Pakistan and U.S. and spent a significant time living in both countries. Anam is here to talk about her startup effort, called The NewsRun, which is a free daily newsletter providing short and simple summaries of all the top news in Pakistan. In the episode Anam discusses how she came up with idea, her daily work process, managing work-life balance, and working in Pakistan vs. U.S. You can sign up for free emails from The NewsRun via their website, thenewsrun.com ! You can also follow them on Instagram, where they also share tidbits of news: @thenewsrun

Warning: this episode contains a few sexual jokes / mature conversations at certain points. Please listen with caution. Satir Ahmed is a 22 year old history buff (fan) currently living in Newfoundland, Canada, for his studies. He has also lived the majority of his life in Qatar. Newfoundland is an island off the east coast of the North American mainland. The capital of Newfoundland is St. John's. The island got global coverage earlier in 2020 when a historic blizzard pounded the city with 30+ inches of snow (dubbed "snowmageddon"). In the episode Satir talks about life in Newfoundland, and shares his perspectives on history and modern issues, challenging some mainstream opinions. To see the pictures from Satir's phone of the 2020 winter storm in Newfoundland, visit pakcord.com/historybuff

Here's our first discussion captured in video form and uploaded to our YouTube channel (search for Pak-Cord). Mostly discussed in Urdu, in this episode we (guest: Hamza Farooq from Miami, FL) explain the pros and cons of an audio podcast and a video podcast, and why Pak-Cord is primarily an audio-only podcast. We discuss current events including the flood situation in Karachi and some relief causes that you can donate to; we also share tips on pursuing education and careers. YouTube link for the video form of this episode: https://youtu.be/Je1BMdSNNxc

We bring back our old "Do Takkay" squad from episodes 48 and 49 - Myrah Shafiq, Manahill Shafiq, and Hamza Farooq, to discuss the great Elephant surrounding Pakistan's entertainment industry: Ertugrul. Ertugrul is a popular Turkish show based on the rise of the Ottoman Empire. After PM Imran Khan promoted the show to Pakistanis, the government-owned PTV channel started airing episodes of the show in Urdu dubbing. The show became instantly popular, and extremely well-received by the majority of watchers. Needless to say, the show's quick rise to fame in Pakistan also attracted critcisim. In this discussion, our guests share their feedback on the show and address much of the controversy around it. The Episode widely switches between Urdu and English; but if that's no issue and you are up to date on Ertugrul and Pakistani pop culture, this will be a very entertaining listen.

Several old and new guests come together to share monologues ("love letters") to Pakistan, to celebrate August 14, 2020. Celebrate with us by tuning in !

In this episode we want to shine a light on teen mental health. 3 teenager suicides took place around June of this year, one after another. All of these suicides were linked by authorities to a popular video game called Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, or PUBG. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) responded by putting a temproary bank on the game on July 1st, calling it "addictive, and waste of time". The ban was lifted a few weeks later, but it had already started a flurry of discussions and feedback on the internet. This episode's guest: Aisha Sanober. Aisha is a child psychiatrist in Pakistan, and one of very few people in the country to have completed a fellowship in adolescent psychiatry. She is a much-needed expert in a starving field that doesn't get enough focus in Pakistan - the mental health of our youth. The focus of this discussion is to answer the question : are video games the actual problem here, or is it something else ? And what can we, both parents and children, do to mitigate this issue? Follow / Contact Aisha - Email: asccamhpk@outlook.com - Instagram: aishasc87 - Twitter: @AishaSChachar - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-aisha-sanober-chachar/ Gulf News Article: https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-banned-in-pakistan-following-spate-of-suicides-1.72382025

A love story from Canada, featuring married couple Sana and Will Saleh. Sana is of Pakistani background, born and raised British Columbia, Canada. Her husbad Will is a born and raised Canadian and a convert/revert to Islam. In this 50-minute episode, Will and Sana share the story of how they met each other, how Will decided to convert from Atheism to Islam, getting her traditional Pakistani parents on-board with the idea of the mariage, and how they got to where they are; happily married with two kids ! They also answer many frequently asked questions along the way. Sana and Will have a very strong following on TikTok (username: salehfamily), and also make YouTube videos (channel: Sana Saleh Beauty). You can also follow them on Instagram (@sanasalehbeauty). They have decided to use their story to inspire and help other people and create original content from their angle. Feel free to DM them!

20 year old Myda Baig from Lahore is a Psychology student, and she's here tell us to stop wasting time ! Too many people are spending their days binging one movie after another, or lazing around, or not having any kind of short-term plan for success. Myda believes in having a properly structured day, with time allocated for productive work, family, reflection, sleep, and fun. "I practice what I preach," she says - she sleeps at 9 pm and wakes up around 4 AM, and that early-morning schedule is key for her routine of productive days. Later in the episode, Myda also discusses common misconceptions that people around her have about psychology and mental illness. You can follow Myda on Instagram at @mydology_ or contact her by email at Mydabaig123@gmail.com

Meet Hina Husain, 32 year old living in Canada, here to tell us her life story, especially a major part of her life that involves marriage. Hina had a very nontraditional marriage, because she did not get married to a Pakistani man, or a Muslim man, as most Pakistani girls do. She married an Indian Hindu man, named Sai, who she met nearly 10 years ago. In the rest of this episode Hina tells us the story of how she met Sai, how they began dating and the relationship progressed, how her family reacted to her decisions, what it's like to be in an inter-faith marriage and many other side topics along the way. Disclaimer: This episode contains strong adult themes compared to the majority of our episodes, as well as strong language / swearing which has not been censored in order to preserve the story. Some of the content may be offensive from an Islamic or religious standpoint. Our intent by airing this episode is not to support or promote any actions taken by the characters in the story, though we do recognize their rights to make those choices safely, but to continue our goal of sharing as many Pakistani voices and stories from around the world as possible. Real voices, real stories. Follow Hina - Blog: https://hinah.contently.com/ - Twitter: @HinaTweetsNow - Instagram: @hina_explores On her blog you can also find the VICE article which she reffered to during the episode.

We speak to someone not actually from Pakistan. She's not of Pakistani descent either, yet she has built a connection to the country. Our guest is Dana Wang. Dana is a travel enthusiast, photographer, and food addict from Australia. She also studied Law and recently graduated and got her first full-time job in Sydney. She's visited Pakistan twice and made several friends there. A lot of her posts and stories on Instagram are related to her experiences in Pakistan. We get to know Dana a little more as a person. We ask her questions including: how she got into traveling, what lead her to Pakistan, what was her favorite city in Pakistan, her favorite food, does she prefer tea or coffee, how much urdu has she picked up so far, how does she budget for her travels, etc. Dana's Instagram: @bydanawang YouTube channel: Search "Dana Wang" or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9gOI8JdFZGfLaxLMZfvGg