Bitches Brew: Recent Episodes
Alina
A monthly podcast about everything under under the sun by Aditi & Alina, two writers/filmmakers.
Written & produced by Alina Gufran & Aditi Sivaraman Design by Ishanou Mohindra Music by Mallar Sen
In this episode, Noy shares with us of what it means to be a woman in an Indian jail. From forming unlikely friendships that protect you from any kind of violence to waiting for months for the chargesheet to release. Tune in.
Produced by Alina Gufran & Aditi Sivaraman
Art by Ishanou
Music by Mallar Sen
We're back with our 4th episode on Self-Censorship where we discuss the Overton Window, Newspeak, the social desirability bias, mental health and how it intersects with self-censorship in a world where opinions are more polarized than ever and cancel culture is on steroids.
We chat with Ameira Sikand of the The Unmute Films about body image in a world where our bodies are subjected to hyper-scrutiny - no matter its size or shape. We discuss problematic sizing practises with brands, the conversation around body image, beauty magazines, tokenism & more.
Mirror episode from out First Season, Episode 07, we talk to our listeners to understand their relationship with their fathers.
Much like drinking cow urine to treat Covid (just don't do that) or stinging yourself with live bee stings to treat everything from burns, wounds and Lyme disease, alternative health practises are all the range. Just this last month, @alinaguf has began taking amla d-mannose and neem supplements, apart from vitamin D doses. We routinely indulge in tarot readings, sound bath healing, forest bathing, tattoo-healing therapy - there's a multi-billion dollar wellness industry across the world. The very traditions that eastern medicine was rooted in like Ayurveda and Yoga, has now been turned to very profitable ventures of the western world. For our Season 1, Episode 1, we speak with people who're healing practitioners themselves, some believers and customers and cynics to try and decode what wellness means today and why exactly is a larger, younger population eschewing western/allopathic medicine. Tune in while you stay in & get vaccinated!
We're back after a short end of the year hiatus (for the year 2020 has been) with our new episode, Dreams. We've taken a very different creative direction with this. With Mallar Sen on the dreamy soundscapes and Ishanou Mohindra on the art, we've invited listeners to send in their dreams under confinement, as a result of the pandemic and weaved a narrative auralscape out of it.
Some surreal, some too realistic to be comfortable - tune in to go on this atmospheric journey.
Written & produced by Aditi Sivaraman & Alina Gufran
We're back with our eighth episode, Mothers, where we speak to our listeners about their relationship with their mothers - the good, the bad and the ugly.
Massive thanks to:
Medha Sinha
Zayn Lohit
Sonal Sher
Rea MM
Niharika Jain
Diya Gupta
Ragini Menon
Malvika Tiwari
Written & produced by Aditi Sivaraman & Alina Gufran
Design by Ishanou Mohindra
Music by Mallar Sen
In this episode, Aditi and Alina speak with gynaecologist-obstetrician and water birth pioneer in India to discuss embarrassing health problems we all struggle to have a public discussion about.
For the first part of our sixth episode, we speak with Apurupa Vatsalya, a sex educator and mental health first aider about sexual wellness, bodyful pleasure, self-pleasure, slut-shaming, erotica and more.
Written & produced by Aditi Sivaraman & Alina Gufran
Design by Ishanou Mohindra
Music by Mallar Sen
For our 5th episode, which feels like a milestone of some sort, we speak to journalists, editors and writers to try and understand the onslaught of fake news, the state of broadcast journalism today and the ethics of journalism at large and the complicity of social media and Big Tech in further polarising public discourse. This particular episode made us contend with a lot of harsh realities about this country's fourth estate and perhaps, our own blind spots. A slight digression from from our usual fare but it's hard not to speak about this given what some of our media stands for today.
A big thanks to
Somya Lakhani
Diya Gupta
Luke Nikkanen
Abhay Puri
Vivek Gopal
Written & produced by Aditi Sivaraman & Alina Gufran
Design by Ishanou Mohindra
Music by Mallar Sen
For the fourth episode of Bitches Brew, Aditi & Alina speak with a host of people about their thoughts on marriage. Some personal, some peripheral - we navigate the tricky terrain of both good bits & bad bits.
We'd like to thank the following people for making this happen:
Siddharth Jain
Surabhi Venkatesh
Arnav Sanyal
Jeevika Tyagi
Niharika Jain
Shipra Singh
Shibani Bedi
Esha Chaterjee
Esha Seth
Sonal Sher
Written & produced by Alina Gufran & Aditi Sivaraman
Design by Ishanou Mohindra
Music by Mallar Sen
In the third episode of Bitches Brew, Alina and Aditi speak with Madhav Menon (therapist), Deepa Avula (dance movement therapist) and Roshini Kumar (influencer, photographer, body positivity activist)about the trend of mental health online, especially during the pandemic and how and if at all it's been co-opted by influencers.
Design by Ishanou Mohindra
Music by Mallar Sen
e're back with the second episode of Bitches Brew where we discuss whether free work is work at all.
In Part 2, Aditi and Alina chat with Meera Ganapathi (writer, editor and founder of the online magazine - The Soup, creative consultant), Arun Kale (founding editor of Helter Skelter, an independent arts and
culture magazine based in India, and Astray, a website for creative people in India.) and Anjali Sivaraman (model/actor) about what work means to them.
We're back with the second episode of Bitches Brew where we discuss whether free work is work at all.
In Part 1, Aditi and Alina chat with Tanmay Dhanania, actor/producer/artist and Anurag Banerjee, photographer, both based out of Mumbai about the highs and lows of the artistic process.
In the first episode of Bitches Brew, Aditi and I delve into what dating's been like during the pandemic in India in wake of one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. We speak to a couple of people Aditi met online and discuss hooking up with a doctor during a pandemic, much to his distaste.