Seek to Speak: Recent Episodes

Ain Aissa

Welcome to Seek to Speak’s podcast where we aim to empower people to express themselves through speech!

I’m Ain Aissa and in each episode, we will seek to speak about ways to better verbalise ourselves and our stories. We will have topical interview sessions with special guests and share select speaking tips, useful for the casual and competitive speaker.

For more public speaking resources, check out SeektoSpeak.com.

In this final installment of this series, we continue to honor International Women's Day by featuring six compelling stories from the Demi Gadis Creative Writing Competition. This episode presents essays narrated in Bahasa Indonesia, with one in English, offering profound insights into gender equality, women's empowerment, and the unique challenges faced by women in Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Tumbuh Besar dalam Lingkungan KDRT" by Anggi Vebryan Eka Putri S: A personal account of growing up in an abusive household and the impact it had on self-esteem, trust, and future relationships.
"Menjadi Perempuan Bali dalam Budaya Patriarkis" by Ni Made Tasyarani: A reflection on the triple roles expected of Balinese women in family, economy, and tradition, and the challenges posed by a patriarchal society.
"Motherhood Is A Balancing Act" by Kanina Ramaniya Kalyana: Highlights the resilience of a mother managing both household duties and professional responsibilities, and the gender biases that impact career progression.
"Perempuan dan Isi Kepalanya" by Ayu Prawitasari: An exploration of gender equality and the need for supportive family structures, challenging societal norms and advocating for balanced gender roles.
"Pursuing Dreams Amidst Patriarchal Ideologies" by Fani Agustina Pangaribuan: The journey of a young woman from Papua who overcame societal and economic challenges to pursue her education and career dreams.
"Stigma dan Diskriminasi Janda" by Fauziah Kurniasari: An insightful look into the societal stigma faced by widows in Indonesia, and the struggles they encounter in the workforce and daily life.

Acknowledgments:A heartfelt thank you to our dedicated volunteers for this episode: Elsa, Pitriasyana, Margaret, Sinta Damayanti, and Febiola, who lent their voices to bring these powerful stories to life.

In Part 2 of this series, we honor another six essays from the Demi Gadis Creative Writing Competition, spotlighting voices from Malaysia and Brunei. The entries offer diverse insights into gender equality, women's empowerment, and the varied societal challenges faced by women in these regions. A big thank you to the following authors for sharing their brave stories with us:

Sallyhani Hazman delves into personal narratives exploring struggles of self-identity and journeys toward independence in societies that often silence women.
Sash discusses the impact of cultural constraints on women's lives and the pursuit of empowerment despite these obstacles.
Etha examines how stereotypes affect the personal and professional lives of women and the importance of overcoming these stereotypes to achieve equality.
Ari Shares stories of personal triumphs against societal and familial adversities, highlighting resilience and the pursuit of personal goals.
Ruby Jusuh Explores how cultural heritage influences women's roles and responsibilities, and the potential for change and empowerment within traditional frameworks.
Izzah Offers an insightful look into societal expectations imposed on women, detailing how breaking free from these norms is both a personal and communal struggle.

A heartfelt thank you also to our dedicated volunteers for this episode: Farisah, Kah Yi, Gurleen, Thirtana, Alison, and Sufia, who lent their voices to bring these powerful essays to life.

Empowering Voices: Essays on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment from women in MalaysiaIn this special episode of Seek to Speak, we celebrate International Women's Day by sharing six essays from the Demi Gadis Creative Writing Competition. The essays, written by emarkable women, explore themes of gender equality, women's empowerment, and societal challenges, offering a deep and thought-provoking look into the diverse experiences and insights of women from different backgrounds.

Healing from Trauma by Chero: Chero recounts a survivor's journey, confronting societal constructs that perpetuate victim-blaming and finding empowerment in reclaiming her voice.
Women's Struggles in Palestine by Nur Syariha: Nur Syariha Binti Masri reflects on the challenges faced by Palestinian women, highlighting their resilience and the need for support and empowerment.
Traditional Gender Roles by Kheerthana: Kheerthana explores the realities of gender roles in different cultures, including the expectations placed on women in families and the societal norms that perpetuate inequality.
Overcoming Societal Pressure by Mireverie: Mireverie's story demonstrates a woman's journey in breaking free from societal expectations, pursuing her own path, and finding self-empowerment through entrepreneurship, travel, and independence.
Cultural Expectations and Duties by Puteri Nur: Puteri Nur's essay explores how cultural norms affect gender roles and how these pressures can be confronted and navigated.
A Tale of Independence by Ashwini Ravan: Ashwini Ravan highlights the journey of a woman striving to break free from societal molds, embracing her independence, and achieving financial stability through entrepreneurship.

Thank you to our volunteers who help voice the wonderful stories of authors, Ayuni, Casadra, Sunitha, Athirah, Li-Wei and Sharon.

For more information about the Demi Gadis competition, check out our socials at: https://www.instagram.com/demi.gadis/

Episode is produced by Renegade Radio.

In part 4 of this Special, you will listen to the final 11 stories that we have on gender equity! Yesssss, we are finally at the finishing line. If this is your first time listening to this special, please don’t forget to check out our episode 1, 2, and 3 to continue being inspired and in awe of the women and girls who shared their stories.

In this episode, we will hear experiences and opinions on equity and how it is different from equality, great observations on gender roles and unfair biases, as well as what we can do to do better.

💜PART 4 AUTHOR & STORIES💜

Sofia A. - Nina
Mia - For the next generation
Sybil Yasin - Millennial Parents
Devy - L'ÉGALITÉ DES SEXES
Nufa Zulia - Jangan perkecilkan semangat aku
Anonymous- Strong Women
Amel - Bravery
Aina - Malaysia’s double standard
Flower - Women’s Potential
Yana Pekabee - Building a Fairer and More Justice Society
Tee Ying Yin - An environment that is equal, fair, and just for all

💜 PART 4 VOICE OVER VOLUNTEERS 💜

Ainaa, Aifa, Lingeswary, Celine Tan, Yashwini, Sharon, Vivien Lim Zhi Ling, Hani, Najihah, Eena, Alison

In this International Women’s Day special, we are celebrating the stories and experiences shared by all of you during our KisahKita short story competition with the theme, Embrace Equity. We received 43 entries from women and girls hailing from 10 different states with the youngest being 11 years old and the eldest being 54. We cherish the diversity in these stories they have been such a joy to read, compile and produced.

In part 3 of this Special, you will listen to 10 stories tackling the issue of gender equity from the perspective of job opportunities and promotion, educational institutions, and family dynamics. Do check out our show notes for the full list of authors and voice-over volunteers for this episode. Do also check Part 1 and Part 2 of this special if you want to keep being inspired by the words and stories of women and girls in Malaysia.

Trigger warning: Stories shared here do touch on themes concerning gender discrimination and bias, schools, at the workplace and on a societal level.

PART 3 AUTHOR & STORIES

cheekylizzy123 - This is for all the girls who dream
Dum-E - The audacity of this woman
Kita tetap SAMA bersahabat - AMNA NAFISA BINTI SHAIFUL
a3ruh - let's #EmbraceEquity! #AndEquality!
Ahnusha - I am a fearless woman
Rheya N - biased education systems
Yie - Meet our hero; Ayu
Janice Lai Yi Xuan - Biases & stereotypes
Anonymous - Growing up as a girl
Tifa Tifalis - Nisha

In this International Women’s Day special, we are celebrating the stories and experiences shared by all of you during our KisahKita short story competition with the theme, Embrace Equity. We received 43 entries from women and girls hailing from 10 different states with the youngest being 11 years old and the eldest being 54. We cherish the diversity in these stories they have been such a joy to read, compile and produced.

In part 2 of this Special, you will listen to 12 stories ranging from school place discrimination, gender roles, and family dynamics. To find out more about these stories, check out our show notes! Also! Don’t forget to check out Part 1 of this special which we released last Sunday - lots of great stories there too!

PART 2 AUTHOR & STORIES

Aeva Poon - Gender inequality is like folding an angel's wings
Poorni Villai Samy - Nevertheless, she persisted
Mimi - Punishment should be equal
Foxy - Cerita Sya
Misya - Embracing equity & breaking the structural barriers
Nurul Irdina - Our differences are what distinguish us
VV - Girls in STEM
Aireen - Maia & Toby
Vivien Lim Zhi Ling - Witnessing Inequality
Rin - Memperjuangkan hak-hak yang sama
Sofiya - Don't doubt yourself
May A. - Juggling many responsibilities

In this International Women’s Day special, we are celebrating the stories and experiences shared by all of you during our KisahKita short story competition with the theme, Embrace Equity. We received 43 entries from women and girls hailing from 10 different states with the youngest being 11 years old and the eldest being 54. We cherish the diversity in these stories they have been such a joy to read, compile and produced.

In part 1 of this Special, you will listen to 10 stories, 2 of which were written in Malay, and 7 of which were submitted anonymously, touching on issues ranging from workplace discrimination, gender bias in schools, and generational trauma.

PART 1 AUTHOR & STORIES

Ashwinee Rvan Ravindran - Just like you
Missdhani - Gender Norms
Nur Farah Diana Binti Affnininirwandi - Sexual Harassment Survivor
Nia - Aireen Zafhira
KitKat - Workplace Discrimination
Valkie - Family Dynamics
Sorrowful Student - Girls in Leadership
Iman - Generation Gap
Kris - Adakah ini salah wanita juga?
Jananie Chandrarao - Down with the wooden fence

Just a quick trigger warning that the stories shared here do touch on themes concerning gender discrimination, victim blaming, bullying, rape, child marriage, and sexual harassment. Should you find this type of content triggering, please stop now and come back when or if you're ready.

In the meantime, don’t forget to celebrate women everywhere today and continue to #EmbraceEquity. Let’s keep fighting the good fight and champion women together.

The final episode of the season welcomes back our community members discussing Malaysia's biggest speaking fails! Why do we keep joking about rape? What happens when a member of parliament challenged another to a debate? What do we do about religious sensitivities?

Here, we discuss 3 recent speaking fails and deconstruct what happened, why did it happen and what do we do from here. We also provide our views on other speaking fails that did not quite make the list but were worth mentioning.

Speaking fails discussed:

Segment 1: Actor and hosts jokes about a movie rape scene on national television. Who is to blame? Who should be accountable?

Segment 2: Member of parliament in the sitting government challenges an opposition member to a debate on the cabotage policy. Is this a good thing? Do people care?

Segment 3: Locally produced, award-winning whiskey brand name enrages many quarters of society and politicians are quick to respond. What precedent does this set? Are they justified in their reaction?

Bonus lightning round discussion:

1) Lahabau Melaka, let's vote! Misguided use of slang.

2) Communications minister tweets on future video quality. But 1080p already exists?

3) Harassment of a journalist by PAS leaders. Why attack my family and the language I use?

This episode is all about Seek to Speak's journey through 2021 in the form of reflections, lessons learned, and hopes for the future. Explore our story through the lens of our Founder, Ain Aissa, and community member, Maslin Roslan, as we bring you through the challenges and joys that we face along the way. What we will be discussing in the episode would be:

Challenges faced throughout the year
How Seek to Speak has changed us
Regrets or Lessons learned
Hopes and dreams for the future

Welcome to our 2nd Speech Session where we highlight amazing speeches based on a theme. This episode’s theme is Purpose & Passion and along with our community members, Sasha and Abigail, we have curated a list of our top Purpose and Passion speeches. So what we will do is introduce the speech, play our chosen snippet, talk about the context of the speech, and the speaker’s style. There are some you may know and others may enjoy discovering as we go through the episode.

Speeches Discussed:

Chadwick Boseman - Howard University Commencement Speech 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIHZypMyQ2s
Lady Gaga's speech at ELLE's 25th annual Women in Hollywood event (2018): https://youtu.be/14KX7xOJsqE
Beyoncé Knowles, Dear Class of 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLo5XMjIJD8
Denzel Washington - University of Pennsylvania (2011) Commencement speech: https://youtu.be/JEFbfwg9dek
Taylor Swift accepting the Woman of the Decade Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVpkFb9-fts
Elizabeth Gilbert's TedTalk on Success, failure and the drive to keep creating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_waBFUg_oT8

Welcome to Part 2 of our cerita hantu special in conjunction with Halloween, which happened on the 31st of October. You are about to hear another 6 spooky encounters with the unknown. From sleep paralysis to room disturbances, to unexplainable sightings. These are things that were heard, seen, or felt but still remain a mystery to them.

Thank you for listening. We hope this spooky special kept you up at night.

Stories by:

Morning paralysis - Alison
House Hauntings - Cass
Is that you Nizam? - Zul
Otw home - Arisha
What was that sound? - Anonymous
Jungle Possession - Ikram

Music from Dirges of the Undead:

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Haunted_Corpse/Dirges_for_the_Undead

Welcome to Part 1 of our cerita hantu special in conjunction with Halloween, which is happening on the 31st of October. You are about to hear from 6 real people telling you about their spooky encounters with the unknown. From a near-death experience to house hauntings to an unearthly possession. All 6 of these individuals swear by the things they had seen or felt, and I hope you feel a bit of their fear and horror as they tell you their stories.

Be sure to tune in to Part 2 next week to hear more Malaysian spooky tales. Until then, enjoy.

Stories by:

I almost died - Arianna
Sekolah Asrama - Zul
Library Possession - Alison
I can't Move - Aiman
What was that? - Aifa
New house, new visitors - Ikram

Music from Dirges of the Undead:

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Haunted_Corpse/Dirges_for_the_Undead

Welcome to the very last installment of our 4 part mental health special in conjunction with World Mental Health Day which happened on 10 of October. This week, we discuss our favourite or least favourite Mental Health Hacks - simple home remedies that we can all try at home! Joining us today are our lovely community members, Jaspreet, Sasha, and Abigail.

The theme for this year's World Mental Health Day is 'Mental health in an unequal world'. While the pandemic has affected everyone's mental health and close to one billion people have a mental disorder - the gap between the demand for mental health services and supply remains substantial. Relatively few people around the world have access to quality mental health services.

While we are no experts in mental health care, we thought to share with you some easy and inexpensive ways to feel better. Of course, there is no real substitute for medication or psychotherapy for those who need them, but some of these practices may work for those interested in some quick mood boosters.

Segments in the Episode:

Segment 1 - Things we've tried but didn't work/like (Closer: Can you relate?)
Segment 2 - Things we love and have worked for us (Closer: Underrated or Overrated?)
Segment 3 - Things we want to explore and try in the future (Closer: Do you believe in this?)

Things we discussed during the episode include:

Exercise and eating well
Meditation and mindfulness
Scheduling and habit making
Cleaning and lighting candles
Journaling and self-reflection
Self-help and self-development
Yoga, talking to someone, taking it slow
Feng Shui, Astrology, Law of Attraction

Abigail's Highly Recommended Scented Candles:

Bern Candles - https://www.instagram.com/berncandles/

SupportLokal

In conjunction with World Mental Health Day which happened over the weekend, Seek to Speak is presenting a 4-part podcast special dedicated to normalizing conversations about mental health. In part 3 today, you will be hearing from 4 community members talking about their experience with common mental health myths and misconceptions, as well as stereotypes.

This is a trigger warning as the episode will touch on issues surrounding mental health stereotypes, self-harm, and stigma. In this episode, our community members will discuss their difficulties with diagnosis and getting the right help for their medical condition due to ongoing misconceptions that people have about mental health, and how these stereotypes harm more than it helps. They also discuss how to better respond to loved ones sharing their struggles as well as how to live with a mental illness. As usual, this episode should not be taken as medical advice and you should still consult your own mental health care provider for help.

Over the weekend, we also held a Women with Words meeting on the theme, Mindfulness, in order to teach our girls to be more resilient and ready to face the daily stresses and anxieties that life throws at them. Our guest speaker, a mindfulness teacher and practitioner, Noelle Lim, founder of the Kindermind Centre, not only shared valuable insights on how to be more mindful but also guided us through a short meditation practice during the session. We thought it would be fitting to end this episode by reproducing this mindfulness practice to help center ourselves and be more present in the moment. We hope you learn from the views shared by our brave community members as well as heal from the short 8 min mindfulness practice with Noelle at the end of this episode.

In part 2 today, you will be hearing from Tanushri & Siro of MISI Solidariti who campaigned for the decriminalization of attempted suicide in Malaysia as well as Dato' Mah Weng Kwai, the commissioner of SUHAKAM, which is the National Human rights institution of Malaysia.

This is a trigger warning as the episode will touch on issues surrounding suicidal ideation, domestic abuse, self-harm, depression, and LGBTQ discrimination. In this episode, our guests will talk about the history behind criminalizing attempted suicide, why this law continues to harm people and does not act as a deference to the act, the intersectionality of mental health with the pandemic, gender roles and discrimination, and what we can do to help.

To our listeners today, thank you for taking the time to learn, spread awareness and maybe even help someone else along the way.

DISCLAIMER: This episode should not be taken as medical advice and you should still consult your own mental health care provider for help.

CONTACT: MISI: Solidariti - msolidariti@gmail.com, SUHAKAM - humanrights@suhakam.org.my

MISI SOLIDARITI

A youth-led collective aspiring to empower society through the value of direct action in Malaysian activism
Website: https://msolidariti.org/
Decriminalize Suicide Now Campaign: https://decriminalisesuicidenow.msolidariti.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msolidariti/

SUHAKAM

The national human rights institution of Malaysia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suhakam_malaysia/
Website: https://www.suhakam.org.my/
Suicide National Registry: https://suhakam.org.my/2021/06/press-statement-no-23-2021_suhakam-calls-for-a-revival-of-the-national-suicide-registry-malaysia-nsrm/
Decriminalise Suicide: https://www.suhakam.org.my/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Press-Statement-No.-2-2020-Decriminalise-suicide-attempt-by-amending-the-Penal-Code.pdf

CARELINES:

Buddy Bear (Children): 1800-18-2327
COVID-19 Psychosocial Line by Mercy: 03-29359935
Let's Talk (Media Sihat): 03-29359935, 014-32223392, 011-63996482, 011-63994236
Talian Kasih (Women): 15999 (WA - 019-2615999)
WAO Tina (Women): 018-9888058

TW/CW: Suicidal ideation, Domestic abuse, and Self-harm.

In conjunction with World Mental Health Day happening on 10 of October as well as Suicide Prevention Day that passed on the 10th of September, we will be presenting a 4-part podcast special dedicated to normalizing conversations about mental health. In part 1 today, you will be hearing from Dina Murad, a reporter of a local newspaper who recently covered the issue of mental health and increased suicide rates during the pandemic. You will also be hearing from Dr Stephen Jambunathan, the Medical Director and senior clinical psychiatrist with the Mind Faculty who specializes in trauma, OCD, ADHD and depression.

In this episode, Dina and Dr Stephen will discuss the reasons behind the recent spike of suicide cases in Malaysia, the role that gender plays in the numbers we are seeing, how to spot signs of suicidal risk in loved ones as well as what we can do to help those in need.

Next week, we will be speaking to SUHAKAM, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia as well as the youth-led collective, MISI Solidariti, on the issue of decriminalizing suicide.

DISCLAIMER: This episode should not be taken as medical advice and you should still consult your own mental health care provider for help.

CONTACT: Dina Murad: dina@thestar.com.my, Dr Stephen: enquiries@themindfaculty.com

ABOUT:

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/focus/2021/07/04/mental-health-dont-give-up-we-are-here-for-you
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/focus/2021/07/11/are-malaysian-women-facing-an-increased-risk-of-suicide
https://www.themindfaculty.com/stephen-jambunathan

CARELINES:

Buddy Bear (Children): 1800-18-2327
COVID-19 Psychosocial Line by Mercy: 03-29359935
Let's Talk (Media Sihat): 03-29359935, 014-32223392, 011-63996482, 011-63994236
Talian Kasih (Women): 15999 (WA - 019-2615999)
WAO Tina (Women): 018-9888058

Seek to Speak Showcase! 💜

Thank you to our amazing guest speaker @sheenabaharudin for sharing your experience with us! We were very inspired by you! Here is a list of the talented performers who shared their lockdown experience with us today:

1) @priyanka_a_a_

2) @theloudergirl

3) @s0larmoons

4) @adiel_ikram

5) @abbyandherowls

6) @ainaamd

7) @arathijane

8) @iamsnekhagbr

9) @skategalz

10) @lostnaadodi

11) @mysafespace.mss

12) @inderjitkaurkuldipsingh

13) @_mishalini_21

Welcome to Season 3 of the Seek to Speak Podcast where we celebrate the power of words and what better way to celebrate our words by discussing our freedom to speak in a mock trial setting with our wonderful guests!

On the side of Plaintiff, we have the amazing debater extraordinaire, Mai Mokhsein, the first Malaysian to be crowned Asia's best speaker and the only person to be in 4 consecutive Asian finals. She is currently the head coach for Malaysia's debate team and works for a private education firm in Hong Kong. Her client, and also Plaintiff for this case is Civil Liberties!

Representing the Defendant, Law & Order, we have the esteemed Ahmad Zulfikri, a famous litigator and advocate fighting for public order and security. Zul was the captain of his varsity moot team where he represented his institution in several international moot competitions, moot author and coach for several national and international level moot competitions. Zul is currently a civil litigator specializing in private and commercial disputes and has appeared in all levels of courts.

We hope that this Mock Trial will educate and enlighten you on the nuanced issues surrounding freedom of speech in Malaysia as well as highlight the arguments on both divided in order for you to best make your own decisions.

Subjects and Personalities that we will be discussing in the episode include:

Censorship
Governmental abuse
Political dissent
Misinformation and Fake News
COVID-19 vaccination
Spread of Religious and Racial hatred
Cyberbullying
Nudity and Porn
Blasphemous texts
Arrest of Fahmi Reza
Banning of Zakir Naik
Anti-Fake News Act & Sedition Act
The Emergency Ordinance

Listen and tell us what you think! Who do you think won?

In conjunction with International Literacy Day, our community members come together to talk about the importance of literacy, the power of reading, and the joy of expressing yourself through the written form. During the episode, we will also be describing, analysing and discussing our favourite works of literature. From short stories by Roald Dahl and Raymond Carver to Naomi Alderman's book, 'The Power' to Faizal Tehrani's opinion piece, 'Jangan Diam Boleh Tak' - there is definitely a lot to learn and discover along the way! We hope this episode inspires you to pick up reading or finish that piece you've been working on since forever!

Big props to community members, Maslin (@maslovecats ), Alana (@lanerd ), and Cass (@therealraffinit ), as well as a friend to the community, Dimi @dimitron.x ), for their input on this episode!

Literary works discussed are:

Roald Dahl - Lamb to a Slaughter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_to_the_Slaughter
Naomi Alderman - The Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_(Alderman_novel)
Jangan Diam Boleh Tak - Faizal Tehrani https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2021/07/30/jangan-diam-boleh-tak/
A small good thing - Raymond Carver - https://commonplaces.davidson.edu/vol-3/in-hopelessville-a-reconsideration-of-raymond-carvers-a-small-good-thing/

In this Seek to Speak's Merdeka Special entitled, 'Malaysia, did you know?', we will take you through 3 quiz show segments centered around Malaysian history, past achievements, and our amazing rakyat! In every segment, our guests will have to answer Malaysian trivia while our listeners learn and laugh along the way! From true or false questions on our independence to guessing quotes from famous Malaysians to reimagining memorable moments in history! This is definitely the episode to listen to in order to celebrate our independence and cherish all things Malaysian!

In true Merdeka fashion, you will learn about our past successes historical figures that you didn't even know about, and hear us (dreadfully!) re-enact Malaysian history. This is definitely an episode where you will laugh, learn, and even get inspired along the way!

Big props to community members, Maslin & Alison, as well as a friend to the community, Ikram, for their input on this episode! Tell us a fun fact about Malaysia below! We would love to hear from you!

Lisa Kamal's Wisconsin Speech Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cuqEmomnlU

In this first Speech Sessions episode, we highlight 6 amazing Call To Action Speeches. Speeches that inspire people to move, to fight, to make a change. From Greta Thurnberg's How Dare You speech to Winston Churchhill's Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat speech. There will be fan favourites and new speeches to discover along the way. Joining Aissa in this episode is Roeshan Gomez from the Rumah Roy podcast! Listen to this episode to be inspired by the speakers' words and message. Hear how we discuss each speaker's background, how they used their words for action, and how different each speaker's style was. Don't forget to let us know what your favourite speech was? Did we miss out on a good speech? What are your thoughts on these speeches?

Let us know at helloseektospeak@gmail.com or DM us at https://www.instagram.com/seektospeak/

Rumah Roy Podcast

About: https://www.instagram.com/therumahroypodcast/

Listen: https://open.spotify.com/show/2LU8f5V13tDO9EzTZ6edts?si=7SFX5sFVTW6iPCd0ADo1Ww

In Part 2 of Seek to Speak's Pride Podcast Special, we will be exploring and most importantly, debunking popular myths and misconceptions around LGBTQ persons. We will be exploring the hopes that local queer communities have for the future and their message to young LGBTQ youths. We will end this episode on allyship, how you can help and what you can meaningfully do to move the needle. We'll hear from local queer advocates, individuals, and just generally brave souls who have decided to share their stories today.

We hope to build a connection through these stories, and in the process, build awareness and create empathy between our local communities. While we do not claim that the views shared here are representative of the wider LGBTQ experience in Malaysia, the stories here are true and real to the people who shared them.

Here is a trigger and content warning on what we will discuss today, which does touch on issues surrounding LGBTQ discrimination, common misinformation on queer folk, and a discussion on mental health, and in particular, conversion therapy. Should you find this type of content triggering, please don't listen to this episode and come back when or if you're ready.

We invite you, our listeners, to keep an open mind and encourage you to talk about these issues in a meaningful and productive way. Remember, It takes a lot of courage for the people on this episode to come out and tell their stories, so we hope you feel as deeply as we do when we heard them. Seek to Speak values compassion, tolerance, and respect, and we hope that since you're listening to this episode, that you share the same values as well. Please remember the quote by Lord Shaftesbury which reads. “Prejudice is a mist, which in our journey through the world often dims the brightest and obscures the best of all the good and glorious objects that meet us on our way.”

Thank you to all the people and personalities who shared their views for this episode:

1) Ken & Justice from PLUHO

2) Mitch of SEED Foundation

3) Li of Tabung Pelangi

4) Kumela Kumslut

5) G

6) Miemo

7) Kimchi

8) Raj

9) Anonymous story submissions

10) S2S Community Members: Abigail, Samantha, Priya, Alana, Mindy, and Jaspreet.

About PLUHO & BlueBird

PLUHO, or People Like Us Hang Out!, is an LGBTQ-inclusive organisation focused on community building, service delivery and empowerment in Malaysia. Since its founding in 2016, PLUHO has grown from a loose social collective of queer activists to a registered organisation running a number of projects on HIV & sexual health, LGBTQ mental health (‘the BlueBird project’), a community-run shelter (‘Rumah Angkat’), and various community engagement events.

The BlueBird project is a mental health referral service based in Malaysia that is queer-affirming, inclusive, and open to all LGBTQ individuals who seek sustainable mental health treatment. As of June 2021, BlueBird has served more than 80 LGBTQ individuals who submitted enquiries seeking peer support and recommendations for therapy.

Buy Stories for a Cause 2 by Tabung Pelangi

Purchase link here

SEED Foundation

Donate to the Trans Solidarity Fund here

Kumela Kumslut on Spotify

Listen to Sunshine on Spotify

Watch Raj's ABC News Feature

Darwin's Karaoke Culture

Recommended places or resources for queer-affirming support (Compiled by PLUHO)

About BlueBird / LGBTQ-affirming therapy
BlueBird sign-up sheet: bit.ly/bluebirdproject
Questions, ideas, feedback: bluebird@pluho.org
Register as BlueBird/ PLUHO volunteer: bit.ly/pluhovolunteer (*If BlueBird-specific, please mention "BlueBird" in your submission)
For mental health professionals interested to be included in BlueBird project's directory: https://www.queerlapis.com/lgbtq-affirming-mental-health-survey/
Context, information, and resources for LGBTQ-affirming therapy in Malaysia: https://www.queerlapis.com/where-to-find-lgbtq-affirming-therapy-in-malaysia/

Resources & training

Free and accessible resources about common mental health issues, including worksheets and guides on how to take better care of ourselves and others:

https://www.orygen.org.au/Training/Resources
https://cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Overview

Sign up for Psychological First Aid (PFA) training, or learn about it online. PFA isn't therapy, it's a set of techniques anyone can practice for helping people experiencing a crisis. It focuses on helping them feel safe, connected to others, calm and hopeful, and be able to access physical, emotional, and social support.

An overview: https://www.who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/ppt.pdf

For emergencies:

Hotlines:

Befrienders: 03-7627 2929
Women's Aid Organisation: 03-3000 8858 (call) / 018 988 8058 (SMS, WhatsApp)

If you are dealing with thoughts or feelings of harming yourself or others, we would advise that you go to the emergency (A&E) department of a general hospital, ask to see a psychiatrist and tell them your situation. The psychiatrist will assess your situations and needs, and assist you accordingly. Hospital emergency staff are generally equipped to deal with this.

Effective allyship:

Check out Queer Lapis's resources on SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity & expression, sexual characteristics):

https://www.queerlapis.com/gender-bear/
https://www.queerlapis.com/glossary/

Opening Audio Snippet Sources:

Alok V Menon on Fashion's Genderless Future | #BoFVOICES 2019
Rachel Maddow - David Bahati "Kill The Gays" Bill Sponsor - Pt. One
A queer Queen's speech from LGBTQIA+ icons Sam Smith, Munroe Bergdorf, Rina Sawayama and more
Celebrities and fans react to DaBaby's recent homophobic comments | GMA
This Is What LGBT Life Is Like Around the World | Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols | TED Talks
Munroe Bergdorf Clashes With Piers in Heated Debate on Gender Fluidity | Good Morning Britain
Anne Hathaway at 2008 HRC Los Angeles Dinner

In Part 1 of Seek to Speak's Pride Podcast Special, we will be exploring the lived experiences of the LGBTQ community in Malaysia and in particular, on issues such as self-expression, coming out, and love! We hope to build a connection through these stories and create empathy between our local communities. While we do not claim that the views shared here are representative of the wider LGBTQ experience in Malaysia, the stories here and true and real to the people who shared them.

It takes a lot of courage for the people on this episode to come out and tell their stories, so we hope you feel as deeply as we do when we heard them. Seek to Speak values compassion, tolerance, and respect, and we hope that since you're listening to this episode, that you share the same values as well. Any type of harassment, intimidation, or abuse shown in the comments/msgs or to our guests will not be tolerated. Seek to Speak will not hesitate to report such comments to the appropriate authorities.

We invite you, our listeners, to keep an open mind and encourage you to talk about these issues in a meaningful and productive way. As Jason Collins says, “Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.”

Thank you to all the people and personalities who shared their views for this episode:

1) Ken & Justice from PLUHO

2) Mitch of SEED Foundation

3) Li of Tabung Pelangi

4) Kumela Kumslut

5) G

6) Miemo

7) Kimchi

8) Raj

9) Anonymous story submissions

10) S2S Community Members who helped on the episode including, Abigail, Samantha, Priya, and Jaspreet.

About PLUHO & BlueBird

PLUHO, or People Like Us Hang Out!, is an LGBTQ-inclusive organisation focused on community building, service delivery and empowerment in Malaysia. Since its founding in 2016, PLUHO has grown from a loose social collective of queer activists to a registered organisation running a number of projects on HIV & sexual health, LGBTQ mental health (‘the BlueBird project’), a community-run shelter (‘Rumah Angkat’), and various community engagement events.

The BlueBird project is a mental health referral service based in Malaysia that is queer-affirming, inclusive, and open to all LGBTQ individuals who seek sustainable mental health treatment. As of June 2021, BlueBird has served more than 80 LGBTQ individuals who submitted enquiries seeking peer support and recommendations for therapy.

Buy Stories for a Cause 2 by Tabung Pelangi

Purchase link here

SEED Foundation

Donate to the Trans Solidarity Fund here

Kumela Kumslut on Spotify

Listen to Sunshine on Spotify

Watch Raj's ABC News Feature

Darwin's Karaoke Culture

Recommended places or resources for queer-affirming support (Compiled by PLUHO)

About BlueBird / LGBTQ-affirming therapy
BlueBird sign-up sheet: bit.ly/bluebirdproject
Questions, ideas, feedback: bluebird@pluho.org
Register as BlueBird/ PLUHO volunteer: bit.ly/pluhovolunteer (*If BlueBird-specific, please mention "BlueBird" in your submission)
For mental health professionals interested to be included in BlueBird project's directory: https://www.queerlapis.com/lgbtq-affirming-mental-health-survey/
Context, information, and resources for LGBTQ-affirming therapy in Malaysia: https://www.queerlapis.com/where-to-find-lgbtq-affirming-therapy-in-malaysia/

Resources & training

Free and accessible resources about common mental health issues, including worksheets and guides on how to take better care of ourselves and others:

https://www.orygen.org.au/Training/Resources
https://cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Overview

Sign up for Psychological First Aid (PFA) training, or learn about it online. PFA isn't therapy, it's a set of techniques anyone can practice for helping people experiencing a crisis. It focuses on helping them feel safe, connected to others, calm and hopeful, and be able to access physical, emotional, and social support.

An overview: https://www.who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/ppt.pdf

For emergencies:

Hotlines:

Befrienders: 03-7627 2929
Women's Aid Organisation: 03-3000 8858 (call) / 018 988 8058 (SMS, WhatsApp)

If you are dealing with thoughts or feelings of harming yourself or others, we would advise that you go to the emergency (A&E) department of a general hospital, ask to see a psychiatrist and tell them your situation. The psychiatrist will assess your situations and needs, and assist you accordingly. Hospital emergency staff are generally equipped to deal with this.

Effective allyship:

Check out Queer Lapis's resources on SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity & expression, sexual characteristics):

https://www.queerlapis.com/gender-bear/
https://www.queerlapis.com/glossary/

Opening Audio Snippet Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2021/03/23/crime-report-20-riskiest-places-for-gay-travelers-and-the-5-safest/?sh=2e994ae36d1b
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/01/20/stop-using-lgbt-community-as-punching-bag-says-rights-group/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gJ5SE0YvlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84gRCt9MFt0&t=2s

In Malaysian Speaking Fails, we discussed Harry Tan's insensitive comments regarding the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace campaign, Tajuddin's disastrous press conference, and the attack on Kasthuri Patto's skin colour in the parliament. This Season 3 premiere features Harith from the @thecomedypodcast_ and our lovely community members, Maslin (@maslovecats), Vishal (@onelastvish), and Aissa (@ainaissa). Here, we deconstructed what happened, what went wrong and what could have been done better. Be sure to tune in to learn, have some fun and weigh in on the discussion! Stay until the end to catch our fun lightning round and find out how to take part in our giveaway with @cuppajoe.my!

Seek to Speak's podcast is celebrating its 3rd Season with a GIVEAWAY!! Together with our launch sponsor,@cuppajoe.my, we will be giving away a Newbie Coffee Bundle worth RM105 each to 3 lucky winners! To take part, simply follow these 4 easy steps:

☕️ Like and comment on this post by telling us, in one sentence, a message that you think is powerful (it can be your favourite quote, a mantra you live by or any powerful words!)

☕️ Follow @seektospeak and @cuppajoe.my

☕️ Tag 3 friends (No influencers or big accounts - we'll be checking!)

☕️ Share this post on your insta story and tag us!

....and you're done! It is THAT simple! The competition deadline is 7 August so start commenting folks! Winners will be chosen randomly and will be announced on 8 August!

*We will like your comment to signify acceptance of your submission!

**Please note that this competition is only open to those residing in Malaysia and submissions with incomplete steps will not be entertained!

Our launch sponsor, Cuppa Joe Malaysia, aims to make home coffee brewing affordable, less intimidating & accessible. Together with local coffee roasters, Cuppa Joe strives to offer a new experience & ways to elevate our coffee experience. If you can't wait to try out their coffee, be sure to use our special promo code: SEEK2SPEAK20 to get 20% off their brewing kits. Get ready to meet your new favourite cuppa with @cuppajoe.my!

Seek to Speak's podcast is launching its 3rd Season in August with the theme, "The Power of Words". Through experimental formats and diverse topics, we will explore the power of words and the impact that it has on people and places. We believe that strong speeches can move nations, words of comfort can save lives and stories shared can empower others. In this experimental season, we hope to inspire more people to speak and tell their stories through our new episodes!

Be sure to take note of our release schedule to never miss out on an episode!

Our launch sponsor, Cuppa Joe Malaysia, aims to make home coffee brewing affordable, less intimidating & accessible. Together with local coffee roasters, Cuppa Joe strives to offer a new experience & ways to elevate our coffee experience. If you can't wait to try out their coffee, be sure to use our special promo code: SEEK2SPEAK20 to get 20% off their brewing kits. Get ready to meet your new favourite cuppa with @cuppajoemy!

In Part 2 of this special where we deconstruct the issues and stories behind the #MakeSchoolASaferplace campaign, we discuss the authorities' response to the problem and why it's so harmful. We also spotlight survivor stories and share helpful advice from NGOs on how survivors can seek help. We will end this 2-part special by discussing the ways in which we can be allies to the cause and friends to victims. To know more about the issues discussed in this episode, like victim-blaming, rape culture, and online gender-based violence, please check out Part 1 of this special where civil societies unpacked these concepts in detail. As before, Part 2 will also be discussing distressing issues on sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. This is a trigger warning to those who may find these issues difficult or traumatizing to hear as we will be deconstructing these issues in detail as well as featuring survivor stories of sexual assault.

NGOS FEATURED

AWAM: https://www.awam.org.my/
Kryss Network: https://kryss.network/
WAO: https://wao.org.my/
SaveTheSchoolsMY: https://www.instagram.com/savetheschoolsmy/
Safe Campus: https://www.instagram.com/safecampus4u/
SAWO: http://www.sawo.org.my/
Bulan Sisters: https://www.instagram.com/bulansisters/
Speak Up Malaysia: https://www.speakupmalaysia.com/

RESOURCES TO GET HELP

AWAM TELENITA HELPLINE

AWAM provides services tailored to address the immediate needs of victims of violence: 0162374221

https://www.awam.org.my/services/

WAO HOTLINE & TINA MESSAGING

WAO provides advice, explores options, and/or schedule a face-to-face consultation. You can also access WAO services such as shelter and crisis support, by contacting the WAO Hotline at +603 3000 8858 or TINA at +6018 988 8058 (24 hours)

https://wao.org.my/getting-help-for-domestic-violence/

SAWO HELPLINE (SABAH)

SAWO Helpline is a free service which provides confidential support and information to women and families in distress or crisis. The Helpline is operated by a trained para-counsellor and social worker with the assistance of volunteers: 088 280 200

http://www.sawo.org.my/helpline.html

BEFRIENDERS

For emotional support: 03-76272929 [24 hours]

https://www.befrienders.org.my/services

On 24 April, 17 year old Ain Husniza posted a TikTok video calling out her PE teacher who made a rape joke in class. Since then, the video has been viewed more than 1.8million times and Ain has received online harassment, threats, lewd comments, as well as rape threats. To highlight the hostile response she had received for speaking up, Ain created the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace hashtag. This campaign has sparked an international debate on misogyny as well as a national movement against harassment, abuse, and bullying in schools. As a season finale, we will explore the issues and ideas behind the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace campaign. We will have NGOs deconstruct concepts like online gender-based violence, rape culture, victim-blaming, and more. We will feature survivor stories and conversation snippets from our community members' discussion on the campaign. We will also do a deep dive on a related issue of period spot checks in schools.

RESOURCES TO GET HELP

AWAM TELENITA HELPLINE

AWAM provides services tailored to address the immediate needs of victims of violence: 0162374221

https://www.awam.org.my/services/

WAO HOTLINE & TINA MESSAGING

WAO provides advice, explore options, and/or schedule a face-to-face consultation. You can also access WAO services such as shelter and crisis support, by contacting the WAO Hotline at +603 3000 8858 or TINA at +6018 988 8058 (24 hours)

https://wao.org.my/getting-help-for-domestic-violence/

SAWO HELPLINE (SABAH)

SAWO Helpline is a free service which provides confidential support and information to women and families in distress or crisis. The Helpline is operated by a trained para-counsellor and social worker with the assistance of volunteers: 088 280 200

http://www.sawo.org.my/helpline.html

BEFRIENDERS

For emotional support: 03-76272929 [24 hours]

https://www.befrienders.org.my/services

In this Speaking Snack, we learn about simple ways to be more confident before speaking. What can you physically do to trick your body out of its anxiety? How can you view your speech and the audience differently to be more confident? How should you best prep for a speech? We answer all this and more in today's Speaking Snack which features are amazing community members, Amrit, Kuljit, Mint, and Abigail!

Episode Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yg-s7mtcVO6vLYg2UqJipCTWfrBBe4eb/view?usp=sharing

Episode 9 is joined by the amazing Siti Aishah Hassan Hasri (@aishahdoesit), the founder of SPOT Community Programme (@hellospotgirl). SPOT stands for 'Soroptimist Puberty Education Toolkit' and is a volunteer-led project that delivers information about puberty and sexual abuse prevention to young girls and adolescents. Since 2015, SPOT has provided comprehensive sexuality education to over 10,000 Malaysian girls! She is also an Obama Foundation Leader and is part of its Girls Opportunity Alliance. She is also the 2021 cohort of Acumen Fellows, which is a group of social innovators who aims to solve Malaysia’s biggest social inequities. In this episode, we discussed all about puberty with dignity, comprehensive sexuality education, as well as period poverty. In the process, Aishah teaches us how to have confidence, build resilience, and establish boundaries!

In this episode, we discussed Aishah's journey as an educator, advocate, and activist, where we do a deep dive on her journey of starting up SPOT, why she believes education is key, and how the NGO pivot during the pandemic. We also discussed the following data points on Period Poverty and Child Marriage:

1) Over 500 million women and girls face period poverty across the globe each month. This often results in girls being absent at school and an increased risk of reproductive and urinary tract infections. In Malaysia, underprivileged women and girls have even resorted to coconut husks, newspaper sheets, and banana leaves in place of proper sanitary products.

2) In 2014, the UN expressed concern that authorities in Malaysia were encouraging child marriage to curb premarital sex and children born out of wedlock. As sex outside of marriage is an offense and abortion is illegal save for exceptional circumstances, youths are driven to marriage out of fear of prosecution. As of 2020, more than 150,000 Malaysians are married between the ages of 15-19.

Tune in to Episode 9 to hear how @aishahdoesit talks about these issues and more! This is definitely an episode NOT to be missed! Follow us on Spotify or subscribe to us on Apple Podcast! It really helps more people to discover what we do!

*This episode was recorded before the #makeschoolasaferplace campaign.

Tea & Consent Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZwvrxVavnQ

SPOT Website: https://www.hellospotgirl.com/

This speaking snack features two amazing podcasters, Roeshan from the Rumah Roy podcast and Harith from the Comedy Podcast. Here, they share great communication and speaking tips for you to better socialize with people, maintain their attention, and maybe shake off that fear of speaking.

Rumah Roy: https://open.spotify.com/show/2LU8f5V13tDO9EzTZ6edts?si=7SFX5sFVTW6iPCd0ADo1Ww&nd=1

The Comedy Podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2oG4MfPiVx8PXn6RCrPpzG?si=_3SOVxr2RFyAWLYEUj30iA&nd=1

Welcome to part two of our COVID special, where we explore the lived experiences of everyday Malaysians during the pandemic as it has just been a little bit over a year since the first lockdown measures were announced by our prime minister.

This week, we take a look at how relationships were affected by the pandemic, the lockdown measures in place and the corresponding standard operating measure.

We will end this two-part special with our guests' biggest takeaways, lessons learned, and new perspectives gained after the one-year rollercoaster. We really do hope you enjoy this special and cried and laughed and awed as much as we did when we first heard these stories.

More than 1 year since the pandemic ravaged the world, we thought to spotlight the lived experiences of different Malaysians and how the disease and multiple movement control orders have impacted their lives. We have some old friends from our mental health special chiming in on their experiences, and some new friends who we will introduce during the episode.

In Part 1, we explore stories around home and work in the context of the pandemic. We will hear about a new mother coping work and child care, spouses being separated due to the lockdown, and business plans being thrown awry. Some of these stories will be relatable to you, and we hope that others will be surprising and enlightening!

Be sure to listen to the end to find out! And let us know what you think! Part 2 on Relationships & Lessons Learned will be out next Monday!

Welcome to Seek to Speak's Speaking Snacks where we chronicle easy speaking tips in bite-size digestible portions in order to help listeners better verbalize themselves in their stories. And this week, we are going to be doing something different. This time, we're reviewing season two's best advice on communication, self-expression, and public speaking! So if you haven't listened to all the episodes in Season 2, this is a great way to review the season and maybe go back to some of your favorite episodes or an episode that you've missed!

In this episode, we learn why public speaking is important to change the narrative, why talking about issues normalizes taboo subjects, why engaging in debates make us better citizens. Our guests also deal with issues on confidence, fear, and the lack of good English!

See the episode transcript here.

Episode 8 is joined by two-time TedxTalk speaker, kindness advocate, and head of Culture Transformation & Employee Engagement at Celcom Axiata, Aziph Mustapha! Much like his vibrant personality, Aziph has a unique mix of corporate, start-up and government leadership experience. He was an entrepreneur for a decade before entering an IT-related governmental agency before being head-hunted for the Malaysian Innovation Foundation which he headed for 6 years. Now, he’s in the corporate world and in between his full-time jobs, he is an international keynote speaker and has spoken overseas in events like the ISPIM Innovation Summit in Australia. He also organizes speaking events like the Perak Festival of Ideas which earned an entry in the Malaysia Book of Records for the most number of events held within a single week. But that’s not all, he also runs a weekly live interview show on LinkedIn with influential people all around the world. Be sure to tune in to our latest episode this Monday to hear Aziph talk all about culture, communication, and kindness!

We also discussed the following data points during the episode:

1) In Malaysia, grassroots innovation is one of a few high impact programs intended to empower the bottom 40 percent of the income pyramid. A recent example of grassroots innovation is when we had a critical shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the first lockdown. Many NGOs, individuals (and even kids!) helped our front liners by making creative PPE garb from what they had!

2) According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, major economic sectors across Malaysia registered a 16% fall in labor productivity in the second quarter of 2020 with total hours worked dropping from an average of 8.5 billion to 6.2 billion hours. The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2019 revealed that close to half a million of Malaysia’s population have had their mental health affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

3) A 2010 Harvard Business School survey done in 136 countries found that generous people were happiest overall. A 2020 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that while 68 percent of the people believed selfishness was a common trait among those who made more money, in reality, people with selfless attitudes and behavior had higher incomes and also more children.

Get connected with Aziph here.

Check our his TedxTalk videos here and here.

Read our transcript for this episode here.

In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a commencement speech at Stanford University which has been seen 39 million times and has become the anthem for passion all over the world. 10 years after his speech, Terry Trespicio gave a TedTalk entitled, "Stop searching for your passion". Her speech has since been viewed over 6 million times and despite being a no-name, self-employed writer and consultant, Terry believed her speech did so well because following your passion was great in theory, but it's actually really hard to execute and trying to do it actually makes us feel worse about ourselves not better. In this speaking snack, we analyze why both speeches did so well, Steve Jobs with his famous commencement speech in Stanford University as well as Terry's 2015 TedTalk on the same theme.

Watch Steve Jobs' speech here and Terri's TedTalk here.

Episode 7 is joined by the one and only, Datuk Nicol David! An eight-time world champion, nine-time Asian champion, and a record of 108 consecutive months as world No 1 squash player, @nicoldsquash is an incredible source of pride and inspiration to all Malaysians. More importantly, she is a good person with a strong sense of self and despite all the accolades, is extremely humble and grounded with her principles. We discussed the importance of mental health and the ability to train your mind to perform at your best. We discussed the role of sports in empowering women and girls all around the world. Through it all, she spoke on the importance of continuous improvement and development. As she has been famously quoted, "Being number one is something I had to earn every day."

This is an incredible episode on pursuing your passion, the value of failures, and the power of mental toughness. Datuk Nicol teaches visualization, humility, and positivity. We also discussed the following data points on mental health and female athletes with Datuk Nicol:

1) According to a 2020 study by Stanford University and Strava, 22.5% of professional athletes reported feeling down or depressed on more than half of the days of the week compared to 3.9% of athletes reporting the same struggles before the pandemic hit. That’s an increase of 477%. The American National Collegiate Athletic Association examined the impacts of the pandemic on 25,000 college athletes and found that there were elevated rates of anxiety, hopelessness, mental exhaustion, and feelings of depression across the board.

2) Elite women’s sports are predicted to generate US$1 billion in revenue in 2021. A Nielsen study found that 84% of general sports enthusiasts are interested in women’s sport. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup drew 1.12 billion viewers while the National Women’s Soccer League’s viewership swelled 493% in 2020. The U.S. Women's Open tennis final between Naomi and Victoria averaged 2.1 million viewers on ESPN.

Full transcript here.

In this Speaking Snack, we learn how to change perspectives and treat topics differently in order to generate more ideas. Humans are prone to generalizing and categorizing, and such habits prevent us from thinking outside of the box.

Public speaking books tell us that informative speeches should be organized topically, chronologically, or in a spatial manner depending on whether the topic is a concept, object, process, or event. Persuasive speeches are also categorized into three groups, those that discuss a question of value, fact, or policy.

In this episode, we learn how to carry out a Brainstorming Blitz where we treat all topics as a concept, object, event, process, and organize our speeches based on a question of value, fact, and policy! This method will open up your mind to many more ideas!

For more on this topic, check out our 2-part article here!

Episode 6 is joined by YB @syedsaddiq, acting Member of Parliament for Muar and former Minister of Youth and Sports. Saddiq is also the co-founder of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA - @partimuda_ ) and was instrumental to the constitutional amendment that saw the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 years old. A youth advocate and proponent of debates, discourse, and critical thinking, we discussed all things youth-related including political participation, unemployment, and underemployment as well as mental health.

In particular, we discussed Saddiq's journey as a debater, speaker, and politician. We also discussed the following data points:

1) Unemployment and underemployment: In September 2020, the Ministry of Higher Education said 75,000 out of 300,000 fresh graduates are expected to be unemployed in 2021. Further, 41,161 out of 330,557 graduates from 2019 are still unemployed. Youth unemployment rate in Malaysia is at 12 percent. Even in 2019, a study by the Labour Force Survey found that there were 1.13 million underemployed graduates doing SPM-qualification jobs.

2) Political Apathy: In 2017, a Public Opinion Survey involving 604 respondents aged 21 to 30 found that 70% of them were disinterested in politics and almost 40% of them were not registered to vote. In March 2017, statistics from the Election Commission showed that out of the 3.8 million eligible Malaysians who had not registered to vote, two-thirds were aged between 21 and 30. However, since then, the voting age has been reduced to 18 with tremendous bipartisan support and Malaysia held its first digital parliament that saw 222 youth representatives speaking and nearly 6,300 young Malaysians applying.

3) Mental Health: In Malaysia, the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey noted that 424,000 youths and children suffered from mental health problems. Since the lockdown measures were imposed, the Ministry of Health has received a high number of psychosocial-related calls regarding mental health. Students are faring the worst, especially those sitting for SPM and STPM, with your #SuaraPelajar padlet board receiving over 1000 responses where students expressed their worries about returning to school to sit for their examinations.

We ended the episode with Saddiq responding to the following imagined scenarios:

Scenario 1: One of the participants of Parlimen Digital, Yodhin, was very inspired and empowered to join the political process and was thrilled about the voting age being lowered. However, with the amount of infighting happening with political parties, continued backdoor politicking, and the recent declaration of emergency, Yodhin is now more frustrated and disenchanted about politics. He feels apathetic and disinterested. You want to convert his frustration into action. What do you tell him?

Scenario 2: Pretend you have given your Thunder Bold class on Public Speaking, which is the 3rd class after Critical Thinking. It is the Q&A portion of the class and you noticed a consistent trend in the questions posed to you. These centered around participants having a lack of confidence to speak and express themselves. Many of the participants think that their opinions don’t matter or are not good enough to vocalize. Right before ending the session, you want to motivate them to be more confident and empowered. What do you say?

Notable Timestamps

[02:46] Saddiq’s journey behind Youth Advocacy

[04:43] How to promote better discourse and discussions in Malaysia

[06:21] Is politics the best way to realize change?

[07:47] Whether debating is accessible

[10:12] Saddiq’s biggest challenges

[13:53] MUDA and alignment of values

[15:21] Biggest takeaway from political journey

[17:50] Youth unemployment and underemployment

[23:26] Youth political participation

[28:58] Youth voices and mental health

[33:44] Scenario 1: Youth political apathy

[36:37] Scenario 2: Finding confidence in your voice

[39:56] Why Saddiq seeks to speak

Full transcript here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gDydN0w8cqSSivpvhzcayC4ypQi5KTDu/view?usp=sharing

In conjunction with International Women's Day, this podcast episode features Women with Words, our safe and supportive speaking club! In Part 2 of this special, we look at our challenges, strengths, and hopes for Malaysian women. Are there unreasonable expectations set upon us as women? How are we treated differently because of our gender? What are we grateful for and proud about? What are our hopes for Malaysian women listening? We discuss these questions and more!

Women with Words is a platform where women and girls can deliver their speeches based on a theme, share their ideas, and obtain feedback. We aim to create a safe and supportive space for women & girls to express themselves. In the process, we also hope to build confident female speakers through speech practice, a supportive community, as well as meaningful group discussions.

Join us on the 13th of March 2021 at 3pm to share your thoughts and opinions on the theme, Expression! Simply register here.

Get more updates and information on the club on our FB group at 'My Female Speaking Club'.

Also, check out past speeches shared during our meetings on our YouTube channel here.

Special Thanks to Alison, Pratibha, Sasha, Alycia, Amrit, and Kuljit for sending in their snippets. And a big THANK YOU to Maslin who helped review all the snippets and put them together!

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Episode timestamps below:

Aissa: [00:00:00] Intro

Kuljit: [00:01:06] My challenges

Sasha: [00:02:05] Confusing expectations

Alison: [00:03:06] My expectations

Manu: [00:04:21] Unfairness to women

Alycia: [00:05:18] Subconscious bias

Rina: [00:06:30] Body Image

Prat: [00:07:22] Looking different

Karishma: [00:10:57] Scarcity mindset

Puteri Balkhis: [00:12:13] Standing strong

Mai: [00:14:09] Checklists

Alison: [00:16:23] Gratitude

Kuljit: [00:16:52] Support system

Prat: [00:17:43] Academic milestones

Fyza: [00:19:27] Our achievements

Sasha: [00:20:18] My achievements

Sheng Yee: [00:21:54] Forgiveness

Mai: [00:23:28] It’s okay to fail

Fyza: [00:24:42] Female idols and starting out

Sasha: [00:25:45] Lifting others

Kuljit: [00:27:54] Hope for Malaysian women

Alison: [00:29:03] Hope for Malaysian women

Prat: [00:30:19] Hope for Malaysian women

Aissa: [00:30:58] End

In conjunction with International Women's Day, this Seek to Speak's podcast special features Women with Words, our safe and supportive speaking club! Here, we hope to celebrate the voices and stories of Malaysian women on their ability and confidence to speak as well as express themselves.

Women with Words is a platform where women and girls can deliver their speeches based on a theme, share their ideas, and obtain feedback. We aim to create a safe and supportive space for women & girls to express themselves. In the process, we also hope to build confident female speakers through speech practice, a supportive community, as well as meaningful group discussions.

Join us on the 13th of March 2021 at 3pm to share your thoughts and opinions on the theme, Expression! Simply register here.

Get more updates and information on the club on our FB group at 'My Female Speaking Club'.

Also check out past speeches shared during our meetings on our YouTube channel here.

Special Thanks to Alison, Pratibha, Sasha, Alycia, Amrit, and Kuljit for sending in their snippets. And a big THANK YOU to Maslin who helped review all the snippets and put them together!

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Episode timestamps below:

Atiq: [00:01:36] On female keynote speakers and leadership

Hannah: [00:03:44] Lack of speaking spaces for women to speak

Alison: [00:05:16] On speaking out

Prat: [00:07:01] On speaking out

Kirthana: [00:08:35] Confidence and achievement

Lyn: [00:10:11] How to be more confident when speaking

Rina: [00:12:14] How to counter negativity

Hannah: [00:13:42] Making spaces for women to speak

Alycia: [00:15:17] On support system

Prat: [00:16:57] Importance of expressing yourself

Alison: [00:18:42] What expression feels like

Kuljit: [00:19:57] What expression feels like

Amrit: [00:20:56] How confidence changed me

Sasha: [00:22:42] Confidence and speaking

Alycia: [00:24:22] Confidence is an uphill battle

Aissa:[00:26:06] END

Amrit: [00:27:59] About

Alycia: [00:28:49] About

Prat: [00:28:56] About

Kuljit: [00:29:31] About

Alison: [00:30:06] About

Sasha: [00:30:38] About

In this Speaking Snack episode, we learn how to create the best conclusions for your speech. Epic endings can be achieved with these 5 easy closing strategies:

1) Engaging Close: calls the audience into action

2) Reflection Close: invites the audience to think and reflect

3) Echo Close: using rhythm and repetition to generate appeal

4) Call-Back Close: providing closure to a previous anecdote

5) Contrast Close: completely changing delivery styles

Have a topic to suggest? Be sure to email us at helloseektospeak@gmail.com

TRANSCRIPT:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VsTPs_Mx6qyDLEpPmfejVuax0FQ8f6aN/view?usp=sharing

Episode 5 features Princeton graduate, Jason Wee, the co-founder and lead coordinator of Architects of Diversity (AOD), a non-profit initiative that aims to bridge communities and identity groups among youths in Malaysia. Since 2018, AOD has organised camps and workshops for over 300 beneficiaries to address the growing segregation in education and social spaces along racial and religious lines. AOD programmes use experiential learning and create opportunities for intergroup friendship formation to foster greater understanding and the ability to navigate identity-based conflicts and inequities.

Within this episode, we also discuss the survey, ‘Malaysia’s Temperature Check’, and in particular, the following data sets:

A majority of Malaysians are sympathetic towards economically disenfranchised groups. According to the survey, 86% support the move away from race-based economic assistance to prioritise income-based assistance. 78% of Malaysians agree that Political parties should stop aligning based on race and focus on putting together fair policies instead.
From the report, it was found that language-related education policies are most hotly contested. The status of vernacular schools, language of instruction for Science and Mathematics, and recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate splits public opinion most strikingly. For example, 56% Bumiputera Malays agree that Malaysia should abolish vernacular schools (e.g. SJKC, SJKT), while 43% Bumiputera non-Malays, 71% Chinese, and 78% Indians, disagree that Malaysia should abolish vernacular schools (e.g. SJKC, SJKT).

Architects of Diversity

https://www.aodmalaysia.org/

https://www.instagram.com/aodmalaysia/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/aod_malaysia?lang=en

Transcript

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-a_jjM3vsK0TiR4uYiesEdPWDUEZrTDN/view?usp=sharing

Vishal is a marketer, public relations practitioner, and photojournalist with a wealth of experience in the communications and automotive industry. Vishal talked about transitioning his careers from engineering to journalism to corporate relations, and how his passion for cars drove him. In this episode, we talked all about confidence, careers, communications, and CARS!

We also covered the following points during the episode:

The Malaysian automotive industry is the third-largest in Southeast Asia, and the 23rd largest in the world, with an annual production output of over 500,000 vehicles. The automotive industry contributes 4% or RM 40 billion to Malaysia's GDP, and employs a workforce of over 700,000 throughout a nationwide ecosystem.
Malaysia is the only country in Southeast Asia that has two of its own large car brands, Proton and Perodua. Up until 2018, both local manufacturers have been struggling with decreasing sales but in 2019, they managed to increase their market share and ended the year on the first and second rank among the bestselling car brands in the country. This is mostly due to the successes of their flagship models, like the ProtonX70 where even now, you’d have to wait months to receive. I believe that Flux is also carrying the same model.
According to the ASEAN Statistics Division, Malaysia has the second-highest number of registered road motor vehicles per 1,000 population in 2017, which is 896.7, behind Brunei and above Thailand. This means, almost 9 out of every 10 Malaysians own a vehicle of some sort!

In this Speaking Snack, we discuss why persuasive speeches are engaging, the 3 modes of persuasion propounded by Aristotle, and how to easily apply these tricks in your speech!

Kondenser and Podkast.my is a BM podcast as well a portal all about the production and publication of podcasting. Irzal is the executive producer of Impressions, a digital content centre, and editor for Podcast.my while Akash is the studio director and content creator. If you're curious about the local podcasting scene and want to start up your own podcast - this episode is not to be missed!

We also discussed the following facts during the episode:

A total of 834,533 new podcasts were created in 2020, compared to 311,775 in 2019 according to statistics from Listen Notes.
Most podcasts are in English, followed by Spanish and thereafter, Portuguese. Podcasts in Bahasa Malaysia are listed in “others”. The Listen Notes portal shows that there are 83,006 podcasts in the nearest language, which is Indonesian. Buzzsprout reports that only 0.2 percent of total podcast episodes were downloaded by Malaysians in October 2020.
According to a report by Whistle Wise, Generation Z prefers short, unscripted and casual podcast formats. Why do you think this is the case?

Relevant Links:

https://podkast.my/

https://open.spotify.com/show/1SPd7K0gYRzrSncqpxgHjR

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAEz0rHq6m_ZL7g7Zr8-asg

In this Speaking Snack episode, we learn how to best interpret a topic and select a speech angle. Ask yourself these questions: Is the angle distinct enough? Do I have opinions on the angle? Does my angle have practical significance? Can I take an informed stance? Is my content relevant and respectful? These questions will be answered in detail within the episode!

Episode 2 of Season 2 features the co-founder of Project ID, an education social enterprise that runs high-impact programs to empower students to lead themselves and others. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Project ID has run over 70 online workshops with more than 1700 student participation across Malaysia. They just concluded their Young Educator’s Challenge which had 375 students applying and 66 students chosen to design their perfect online class in order to win prizes worth up to RM90,0000. Project ID does incredible work for an incredible amount of people so be sure to catch the next episode as Kelvin explains how he grew a school-based initiative into the impactful social enterprise it is now!

Project ID:

https://project-id.org/

In this Speaking Snack episode, we learn how to verbally visualize our ideas and stories in our speech. This can be done by creating vivid word pictures, building creative comparisons, and using emotive language.

Women with words is a safe and supportive space for women & girls to express themselves. Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/myfemalespeakingclub

WWW Meeting Details:-

Date: 16 January 2021 (Saturday)
Time: 3pm-5pm
Platform: Zoom
Length: 2 hours
Max Participants: 15 people
Max Speakers: 6 people
Target: Females of all ages
Meeting Theme: Confidence

Our first episode of the year features Jasmine King, a sex-positive advocate who runs an online platform called @ohheymissking where she educates, breaks taboos, and sparks conversations on dating and sexual health. Jasmine also regularly gives talks and workshops on self-love and sex, as well as hosts an Asian sex podcast called, “I wish someone told me” (Check it out at @iwishthepod). Jasmine also hosts a monthly and sexy Instagram live show called, “Cass and Jas confess”. In the episode, Jasmine talks about her motivation and aims for the platform, why comprehensive sexuality education is important, as well as how public speaking empowers confidence!

Jasmine King

https://www.instagram.com/ohheymissking/

https://www.instagram.com/iwishthepod/

Music by Aldo Majalni (https://www.instagram.com/aldoloves/) & Amran Asnawi (https://www.instagram.com/amrannnnnn/)

This S2S Special is joined by Yodhin, Bamba, and Theva, hosts of the popular podcast, the Pendulum Show! They are the boys that brought you great current affairs content like Identity Politics, the State of Emergency, and Budget 2021. On this special, the Pendulum boys Seek to Speak about ways to have productive discourse through a fun game show format premised on Malaysian education issues.

In the context of vernacular schools, sex education, and financial literacy, this episode talks about ways to find the best version of an argument, how to develop common ground and how to attack views, not people. Listen to how Bamba describes the importance of identity in a world that's trying to assimilate minority groups and their cultures. Learn where to get contraceptives for as low as RM1 from Theva. Hear how Yodhin describes the dangerous culture of normalizing debt and why financial literacy is so important.

This is a fun yet educational episode about deconstructing ideas and finding resolutions! Tune in to find out who won the game and became the “Ultimate Pendulum” of the Pendulum Show!

This is a special episode of #GirlsTakeover Seek to Speak, a collaboration with the Women's Aid Organization and in conjunction with UN's 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. #GirlsTakeover is an initiative designed to reclaim and celebrate a girl's right to voice out their opinions, take charge, and advocate for a change!

This episode features 15-year-old Mirsha Kumar and Manushri Gopikandan discussing their right to be safe from child marriage as we seek to clarify, contexualize and combat the problem. The episode will also be joined by the amazing Gaayathrey Balakrishnan, Women's Aid Organization's capacity building officer as she shares her insights from the perspective of civil society.

Manu's Podcast - Mellifluous

https://anchor.fm/mellifluous-together

https://open.spotify.com/show/4qMnzVspY8v5wTakr4rPGE?si=WsInXtdrTDG7xjLeqh_qPA

Women's Aid Organisation

https://wao.org.my/

#GirlsTakeover Campaign

https://wao.org.my/girlsforgoals/

Episode 12 is joined by lawyer, truth-seeker, and podcaster, Roeshan Gomez! Growing up with a love of conversations, Roeshan started his own podcast with his friends called The Rumah Roy Podcast! This great podcast is a series of casual (and candid!) conversations with a variety of great guests like an award-winning director, a female mixed martial artist champion, and the Women’s Aid Organization! There, Roeshan and his guests talk about politics, current affairs, mental health, and so much more! As an introvert, Roeshan explained why he wanted to seek genuine connections, how to have them with strangers, how to build your foundation, and why it’s important to seek differing views. This is a great episode for those who want to start out their own passion project!

Rumah Roy Podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2LU8f5V13tDO9EzTZ6edts?si=7SFX5sFVTW6iPCd0ADo1Ww

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO4eM43oKjGoAR1lEnDD3Gw

https://www.instagram.com/therumahroypodcast/

https://www.facebook.com/therumahroypodcast

Two Book Nerds Talking:

https://open.spotify.com/show/7MC6QfLe5pB8rC8lwG9ScF?si=NiZO7yUHQCivM6dTBXYsTQ

https://www.instagram.com/tbntbooks/

Episode 11 is joined by Deputy Public Prosecutor for the Attorney General's Chambers, Izzat Fauzan! Former criminal lawyer, Izzat now dedicates his time representing victims and prosecuting wrongdoers. Izzat was part of several high-profile prosecution teams like Najib Razak’s SRC trial which saw our former Prime Minister being found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison for abuse of power, money laundering and breach of trust. He was also part of the prosecution team behind the tragic murder of Datuk Anthony Kevin Morais and the freezing of 1MDB-linked funds, USD$340 million, belonging to PetroSaudi International Ltd.

In this episode, we talked about what it takes to represent the state as well as those who have been wronged under the law. In fulfilling his duties, we discussed how to balance objectivity and emotional attachment, how to extract and present information, how to tune out negative externalities in the process, and how to deal with unexpected issues in court. Izzat speaks passionately about his purpose, his loyalty to the law, and the sacrifices he’s made on the job. This is definitely a conversation not to be missed!

Women With Words Registration

https://forms.gle/GtqLjpjnk9Gt1uY17

E-mail us your suggestions for Season 2 at helloseektospeak@gmail.com

Our 3rd Speaking Snack is on speech narratives! Here, Aissa talks about changing your speech's point of view in order to control the effect that you have on your listeners. When delivering a speech, differing narratives can instantly transform the tone and feel of your message!

Speaking Snacks Series is a new segment on Seek to Speak's podcast which provides you with snack-sized public speaking tips and tricks for the casual and competitive speaker. Learn how to better verbalise yourself and your stories through these fast and easy speaking steps!

Have a topic you want us to cover? E-mail us at helloseektospeak@gmail.com

Episode 10 is joined by Renegade Radio’s Founder and CEO, Kelvin Tay as well as Producer Extraordinaire, Jasmine Gires! Renegade Radio is a network of independent Malaysian-made podcasts with amazing shows like Two Book Nerds Talking, Qing Chun Podcast, Epic Arcade Pod, The KITA Podcast, and Cultivating the Masses under their belt! Driven by a sense of purpose, they are also the people behind the Malaysian Podcasters Community group, a safe space for Malaysian podcasters to come together for support, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing activities. Aside from organizing virtual and physical podcasters’ meetup, Renegade Radio also regularly shares podcasting tips and tricks on their socials.

Listen to its founder, Kelvin Tay, talk about his journey of enjoying podcasts, to producing his own, to finally starting up a podcasting company. Hear how producer, Jasmine Gires, consumes hundreds of podcasts a week, and how she channels her creativity and expertise into the production side of the show. Today’s episode pulls the curtain behind the people of Renegade Radio, and gives you an inside look at their thought processes, aims, and fears. It’s seriously not an episode to be missed!

With the launching of Renegade Radio PLUS (+), its service arm of experienced audiophiles as well as sound engineers, this company will be making big waves in the media industry. For podcasting fans, this is NOT an episode to be missed!!

Renegade Radio (RR)

https://rngdr.com/

https://www.instagram.com/rrpmalaysia/

https://www.facebook.com/rrpmalaysia/

Malaysia's Podcasters' Community Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/malaysiapodcastgroup/

RR's shows

Two Book Nerds Talking: https://www.spreaker.com/show/two-book-nerds-talking

Qing Chun Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/z_527

Epic Arcade Pod: https://www.spreaker.com/show/epic-arcade

The KITA Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/kita

Cultivating the Masses: https://www.spreaker.com/show/cultivating-the-masses

Podcast Sessions Malaysia: https://www.spreaker.com/show/podcast-sessions-malaysia

Our 2nd Speaking Snack is on Non-Violent Communication (NVC)! Inspired by Khairun in Episode 7 where she talked about NVC, this Speaking Snack teaches you how to productively resolve conflict in 4 easy steps. This episode also features helpful and relatable real-life examples to emulate or avoid.

Speaking Snacks Series is a new segment on Seek to Speak's podcast which provides you with snack-sized public speaking tips and tricks for the casual and competitive speaker. Learn how to better verbalise yourself and your stories through these fast and easy speaking steps!

Have a topic you want us to cover? E-mail us at helloseektospeak@gmail.com

Episode 9 is joined by radio broadcaster, personal finance enthusiast, and content creator, Roshan Kanesan! A producer and radio broadcaster at BFM 89.9, Malaysia's premier business and current affairs station, Roshan has a wealth of experience in speaking and presenting. A personal finance enthusiast, he is also the producer and presenter of the popular Ringgit & Sense segment. In his free time, Roshan shares personal finance insights on his socials through videos, webinars, and bite-sized advice, as well as on his blog, arkaysthoughts.com.

This episode follows Roshan’s self-expression journey from blogging about his medical condition, to vlogging his day-to-day, to anchoring BFM radio’s heavy weight show, the Morning Run. It is such an incredible journey of triumph, motivation and passion - that you will be blown away by how powerful words can be and the responsibility that comes with it. This is truly an inspiring episode about overcoming hurdles through expression and finding your voice in the process.

Roshan Kanesan

https://www.instagram.com/roshankanesan/

https://roshankanesan.com/

https://twitter.com/RoshanKanesan

The Pendulum Show

https://open.spotify.com/show/53TrVNxcLqTrQH1NzPyPEL

https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/the-pendulum-show/id1474970773

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-pendulum-show

[SEEK TO SPEAK SPECIAL #2: 12 Malaysians Talk Mental Health - The Healing & Helping]

In conjunction with World Mental Health Day, Seek to Speak has released a two-part special all about Mental Health. Follow 12 average Malaysians as they talk about how they cope with their stress, anxiety, and problems. Some rely on their families for comfort while others seek professional help with therapy and medication. Hear how loved ones act as sources of comfort to others, and what difficulties they face with this role. We also have advice from two amazing mental health initiatives, MindaKami and Reach Out To You, on the state of mental health conversations and providers in Malaysia.

Remember to check-in to someone you love, practice a bit of self-care, and be kind to yourself and to others as well! Also, don’t forget to share this podcast with someone you know who may need it or to your friends and family in order to raise awareness!

Minda Kami:

https://mindakami.org/

https://twitter.com/mindakami

https://www.instagram.com/mindakami/

Reach Out To You:

https://www.instagram.com/reachout.to.you/

[SEEK TO SPEAK SPECIAL #1: 12 Malaysians Talk Mental Health]

In conjunction with World Mental Health Day, Seek to Speak is releasing a two part special all about Mental Health. This is the biggest episode we have made so far and consists of 12 average Malaysians with various backgrounds talking about their perception, understanding, and experiences with mental health. Hear how 30 year-old Keeran cope with his anxiety, how 10 year-old Meiling describes her perception of mental health, how Jerry supports his wife, Jenny with her ADHD, how sisters, Ariel and Amy, deal with school stress - and many more! The aim of this 2-part special is to normalise conversations on mental health in order to destigmatize the issue. With insights from two amazing mental health initiatives, MindaKami and Reach Out To You, we hope to open up minds and hearts on this important topic. Share this podcast with someone you know. Someone who may need it or others who may want to be aware!

Minda Kami:

https://mindakami.org/

https://twitter.com/mindakami

https://www.instagram.com/mindakami/

Reach Out To You:

https://www.instagram.com/reachout.to.you/

Episode 8 is joined by Malaysia’s podcasting guru, host, and producer, Norman Chella! Once the Head of Marketing at a Japanese Fintech company, Norm now has his own content creation outfit, ThatsTheNorm Media, specializing in podcasting. He produces and hosts many high-quality shows like Podlovers Asia, AntiFool, Tempered Fables, This is Norm, and Ants under the Sun. His current big project is Roam FM, a podcast all about Roam Research. Check out just how diverse his body of work is on thatsthenorm.com.

This episode is all about finding your voice and the courage to speak through the medium of podcasting. Hear how Norman Chella’s journey and voice evolve as he travels between countries and writes his experiences, and how he develops different personas through the production of his many different podcast shows! With lots of introspection, self-confidence, and even a few funny impressions along the way, Norm explains the power of conversations, connecting with people, and looking inward to find your own personal metric of success! If you’re a fan of podcasting, this is not an episode to be missed!

Links to Norman Chella's Shows:

https://normanchella.com/

https://podloversasia.com/

https://thatsthenorm.com/fables/

https://thatsthenorm.com/ants/

https://thatsthenorm.com/antifool/

https://thatsthenorm.com/daily/

https://roamresearch.com/#/app/RoamFM/page/B2T6zN-6h

Norman Chella's Socials:

https://twitter.com/NormanChella

https://twitter.com/podloversasia

https://twitter.com/roamfm

Links to Rumah Roy Podcast:

https://www.facebook.com/therumahroypodcast

https://bluehoodieproduction.podbean.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO4eM43oKjGoAR1lEnDD3Gw

Send in your mental health voice notes to: helloseektospeak@gmail.com

Speaking Snacks Series is a new segment on Seek to Speak's podcast providing you with snack-sized public speaking tips and tricks for the casual and competitive speaker. Learn how to better verbalise yourself and your stories through these fast and easy speaking steps!

Episode 1 features our host, Aissa, talking about the importance of credibility and two ways to quickly establish goodwill in your speech.

Have a topic you want us to cover? Leave us a message at SeektoSpeak.com!

Introducing the environmental advocate, super mom, and writer extraordinaire, Khairun Nisa Mohamed Zabidi! From being a climate change youth activist to establishing a zero-waste social enterprise to pursuing a Master’s of Science in Environment and Development to becoming a Sustainability Consultant with PwC Malaysia before currently leading UK’s International Climate Fund in Malaysia via the UK Partnerships for Accelerated Climate Transitions - Khairun has a wealth of experience in her field of passion. Her work transcends activism and provides her with a sense of purpose in the world.

Join Khairun in Episode 7 to be inspired and empowered to find passion and purpose in everything that you do. Listen to her advice and experiences as she chronicles her journey of making cold calls to NGOs to protesting on the streets of Bangkok to advising corporate clients on sustainability to leading the UK Government's International Climate Fund. Find out how her journey of self-expression changes and morphs into this wonderful adventure of self-discovery and self-reflection. Find your why and learn how to use your why to achieve all of your goals!

Connect with Khairun through:

https://my.linkedin.com/in/khairunnisazabidi

https://www.instagram.com/khairun_zabidi/?hl=en

Episode 6 is joined by the big sister you always wanted - Izza Izelan - an activist, advocate, and all-around great person!

Izza is the executive director of WOMEN:Girls, a cause-driven NGO which aims to help women realise their potential as role models and to develop children to become agents of change. A recipient of the coveted Chevening scholarship in 2017, Izza is also an award-winning broadcast journalist and has worked in Astro Awani for 7 years before pursuing her passion in non-profit.

Izza is a great example of how your communication skills can not only progress your career but help forward a cause and uplift communities as well! Join Izza as she takes us through her journey of self-expression and passion. Learn how to face criticism, find your calling, and communicate with diverse groups of people!

Check out her podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/37nte2BHIIUGfsRBayEJrR

Check out Epic Arcade's podcast here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6CBsfBXUCvBaV9hwozYieD

This week, we looked inward and decided to pull the curtains behind Seek to Speak’s origins by interviewing its founder, Ain Aissa, a former wallflower and introvert!

Listen to her speaking journey to find out what it took for her to grow and develop her own voice. She also discusses Seek to Speak’s inception as well as her future plans for the platform. Be sure to stay until the end to discover why this episode was made and who the guest host is!

A Cambridge law graduate with corporate litigation experience, Ain Aissa understands the value of advocacy and the importance of being able to express yourself in a meaningful and effective way. With multiple national public speaking and debate championships under her belt, she is ever eager to educate others on how to speak up. She is a trainer with the Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking and started Seek to Speak in the hopes of making public speaking resources more accessible to al!l

Episode 4 is joined by Izwan Zakaria, a lawyer, mentor, and speaker. Izwan is the managing partner of Izwan & Partners, a commercial, technology, and start-up law firm in KL. He is passionate about training entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and students, and is a mentor for the Founder Institute, Future Lab, Closing the Gap, as well as the Selangor Accelerator Program. He also regularly conducts webinars, workshops, and interviews regarding startups and technology.

In this episode, Izwan talks about his speaking struggles, what he did to improve, and how he used his communication skills to market himself as well as help others. Izwan is a good example of an industry expert that is able to progress his ambition, business, and brand using his speaking, teaching, and networking skills.

Episode 3 of Seek to Speak's podcast is joined by the amazing entrepreneur, educator, and advocate, Emellia Shariff! Emellia is the CEO of the Malaysian Institute for Debate & Public Speaking, Managing Partner of Speak-Up Malaysia, as well as the founder of G-Blog.

In this episode, we discussed a whole host of diverse issues from virtual learning to accessibility of critical thinking skills as well as online & offline harassment. In particular, she gave helpful tips about how best to teach and learn soft skills online, how communication skills should be taught nationwide and what we can do to combat harassment.

Episode 2 of Seek to Speak's podcast is joined by the award winning speaker, debater, and educator, Mai Mokhsein! In this episode, we talked all about her transformative speaking journey from freezing on stage at the age of 15 to being Asia's best speaker! She also shares her wealth of experience educating youths all across Asia in public speaking and debating. This episode aims to highlight the incredible power of speech, critical thinking, and empathy building.

No matter what kind of speaker you are or at what speech level you're at, her advice and anecdotes will surely resonate with you!

Seek to Speak's podcast is launching its 3rd Season in August with the theme, "The Power of Words". Through experimental formats and diverse topics, we will explore the power of words and the impact that it has on people and places. We believe that strong speeches can move nations, words of comfort can save lives, and stories shared can empower others. In this experimental season, we hope to inspire more people to speak and tell their stories through our new episodes!

Be sure to take note of our release schedule to never miss out on an episode!

Our launch sponsor, Cuppa Joe Malaysia, aims to make home coffee brewing affordable, less intimidating & accessible. Together with local coffee roasters, Cuppa Joe strives to offer a new experience & ways to elevate our coffee experience. If you can't wait to try out their coffee, be sure to use our special promo code: SEEK2SPEAK20 to get 20% off their brewing kits. Get ready to meet your new favourite cuppa with @cuppajoemy!

In this episode, Aissa talks about ways to better express yourself by having regular reflections, building empathy, and constantly communicating. In each segment, she provides easy exercises to practice as well as snippets of advice from the likes of Michelle Obama, J.K. Rowling, and her family members too!

Check out https://seektospeak.com/ for more public speaking resources in bite-sized digestible portions!

Michelle Obama's, "Becoming", in audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Michelle-Obama-audiobook/dp/B07B3JQZCL

J.K Rowling's Harvard Commencement Address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c

Music, "Cupcake Marshall", by Blue Dot Sessions: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Love_and_Weasel/Cupcake_Marshall

Becoming