I’m more of a hot-chocolate-in-the-lodge girl than someone who will hit the slopes but by now we’ve all seen perma-caffeinated Kash Patel and his bulging eyeballs acting like a frat boy during the U.S. Men’s Hockey team celebrations after they won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Italy. Our tax dollars paid for Patelji to hop on a private jet and send the world a message about not only Americans, federal law enforcement officials in the Trump administration, but Indian Americans, too.

He was already a strong contender for the Desi Hall of Shame,a place of dishonor for the likes of Bobby Jindal and Dinesh D’Souza and seemingly every tech CEO. Patel cemented his place further after deciding - or having it decided for him - to do an impressive amount of nothing about the Epstein files or investigating the murders of U.S. citizens at the hands of ICE.

It might seem like a small thing after news about the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran this morning, but it’s part of a broader theme of a staggering failure of leadership, a lack of understanding about the world, and this need to frame everything and everyone in a western, white mold.

I absolutely don’t want to minimize the milestone accomplishment of the Men’s gold medal. It should be celebrated, but the loudest players’ behavior can also be examined through the lens the Trump administration has constructed itself.

The ‘don’t make sports political” cries were swift from the administration and its supporters. On its surface, I understand where they are coming from. I endlessly complain that Trump truly has politicized every single thing in our lives the way the post-9/11 era militarized every single thing in America, but the Olympics has always been political.

For a few weeks every few years, we get to meet amazing athletes through our screens from places most of us can only dream about going or will after hearing their stories. The UN’s blackhole of bureaucracy and esoteric action get a varnish of global cooperation. We get to put our domestic differences aside and become experts at triple axels and death-defying ski jumps from the comfort of our homes.

Wars and conflict and radical leaders and coups carry on in the background, we see the deep unfairness in access and training for different athletes from different countries. And yet, none of that matters at the starting gate.

For a brief moment, each of these athletes gets to be the best their country has to offer and maybe even the best in the entire world. (I personally think even making the top 50 is pretty damn impressive.)

That’s what the Olympics is really about, but it’s naive to think that’s all the Games are about.

The U.S. boycotted the 1980 Summer Games as a protest against the Soviet Union, in part for its invasion of Afghanistan. Clearly, that wasn’t simply because Americans cared about Afghans.

Jesse Owens’ very presence at the 1936 Berlin Games was political because Hitler was there, too.

At the 1968 Games in Mexico City, track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos held their fists up in a Black power salute in a silent fight for civil rights and racial equality as turmoil continued at home.

Palestine, the newly formed republics after the breakup of the Soviet Union and then Yugoslavia. These are and were political too.

And still, these athletes were and are cheered on for their prowess and we shed tears if they do because the Olympics is about humanity.

It’s just the Trump administration have taken out all the JOY of that humanity. There’s a soft power that countries play through sport but there’s nothing soft or nuanced about the sledgehammer diplomacy on display right now.

I’m not a hockey fan, preferring my sports to be on solid land and reasonable weather, but I have to imagine there are more than a few hockey fans who are disgusted with these men who not only partied with Patel but went so far as attending the State of the Union. I had so many questions after seeing the FBI Director in the locker room like: what Team USA PR flack thought it was a good idea to allow this to be filmed? to even allow him into the locker room in the first place? Let’s assume for a second they had no choice - why not take a stand and not attend the State of the Union and not pose for several pictures with the president?

The worst moment for me, by far, was hearing many (important to note: not all) of them laugh at Trump’s sad attempt at comedy on a phone call to the team. There’s respect for the Office of the President, and then there’s respect for themselves and understanding the context of his past actions towards women and girls.

So, I made a collage for the unifying beauty of the Olympic Games; for the athletes from all over the world who compete as women, for those who are not allowed to, and for the male and other gender athletes, coaches, staff, and all the fans who support them. After the news this morning though, it’s also in honor of atheletes from Iran who will compete in the Olympics and World Cup, when it comes to the U.S. this summer. (Go read ’s newsletter about the politics of that event, too)

This collage is about the messy nature of building each Olympic Games and, ultimately, diplomacy. It can be painstaking and detailed and it’s about bringing all these disparate parts together to make something new and celebratory.

Stay tuned for the next issue in this series where I illustrate news through my collages. And, thanks for reading! Please go like, follow, and subscribe to Export Quality on social media platforms everywhere! And, here’s a link to purchase a print of this piece through my shop.

It’s been one hell of a start to 2026. We’re a month in and it’s felt like an age. One of anger, frustration, and an absurdity of political theater. Personally, it’s taken me some time to get back into the swing of the year because of a health scare. I’m relatively ok!

I did take the time to come up with some new ideas for Export Quality. which is ultimately a newsletter for my own reporting on a variety of beats but also about the desi diaspora community. Right now it’s a bit nerve-wracking to be an immigrant and write about what’s going on in Minneapolis, even from afar.

I can’t add to the intense and brave reporting being done by the Minnesota Star Tribune and Sahan Journal, but what I can do is give you conext for this situation and ask a lot of questions.

Two journalists - both Black - were arrested simply for trying to do their jobs. You should go support those news outlets and independent journalists like Don Lemon and Georgia Fort because while influencers who post online are amplifying events, jouralists are doing the work of keeping power accountable. Fort had live streamed a protest at a church and was then arrested at home.

When this happens in Black, brown, and Asian countries, the West immediately gathers regional experts and touts that press freedom is the bedrock of any democracy.

One example is the 2019 arrest of Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and co-founder of digital news site Rappler in the Philippines. Ressa was reporting a story about a prominent businessman allegedly bribing a judge and then was charged under the country’s cyberlibel law for publishing a false story. The move was seen as a political one since Ressa was also a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged extrajudicial killings and ‘war on drugs.’ After the uproar from humanitarian groups and even former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Ressa went on to win the Nobel Prize in 2021 and continues working on press freedom.

It shouldn’t matter that they are independent, the media industry has pushed so many of us out at this point that being out on your own is often the choice that makes the most sense. It shouldn’t matter that they were at a protest. We all have that Constitutional right. Would I defend them if they worked for a right-wing outlet? Yes, as long as they weren’t perpetuating hate speech.

Neither of them was doing the latter, but if even showing others’ criticism is blasphemy against the Church of MAGA, the problem lies with the truth and not the truthteller.

If the administration is intent on silencing the visual proof (video from Shanelle Kaul of CBS News) of what is happening, we have to look at the hard facts they can't arrest.

The questions we should be asking right now aren't just about the outrage in the streets, but the self-destruction of an economic engine and the chance to redefine American politics.

It’s natural to think the blanket answers are MAGA Republicans’ xenophobia and racism, but I think that’s letting other Republicans and Democrats off the hook too easily.

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I turned to making some art for the first time in months, inspired by recent events:

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I don’t think we should reduce an immigrant’s ‘worth’ solely to their income or financial contribution to society, to do so is inhumane in many ways. But, it’s naive to not think about it at all in the discussion on reforming our expensive, confusing labyrinth of immigration policies.

So, let’s have that discussion. Is all this bloodshed, fear, and chaos really worth more than $100 billion, Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance for this administration?

We were told the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), State Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency were either dismantled or gutted without Congressional approval as a cost-cutting measure. Smaller federal footprint = more money in Americans’ pockets. So purely from a fiscal standpoint, why does ICE need more money? Why did the House (both Republicans and more than a few Democrats) approve $75 million more for ICE? [Eight Senate Republicans and all Democrats blocked the bill, which includes other proposed funding as well, on Friday. As of Saturday however, part of the government is still shut down as they try to hash out an agreement.]

We as a country, as voting citizens, have a right to know what our tax dollars are being used to do. Tax dollars that also come from the undocumented people. According to a study conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented residents in the U.S. paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022.

Billion with a B. They pay into programs they can’t even access as a means of showing they want to be here and part of the economy and society. They pay for years on end, waiting for their paperwork to be processed.

Why are Congressional Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter) not pushing for setting up a stronger legal labor framework that would benefit undocumented people as well as the people who employ them?

Of course, business owners would be liable for the minimum wage, health insurance, and other associated costs. But, if our food costs are skyrocketing anyway because of inflation and undocumented agricultural workers are/will soon be too scared to keep working, isn’t there some benefit to employers and the marketplace writ large to have a steady workforce?

Why are Congressional Democrats not hammering their Republican colleagues on this? [I may have half an answer to this one: they are scared to lose power. You have to be in the game to play it, after all. But, political operatives have repeatedly told me in the post-Trump 2016 years that voters want courage of conviction and consistency, not cowardice. Ironically, it’s the thing that got Trump and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected.]

Where are all the states’ rights advocates now? They champion states’ rights to outlaw gay marriage, abortions, and adjudicate independently, but not to prevent a federal agency from (allegedly) killing its own citizens or detaining children born in the state?

If the goals of the administration are distraction from other actions or a less civically engaged populace, they’ve likely only partially succeeded.

Unfortunately for them, Minneapolis-St. Paul was one of the worst places they could have chosen to target. Don’t underestimate Midwest Nice (which isn’t always actual kindness) for docility. I have to believe Prince would never stand for all this.

And now, ICE is reportedly going to come for southern Ohio and its Republican Governor Mike DeWine. It feels cruel not to frame this in terms of the potential devastation to the Haitian community and other immigrants in the state, but sometimes questions need to be asked on other peoples’ terms.

If anything, this is a test for DeWine and the gubernatorial candidates. What kind of Republican does he want to be going forward as he finishes his second term in office? He can’t run in this year’s election and is backing Vivek Ramaswamy, an Indian American from Cincinnati. Does he want to protect the people that live in his state as part of his legacy? Even non-immigrants are staying home from work and school in the Twin Cities right now out of fear. Does he want to cede control and jurisdiction over to federal officials on his way out of office?

This is also a test for Ramaswamy. This impending ICE raid is a chance for him to set himself apart from the sea of desis in the Trumpsphere who often feel like they would be willing to sell out their skin color, culture, and history for proximity to a power that ultimately does not value people who look just like them. Will he actually take it? And, what will it do for people of color and immigrants in the state if he doesn’t?

At some point every politician has to ask themselves whether their loyalty lies to the party structure or the electorate, and this is the time for Ramaswamy to do that.

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Life is frustrating these days as so many of my friends and colleagues (and I!) are looking for jobs and the cost of living is insane. There’s local work to be done, though. We said as much after the 2024 election.

And, we see that in the Twin Cities. Parents forming human shields so all children can attend school, setting up funds to help undocumented and other immigrant families get groceries and pay bills as they stay home from work out of fear, people quite literally putting their lives on the line as legal observers.

It’s both horrifying and inspires some hope in humanity.

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Your media list:

has been writing about the mental health of children in undocumented families for her newsletter Port of Entry and it’s crucial reading for those wondering what the future of this crisis looks like.

You can support immigrant-led, Minnesota-based news site Sahan Journal. They’ve been doing important reporting no one else has been.

The Asian American Journalist Association’s statement on Don Lemon and Georgia Fort’s arrests.

How Baltimore organizers are preparing to fight back against ICE - Jaisal Noor for Baltimore Beat

How Global Tensions Defined the 1956 Cortina Olympics - Lakshmi Gandhi for History.com

Providence City Council launches push for rent stabilization. What it means. - Nish Kohli for The Providence Journal

Kamar Samuels is an NYC Education Veteran. But Is He Ready to Take on Universal Childcare? - Nikole Ragor and Levine Signals Reinvestment of City Pension Funds in Israeli Bonds as Mamdani Opposes the Move - Shaan Merchant for The Polis Project’s limited reportng series, First 100 Days of Zohran

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Join me for a live chat starting at 6pm ET on Tuesday, Nov 4 so join me and subscribers as I talk to people in Astoria, Queens and share exit polling and more news (also memes) about getting a desi in Gracie.

This isn’t an endorsement as much as an explanation of what I’ve been mulling over this campaign season.

There are days when the city will chew you up, spit you out, and isolate you in ways you didn’t think possible living on an island full of millions of people. NYC certainly has had its joyless moments, particularly during the early days of the pandemic.

Between Mayor Eric Adams’ many corruptions and general apathy toward mayoring, the astronomical heights to which rent and groceries have climbed (shout-out to the very cheap sabziwalla on my corner — I’m grateful for you, my friend), and the general, sterile enshittification that comes with tech giants taking over a space, New York City has lost a lot of its spark.

It feels like Zohran Mamdani’s campaign is trying to bring some of it back.

I keep hearing it from native New Yorkers and people like me — those who grew up here, left, came back, or just never escaped: It’s not the same as it used to be. Something’s missing. The charm’s gone.

💫Something is missing

What’s gone, I think, isn’t just affordability - it’s joy.

Old New York — grimy, unpredictable, gloriously absurd — had it in spades. The excitement of newly arrived immigrants at JFK and its hilariously horrendous introduction to America at Terminal 4; the mash-up of accents and attitudes you met at every corner; the sense that you were standing in the middle of something reinventing itself every day in art, music, culture, business, whatever. It was chaotic and singular in the country and world.

It was a city where you could raise a family on very little money and, if you worked hard, buy a place to settle down with others from your community, alongside everyone else. A city where broke artists and other creatives could carve out a decent living among their peers — all without a trust fund or generational wealth. It was hard, but it could happen.

We haven’t had that feeling in a long time.

Some of that change is good! Crime is down significantly. The city is far cleaner than it used to be. New York has become an important player for startups and technology like never before. Trains are reaching neighborhoods they didn’t before, and LaGuardia Airport is no longer a gauntlet of safety violations and depression travelers need to traverse.

There are new areas of art, media, and cultural investment throughout the country in Austin, Tulsa, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Nostalgia about the way the city used to be has become what I assume is a relatively profitable cottage industry.

While Cleveland is a home in many ways,it’s New York that made my life possible. If it hadn’t been the mythic place of skyscrapers and possibilities, my parents wouldn’t have started a new chapter here with me in tow and my brother to follow. It’s where my humor sharpened and my grit solidified. NYC is part of my origin story, hero and villain editions both.

In the post-9/11 haze and so-called patriotism of the time, NYC became a symbol of being American while also still retaining its gritty uniqueness from the rest of the country. But in recent years, it’s become less a place where anything is possible to a city where crushing debt and a move to the suburbs are the only guarantees.

New York can still be cruel and overpriced and exhausting, but it can also be uniquely kind, open-minded, and generous to those who fight for it.

That’s what’s missing at City Hall right now: the sense that someone actually loves this place. Adams doesn’t seem to and every city deserves a leader who does — even this one.

❤️ Being himself

I think the magic formula to Mamdani’s campaign winning over the hearts of millions, and the votes thus far too, is a simple one: he’s real and loves the city.

He’s embraced his past without shame and navigated attacks on him and his identity with grace. He’s brought back some sense of community and belonging and delight to this town that desperately needed it.

He has also acknowledged the South Asian community and its roots here in a way no one else in city politics ever has. My dear friend PORT OF ENTRY’s Jennifer Chowdhury wrote about the aunties, the natural organizers, who have propelled Mamdani’s campaign. It’s a must read.

⚡ Echoes of AOC

It reminds me of how Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rallied all kinds of people to join her campaign.

I was one of the first reporters to write about AOC in the early Spring of 2018, when the campaign’s office was a few rooms full of dusty documents in the back of a taxi stand in Parkchester. My editors in London didn’t get it — didn’t get her — until the story blew up.

Her campaign was similar to Mamdani’s in that it was a slow burn and then all of a sudden became an unstoppable fire. The world adored AOC and longtime Congressman Joe Crowley became a “Who?”

They share socialist leanings and boldness and what established politicos have called “audacity.” That term is abhorrent and we have learned nothing in Big Media over the years. Why is it ‘audacious’ for two young brown candidates to believe in the people around them, in their ethnic communities, and what they could do to help, but it’s ‘courage’ and ‘confidence’ for white candidates?

🔥 Joy as a Political Act

In any case, that same spark, that same improbable momentum, is here again. Only this time, the opponent isn’t an obscure incumbent. It’s Cuomo — “America’s Governor,” professional comeback artist, still hungry for power, and strangely allergic to accountability. Mamdani is also up against racist and Islamophobic attacks, old comments surfacing and leading to him being called antisemitic (Bess Kalb at has a great read on this), and has an entire city to convince instead of a district.

He seems to be doing so happily. He’s done tai chi and danced salsa at a senior center in the Lower East Side, wore a suit and danced (thankfully) with rhythm at the gay clubs on Halloween and other dj sets in Brooklyn, dined with the Satmar Hasidic Jewish community, gone around town meeting cab drivers and bodega workers, and posted videos in Hindi, Bangla, and Spanish.

It’s been the happiest campaign I’ve ever seen or written about and it still addresses the rampant inflation, deep-seated problems with transit, housing, education inequity, and poverty in the city.

What has made so many people here and outside the city believe in him — even fall in love with him — isn’t the team’s perfect social media game, though that helps. It’s that he’s using joy and not fear or anger as his weapon in the fight for the five boroughs.

🕊️ What This City Deserves

I’ve been pleasantly surprised he hasn’t fallen in the trap of the Depressing Pessimists Club, where everything is doomed and anyone not in perfect alignment with you is a waste of time. It’s hard to break through the disappointment in the wake of the OG feelings-mongerers, the 2008 campaign team of Barack Obama, and his subsequent two terms in office. It’s not easy convincing people to care after Trump’s second win.

However, Mamdani has. There’s an earnestness I want our Mayor to have, absent of innocence but not of clarity - and he seems to possess that.

Whatever happens Tuesday night, this campaign gave New York a mirror. It reminded us what the city can look like when someone actually gives a damn.

👻 Who You Gonna Call?

Since it was Halloween season, I watched the original Ghostbusters late last night. It’s a silly film that couldn’t be set anywhere except New York City in the ’80s.

In it, Mayor Lenny’s aide sends our beloved quartet to jail instead of believing them that ghosts exist. It’s the mayor who comes to their rescue and makes it possible for them to bring New Yorkers together for a common cause.

It may be a stupid comparison, but maybe we just need a mayor who wants to help with our problems.

The city only survives when someone believes in it — slime, ghosts, and all.

Join me for a live chat starting at 6pm ET on Tuesday, Nov 4 so join me and subscribers as I talk to people in Astoria, Queens and share exit polling and more news (also memes) about getting a desi in Gracie.

I really did not think I would ever see Diwali make it to one of the greatest American treasures — and practically the only U.S. export that hasn’t been harmful - Sesame Street, but here we are. I know there are a growing number of children’s books, Mira the Royal Detective, and Diwali parties of all manner for adults but this is Sesame Street!

It’s how so many of us learned English, among other things. And now we’ve come full circle to see these super cute kids.

It’s hard to find positivity these days, so I’m hanging on to this. And you know cookie monster loves parle-g. 🎆🎆🎆

Over on EQ’s new Instagram account - which you should follow - I noticed so many news outlets covering Diwali all over North America (Canada, you’re better about a lot things and inclusivity is one of them). There may only be about five million South Asians in the U.S. but our impact is certainly outsized.

Along with this cultural visibility, we’re seeing a growing force in politics as well. I’m not just talking about Kamala Harris or the infamous desis in the Trump administration, but about state and local politics where a connection to community is crucial. (And again, Canada you likely have us beat on representation in your Cabinet-level positions and provincial politics! I would love to hear more from my readers up north on this though.)

And, I don’t think there is a higher profile local election in the country, and maybe the world, than the New York Mayoral.

For those of you who were able to watch and even participate in my live chat last night here on Substack, thank you! Let’s keep it going in the comments.

If every election in NYC is full of characters and drama, this one is a supercharged DDLJ level of drama, a Bollywood blockbuster.

We are lucky to have a desi trying to get into Gracie this year as I revive and build this newsletter and our community here! Regardless of your preference, Zohran Mamdani is taking an important step for us diaspora kids - especially those outside of the Hindu, Indian majority.

Like Harris’ run for president, Mamdani represents something much bigger than himself. South Asian New Yorkers have been making the city run for decades, and most are or have been lower income and ignored, particularly the Bangladeshi community. There are some upcoming stories on this that are fascinating and lovely, so watch ’s Port of Entry for that and read this piece in the meantime on the rise of the South Asian community in local politics here in our little town.

The emotional aspect of this race extends beyond just our community and seeing ourselves, our children, our history, struggles, and future in Mamdani - a weight he seems to be handling well.

I’ll spare you a blow-by-blow account of the debate since we did that in the live chat, but you can watch the whole thing here thanks to NY1:

Outside of the LaGuardia Center for Performing Arts in Long Island City last night a crowd of people were chanting “USA!USA!USA!” NYC isn’t like the rest of America, but it’s deeply American in ways people forget - until election season. These patriotic voters were supporters of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and I couldn’t help but think it was veiled dig aimed at surprise political darling and former Assemblymember Mamdani.

Why? Because for those supporters it seems like it’s somehow un-American to vote for the brown, Muslim, “kid,” as Cuomo called him during the debate. None of them would say that to my face when I talked to them just beyond the police barricade, so this is only my between-the-lines observation. However, coupled with following the political action committee (PAC) mailers drama and social media rhetoric these groups have paid for and promoted that included a fair bit of fear mongering and almost all the -isms, I’m thinking I may not be so far off.

I was lucky to be able to sit among regular people during the final debate of the campaign season thanks to the CUNY Journalism School, where I do some of my work these days supporting community and ethnic media. But, not sweating it out over a laptop in a backroom with other reporters for the first time in recent memory also meant an unvarnished look at the audience - good and bad.

While waiting for the debate to start, a woman from Manhattan in her 60s, struck up a conversation. “Hopefully he’ll come back to himself tonight,” she told me about Cuomo.

She didn’t feel Cuomo was aggressive or went on the offensive enough during the last few debates and was hoping he would do that tonight.

She also went after Sliwa, which I found curious considering the red beret’d founder of citizen-led crime watch group Guardian Angel is not actually the real competition.

And then we got to Mamdani bhai. She said his name incorrectly and, given the context, I didn’t correct her. [My friends and family will tell you I have the world’s worst poker face, but I seem to be able to keep it together when I’m out reporting. One of my biggest pet peeves is mispronouncing names as a means of dismissal, as you can imagine]. She said she thinks “it’s disgusting” what Mamdani said regarding Israel, adding with a catch in her throat: “I’m Jewish and I would like to live. And there’s only one way to interpret what he’s said.”

She also told me she doesn’t like journalists’ coverage of Cuomo after finding out where I work, but remained otherwise friendly. However, I cannot say the same for all of the Cuomo supporters in attendance.

It was reflective of the animosity, fear, xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia, and general desperation New Yorkers are experiencing right now. And, I can say for myself I felt a lot of that in the room while I listened the under-the-breath mutterings from Cuomo supporters around me anytime Mamdani spoke and especially when they confronted the Mamdani supporters in the row in front of us during the debate multiple times to ‘fact check’ them on a variety of issues. It was a familiar feeling of antagonism and reflective of the election writ large.

Of course, there was a fair share of comments from the gallery of Mamdani and Sliwa supporters when Cuomo spoke, too, particularly when he failed to directly address the allegations of sexual assault brought by more than a dozen women when he was still in office.

Cuomo’s campaign has thus far been an exercise in his public rehabilitation. He said he left office to ‘make it easier’ on New Yorkers. However, Sliwa had one of the best lines of the night in my opinion: “Andrew, you didn’t leave office, you fled.”

I have done my fair share of Sliwa-teasing in the past, but as this campaign has progressed and particularly at the debate: no one can say that man doesn’t care about low income New Yorkers. He does so unwaveringly and with a passion we don’t often get to see in more ‘managed’ candidates like Cuomo, or even Mamdani.

It’s a passion that is reflected in those voters too as his message and Mamdani’s actually overlap quite a bit when it comes to raising taxes on the uber-wealthy, helping make rent and groceries more affordable, and shoring up support for certain assistance programs. Of course, their messaging and approaches diverge but the central point is clear: New York can’t be what it is if we keep pricing out those New Yorkers who have been here for decades and make the city run, unrecognized.

One line that got the crowd very riled up, in all directions:

I genuinely can’t predict what will happen on November 4th. Whoever wins, there will be some anger, frustration, and sadness in the city. But I’m hoping for hope — and maybe some dhamaka, those joyful sounds absent of hate — on election night instead, because New Yorkers could use a little of that right now.

And now, on to your required reading:

The Wayback Machine’s snapshots of news homepages plummet after a “breakdown” in archiving projects - Hanaa’ Tameez for Nieman Lab

This Chicago Neighborhood Was Just Named the Coolest in the U.S.—Here’s How to Experience It, According to a Local - Meena Thiruvengadam for Travel + Leisure (Good travel writing is deceptively hard, and Meena makes a joy out of it!)

🎉🎉A belated congratulations to two friends Nidhi Prakash and Ashish Malhotra on becoming Knight-Wallace Fellows at the University of Michigan!🎉🎉

Immigration fuels the US economy. Here’s what happens when there’s less of it - Zulekha Nathoo, et al USA Today

The nation’s community health centers face money troubles - Shalina Chatlani for Stateline

The religion question:

In all my years trying to understand the clusterf*ck that is U.S. politics, I have come to the conclusion that I hate that religion is such a central piece of the candidate-to-elected journey. Alas, that’s unrealistic. A candidate’s religious beliefs - or lack thereof - do matter to many voters.

This past week we saw that with desi candidate for NYC Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who self-describes as Muslim. He has been facing racial discrimination and Islamophobia since the beginning of his campaign from the usual suspects - including notable former Queens resident Donald Trump. Of course, as diaspora desis do, we are rising in American politics, so too are we starting to excel in the time-honored profession of Political Hecklers.

Having written about the diaspora and India for years, I’ve had my share of run-ins with the particularly voracious brand of desi online mobs who think I am not Indian, American, pretty, or smart enough in equal measure. My personal favorites are the Tamil ones who kindly translate their insults into nonsensical English phrases. *chef’s kiss* Lucky for all of us, I made it through the hellscape of American middle school bullying as a brown, bespectabled, chubby, braceface. In other words, I can take a lot. And, so can Mamdani, it seems.

The latest chorus of antizohranism comes ironically from Indian media itself. Mamdani recently visited the Ganesh temple in Flushing, Queens (shout out to all of us who grew up going there and that Zagat-rated canteen). New York media was largely unphased. It’s a long-standing institution in the World’s Borough, he’s Indian American, and his mother, acclaimed film director Mira Nair, is Hindu. Why wouldn’t he make that a campaign stop?

Current Mayor Eric Adams found time in between corruptions to attend Ganesh utsav. Mayor Mike Bloomberg also made an official visit while in office. Mayor Bill de Blasio didn’t go but I got to attend a Diwali celebration at Gracie Mansion while he was in office.

Who was very phased by Mamdani’s visit was the Indian media, so much so, that many hit publish with speculations and misinformation. When The Mob, which is as organized as your Local Aunties when the biggest piece of gossip hit your suburban community, descended online with accusations that he wore his shoes inside the temple, these seemingly reputable outlets wanted to “investigate.” I think this literally just involved zooming in on the pictures from the visit and understanding that there is an outdoor area to the temple where people can and do wear shoes. (The Hindustan Times at least issued a correction).

In any case, here is Mamdani in all his maalai’d (garland of flowers) glory during the visit. In a smart move, he connected the concept of seva and his campaign. And, he didn’t wear shoes inside.

The mistake:

NBC News announced yesterday that it was shutting down all of its ‘diversity’ verticals: NBC BLK, NBC OUT (covering the LGBTQ+ community), NBC Latino, and NBC Asian America. So many of us have either read, referenced, championed, or reported for the NBC Asian America vertical since it launched in 2014. PBS News Hour’s co-anchor Amna Nawaz was the vertical’s first managing editor. While layoffs have become an expected trouble in our industry, this one hits a little different. As my dear friend, colleague, and seasoned culture and arts reporter Lakshmi Gandhi wrote:

The network says the shuttering of these outlets is part of around 150 layoffs or reassignments across the news division but the impact of these spaces no longer existing will be felt by far more.

NBC Universal has also fully split from its cable entities, forcing, among other units, MSNBC to rebrand and move out of the iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios. The network said the verticals will remain online but will co-post stories from around the newsroom and not have staffers or original stories.

While this may just be a business decision to cut costs across the news division as more and more people turn to news creators and channels on social media platforms,I can’t help but think this is also a move on the part of network executives to appease the White House and its grander push to eliminate DEI efforts.

To cater to the state we are supposed to hold accountable, while also ignoring the rise and rising importance of community-based coverage as part of remaking modern journalism, feels shortsighted, at best. But, it also reminds me of why I wrote for NBC Asian America in the first place and why I started this newsletter: to have a place for myself and others like me, our stories, our cultural competence when reporting.

The heartbreak:

There is a story I wanted to cover more in-depth today but I simply can’t bring myself to write more on it. As someone who has largely stayed away from it, I can confidently say immigration reporters who are from immigrant families themselves are exceptional. Being on this beat has always been tough - not just because we need to make sure we understand laws, policies, and the political rhetoric surrounding it in the U.S., but also language barriers, navigating the embarassing terror of certain enforcement officers, access to detainees, and. most crucially, the emotions of covering wrecked lives. I will attempt to write about him in another post but for now here is something I think everyone needs to read: the utterly heartbreaking story of Indian American Subu Vedam. He was wrongfully accused of murder 43 years ago but was recently exonerated. Then, ICE immediately detained him on a decades-old order even though his application to become a citizen was accepted before he went to prison.

The art:

Diane Keaton died earlier this week and the world lost a woman who defied Hollywood’s expectations of women in her fashion style and the way she lived her life. I’ve never been a huge fan of Woody Allen, the director with whom she frequently collaborated, but that Annie Hall style is iconic. The way I remember her is as loveably flawed characters in the heydey of romcoms like Father of the Bride and First Wives Club. I often see hints of her in Jennifer Aniston’s characters, too. What I was surprised to find out after her death is that we have a mutual interest: she loved making collages. This piece and the Instagram post below delighted me as I try to return to making mine.

The plea:

There are days when trying to build this newsletter is incredibly discouraging and some when it’s full of possibilities.

My hope is that you like it enough here to help support EQ the way we do diaspora brands and influencers. We are a growing and powerful presence in the diaspora and I hope Export Quality helps us embrace that and what’s to come in a more informed - and witty - way.

So, if you wouldn’t mind just telling even one person about EQ by forwarding them an issue you liked, I would be deeply grateful. They don’t have to become a paid subscriber right away but it would be great if they joined us as we sip our export quality chai and ate our Parle-G biscuits, in our circa-1986 Corningware dish sets with that blue or green pattern around the edge none of us can ever mistake for anything but home.

The podcast episode:

Everyone seems to be weighing in on this incredible podcast episode between Ezra Klein of The New York Times and Ta-Nehisi Coates and indulge me for a moment as I give you my own take. If you haven’t listened to it yet, you should. It’s a fascinating conversation about our national reaction to the murder of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. [You don’t have to read the pair’s pieces before listening but it will add some context.

Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way - Klein/NYT

Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause - Coates/Vanity Fair]

Full disclosure: I am not really a fan of Klein’s podcast but every once in a while he has some thought-provoking guests on that makes me listen to it and I do appreciate his willingness to have Coates on to discuss the latter’s criticism of his piece on Kirk. I don’t always agree with Coates on everything either, but I have always appreciated and very much admired the way he writes and explains his thinking.

There were a few things that struck me about this conversation: Coates’ graciousness and, perhaps the thing that struck me the most, Klein’s refusal to see his own perspective. It sounds dumb, but it’s like Klein didn’t realize who he is in this back and forth: a straight, white man who has seemingly never faced socioeconomic difficulties and has a stable (if not prestigious) job in a very difficult industry. Let’s set aside the concept of privilege, though that certainly has a place in my analysis of the episode and Klein. But, it’s more that he never acknowledges the lens or perspective through which he is coming at all this - a thing Coates repeatedly acknowledges about himself and his Black heritage and ancestry.

This isn’t a value judgement, per se. No one can control how they’re born or their background. It’s just that, you move through the world differently than many of us Ezra, at least do us the courtesy of understanding the factors that go into that and say it out loud so we know you do during conversations like this one.

The title of the episode is ‘bridging gaps’ and I think Coates does much more of that with Klein than vice versa. I think Klein, in good faith, wants to do that with people on the far right, but with an acceptance of rhetoric that has always pushed them away. It was a bit confounding to me why he’s still obsessing over Hillary Clinton’s remarks in 2016 about a “basket of deplorables,” a clip of which he played during the episode - while simultaneously asking people Charlie Kirk vilified to mourn his death.

I’ve said it before, but Kirk’s parents and children absolutely did not deserve this. However, we as South Asians specifically should not have to publicly express grief over him either.

Shutting up is free, as Coates very gently reminded Klein.

For reference, here’s what Kirk has said about Indians in particular in a tweet on September 2:

The book:

Who doesn’t want the delightful - and these days, increasingly necessary - escape into fiction? Fans are excited to see Kiran Desai return to bookshelves after 20 years!

The Inheritance of Loss, Desai’s second novel, won the coveted Booker Prize in 2006 and she hasn’t blessed with a third since then. I’m excited to dig into The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and here’s a great piece on her, her writing process, the new book, and a shout out to the best borough in the world: Queens.

The art:

The New York Historical Society has a new exhibit on saris! I’ll be visiting it this week with my parents so I can get my Mom’s perspective on it. She navigated the subway in a sari back in the 80s, before she became the first and only sister on her side of the family to wear jeans on a regular basis. I wasn’t a huge fan of wearing saris until my early 30s, a combination the early life body shaming by The Aunties™️so many of us are familiar with and my own insecurity and clumsiness. But, after a string of friends’ weddings forced me to abandon the exasperated sighs from my Chief Sari Draper (aka Mom) and learn how to do it well on my own, my appreciation of them and their history grew leaps and bounds. It’s interesting the exhibit uses the sari as a vehicle to explain the influence of South Asians on the city, the differences in how each community ties them even decades after immigrating here, and what it will make me think about as Zohran Mamdani (son of film director Mira Nair) leads the race to become the first desi in Gracie. In any case, here’s a poster in my apartment of two women atop the Empire State Building marvelling at the view.

The plea:

There are days when trying to build this newsletter is incredibly discouraging and some when it’s full of possibilites. I really enjoyed writing my last post on the UN General Assembly, but the reality is that not many people were able to read it. Still, I think there’s value in growing our community of people interested in South Asian diaspora news and perspectives - and dare I say, my style of writing. Or maybe you just like that I post Bollywood gifs.

Whatever it is, thank you for being here! And, my hope is that you like it enough here to help support EQ the way I love companies like Live Tinted and Julkee Fashion’s sustainability mindset, the wildly good new crop of pop and rap artists coming out of the subcontinent and here, and shows like Deli Boys.

We are a growing and powerful presence in the diaspora and I hope Export Quality helps us embrace that and what’s to come in a more informed - and witty - way.

So, if you wouldn’t mind just telling even one person about EQ by forwarding them an issue you liked, I would be deeply grateful. They don’t have to become a paid subscriber right away but it would be great if they joined us as we sip our export quality chai and ate our Parle-G biscuits, in our circa-1986 Corningware dish sets with that blue or green pattern around the edge none of us can ever mistake for anything but home.

Some highlights:

• Indian Prime Minister Modi did not attend UNGA this year and it brings up a lot of questions given his affinity for attention from the West. Instead Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar will give a speech long after most of leaders have left New York on September 27. Interim leader Mohammed Yunus, who took over after mass protests last year, gave Bangladesh’s speech. After violent protests in Nepal largely driven by young people and a WILD use of a Discord channel to cast votes for a new government, Nepal’s official UNGA presence seemed to be limited to Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Lok Bahadur Thapa.

• Several world leaders walked out at the beginning of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s speech. I don’t think I’ve seen such a decisive action on the part of country representatives at UNGA after the uproar over the U.S. start of the Iraq War, followed by the mess that was the 2009 climate agreement negotiations in Copenhagen. Whether you agree with it not, there is a definitive shift in feelings towards Bibi and the Palestinian state. Even the UK, who one could argue started this awful, destructive conflict with its arbitrary backroom, pith helmet-driven cartography, has now recognized Palestine. It joins 155 other countries - including every South Asian country which did it back in 1988.

• Kenyan President William Ruto pushed for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the African continent. Reforming the ~ often toothless ~ body is nothing new. But, file away this piece of information because I think ideas in this vein will only grow louder as the U.S. influence on the African continent wanes as development funding has run dry (see below) and China’s grows bigger by the day.

• What is there to say about President Trump’s speech? It was the oratorical dumpster fire to which we have all uncomfortably grown accustomed. Sadly, it may have been the longest amount of time at a podium any U.S. leader has spent talking about climate change in recent memory - even though he spent all of it calling it a “hoax.” No one seemed to walk out of Trump’s speech but that didn’t stop him from accusing the world body of “triple sabotage.” [No word if the Beastie Boys are suing him for copyright infringement]. At least we still have dark humor:

  

And indeed, the escalator did stop. The teleprompter did, too. And Trump did complain about the UN’s financial state. The irony and tragedy of that statement is that he put an end to the U.S. being its largest funder. But, no one walked out of his speech.

What I’m curious about: Trump has had a profound effect on the UN already, particularly with disbanding the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year (yes, that was in 2025 though it feels like 30 years ago) and halting contributions to various other agencies - all amounting to a drop in the bucket of the federal budget. There are stories of New York-based UN agencies sending staff back to their home countries as they decide where to relocate. Agencies like the World Food Programme already took a hit during his first administration. What’s next for all the people who were forced to rely on this aid?

As with all federal government cuts, there are the immediate effects, but the ripple, down-chain effects are less thought about, less covered by mainstream media, and can be just as, if not more, destructive.

And, this isn’t just a horrific problem of starving children in Gaza or stemming the ravages of HIV/AIDS primarily in African countries through the PEPFAR.

Here’s the bigger point our community may not consider: If you’re South Asian and reading this, you’re alive because of American-funded global development and scientific innovations like Norman Borlaug’s dwarf wheat or polio and tuberculosis vaccines. You’re here because the subcontinent needed help in the wake of Independence and, even with all its faults and racism, agencies like USAID and the UN came through.

What happens going forward to this generation of people who need that help?

Mandatory viewing (UN/Climate Week edition):

US is violating human rights laws by backing fossil fuels, say young activists in new petition AND Climate activists gather in New York for ‘Sun Day’ solar energy and anti-billionaire rallies- Dharna Noor for The Guardian

Trump wants to win AI race, but his immigration policies could get in the way - Deepa Shivaram for NPR

From Host, Asma Khalid for BBC News’ The Global Story podcast:

has a great newsletter called America’s Cup. In his words: “In the year leading up to America’s World Cup, I’ll be diving into the clash of global soccer joy and the U.S. vision, in an era of chaotic government, unpredictable policy, and geopolitical tensions. Can soccer’s magic outshine the drama, or will America rewrite the rules to fit its own policy plans?”

I lived there during the lame duck end of Clinton 2, Bush 1-2, and into the Obama 1 eras and even during Bush 2 - when I knew people being shipped off to Afghanistan and Iraq - the city felt better than it did on this last, short trip. [Although, the food scene is great. Shout out to Yellow and Laos in Town for being welcoming and delicious].

I was hoping this Summit would give me some glimmer of hope in what has been a fraught and rather dark news landscape of late and it delivered on that. Deepti Sharma (full disclosure, she’s a friend!), a serial entrpreneur, activist, speaker, and Queens borough diehard; and Palak Sheth, who co-founded Post March Salon and was part of the organizing team for the South Asian Women for Harris zoom call last summer, talked openly about their failures and overcoming them both in the politics arena and outside of it. Or rather, ‘failures,’ because these exceptionally accomplished women really learned from things that didn’t go their way (like elections and business ventures) and persisted. It was refreshing to see Desi women living on their own timelines, honestly sharing their trials outside of a group chat on Whatsapp, and seeing them continue their work and moving forward in professionally and personally despite those setbacks. I think I deeply needed that as I navigate the last quarter of this year that’s been forcing a lot of changes and re-thinking. But, it also made me think of what persisting looks like for the desi community writ large right now and for those fighting for a right to exist, transparency, and freedom here and all over the world.

Another positive note for me was attending a packed session for desis wanting to run for elected office. Our people really are everywhere. To wit, I was excited to see Priya Sundareshan, who leads Democrats in the Arizona Senate. Her former Arizona House colleague Dr. Amish Shah spoke about the labor and mechanics of campaigning (tl; dr it’s a hell of a lot of work and my personal Functioning Introvert nightmare) and is now running for U.S. Congress. Both of these politicians come from a science background, especially interesting to me given the recent spate of resignations from the Centers for Disease Control and what doctors have told me is ‘deeply troubling’ news about vaccines coming from a panel hand-picked by Health Secretary and notable non-scientist RFK Jr. Expect more exploration of Science Desis turning into Politics Desis in a future post.

Speaking of which, we also heard from another scientist: Shri Thanedar who has a doctorate in chemistry and is now a U.S. House Rep. for his Detroit district. He spoke on a panel alongside Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois, who is now running for Senate, and freshman Congressman Suhas Subramanyam from Virginia (whose former seat in the state Senate was taken over by Kannan Srinivasan.) Honestly, they should have just been serving dosai and idli during the morning panel with all the Tamil presence. But, that’s about all I can write on this panel so here’s a gratuitous pic of some food.

I wish I had a good synopsis for people who couldn’t attend and it isn’t for the lack of conviction and commitment of these elected officials. Their resolve to serve and fight for their constituencies and us, as a larger community of South Asians, seems real in most instances. But, I would have asked some more targeted questions and while it was great to hear from them in person, I’m not sure it had much to offer those who live outside of the Beltway where the inside baseball of Capitol Hill has been equal parts illuminating and infuriating, but means little else right now as we see protections, rights crumbling, and prices skyrocketing.

Perhaps I felt that way because my mind is on the New York mayoral race and my work here that helps support ethnic and hyperlocal community media, but I think you can turn to MSNBC or NPR to document the grinding wheels of national Democratic politics just for today.

Point is, the tide of South Asians in American politics is rising and while we’ve documented the members of community like FBI Director Kash Patel or erstwhile Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (who is from the worst part of Ohio, not-Cleveland) - and even former Vice President Kamala Harris - it’s more heartening to see there are many of our people trying to affect change in state and local politics right now. I know there will be some who say I’m sugarcoating this or naive, but I also do not want to be part of the Joyless No-Luck Club right now. It isn’t turning a blind eye to the atrocities of the world at the moment to find a few bright spots where you can.

We’re still a relatively young diaspora, still grappling with respecting our own national, ethnic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic diversity but I think there’s some small hope for that if more of us are seen and heard in civic life; held accountable to one another and others.

Being held accountable, whether by press or comedians, is the bedrock of a functioning, democratic, free society. We have a right to report on what elected officials do with our tax dollars and laugh at them, too. I tried to hold on to the sense of purpose and warmth from attending the summit, but this past week ABC fired late night host Jimmy Kimmel and the Washington Post let go of global opinion editor , both for presenting facts about a man who was, at the end of the day, an influencer. His children did not deserve to lose him, but he was nevertheless an self-proclaimed and vocal racist and misogynist who did not believe in the multicultural project of America.

Those public firings are part of an increasingly terrifying attack on the free press, good comedy, and accountability. NPR got a hold of what looks like a forthcoming directive from the newly-rebranded Department of War that essentially bans any criticism of U.S. defense policy. It is an extension of what the White House press team began doing earlier this year alongside the continued dismantling of Voice of America.

This is part of why I think it’s so important to keep this newsletter going, to get back to my reporting work, and to continue sharing links to work from my South Asian journalist colleagues, which I’ll start up again later this week so stay tuned.

It started with a stint of Covid, a subsequent trip to the hospital (I’m ok), having a major client run me ragged and then abruptly and unprofessionally end the contract, an unexpected apartment move which is always a bloodsport in New York, losing another client due to the ripple effects of federal government budget cuts, and finally, dealing with the flu while settling into my new space (for which I am grateful because it’s quite lovely). Needless to say, life has been…eventful of late and I’ve chosen to see all the chaos as making room for upgrades rather than just stressful endings.

It wasn’t a total bummer of a summer. I got to meet our family’s latest - and cutest - boss, a baby niece, during a family trip to the Bay Area and got to hang with old friends in Seattle before attending the Asian American Journalist Association conference. Not only did I moderate a panel but I was able to meet these 12 Voices fellows in-person after months of mentorship and editing their stories alongside a crew of amazing editors. (Jess, Allison, Russell, and Andrew and Nicole - you got me through this and I can’t wait until we get to hang again, sans deadlines)

This is all to say, hello, I’m back. You’ll be seeing me more in your inbox and perhaps in real life. The trials, tribulations, and tiny treasures of life continue but I’m happy to take Export Quality off the back burner.

What you can expect in the next few weeks: more of my excellent gif curation, news on Zohran Mamdani’s ascent to being the first desi in Gracie (a phrase from my dear friend Kavitha and a nod to the mansion where the New York mayor resides), a post or two on the upcoming South Asian Impact Summit in DC, more curated news roundups from desi journalists, Q+As with interesting people, and a return to my roots in reporting.

Thank you for sticking with me and believing in the mission of this little newsletter.

The world is expensive chaos at the moment so I completely understand if you can’t pay for another subscription. I would still greatly appreciate you subscribing and continuing to be part of this project.

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When Senator Cory Booker, the Democrat from Newark, New Jersey, hit the 12 hour mark as I finally reached for my phone at 7 am on Tuesday morning, my one thought was: Finally.

Several rounds of DOGE-led dismantling, seeing dozens of friends lose their jobs, talking to several more having to grapple with uncertainty, writing about the costs of eliminating DEI efforts and confounding tariffs - the last 72 days have felt like an endless, exhausting marathon.

I had been wondering whether a prominent Democrat besides Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett would step up in the last few months.

Maybe you fight fire with fire, er, I mean another kind of marathon? Perhaps a 25 hour and four minute filibuster from a Black man that broke the record of ancient racist Senator Strom Thurmond is the remedy for what ails us? The late Senator had previously filibustered for 24 hours when he was trying to stop the Civil Rights Act from passing.

To be honest, I didn’t think Booker had it in him. That’s more a comment on the general pearl-clutching and hand-wringing of Senate Democrats in the wake of the last 72 decades days than on Booker himself.

The cynic in me thinks he may have just done this to set up a run for president in 2028. But, the hopeful part of me, the part I cling to as I continue to write about and interview people not directly involved in politics, wants to believe this is the start of something - or maybe just a more accurate reflection of what people are feeling outside the Beltway.

I know a few of us could wax poetic like this about the state of the world but it counts for something that Booker, the one with the access, did it in such a fashion that’s gotten him hundreds of thousands of new fans.

Some are arguing he should have done this to block a big legislative vote or appointment that would be particularly destructive if passed or confirmed. I think there is merit to that but if we tally up all that has gone on, how much of it actually came before the Senate for a vote besides Cabinet confirmations? How much of it was carried on without Congressional involvement?

There is something to be said for trying to remind the world where the real power lies in Washington - not with a billionaire who bought his way in (and still lost in Wisconsin) but with an elected body.

There is something to be said for taking a stand simply because you felt the need to and not for a targeted political purpose. Of course, that could have been a calculated move as well. Whatever the motivation, he did it and Republicans in Congress and otherwise may never be able to buy the kind of social capital.

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And now on to your required viewing:

Big congrats to Niketa Patel on becoming Executive Director/CEO of the Online News Assoication! I was a contractor in two places where Niketa worked - Twitter and the CUNY Journalism school (where I still am) - so I am extra excited to see her boss up like this. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things she’ll do leading this group!

The Asian American and Pacific Islander press brings the world home - Kavitha Rajagopalan for The Emancipator

Op-ed: Gutting USAID means more deaths worldwide - Amy Yee for Chicago Sun-Times. [Amy was a foreign correspondent in South Asia for years and wrote a book on the Dalai Lama and Tibetans in India and the diaspora - Far from the Rooftop of the World: Travels Among Tibetan Refugees on Four Continents]

Houston businesses brace for challenges as Texas Legislature moves toward THC crackdown - Jishnu Nair for Houston Business Journal

Cory Booker's record-breaking speech ignites a Democratic base 'desperate' for a fighter - Sahil Kapur for NBC News

Donald Trump & presidential term limits - Deepa Shivaram on NPR Politics Podcast

WATCH: ‘Deli Boys’ offers a new take on South Asian representation on screen - NBC News

Clive Revill, Original Voice of Emperor Palpatine in ‘Star Wars,’ Dies at 94 - Sopan Deb for The New York Times

Why Is Dining Alone So Difficult? - Priya Krishna for The New York Times

Op-ed: Trump’s Academic Purge Will Make America Stupid and Provincial Again - Jeet Heer for The Nation

Feds cancel $4.3M worth of poultry, cheese, eggs to Michigan food banks - Nushrat Rahman for Detroit Free Press

WATCH: Cox signs bill requiring opt-in for vote-by-mail system - Mythili Gubbi for Fox 13 News Salt Lake City

While growing EQ in this era of a crumbling journalism industry and a slew of new newsletters has been slower than I expected, I’m incredibly grateful to find more than 330 of you as subscribers, hundreds more as followers on the app, and more than a handful of you willing to pay me to do this!

It’s with that optimism and your encouragement that I have taken my old beat in politics and explored it further here, as well as stretched some new muscles in interviewing South Asian diaspora creatives. There will certainly be more of the latter because these are the people telling the world the stories of our community, their stories, in a myriad of ways.

There will also be some more original reporting on the New York city mayoral race (with a desi candidate!), libraries and museums, foreign policy, cultural commentary, tech, books, movies and shows, and climate change - all the things I used to write about in a newsroom or have wanted to explore for a long time. Some posts will be about the diaspora, some not, but all of it will be from my brain.

My hope is that we form a community within EQ, like the blog days of old, and that EQ becomes a trusted source for news by and about our communities at a time when the American (and maybe Canadian) story is being controlled increasingly by those who do not represent or reflect us.

So, in light of the amount of work all of this takes, I’m turning on the payment feature on Substack on April 2. For now, I will NOT be putting any content behind a paywall because I understand many of you are on tight budgets as the cost of groceries rivals that of a mortgage.

But, if you enjoy my writing and reading/watching/listening to all the work I share from my colleagues, a small contribution will help me keep doing more of that and expand into audio, video, events, and bringing on guest writers!

Also, I want to hear from YOU! Comment or message me if you have suggestions for people I should interview, topics you’d like to see discussed, and especially if you want your work included in the round ups. This is as much your publication as it is mine.

And now, on to your required viewing/celebrating:

Big congrats to my dear friend on being accepted into the MFA program at Hunter College (part of the CUNY system)! For those who don’t know, this is one of the best programs in narrative nonfiction writing in the country and only accepts six students a year. Having read the writing sample she submitted with her application, I’m very excited to see how her story unfolds.

A round of applause to Founding Editor of Central Desi, Ambreen Ali! NJ Spotlight News picked up her reporter Zoya Wazir’s story on how ICE raids are stoking fear in New Jersey’s foreign-born South Asians. It’s a great example of how specific community-serving newsrooms can provide valuable reporting for broader audiences.

Three cheers for Purbita Saha and co-host Deja Perkins who have been nominated for The Ambies, awards for excellence in audio presented by The Podcast Academy, in the Best Indie Podcast Host or Hosts category! Bring Birds Back from BirdNote is of course a podcast about how awesome birds are and how humans can help them survive. I highly recommend this nerdy, aweome listening and guarantee you’ll be astounded by what you learn! Winners will be announced on March 31.

Family’s experience highlights high mortality rate of Black babies, as Oregon pushes for culturally responsive care - Kaylee Tornay for InvestigateWest

Are U.S.-China Talks Accomplishing Anything? and Why a Small Pacific Island Territory Is Upending Nickel Prices - Rishi Iyengar for Foreign Policy

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History braces as the Institute of Museum and Library Services is threatened - Sajina Shrestha for KLCC/NPR for Oregonians

USC calls for hiring freeze, austerity efforts amid budget woes and Trump investigations - Daniel Miller and Jaweed Kaleem for LA Times

‘Democratized Access’ at Bonfire Ventures - Keerthi Vedantam for Los Angeles Business Journal

Canadian arm of China’s largest bank had plans to set up payments processor to collect spending data - Rita Trichur for Globe and Mail

How Solidarity Reporting Holds Officials Accountable - Dr. Anita Verma, Assistant Professor at UT-Austin. This is a great post about how “official sources have official agendas. That doesn’t make them true. Talk to the people who know because they’re living the issue.”

With the mass layoffs at the US Agency for International Development (USIAD) - and it’s strange proposed pivot with what is left - global development has never been in more trouble. I used to cover the United Nations early in my career and while the American presence was never without its problems, there was a general consensus that American aid workers and the thousands of contractors did their work in good faith to help those around the world in dire need - even if they were in need because of the consequences of U.S. government actions. So it couldn’t come at a better time that Lina Srivastava, in partnership with The New Humanitarian, has launched the Power Shift podcast. The purpose of the show is that it “pairs two people from different parts of the power spectrum in humanitarian aid – a decision-maker paired with someone whose work and life is affected by those decisions. We designed the dialogue to draw out their lived realities and foster a shared understanding of the potential for creating equitable and just processes in humanitarian aid.”

We talked about parents, the film stylings of Rajinikanth, mental health struggles, and Russell Peters. I’ve never felt more elder millennial compared to Govindan’s fresh-faced 27, but also Tamil girls FTW!

Export Quality (EQ): You’re in an off-Broadway show! That’s amazing. It’s obviously about your relationship with your parents. [Abby’s mom, Kalyani (auntie), walked into the Zoom frame too <3].

Abby Govindan (AG): The show is the story of how I told my parents I wanted to be a stand-up comedian, how our relationship fell apart because of it, and how we built it back up after my brief stint in a mental hospital following a suicide attempt. After the suicide attempt, my parents really rallied around me in a way that meant a lot to me and that I never thought possible.

EQ: I love that. Did you notice they repeat patterns or react to their own upbringing? I don’t blame them! We’re all products of our upbringing in some way.

AG: One really sobering moment in the show is when I talk about a gigantic fight with my mom. Afterward, we got ice cream in silence for an hour, and then my mom talked about how she and my Dad were concerned why I wasn’t “taking the easy route” in a STEM field, which they were told would guarantee their immigrant child’s future.

There's another part where I talk about how growing up, my dad used to yell at me at the dinner table until I cried about doing poorly on math tests. I assumed that's just how he was raised too. But then I asked him about it and he said, "No, your grandfather threw me into the lake, and I didn't know how to swim." In a way, my dad was unlearning trauma if all he did was yell at me and not resort to any lake-based punishment.

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EQ: You talk in the show about social media’s influence on you and your career. Has your relationship also evolved over time?

AG: I've grown so much as a person since the first time I went viral in 2018. Those tweets that went viral are memorials for the worst period of my life, even if that's not what they look like to the outside world. Sometimes when I see them, I'm transported back to a version of me that doesn't exist anymore. The internet incentivizes oversharing, and I got addicted to oversharing. After I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt, I took a gigantic step back from oversharing on Twitter. What I learned in therapy was understanding that those versions of you are the only reason that you have the present version of you.

EQ: Russell Peters was a big influence for my generation. He was the first South Asian person - in American comedy, television, entertainment - most of us ever saw. Was he an influence on you as well?

AG: Russell Peters is literally my origin story. When I was around seven or eight, we were at temple camp at Ashram Vidya Gurukul in Pennsylvania hanging out with my older, teenage cousins. [Editor note: shout out to Amar Chitra Katha ink on your fingers and the Sundays during football season our Dad didn’t drive us to class at the temple because it meant missing the Browns game].

We snuck into the activity center once to watch some YouTube video. I thought Russell Peters was just some white stand-up comedian. Then they pulled up a pirated version of one of his routines and this Indian man walked on stage. It was a revelation to me as a nine-year-old. That was the first time I learned about Indian stand-up comedians. It was also the first time I learned about Malayali Christians.

EQ: Russell was America's introduction to having Indian parents and it kind of became a thing for a lot of immigrant comedians to use an accent when talking about their parents. Why did you choose not to?

AG: I want to reinvent the wheel somehow when I go on stage. But I'm so grateful for the amazing comedians who came before me who found immense success as unapologetically Indian comedians. Their existence truly paved the way for someone like me to find success now. I don't think I have the pluckiness to be a trailblazer. It takes a lot of bravery, investment in yourself, and self-assuredness. But I can look at the trail that has been blazed before me and walk that confidently because of comedians like Russell Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Aparna Nancherla, Mindy Kaling, Lilly Singh, and Liza Koshy – people who took these really big creative swings which weren't common for Indian people at the time.

EQ: I feel like Tamil culture also plays into this in some way, not just in terms of immigrant expectations but the rhythm of our language. Paatis and thathas’ comedy, *chef’s kiss*

AG: I'm so glad that you speak Tamil so you can understand when I say it's a very comedic language. Long before I knew what standup was, my grandfather and I would watch Tamil comedies after school. I talk about American and British influences, but I can’t deny the impact that my Dad being a huge Rajinikanth fan had on me. Even their process of writing their own, iconic monologues in their films, is fascinating.

EQ: As a journalist, I have gotten my fair share of online hate, but I have a separation with my work because I'm not reporting about myself. Since a lot of your comedy is about your life, are you able to have a healthy separation, or is that not part of the calculus?

AG: I create a separation. I really regret not coming up with a stage name. I wish I had come up with a separate name that belongs to the public and it feels like that's a part of me that I can never take back. What I started doing is asking people in my personal life to call me [by a different version of my name].

That makes me feel like they know me as a person, as opposed to people who understand me differently based on what they see on stage. It's also really grounding to have a bunch of friends who have nothing to do with the entertainment industry and a good reminder that tomorrow, if I chose to walk away from stand up comedy, I would be fine.

EQ: What about New York do you love and hate right now?

AG: I hate Eric Adams. I hate everything about him.

EQ: Correct.

AG: I invited mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to come [to my off-Broadway show], so he's going to be there after every show, talking to people, getting signatures outside the theater. Looking at Zohran, he’s driven by empathy and a desire to see working-class people succeed in a city that belongs to working-class people. I'm reminded that optimism is a much better option than pessimism.

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EQ: What shows are you binging right now?

AG: I’m going to watch "Deli Boys." I'm a big Asif Ali fan – another trailblazing South Asian comedian - and, of course, Poorna Jagannathan.

EQ: Another Tamil girl FTW! Where are you eating in NYC these days?

AG: My favorite restaurant in East Harlem was a place called Bangklyn – a combination of Bangkok and Brooklyn. It's run by one guy who's the only employee. He just seems very annoyed when you walk in, but you know the food is going to be good. My mom's been in town this week, so I've been eating a lot of home-cooked Indian meals. I didn't have many groceries in the fridge since I just moved but every day, I wake up at 10 AM and she's already cooked an extensive lunch from the seven groceries in my fridge. It's like magic!

You can buy tickets to her show and/or support the cost of putting on the show if you can’t make it in person!

For more resources on South Asian mental health, I sugguest following my longtime friend Dr. Shanta Kanukollu; and Dr. Sahaj Kohli at Brown Girl Therapy.

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Reading: Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher

Listening: Hostile Government Takeover by AGiftFromTodd and Vinny Marchi (A very 2025 story: this began as a short a capella ditty sung by an Instagram influencer, remixed by another one, and then reached #1 on iTunes - all within two weeks)

As Trump thoroughly and wholly embarassed the U.S. and somehow also himself when hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the other week, I was once again reminded of Star Wars. Or rather more aptly, the cinematic masterpiece of parody, Spaceballs. (If you haven’t seen the latter, please go now and come back here. If you haven’t seen the former, you and I will need to re-evaluate our entire relationship.)

Allow me a moment to wade into nerd fandom as I currently try to complete - my third - Star Wars cross stitch pattern.

It’s safe to say this is one of my Roman Empires, as the kids say — the thing that is a low, constant, and curious hum in my thoughts. Lately it’s just become far more prescient, rife with comparisons to the Empire, the Death Star as a grand project of the Empire, the Resistance, and the faded but present signal among the noise of a much-needed hope. I imagine that if we were in either of those universes, the thing we would need to ask ourselves is whether we would continue to fund the Death Star, the thing that would end up destroying us or threatening us into subjugation, or would we be a Princess Leia or a Mon Mothma, resisting in what ways we can?

Back in the day when I was a much more prolific reporter and when the horrors of Trump Part 1 began, I would label my Google Docs drafts and high profile figures with nicknames from the Star Wars canon. On those particularly infuriating days or for the more absurd characters of that political theater, I would draw from Spaceballs.

This isn’t to take away from the seriousness of ongoing disasters - the tangible distress and fear of conflict Ukrainians are experiencing, the looming famines without USAID’s help, the droves of unemployed federal workers who were once safe no matter what, the fear of immigrants writ large. It’s just that sometimes we need to add a bit of dark humor to these things in order to not turn away from the current, relentless pace of news as Americans are often able and wont to do without consequence. In other words, you laugh so you don’t cry or scream into the abyss or bury your head in the sand.

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The labeling was my microscopic way of maintaining some whimsy and rebellion in a newsroom that was difficult for me to navigate and save some shred of sanity as a hustling freelancer.

Trump very quickly materialized as Jabba the Hutt, or Pizza the Hutt on the days when my anger at the insanity of that administration was harder to contain. Darth Vader, or Dark Helmet, alternated between Putin, Pence, and the Republican Ass Kisser de Jour. Golf Cart One at Mar-a-Lago was the Death Star, the grand project being maintaining the president’s presence on the golf course.

The Democrats were routinely Spaceballs characters, but when AOC and The Squad came around they had given people some hope and eventually became the Skywalkers and Solo in those drafts.

It looks like I’ll be bringing this practice back in some form, so here’s my revised 2025 list. You should feel free to use it in whatever way makes these daily, shameful, bitter American pills slightly easier to swallow before picking up your choice of weapon to fight for the day: a keyboard, organizing, community service, resistance-fueled art, protests, running for local office, a snarky newsletter, voting, etc.

Trump = still very much Jabba the Hutt(SW)/Pizza the Hutt(SB). Any physical comparisons are completely on purpose and totally accurate.

Vance is most certainly Dark Helmet, with aspirations of becoming Darth Vader.

But let’s face it, Elon Musk is actually Darth Vader. A once-heralded figure who has crossed over into the dark side only to cause mass destruction. His grand project, the Death Star(SW)/Spaceball I is DOGE. He doesn’t deserve a gif.

By that logic, Senate Republicans are Sith Lords.

Here is what Congressional Democrats, minus AOC and Jasmine Crockett, appear like at the moment [a scene from Spaceballs]:

I think we all know who Palpatine might be in this scenario. There is no laughing about this one, no parodied equivalent.

My current thought is that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is President Skroob: an official who is, ultimately, of little consequence or maybe I just hope this person could potentially get trapped in a small space shuttle with an angry bear. Though I suspect this label will rotate between various Cabinet members.

I don’t know if there is a Mon Mothma just yet, the Senator who is secretly funding resistance activities at the risk of her family, but I want to believe there is badly enough to keep reading between the lines of bill votes and news reports.

And then there’s the rest of us, the working schmucks who want to do right by our people, the ones who depend on Social Security payments every month or a paycheck from what was supposed to be a steady job, the Ukrainians who want peace, the dying children who need food aid and suffering who need AIDS medication, the women who need reproductive healthcare to save their lives, the farmers who just want to keep their livelihood, the kids who just want to learn, the librarians who simply want to continue being superheros. It can feel like we are both the people on the destroyed planet of Alderaan and the horrified patrons of the space diner when that dancing alien popped out of the man’s stomach.

But, we are not passive observers from what I have seen. We are protesting in the snow in Vermont, in the streets of Cincinnati (because when did literal Nazis become acceptable?!) and Philadelphia (all hail Gritty), and at Trump Tower in NYC to save a man who has a green card and was - legally - standing up for his people. What destroyed me about Mahmoud Khalil’s story, what should break any of us is that his wife is eight months pregnant. As someone who held a green card for a quarter of my life, lived here for 41 years, and became a citizen months after 9/11, his story sends chills down my spine.

We are the Cassian, Jyn Erso, the Leia, Luke, Solo, and my personal favorites: Rose, Fin, and Poe Dameron. Some of you are Chewbacca, which is pretty great too.

This absurd little private exercise was one of the ways I maintained some semblance of sanity pre-pandemic and maybe it will work for you. It is not a shield blocking out the reality, but some sort of sunscreen, SPF 50.

Processing every piece of information in real-time is going to be near impossible for most of us who care about the country and our communities, so do what you can to come up with your own sunscreen, your light jacket, the thing that makes being exposed to the elements more bearable so you can keep going.

And now on to your required viewing….

Read/Watch/Listen

An N.Y.C. Panel Is Tackling the Housing Crisis. Here’s How You Can Help. - Mihir Zaveri for The New York Times

Harnessing Data Can Help Strengthen Summer Library Programs - Me for School Library Journal

A 10-year-old's story of family immigration that spans three continents - a great story from NPR about Ameya Desai

Doing another plug for you to go follow my friends’ newsletters: Port of Entry by , who has been doing some important writing on immigration, and Rekindling by , who has a great piece on American grifters.

Trump plans to visit the Justice Department Friday, a rare move for a president - Deepa Shivaram for NPR

Canadian in NYC Shanelle Kaul has been bringing us all the important news about our neighbor to the north’s new PM Mark Carney for CBS News

Listen to Philadelpia Inquirer’s Bedatri D. Choudhury in this CapRadio story: 'On Becoming a Guinea' fowl is a surreal exploration of painful secrecy

EPA move to undermine greenhouse gas regulation will hurt US competitiveness, says former Mass. energy official - Bhaamati Borkheteria for Commonwealth Beacon

Tell The Post: Will the measles outbreak change your mind on vaccination? - Sabrina Malhi for Washington Post

From troublemakers to team players: House Freedom Caucus softens as Trump transforms GOP - Sahil Kapur for NBC News

'Deli Boys' is a new South Asian comedy depicting two spoiled brothers unfit for life of crime from NBC News Asian America

Real estate losses from fires may top $30 billion, from old mobile homes to $23-million mansions - Sandhya Kambhampati for LA Times

California joins 19 Democratic states in suit to stop massive Education Department layoffs - Jaweed Kaleem for LA Times

How Covid Sickened the National Psyche - Jeet Heer for The Nation

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• Listening: Hostile Government Takeover remix by Vinny Marchi and AGiftFromTodd. Reading: Postcards from The Edge by Carrie Fisher.

• The recent coup to seize control of the Kennedy Center of all things reminded me of a dusty, nicotine-stained room full of decades-old files in the middle of Belgrade, Serbia. It was exactly as Communist-era chic as you think it is. I had been staying what could charitably be called a Soviet era hotel with a lobby level nightclub that doubled as the breakfast room. I was there on a fellowship to attend a civil society conference and, ironically, report on the ongoing press freedom protests (link to my story for Fortune). As I took a walking tour and heard our young guide tout revisionist history about Kosovo and Bill Clinton, little did I know that punk rock collective P*ssy Riot was sneaking out of Russia and their members were about to let us sit down and talk to them in that room. Here’s the resulting story for Teen Vogue about art and culture in the era of political control.

• A conversation between Danny Concannon (Timothy Busfield) and patron saint Allison Janney’s brilliant character CJ Cregg in Season 4, Episode 12 of West Wing has been kicking around my head for days. [Editor’s Note: They are one of my Top 10 TV Couples]

  

  Apartheid Vampire in Chief Elon Musk taking the soft power of USAID off the table for the Trump administration seems short sighted, wholly destructive, and illegal, at best. Some of the largest recipients of US foreign aid are not famine-ravaged regions in Yemen or Sudan, but countries like Ukraine and Israel. I referenced Rosa Brooks’ 2016 book last issue as well, but it is prescient in this instance too. While everything can be and has been the military, the soft power of foreign aid is useful for U.S. allies, particularly as conflicts span administrations. The agency also focused on not only conflict prevention but also climate mitigation - which could cause conflict as we compete over natural resources. Ukraine is already feeling the fallout, while Russia and China are benefitting. Some people are happy with increased Chinese investment in African countries, something I saw everywhere in Nairobi six years ago. However, if the U.S. is hoping to have some influence over the African Union or non-allies like China and Russia entrenching themselves deeper in the continent and throughout Asia, shoring up the U.S. military even more is not how you do it.

  Additionally, I find it absolutely shameful former USAID Administrator and literal Ambassador Samantha Power felt the need to go on national television to do the staid Washington version of begging to save the agency. Not for her, I think her actions are righteous and honorable. For us as a country however, it is a disgrace (but she did a phenomenal job and props to Colbert for having her on).
  
  We can go ahead and blame electoral politics for this one as well. Americans on average think foreign aid makes a much larger portion of the federal budget than it actually does.

• The Pope slamming JD Vance was unexpected and it makes me wonder how much of a person like the VP is affected by that global reprimand. This video explainer from Washington Post Religion Reporter Michelle Boorstein was worth the watch.

• For some reason this old tweet crossed my feed on other socials this week and it’s a stroke of genius. Miss Piggy starring in a season of Real Housewives? YES PLEASE, and if anyone reading this works at Bravo, this could be considered an act of patriotism. America needs this and the Muppets are nothing if not unifying. Cameos by Kermit, wine glass throwing, jumping to wild and unnecessary conclusions - guys, the script practically writes itself and it’s a public service.

• Speaking of potential masterpieces: It feels a bit like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, but also necessary that I do the 100 Day Project(thanks !) during all that is going in journalism, in America, to my rights over my own body. The idea is to commit to some sort of artistic practice every day for those 100 days and I’m looking forward to having a spot in my day for something that is not writing, job searching, cleaning, and stressing over bills/being single/taking care of my health/etc/etc/etc; something that creates as a balm to all the destruction we are seeing on a daily basis. I’ve shared some of my collages before and you’ll be subjected to more of them. In case you didn’t know, two of my designs have been sold by Target dot com the last few years as part of their AAPI Heritage Month push. I will resume flogging my wares to you once they bring back their DEI efforts.

  In the meantime here are a few pieces that are not for sale because I don’t want to be sued by D*sney or Bollywood:

Enough rambling from me, here are your required viewing links from diaspora Desi journalists:

Big congrats to Sajina Shrestha on joining the team at NPR-affiliate KLCC in Eugene, Oregon! Organizers fear Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care could see effects on the state level and Looking back at Asian American cinema: 20 years with the DisOrient Asian American film festival

A round of applause for Meena Thiruvengadam on her latest guidebook for Lonely Planet! Go to Chicago and use Meena’s book to enjoy it even more (when the weather gets warmer!)

Not only do we love hearing more of us on the mic, but we especially love seeing more of us on air so send PJ Randhawa a well-earned three cheers as she had her first day on the anchor desk for NBC Chicago!

On that note, Shanelle Kaul is on the 4am CBS Mornings shift this week so show her some love for waking up earlier - and being camera ready - before any of us.

“Lightning in a bottle”: Meredith Clark on Black Twitter’s journalistic impact, legacy — and writing its “obituary” - Hanaa’ Tameez for Nieman Lab

When Politicians Exit Stage Right, What’s Left for Their Impersonators? - Sopan Deb for The New York Times

Flu is surging nationwide, with 24 million cases so far - Sabrina Malhi for Washington Post

If tariffs kick in, your online and cross-border shopping could cost more and Thinking of boycotting American goods? You might hurt Canadian workers - Meera Raman for Globe and Mail

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Washington (President Trump needed English translations….of English) and Asma Khalid was there for NPR, give it a listen.

And listen to Abby Kuhathasan for CBC’s Your World Tonight podcast about peace talks between the U.S. and Russia about Ukraine - but without Ukraine or Europe (start at 11:30).

Love this moment where chief presenter for BBC News Sumi Somaskanda shared a screen with BBC colleague Rajini Vaidyanathan and they were directed by Meera Thavasothy!

I had written a draft of this whole newsletter issue out on my phone in the early morning hours, in bed, because it was too cold to face the 385th day of January, the longest known month in the history of the world after March 2020.

Everything is Trump again. Every news story, meme, tweet/skeet/thread, every Saturday Night Live preview. It’s happening again and we’re careening towards another round of losing millions of Americans to political disgust or worse, apathy. [Author’s note: Go read How Everything Became War and The Military Became Everthing by Rosa Brooks. It’s an excellent study and will also put Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense in a new, horrifying light.]

For us journalists, this looks like burnout and droves of us leaving reporting, if not the profession. (And, there’s no shame in this happening! I stopped reporting for three years after Biden and Harris took office because Trump’s first administration + the pandemic were tiring, to say the least.)

I struggled to even figure out what to write today that wouldn’t add to the deluge of executive orders (AP News), the confusing information about raids on public schools that has Chicagoans on edge (The Guardian), and potential economic (Paul Krugman’s free newsletter) doom you’re likely experiencing right now.

Should I discuss Bishop Mariann Budde of the Washington National Cathedral whose boldness and clarity puts much of the U.S. Congress to shame? Or perhaps the several times VP J.D. Vance tried - and failed - to make eye contact with Second Lady Usha Vance in some attempt to affirm and validate his eye-rolling disdain of the Bishop’s pleas for mercy for the most vulnerable? The dynamics of that moment, I could write a tome. An angry tome.

Or maybe I should talk about Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s prominent placement on the stage during Inauguration? Pichai was born and raised in India and has children who are Indian Americans - a mix common for all South Asian families in the U.S. Whether he chose to be front and center with other tech CEOs and billionaires or not, it was just hours before the president avowed to revoke birthright citizenship. That assemblage was like the final scene of the Lord of The Rings trilogy if Frodo and Sam failed to destroy that damn ring - or maybe more apt (be we love some dark humor at EQ HQ) is the boardroom of villains from an Austin Powers film.

Then again, there’s a host of new executive orders I could talk about or I could switch gears to address some more Terrible Men with the news of sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman and the slew of his canceled projects. I would have told you I was never a fan, not because of some hindsight haughtiness - just the opposite. I genuinely thought I was never smart enough to fall in love with his writing, his being, the way some of my Very Very Smart friends had. The Sandman was too dark for me, and though that was partly the point, I had chalked it up to simply not being intellectual enough to bring myself to be comfortable with the discomfort it caused. Had I written more fully about it, I would have said though, this news has hit many people I admire like a ton of bricks and for that, I empathize with them.

Then it struck me, all this news from the first few weeks of 2025 boils down to one sentiment: disappointment.

If you too have felt the vibes have been off the last few weeks, in between periods of indignation and resignation (and freezing), it’s disappointment that you’re likely feeling. Your rage is disappointment. Maybe even your news avoidance.

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We expected better from fellow Americans, from men, from artists we venerated for years because they called themselves ‘feminists,’ and from news organizations. Even though Indian Americans did not overwhelmingly vote for Trump, anecdotally we expected better from those who grew up here and those who chose to make their home and children here.

Is the answer for all of us to become monk-like and live without expectations? Maybe. But in my view that would require removing oneself from the shared buy-in of a community, whatever that may look like to you. It looks like it would be more peaceful in terms of interpersonal relationships but ultimately, wholly unrealistic and kind of sad for most of us here in the glaringly real world who don’t want to feel so alone all the time.

I think the answer is to actually have higher expectations.

We need to expect more from our political parties and elected officials. I don’t mean absolutism either. I mean, we should expect more human candidates and officials instead of canned responses; more book and street smarts than uninformed ignorance; more courage than cowardice.

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We should expect more of people in power,not just those in a lofty office but also the everyday power of being in a room with a person who admires you and has less agency than you in a given situation.

We should want better from each other, too. There are a fair amount of people on both the far right and the far left who are saying certain people “deserve” the deleterious effects of this administration for voting for Harris. But, as we say at EQ, this kind of political blame game has only losers. I can’t say this next part any better than Mayor Pete did in the clip below so I’ll just let him handle it.

One catch: I have no idea if this will work and could be full of it, but maybe we owe it to each other to try?

Let’s get into some work from our neighborhood desi diaspora journalists:

After Helene and Milton, Farmworkers Play an Outsized Role in the Cleanup - Siri Chilukuri for Scalawag Mag. It’s a piece from December but it’s about farm workers on H-2 visas, a vulnerable population as Trump’s maligning of immigrants continues

Here's what New Yorkers need to know about President Trump's immigration orders and Biden grants presidential pardon to NYC immigrant rights leader Ravi Ragbir - Arun Venugopal for WNYC/Gothamist

So Much for Tariffs? Businesses Could Avoid Paying $250 Billion in Levies, Goldman Sachs Says. - Karishma Vanjani for Barron’s

Former staff at Spokane youth psychiatric unit blame Providence for closure - Kaylee Tornay and Whitney Bryen for InvestigateWest

From dargahs to coffee shops, how qawwali lives on in the diaspora - Zoya Wazir, Astha Lakhankar for CentralDesi

[Op-Ed] Why regulating AI is tricky - Bina Venkataraman for Washington Post

My All-Nighter in a Vanishing World: the 24-Hour Diner - Priya Krishna for New York Times

New York City Seeks Jolt for Midtown With Plan to Build 10,000 Homes - Mihir Zaveri for New York Times

Portland nonprofit expands anti-violence work to help homeless people - Zaeem Shaikh for The Oregonian/OregonLive

Trump says he wants to overhaul FEMA as he travels to North Carolina and California - Asma Khalid and Deepa Shivaram; Jason Breslow for NPR

Replacing fossil fuel-fired ‘peaker plants’ can help Massachusetts meet climate goals, according to new report - Bhaamati Borkheteria for Commonwealth Beacon

What to watch in health care legislation in 89th Texas Legislature - Jishnu Nair for Houston Business Journal

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First up, some wonderful work from my desi diaspora colleagues:

Jaweed Kaleem of the LA Times has been covering the fires. Here’s his latest: Free camps are offering a safe space for kids as L.A. fires cause child-care upheaval. Colleague Sandhya Kambhampati has also been mapping the fires’ damage.

OpenAI Whistleblower’s Death in SF Has His Parents Skeptical of City’s Investigation - Lakshmi Sarah for KQED

An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2024 Election from Saurabh Datar and team for The New York Times. Stay tuned this year for more fascinating and important data reporting from him!

What's next for Kamala Harris - Deepa Shivaram for NPR

Some H-1B workers say they feel insulted by debate over visa holders - Sakshi Venkataraman for NBC News Asian America

Congrats to Rachel Dalloo for being named one of The Washington Media Scholars Foundation (WMSF)’s Spring 2025 Media Fellows!

Shanelle Kaul has had some great segments on CBS News of late, covering everything from the ceasefire in the Middle East to the trend of young people living the sober life.

Surge in Americans getting sterilizations given states’ abortion laws - Sabrina Malhi for Washington Post

How Biden’s Foreign Policy Destroyed His Presidency - Jeet Heer for The Nation

This is from December, but it’s an important piece from Angilee Shah, CEO and Editor in Chief of Charlottesville Tomorrow Reporting the news is important — but what you do with it matters most

Community leaders call on Louisville Metro to protect immigrants ahead of next Trump term - Divya Karthikeyan for Louisville Public Media

Beehiiv is the latest platform to try to lure independent journalists with perks - Hanaa’ Tameez for Nieman Lab

Why people post themselves crying online - Harmeet Kaur for CNN

How Detroit wants to spend $346M in federal disaster recovery aid - Nushrat Rahman for Detroit Free Press

==============

There’s much for those who did not vote for Trump to be angry about in the lead up to the Inauguration, but this is the way of democracy. He won the popular vote and the electoral college both, with room to spare. He will be the president the next four years and many Americans will have to figure out a way to survive, hopefully in a collective manner.

Darth Vader marks the day in my planner.

There’s been lots and will continue to be more said about how to work together to help those most negatively affected by the incoming administration. Organizers and those who care in your community are working hard on that already.

I’m here to be a little petty and soothe your soul a bit, in equal measure. Let’s make two lists, a traditional airing of grievances and then, things for which we are grateful and hopeful.

Inspired by Frank Costanza of Seinfeld fame:

• There are few things about journalism as an industry I truly detest more than ‘company’ journalists, the ones who adhere to some sort of inside the Beltway/Southern pseudo-decorum by never admitting their news outlets got things wrong or did irreparable harm. I say this deeply admiring most of the people I know from these institutions, but just because you attended Columbia Journalism or work at The New York Times (or similar institutions) doesn’t mean you have a monopoly on what journalism should look like or what constitutes good reporting. You have a take on it, just like the rest of us working to serve the public. And, maybe catering to a monolith of an idea is what got us into this mess of distrust in the first place; maybe we need to respect and hold an amalgamation of ideas instead. I understand being professional on public platforms/panels/etc, but you look like kind of ignorant when you can't even have these honest conversations in private, among industry colleagues. All this behavior has done is cement the fact that you are out of touch with the reality millions of Americans face and what they care about. One could argue a byproduct of this, in part, has made it harder for journalists across the board to survive in the industry if they don’t work for a mega-funded news outlet. It’s wild, considering those with the least funding often have the most reader-interaction like community and ethnic media - who I think will be on the frontlines of democracy and disasters of all kinds over the next four years.

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• People who keep calling Donald Trump stupid. STOP. He acts stupid because he is actually a marketing genius. Much like Kris Kardashian who took 6 no-talent clowns and turned many of them into billionaires, Trump took a middling real estate career of a spoiled boy from Queens and turned it into a Page Six darling, hit television show, and two presidential administrations. I do not admire him for his policies and or his public lack of empathy (even for his supporters at times), but treating him like he is a fumbling idiot has done the Left and Center Left absolutely no favors. It’s time to outmanouever him instead of relying on people - exactly who no one seems to really know - being aghast by his perceived lack of intelligence.

• The hypocrisy among so many wealthy South Asian Americans who will shout on social media about everything from climate change to casteism to data privacy. But privately, they are never willing to acknowledge how their own incredible privilege and deep-seated need for white-adjacency holds up some of the very systems they say they hate. They don’t see poorer South Asians, even the ones who live in their own neighborhoods, as equal and they practically fetishize Black and Muslim people in their quest to claim the Left. I’m using this space, our space, to ask you to do better.

• The UX on the Spotify app. Seriously, why is it so terrible and why do we all continue to put up with it?

• That any of us has to defend the continued existence of Sesame Street, which has been put ‘on sale’ by its host Max as the culturual institution launches its 55th season.

  

  Someone better step in before this earns an even higher spot during my Airing.

• White girls who say too-MER-ic instead of turmeric. Please leave the internet.

Phew, that felt good. Now on to the good stuff, the things that give me hope about what’s to come in the world.

• The spirit of Angelenos in the wake of devastating fires. I imaginge losing your home and possessions - your cherished memory-keeping objects - because of the very nature of nature is a special kind of debilitating. But everything I’ve seen from here in NYC have been images of neighbors helping neighbors, celebrities using their privilege to help those without it, and badass journalists like Zohreen Shah of ABC News focus on asking all the right questions and turning her work towards the majority-minority community of Altadena - all just days after she lost her own hard-earned home. She did the damn thing. Speaking of Altadena, another journalist and friend of the newsletter Jasmine Mithani of The 19th is going through it too and if you can help her parents rebuild their family home, it would be greatly appreciated.

  

• Some really wonderful newsletters. Here’s a shout out for two of them from dear friends. has started writing and I was thrilled to read her recent issue on political images. It’s fascinating and an angle on campaigns we don’t get to see in major news outlets anymore because it’s subtle - but it’s so important. Stay tuned for her forthcoming issues on indigenous land in L.A. that has since burned in the tragic fires and suprising information on slavery in Brooklyn, among other posts. has her Port of Entry newsletter she’s been refining which I’m also excited to read with every issue. You may not know this about her but she was a foreign correspondent in Bangladesh, telling the stories of women and refugees the world had forgotten about and now she’s giving us stories about immigrant communities, what it means to move across the world and the generational impacts, and interviewing the people who work on those issues. Give both of them a follow!

• Kyle McLachlan’s tribute to the late and brilliant film director David Lynch

• The ire both Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama (who friends of the newsletter know I adore) drew for their actions this past week was a grienvance but their responses have given me hope. Harris did not invite VP-Elect JD Vance for a visit and the Forever FLOTUS said she would not be attending Trump’s second inaguration. And, why should they? Pence never invited her and Vance literally called her “trash.” And why should Michelle Obama sit through the inauguruation of the man who was partly responsible for death threats her children received? Washington perpetuating its fake politeness on the rest of the country at this point in history and calling it ‘diplomacy’ will make me have a rage stroke one day, but to see two much-maligned women be human makes me feel like we don’t have to take the high road or the low road, there’s a way to do this fight otherwise.

• The mute button on Whatsapp group chats.

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• AOC. If Gen Z’s (understandable) problem with the current slate of Democrat power-holders is that they don’t have the courage of conviction, perhaps she’s one of the solutions. I first interviewed her when she was still bartending down the street from my newsroom. She had just moved into an ‘office’ in the back of a taxi stand in the Bronx and to see her education and fight over the course of the last seven years is something that makes me believe in the American political system just enough.

• The Libby app and audiobooks.

• Dark chocolate Digestives biscuits, dipped in chai.

What are on your lists? Tell me below!

For this issue, I want to avoid politics talk. We deserve a little break from whatever unhinged racism and bigotry seeds are now growing abundantly over on X and now Facebook/Meta thanks to Zuck’s so-called loyalty pledge to Trump so he doesn’t get thrown in jail, as our President-Elect threatened. Trust there will be plenty to discuss as we near Inauguration, an occasion I marked in my calendar below and yes, I do have Star Wars stickers for my makeshift planner. If you know me, you should have expected nothing less. (Fellow nerds, I printed out pages from Passion Planner and put them in a spiral notebook to test out how I like using it)

Let’s make this a space for not just journalists, but other creatives who likely gave their immigrant parents agita for the first 10 years of their career.

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I just read (actually listened to) Tania James’ Loot and I adored this novel. It transports and is sweeping without drowning you - you never forget how human these characters are in their constant redefining of life purpose and home. It was also a reminder that colonialism was not just a governmental, empire-making operation but a deeply personal one as well. If you can’t feel the wood engravings and taste the ladoos of Tipu Sultan’s kingdom and smell the mustiness and feel the dampness of the English manor, I’d be surprised.

(Up next for me is a re-re-read of Carrie Fisher’s Postcards from the Edge and Michael Finkel’s Art Thief)

Some of what I’m looking forward to digging into in 2025:

• For real book and film recommendations I go to the professionals (also my friends!) Lakshmi Gandhi, whose newsletter with Asha Sundararaman is always a delight, and Bedatri Datta Choudhury, the arts and entertainment editor at Philadelphia Inquirer and a programmer for the DOC NYC film festival. Also, here’s Pooja Makhijani’s 2025 list of book recs for Teen Vogue!

• Lily Singh’s book recommendations have been on point for me so far and I just love the idea of it and how many women authors she supports. This year I’ll be diving into Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel and Savor by Fatima Ali with Tarajia Morrell since I’m fascinated by how food is the thing immigrants never truly leave behind.

• Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome by Aparna Nancherla. Shout out to the original DC crew of Sub(continental) Drift, the open mic night for desis back in the heady days of the mid-2000s and the beginnings of Aparna’s stand up career.

• I never saw Drive-Away Dolls with Geraldine Vishwanathan but it looks campy and unserious enough for me to maybe enjoy right now. Wolfs on Apple TV with Poorna Jagannathan looks intriguing enough in a less comedic Guy Ritchie-esque vein that I may be able to forgive having Brad Pitt in it (We’re Team Jolie in this room). I’m late to the game on Fargo but Richa Moorjani is in it, so I may give it a try.

• As far as upcoming shows, Poorna is in another one on Hulu, this time with the always funny Asif Ali in Deli Boys. This looks like it will either be hilarious or trope-y and terrible, nothing in between. Coming March 2025.

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What movies, documentaries, comedy shows, plays, art exhibits, books featuring American/Canadian desis are you looking forward to this year? Let’s share and make a big list in the comments below!

And now onto your required reading:

More children are getting kidney stones. Experts think it’s their diet - Sabrina Malhi for Washington Post

I’m a travel writer who has visited 68 countries—the 4 ‘magical places’ I think about moving to most - Meena Thiruvengadam for CNBC (I go to her travel writing for a lot of recs/advice/perspective)

Why Do Celebrities All Go to the Same Restaurants? - Priya Krishna for The New York Times

An emerging Texas megadonor just pledged $20 million to “expand a true Republican majority” - Sneha Dey for Texas Tribune

Musk (and Vivek Ramaswamy) and MAGA Fight Over Visas - Surbhi Gupta for New Lines Magazine. Another good one: How Diljit Dosanjh Changed the Way Sikh Men Are Viewed in Pop Culture

For South Asian Women With PCOS, It’s Not Just Symptoms We’re Dealing With - Syeda Saad for Refinery29

Biden creates 2 new national monuments, but bad weather delays the announcement - Deepa Shivaram for NPR

Expect more from me about how funding hyperlocal/community media is going to be incredibly important over the next four years - and how we’re already seeing cuts to ethnic media as hate speech is given free reign in dominant social media

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Happy New Year friends! Here’s to making new, better mistakes, old friends, beautiful days, and restful nights. I’m lucky to have more than 200 of you here to start off 2025!

I haven’t written a newsletter issue since right after the election because I haven’t had much to say on much of anything since then, but I was also focusing on my work and personal life.

I’m not one for New Year’s ‘resolutions’ these days but I do want to lay out what you can expect from Export Quality in the coming months:

• More issues in your inbox every week

• A wider variety of news from desi diaspora journalists. When I started this project we were in the thick of American political news, which happened to be one of my main beats as a reporter and editor, but I want to include more stories from my colleagues about the arts, sports, essays, op-eds, documentaries, and hyperlocal news. too.

• Paid tiers! As I navigate the newsletter space, I’ll be adding some options for paid subscribers later this quarter with access to exclusive content.

• More fun and maybe some more personal writing. I don’t know if we need to replicate what Sepia Mutiny was to all us old folks in the room, but I loved what that community was - a little corner of important fun and ‘I’m so happy I’m not the only one’ on the big internet.

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And now if you’ll allow me to get a little personal…

While New Year’s Eve was a blast full of great friends and in-depth conversations on unhinged celebrities and the intricacies of using the word ‘like’ too much, January 1 was anything but fun. In those early hours of the year, I couldn’t sleep and couldn’t stop the tears. (I’ve been having a lot trouble sleeping the last 5 weeks or so, something I’ll be working on in 2025 so I’ll take any tips people have) Instead of continuing to toss and turn, I grabbed my notebook. Here’s what came to mind at 4 am (with some edits):

• There are people you will never be right for, sometimes even your close friends. You’ll never be hot enough, have enough money, come from enough money, be too much of some arbitrary ethnic identity, too harsh, too weak, too dark skinned, too independent, or too ‘needy’ emotionally. There were a lot of tears about this one. As brown women, as women, we’re constantly told to improve ourselves. ‘New year, new you!’ is embedded in our DNA, but I want to reject that this year. I’m almost 43, I don’t need yet another new me. Today I woke up understanding there’s liberation in never being the right amount of anything for someone - constantly trying to ‘fix’ yourself ends up being pointless and you can just relax into who you are.

• Taking a 6 month ‘break’ in 2024 was one of the best things I did. I cut my workload down to barebones, spent more time with my parents, and took care of my physical health. I came back to NYC recovered from professional burnout (and maybe a little recovered from heartbreak), 30 lbs lighter, and renewed in general. But none of that matters if you don’t remember what led you to the place of needing that break in the first place. Write it down on a post-it note and stick it next your laptop.

• To paraphrase one of my personal icons, Jane Fonda, ‘good girlfriends put starch in your spine.’ Bad ones will indulge men gaslighting you about your own feelings or refuse to have difficult conversations. I’m lucky to have some really good ones in my life.

• Being an observant person is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great to be able to read a room fairly accurately, it comes in handy during story interviews and on dates. But catching micro-expressions can also lead to a lot of time spent analyzing (read: upset) in my head. There’s got to be a way to observe without absorbing without also being dense, a thing I should look into this new year.

• Do more yoga and lift heavy things, on repeat.

• I don’t know what’s going to happen with media/journalism in this second Trump administration but I’m clear on my role in the industry: continuing my work with community/hyperlocal media, a mentor for younger journalists and freelancers, and telling the stories I think are important from outside the Beltway.

• Save Sesame Street.

• Pizza is the best. (It was late, I was hungry.)

That’s all for today as I dive back in to some new reporting I’m doing and plan out what stories to share for the next issue. In the meantime, here are some pieces to start off 2025:

has a great newsletter on ‘ease’ in 2025 and her Smart Reads are always interesting, important reading.

has a lovely newsletter as well. I always appreciate her thoughts on the arts and books.

Central Desi, run by the amazing Ambreen Ali, and 285 South, managed by the wonderful Sophia Qureshi, should both be on your reading lists particularly if you’re interested in what’s going on in New Jersey and the Atlanta metro area.

For Nepali community news, definitely follow one of my former Elections Reporting Fellows Kishor Panthi and his work for NEPYork and Khasokas.

My books this week: Listening to Loot by Tania James (thank you NYPL) and re-reading my selection of Carrie Fisher novels since she is my writing style happy place.

If you have not banned yourself from buying new books because you have too many at home you haven’t read yet (I see you, I am you): please shop here! All the proceeds from this Bookshop.org storefront, run by my lovely Lakshmi Gandhi and Lauren Hardie, go towards supporting journalists of color in need. Unfortunately there may be more than a few in that boat this year.

See you all in your inboxes soon!

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Well, the world did indeed end, as we know it, and I think a lot of us don’t feel fine. I’ve been kicking around the thoughts below since early Wednesday morning when I jolted awake to see the news. I’m waiting on the exit polls to do some reporting on them but for now, here are my thoughts.

The bad news first: we have to keep going.

The good news: we do that together and while there is justified dread now for women especially, it is an act of resistance to hold on to some faith. There’s no greater motivator than spite, so spitefully hold on to your hope.

Truth be told, I am not shocked Donald Trump has become President-Elect once again. I had seen enough covering his first term and worked on enough local media in the interim to see that as a real possibility. However, how quickly we saw the results was a shock and the resulting conversations about it have left me feeling like I want to crawl into a winter hibernation that lasts at least 2.5 years until the next slate of White House candidates emerges.

I wrote about five drafts of this post, the first three full of blame and more than a little frustration and anger. I blame everyone in nearly equal measure from misogynists, racists, Trump voters, the GOP, the Democratic party, and progressives - which means the blame game actually has no winner.

I had a whole screed aimed at Trump voters and the Democrat party alike, the righteousness of nuanced anger and biting sarcasm shone through it. But I sat on it for days because ultimately it doesn’t do any good to add to that narrative at a time when moving forward is more important.

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For now, I can tell you that I didn’t talk to my mother on Wednesday (sorry ma, I’ll call today). I couldn’t do it because I kept thinking of Harris’ Tamil mother, Shyamala. I thought of what she must have experienced being ostracized by whatever small Indian community existed in the U.S. at the time after she had children with a Black Jamaican immigrant, what it took for her to keep the culture at least somewhat present in their lives with visits back to Chennai. Until recently, being Indian in America didn’t involve grocery delivery, Whatsapp, ready access to an enclave, or relatively widespread knowledge about our culture, holidays, and food. That moment in time, when our parents had to spend decades forging new paths, is gone and it made even having exit polling data on our community a thing that exists.

I thought of auntie and I thought of my own mom and I couldn’t talk to her because while I don’t feel Harris was representative of me in that way, I still feel like there is some connection to that part of her story and it was just too terrible to admit we immigrated to a country that discounts women’s right to their own bodies in this way, that a political party would essentially sacrifice a Black woman of Tamil descent at the altar of supporting a foreign power to the tune of billions and crassness from a convicted sexual harasser.

But at the end of the day Trump’s numbers stayed roughly the same from 2020 to this year, his voters think he is genuine and has convictions (of the non-criminal kind); it was Harris who got around 11 million less votes than Biden.

On election night, reminded me of my cross-stitch project from a few years ago. Princess Leia in the style of the Obama/Shepard Fairey ‘Hope’ poster.

The bottom line: The party didn’t let Harris run as a real Democrat, in that Gen X/elder millennial sense. She did a phenomenal job campaigning on women’s right to our own bodies, but not so great on other policy issues (see: advocating for fracking even though she has a solid record on climate, not discussing the details of her economic plan enough for voters to understand it). Instead, now, the vision of what makes a Democrat is left hazy for younger voters and progressives and many more are turned away from politics writ large.

Trump’s voters are not all racist, misogynist, earth-burning, and want to maintain the current, untenable American empire - but they are more than ok with a candidate who behaves like he is and that is NOT simply and wholly a reaction to Democrats’ failures at the national level. To say that is dangerously naive and, I fear, a sign of a life not widely lived enough to understand the world.

The kindest version of me wants to think that perhaps there is some hope these Trump voters of color have held on to for a post-racial American political landscape they want to believe and vote into existence. It’s almost a French Égalité - we’re all just American in the way there are only French, no hyphenates, no other identity.

But, that would flatten us as a country. As annoying as some identity politics can be, those identities also can’t be disrespected or disregarded in the grand American story because pieces of each make us what and who we are as individuals, communities, and a country. I can’t believe I’m quoting Ronald Reagan in my newsletter but that “shining city on a hill” he loved to talk about doesn’t exist without our identities being respected as also-American.

I have no real answers except that going forward is a time for reforming Big Media and focusing on Small Media; in other words, I will continue my work at the Center for Community Media at the CUNY journalism school and hopefully a few other ventures to support hyperlocal and ethnic news outlets across the country to serve their communities and keep state and local elected officials accountable, rebuild trust, and maybe help improve our coverage of foreign news too to help Americans learn more about the larger world.

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If you need something positive to look forward to, take this: I was on the ‘cities’ beat for a while years ago, covering the national mayors’ conferences, smart cities, what city governments were doing around the country. One thing every mayor I interviewed would say to me is that mayors can’t be as partisan as other politicians because cities can’t function that way.

So think of this as an opportunity to lean towards community groups, local parks associations, voter education efforts, and subscribing to community media outlets (and newsletters!) - anything where you can see the people you are trying to help. The slogan can’t be “when we fight, we win” it has to be “when we fight for each other, we win.”

That cross-stitch project above is from a set pattern, mostly. The rest of the ‘south Indian’ touches like her jewelry and jasmine flowers in her hair were all done freehand with mistakes along the way. Maybe that’s what the next four years looks like, using the base of what we have now, our instincts to help each other, and building on it to make it our own, more beautiful version.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be in your inbox and on your feeds again this week with more reading about and from South Asian American and Canadian journalists.

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