PODCAST · society
Being Brown and Bold
by Jes Thomas
This podcast is a storytelling platform that highlights Brown folks doing amazing things in their corner of the world. Jes Thomas interviews inspirational guests who have had a journey filled with high and lows. We will step away from the highlight reels, and hear more personal stories that have grown them to be much more than they imagined they would become.
Episodes
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Ep#40 Cheetie Kumar on Being Brown and Bold with Jes Thomas
Cheetie Kumar is the chef/owner of Ajja, a restaurant in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood that draws inspiration from the diverse foodways and cultures, vibrant spices, and cooking techniques of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond. Ajja opened in June 2023 and is a James Beard...
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Ep#39 The Mantey Twins (tik tok dancers) on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
The Mantey twins are a set of identical twins based in Ohio. Moving to the U.S. from Ghana in 2014, this dynamic duo has built an impressive social media presence with an estimated 1.6 million followers. Additionally, one of them is a future medical doctor and the other an engineer? From dancing...
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Ep# 38 Maya Kaimal on Being Brown and Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Maya Kaimal is an entrepreneur & Cook book author who has been an early inspiration for the South Asian culinary field in the US. Raised in Boston then Boulder, Maya’s passion for food and cooking blossomed at a young age. From watching Julia Child’s The French Chef with her mother, Lorraine, to...
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Ep#37 Lisa Mattam of Sahajan on Being Brown & Bold Podast with Jes Thomas
Lisa Mattam is the Founder and CEO of Sahajan, the leading Ayurvedic, clean beauty brand. Since founding the brand in 2015, Lisa has grown it into a global force with an international presence. . In 2023, she spearheaded Sahajan’s global partnership with leading luxury hotels: The St. Regis, The...
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Ep# 36 Meherwan Irani & Vishwesh Bhatt on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Meherwan Irani (Chai Pani) & Vishwesh Bhatt (Snackbar) are both James Beard Award winners for their restaurants, chef abilities and cookbook. They are also a voice for the South Asian community as they have brought regional and personal Indian flavors at the forefront of culinary conversations....
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Ep #35 Sajani Amarasiri of Kola Goodies on Being Brown and Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Sajani Amarasiri is the founder of Kola Goodies. She is an immigrant female founder on a mission to create a more culturally representative and equitable wellness industry, bringing together the best of her roots in Sri Lanka and life in America. Sajani was born and raised in Sri Lanka and came…
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Ep# 34 Brittany Muddamalle ( @TheAlmostIndianWife ) on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Brittany Muddamalle, known on the socials as Almost Indian Wife, has thousands of followers who check in for her daily humor and relatable content. Brittany has dedicated the last decade to helping multiracial families navigate and celebrate their diverse cultural backgrounds. Drawing from her…
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Ep# 33 Sara Nahas Hormi on Being Brown and Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Sarah Nahas Hormi is my guest today! If you are a fan of Food Network, you have seen her work. She is the queen behind the scenes on many shows as the Culinary Producer. I met her working on Chopped during the pandemic. She comes from a dual heritage home, and now is raising mixed culture…
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Episode #32 Cesar Aldrete on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
2024 AMAZING RACE WINNER!!! Cesar Aldrete is a talented chef and food stylist with 16 years of experience. Born in Texas and raised in Mexico, Cesar now calls New York City home. His first job in NYC was at the 3 Michelin star restaurant Daniel. He has styled food for top magazines, international...
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Ep# 31 Joel Muddamalle Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
This is a fun conversation! Joel Muddamalle serves on the preaching team at Transformation Church in Indian Land, SC and is a frequent speaker for conferences and events. He just released his first book, “The Hidden Peace: Finding True Security, Strength, and Confidence Through Humility. Based in...
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Ep# 30 Mac & Keen (Unstuk) on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Mackenzie & Keenan are my guests! Known as Mack&Keen on the socials, Mac (Mackenzie) and Keen (Keenan) are culture vloggers committed to sharing cultural differences and widening perspectives, in a fun way! They try their best to fully integrate themselves into different cultures by learning the...
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Ep#29 Palak Patel on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
You have got to meet Chef Palak Patel. In the food world, she has done it all - classically trained chef, restaurateur. Culinary instructor, private chef. You might have seen her on TV, whether it was winning Food Network’s Chopped , Beat Bobby Flay or as a finalist on Food Network Star season…
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Ep #28 Widza Gustin on Being Brown and Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Widza Gustin, owner of 180H4 Cuisine. "Shef Wiz" was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Widza graduated with a Grand Diploma in Culinary Arts from the International Culinary Center formerly known as the French Culinary Institute. Before getting into the culinary world, her journey began in the...
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Ep #27 Mr. Christopher on Being Brown & Bold podcast with Jes Thomas
Mr. Christopher is an American who has been part of the Malayali community for over 7 years. He is a rapidly rising social media figure who goes online by Mr. Christopher and “your Nalla Vellakkaaran.” He focuses on creating cross-cultural content with a particular focus on Malayalam language and...
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Ep# 26 Simon Majumdar on Being Brown & Bold podcast with Jes Thomas
Simon Majumdar is a world-renowned broadcaster, food writer, speaker, author and cook who is dedicated to “Go Everywhere, Eat Everything.” It is a journey that has taken him to all fifty states and dozens of countries around the world. He was a restaurant critic for Time Out Los Angeles and has...
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Ep#25 Chef Ajay Chopra on Being Brown and Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Ajay Chopra is a renowned Indian chef, consultant, and media personality. From hosting the popular show MasterChef India to successfully launching restaurants around the globe, Chef Ajay Chopra has made a lasting impact on the hospitality industry. Born into a Punjabi family in Lucknow, Chef Ajay...
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Ep# 24 Pooja Bavishi on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Pooja Bavishi is the Founder and CEO of Malai, an artisanal ice cream company with flavors inspired by nostalgic, aromatic spices and South Asian ingredients, based in Brooklyn, New York. She “founded Malai because desserts bring people joy and she wanted to be in the business of delivering...
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Ep# 23 Mamajotes Jyoti Chand on Being Brown and Bold podcast with Jes Thomas
Jyoti Chand (aka Mamajotes on socials) is an author, influencer, funny mom, and advocate for self-care, self-love, and maternal mental health. She has a background in stand- up comedy and improv, which explains why her videos are so hilarious. So many women find her relatable because of her…
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Ep#22 Giselle Bonetti on Being Brown & Bold podcast with Jes Thomas
Giselle Bonetti is a sensational mulit talented woman who has worked in various fields: Real Estate Agent, Business Owner for a Luxury Concierge Services, Photographer, Child-focused international ministry and probably most well known for her cheffing skills as seen in the Netflix Cooking...
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Ep #21 Manwell Reyes on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
MANWELL REYES was born in Frankfurt, Germany, Manwell moved to the United States when he was ten years old, but grew up all around the states - in Texas, Kansas and Florida. In 2003 he started a band called Group 1 Crew with friends Blanca Reyes and Pablo Villatoro. After being discovered on...
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Ep #20 Jessny Joseph on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Here's Jessny Joseph. You might know her from Instagram as a digital content creator for her bodybuilding and most recently diving into her Malayalee heritage. What you may not know about is her bicultural background, her science degree and her current career as a coder. She’s had quite the…
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Ep #19 Sarah Thomas (Kalamata's Kitchen) on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
A former sommelier and fine-dining professional, Sarah Thomas is now the co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Kalamata’s Kitchen, where she brings together her lifelong passions for both food and books. The daughter of two south Indian immigrants, Sarah grew up in the rural town of Somerset,...
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Ep#18 Hetal Vasavada (Milk & Cardamom) on Being Brown & Bold Podcast
Hetal Vasavada is a Jersey native who has adopted the Bay Area as her home. She gained popularity after competing on the show MasterChef. She wrote the cookbook, Milk and Cardamom, which was named one of the top cookbooks of 2019 by The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. Her recipes...
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Ep# 17 Reena Ninan of Good Trouble Podcasting on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
Reena Ninan is a journalist and entrepreneur. She is the founder of Good Trouble Productions, a media company focused on creating content with purpose. As a TV journalist, she anchored for ABC, CBS, and Fox News. She also created two top-rated podcasts: Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Parenting and...
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Ep# 16 Renji Bijoy of Immersd on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
Renji Bijoy, the founder of Immersed, a Techstars startup partnered with Facebook, HTC, & Microsoft to build VR Offices, which has raised $12M to date. Renji is part of 2021’s Forbes 30 Under 30, received a Master’s degree from Georgia Tech (#3 Computer Science graduate school in the US) in...
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Ep#15 James Mathew (Outer Voice Media) on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
James A. Mathew is CEO of The Outer Voice Company – a groundbreaking South Asian American entertainment group that operates across music, media, and events. He is a recording artist and songwriter himself, as well as a global brand fellow for Nike. Raised outside of Chicago, James is a recent...
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Ep#14 Keith Sarasin on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Keith Sarasin is a renowned chef, culinary expert, and cookbook author who has dedicated over a decade to studying the art of Indian cuisine. With a deep passion for the food and culture of the Indian subcontinent, he has honed his skills through extensive research and study, Sarasin is the…
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Ep #13 Vijay Kumar of Semma on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Chef Vijay Kumar. He grew up on his family’s farm in a small town near Madurai, located in the Southern part of India. Vijay helped his mother and grandmother in farming and cooking. It was during this childhood upbringing where his passion for fresh ingredients and cooking arose. Vijay graduated...
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Ep#12 Sam Fore (Tuk Tuk Lexington) on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
Sam Fore is a Sri Lankan-American chef and recipe developer based in Lexington, Kentucky. Her pop-up, Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites, crisscrosses the country to bring her -Sri Lanka meets the South -dishes to diners far and wide. She started the pop-up in 2016 after traditional Sri Lankan brunches in...
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Ep #11 Riji Raja of Affirmation Darling on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
Riji Raja, founder of Affirmation Darling, a wellness stationery brand built on powerful affirmations. She originally grew up in Kuwait. After living in TX, she and her husband moved from Dallas to Los Angeles to pursue acting. With the high cost of living in SoCal, their living situation quickly...
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Ep #10 Preeti Waas from Cheeni Indian Emporium on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Preeti Waas is the chef-owner of Cheeni Indian Food Emporium in Raleigh, NC. From a young child in India fascinated by the alchemy of baking to a James Beard Best Chef Southeast semifinalist in 2023, one thing has never changed for Preeti - the gratification and joy of feeding people. She is a...
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Ep #9 Margaret Pak from Thattu Chicago on Being Brown and Bold with Jes Thomas
Jes Thomas speaks with Margaret Pak on Being Brown and Bold Podcast A self-taught chef with a lifelong passion for food, Margaret worked in the corporate world for over a dozen years before delving into the food industry professionally. In 2017, she started as a Prep cook at Chiacgo's…
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Ep#8 Tarun Sinha ( The Taco Bell Sommelier )on Being Brown & Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas
Tarun Sinhat. A home cook and Taco Bell fanatic, he’s grown to follow his passions over the past decade. HeI was a bit lost creatively trying multiple art forms but what he always fell back on was cooking. It was his comfort zone that let him to relax and forget about what was outside the…
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Ep#7 Maneet Chauhan Being Brown and Bold Podcast
Maneet Chauhan is an award-winning chef, author, television personality and founding partner and president of Morph Hospitality Group in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a recipient of the 2012 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award for her role as a permanent judge on Food Network’s “Chopped.”...
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Ep#6 Shruthi Parker on Being Brown and Bold with Jes Thomas
Shruthi Parker is a digital content creator with thousands of followers on social media. She has built trust with her followers by using her voice which is authentic, passionate, sassy, informative, vegetarian, in-love, and well-traveledShe shares about motherhood, marriage, travel, eats…
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Ep#5 Monica Sunny of The Chai Box on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
Monica Sunny is the founder and CEO of The Chai Box, an ethical and sustainable tea company that specializes in hand-blended loose-leaf chai blends and small-batch chai concentrate. Previously, Monica Sunny worked as a human organizational consultant for Chick-Fil-A where she designed training...
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Ep# 4 Eliza Keyton (Elikutty) on Being Brown and Bold Podcast
Eliza Keyton is an education professional who has worked across the US, UAE, South Korea, and Vietnam since 2009. She is fond of languages and culture, particularly after her father married her Serbian Stepmother and was introduced to the melting pot of Chicago on family holidays. After meeting…
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Ep #3 Kevin Wilson on Being Brown and Bold Podcast
Today I am chatting with Kevin Wilson. He is known as the CEO of chai, which is the beverage that launched him onto the social media celebrity scene. He currently works as the Digital/ Social Media Co-ordinator for Andrews University. As an ordained minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church,...
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Ep #2 Catherine Dayal on Being Brown and Bold
Catherine is a social media influencer, digital content creator, and columnist based out of Mumbai and the US. After moving to India in 2016, what started out as a platform to share her migration from New Jersey to Mumbai has since garnered appreciation and love from all around the world. Her…
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Ep #1 - Anjai @ Beextravagant on Being Brown & Bold with Jes Thomas
Today I am chatting with Anjali aka Beextravegant! She is a full-time content creator with close to a million followers across social media. She has a successful online cooking course focused on teaching people Indian and Vegan cooking. She is also a freelance content creator, specializing in…
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Why being bold matters
BOLD: showing an ability to take risks; confident and courageous. Being Brown, I see the world through a different lens. As I encounter other brown friends, I find commonality. But in our differences, I find strength in hearing about the ways they have persevered by being bold. This podcast is a...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
This podcast is a storytelling platform that highlights Brown folks doing amazing things in their corner of the world. Jes Thomas interviews inspirational guests who have had a journey filled with high and lows. We will step away from the highlight reels, and hear more personal stories that have grown them to be much more than they imagined they would become.
HOSTED BY
Jes Thomas
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Being Brown and Bold have?
Being Brown and Bold currently has 42 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Being Brown and Bold about?
This podcast is a storytelling platform that highlights Brown folks doing amazing things in their corner of the world. Jes Thomas interviews inspirational guests who have had a journey filled with high and lows. We will step away from the highlight reels, and hear more personal stories that have...
How often does Being Brown and Bold release new episodes?
Being Brown and Bold has 42 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Being Brown and Bold?
You can listen to Being Brown and Bold on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Being Brown and Bold?
Being Brown and Bold is created and hosted by Jes Thomas.
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