Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation11 Touko 2022

Interview | Growing Up Irooni- Caspian Chef discusses returning to his Iranian roots after decades of assimilation

In this Growing Up Irooni we talk to Omid Roustaei, better known as the Caspian Chef. In this conversation, we discuss the process of coming to the United States on his own and figuring out his own path for assimilating into American culture as a means of survival. Omid has has a very rich and varied path, first studying biotech engineering, and then becoming a personal chef and yoga teacher, to pursuing a career in psychotherapy, to returning to cooking and his Iranian roots only in the past few years.This was one of the most fascinating conversations I've had- and we really go into some territory that I think will resonate with so many of us- life is certainly not linear, and we can see that in Omid's story. We talk about career and pursuing your dreams- he first went down the ‘traditional Iranian path' of becoming a biotech engineer and worked in that field for a while, before pivoting to the perhaps more American notion of pursuing his passion- cooking and psychotherapy. We also talked about the process of assimilation as a coping mechanism- what it means to arrive in a country and need to fit in. And finally, what led Omid back to the path of rediscovering his Iranian roots- from cooking Persian food, to becoming reacquainted with the Persian language, and to ultimately seek out and become part of the Iranian diaspora community again.I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

Related links:

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(223)

Poetry | Hafez's barafshān, Part 4

In this discussion on Hafez's barafshān, we go over the fifth and sixth line of the poem.

21 Loka 202411min

Poetry | Hafez's barafshān, Part 3

In this discussion on Hafez's barafshān, we go over the third and fourth line of the poem.

14 Loka 202411min

Interview | Growing Up Neem-Rooni - Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr! On Martyr, Trauma, and Collateral Damage

Kaveh Akbar is the Iranian-American author of the critically acclaimed and heavily lauded novel Martyr! In our long-awaited conversation we dive deep into the themes of his powerful book, Martyr, whic...

9 Loka 20241h 24min

Poetry | Hafez's barafshān, Part 2

In this second part of the discussion for Hafez's barafshān, we go over the first two lines of the poem in detail.

7 Loka 202418min

Poetry | Hafez's barafshān, Introduction with Fared Shafinury

In this introductory lesson on Hafez's poem barafshān, we're joined by musician Fared Shafinury to go over the overall meaning of the poem. You can hear Fared's version of this poem in this track from...

30 Syys 202440min

Speak Lesson 76 | A Separation, Part 5

In this lesson, we watch a clip of a heated conversation between Nader and Simin, the title characters of the movie. This is a fast paced conversation, and gives us a glimpse at a type of conversation...

11 Syys 202436min

Poetry | Omar Khayyam's rendee deedam, Part 2

In this follow up episode about Khayyam's poem rendee deedam, we go over the poem word by word, line by line, to understand each part individually. We'll also learn how to use the particular words and...

9 Syys 202414min

Speak Lesson 75 | A Separation, Part 4

In this lesson about clips from the movie A Separation by Asghar Farahadi, we watch a conversation between Nader and Hojjat, Razieh's husband, about potential work Hojjat will be doing for Nader. We'r...

5 Syys 202430min