Annika Sharma

I checked my Facebook messages this morning--I had deactivated it for a while because I hate social media, and ended up having to reactivate for the podcast and for the Vidya Project--and went through message requests and filtered messages. Most of the time, it's creepy men from abroad or messages I can ignore.

Today was different. I had four or five messages from abuse survivors who had listened to our latest episode. 

My heart has been both uplifted and heavy all day.

Every time I wonder if the podcast makes a difference, reminders like this shed light that these problems truly do happen...and they happen way more than we think. The anonymous survivor who spoke on Episode 7 was JUST like me--smart, educated, kind, in love--and that a situation turned on her despite all of her instincts that it was going well. Seeing as I'm not that different from a lot of smart, driven, kind women out there, it means this survivor is just like all of us.

It also is staggering to me how much progress we h...

 If you haven't listened to the latest episode of The Woke Desi, you can check it out here. As always, likes, subscriptions, comments and shares determine when and how we're listened to--any help is so appreciated!

By now, if you haven't figured it out already, we're beginning to settle into a groove over at The Woke Desi...we've figured out production, a little more about how to structure an episode, and how we jive as a group of three outspoken women.

It's a learning curve. But we wanted to begin with chilled out topics so we could bring our authentic selves as we learned more. We knew around episode 5, we'd be comfortable enough to start delving into the heavier subjects...the ones that will put us on different sides of the issue, let us argue and allow our experiences to speak for themselves.

This episode was one hell of a way to dive in.

Shreeda Tailor had emailed about doing an infertility episode and shared a summary of her story: that she'd had a combination of miscarriages, termin...

When we first discussed putting this breakups episode together--and I can't remember whose idea it was but I know it wasn't mine--I was a little nervous...Outside of funny dating disaster stories like the infamous Tickle Monster, my love life tends to be on lock. No social media posts about him. No public declarations that we're together. I even select my poetry to avoid matching how I feel that day so that people can't assume my posts are reflective of life...how was I supposed to open up about things I keep to myself?

Episode 5 dealt with cheating, breakups, social media, and how you can get over a breakup. Is it possible to be friends with an ex? Should we? What about if there are no feelings leftover?

It turned out to be one of my favorite episodes.

Namely, because none of us agreed on a thing. 

We talked a lot about healing...how breakups can be interruptors of life on a seismic level, and how it can be tough to rebuild after a devastating blow like that. It occurred to me after...

Note: not a single one of these pictures is filtered. 

Jon Stewart once described Penn State--and by extension, my hometown of State College where Penn State is located--with, "You’re driving along with nothing, and then it’s like cow…cow…cow…20,000 hot chicks — that’s Penn State.” Minus the hot chicks, "tons of cows and farmland" is an apt description for where I come from. 

I've only told one person this until now but the thing I miss most about being from the middle of nowhere is seeing the stars at night...city lights pollute the sky and you lose the magnificence of nature.

But this trip to Florida and our morning kayaking reminded me exactly how wonderful it is to be off the grid and to forget the bustle. 

To celebrate my brother's birthday, we (he, his girlfriend, her sister and I) took a three day trip to Orlando. Our original plan was Cancun but our family has a condo in Florida. It's easiest for us to get there quickly. Of course, we wanted to go to Universal Studios because...