NaanSense Radio on “Pause” Indefinitely….

After it’s debut show on July 1st, 2007 and after 39 episodes…NaanSense Radio is currently on “pause” and will hopefully be resurrected once I return from India!

Check out this article about us in The Public Asian.

Special thanks to all of the co-hosts (even if you were just on for 5 minutes)- Nikhil Tilwalli, Wasim Rahman, Jay Subramaniam, Neha Singhal, Deesha Mago, Slava Kupersetin, Brandon Nero, Ramya Punnoose, Christian Melendez.

NaanSense Radio has featured interviews with:

Artists/Musicians/Producers/Actors

• Raghav – international pop sensation
• The Bilz/Kashif – Canadian pop stars
• Rudresh Mahanthappa – jazz artist
• Niraj Chag – UK fusion artist
• Vishal Kanwar – local musician and activist
• Gaurav Venkateswar – local musician
• Aakash Mittal – jazz musician
• Gauri Gill – photographer
• Kavitha Rajagopalan – author, Muslims of Metropolis
• Valerie Kaur – producer, Divided We Fall
• Andrew Mendelson – sitar player, documentary
• Mohit Chauhan – singer (Silk Route, AR Rahman songs)
• Kiran Ahluwalia – singer
• Vijay Iyer – jazz muscian
• Anup Sugunan – actor, writer, producer
• Prasanna, Carnatic electric guitarist
• Bageshree Vaze – Indo Canadaian dancer and composer
• Fatima Shah -DC production co-coordinator of Royal Kill

Authors

• Navdeep Kathuria – Editor in Chief, ABCDLady magazine
• Manil Suri – author Death of Vishnu, Age of Shiva
• Vikas Swarup – author Q&A (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Sandeep Sood – lead writer badmash.tv
• Monica Bhide – acclaimed food writer
• Karan Mahajan – author of Family Planning

Cool People Doing Cool Things aka Activists

• Nipun Mehta – CharityFocus.org
• Dr. Sanjayan – conservationist
• Dhru Purohit – www.welikeitraw.com
• Rahul Brown – www.inspire-now.org
• Tejas Patel – calling from Iraq
• Tip Fallon – founder, I Got Heart
• Shahid Bhuttar – community activist
• Sunaina Maira – professor
• Pulin Modi – street team, PETA
• Ashish Kothari – environmental activist & professor

People in Politics

• Ashwin Madia – candidate for MN Congress
• Hrishi Karthikeyan – founder, South Asians for Obama
• Suresh Kumar – South Asians for McCain

May 19th – Prasanna and Monica Bhide

Check out today’s show for TWO exciting interviews!

Prasanna – famed Carnatic guitarist who plays all over the world and has composed tracks for “Lagaan”, Oscar – award winning documentary “Smily Pinky”, and more.

Monica Bhide - acclaimed food writer and the perfect representation of an Indian American who has taken traditional dishes and updated them for modern lifestyles and tastes

http://wmucradio.com/stream_ripper/tue/Naansense_800_1000.mp3

May 5th – Cinco de Mayo!

On today’s show, we decided to take a step back and play songs from movies we watched (read: forced to watch) when we were kids. Tune in for songs from 1942 Love Story, Bombay, Baazigar, Lagaan, Rangeela, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, and more!

www.wmucradio.com from 8am to 10am to stream it. Or download the mp3 later!

Today’s show also features an interview with Bageshree Vaze is a versatile and multi-talented Indo-Canadian artist. As a dancer and choreographer, she strives to create and present work that reflects her cultural influences. She was initially trained in the style of Bharatha Natyam in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and also trained in Hindustani (North Indian) classical vocal music with her father, Dr. Damodar Vaze. After completing her Arangetram (graduation) in Bharatha Natyam, Bageshree received a fellowship from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute to further her studies in India with the late Guru T.K. Mahalingam Pillai. After moving to Ontario in 1996, Bageshree began to create dance works which combined her knowledge of South Indian dance and North Indian music, and she explored collaborations between Indian dance and Western forms, such as ballet, modern and West African dance.

April 28th Show

Links to check out:

http://www.kahanimovement.com/

http://www.missindianausa.com/titleholder.html

http://www.radiostan.com

http://southasianphilanthropy.org/

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/us-magazine-slumdog-stars.html

April 7th Show

Tune in for an interview with Fatima Shah – the DC production co-coordinator of Royal Kill, a movie starring Eric Roberts (THE DARK KNIGHT) and Pat Morita (THE KARATE KID), both of whom are Oscar nominated actors. The movie is written and directed by her husband Babar Ahmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EguVGi-9nhs

March 31st Show

Tune in tomorrow for an interview with Rudresh Mahanthappa – featured on NPR, the New Yorker, and Rolling Stone!

Guggenheim fellow Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and composers in jazz today. Floating near the top of the Downbeat International Critics Poll “Rising Star-Alto Saxophone” category for the past six years, #2 in 2008, Rudresh has incorporated the culture of his Indian ancestry and has fused myriad influences to create a truly groundbreaking artistic vision. As a performer, he leads/co-leads seven groups to critical acclaim. His most recent release for Pi Recordings Kinsmen featuring Carnatic saxophone legend Kadri Gopalnath (September 25, 2008) has been named one of the Top Jazz CDs of 2008 by numerous news sources including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Boston Globe, slate.com, and JazzTimes to name just a few. This album has topped the jazz radio charts in the US and Canada. His previous quartet release for Pi release Codebook (September 26, 2006) was named one of the Top Jazz Albums of 2006 by The Village Voice, Jazztimes, and The Denver Post and received rave reviews from Downbeat, wired.com and Science Magazine. In Europe, Codebook received the esteemed

March 24th Show

Last week was Spring Break but now we are back in full form with your weekly dose of South Asian food for thought. Tune in tomorrow for a riveting interview with environmental activist, professor, and my inspiring uncle Ashish Kothari.

How can you listen? 

Go to www.wmucradio.com and click on “High Quality” or “Low Quality” in the left hand corner and the show will stream in real time (Tuesdays 8am to 10am) OR if you miss the show, you can download the mp3 from here:

(The link only stays active for one week and is replaced by the next week’s show!)

 

 

This interview comes at a timely moment. On Monday, March 23rd Ashish Kothari’s brother, Smitu Kothari, passed away in India.  He was one of India’s leading social and environmental activists. He was a key member of Lokayan (Dialogue of the People), which received the Right Livelihood Award in 1985 for “linking and strengthening local groups to protect civil liberties, women’s rights and the environment” in India. Most recently, he served as Director of Intercultural Resources in New Delhi (www.icrindia.org), where he was involved in catalyzing deliberation, advocacy and coalition-building among grassroots people’s movements working on resistance to destructive forms of development and co-creating constructive alternatives. Smitu believed that new social movements in Asia and around the world are redrawing national boundaries and challenging the economic and social forces promoting globalization that are eroding vibrant cultural heritages, ecological systems, human rights regimes and democratic societies. Please also view this calendar of social justice movements in India that was created by Smitu Kothari and colleagues.

March 10th

Exclusive interview with Mohit Chauhan, lead singer of the group Silk Route and singer of top songs including Masakali from Delhi 6, Khoon Chala from Rang de Basanti, Tum Se Hi from Jab We Met, and many more!

Download the show mp3 from here: www.wmucradio.com

In 1997, Mohit Chauhan, the lead singer of the group Silk Route came together with two other very diverse musicians, and released the group’s debut album, Boondein. The single, Dooba Dooba was accompanied by a calculated experimental video of the trio performing the song underwater (literally) in a sinking Volkswagen and succeeded in bagging a host of awards including, ‘Best Debut’, ‘Best Music Video’ and significantly ‘Best Song’ in the increasingly popular, MTV style, Channel V awards.

Mohit Chauhan now performs as a solo artist after the band Silk Route was disbanded in 2007.

March 3rd Show

Tune in to NaanSense Radio from 8am to 10am for an exclusive interview withPunjabi ghazal singer, songwriter, and performer Kiran Ahluwalia.

Expressing her muse through ghazals and Punjabi folk songs, Kiran Ahluwalia explores the language of the heart with beautiful artistry and smoldering intensity. Born in India, raised in Canada, and now living in New York City, her enchanting and seductive music has garnered glowing praise from critics around the world. Her’s is “a voice destined to enchant more than one generation” (fROOTS) and she possesses “a deep spirituality and tranquility that borders on the mystic” (Sing Out Magazine). But most of all, Kiran Ahluwalia is a unique and inspiring performer and composer, who’s legion of fans continues to grow with every captivating performance and each new recording project.

Check out Nikhil’s article in ABCDLady Magazine on his grandmother – subprime lender!

Feb 22

Interview with Karan Mahajan, author of Family Planning and winner of the Joseph Henry Jackson Award

We would love to hear your thoughts on the recent Slumdog Millionaire Oscar win! Email us at naansenseradio@gmail.com with your thoughts and we will discuss on the air!