Spdrmnky is an internationally recognized digital artist. We speak about the skill of confidence, the different dimensions of intelligence, his work being compared to the brilliance of 'Boss Logic,' his unwillingness to take on the role of mentor for his young followers, and the hope that he would like to garner with his work.
The Shah is an actor, content creator, and rapper.
Romaisa Khan is a content creator and actor.
Akbar Chaudry is one of the pioneers of the comedy circuit in Karachi, and increasingly in Pakistan. We speak about capitalizing on art, the writing process of a comedian, the arrival fallacy, Akbar's designs on hopefully building a comedy club in Karachi, why he insists on bringing comedy to every part of Pakistan, selling out comedy shows in multiple cities in America and the fifteen underground comedians in Pakistan that nobody has heard about yet, but that Akbar believes will one day be truly great.
Maria Unera is a singer, songwriter, musician, and inheritor of the Filipino and Lahori traditions of musicality. We speak about her life in Pakistan, her journey to herself, her relationship with her work and with the music industry, the power of focused artistic expression, and what living in Karachi by herself has taught her.
Umair Najeeb Khan is an artist, digital illustrator, and comic book creator. We speak about the scope and financial ramifications of fine art in Pakistan, the concern with doing 'branded,' work as a content creator, the broad categories that everyone with social media is grouped into, his comic book characters, illustrations, and his hope for Pakistani storytellers.
Purnia Farrukh is an architect and the proprietor of 'itereight,' an interior design, product and marketing consulting, and construction management firm. We speak about what it takes for a woman to make a business work in Pakistan, the concern with privilege, the average woman's plight, and the essence of her new design ideology.
Ramish Safa is an artist, content creator, entrepreneur, and crypto enthusiast. We speak about his multiple sources of income and inspiration, about how much money is enough, about the concern with cancelation if you make your money through your online presence, about how he can afford to travel the world, and about his plans regarding an old dormant business.
Raza Samo is a creative, content creator, comedian, and now most recently actor. We speak about his movie 'John,' the perils of typecasting, the pressures of being the 'funny man,' mental health, the masculine psyche in Pakistan, and about his plans for the future.
JOKHAY is the producer and one of the founding members of The Young Stunners, we speak about how his journey into music started with Metallica and Megadeath, how he transitioned to hip-hop production, met Talha Anjum and Talhah Younus and went on to create some of the most powerful contemporary music ever witnessed in Pakistan, his need to stay rooted to his past, and how he remembers his days of difficult fondly.
Irfan Junejo is a storyteller! we speak about his recent foray into short-form video creation, his return to the style of content creation that has been both the best and the worst thing to happen to him, where we might want to spend the rest of our lives, about the great love we have for Karachi, and a lot more.
If you're reading this, might I encourage the pressing of the like and the subscription buttons? And the possible sharing of this piece of content with your family and peers? It counts for more than you know.
Segments
0:00 Absences and Mic Stands
1:44 Requests for free copy editing services
2:22 Rant about entitlement
3:30 The Philosophy of Kant introduced in the rant
3:48 How to learn new words and better your vocabulary
4:20 A genius speaks about betrayal and breakups
5:40 Trying to get into an IVY league school after a loss
6:38 Escaping the loop of hate
7:00 'Love,' at 17
7:50 The Betrayal, she loves me but not really
8:28 Art from heartbreak, powerful lyrics
9:02 5 A*s and 4 As
10:00 Where hate comes from
14:15 Love is love
15:40 It's meant to hurt, so let it
16:48 DO NOT make light of your problems
18:23 Process your hurt through your hobbies
18:45 Releasing a song about your breakup
21:51 My teenage breakup at 18
23:03 Porn and masturbation ruining it for this person
24:40 The philosophical ramifications of watching porn
31:06 'Depression, Hollowness, Deep Question'
35:25 'I want to start vlogging, does equipment matter?'
36:25 Self-esteem issues
40:04 'I need sukoon.'
46:00 My insecurities
Find the podcast on all audio streaming platforms here: https://linktr.ee/kaziakber
Speak to Kazi: callakazi@gmail.com
If you're reading this, might I encourage the pressing of the like and the subscription buttons? And the possible sharing of this piece of content with your family and peers? It counts for more than you know.
Segments
0:00 Celebrating the new year
1:06 using headphones while podcasting for the first time
2:23 Is an unmarried 29-year-old woman a failure?
4:21 Defining failure 6:08 Are we generally a cold people?
7:50 Respecting the reality shaping power of the context
10:26 Only fail when you stop trying
12:13 A 16-year-old asks me about self-rewarding behaviors
15:32 Why self-care is essential
16:55 My first experience with a therapist
18:30 The concept of 'earning' self-love
20:06 The Stanford dopamine study
22:43 Doing the work needs to become its own reward
24:12 The dangers of associating dopamine with the outcome
24:55 The best way to avoid burnout
26:10 A person searching for happiness will always be unhappy
28:01 Ryan Holiday on speaking about and doing a certain thing
29:23 My problem is a man who won't admit his feelings toward me
30:27 Using the word 'depression,' properly
31:07 Whose fault is this unrequited love
34:01 The key to your destruction rests with your loved ones
35:21 Maya Angelou on believing people
36:19 The cognitive tax of unrequited love
37:15 I get invited to IBA as a guest of honor
39:36 I wonder why they would invite me
42:40 An anon lover concerned with how a person looks
46:04 What is empathy
47:31 The cure for unrequited love?
50:35 Who is really my friend?
53:04 Are you really becoming ruthless?
54:00 The temporal quality of memories
55:04 Are friendships a form of passing the time?
57:13 Entitlement isn't fair to anyone
59:30 The different kinds of friends
01:01 The story of Hot Spot in Karachi
01:04 Feelings connected to time more than space
01:05 Thoughts and prayers on 2022 and 2023
Find the podcast on all audio streaming platforms here: https://linktr.ee/kaziakber
Speak to Kazi: callakazi@gmail.com
I respond to questions about betrayal, loss, education, and friendship.
Timecodes
0:00 Won't mention your names until you tell me I can
0:55 Made friends at university, and now they're spreading rumors about you
6:10 Why are women hell-bent on hurting women?
7:45 Best bakery biscuits in Karachi
8:21 You're from Bangladesh and are studying and living in London
12:42 When is it okay to quit university?
18:28 We need to decide what we're going to suck at
20:34 Book recommendations
21:20 You couldn't make it in the Air Force, and now you want to go abroad
24:02 The truth about an undergrad degree
26:13 The truth about the concept of a home once you go abroad
26:55 Friendships change over time, this is inescapable
28:40 About my journey from Hyderabad to Toronto and back
32:00 Unpacking empathy
33:15 Using 70% of your savings on an undergraduate degree
36:08 The stifling amount of student debt in North America
38:52 You had a best friend, and now she wants nothing to do with you
40:48 Can't force someone to be in your life
42:45 Developing a malleable worldview
43:51 People need to not have access to you, to value you
45:33 Diminishing marginal utility of friends
Find me everywhere here: https://linktr.ee/kaziakber
Speak to Kazi: callakazi@gmail.com
It's been six months since the last podcast was uploaded. Here's everything that's happened, and five lessons I've learned from it.
Timecodes
0:00: Your guest today is me
1:16: The situation with the Karachi studio
3:31: The podcast must evolve
5:45: Coming to Hyderabad
7:08: Dancing with the idea of doing the podcast in someone else's space
8:01: Why I can't go mobile with the podcast
9:49: The switch to short-form content
11:47: For the people who know me just from the short-form content
13:28: ARKG merch
14:34: The problem with renting space for the podcast
15:38: The Podcast with Mehrub for which I got flack
18:20: The story of the live podcasts
19:25: Segway into what I've learned in 2022
19:42: 1 - The danger of exceeding a person's concept of you and why I felt I owed Irfan bhai an apology
26:20: 2 - The kindness of great people
28:05: 3 - Pakistan's masculinity problem, my five steps for solving it
33:17: 4 - Our inability to put our money where our mouth is
36:57: 5a - Protecting your cognitive capital is important and uncomfortable
39:42: 5b - Admitting that you don't know something is liberating.
41:29: We will try to speak to each other more often. Speak to Kazi: callakazi@gmail.com
Find me everywhere else through here: https://linktr.ee/kaziakber
Faisal Sheikh is the founder and CEO of 'Jack of Digital,' the exclusive advertising and data sales partner for TikTok, Eskimi, SHAREit, and SpiderAF in Pakistan. We speak about the ability to endure hardships because of a principle-oriented stance, the evolution of short-form video content, slowing down in an environment that is sped up due to the high rate of technological development, and the timeless nature of certain societal imperatives.
Rayan Khan is a crypto trader who hopes to launch his own NFT project. We speak about the taboos around cryptocurrency, wealth generation, and management, and what he hopes will be a paradigm-shifting community predicated upon his work in the Metaverse.
Abid Saleem is part of the old guard of photographers in Pakistan with a career spanning over 30 years. We speak about what started his career in his teenage years, the pursuit of prominence that Pakistani society seems to be taken by, his deep respect for the craft of acting, what makes one a successful fashion model, the fundamental difference between working in the content creation space in Pakistan as opposed to anywhere else in the world, and about how he's kept up with the technological advancements in camera gear, and content creation more generally. Towards the latter part of the podcast, we also speak about what drives his pursuit of excellence despite having experienced tremendous success in his long-standing career.
Asteria is a singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist. We speak about the power of discovering one's calling, the courage required to dream, the immutable engine of trauma, about growing up with resentment toward Pakistani society, moving abroad, and realizing that the resentment was predicated upon something more immediate, about coming back and coming to terms with her heritage and her home.