Meet the best friends behind Vancouver podcast you need to listen to
Made in Vancouver is a collaboration between Vancity and Daily Hive. Together, we’re turning the spotlight onto local businesses, organizations, and individuals who are helping to create a healthy local economy.
It’s fair to say that in the past year, many people had more free time to pursue certain passions.
Podcasts have been exploding in popularity over the last decade, and the pandemic saw even more growth. Everyone has their few that they need to listen to, but it’s always nice to get a great recommendation. In a more socially-conscious world, it’s nice to know there’s a podcast we can tune into that can have real and honest conversations.
CHITTALK is an educational and self-development podcast hosted by Annika Nyberg and Rithu Jagannath, two women of colour based right here in Vancouver.
Their episodes include special guests with unique perspectives that aim to appeal to like minded individuals, as well as challenge the mindset of their audience.
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Vancity has been supporting people in our communities since 1946, like local artists. As part of our Made in Vancouver series spotlighting local businesses, we talked to Annika Nyberg and Rithu Jagannath about what it’s like to host a podcast and share your experience with an audience.
“Annika and I began working together at a boutique brand strategy firm based in Yaletown and in the midst of the company developing an online media network, we found ourselves pitching them our podcast idea,” said Jagannath, talking to Daily Hive about how they started their podcast.
“Two best friends from college navigating young adulthood and sharing that with the rest of the world,” she added.
They got their idea from a podcast by believing in themselves.
“We constantly found ourselves having insightful conversations driven by curiosity and we wanted to share our discussions and experiences with the world as two women of colour,” Jagannath told us.
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Many Vancouver business, artists, and ideas are created by marginalized voices needing to create one of their own. Vancouver seems to be a great space to take that risk, and have an audience who wants to take part.
“We noticed that the majority of the podcasting space was taken up by white creators and we wanted to take this opportunity to amplify the voices of the BIPOC community as well as other marginalized peoples,” they said. “We feel inspired to use our platform as a way to share ideas, creations and experiences,” they added.
A podcast is an amazing way to create a shared community for marginalized voices. What CHITTALK can accomplish is so important and the reach has yet to be determined.
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“We want to encourage people to be brave, bold and unapologetically themselves,” they said.
“Podcasting is an ever-growing niche field, and a valuable educational resource to people far and wide. The only way to stand out is to be fearless in what you do and lean into what you’re curious about,” they added.
And they are fearless. They’re topics might challenge the way you think, but it’s always in a welcoming way. Even though we are listening to them, and their guests, it feels like an open discussion with friends. It is not a space for judgement, but a podcast for learning. They stay fearless because they believe in what they’re doing.
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“Annika and I both work full-time at extremely rewarding and demanding jobs,” they said.
“But we find time to work on the podcast because it is a passion of ours. What started as just an excuse for the two of us to hang out and talk about stuff, has now grown into this amazing, and beautiful project that changes people fundamentally. I think that’s the thing I attribute to our success. The fact that we truly deeply care about what we do,” they added.
The global pandemic definitely created challenges for the two hosts. They had to re-discover their chemistry since they were no longer recording in the same room. But it didn’t take long, and it gave them the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world. It became a time in their lives, and ours, when maybe we needed a podcast like this the most.
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“Now more than ever, people are introspective and focused on self-reflection,” they said. “One of the biggest compliments that makes our hearts soar, are when our guests say, “Wow, that is an amazing question!” or when they say, “Thank you so much for creating a safe space for us to have such a vulnerable conversation.”
“We hope to create a space for people to have the opportunity to learn about themselves by challenging their perspectives and mindsets all while breaking down social stigmas and stereotypes,” they also added.
With the CHITTALK website coming soon, make sure to follow these podcast hosts on Instagram to stay up on episodes and guests. Better yet, stay tuned to all of their episodes!
“Starting today, CHITTALK will be releasing a new episode biweekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Play.” they told us.
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