A Brand New Interactive Lifestyle Web Series on South Asian Culture and Parenting Comes to YouTube!
After launching masalamommas.com in 2011, we are proud to be able to bring some of the amazing conversations about culture and motherhood to our readers in a first ever interactive, web series! Co-hosted by Editor-in-Chief, television journalist and mom of two, Anjum Choudhry Nayyar and media personality, anchor and mom of two, Karen Johnson, the web series will feature interviews with inspiring moms, talking about motherhood and parenting.
Anjum will share tips and ideas to share South Asian language, culture and heritage with children today using tech, apps and books and Karen will provide interactive demos and interviews to share recipes from our Masalamommas kitchen.
Most importantly, the series will be an interactive where hosts will take questions from viewers and talk to readers, followers and fans via skype and twitter across the globe!
Each week, both we’ll have a new webisode, Anjum and Karen will talk to guest hosts in studio, via skype and video, to have engaging discussions on hot parenting topics of the month, recipes, tips on great products that can help moms share South Asian culture, language and history with kids, fashion, beauty tips and more!
Each webisode will bring a mix of culture and parenting. Beginning this fall each week on masalamommas.com and on our youtube channel we’ll have a new webisode to share on parenting, interviews, cooking, tech and books. We’ll be sharing your questions and feedback each week on our Twitter and Facebook pages and even Instagram to foster empowering conversations about everything from raising global citizens to celebrating South Asian culture at home.
Each webisode will be 2-5minutes depending on the segment and we’ll continue the conversation with our readers on twitter, facebook and even instagram with some prizes along the way as well.
We hope you’ll join us each week beginning in September as we bring you a little bit of masalamommas to your iPad or smartphone!
Your hosts:
Anjum Choudhry Nayyar
Host, Masalamommas Show
Anjum, a mom of two and a Toronto native, has extensive experience in the television world as a news anchor, reporter, and health beat reporter, parenting writer and editor. She began her TV career in Chicago, where as a masters journalism student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she covered the juvenile court house in the city’s southwest side. She specialized in broadcast journalism. She also anchored and reported on a health segment for the city’s suburban regional cable channel’s one hour program. She went on to become an intern for CBS in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill during the Clinton presidency, where she was the Washington correspondent for WISC-News 3 in Madison, Wisconsin and also for WMJI-FM in Cleveland, Ohio. In D.C. she reported on a broad range of topics such as health, gun safety laws and social security.
In Canada, she became a live reporter in Winnipeg where she covered the province’s election and health issues that confront the aboriginal and local communities. She also anchored A-Channel’s half hour noon news show and later became part of the daily news team at the New VR/A-channel in Barrie where she reported live for its daily newscasts. She went on to become a reporter/back up anchor at OMNI NEWS in Toronto as well as reporting, writing and producing a health segment for the South Asian news program.
Here she won several awards for her coverage of health stories including the runner-up Journalism Award for Excellence in Women’s Health Reporting from the Society of Gynecologists of Canada for her story on Breast Cancer Misconceptions in the South Asian Community, as well as Best News Story 2004 from Toronto EMS for her story on its multilingual emergency services. She has also written magazine articles for several magazines and is now the publisher for masalamommas.com, the first online magazine for moms with a South Asian connection.
The magazine has been nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award in 2012 and has given Anjum recognition through The Hot Mommas Project, an award-winning women’s leadership research venture housed at the George Washington University School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence. She won the 2012 Breaking Barriers Award through the project, for her work at masalamommas.com and is now part of the world’s largest women’s case study library, providing free online access to stories of female role models and mentors.
She is a public speaker often called upon to speak at community events and has spoken at North America’s largest blogging conference, BlogHer. She has also appeared and been interviewed on national media including Canada AM, CBC Radio, CBC (Metro Morning), CBC (the National), Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.
Karen Johnson
Karen Johnson, Co-host, Masalamommas Show
Before joining CTV, Canada AM (2012-2013) national morning show as a back up weather anchor, Karen was telling the weather story at The Weather Network from 2002 to 2012.
Karen had her first experience with winter weather in the Prairies where she was the weather anchor and writer at A-Channel Edmonton’s Breakfast Television.
A Toronto native, Karen has extensive experience in the television world as a producer, host, writer, reporter and weather anchor. After completing her studies in Broadcasting and Journalism and interning at CFTO TV in Toronto, she landed her first reporting job with CFMT TV (now OMNI). Karen covered a broad range of issues both domestic and international.
Quickly moving through the ranks, she became the entertainment anchor and host of “Bollywood Blvd,” a Toronto based entertainment show covering the Indian film industry. Here she interviewed celebrities and presented entertainment news. Karen also covered the Toronto International Film Festival, Grammy Awards (Los Angeles) and Daytime Emmy Awards (New York City).
Cooking didn’t come naturally for Karen, so when the station she was working for chose her to co-host a cooking show, she jumped at the opportunity to learn another skill! 13 years later “The Veggie Table” is still on the air nationally and internationally. Karen’s passion for cooking inspired her to develop a website of South Asian vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes that can be found at www.thesouthasiantastingtable.com.
In spite of her busy schedule, Karen has found the time to earn her CMOS certification, and she has also been invited to speak at numerous engagements; in 2010, she was asked to emcee a luncheon for the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper.
Email mmshow@masalamommas.com with your story ideas! If you’d like to learn more about sponsorship, please contact us at the email above.
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Looks amazing! I can’t wait for it to launch!
What a terrific new initiative! Congratulations and I wish you every success!