Where they come from
Family, neighborhood, language, the world they grew up inside.
A video podcast about life between worlds
Conversations with people who built a life somewhere new.
Building bridges across borders.
Twenty to thirty minutes with someone who left the familiar, crossed a border or a culture, found their person, and kept going. The honest version, ups and downs included.
The word
Pardesi
परदेसीਪਰਦੇਸੀ
From Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi: someone who lives away from home. A traveler. A stranger who became a neighbor.
The idea
Who is a Pardesi?
Anyone who stepped outside the world they were handed and built something real on the other side.
It might be a new country, a different faith, another language, or a community that was never yours by birth. It might be love across all of those lines. Pardesi Connections is about the people who did it, and what it cost and gave them.
We keep it global on purpose. The story of leaving, arriving and belonging belongs to everyone.
The conversations
One person. One honest hour of story, in thirty minutes.
Every episode follows a human arc. No scripts, no talking points. Just a real person telling it straight.
Why they left the familiar
The pull to explore, and what it took to actually go.
How they found their person
How two lives from different worlds met, and how a relationship took shape.
The ups and downs
Families, culture clashes, loneliness, laughter. What no one warned them about.
The life they’re building
What changed, what they kept, and what they’d tell someone about to take the leap.
20 to 30 minutes per conversation
Video first on YouTube, audio everywhere
Solo or as a couple
From everywhere
Every guest brings a place with them.
A neighborhood, a skyline, a kitchen table. Our stories start somewhere, and end up everywhere.
Landmarks from around the world: Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer, Table Mountain, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Pyramids of Giza, the Burj Khalifa, the Badshahi Mosque, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, Mount Fuji and the Sydney Opera House. And hello in many languages.
Episodes
It starts with our own story.
Premieres November 1
Episode 0 · The host’s story
A Punjabi from Brooklyn
Before asking anyone else to share their story, the host goes first: from the walk to school down Avenue U in Gravesend, Brooklyn, to September 11, 2001, and the world family he built across cultures after being told he didn’t belong. A Punjabi from Brooklyn, a musafir on his journey, and a citizen of the world.
YouTube soon
Spotify soon
Apple Podcasts soon
Episode 1 · Early November
The first guest conversation
A full interview with the first guest, a person who built a life across worlds. Join the list and we’ll tell you the moment it drops.
Get notified
Your host
Taz Abbas
I’m Punjabi, and I grew up in Brooklyn, surrounded by multiculturalism, international cuisine, languages and communities from all over the world.
It left me with one question I never stopped asking: what happens when a person steps out of the world they know, and builds a life in someone else’s? This show is how I go looking for the answers.
More about Taz →Everybody has a place they’re from and a place they’ve landed. The story lives in between.The idea behind Pardesi
Be a guest
Have a story from between worlds?
If you left home, crossed a culture, or built a relationship across one, we want to hear from you. Solo conversations are the norm; couples are welcome too.
- Tell us a little about your background and your path.
- We reply personally, and nothing is recorded or published without your clear consent.
- Every story is welcome: any country, community, faith or language.
Thank you.
Your story is in. We’ll read it and reply personally.
Stay close
Never miss a new story.
One email when an episode drops, and nothing else. Episode 1 lands in early November.
You’re in.
We’ll be in touch when the first episode is live.