Podcast
Stories Seldom Told
Hosted by Smita Tharoor · EN
Stories Seldom Told with Smita Tharoor
True stories of resilience & rediscovery — celebrating the strength it takes to be human.
In Stories Seldom Told, Smita invites guests from around the world to share the untold moments that have shaped their lives — stories of challenge, growth, & rediscovery. From Kabul to Mexico, Moscow to Mumbai, each episode explores how our experiences define us — or how we choose to redefine ourselves through them.
Through heartfelt conversations Smita unpacks one timeless question: Who are we, really, & how can we live fully and happily, no matter what life brings.
16episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Solange Ndip
Oct 1600:36:26Tap to summarizeSolange Ndip is the founder of Solange Rising Star (SRS), a survivor-led movement born from her own experience of SA trauma and resilience. What began as a deeply personal journey of healing has grown into an organization uniting survivors, witnesses, and allies to transform pain into collective power.“Our voices, once silenced by fear, can become the sound of hope.”Through initiatives like Kacherkatan, inspired by the metamorphosis of a butterfly, Solange and her team empower survivors across Cameroon’s rural and conflict-affected regions through education, advocacy, and creativity. Her story is one of courage, community, and refusing to let silence win.
Transcribe →Lt. Col. (Dr) Dharamdatt Goel (Retd.)
Oct 300:55:03Tap to summarize"So what if it's hard? So what if it takes time? So what if I've stumbled before? I will keep going." Lt. Col. (Dr) Dharamdatt Goel (Retd.) is a Motivational Speaker and Corporate Trainer, with a Doctorate in Psychology, and a Postgraduate Degree in Personnel Management. In 2002, he lost a leg below the knee while on an operation at the Line of Control. However, he was undeterred as he embraced many adventure sports, and made it to the Limca Book of Records as the first Indian to paraglide with an artificial leg. He's also the author of the bestsellers 'When People Doubted My Ability to Walk, I Decided to Fly,' and 'The Magic of So What'.
Transcribe →Megan Davis
Sep 15, 202400:46:25Tap to summarizeMegan Davis is a lawyer turned author of two novels, The Messenger and Bay of Thieves. The latter released in 2024 follows two women, Vanessa and Kate, who get dragged into a glamorous but dangerous world of financial crime and corruption spanning London all the way to the south of France. Bay of Thieves was the Sunday Times thriller of the month for July 2024. It's been described as "A timely, gripping, and richly nuanced financial thriller that exposes the Riviera’s seedy underbelly". "I had this idea that fraud and corruption were very complicated concepts, and they needed time to cook up. But at that point, I realized how simple it was and how it was actually the easiest thing to do. It's very easy to bribe someone, to falsify documents and to lie. I didn't do it more out of fear than anything else, because I'm quite cautious. But I could really imagine doing that kind of thing." To stay up to date, follow me on Instagram and X (Twitter) @smitatharoor. Stream and follow us on your favourite podcast platform.
Transcribe →Dr Satyen Sharma
Aug 17, 202400:44:19Tap to summarizeDr. Satyen Sharma is a consulting psychiatrist who has been working in Punjab and in and around Delhi for 16 years. He was trained at the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, in Pune, India. Satyen has held leadership positions as Secretary and then President of the Indian Association of Private Psychiatry. His areas of interest are addiction psychiatry and general adult psychiatry. "It would be so common for a family from Punjab to bring in a young, strapping, healthy boy, 20 years of age, who's been using heroin for some time. And they would tell me, 'Doctor, this boy, we want you to remove his heroin habit. And we have given him no work at all.' Now he's free to work out on his addiction, which is so counterintuitive. The first thing I would say is that if he doesn't have any responsibilities or anything to look forward to, what motivation does he have to go off drugs?" To stay up to date, follow me on Instagram and X (Twitter) @smitatharoor. Stream and follow us on your favourite podcast platform.
Transcribe →Sindhu Wadhwa
Jul 14, 202400:45:20Tap to summarizeSindhu Wadhwa likes to call herself a glorious mess. On good days, she wears her ADHD diagnosis like a crown, on other days she is a reluctant adult. Sindhu is also a freshly minted cat lady. For the last 19 years, Sindhu has been a clinical psychologist and a practicing psychotherapist. She currently heads the therapy team for MindSmith India which is a premium brain health platform. Sindhu is also on the advisory panel as a mental health expert for TRIOMPH (Transplant Recipients of India and Organ failure patients - a Movement to Provide Hope), a national support group in India for organ donation. Sindhu likes to write and speak on women's mental health. "The gift was, I got a lot of time alone. I literally built a world inside me, I could imagine things. I suppose while it was undiagnosed ADHD back then, it was always somebody who had a thousand windows open in this house of life. So imagine you have all the windows of the house open. And there is a lot of wind coming in, sunlight coming in. This is my house is life in my head. So I grew my own beliefs, I started to have deeper self awareness and reflection. I was always that child who was far more aware and cognisant of internal chatter than perhaps other people. So while it can be a curse, it can lead to severe anxiety, but I see it as a gift." To stay up to date, follow me on Instagram and on X (Twitter) @smitatharoor. Stream and follow us on your favourite podcast platform.
Transcribe →Jaishree Misra
Apr 17, 2021Tap to summarizeJaishree Misra is an author of Indian origin living in Britain. She has written eight novels published by Penguin and Harper Collins. She has also written a non-fiction account of building a writer’s studio on the beach in her home state of Kerala, India. She is a postgraduate in English Literature from Kerala University and has two diplomas from the University of London, one in Broadcast Journalism and the other in Special Education. She has worked in special education, journalism and as a film classifier at the British Board of Film Classification. She lives in London with her husband and daughter. Her daughter, Rohini, is a woman with special needs and specific difficulties with language and communication. "I tend to assume that people, even my dearest friends, are not that interested in my stories of parenting Rohini. I'm perfectly happy to hear stories of their sons, you know, going off to New York and doing a flash job, or someone else's daughter getting into medical school. And I love those stories, I have not a moments envy or resentment or anything. Because I genuinely enjoy the company of young people, my friends children. So I love those stories. I think I do tend to assume that they might not be as interested in my stories, a little triumph when Rohini came out with a new word. I mean, she's 38, for God's sake, to come out with a new word at the age of 38, I tend to assume would be a little bit embarrassing to announce to the world. So yeah, I hold back."
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