Between Friends: Conversations with Maitri

About Between Friends: Conversations with Maitri

Maitri's prevention and awareness initiative, where we will talk to field experts and community members (both adults and youth) on various topics related to domestic/intimate partner violence, and how social norms and power dynamics foster gender inequity and abuse in relationships. We hope to share insights and resources that will help move the needle on the prevention of violence in our society, while also helping those that are directly impacted by it. Help us create a safe society! Music: https://www.bensound.com [Cosmic Revelation, Jascha Dachter Arian]

Publisher

Maitri

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Jan 2020

Latest episode

16 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

97 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Sept 2026

   S8 Ep3: The Sound of Solidarity: Men, Music & Social Change

   What if more men chose to speak up? What if more men chose to stand up? What if we stopped seeing domestic violence as “someone else’s problem”? 💜In our latest episode of Between Friends: Conversations with Maitri, host Nandini Ray talks with Sunil Ramesh, Ritesh Nayak, and Vasant Balasubramanian of BOOMM—three men who have been standing with Maitri through music and community support since 2013.🎙️ They talk about why they choose to stand against domestic violence and gender-based violence, how men can help prevent violence, and why creating safer, healthier communities is everyone’s responsibility.Their message is an important one: Men can speak up when harmful behavior is normalized. They can challenge attitudes that excuse violence. They can model healthy relationships. And they can use their voices, talents, and influence to support change.💜 This conversation is a call to action—especially for men—to move from silence to solidarity.Our Guests are:Sunil Ramesh: By day, Sunil Ramesh is a technology leader at Roku, building next-generation experiences across AI, media, and consumer technology. By night, he trades product roadmaps for power notes as BOOMM’s lead vocalist, bringing serious range, energy, and stage presence to the band. Equal parts technologist, music obsessive, and frontman, Sunil is proof that some people really do have a second gear.Ritesh Nayak: Ritesh Nayak is a technologist, entrepreneur, and musician whose work spans AI, consumer technology, and the performing arts. A former Google product leader and startup founder, he is currently building ventures focused on AI, deep learning, and traditional arts. An accomplished Hindustani classical vocalist, guitarist, percussionist, and producer, Ritesh brings his genre-crossing musical energy to BOOMM.Vasant Balasubramanian: In the corporate world, Vasant leads the Risk business at ServiceNow, helping enterprises bring a little order to the wonderfully chaotic world of AI, risk, and governance.On stage, he is BOOMM’s resident bassist, laying down the deep grooves that keep the band—and occasionally the audience—moving. Equal parts business leader, technologist, and bass obsessive, Vasant has spent decades managing risk at work while taking considerably more of it on stage.Host: Nandini Ray, Sr. Manager, Outreach, Prevention and Policy Advocacy, Maitri.Upcoming Concert of BOOMM: Rocke De BOOMM Returns! Friday, Oct 23, 2026, 7 PM @ the De Anza College- Visual & Performing Arts Center.Ticket Link: https://secure.swirepay.com/event-page/eventpage-b2ffaee66fc94240b47d4c3ca0f38cdc

2. 

   21 Aug 2026

   S8Ep 2: Youth Voices: Breaking the Silence on Mental Health

   For many South Asian families, we talk openly about education, success, and responsibility—but conversations about anxiety, depression, and mental health often remain unspoken. In this episode, we explore the mental health of South Asian youth and the power of youth activism with Sarah Shelke, a UC Berkeley student and founder of Mind4Youth, one of the world’s largest youth-led mental health nonprofits. When young people speak up, challenge stigma, and createspace for honest conversations, change becomes possible. 🎧 Tune in to Between Friends –Conversations with Maitri and join the conversation. Let’s make mental health aconversation, not a silence. Host: Nandini Ray, Sr. Manager, Outreach, Prevention & Policy Advocacy, Maitri. (E) nandini@maitri.org | Visit: www.maitri.org (http://www.maitri.org) AboutSarah: Sarah Shelke is an Indian American mental health advocate working to make mental health care accessible for youth worldwide. After navigating a family member’s struggle with depression at 13, Sarah founded the nonprofitMind4Youth to expand access to free mental health support, therapy access, and educational resources for teens globally. Since then, Sarah has spoken to members of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, advocatedfor health legislation on Capitol Hill, and supported legislation introduced in the Virginia State Legislature. For her work, Sarah was named to the inaugural TIME Visionaries list and was a 2024 International Children’s Peace Prize Top 3Finalist. Visit: https://mind4youth.com/ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rUTBWWE5yZThKckFUNEZzMk9yMjhHTHxBR3JiS2FtbEFucjFMdGNCU3NxZExIdUphN2pMejZ4QnlpUEltNFJXMzNjWTY4RE9MVzZpeXFBcXFkaXVQN1FPb0tKWlhfUkNXZldXNW9qdTRCRGdZdUxPaTlvMU5TbHd3ZzJl&q=https%3A%2F%2Fmind4youth.com%2F&v=LITPJ8qVSAc) Formany South Asian families, we talk openly about education, success, andresponsibility—but conversations about anxiety, depression, and mental healthoften remain unspoken. In this episode, we explore the mental health of SouthAsian youth and the power of youth activism with Sarah Shelke, a UC Berkeleystudent and founder of Mind4Youth, one of the world’s largest youth-led mentalhealth nonprofits. When young people speak up, challenge stigma, and createspace for honest conversations, change becomes possible. 🎧 Tune in to Between Friends –Conversations with Maitri and join the conversation. Let’s make mental health aconversation, not a silence. Host:Nandini Ray, Sr. Manager, Outreach, Prevention & Policy Advocacy, Maitri.(E) nandini@maitri.org | Visit: www.maitri.org (http://www.maitri.org) AboutSarah: Sarah Shelke is an Indian American mental health advocate working tomake mental health care accessible for youth worldwide. After navigating afamily member’s struggle with depression at 13, Sarah founded the nonprofitMind4Youth to expand access to free mental health support, therapy access, andeducational resources for teens globally. Since then, Sarah has spoken tomembers of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, advocatedfor health legislation on Capitol Hill, and supported legislation introduced inthe Virginia State Legislature. For her work, Sarah was named to the inauguralTIME Visionaries list and was a 2024 International Children’s Peace Prize Top 3Finalist. Visit: https://mind4youth.com/ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rUTBWWE5yZThKckFUNEZzMk9yMjhHTHxBR3JiS2FtbEFucjFMdGNCU3NxZExIdUphN2pMejZ4QnlpUEltNFJXMzNjWTY4RE9MVzZpeXFBcXFkaXVQN1FPb0tKWlhfUkNXZldXNW9qdTRCRGdZdUxPaTlvMU5TbHd3ZzJl&q=https%3A%2F%2Fmind4youth.com%2F&v=LITPJ8qVSAc)

3. 

   23 Jul 2026

   S8 Ep 1: How Patriarchy Hurts Couple Relationships

   How do harmful cultural norms, traditions, and deeply rooted beliefs impact intimate partner relationships—and what can we do to change them? To help us unpack this important topic, our host, Nandini Raywas joined by two distinguished members of the Pakistani community: Ahsan Qazi and Maria Ahmad. Ahsan Qazi is a writer, researcher, entrepreneur, and sociologist with a deep interest in understanding the forces that shape society. Ahsan has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Sociology, followed by an MBA in Strategy and Innovation. He is the founder of One Voice: Pakistan and World Affairs in Sociological Perspective. Ahsan has written extensively on social, political, and global issues, with his work published in Eurasia Review. His research explores inequality, governance, identity, and the growing impact of artificialintelligence on society, political beliefs, and human behavior. Professionally, he has spent more than eight years working inenterprise technology and technical communication, and he is the founder and CEO of Marvalero, where he is building an AI-powered platform for businesses and creators. While technology is an important part of what he does, his deeperpassion has always been understanding people, how societies evolve, why institutions succeed or fail, and how ideas shape civilizations. Maria Ahmad is an international development professional with two decades of experience working at the intersection of gender, migration, and institutional accountability across the UN agencies, INGOs, and independent consultancies. Her work has repeatedly returned to the question of how women, particularly migrant and minority women, are represented, protected, and structurally excluded within the systems meant to serve them, from her early reporting career in Pakistan as an award-winning journalist covering social and gender issues - including reports on MukhtaraMai’s jirga-approved gang rape and accompanying her to the Pakistan Parliament tofight for justice - to her recent gender-mainstreaming review of Uruguay’s National Migrant Integration Plan with UN Women and IOM, where she examined how policy frameworks fail to account for gender even when they claim to be gender-responsive. Maria’s career began injournalism in Pakistan, where she reported for GEO TV, BBC Radio, and Canadian broadcasters before moving into humanitarian and development work with IOM,where she spent years designing accountability and communication systems for displaced and vulnerable populations, including large-scale crisis response inPakistan. She has since worked on safeguarding frameworks addressing gender-specific vulnerability and trafficking risk, advised on AI-enabled toolsfor documenting technology-facilitated gender-based violence, and written on the representation of immigrant communities in public discourse. As a Pakistani woman who has lived and worked across South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American contexts, she brings both a personal vantage point on the patriarchal norms shaping South Asian family and partner relationships, and a professional lens on how those norms show up — often invisibly — in the policies andinstitutions built around them. Host: Nandini Ray, Sr. Manager, Outreach, Prevention &Policy Advocacy at Maitri. (E) nandini@maitri.org Visit: www.maitri.org

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

24,431

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

13 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 60 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

61

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

71

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