This week’s guest is Rohan Shirolkar (he/him). As a husband and new father, Rohan’s story has taken him to a place he didn’t see possible at its beginning, growing up as a gay boy in India in the 1980s/1990s. On this episode, Rohan shares with us his story and journey of navigating and understanding his identity, confronting and healing from anti-queerness, and eventually getting to the place of feeling such sense of freedom today. I SO loved getting to have Rohan on the show, and was so moved throughout this whole conversation.

About the guest:
Rohan Shirolkar is a 42-year-old Clinical Research Professional residing in Miami with his husband and their newborn daughter. He is a listener and admirer of the Second Adolescence podcast, and finds its Instagram posts deeply relatable. Rohan is eager to share his journey of growing up as a gay child in India, confronting anti-queerness during his college and professional life, and experiencing profound transformation after meeting his husband 15 years ago. @RohanShirolkar (IG)

For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescencepod.

This week’s guest is artist and actor, Mod Becher (he/they). I actually met Mod out in real life while being a patron at his workplace, which we go into, and it eventually led to me sharing about the podcast and unbeknownst to me Mod was navigating a pretty pivotal time and would go on to become a listener of the show and eventually wanted to come on to offer their own story as a way to help others who have been navigating his own tumultuous journey’s of finding themselves. I SO loved getting to connect with Mod and was so moved throughout this conversation, and am so honored to get to invite you all into it too.

About the guest:
Mod Becher (he/they) is trans masculine actor and artist from just outside LA, moving to the city at 19 years old. His work is often focused on the representation of the gender spectrum and LGBTQ+ community. He’s starred in a variety of projects spanning from the stage to the set and is currently working on a collection of various drawings in hopes of putting on his first art show. You can keep up on Instagram @modermelon (:

Hollywood Fringe Festival: www.hollywoodfringe.org

For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescencepod.

This week’s guest is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging leader and practitioner, SJ Janjua (they/them). In this conversation, SJ leads us through their own personal journey and how this has led them to doing the work they are doing now to create spaces that their younger self needed.

About the guest:
SJ Janjua (they/them) is the founder of Empowered for Equity Consulting, where they use their passion and expertise in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging to help equip others with the tools to create inclusive spaces in schools and workplaces. SJ is a proud queer/transgender/non-binary/biracial person who uses their lived experience to guide their consulting work. They spent 5 years teaching high school level English in the US and abroad at the start of their career, and eventually left the classroom in pursuit of a master's degree. They obtained their degree in International Education and served as a classroom evaluator, curriculum developer, and a teacher trainer in the years following. During their work at a non-profit afterschool program, they began their formalized Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging work in the education space. They specialize in providing workshops, trainings, and strategic planning support to schools and organizations on creating LGBTQ+ inclusion, creating and fostering spaces for belonging, integrating restorative practices, and empowering folks to go beyond performative allyship.

Learn more about SJ and their work at: www.empoweredforequity.com.

Get their recently released eBook, TRANSparency: Advocating for Your Transgender Child at School.

Join their email list HERE.

For more, visit www.secondadolescencepod.com and @secondadolescence.