The Journey Behind The SWANA Comedy Show Podcast and Its Unique Name

I'm Sloan Kooshan, the creator of the pod. I started a few years ago a stand-up comedy show based in Montreal named The SWANA Comedy Show. SWANA stands for South West Asian North African. My goal for the show was to increase the visibility of SWANA comedians in my hometown. I basically started doing stand-up comedy and realized that I didn’t feel like any show represented my intersectionality of being queer and SWANA, which is how the show was born. Then, shortly after, I was offered the opportunity to produce and host four episodes on live radio for CKUT, a student radio station. Since then, I haven’t been able to get the desire to make my own podcast out of my head. I needed to meet and sit down with SWANA artists and create a platform where we can truly be seen. This is how this pod was born. I'm hoping to create a space for SWANA artist to feel seen and to be heard.