- Trailer
From the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), and Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI), Mixed is a podcast about forming strong mixed race and mixed faith families and relationships. Mixed people - especially mixed kids with multiple ethnic, racial and religious identities - experience marginalization and acceptance in ways that are different from monoracial and religious minorities. But, there are simple and straightforward things people can do to make sure mixed kids and adults have a sense of belonging and pride in their backgrounds.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
1m - Sep 7, 2026 - Trailer2
From the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), and Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI), Mixed is a podcast about forming strong mixed race and mixed faith families and relationships. Mixed people - especially mixed kids with multiple ethnic, racial and religious identities - experience marginalization and acceptance in ways that are different from monoracial and religious minorities. But, there are simple and straightforward things people can do to make sure mixed kids and adults have a sense of belonging and pride in their backgrounds.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
1m - Sep 7, 2026 - A Hindu Woman, a Christian Man
In the first episode of Mixed, Khyati Joshi, a scholar whose work today maps the intersections of religion, race, history and law in America, takes us back to 1995, when she arrived in Jerusalem as a young Indian American Hindu woman and unexpectedly fell in love with John, a White American Christian man.
What began under the golden light of Jerusalem soon became a collision with family expectations, immigrant identity, religion, race, and the complicated meaning of belonging. From navigating her parents’ hopes that she would marry an Indian Gujarati doctor to bringing John to India to meet her extended family, Khyati recounts the struggle to gain her family’s acceptance—and reflects on why their resistance was ultimately about much more than her relationship.
She connects her personal story to the larger history of American immigration, civil rights, interracial marriage, and how the legal changes in the 1960s that made mixed-race and mixed-faith families possible. At the heart of the episode is a question that reaches far beyond her own marriage: Is belonging something you inherit, or something you build?
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Find Dr. Joshi on Substack: https://khyatiyjoshi.substack.com/
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of the Under Gods project.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
33m - Sep 14, 2026 - The Work of Becoming Us
In Episode 2 of Mixed, Khyati and John move from winning her parents’ reluctant acceptance to the complicated work of planning a wedding that could honor both of their families, cultures, and faiths. What should have been a celebration quickly becomes a series of encounters with racism, white privilege, and assumptions about whose traditions belong—encounters that stunned Khyati, John and her parents.
Khyati reflects on what it means to navigate a society where Christian traditions are often treated as the default while other religious practices must be explained and negotiated, and how you can have doors slammed in your face but still end up with your dream wedding.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Find Dr. Joshi on Substack: https://khyatiyjoshi.substack.com/
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of the Under Gods project.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
42m - Sep 14, 2026 - Not Half of Anything
Interracial and interfaith couples build strong bonds and make space for each other at home and in the world. But what happens when two people become three or more?
In Episode 3 of Mixed, Khyati and John face a new chapter in their interracial, interfaith marriage: raising a child. When their son Kedhar is born, they begin the complicated work of giving him a sense of belonging in a world that often insists mixed-race and mixed-faith people must choose one identity over another.
From naming their son to encountering strangers who mistake Khyati for his nanny, Prof. Joshi explores the everyday work of protecting a mixed child from messages that he cannot fully belong to both sides of his family. She connects these experiences to the larger history of racial classification, religious socialization in America, and the pressure on mixed people to choose a single identity.
The episode culminates with a seemingly simple first-grade assignment—bring one thing that represents your family—and the realization that “one thing” can feel impossible for a child whose family contains multiple cultures, races, and faith traditions. Ultimately, Episode 3 is about the power of giving mixed children something the world too often denies them: the freedom to be whole.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Find Dr. Joshi on Substack: https://khyatiyjoshi.substack.com/
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of the Under Gods project.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
38m - Sep 21, 2026 - The Practice of Being Both
Can a mixed race, mixed faith person feel fully “both?”
In Episode 4, Khyati traces her son’s journey from a backseat conversation with a Muslim friend to his dual rites of passage — a Hindu coming-of-age ceremony and confirmation in the Episcopal church — and the deliberate choices behind them: two prayers at the dinner table, a baptism blessed with water from both the Ganges and the River Jordan, and family's search for a church willing to make space for a Hindu mother without asking her to leave part of herself at the door.
Along the way, Khyati unpacks the quiet bureaucratic pressure to "check one" box — tracing how the U.S. Census only allowed Americans to mark more than one race starting in 2000. She reflects on the ways she and John helped Kedhar fit into social spaces where he didn’t "look" like he belonged.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Find Dr. Joshi on Substack: https://khyatiyjoshi.substack.com/
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of the Under Gods project.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
35m - Sep 21, 2026 - Always Never Enough
Khyati turns to the wider world beyond family and home: What happens when mixed people carry their "both/and" identity into classrooms, courtrooms, and casual conversations that keep demanding they pick one?
The episode digs into the exhausting mechanics of "So, what are you?" — the visual guessing games, the code-switching, the moment Khyati herself mistakenly called a biracial colleague "white"— and uses these missteps to model how to actually repair them: listen, don't get defensive, believe people when they tell you who they are.
The episode then turns to academic insights on how the language of fractions didn't come from nowhere: laws designed to shrink Native populations, the one-drop rule built to enforce Black exclusion, the shifting racial categories of the U.S. Census, and the Supreme Court ruling that stripped U.S. citizenship away from a South Asian immigrant despite conceding he was scientifically "Caucasian."
Prof. Joshi explains the difference between ancestry (genealogy, DNA, lineage) and race (a social and legal invention with a body count) and closes on research: mixed-race people who are forced to fragment themselves show worse mental health outcomes than those who are supported in integrating their identities as whole. The episode ends on a cliffhanger into the series finale — turning the mic over to Kedhar to hear, in his own voice, what actually worked.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Find Dr. Joshi on Substack: https://khyatiyjoshi.substack.com/
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of the Under Gods project.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
36m - Sep 28, 2026 - The Many Ways of Being Mixed
In this series finale, Khyati sends Kedhar off to college — and eventually Thailand — with one last conversation about the assumptions strangers will make the moment he says he’s "Hindu" or "Christian," and reminds him that his identity "isn't a debate for other people to win." From there, the episode builds out a framework for how identity actually gets constructed: not as a fixed inheritance, but as something shaped by a dynamic web of phenotype, family, community, geography, generation, and gender. Drawing on multiracial-identity scholarship of Maria P.P. Root, Khyati lays out four healthy ways mixed people navigate "the borderlands" in which they reside.
Kedhar's own voice runs throughout the episode — describing how he moves between his father's small-town Pennsylvania world and his mother's Atlanta family, and his worry about carrying both cultures forward without his parents and grandparents to anchor them. The episode — and the series — closes as Kedhar boards a plane for a year in Thailand, with Khyati reflecting that raising a mixed child was never about delivering him to a finished identity, but about giving him a place solid enough to keep exploring from.
Creator: Dr. Khyati Y. Joshi is a scholar-storyteller who bridges research, lived experience, and practical wisdom. She is a tenured, Full Professor in the School of Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the author of White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America (NYU Press, 2020) and several other books on race and religion in America.
Dr. Joshi is also part of a mixed marriage. Along with her husband John, they have raised their son to be Hindu and Christian; and to recognize, cherish, and embody his Indian and European heritages.
In this series, she blends scholarly expertise with her unique story, relaying the mistakes she’s made, the wisdom she’s gained, and the practical tips she can offer for cultivating mixed relationships and raising kids and adults to embrace their whole selves.
Find Dr. Joshi on Substack: https://khyatiyjoshi.substack.com/
Mixed was created by the Institute for Religion, Media, and Civic Engagement (IRMCE), in collaboration with the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI) through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation as part of the Under Gods project.
Executive Producer: Brad Onishi
Producer: Andrew Gill
Original Music, Scoring, and Engineering: Scott Okamoto
Story Editor: Leah Payne
Production Assistance: Kari Onishi
Cover Art: Jennifer Chen
40m - Sep 28, 2026
