The Many Ways of Being Mixed
40m | Sep 28, 2026In 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
