Episode 081 – Faiza Khan & Saif Omar | Co-hosts of The Musafir Stories, & Founding members of O2Pod Collective

The Musafir Stories is an independent travel podcast that covers the lesser known destinations across India. Know more about India’s diverse culture, heritage, history, and landscape that will inspire you to explore this beautiful country.
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Each episode, hang out with your hosts Faiza and Saif, as they invite insiders, locals, and travellers, who share their amazing stories and experiences.

Faiza Khan and Saif Omar are co-hosts of The Musafir Stories, and also the founding members of the O2Pod Collective.

Listen to their journey from growing up in Bangalore and dabbling in handmade product businesses, to now showcasing India through the medium of an audio podcast.


The O2Pod Collective is a community of independent podcasters and listeners that provides a platform to explore this growing medium in India.
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Whether you’re starting out with a new podcast, need to discuss the latest technologies and developments in this industry, or just want to hang out and learn, the O2Pod Collective welcomes you with open arms.

Also mentioned in this episode
Aaron Millar – Aawaz – Airplane Mode – Alberta – All India Bakchod – Amateur Traveler podcast – Amit Doshi – Amit Varma – Anuvab Pal – Aravind Chandramohan – Armchair Explorer – Audible – Audiomatic – Audioboom – Away – B R Ambedkar – Banff – Bangalore – Bangalore Bits – Bangalore Palace – Biker Radio Rodcast – Bijay Gautam – Canada – Chatrapathi Shivaji – Chhavi Sachdev – Chitrakoot – Church Street – Condenast Traveler podcast – Cyrus Broacha – Cyrus Says – Dakhni – Danish Sait – Death Valley – Dzükou Valley – Extra Pack of Peanuts – Frazer Town – Ganjam – Goodwave Adventures – Guzzler’s Inn – Hampi – Hoboken, NJ – How I Built This with Guy Raz – Hyder Ali – INTACH – Inscription Stones of Bangalore – International Dark-Sky Association – Invisible India Podcast – ISRO – IVM Podcasts – Jason Moore – Jayanagar – Jessica – Joe Rogan Experience – José Covaco – Kaan Masti – Kadhai Podcast – Kalinjar Fort – Keibul Lamjao National Park – Khajuraho – Kunaal Roy Kapur – Lalbagh – Las Vegas – Lenduk – Macha – Maharaja Chhatrasal – Malabar River Festival – Mangalore – Manik Taneja – Matteo Cafe – Meera Iyer – Naga Subramanya B B – Narayan Prasad – Nebraska – NEOWISE – New Jersey – New Space India – Northeast India – NPR – Our Last Week – Outliers – Patagonia – Pavan Srinath – Peshwa Baji Rao – Pornhub podcast – Quiet Parks International – RadioLab – Ramayana – ReDiscovery Project – Road Trips USA – Roads & Kingdoms – Route 66 – Shandy Shirshendu Banerjee – Shankar – Shiv Sivaguru – Slang podcast – Software People Stories – Soul Sante – Spotify – Subash Chandra Bose – Sujatha Balakrishnan – Sully – Suresh Menon – Thale Harate – The Adventure Sports Podcast – The Dirtbag Diaries – The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson – The Passion People Podcast – The Seen And The Unseen – The Sporkful – The Stans (Central Asia) – The Trip – The Wild – Tipu Sultan – Travis & Heather – Urdunama – Vishnu Padmanabhan – Weird NJ – Women Who Travel – World Nomads podcast – Western Ghats – Writer & Geek – WTF with Marc Maron – Yosemite National Park – Zero To Travel
TIMESTAMPS FOR REFERENCE
10:30 Work and sitting behind a screen
15:58 Toronto is home
18:57 Introverts and podcasting
21:45 Talking about sounds
30:37 Learning English in schools from the 90s
39:38 Podcasts and sleeping
45:13 How we stumbled upon podcasts
57:14 Beginning of The Musafir Stories
01:11:09 Brands and companies getting into podcasting
01:16:03 The beauty of the raw vibes of podcasting
01:25:47 Money and podcasting, in India
01:30:37 Randomness in podcasting
01:36:56 O2PodCollective
01:43:23 Vernacular podcasts in India
01:54:42 Saif & Faiza’s personal travels and influences
02:12:49 Women in travel
02:19:23 Taking our local destinations for granted
02:28:23 Possibilities of travel to cover The Musafir Stories
02:30:55 Learnings from doing the podcast
02:47:03 The Musafir Stories in Hindi?
02:52:47 O2PodCollective in the Indian podcasting scene
02:57:01 The Musafir Stories going forward
02:58:58 Guests and making friends
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Show cover jingle courtesy of Icons8
Music by Nordgroove from Fugue
Episode background tunes courtesy of YouTube Audio Library
Cumulus Nimbus by Quincas Moreira
The Emperor’s New Nikes by DJ Williams