Romanistan
The authors of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling present: Romanistan! Do you love rebels? Do you want to live in a place where outcasts shine their brightest? Welcome to Romanistan! We're your friendly neighborhood Gypsies, celebrating Romani identity and outcast culture, and practicing good diplomatic relations with other marginalized communities.
We love the rebels who are living their truth, even if it clashes with tradition. We also love tradition and honoring our roots. This podcast is for everyone who loves and supports Roma & related groups, and anyone who feels like a misfit and wants to uplift others to create a beautiful community.
We feature pioneers in culture, fashion, art, literature, music, activism, cuisine, and everything good. We adore the intersections of gender, sexuality, spirituality, ability, and identity. We cover all topics, from the difficult to the glorious. Let's sit crooked and talk straight.
Hosted by Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele. We reclaim the slur Gypsy, but if you aren’t Romani, we prefer you don't use it. xoxo.
P.S. The Romani people are a diasporic ethnic group originally from northwest India, circa the 10th century. Now, Roma live all over the globe, and due to centuries of oppression, slavery, genocide, and other atrocities, Roma are still fighting for basic human rights. We seek to raise awareness of who Roma are, and highlight Romani resilience, creativity, & culture.
Romanistan
Toby Gorniak, Infamy, and Street Factory
We got to interview Toby G about the Netflix series Infamy, and his incredible work with Street Factory.
Read our review of Infamy here!
Toby Gorniak MBE (Aka- Toby G) is a Multi-award-winning transformational coach, Author, Tedx Speaker, Hip-hop artist, Entrepreneurs & Netflix Actor.
Using his personal life experiences, Hip Hop culture, love, kindness to transform the lives & mindset of people from a range of backgrounds, especially those who feel there is no hope.
He empowers them to Discover their individual Genius, Exceed Their Potential & Fall in Love with Their Purpose. Over the last 18yrs, Toby G has helped 1000’s of people to live their best lives, re-enter education, employment, & most importantly, be good people, giving back to their community!
Toby G has received an MBE honour from the Queen for his outstanding community contribution, an Honorary fellowship degree, this year he is ran with the Queen's Baton for the commonwealth games , BBC unsung hero, Nelson Mandela award & many more accolades for his transformational work.
He was nominated for these honours by his community, as they respect how he uses his horrific beginnings in life, as a former teenage refugee fleeing violence, as his superpower to now reach the unreachable & bring people into the light.
Follow him @ TobyGorniakMBE on all platforms.
You can find us on Instagram @romanistanpodcast, and on Facebook under the same name, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. Join our Patreon for extra content.
We started a Ko-fi fundraiser to help us grow. Our goal is to release more episodes more often, and we would eventually like to expand so we can produce content by other Romani & Sinti creators. We are hoping to cover production costs, like paying for our hosting site, website, editing and producing, and all the rest. We would love it if you could contribute and spread the word. The link, Ko-fi.com/romanistan, is in our bio on Instagram, and will be in the show notes
Please rate, review, and subscribe. It helps us so much.
If you would like to advertise with us, email us at romanistanpodcast@gmail.com. We offer sliding-scale for Romani, Sinti & related businesses, so reach out!
You can find Jez on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele, and on Twitter, TikTok, and Patreon, and you can find Jez’s vintage and curiosities shop Evil Eye Edit on Instagram @evileyeedit & Etsy.
You can find Paulina Verminski on Instagram @_paulina_v_ and at https://romaniholistic.com/. Follow Paulina’s store, Romani Holistic, in Newport Beach, CA, on Instagram @romaniholistic
Romanistan is hosted by Jessica Reidy/Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Verminski
Conceived of by Paulina Verminski
Edited by Viktor Pachas
With Music by Viktor Pachas
And Artwork by Elijah Vardo