Podcasting Gets a New Hyper-Online Refresh

Hong Kong's rising podcast duo shares their favorite podcasts, most impactful reads, and what their Instagram explore pages are looking like.

What do you get when a kindergarten teacher and a neuroscientist create a podcast? You get Brainrot. Launched by teacher Nazir Khawaja and researcher Yusuf Mohideen last November, Brainrot is a Hong Kong-based comedy podcast — the first in the city hosted in English and catering to Gen Z. The duo met through a mutual friend three years ago at a modeling photoshoot for a local jewelry brand. Brainrot’s content aims to “cover niche topics,” ranging from fashion, traveling, social media to covering community rants, adulting, through “ the perspectives of two very different people.” Recently, the duo went viral on Instagram over video sharing a haram NSFW story submitted by a listener of the podcast (said video has 3.6 million views and counting). But with early successes, the duo isn’t ready to piegeon-hole themselves to a target audience: Whoever you are, they say, “there is an episode ready for you.” Here are Nazir and Yusuf’s recommendations on THE CHOW:

Baddest Radio by Bretman Rock

Nazir: My favorite podcast is the Baddest Radio by Bretman Rock. Love him. If you notice my Instagram name is @bremmarock, which combines Bretman Rock and Emma Chamberlain (Emma Chamberlain’s Anything Goes podcast is my second favorite). Bretman’s podcast is kind of like ours. It’s not too serious, philosophical, or analytical. It’s relatable, funny, and easy to listen to. Best of all it doesn’t break your head. When I’m getting ready or doing a chore, I’d tune into him.

Damon Dominique’s YouTube channel

Yusuf: I love Damon Dominique’s vlogs. I’ve been following him since I was a teenager because I love traveling (the idea of it and actually doing it). He breaks down a lot of sociology, anthropology, and philosophy through traveling but in a very digestible, very friendly and organic way. That just sits well with me.

Pictures of Jude Bellingham

Nazir: My Instagram explore page is literally Jude Bellingham, the footballer. I mEan, I’m not really a football fan like that. I just like the football players.

Memes on X

Nazir: My humor is very much on X, because it’s so unhinged. The memes you see on Instagram today were uploaded on X like two weeks ago—that’s really where the party’s at. Yusuf would send me memes and to be respectful, I’d tell him it’s funny. But I would’ve already laughed seeing the same thing two weeks ago.

Textured Clothing

Yusuf: I love denim. I love fur now as well. I love playing with different textures, anything sleek and smooth when i’m thrifting clothes because to elevate an outfit with no statement pieces, mixing and matching texture, even with a lack of colour can really define your personal style.

Khaled Hosseini’s Books

Nazir: I lent him my copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and we cried.

Yusuf: It was also formative, at least for me, to read Khaled Hosseini books because I first read Kite Runner when I was 13. I used to cry in the school library in the corner, reading them in secret. I was too embarrassed to cry in class.

Flights on Skyscanner

Yusuf: Since I love traveling, I’m always looking through Skyscanner and refreshing the page to look for cheap flights so I can leave Hong Kong. If I stay here longer than four or five months, I truly lose my mind. I’m always looking for the next getaway. My guilty pleasure is being a cheapskate and using cheap hacks. I love saving money. I love finding the easy way out.

Tamjai

Nazir: What have we been eating?

Yusuf: We do eat.

Nazir: Periodt.

Yusuf: But we do eat… like what do we eat?

Nazir: We eat tamjai.