Meet Shima Oliaee

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shima Oliaee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shima , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

No one wants to hear this, but self confidence comes from living and fighting through painful experiences you wish you didn’t have to. It comes from surviving crushing events. Times that should’ve broken you. I did not really know myself until then. In Buddhism they say that only by defeating a powerful enemy can one prove one’s real strength. “Really? That is the only way?” I used to think. Yes. Unfortunately it’s true. A complication of that is you cannot go looking for this fight. However, if you live boldly and brightly, it will find you. I remember having this professor in a Women in the Arts class back in college. I was 19? I told her I worried I didn’t know what I was here for, what I was meant to stand up for. She looked me dead in the face (wearing these big, red-framed clunky glasses that had a gold chain round her neck) and stated, “Oh don’t worry, dear. Your fight will find you.” If you stand for anything at all, you will face resistance. It’s physics. For many years, my wish was to be the woman no one complained about, and I was really good at giving everything and asking for nothing. Fortunately I had this other thing which was a very strong moral inner compass and it would rage, and it would get me in trouble, over and over again, good trouble, and I’d be banished. The process of inner revolution is painful and takes time, sometimes decades or a lifetime. But once you build that inner sanctum, one that echoes with memories of triumphing over one obstacle and then another, over and over again, you do not leave those battles empty-handed. Your sight purifies. You’re given the gift of perception, which few have, and a depth of understanding that no money or title can ever give you. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.” You see others as they truly are, and you see yourself as you truly are, and with that comes self esteem. It can’t hurt your art either.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I create audio documentaries, what they call “podcast miniseries.” What excites me? First, you’ve got to find the thing you are so obsessed with that you’d love to live in that world or the questions of that world for at least a year. Every series I’ve made by the time I’m through with it, I might as well have a phd in the subject. After Dolly Parton’s America I am certain at this time in history I know more about Dolly Parton than anyone on the planet. A lot of my research will not even make it into the show, but every interview question I write comes from that foundation. Each series I’ve made (even the ones where I’m not hosting and work behind the scenes) has been autobiographical in some way. My story is in everything I make. My closest friends know this, and they hear things in my work that no one else would notice, have a trippier experience listening than someone who’s never met me. When I get to interview others about their lives, it’s just healing. And I get to uncover truths in my own story through learning about theirs. The fact that anyone sits down with me for an interview is not a privilege I take lightly.

My two most recent series, The Competition and Pink Card, I developed alone and then brought on a team of collaborators I chose to work with. It was a gift. Those two shows I’m particularly proud of. The Competition is about what happens when 50 teen girls from across the country are forced to live together over the course of two weeks to compete in a pageant, and at the end of it, discover Roe v Wade has been overturned. They had very different reactions about the news and had to wrestle with those feelings while competing onstage. As a former contestant, I was not only reporting on my past experience there, but returned that year as a judge. I had to score the girls that night as they performed onstage, and we caught every second on tape. Every stage in making that series was turning the impossible to something possible, and would take another article to explain.

Pink Card is about three generations of Iranian women using Azadi national soccer stadium as a way to combat a dictator and end gender apartheid in Iran. The youngest generation would cross-dress as men and then livestream themselves watching a game at their national soccer stadium, which women have been banned from since 1981. Women in Iran put their lives at risk to speak with me. Talking to people – deeply – in places and about subjects and experiences I’d never have a chance to, has given me so many golden memories, across the country and around the world. I love the process of listening back to interviews and discovering things I could not recall immediately after. It’s a reminder that a moment, a human, has so much more to convey than we pick up at first glance.

I also enjoy discovering a poetic way to tell the story – my aim is to help people feel what I felt while I was out in the world reporting, to make a series the best possible ride for them. Structuring a series is like solving a puzzle for which there is no map. And it’s a bonding experience among collaborators to figure it out.

My life is a curious one. I think what drives me is I am fascinated by people, super passionate. For my first independent show (Pink Card), I put all my public radio earnings into it, and I couldn’t pay my rent for three months! I believed telling Zeinab Sahafy’s story was more important. I hired my mom to translate, because she offered to work for free. I feel lucky that ESPN’s 30 for 30 understood what I was trying to do and took a chance on me. One of the episodes in that series is about mannequins – on a sports platform – but they let me be as weird as I had to be to paint the picture of a dictatorship.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Patience. People do not show you who they are at first glance, and people cannot see who you are with one or two encounters. This also goes for making art: I’m thinking 200 years past my death, whenever that comes. It’s a Buddhist concept I’ve thought a lot about in my life: What survives past your lifetime? What value have you left in the world?
I also think a lot about moral courage. It feels rare these days to find it in people. For young artists out there, it might be better to start by simply knowing most people you meet will not do the courageous, moral thing, and then someone will and you’ll witness it, and you’ll never forget that individual. You’ll do everything you can to uplift and protect that person. I think that’s where the deepest bonds of friendship are born. I am so grateful for those gorgeous people in my life!
Health. I did everything the hard way. I didn’t mean to do it that way, but that’s how it went for me. The benefit of that was it gave me a lot of wisdom. However, when my health was shot, I could barely access it. Your health can derail every other good quality you contain. Safeguard it. Your life depends on it.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I laughed when I read this because my initial reaction was “both.” People become stagnant easily. I’m trying to grow and learn every day, however, I only have so much time. It’s good to have friends you trust who have a strong business or legal mind if you struggle with that. Don’t get advice from just anyone. Just because someone is confident doesn’t mean they have any idea what they are talking about. There is a lot of nonsense out there. Things look shiny that are rotten on the inside. You need just one or two people in your corner who speak the truth, and know what they’re talking about. You will never make it alone. You can often feel alone but you cannot be alone at those crunch times. I spend most of my days researching, reporting, producing, writing, and pitching. I spend some time on sound design, a lot on editing. I do wish I had more hours to compose music for my series, but again, TIME. I have talented friends who make music more quickly than I. Lately, I’ve been thinking about lifespan. How many years do I have left? 1? 5? 20? 50? No one knows the answer to that question. I make about one series a year, which is speedy for industry standards. I wear too many hats, but I wouldn’t want to sell my soul working directly for a corporation or nonprofit at this time. I prefer how it is for now, as an independent with the company I founded, Shirazad Productions, working on a handful of projects. I have to keep checking in with myself: What do I want to be working on this winter? Next summer? What does my intuition tell me I should be looking into? My hunch for stories has helped me stand out, but also made me a target for exploitation. I’m all ideas, an open book. Right now I’m grateful for my freedom, because I find myself bound by no form. I love working with people who think more expansively than just the podcast world. Yet audio, for now, seems to be what I’m best at.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shimaoliaee.com/about
• Instagram: Shimaoliaee
• Facebook: Shima Oliaee
• Twitter: Shimaoliaee

Image Credits

Shima Oliaee