Padma Lakshmi is a New York Times Bestselling Author and Emmy Award-Nominated Host who currently serves as Executive Producer of Hulu's Taste the Nation.

On screen she is seen exploring the rich and diverse food culture of various immigrant groups, seeking out the people who have so heavily shaped what American food is today. Off-screen, Lakshmi is also widely known as a fierce philanthropic advocate, working with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on immigrants’ rights and women’s rights. In this inspiring conversation, Padma discusses her life and career while showcasing the ways she has used her platform to make a positive impact around the globe. 

Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home—and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. In this conversation, Padma details the unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera.

Padma shares an extraordinary account of her journey and the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather—a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth—to the man seemingly wrong for her in every way who proved to be her truest ally. Padma’s unexpected story inspires audiences to live ferociously, forge their own paths, and leave an unforgettable legacy.