How Dr. Monica Sliwa Turned Her Creative Passions Into a Cultural Platform With BeYouTalks Podcast

Most people spend their lives trying to choose one path. Dr. Monica Sliwa chose all of them and mastered each one with a kind of quiet confidence that feels rare in today’s world.

A full-time Community Pharmacy Manager at CVS, a UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy alumna, a multi-instrumentalist, a producer, a painter, and now the host of BeYouTalks Podcast, Monica isn’t just juggling careers; she’s rewriting the script on what a Middle Eastern creative can look like in the diaspora.

Born into a culture that values discipline, family, and tradition, Monica has always carried that foundation with her. But she also carried something else, a burning creative instinct she refused to silence. While her days revolve around healthcare leadership, patient care, and community responsibility, her nights and weekends belong to music, art, and storytelling. Guitar, piano, cajón, vocals in multiple languages, she moves through her artistry with a fluency that transcends boundaries. And now, she’s using her voice for something bigger.

BeYouTalks Podcast: A New Platform for Middle Eastern Stories

Launched in 2025, BeYouTalks Podcast is Monica’s newest leap, a fully Arabic-language show highlighting success stories within the Chaldean, Middle Eastern, and immigrant communities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and beyond. Entrepreneurs, creatives, founders, dreamers, Monica brings them all to the table, creating a space where our communities can tell their stories in our own languages, with our own nuance.

The twist? She’s still new to the hosting world. Her first-ever hosting experience was during pharmacy school, via Zoom, no less, and now she’s front and center, guiding real conversations with real people, in Arabic, for an audience that’s been hungry for representation. It’s a bold jump, but it’s exactly the kind of jump she’s made her whole life.

Monica isn’t just hosting a podcast; she’s building a cultural archive. A place where younger generations can hear the stories they wish they’d grown up with. A place where identity, ambition, and tradition coexist instead of colliding.

The Multidimensional Creative: Beyond the Pharmacy Counter

Music has always been at the center of Monica’s personal universe. A self-taught guitarist with a cinematic playing style, she blends Middle Eastern emotion with modern textures, a sound that’s earned her a fast-growing online presence. Her artistry expands even further into production, painting, visual art, and digital storytelling. She doesn’t just play instruments; she builds worlds.

Fluent in English, Arabic, and Neo-Aramaic, and learning Spanish, Monica connects across cultures with an ease that makes her work feel accessible to a wide, diverse audience. That same multilingual identity becomes a superpower on BeYouTalks Podcast, where she navigates conversations with authenticity and cultural fluency.

Monica is currently recording a new Arabic song in collaboration with a singer she recently interviewed on her podcast, a full-circle moment that blends her musical roots with her growing media presence. It marks her official entry into Arabic music recording, expanding her influence as both an artist and a cultural voice.

This is where Monica shines most: she doesn’t silo her talents. She fuses them. She builds bridges between everything she touches, healthcare, music, culture, storytelling, and turns it into something communal.

The younger generation of Middle Eastern creatives often feels pressured to choose safety over passion. Monica stands as living proof that you don’t have to. You can be a pharmacist who produces music. A scientist who sings. A community leader who paints. A podcaster amplifying voices that were never given the platform they deserved.

Dr. Monica Sliwa doesn’t fit into a box; she builds new ones. And with BeYouTalks Podcast, she’s creating space for an entire community to do the same.