Category: Episodes

Episode 49: Taking Up the Spiritual Path (ft. Joshua Abdul Haqq)

When you’re looking to get deeper in your faith there a lot of options out there from meditation to yoga to spiritual retreats, how do you navigate it all? Reoccurring guest Joshua Abdul Haqq (aka Ikhlas’ husband) comes on the show to talk about his forthcoming podcast, “Three Stations of the Deen,” and why he decided to take up the spiritual path (tariqa). Makkah’s nephew, Tariq, also comes back on the show to share tips on how to maintain your Qur’an study.

Episode 48: Do the Ramy-dan (ft. Ramy Youssef)

To mark the halfway point of Ramadan we check in on how we’re doing on those #RamadanGoals and chat with actor, comedian, and writer Ramy Youssef about how his Ramadan has been going in the wake of the release of his new Hulu show Ramy, what his hopes are for show, and the challenges and opportunities that we face when trying to tell our stories.

Episode 46: What’s Really Good for the Muslims? (ft. Besheer Mohamed)

Ikhlas and Makkah chat about how Muslims talk about Muslims, how Hollywood talks about Muslims and have Besheer Mohamed, Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center, to tell us what the data says about Muslims. What we’re looking to find out: what’s really good for the ummah?

 
Guest: Besheer Mohamed is a Senior Researcher at Pew Research Center. He is an expert on the views, demographic profile and size of U.S. Muslim communities. He also has extensive experience with computational science, as well as developing best practices for quantitative data collection on small populations. Mohamed has appeared in numerous media outlets and regularly briefs policymakers, academics and other important stakeholders. He has also published in traditional academic publications through Oxford University Press and NYU Press, along with the American Sociological Association’s magazine, Contexts. He received his doctorate in sociology and master’s degree in Middle East Studies from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Cornell University.

Episode 45: Birth Werk (ft. The DC Doula)

What should you expect if you are a Black Muslim woman who is expecting? And how might a doula be able to help? On this episode, we discuss these questions and more with The DC Doula herself, Malika Hook Muhammad. Tune in to learn more about how the medical system fails women of color, how home births and birthing centers differ from a hospital setting and how to choose the right people to be by your side in the delivery room.
 
Guest: Malika Hook Muhammad, @dcdoula, trained to be a doula in 2008 with Debra Pascali-Bonoro, author of Orgasmic Birth. She spent several years working with the Philadelphia Alliance for Labor Support, providing childbirth education and support to families with limited financial resources. Malika moved to the DC Area in 2011 and began providing DC doula services to parents throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia. You can read more about her work at https://www.thedcdoula.com/


Episode 44: It’s Been a Long Time, We Shouldn’t Have Left You

We kick off  season 6 with some life updates–Ikhlas has some big news!  We also talk about the highlights and challenges of podcasting–especially in the changing media landscape–and the importance of taking time for retreat. Tune in to find out what we’ve been up to.

  • What we’ve been up to during the break. Ikhlas has some big news! [1:10]
  • Highlights and challenges of our podcasting journey [9:52]
  • The changing media landscape and creating a space for important conversations [16:10]
  • Managing a public persona and the nafs in the age of social media [26:50]
  • Taking time for retreat [31:00]
  • How we strike balance and the importance of asking for help [41:23]

“There is no such thing as a balanced life, only a balancing life.”

Episode 43: Movie Trivia w/ Nijla Mu’min

We list our favorite films from 2018 and filmmaker Nijla Mu’min comes back on the show to chat about her debut feature film “Jinn” and we play a game of movie trivia.

Guest:

Nijla Baseema Mu’min is an award-winning writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Her work is informed by poetry, photography, fiction, and dance. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about black girls and women who find themselves between worlds and identities. Her debut feature film, Jinn, won the award for Best Screenplay at the 2018 American Black Film Festival and was acquired by Orion Classics.

Episode 41: Vote or Die (ft. Mohamed Gula and Aysha Ahmed)

Is there any reason to still believe in our political system? Mohamed Gula and Aysha Ahmed of Emgage USA join the show to answer this question and more. We discuss our favorite civic engagement commercials, why representation matters, and what fictional characters would have our votes.

Guests:

  • Aysha Ahmed is the Programs and Operations Specialist of Emgage USA. In this role, she she manages organizational operations and develops programming for local Emgage USA chapters. Previously, Aysha worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and for the Ohio Democratic Party.
  • Mohamed Gula is Executive Director of Emgage Virginia, where he builds community-based civic engagement programs that serve the Virginia Muslim community. Mohamed previously served as an Organizer in Ohio for the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign and with Organizing For Action (formerly Obama For America).

Episode 40: Learning to Breathe (ft. Tariq Touré)

Writer and poet Tariq Touré sits down with us to talk vulnerability, fatherhood and what we owe Black women. Plus we share what’s on our bookshelves, shoutout some of our favorite poets and discuss the role poetry can play in imagining a better world.

Guest:

Tariq Touré, @TariqToure, is a Muslim writer, husband, father and native child of Baltimore, Maryland. Toure’s sophomore collection, 2 Parts Oxygen, is a weighty tribute to family roots, the miraculous privilege of fatherhood and Islam in Black America.

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