Join me and Saudi Activist Moudhi (@Moudhi90) as we talk about life in Saudi Arabia. She studied Sharia Law, so she has some pretty shocking insights about the Saudi legal system. I mean, I knew it was bad, but its still shocking to hear it all the same. I grew up as an expat in a Western compound in Saudi.....always segregated from locals...so even though Ive had the occasional short conversation with Saudis, this was my first *ever* proper, in depth conversation. It's interesting to compare no...
Jan 19, 2017•50 min
Join me and Irshad for a wonderful conversation, where we both nudge and challenge each other. Despite some pretty fundamental differences (belief vs. disbelief), Irshad has always been an inspiration to me. She is someone I admire a great deal, even if we don't always agree. In her compassion and open mindedness towards others with differing viewpoints she sets an excellent example on how we can build bridges. Her warmth towards and solidarity with Ex Muslims is something we desperately need mo...
Jan 04, 2017•57 min
Written, sang, created, coordinated & produced by godless heathens. Tis the season, Sing along now:On the first day of Haraam-mas, Shaitaan gave to me…An apostate in a free country! On the 2nd day of Haraam-mas, Shaitaan gave to me…2 nice mangos and an apostate in a free country! On the 3rd day of Haraam-mas, Shaitaan gave to me…3 wine bottles2 nice mangosand an apostate in a free country! On the 4th day of Haraam-mas, Shaitaan gave to me…4 strips of bacon3 wine bottles2 nice mangosand an ap...
Dec 23, 2016•4 min
Here's my chat with British Journalist and Author Nick Cohen.Nick is really such a gem of a person. Consistent and principled in calling out bad ideas on all sides...like almost no one else. A much needed sensible voice in today's political climate. Join us to discuss issues on the left and right, how politics has shifted, how there's a crisis coming in conservatism and much more...Do check out his books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whats-Left-Liberals-Lost-Their-ebook/dp/B00ZODU16G/ref=tmm_kin_swa...
Dec 08, 2016•1 hr
Dear listeners, My apologies for the delayed release. This past week I have lost a childhood friend as well as a close relative. So I've been traveling, and things have been up in the air for a while. Robert has tweeted about this as some sort of plot to edit him to look bad... I can assure you that the content is pretty much unedited. I usually obsessively remove umms and Ahs.. but i even let most of those be for this episode. I may have taken out some dead air or repeated words, but thats abou...
Nov 27, 2016•1 hr 59 min
DISCLAIMER: This is an old episode, my views on Sam Harris and his politics have changed quite a bit since this conversation...partially because of how telling this convo was. For more recent views on Sam check out my recent episodes on him, or my miniseries #WokingUp-----Last Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sam Harris! We had an excellent, robust discussion on a variety of topics. We didn’t necessarily agree on everything, but even in disagreement Sam is an absolute pleasure to spea...
Nov 07, 2016•2 hr 58 min
For this episode, the co founder of The Satanic Temple returns to the show for a discussion about offensive halloween costumes, cultural appropriation, whether pumpkins have anything to do with white privilege...Satanic cultural identity, conspiracy theory culture in america vs. muslim world (even though, sadly, anti semitic conspiracy theories are common place among muslims i haven't come across an 'infowars' type conspiracy *culture*....)Anyhoo, 'tis my absolute favourite time of the year! Hop...
Oct 31, 2016•1 hr 34 min
[Sorry for all the sound effects. Michael's neighbours were drilling and hammering, I was recording in my basement for the first (and last) time..where it turns out the mic picks up the sound of water going through the pipes] ****Here's my chat with Michael Sherlock - activist, atheist, author. We delved into some pretty interesting conversations....about 'befriending' bigots...jihadists..islamists...kkk members...people on the far right. Where do we draw the line on who we can and can't conside...
Sep 23, 2016•1 hr 14 min
What happens when four women of Muslim background with varied opinions discuss Islamic modesty clothing? Fireworks! Join Me, Sarah Haider (co-founder of Ex Muslims of North America), Hoda Katebi (Muslim Iranian fashion blogger), Hala Arafa (former newscaster/news editor at Voice of America, Arabic branch) for this wonderful, passionate and intellectually diverse discussion.Please note that there were a million points being thrown out per minute (slight exaggeration), so at times it was hard to g...
Sep 01, 2016•1 hr 52 min
I spoke via skype at the non conference on Saturday Aug 13th. The audio was a bit unclear so I re-recorded it on my end, for those who wanted to hear. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 14, 2016•15 min
"Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions. It was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran approximately 3500 years ago." (BBC)Join me as I speak to a former member, Zubin Madon, of a rarely heard about religion. In India and Pakistan they are a small and mysterious, dwindling community. We discuss how the religion has evolved over the years, the openness that reform has brought (psst..Islam, take some notes), how this community came to be in India/Pakistan, the...
Aug 09, 2016•1 hr 2 min
A panel discussion with @westerspace and @elibosnick regarding the recent Milo ban from Twitter. Pls consider supporting the show via Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/nicemangosiTunes:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/polite-conversations/id1086199663?l=en&mt=2#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F269208778 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 26, 2016•2 hr 5 min
After the last couple of episodes being stressful and debate-y, what could be better than a cute, fluffy episode on Satanism? <3 Here is episode *13* with co-founder and spokesperson of the Satanic Temple, my favourite 'religious' figurehead.... @luciengreaves . The Satanic Temple are an 'atheistic *religious organization*', don't believe in any higher power, supernatural stuff ---or satan, and love to use 'freedom of religion' laws to turn the tables on religious folk. Very politically activ...
Jul 25, 2016•1 hr 10 min
At the end of the podcast there are a few Urdu words, loose translation:Tarek: Go find your (future) kids a 'white school' - oh but all schools here (in Canada) are whiteMe: Oh yeah ... all schools here are white... whatever should i do now (sarcasm)Him: Is there anything left? (to talk about)Me: Whats left? Nothing. Tell me, do you at least now believe i'm a Pakistani woman?Him: Yes, yes I believe that.Me: Excellent. [Hopefully that will put all my, "Eiynah is probably a white man" trolls to re...
Jul 16, 2016•52 min
Tarek and I may agree on the basic fact that Islamism is a huge problem, that isn’t adequately being addressed….you’ll quickly see we disagree on many things as well. Starting from the weather :P But in more seriousness, I am a harsh critic of Islam, who is not a fan of generalizations against Muslims. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that Tarek defends Islam, Mohammed while generalizing Muslims. The inverse of “attack ideas, not people” ….whut?….Join me as I try to understand….We discuss w...
Jul 06, 2016•1 hr 5 min
Some quick thoughts on Saudi Arabia and yesterday's multiple attacks...and how people are using attacks near a holy site as some sort of proof of ISIS' non-muslim status. Saudi is a place i have so many different feelings for. Read more about the Conquest of Mecca here:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquest_of_Mecca Read more about The Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_early_Islamic_heritage_sites_in_Saudi_ArabiaPls...
Jul 05, 2016•15 min
Join me, Ali Rizvi, and Faisal Al Mutar for a fun and *polite* conversation. We discuss the Ex-Muslim/Muslim identity, the necessity of labels, Ramadan of course, US presidential candidates, Justin Timberlake and much much more. :DFollow Ali Rizvi @aliamjadrizvi & look out for his new book, The Atheist MuslimFollow Faisal @faisalalmutar & check out his work at www.faisalalmutar.comRSS: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:206732011/sounds.rssSupport the podcast here: https:...
Jul 01, 2016•1 hr 42 min
Join me and New York Times Columnist Bina Shah for a Polite Conversation about Feminism (Islamic and intersectional) , Religion, Cultural appropriation, Sam Harris and Dawkins.Here is a link to the poll i mention: https://twitter.com/NiceMangos/status/738395690515222528Pls note: this conversation was recorded before Orlando. If you think this show could sound better, pls support the podcast via patreon so I can buy better equipment! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 15, 2016•1 hr 34 min
My thoughts on Sunday's deadly terror attack in Orlando and on what we should be doing to combat homophobia in all communities. An appeal to Western liberals. Here's a link to My Chacha is Gay: https://www.buzzfeed.com/imaansheikh/pakistans-first-childrens-book-on-lgbtq?utm_term=.om8NGj4xz#.giXbRP68EAnd a link to Canadian (mostly muslim) parents reacting to it on a radio talk show : https://soundcloud.com/showgram/jr-apr-17-podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 13, 2016•18 min
I've got quite the episode for you today. Sorry it took so long to release. After I finished recording it a couple of weeks ago, I had a cold.. *again* - and needed to record some postscript comments to insert, so I waited around to sound a bit better. Anyhoo, hope you enjoy my conversation with founder of the Republican Muslim coalition. To her credit, it's a rare thing that a conservative Muslim woman is open to conversation with people she knows have completely opposing values. You may also k...
Jun 07, 2016•51 min
I chat with @SohailPakBrit about his incredible journey from being a former extremist who at one point considered carrying out attacks...to a secular gay activist. We discuss our different experiences growing up Muslim, him in Britain and me in Saudi Arabia. A really wonderful conversation, I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did. Do reach out to Sohail and let him know what you think! :)itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/polite-conversations/id1086199663?mt=2#episodeGuid=tag%3Aso...
May 10, 2016•1 hr 5 min
An ex-Muslim and an ex-orthodox Jew walk into a Skype conversation...Join us as we talk about Passover, Spiritual impurity in women during menstruation, post-wedding consummation rituals, ritual baths, animal sacrifice, chicken whirling, and all sorts of other good stuff...Do reach out to Avraham via Twitter @noreallyimfine and give him some Twitter love :) And please excuse my sniffling and coughing, fighting a flu...and I had to record another episode the very next day.. so you'll have two epi...
Apr 29, 2016•1 hr 20 min
A 25 second bit from my conversation with Conner Habib, about how easily people get upset with Richard Dawkins for saying the simplest things...because he's a man... however seem totally fine with the pages and pages of mansplaining contained within the holy pages they so desperately protect. (listen to our full convo here: https://soundcloud.com/politeconversations/episode-3-conner-habib) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 19, 2016•23 sec
So a bit of a practice episode, many of you asked for my thoughts on the recent "controversial" Charlie Hebdo editorial, so here you go! https://charliehebdo.fr/en/edito/how-did-we-end-up-here/I mention Teju Cole's article too, you can read that here: https://roarmag.org/2016/04/04/charlie-hebdo-teju-cole/?utm_content=buffer0b841&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=bufferI know, i know... no bells and whistles, no intro, no music. Perhaps not the best sound quality....
Apr 06, 2016•22 min
It's been quite a wild ride to have this episode of Polite Conversations returned to me. It was returned butchered, with some really nasty messages about me, inserted into it. Some random ads were placed in as well. So, the quality/flow of sound is not great at some parts, but bear with us. Just being able to release this once endangered episode is quite a big deal. Just like Jesus, Polite Conversations is resurrected this Easter Sunday. :) After what I've been through, it *is* a miracle! :P Joi...
Mar 27, 2016•58 min
Conner Habib is a writer, lecturer, and sex worker advocate.He has appeared in nearly 200 adult scenes and is the Vice President of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, which works to improve the experiences, safety, and health of porn performers. He gives talks about sexuality, sex&culture, and pornography around the world ----However , we didn't talk much about that :P He joined us to discuss his views on atheism and Dawkins, etc. We had a pretty great Polite Conversation, even though w...
Feb 26, 2016•1 hr 8 min
In this Episode we chat with the excellent Aliyah Saleem. Ex-Muslim activist, and co-founder of http://faithtofaithless.com/ . We talk to her about being seduced by the extremist ideology of Islamic school Al Huda, bizarre notions of women's empowerment within this school. It's also the same institute that Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter attended. We discussed hijabs, and niqabs...the struggle of taking off the hijab when it's been a part of your life for so long. You can watch Aliyah...
Feb 26, 2016•1 hr 31 min
We kick off our the first episode of our show with activist Maryam Namazie. Yes, it's *that* episode that got us banned from YouTube twice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 22, 2016•1 hr 17 min
YouTube link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBve1K6u2X8&feature=youtu.beBooks Columnist John Semley (@johnsemley3000) from Canadian paper The Globe & Mail joins us to discuss his review of Charb's posthumous book called Open Letter. Do check out his controversial piece here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-charlie-hebdo-editor-charbs-open-letter-is-problematic/article28050654/We evidently have very differing viewpoints on this. Enjoy! And pardon...
Feb 17, 2016•1 hr 4 min
