Polite Conversations
179 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 days ago - ★★★★ - 155 ratingsGrowing up in Saudi Arabia as a Pakistani, who now resides in Canada, Eiynah brings a global perspective to discussions about religion, politics, culture & sexuality...through the lens of a progressive ex-muslim immigrant.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Episode 19 - Robert Spencer
November 27, 2016 22:13 - 1 hour - 55.3 MBDear 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...
Episode 18 - Election rant with Eli Bosnick
November 18, 2016 15:10 - 1 hour - 105 MBJoin me and regressive cuck @EliBosnick from Scathing Atheist, God Awful Movies & SkepticRat for a chat about the US election, America wtf have you done?! In this battle of alt right vs. regressive left, I feel some proprtionality has been lost, and really regressive ideas like racism, and nazism are downplayed to highlight "those crazy SJWs". Yes they're crazy....and we should call them out, but they are a tad better than nazis, come on! The post-election air is thick with tribalism...It...
Episode 17 - Sam Harris
November 07, 2016 00:28 - 2 hours - 165 MBDISCLAIMER: 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 pleasur...
Episode 16 - Halloween Special with Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple
October 31, 2016 00:38 - 1 hour - 87.1 MBFor 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...
PC Panel Discussion 4 - Australian Hate Speech Laws (Part 2)
October 08, 2016 14:17 - 1 hour - 67.5 MBA continuation of last week's episode on Australian hate speech laws. In this part we discuss the Cronulla Riots, and how our backgrounds shape our views on this subject. My guest Ben (@Atticus_Amber) is a lawyer who works in the building where the Lindt Cafe siege took place - he happened not to be at work that day, but hearing him describe the moment when he realized hiss colleagues were trapped in a building is absolutely gut-wrenching. My guest Joel (@JoelRDodd) is an activist who des...
PC Panel Discussion 4 - Australian Hate Speech Laws (Part 1)
September 30, 2016 16:31 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBI have to say this was a heavy subject to discuss as an outsider, but tremendously educational. Even looking up some of the stuff later, that came up in conversation like the Cronulla riots, definitely provided me with more context to the level of divisiveness and hatred that exists towards Muslim minorities there. While, of course I am incredibly against anti muslim bigotry, I don't think legislating speech will be an effective form of combating it. Incitement to violence and harm, harming s...
Episode 15 - Michael Sherlock: opposing tribes & "befriending bigots"
September 23, 2016 14:02 - 1 hour - 68.6 MB[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 ca...
Justin Trudeau : Feminism & Mosque Visits
September 14, 2016 13:18 - 12 minutes - 28.7 MBA short 12 minute mini-episode/rant on Justin's recent visit to a mosque where women were not permitted on the main floor and had to watch from the balcony. Tweets referenced : https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/775329687614722048 https://twitter.com/NiceMangos/status/775340557782683648 https://twitter.com/NiceMangos/status/636657023992532992 The clip from Justin's Mosque speech was taken from: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/justin-trudeau-visits-mosque-eid-170000610.html If you enjoy the s...
PC Panel Discssion 3 - The Burkini/hijab/niqab debate
September 01, 2016 18:05 - 1 hour - 103 MBWhat 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 ha...
Non Conference Speech - Reclaiming the Left : The space between Terror & Trump
August 14, 2016 15:51 - 15 minutes - 20.8 MBI 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.
Episode 14 - Ex Zoroastrian Priest
August 09, 2016 01:51 - 1 hour - 57.3 MB"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/Pakist...
PC Panel Discussion 2 - Freedom of Speech & Social Media Bans
July 26, 2016 17:53 - 2 hours - 115 MBA panel discussion with @westerspace and @elibosnick regarding the recent Milo ban from Twitter. Pls consider supporting the show via Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos iTunes:https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/polite-conversations/id1086199663?l=en&mt=2#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F269208778
Episode 13 - Lucien Greaves Cofounder & spokesperson for The Satanic Temple
July 25, 2016 15:32 - 1 hour - 64.7 MBAfter 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...
Episode 12 (part 2): Tarek Fatah
July 16, 2016 16:46 - 51 minutes - 48 MBAt 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 white Me: 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"...
Episode 12 (part 1): Tarek Fatah
July 06, 2016 15:37 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBTarek 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 disc...
Saudi Attacks : The Nothing to do with Islam Phenomenon
July 05, 2016 20:17 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MBSome 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...
PC Panel Discussion 1 : Haramadan Edition ft. Ali Rizvi, Faisal Al Mutar
July 01, 2016 14:31 - 1 hour - 142 MBJoin 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. :D Follow Ali Rizvi @aliamjadrizvi & look out for his new book, The Atheist Muslim Follow Faisal @faisalalmutar & check out his work at www.faisalalmutar.com RSS: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:206732011/sounds.rss Support the podcast here: h...
Episode 10 - Bina Shah
June 15, 2016 13:37 - 1 hour - 120 MBJoin 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/738395690515222528 Pls 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!
Orlando - caught between denialists and bigots
June 13, 2016 18:19 - 17 minutes - 24.6 MBMy 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#.giXbRP68E And a link to Canadian (mostly muslim) parents reacting to it on a radio talk show : https://soundcloud.com/showgram/jr-apr-17-podcast
Episode 9 - Saba Ahmed: Trump supporting Muslim
June 07, 2016 14:40 - 50 minutes - 93.5 MBI'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...
Episode 8 - Sohail Ahmed, Ex Salafi extremist turned gay activist
May 10, 2016 14:44 - 1 hour - 116 MBI 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=...
Episode 7 - Passover
April 29, 2016 12:52 - 1 hour - 90.7 MBAn 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 hav...
Snippets from a previous #PoliteConversation - Mansplaining
April 19, 2016 14:54 - 23 seconds - 612 KBA 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)
Episode 6 - Charlie Hebdo Editorial: How Did We End Up Here?
April 06, 2016 20:32 - 21 minutes - 16.2 MBSo 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=buffer I know, i know... no bells and whistles, no intro, no music. Perhaps not the best sound quality. I'll...
Episode 5 - Ali Rizvi: The Hostage Episode
March 27, 2016 03:16 - 58 minutes - 79.7 MBIt'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!...
Episode 3 - Conner Habib - Twitter battles, Atheism, Dawkins
February 26, 2016 01:30 - 1 hour - 93 MBConner 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 we...
Episode 2 - Aliyah Saleem - Seduced by Extremism
February 26, 2016 01:23 - 1 hour - 83.1 MBIn 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 A...
Episode 1 - Maryam Namazie
February 22, 2016 21:37 - 1 hour - 70.1 MBWe 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.
Episode 4 - John Semley - Is Charlie Hebdo Racist?
February 17, 2016 22:29 - 1 hour - 58.5 MBYouTube link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBve1K6u2X8&feature=youtu.be Books 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 par...