Polite Conversations

"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 reasons their population is declining, some bizarre, fascinating traditions involving "The Tower of Silence" and ... *vultures*. We talk Marriage, menstruation, IVF and Freddie Mercury. Links to articles mentioned in the podcast: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/zubin-madon/terror-has-no-religion-a-_b_10793300.html Why does everyone want to silence ex Muslims? http://www.huffingtonpost.in/zubin-madon/why-does-everyone-want-to-silence-ex-muslims/ Also mentioned in the podcast is Reason On Faith's excellent blogp

A panel discussion with @westerspace and @elibosnick regarding the recent Milo ban from Twitter. Just heading out, will add to the podcast notes later. 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

After the last couple of episodes being stressful and debate-y, what could be better than a cute, fluffy episode on Satanism?

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 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" trolls to rest] Anyhoo, if its possible, i think this convo is more bizarre than the last. We discuss Tarek self Id-ing as muslim, whether Pakistanis are comparable to racists and nazis, how my parents and Ali Rizvi's parents are supposedly genocide supporters (because Pakistani). His pro India/Hinduism bias....and... beef. link to Part 1: https://soundcloud.com/politeconversations/episode-12-part-1-tarek-fatah ---sorry there were some tech difficulties with the sound.. first ten minutes u might hear a slight echo in

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 whether backyards are a Western phenomenon, the ‘White’ route to atheism, Trump vs. Clinton, Orlando, whether Ex-Muslims are worth your time or not....and much more. Links mentioned in the podcast: CFI panel for Avijit Roy : https://plus.google.com/events/cg3q333nkp1q15lbet77moqs6hg @ 53:30 min Sabeen Mahmud blogpost: http://nicemangos.blogspot.ca/2015/04/sabeen.html?zx=dfde74bf03e45572 Note: this Podcast was recorded a few weeks ago. Please consider supporting the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos

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_Arabia Pls Consider supporting the Podcast via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos

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. :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: https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos

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/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!

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#.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

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 know Saba as the woman who went on Fox News with a US flag hijab. I appreciate that she puts herself out there as a different voice from the Muslim community. Even as someone who's not a fan of Hijab, I love the idea of a flag hijab on Fox, it pissed off hardcore bigots on both ends of the spectrum, muslim and anti muslim i'm sure! Here's the link to the video i mention in the beginning: https://www.facebook.com/tothecontrary/videos/10154206749382386/ That said, we disagree on almost everything, but its great t

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%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F259849721 Here's an article about the BBC 3 documentary Sohail was in: http://tv.bt.com/tv/tv-news/reggie-yates-extreme-uk-gay-and-under-attack-made-viewers-very-angry-indeed-11364027636444

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 episodes featuring my cough...YAY :D ------ You can support this podcast via patreon here : https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos - with your help I can do so much more! itunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/polite-conversations/id1086199663?mt=2#episodeGuid=tag%3Asoundcloud%2C2010%3Atracks%2F259849721

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)

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=buffer I know, i know... no bells and whistles, no intro, no music. Perhaps not the best sound quality. I'll get there. :) (And yes haha i know it ends abruptly, not sure what happened there). Would love to hear your thoughts via Twitter, come say hi @nicemangos You can support the podcast via Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos Read My Chacha is Gay here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/imaansheikh/pakistans-first-childrens-book-on-lgbtq#.frdkAM5Lm You can also support by getting a copy of My Chacha is Gay here: chachaisgay.com

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 Join me and Ali Rizvi as we discuss ball-gags, burqas, going commando in Mecca, and much more! Sorry for the choppy-ness....had to erase the sabotages as well as unnecessary ex-cohost bits. Do let us know what you thought of our chat on Twitter - you can find me @nicemangos and Ali @aliamjadrizvi You can support this podcast by sharing it like mad! And by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/nicemangos Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHzqk6Dl7zE iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast

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 we started off in a twitter hate battle. :) It's nice when productive conversation happens even when people with opposing views are involved. You can find conner on Twitter @connerhabib , me (Eiynah) @nicemangos and my co host Paul @PaulSating . Special thanks to biologists : @DrVarsovian @HerebeNabila @godFreeWorld @toxicpath

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's wonderful video on 'removing the hijab' for women who are thinking about it, questioning here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11D6Xddz_j4 you can connect with her on Twitter @Ali_Jones89 , with me Eiynah @nicemangos and Paul @PaulSating

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.

YouTube 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 pardon the heavy breathing, promise we weren't jogging while recording this interview...my headset mic is clearly way too sensitive. (-Eiynah)