The Queer Arabs

This week, we had an amazing guest on the show: Shiyam Galyon, a Syrian American activist.  We both learned a lot from this episode, and we hope you all do too!  Shiyam gave some important information about the Syrian conflict, how the UN has been responding, and more.  Further, Shiyam touched on the parallels between queer activism and conflict resolution activism and how the two need to merge more than they have. We feel very fortunate to have had Shiyam on our podcast and are very grateful for her invaluable contribution! Links to resources with information related to what Shiyam…

Content warning: This episode includes a brief reference to abuse/assault; it also includes slightly graphic details re: the effects of mental issues.  If these topics will be emotionally difficult or harmful for you, we suggest you refrain from playing this episode. On this episode, we discuss our dealings with mental imbalances, how those things have affected us, and the measures we’ve taken (and are still trying to take) to get through life with those cards we’ve been dealt. We both share our coming out stories, and it gets pretty personal.  We found it pretty therapeutic to record this episode, and…

On this episode, we talk about listener feedback we’ve gotten and how we intend to implement the suggestions we’ve received! Then, Ellie starts explaining the complexity that is Lebanon, and Alia explores the factors that have led Saudi Arabia to be such a closed society.  Both of us are reminded just how daunting these topics are, which makes it clear how important it is to keep learning and talking about these topics over many episodes in the future. During this episode, we point to a wonderful Facebook post that our friend brought to our attention; with the permission of the…

Woo!  Episode 2 is here and we talk about a variety of topics.  Saudi Arabia, an upcoming Arab Netflix show, and cat baths are just a few of them.  Enjoy! Like with episode 1, we apologize for the annoying sound quality.  This is something we’re working to improve (better equipment is coming)!

On this episode, we introduce ourselves, explain what inspired us to finally start this podcast, and we have some fun beginners' level echoing issues (sorry about that - we're taking measures to improve the sound quality).