Ian Whiteman was a fixture of the 60’s UK music scene and member of the cult classic bands Mighty Baby and The Habibiyya. He reflects on the early early days of psychedelic rock, and talks about how Islam became a major part of that scene, leading to his own conversion and his friendship with Yusuf Islam, A.K.A. Cat Stevens.

His latest album is called Poor Man’s Prayer.

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As the founder of the popular online community Muslim Mamas, Nargis Jahan-Uddin has a front row seat to the ongoing interests and concerns of Muslim mothers.

She gives us a look into the contemporary online world of Muslim motherhood, and talks about her own journey from an impoverished neighbourhood of London, to creating this growing online community, which now includes a lifestyle website and a public Facebook page with over 130,000 followers.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, go to agakhanmuseum.org/thisbeinghuman

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Tasneem Alsultan is a photographer based in Saudi Arabia. Her work has documented major changes in Saudi culture for The New York Times, National Geographic and others. But she also captures the more ordinary aspects of life. She won first prize in the 2017 World Photography Organisation Awards for Saudi Tales of Loves, a series showcasing love stories of all kinds, from divorcees and widows to happily married couples.

She talks about breaking stereotypes, capturing intimate moments and a time she had to wear a disguise to get the job done.

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Shahzia Sikander is a visual artist who revolutionized miniature painting, and is now widely credited for creating the neo-miniaturist movement. She looks back on her life and her thirty-year career in the arts. 

A retrospective of Shahzia Sikander's work, called Extraordinary Realities, is currently on display at The Morgan Library and Museum.

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Anissa Helou is an award-winning cookbook author, whose books include Lebanese Cuisine, Mediteranean Street Food and Feast: Food of the Islamic World. 

She talks about why she actively avoided cooking for much of her life, her dramatic and unlikely path to her current profession, and why she undertook the massive project of trying to capture the food of Muslim societies all around the world.

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Asad Ali Jafri spent his early childhood in Kuwait, but found himself in the suburbs of Chicago after the outbreak of war. Hip hop became his entry point to American culture, quickly taking over his life and leading him down a path to the arts and community organizing. He started DJing under the name Man-O-Wax, staged major festivals, and became a visionary curator of contemporary Muslim arts. 

Today, Asad Ali Jafri is the executive director of the South Asia Institute in Chicago.

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Brothers Salim and Sulaiman Merchant have composed some of the biggest anthems in India as the film composing duo Salim-Sulaiman. They’ve also produced pop songs, devotionals, a sports anthem, and remixed Lady Gaga.

They talk about the chance meeting that led them from writing jingles to scoring movies, why they take issue with the term Bollywood, and what it’s really like to work with a sibling.

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Shireen Ahmed is a sports journalist and advocate. She’s a go-to voice for TSN and The Guardian and co-hosts the podcast Burn It All Down.

Shireen was an outspoken critic of FIFA’s seven-year hijab ban. She talks about how that ban affected her personally, her childhood in a Pakistani household in Halifax, and breaking into the world of mainstream sports broadcasting.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, go to agakhanmuseum.org/thisbeinghuman

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Wafaa Bilal has pushed his body to extreme lengths in the name of art. He has subjected himself to waterboarding, mounted a camera to the back of his head, and spent a month living in a gallery, where strangers shot him with tens of thousands of paintballs. He talks about escaping Iraq during the war and why he puts his body on the line for art.

Wafaa is currently a professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, go to agakhanmuseum.org/thisbeinghuman

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Tanya Muneera Williams is a poet and member of the hip-hop duo Poetic Pilgrimage. She talks about her childhood in Bristol, England, the city’s rich music scene, and the spiritual journey she took from her mother’s church to her conversion to Islam.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, go to agakhanmuseum.org/thisbeinghuman

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