The Field Between

We thought it would be good to reflect on what's happening in Palestine and our place in the struggle for justice by reading some poetry. Before that, we provide a brief update on the Hasan Minhaj New Yorker story (Ahmed was right), the investigative work we did regarding the Frick Museum's canceled Islamic Art exhibit, and how anti-Palestine activists are threaten to undermine everyone's free spe...

We start off with some updates and follow-up from our last episode, and then transition to a hopefully fun and lighthearted discussion of Netflix's 'Love Is Blind.'

We talk about a week's-worth of discourse and media coverage of Palestine, starting with a blog post from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg entitled "A lot of Things are True".  Then we focus on conservative narratives (Ben Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, and Israeli government officials) and ones promulgated by liberals too (mostly just Biden). We reference and use excerpts from Noam Chomsky's and Illan Pappe's '...

We recorded this a few days ago and, to be honest, I just didn't feel like editing this week. I hope everyone who has been glued to their screens despairing at the news can can still find time for love in their days, and to let their sadness and heartbreak lead them to collective action.   At the top of the episode we mentioned some resources for people looking to better understand what is happeni...

We give a brief Muslim man-o-sphere follow-up, and discuss University of Austin's job posting, NYPDs new subway robot, Bob Menendez stacking gold bars, and ask what the hell is going in Canada?    Our main discussion is about the New Yorker story exposing Hasan Minhaj's "emotional truths," and we try to have a fair and balanced discussion to decide: does he deserve death penalty? Listen to find ou...

We talk about about various characters in the Muslim Man-o-sphere. Yasmine introduces the concept throug a paper written by academic Brittany Landorf.

Just a bunch of random stuff: degrowth economies, AI popstars, Tucker Carlson's interview with Larry Sinclair. We are prepping an episode on the Muslim Manosphere, so stay tuned for that.

We hit a bunch of topics on this one: sexual currency, Fousey update, quick hit on Intisar Rabb's 'Doubt in Islamic Law,' airline safety, and a New York Times poll that shows people on both ends of the political spectrum agree that the United States is failing.

We cover a few random topics like the unhinged PragerU kids' curriculum featuring Christopher Columbus, the return of Fouseytube, and a letter Obama allegedly wrote as an undergrad that conservative conspiracy theorists will surely go nuts over.   Our main topic for this episode is about Wael Hallaq's 'The Impossible State,' and why Sharia governance is incompatible with post-colonial nation state...

We answer some questions. Please direct any corrections to our DMs on Instagram @The_Field_Between_Pod

We watched Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' and use Arundhati Roy's essay, 'The End of Imagination,' about India's nuclear bomb test in 1998 to discuss it.   Episode artwork: Batata lounging in the sunny window while we discuss the sheer psychological horror of nuclear annihilation.

We finally decided on a new structure for this podcast. Every other week we will discuss a reading, and in the in-between weeks, we'll do something fun. This is a fun one! We do call-out culture on one another's bad behaviors.

We share some of our favorite Sufi poetry by Ibn Arabi and Rumi. Also, SOMEONE gets fact-checked twice on this episode.   If you're interested in the translation we're using, you can find them here:   Michael Sells' translation of Ibn Arab: Stations of Desire Omid Safi's translation of Rumi: Radical Love

We dive deep into Ahmed's childhood trauma featuring Mel Gibson's body-horror 'The Passion of The Christ' (2004).

We discuss some great American heroes, and then give a Pittsburgh update.

I was gonna do a solo episode on the road, but that didn't work out. Enjoy my ramblings about carvanserai, highway rest stops, and public space. 

In this episode, we genuflect before you and beg forgiveness for our tardiness with this episode. We then discuss our last visit to Thomasville before moving, some updates about glorious Egyptian leader Sisi, a brief update about the anti-LGBTQ letter released last month, and the UPS strike, which teamsters member overwhelmingly voted to authorize. We'd like to say we won't miss another episode, b...

Sorry this one is late. We were both sick with some sort of sickness which made us sick. Did I mention we were sick? We talk about a few new entrants into the presidential race before we discuss Exit West by Mohisin Hamid. Let us know your thoughts about whether or not you should be allowed to say you read a book if you've only listened to the audiobook version.

A council of imams, professors, and Muslim "thought leaders" (mostly men), released a hateful letter about why it's okay to discriminate against queer people. We go through the statement, emerging gayer than before. There are a lot of great resources out there, but a few queer-affirming Muslim organizations worth following: Masjid al-Rabia, Queer Muslims of Boston, HEART

We talk about a hot new collab between a beloved fast food chain and the Ivy League, and Elon Musk's incredibly bad-faith take on work from home before we dive into the first four chapters of Art Preis's 'Labor's Giant Step,' which is a history of the first twenty years of the CIO. The book is an excellent history of a resurgence in labor militancy in the 1930s, and has several important lessons f...

We talk about a new DEI initiative in corporate America. Also, it's our one year marriage anniversary, so it's the perfect time for a performance review.

We discuss a legend in the music industry coming out of retirement, CEO meltdowns, then professor Yasmine Flodin-Ali talks to us about her dissertation, which focuses on the racialization of Muslim identities in the United States.  

Eid Mubarak! We are releasing a special episode a little early. We follow MBS on a spiritual journey through the Crypto-Caliphate in the year 2075. Then Yasmine talks to our dear friend Dr. Abbas Rattani (founder of Mipsterz) about Muslim Futurism.   Techno-Jahannam credits: Written and Produced by Ahmed Amer MBS voiced by Corey Reid Brody and Elon voiced by Jonathan Kear ImmigrantBot voiced by Ah...

No readings this week, but we did enjoy playing a variation of Yasmine's favorite "game." We used the last of our strength to record this episode after a beautiful and busy weekend, so we thought we'd reach for some low-hanging fruit and revisit the NYT 36 questions list, which we used to break the ice with each other at the start of our relationship. Please enjoy while we continue working on a VE...

Look to your right. Look to your left. You are surrounded by objects. What is your relation to them? What is their relation to one another? Are any of them your dad?  We discuss Jean Baudrillard's 'A System of Objects' and think through how spaces and objects constrain and promote different ontologies in a late capitalist world.