So. That’s our show. All of it. We made it to the finish line. After five years, the podcast has come to an end.
We are so proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish over the past five years of doing this show. We have been able to contribute and shape the conversation of what it means to be Muslim in America, especially as two very different woman, and we challenged the way society tried to box us in the whole time. We complicated the narrative and re-centered our experiences. We practiced shine theory and incorporated our theory of social change. We’ve gotten national awards, been let into space that we previously thought wasn’t meant for us, cried with our listeners, and got to practice radical play that spread joy. What a wild ride it has truly been.
Of course, we have our own favorite highlights to the podcast, which we’ve included below.
Zahra’s #GoodMuslimBadMuslim Top Highlights
Debriefing the 2016 Elections on the show was so helpful to make it feel like we were less alone.
After the Pulse Shooting, Zahra comes out.
Going to the Agha Khan Museum in Toronto to record both an episode of the show and a live recording of On Behalf of All Muslims was truly a gift.
A classic episode has to be the one where Zahra tells the story of how her mother removed her partner’s body hair.
We recorded live from inside the White House - the Obama White House specifically - which seems like a dream with Trump now in office.
Taz’s #GoodMuslimBadMuslim Top Highlights
Going on the Manzanar Pilgrimage with Vigilant Love and accidentally recording a most amazing episode, my favorite.
We had the most moving moments while in a week long artist residency at Shangri-La Museum of Arts, Culture and Design in Honolulu.
After the 2016 elections, all of a sudden, people were donning safety pins to show solidarity with Muslims. So, we sold our own for $2,020.
Taz loved going on a tour of Little Bangladesh in a produced narrative podcast - and got to share the foods of her peeps.
We worked with the good folks at Fusion Comedy to make The Muslim Guide to Voting - and it was truly an electoral organizer’s dream come true.
Though we are ending this show - we are both in love with the art form of podcast and are in it for the long haul - you will def be hearing us in the world of audio in future projects. We are not leaving! And we are both still making content - essays, poetry, mixtapes, videos - as well as available for speaking engagements and workshops. We will continue to speak up and out as Muslimahs in America, whether you like it or not. To follow what next, follow Taz Ahmed at @tazzystar and at www.tazzystar.me & follow Zahra Noorbakhsh at @zahracomedy and at www.zahracomedian.com.
A big huge thank you also to our sound engineer Quincy Surasmith, who was the engine behind our show. It was a conversation in a cubicle with Taz & Quincy that really turned an idea into a product - thank you for taking a chance on us. Listen to his podcast Asian Americana now.
The good thing about leaving now is knowing there are plenty of other Muslim/Brown American podcasts to pass the baton on to. Listen to our friends - See Something, Say Something podcast, Identity Politics podcast, Ethnically Ambiguous podcast, Bad Brown Aunties podcast, American Submitter podcast, Tell Them I Am podcast, Bollywood Boys podcast, Solidarity Is podcast, Queering Desi podcast, and The BIG We podcast.
Finally, we are so grateful to our community of fellow Asian American podcasters in the Potluck Podcast Collective. We recorded many of our shows out of the Potluck Podcast studio located in the office of Visual Communication in Little Tokyo, and we couldn’t have done it without this crew. Listen to all the shows in the network!
Till next time, inshallah.
