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Naama Kates is an actress and musician best known for her work with extremists and incels. An incel is an involuntary celibate: men who feel they're physically or mentally too unattractive for women. While many of these men are depressed or lonely, when they come together through online communities, things can get toxic.
Naama Links:
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/incel/id1469915971
https://twitter.com/naamakates
Andrew Links:
http://youtube.com/andrewgold1
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://andrewgoldpodcast.com
Thanks to the episode's sponsor, the language-learning app Babbel. Sign up using my promo code of EDGE on http://babbel.co.uk/play. -
Today, I’m talking to Telegraph journalist Cara McGoogan, the host and journalist behind acclaimed podcast Bed of Lies.
[By the way, join me in an old 90's-style chat room Thursday 8pm GMT (it's free, and you don't have to sign up): https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb] The series follows the lives of several fairly innocuous and harmless Left-Wing activists in the 80s, 90s and 2000s who fell in love, married and, on occasion, had children with men they had met on the activist scene. They would then go together to marches and rallies against things like animal cruelty or climate change, and other typically socially Leftist causes. It later emerged that the men they had met were undercover police agents acting as spies. Imagine finding out that the love of your life, the father of your children and the person you trusted more than anyone else in the world – that’s all one person by the way, not three - had been living a lie.
Cara Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cjmcgoogan
Telegraph Page: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/cara-mcgoogan/
Bed of Lies: https://podfollow.com/1537575625
Andrew Links:
http://youtube.com/andrewgold1
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Cara talks to me about her investigation and how it got started, what it was like for these women to have the rug pulled out from under them, having to start again alone. We look at a few individual stories, and chat about the police officers and their motivations in ruining the lives of these women. They spent years pretending to support Left-Wing causes, but had actually been secretly laughing at their partners’ views for years and reporting back to the police. We look at the nature of secret-keeping and what that can do to a person, and hear about how some agents came down with PTSD. We talk about literature a bit and the kind of books, like Russian literature, where there are so many names and nicknames and it’s hard to keep track of the characters. That happens at times in the podcast too - but Cara is very good at reminding us who is who - and the stories are enough to give us an overall sense of what happened to many different women over a number of years. More Cara facts – she is currently writing a coming of age love story about a couple torn apart by depression and addiction, set in the hedonistic world of music. She also has a new podcast about secrets and corruption set to come out later in the year. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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Hey, are you ready for part 2 of my super long interview with the glorious Sadia Hameed. If you haven’t yet heard part 1, it was just a couple of weeks ago, when Sadia told us about how social services in the UK actually helped her family to kidnap her when she was 15, and move her to Pakistan, where they starved and tortured her. They suspected her of sleeping with a white man. She later became a spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, although she is no longer involved with them, instead working with cases of domestic abuse.
Join us free in the chat room on Thursday at 8pm UK time. You don't have to sign up or download anything - and can use a fake name if you want, to hurl abuse at me! ;) : https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb
Sadia Links
https://twitter.com/sadia936
http://instagram.com/sadia936
Four Freedoms YouTube
Andrew Links
http://youtube.com/andrewgold1
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://andrewgoldpodcast.com This second part is very different. She continues talking a little about her personal situation, and the men who demanded their feet be washed by their wives or sisters…and she speaks beautifully about her long-term partner Jack and a woman called Linda who wanted to adopt her as an adult. After the horrors of the previous episode, it’s a relief to be able to discuss the lights of her life. We then go on to chat about a lot of different things. Having discovered who she is outside of her religious upbringing, Sadia has become worn out by some of the identity politics going on today, and speaks passionately about everything from feminism to trans movements…and she’s got some controversial opinions to share, including the notion that Pakistan has a high rate of trans because parents are so scared of having a gay child. When she criticises some trans people, I hope it’s not lost on any listeners that she first makes an impassioned defence of the majority of trans people who have suffered incalculable harm and, as she says, need and deserve all our support. Only after making that point, does she go on to critique what she perceives to be a faction of people who use their attained victimhood attack and silence others. -
Today I’ve got one of the smartest and most interesting people I’ve ever met on the podcast in the form of Jesse Morton, a former jihadist who now counters violent extremism with his organisation Parallel Networks. Jesse has done some pretty terrible things – he was a Far-Left extremist who became the most prominent white American Jihadist and a recruiter for al-Qaeda. He was also responsible for threatening the South Park creators and forcing them at the last minute to censor their image of the Prophet.
Jesse Links:
https://twitter.com/_jessemorton
https://twitter.com/lighttuponlight
http://pnetworks.org/
Andrew Gold Links:
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://andrewgold.me I was going to put this out earlier, but thought it was a perfect follow-up to last week’s episode with David Robson on the The Intelligence Trap, because Jesse is an example of how an incredibly clever person can make huge mistakes. Of course, we are all part the sum of our experiences, and Jesse was abused by his mother as a child. Jesse talks about how a history of childhood trauma and a victim mentality can be a dangerous thing. Jesse earlier spent time in prison and was in solitary confinement for a year, while reading up in the library on all sorts of fundamentalist material that strengthened his convictions. He has such a long and rich story, so at times, I just wanted to sit back and listen, occasionally steering the conversation this way or that. He’s an intense and cerebral man, and talks with absolute honesty about what he did and why he did it. Takes us into the life of a street preacher and a jihadi whose bomb designs were used by terrorists at the Boston Marathon. It may suit our ideology of good and bad to think of terrorists as either stupid or morally bankrupt, but Jesse talks about the far more nuanced and intricate traits and at play. Those who are highly intelligent but very unsuccessful, he says, try to tear down the world as it is, and rebuild it to suit their talents or purposes, a world where ‘everybody recognises my greatness’. His work focuses on getting inside the minds of the top extremists, and denouncing violence to them. To understand everything about Jesse, we’ll start with his early life and family, before moving onto his beliefs and his work. -
Science writer David Robson talks about his book, The Intelligence Trap. It’s a brilliantly written and researched book about how the cleverest people in the world…are often the ones who make the biggest mistakes. Which is why I never make any errors!
Join me on at 8pm GMT Thursday 18th March 2021 in a free chat room (no sign up etc needed!): https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb
David Robson Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-robson-5761791b
twitter.com/d_a_robson
Buy The Intelligence Traphttps://davidrobson.me/
Andrew Gold Links:
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://andrewgold.me
I really learned a lot from the book. It seems that the more intelligent among us – if we define intelligence by IQ and proficiency in certain subjects – are so smart that they’re able to create convincing arguments as to why their beliefs must be correct. It's why some clever people are proponents of flat earth theory, astrology or just basic religious beliefs. David tells some fascinating stories about Einstein and Sherlock writer Arthur Conan Doyle, and talks about how we can focus more on things like wisdom and curiosity to prevent the intelligence trap. We speak about how to argue with someone who has opposing views to us without getting heated or emotional. We look at examining our own cognitive biases, chat about the grisly end to the life of Socrates and think about the pictures of fairies with drawing pins in their navels that Arthur Conan Doyle mistook – using his famed powers of deduction – for belly buttons – showing fairies are born and give birth. David studied maths at Cambridge University, and has written for the BBC, New Scientist, The Atlantic and many other top publications. His book has been acclaimed, and when I mentioned it on Twitter the other day, one of my favourite writers, Will Storr, tweeted his own admiration for it. -
Join us at 7pm on Thursday March 11th 2021 here (it's free, and you don't have to sign up): https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb
Today, I’m speaking with Sadia Hameed, a former spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain who has a quite remarkable story to tell. She holds some strong and damning views, and has a knack for getting them across in a way that is both persuasive and, often, comical. Having grown up in England, Sadia was tricked in her teens into moving to Pakistan, where she was abused, starved and tortured, while her family out there tried to work out whether she had slept with a white man.
Sadia Links
https://twitter.com/sadia936
http://instagram.com/sadia936
Four Freedoms YouTube
Andrew Links
http://youtube.com/andrewgold1
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://andrewgoldpodcast.com
Sadia isn’t just the sum of her experiences. She’s also outspoken on issues such as women’s rights and human rights, while, as you might expect, damning of religious extremism, with a particular focus on Islam. She can’t talk too much about the work she does, but it involves domestic abuse that is often hidden in religion’s guise of righteousness. She talks about what it was actually like to be so hungry that she thought she might die, and gives us an insight into the last few decades in the history of the UK’s south Asian immigration. It appears that what angers her more than anything is a recurring theme on this podcast - the refusal of social justice warriors to look in some of the most obvious places.
Like Yasmine Mohammed, who was on the podcast a few weeks ago, Sadia shakes with rage at so-called progressives who appear to move heaven and earth to help a young white girl in trouble; but who think it’s fine for a young brown girl to be tortured, raped and forced to marry. Most shockingly, she tells of a social services translator who actually warned her parents they should lock her up and send her away before she’s of age. We got on so well in fact, that we ended up speaking for hours. So, I’ve done something I’ve never done on the show which is to split this into two parts, this being the first. And the bonus content for Patrons will be at the end of the second one, which will come out in a couple of weeks. -
Come to my old-fashioned chatroom on Thursday at 8pm GMT (noon in California): https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb. It's free and no need to sign up!
Hello, and welcome to another episode of On the Edge with Andrew Gold. Today, I’m talking – well actually I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago – to comedian Andrew Doyle, who has just released his new book Free Speech. It’s a modern manifesto on why free speech is so important, and how even extremely offensive speech should be protected.
Andrew Doyle Links:
https://twitter.com/andrewdoyle_com
https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Speech-Why-Matters/dp/034913538X
Andrew Gold Links:
http://patreon.com/andrewgold
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_okhttp://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
It’s a really beautifully written essay, which draws on the history of free speech and how it is being eroded from all sides bit by bit. We’re all aware that history seems to go in cycles and you never know when you’re next going to be under some sort of authoritarian regime. According to Andrew, it rarely comes from the place you expect it, and he believes we’re very much at risk right now from the censors on the Left, although he is politically Left himself.
In his book and on the podcast, Andrew speaks of former essays, such as John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty in 1859, and John Milton’s 1644 Areopagitica. Andrew was also a teacher and writers about all sorts of things, but you may know him as both the creator of fictional angry news reporter Jonathan Pie – although he is not the actor who plays him – and fictional twitter profile Titania McGrath. Titania is a fake creation who tweets to parody the beliefs and actions of critical race theorists or virtue signallers. Her Twitter bio reads: Activist. Healer. Radical intersectionalist poet. Nonwhite. Ecosexual. Pronouns: variable. Selfless and brave. Buy my books. Today, we are going to talk mostly about Andrew and his book. On the day I spoke to him, he had just come under a barrage of abuse from his critics, because he had blocked some of them in anticipation of the book. They believed it was ironic for an author a book on free speech to block those who opposed the book – and Andrew countered that, if they believed that, they had a poor understanding of free speech. Part of free speech is not having to listen to someone. We speak about the pressure of getting all that flack all the time on Twitter – people accusing him of absolutely every form of bigotry. I ask him what it’s like to be a gay man being accused so often of homophobia. And we talk freely about free speech. -
Joshua Baker is simply one of the most impressive journalists out there working today.
-- Join me on Discord Chat Room, free and you don't need to sign up, just follow this link at 8pm GMT on Thursday 25th Feb 2021: https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb --
You may know him for his current podcast series with the BBC, I’m Not a Monster, or his related documentary Return from ISIS. The two follow his attempts to track down and understand Samantha, the woman who took her family to live with ISIS in Syria. If you’ve not yet listened to I’m Not a Monster, do give it a go, it’s incredible from the start. Listening to the first episode, I was walking in the snow in Berlin and it was -15C, and I stayed out longer in such extreme conditions, so I could reach the end of the first episode, that’s how riveting it is.
Joshua Links
I'm not a Monster Podcast: https://podfollow.com/1540251892https://www.instagram.com/joshbakerfilmhttps://www.twitter.com/joshbakerfilm
Andrew Links
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_okhttp://instagram.com/andrewgold_okhttp://youtube.com/andrewgold1http://patreon.com/andrewgoldhttp://andrewgoldpodcast.com
It begins by explaining minute by minute what it was like for Joshua to be attacked and bombed by ISIS, fracturing his back in an explosion that destroyed that left nothing of an entire street. Then, we hear audio footage of a young American boy being taught to assemble and use a suicide bomb. The kid explains how he would lure American soldiers by asking for help, before pulling the string.
Now, I didn’t want to go into too much detail, because I want you to be able to listen to this full podcast without real spoilers, and to be able to then fully enjoy I’m Not a Monster afterwards. I was fascinated by Joshua from a journalistic point of view, because the one thing I always said was that I’ll do anything, and I’ve done stuff over the years in dangerous places – but I would never go near ISIS or anyone who might behead me. It’s just not worth the gain, so we talk a lot in this one about his experience literally being blown up by ISIS and surviving by the skin of his teeth – and then what it means to be doing this kind of journalism.
That said, we do talk a bit towards end about the characters in the series, so I’ll give you a little run down without any spoilers, all stuff you know from the beginning of episode one. Sam is an American mother who took her kids to Syria, and wants to come back. She claims she was tricked into going there by her husband Moussa, but Joshua doesn’t entirely trust her, as her story doesn’t always check out. Joshua does track down a woman called Tsuad who was bought as a slave by Sam and Moussa during their time in Syria – and Tsuad speaks nicely about Sam, so I ask Joshua about that at the end.
There is about nine minutes of bonus chat in this episode for patrons – get that on patreon.com/andrewgold. I’ll try to get Josh to come to my weekly Discord chat room event, they’ve been great so far – just find the link in the show notes. -
Justin Brooks is the co-founder of the California Innocence Project, which is a non-profit that is part of the California Western School of Law in San Diego.
Catch me (plus maybe Justin) on Discord on Thursday 11th Feb at 8pm GMT (Noon in California). Here's the link: https://discord.gg/RWH7fs6ygb
Justin Links:
http://twitter.com/justinobrooks
http://instagram.com/justinobrooks
https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Public-Figure/Justin-Brooks-160642841283018/
http://californiainnocenceproject.org
Andrew Links:
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://facebook.com/ontheedgewithandrewgold
http://youtube.com/andrewgold1
http://patreon.com/andrewgold - for bonus content!
They do the most remarkable work, which is to provide pro-bono legal services to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates. I can’t think of much worse than being put in prison for decades, no hope of parole, when you didn’t even commit the crime for which you’re there. It’s a horrible thought that in all probability, there are thousands of people in this situation. So, Justin is one of those people I’m so happy exist.
Justin was recently played by actor Greg Kinnear in the movie Brian Banks about its namesake former American footballer who was wrongfully convicted of rape. We talk about the movie and what it was like being shadowed by a famous movie star, as well as some of the heartbreaking cases and the problems with our legal system. We talk as well about the racial inequality in the US, which is an important topic, especially given that this coming Saturday the 20th February is World Day of Social Justice.
I’ve added a little over ten minutes of bonus content for my Patrons. In it, we talk about silly things like accents, and Justin’s family in Derby and Liverpool, as well as some serious stuff relating to race, impartial news channels and some differences between the UK and the US. Find that on Patreon.com/andrewgold. There’s even a teaser for the bonus material in the outro.
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Nikole Mitchell recently made headlines around the world, when she went from being a Baptist pastor to an OnlyFans stripper, often posing nude for her paying subscribers for photos and also helping them with life coaching. Today, she talks to me about what it was like growing up in a religious Southern Baptist community, how she spent many frustrated years celibate, before taking the plunge and waking up as a new convert to the religion of sexy photos.
Come chat to us on Discord on Thursday 11th Feb at 8pm GMT (Noon CA, 3pm NY, 9pm Germany and ... very early in Australia - sorry!). Free to use, so pop by and just say hi, it'll be my first time on it. Here's the link: https://discord.gg/ztymPF4S5G
Nikole Links:
https://www.facebook.com/nikole.s.mitchell/
https://twitter.com/MitchellNikole
https://www.instagram.com/mitchellnikole
Andrew Links:
http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
http://facebook.com/ontheedgewithandrewgold
I’ve added a new feature to Patreon.com/andrewgold for bonus content, so additional moments that wouldn’t usually make the cut, often as we’re saying hello or goodbye on the Zoom call. Today, I’ll include the small bonus section, it’s only one minute today but will be longer in future episodes. Just so you know what it’ll be like, so stay after the end for that.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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Nimko Ali is on the show today to talk about Female Genital Mutilation or FGM. I planned this episode to appear now, as I saw it’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6th, and it’s something I wanted learn about. I’d often heard about FGM but didn’t actually know all that much about it. Was it a religious custom or a cultural tradition, or simply a barbaric act carried out on girls by some patriarchal groups. It appears to be the latter.
Nimko Links:
Book - What we're told not to talk about: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rude-There-Such-Thing-Over-Sharing/dp/024129262X
Five Foundation: https://www.thefivefoundation.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NimkoAli
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nimkoali/
Andrew Links:
facebook.com/ontheedgewithandrewgold
In any case, Nimko is of Somali heritage and was herself cut as a child. She is the co-founder of the Five Foundation, so make sure to get on there and donate, share and support however you can to help to end FGM. She also has a prestigious OBE, was named in the BBC’s 100 Women, won Red Magazine’s Woman of the Year and won the International Women’s Rights Award at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. I read and loved her book What We’re Told Not To Talk About – link in the show notes. Split into categories labelled periods, orgasms, pregnancy and menopause, it collects haunting and inspirational stories from women around the world. It goes into intense and surprisingly vivid, or disgusting, detail, which is one of the book’s strengths, it’s a lot of fun to read and I found myself both laughing and crying.
We discuss what it was like for Nimko to be cut, and how it affects her life today. And although this is a very serious topic, Nimko is able to talk at times with humour. So, we delve into her previous fancy for English football player Michael Owen and her current interest in Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is a bit of a dark horse to say the least. If you get to the end, Nimko tells the men listening how they can get in touch with her to ask her on a date, because she hasn’t been with someone seriously for five years.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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Today’s guest is quite possibly the most bad-ass, to borrow an American expression and pronunciation, person I’ve had on the podcast. Professor Sue Black is a distinguished forensic anthropologist and dame from Inverness, Scotland. She’ll explain exactly what that is, but she is the President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and a leading professor at Lancaster University. As an expert in human anatomy, she took two tours of Iraq, worked on the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification of bodies operation, and speaks of how she waded through piles of melted dead corpses in Kosovo. Anecdote after anecdote, she had me absolutely floored, and appreciative that there are people like her doing the work they do, because I sure as hell couldn’t, and we couldn’t function as a society with them.
Sue Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/profsueblack
Written in Bone book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Written-Bone-hidden-stories-behind-ebook/dp/B084KJBPZB
Andrew Links:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
Instagram: http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
Video clips: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1
Join my Patreon: http://patreon.com/andrewgold
Later, she became known for her vein pattern analysis, where she found that no two hands appear to have the same pattern of veins, as well as marks, wrinkles and folds. This helped her prove the identity of a father whose hands were caught on film as he molested his daughter. The research has continued and helped to catch many other child sex offenders.
I was fascinated to get inside the mind – briefly, at least – with a person who is regularly confronted with the horrors of child sex abuse material and mutilated bodies from murders and wars. I wanted to know how such images change a person and their outlook on life and death, their relationship with their daughter, their views on humanity.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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Hello, and welcome to an episode of On the Edge with Andrew Gold with today’s guest, award-winning science author and TV presenter Dr. Stuart Farrimond, who’ll be talking about how to live the perfect day, from your sleep and your coffee in the morning, to your work habits and commutes, and your exercise and evening routine.
Stuart Links
Buy the Science of Living Book (UK): https://amzn.to/2XjVmRu
Buy the Live Your Best Life Book (N America): https://amzn.to/3boCHMu
Surviving Terminal Cancer by Ben Williams: https://www.survivingterminalcancer.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealDoctorStu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realdoctorstu/?hl=en
Andrew Links
Support the show on patreon.com/andrewgold
Follow me on Twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
Follow me on Instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
See podcast video clips on Youtube.com/andrewgold1
Stuart is talking about the themes of his book, The Science of Living: 219 reasons to rethink your daily routine. In the US and probably Canada, it’s known as Live your Best Life – link in the show notes. It’s a gorgeous book, really beautifully designed, and would make for a wonderful present for someone. Each page has a question, such as Why is waking up so hard, why do I have bad breath when I wake up, will skipping breakfast make me fat, will wearing a coat indoors mean I’m colder when I go out and is my phone ruining my sex life. Each question and page is adorned with lovely images and graphs that are really accessible and easy, even for someone of my limited neural capacities.
We have a fun and interesting chat. Things do get a little heavier in the final third of today’s episode, as Stuart talks about undergoing surgery for a brain tumour. He speaks emotionally but also informatively about the subject and provides some inspirational pearls of wisdom to end on.
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I’m delighted to welcome onto the show the pre-eminent human rights activist and ex-Muslim Yasmine Mohammed. She’s the creator of the #FreeFromHijab hashtag and the founder of the Free Hearts Free Minds organisation that helps ex-Muslims transition out of Islam, a little like what Episode 3’s guest Emily Green does for Orthodox Jews. Links to her website, as well as her book Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam and her social media pages, in the show notes.
Yasmine Links:
Free Hearts Free Minds Organisation: www.freeheartsfreeminds.com
Yas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YasMohammedxx
Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam: https://www.waterstones.com/book/unveiled/yasmine-mohammed/9781999240530
Andrew Links:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok
Patreon: http://patreon.com/andrewgold
Insta: http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok
Website: http://andrewgoldpodcast.com
As you’ll hear, I mention Hasidic Judaism and Catholicism a few times in the discussion, partly as a reminder that the podcast isn’t picking on Islam in particular. We’ve already done episodes with former members of the Hasidic Jews, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Westboro Baptist Church. And yet, Yasmine will point out a few places where Islam is unique, not only its own characteristics, but how it is perceived and, in her mind, given a free ride, by the liberal western media.
Yasmine is a Canadian professor and member of the Center for Inquiry, who has also been interviewed by esteemed speakers Seth Andrews and Sam Harris, who we talk about a lot towards the end of the interview. She talks about how her personal story runs parallel to that of modern Islam, in that things were more secular, and then got a whole lot more religious and oppressive very suddenly. She was forced to marry an al-Qaeda operative, before fleeing with their daughter, something unimaginably awful for most of us.
We talk about the situation of Australian ex-Muslim Zara Kay, who has been arrested in Tanzania. We’ll speak about why eminent writer Salman Rushdie got the Fatwah – which was a religious call to have him killed – and why he was singled out for that treatment.
Also, at the end, we have a funny chat about Hugh Grant and Fargo that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the conversation, but stay after the de de de de at the end, as I’ll play those couple of minutes as part of the outro.
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To start off 2021 on the On the Edge with Andrew Gold podcast, we’ve got scientist Dr. Andrew Steele to talk about living forever, and how we might cure ageing in the coming decades and centuries. What better way to start the year? Although, if it’s anything like 2020, you may not want to live forever. Anyway, Andrew’s new book Ageless has just come out – get it on andrewsteele.co.uk/ageless. It made for a fascinating read – I was up all night hoping to find the answers, because I’ve always loved the idea of staying young and living forever – many of us like that concept, while others don’t, and we’ll discuss why.
What I would say…most of you listen to this on audio-only, but if you’re ever going to check out the YouTube page, this is the time to do it, because Andrew’s video is absolutely gorgeous, shot with a pair of top-of-the-range cameras. It makes such a difference editing something so lovely. So just Google YouTube On the Edge with Andrew Gold or type youtube.com/andrewgold1 to find it – do subscribe to the channel while you’re there. And subscribe to Andrew Steele’s page, youtube.com/drandrewsteele, where you’ll find incredible 4k beautifully shot science videos explaining things in a way that makes sense … even to idiots like me!
In today’s episode, we talk about why people are so hostile to the idea of living forever – why it’s always portrayed as a negative, selfish and unattractive thing, while death seems to be a positive, heroic and noble thing. We look at tortoises, jellyfish and worms, gene therapy (not Levi’s), and how we might overcome such potential immortality issues as overpopulation and a poor/rich divide. We talk about whether it’s possible to die of a broken heart and whether women will be able to have babies at much older ages, and we discuss something called cell senescence, which is when cells in our body stop dividing (apparently they normally divide, but when they stop dividing, that’s a big part of what we’d call ageing). And we look at how we ourselves might extend our lives and live into the coming millennia.
Next week’s episode is with Canadian ex-Muslim human rights activist Yasmine Mohammed.
Andrew Steele Links:
Buy Ageless: andrewsteele.co.uk/ageless
Twitter: https://twitter.com/statto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrAndrewSteele
YouTube: youtube.com/drandrewsteele
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Stephen Knight is an atheist who has made a name for himself online and in the media as both a friend of comedian Ricky Gervais, and an outspoken critic of woke culture and critical race theory. The host of the Godless Spellchecker podcast, which goes by the Knight Tube on YouTube. Do check out his podcast, he’s had some really big names on it, including Douglas Murray and Sam Harris to Ricky Gervais and…well, me. The lucky so-and-so. I was on his podcast just a couple weeks ago, so do check it out.
We talk about how Ricky – who is a hero of mine – first approached Stephen (link to his Twitter) to come on his podcasts, which makes for a really great story. We also go into the problems with religion, and we talk a lot about class, which is particularly funny and strange in the UK. Stephen is from a working class background in Manchester, and believes that if anything does make us unequal, it is class rather than race or gender. But even so, he wouldn’t want to play that card, as he prefers to judge people as individuals.
I have to respect that my listeners come from a range of backgrounds and viewpoints. This discussion might put some of you off at first, but do stick with it – I don’t think we are that disrespectful to woke culture or religions, and maybe we’ll find some common ground. This podcast came at the opportune moment – just this week, prominent write Julie Burchill had her book about the problems with woke cancel culture…cancelled after she joked about Islam online. And a school in the US is being sued after trying to force white students to publicly recognize their innate racism and privilege, threatening them with failing grades, if they refused to comply. Where does this end, according to Stephen? Well, some pretty dark places.
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As we come to the end of a year most of us would be keen to forget, I thought it was time to have a look at…time. Today on the show, I’ve got physicist Julian Barbour, who has a new theory about the Big Bang and time, which he elucidates in his latest book, The Janus Point: A New Theory of Time.
This one gets a little more complex than a typical episode of On the Edge with Andrew Gold, so I’m going to break down a few things I think I’ve learned. Firstly, Julian (official website) posits that the old Newtonian view of time is not entirely right, because it puts us inside a box. Thinking outside the box, Julian believes time is not necessarily a thing on a map like some of us thought…the only thing that time is, is a series of changing shapes of the universe. To differentiate between the past and the future, it’s just a case of seeing things like atoms and particles becoming less simple and structured, until complex things like us are able to exist. One of the most amazing parts of Julian’s theory however, is that time goes back to the Big Bang – and then goes the other way. So before the Big Bang is just another timeline going in the other direction. Bit weird, right?
I always edit down the interviews a fair bit to make them quick and accessible, so I’ve lost some of Julian’s most intriguing – yet complex – material, so if you are interested in more, make sure to get hold of the Janus Point: A New Theory of Time on Amazon. There, you’ll get to the real thermodynamics and theories and historical stuff.
Many of you are going to be fascinated, and I’m proud to have such a remarkable mind on the show. Others of you might find it difficult – I would suggest you stay with it, because we do go into other fun things like aliens, what happens at the end of time, whether it’d be good to live forever, and whether we have free will (or are things all decided for us) in the latter part.
If you enjoy the show, please take a look at my Patreon website and consider signing up to a tier. It takes SO much time to get this ready each week, and I appreciate the support a lot. Lots of cool benefits too! Here's that link again, patreon.com/andrewgold
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I’m honoured to be joined today by one of the UK’s most impressive speakers and mental health advocates in the form of Jonny Benjamin MBE, who made headlines after sparking a national campaign called Find Mike – with the goal of tracking down the man who talked him down from a bridge. Jonny talks candidly about his own experience with schizoaffective disorder, which has led to him hearing a voice in his head that used to take on the form of an angel, before becoming the devil.
He’s passionate about mental health and how we all need to talk more openly, and you can find the charity he founded, Beyond, on wearebeyond.org.uk. He’s also created a mental health festival for schools called Now and Beyond.
Jonny also tells me how his relatively conservative Jewish upbringing made it harder to talk about his issues, while also feeling he had to keep his homosexuality secret. We also spoke about fellow schizophrenia sufferer Elyn Saks, whose Ted Talk you can find here.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram, both andrewgold_ok, and have a browse of the different perks you can get from a membership on patreon.com/andrewgold
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Episode sponsored by the wonderful Pink Moon Interiors, they really make some great stuff that I've personally visited. Check out and follow their instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/pinkmoon_interiors/
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So, we’ve tackled Judaism, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Westboro Baptist Church so far on the On the Edge with Andrew Gold podcast. That can only mean one thing. It’s finally time for the Mormons. And I’ve got none other than Dan Beecher, one half of the famous Frank and Dan who host Thank God I’m Atheist. I actually appeared as a guest on their podcast to discuss my exorcism film, and I’ve no doubt that some of our listeners cross over. Theirs is absolutely huge though – straight out of Utah, they’re a couple of ex-Mormons who discuss all things atheism. Dan also has a massive podcast show called The How-To Heretic, so both touch on atheism, cults, religions and all that stuff that you and I can’t get enough of.
We discuss everything from the late British atheist and thought leader Christopher Hitchens to haters and polyamory – as opposed to the polygamy Mormonism is famous for – we discuss that too, and get to the bottom of it.
Like most of these podcast interviews, we dip in and out of serious themes and lighter moments that bring levity to proceedings. You don’t want to be sad for an hour, and neither do I. But it does get quite intense, as Dan describes certain aspects of his childhood, his mind conflicted as he searched for a sign from god that wouldn’t come. This exasperation and pressure left irreversible marks on his psyche, touching everything, including his sex life.
Remember to subscribe to this podcast so you don’t forget about it, and support it on patreon.com/andrewgold
Huge thanks to Podcorn for sponsoring this episode. Explore sponsorship opportunities and start monetizing your podcast by signing up here: https://podcorn.com/podcasters/
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Lucy Edwards is a 24-year-old British journalist who holds the distinction of being BBC Radio 1’s first ever blind presenter. She’s since worked across the channel, from BBC World News to BBC Radio 4, and has run a marathon and started up an extremely successful YouTube channel – Lucy Edwards - where here make-up tutorials and videos answering questions you were too polite or timid to ask have racked up millions of views.
Links
Lucy:
Andrew:
We delve into brail, language learning, Robbie Williams, Jon Ronson and inspiration porn. We talk about the details behind how Lucy lost her sight, and how she learned to cope, along with helpful sidekick, Olga. Olga’s a dog by the way. We actually spoke a couple of months ago, but timed the episode to coincide with the International Day of Disabled Persons on December 3rd.
Lucy talks in the episode about how the modern BBC studios she worked in were not equipped for blind people. A lot of media attention has rightly helped redress societal imbalances across different subsections of society. However, disabled people remain totally under the radar…and nobody seems to care. Well, we should do, and we can start by hearing Lucy out – not because she’s blind, but because she has so much to say and she’s a fantastic journalist.
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- Visa fler