This Being Human

Season 1 Bonus Episode: “Tea or Coffee?”

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Dear Friends, happy New Year! This is Abdul-Rehman Malik, host of This Being Human. When we started this show, the goal was simple: we wanted to talk to remarkable people whose lives are informed by the Muslim experience. Some of the names you already knew, but I want to guess that there were a lot of names you didn’t know. But once you and I heard their stories, they became unforgettable. 

What show features a Jamaican-British poet who topples statues of slavers and gives spiritual advice to millions on the BBC, a Christian professor who believes in the message of Muhammad, and Bollywood’s top songwriters breaking down the advertising jingles that got them their first paycheck? This Being Human is about engaging a world where faith matters and where we change the way we think, see, and hear “Muslim.”

Now, 25 episodes in, we want to share some exciting news with you: a new season is on the way! We’re going to continue to tell great stories, but you’ll notice some changes, too: a refreshed, more intimate sound, and of course, more unexpected personalities. 

In the meantime, enjoy this special bonus episode featuring a few of our previous guests in a way you didn’t hear them the first time around. Here they are giving some surprising answers to quick, fun rapid-fire questions we threw their way.

In order of appearance, you’re about to hear food writer Anissa Helou, photographer Tasneem Alsultan, performance artist Wafaa Bilal, and women’s rights advocate Dr. Alaa Murabit. Enjoy and stayed tuned.

[sound break]

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Are you ready, Anissa?

ANISSA HELOU:

I am. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Who do you look to for inspiration?

ANISSA HELOU:

When I was very young, it was Marie Curie first and then Simone de Beauvoir. And these days, because of my obsession with food and becoming a philistine regarding everything else, it's the great authors like Nevin Halıcı for Turkish Food, Zette Guinaudeau-Franc for Moroccan food, women who have written amazingly about culinary cultures. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Song you turn to for strength. 

ANISSA HELOU:

Oh, gosh, it's it changes. I mean, it could be “St. Matthew's Passion,” one of the arias from “St. Matthew's Passion” to “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen, to Joan Baez. It was something to do with her not marrying — I can't remember the title of the song.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

If someone was playing you in a movie, who would you want to play you? 

ANISSA HELOU:

Barbara Stanwyck.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Tea or coffee, how do you take it? 

ANISSA HELOU:

Black. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

And finally, food you’d choose to eat if you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life.

ANISSA HELOU:

Gosh, that's cruel.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

It's not all fun and games here at This Being Human!

ANISSA HELOU:

Well, I don't know. Noodles, but I might change my mind very quickly. 

[sound break]

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Are you ready, Tasneem?

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: Sure.

AR Malik: Who do you look to for inspiration? 

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

I don't know. There’s so many people that I look up to. It's too much! So many people, so many names.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Song you turn to for strength.

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

Oh, my God. Cher. [SINGING] “Do you believe in life after love?” And I change the words so it's “love after love.”

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

I like it, I like it. If someone was playing you in a movie, who would you want to play you? 

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

Oh, Anne Hathaway. No, but I want an Arab woman, but I don't know. I don't know any Arab women. Oh, Nadine Labaki, she has big eyes, too. Yes. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Okay. Tea or coffee. How do you take it? 

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

I don't drink either one.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Yallah.

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

I'm a fake Arab. Yeah, my kids, my parents, everyone drinks tea or coffee.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

No qahwa?

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

No. I mean I drink some qahwa Arabia when I'm with older women and I don't want them to judge me, but just because it's [speaking Arabic] to say no, but I don't actually ever wake up and say, “Oh my God, I need coffee.” But I do love the scents. I would buy a candle that smells like coffee.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

No, that's cool, that's cool. I'll support you on that. Finally, food you’d choose if you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life. 

TASNEEM ALSULTAN: 

Oh. What's my favourite food? Ice cream. Mistaka ice cream. I could eat that for the rest of my life.

[sound break]

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Wafaa, are you ready?

WAFAA BILAL: 

Ready. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Okay. Who do you look to for inspiration?

WAFAA BILAL: 

Mom. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Song you turn to for strength. 

WAFAA BILAL: 

Oh, man. That's tough. Ask me another question. We’ll come back to that.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

If someone was playing you in a movie, who would you want to play you?

WAFAA BILAL: 

Brad Pitt. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

I love it. Tea or coffee? How do you take it?

WAFAA BILAL: 

Coffee in the morning. And that would be Turkish. Don't tell them it's Arabic, actually — it's not Turkish. And then in the afternoon, it would be tea. Black tea with a little bit of sweetener. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

And a food you would choose to eat if you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life.

WAFAA BILAL: 

That would be bamia, which is an okra cooked the Iraqi way. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

I love bamia. There was a restaurant in London called Masgouf.

WAFAA BILAL: 

Oh yes! I know these guys because they opened one in Sharjah, the original one. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Oh wow, it's so good. 

WAFAA BILAL: 

Their masgouf is remarkable.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Their masgouf Is really amazing. Any thought on the song?

WAFAA BILAL: 

“Toxic.” Britney Spears.

[sound break]

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Are you ready, Alaa?

ALAA MURABIT: 

Yep.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Who do you look to for inspiration? 

ALAA MURABIT: 

My mom.

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

A song you turn to for strength.

ALAA MURABIT: 

“Stop Right There.” 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

If someone was playing you in a movie, who would you like to play you? 

ALAA MURABIT: 

I don't really watch... I'm not a good movie person. My husband calls them “very expensive naps.”

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

[Laughs] I love it! That is a good answer. That is a good answer. 

ALAA MURABIT: 

So Mission Impossible 4, everyone told us to go and watch. And I like — I literally was lyingby like four minutes, I was out. And people afterwards were like, “It’s so amazing. Did you watch it?” And I was like, “Uh huh.” Because I don't want people to judge me. I fell asleep in La La Land.  

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

It's the sweetest sleep. Movie theatre sleep is the sweetest sleep. And I learned that from my mom, who was a legendary movie theatre sleeper. Two more questions for you. Tea or coffee? How do you take it? 

ALAA MURABIT: 

Tea. And it's, we call it shay bialhalib, which is tea with milk. 

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

And a food you’d choose to eat if you had to eat only one thing for the rest of your life. 

ALAA MURABIT: 

Chocolate, anything with chocolate. 

[sound break]

ABDUL-REHMAN MALIK:

Thanks for listening to the first season of This Being Human. Season 2 comes out in late February. Stay tuned.

In this bonus episode, we share rapid-fire Q&As with food writer Anissa Helou, photographer Tasneem Alsultan, performance artist Wafaa Balal and women’s rights advocate Dr. Alaa Murabit.

Thanks for listening to This Being Human. Stay tuned for Season 2.