TDS Time Machine | Arab American Heritage Month

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 You're listening to Comedy Central.

Speaker 2 Please welcome Boston Youssef.

Speaker 2 Hello! Hey!

Speaker 2 Oh my god!

Speaker 3 Wow, you've got live audience.

Speaker 2 Yes!

Speaker 2 Why?

Speaker 2 Now you don't have an audience.

Speaker 3 Yeah, that's why I use puppets.

Speaker 2 You use puppets because you don't have an audience. Yes.

Speaker 2 Are there any shows in Egypt that have an audience and they do live studio audience?

Speaker 3 No, we are actually trying to do that next year. We're going to be the first Arab satirical political show with live audience, which is huge because we don't actually have this kind of industry.

Speaker 2 The television is the live audiences and things like that? Yes. How difficult is it to do a show like you're doing, a comedy show, when the stability of the country is still in question?

Speaker 2 Because it's difficult for me, and we're pretty stable,

Speaker 2 but I still get the hate with the people that don't like me.

Speaker 2 What happens with you?

Speaker 3 Death threats.

Speaker 3 Check.

Speaker 2 Check.

Speaker 2 We're not so different, you and I.

Speaker 2 Sometimes I get beaten.

Speaker 3 No, no, no, they're just kidding.

Speaker 3 It's actually, it's been quite a ride, and

Speaker 3 what we do is has actually we broke ground in the television programming, because now people say, wow, he actually says what we want to say. And

Speaker 3 we're trying to be funny. We fail most of the time, but we try.

Speaker 2 Check. Check.
Yes.

Speaker 2 By the way, can I ask you a question? Can I ask a question?

Speaker 3 Last week, did you have Catherine Zeta-Jones here?

Speaker 2 Catherine Zeta Jones was in your seat, sir. In this seat.
Your very seat. Oh!

Speaker 2 Nice.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Is that an aspect? You know what? You take it back with you.

Speaker 2 Take it to Cairo. We don't care.

Speaker 2 Nice, right? Yes. Yeah.
She's been so so okay. She's very sweet.
Yes. Yeah, that's nice.

Speaker 2 You're going to like TV. You're going to like it.
Here's the thing that is very unusual to me.

Speaker 2 You are a very accomplished heart surgeon as well before you got into this now obviously Jews and Muslims there is tension amongst the cultures at times

Speaker 2 2,000 years for

Speaker 2 but one thing we probably share is that

Speaker 2 going to your mother as a heart surgeon and saying yeah I think I'm going to be a comedian would be a problem

Speaker 3 It was a problem until actually she

Speaker 3 showed the money and

Speaker 3 and she saw my new big TV and living room. So she was okay with that.

Speaker 2 So comedy, a little more lucrative than the heart surgery business? A lot.

Speaker 2 I knew I was. Yes, and

Speaker 3 you don't get that many, but you don't get sued like every five seconds.

Speaker 2 I think that's probably smart too. How did this all begin?

Speaker 2 During the revolution, Tarzan, did you just decide this is the time to try and express this thought? This is the time to do something I wanted to try for a while?

Speaker 3 Well, the 18 days of the revolution was incredible because you will go to Tahrir,

Speaker 3 you see what's happening, you come back, you open the TV, and it's a totally different world.

Speaker 3 It's amazing. And you know what? It's happening again now.

Speaker 3 It's like all these rumors about like aliens coming down and trying, that they are the people who are driving the revolution and the Freemasons, yes.

Speaker 2 Is it really this type of conspiracy stuff? Because that's, we have a gentleman here.

Speaker 2 Does Glenn Beck have a show in Egypt or no?

Speaker 2 It's his evil twin. Really?

Speaker 2 He's a guy who's spreading sort of conspiracy stories.

Speaker 3 He's a little bit kind of cloned everywhere. Oh, really? Yes, even in sports programs.
Imagine Glenbeck actually doing a sports show and that's what you'll get.

Speaker 3 That was a foul because some Blu-ray came from the eyes of their...

Speaker 2 So basically it's Freemason and the Americans and Israel have gathered together to hypnotize the Egyptian people to go to Tahrir Square to complain. Yes.
Okay.

Speaker 3 And Hamas.

Speaker 2 Oh, really? And them too.

Speaker 3 And Iran. Ah.
All of these people, can you imagine Israel, Hamas, Iran, Israel, and America are actually all

Speaker 2 unified?

Speaker 3 Yes, against Egypt.

Speaker 2 Wow, how do they decide what to eat at the meeting? That would be... Kosher.
Gotta be kosher, I would think.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 2 are the people resentful? that the powers that be don't believe that they would have the wherewithal to stand up on their own?

Speaker 3 The problem is that like people want to believe.

Speaker 3 They want to believe, but like when you have the media kind of pounding on them with all these conspiracies, you will find people that will fall for that. I mean for example you have

Speaker 3 what's his name, Kramer? Like Mad Money?

Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes. And people still

Speaker 3 watch him. I mean the guy kind of like bankrupted the whole country.

Speaker 2 And still people watch his show. It's the same.
Well it's it's very interesting that the medias in our country then are not that there's sort of an establishment media.

Speaker 2 And then there's what's going on in the street and the and the twain don't really meet.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 2 And you try and occupy that space in the middle of that.

Speaker 3 Yes, because it has been extremely funny and hilarious to watch the media right now. I mean, back in Egypt,

Speaker 3 we're not very much different.

Speaker 2 No, I think you look better in a suit, but other than that, I think we're the same.

Speaker 3 It's in our money.

Speaker 2 Look at you!

Speaker 2 Very sure.

Speaker 3 I had to pay for it.

Speaker 2 He gets his for

Speaker 2 free.

Speaker 2 Give it 14 years, my friend. It don't count.
It don't count.

Speaker 2 Bossum, I can't tell you. Here's the thing.
I watch your program. I had it translated.

Speaker 2 I don't know a tremendous amount about Egyptian politics because obviously as an American, we prefer not to know that much about countries we meddle in.

Speaker 2 But I do know a little something about the humor business. Your show is sharp.
You're really good on it. It's smart.
It's well executed.

Speaker 2 I just, I think the world of what you're doing down there and I couldn't be more pleased that you're here. Can you stick around? We'll throw a little bit more up on the web and have a nice talk.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Bostom Youssef, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 4 Welcome back to the daily social distancing show.

Speaker 4 So earlier today, I spoke with actor and comedian Rami Yousaf. His Hulu series, Rami, is the first Muslim American sitcom to receive an Emmy nomination.

Speaker 5 It's 2020. They don't want a man like me anymore.
Trump f ⁇ it up too much. He's too much a man, you know? The people are afraid.
They want a man like you.

Speaker 5 A man who feels a little bit like a woman, but is still officially a man. Maybe transsexual, you know? This is good.
Which is why I want you to join me and become a small little partner in the store.

Speaker 5 It's your future.

Speaker 4 Rami Youssef, welcome to the Daily Social Distancing Show.

Speaker 6 Dude, it says too much distance, but I feel like we should have been closer. But it's what are we going to do?

Speaker 4 I think you're actually lucky that we're not closer because I'm such a big fan of the show that I would have been one of those nauseating fans who would have been asking you too many questions.

Speaker 4 I would have been all over you. Because

Speaker 4 I remember when Rami first came out, first came out.

Speaker 4 A few people were talking about here, but I just stumbled across the show and I was like, I was running around preaching to people. You got to watch Rami.
You got to watch Rami. You got to watch Rami.

Speaker 4 And now, I mean, it's widely accepted. Yeah, Rami is much, must-watch viewing.

Speaker 4 What has that journey been like for you from going, you know, creating a show about a Muslim millennial in New Jersey and the Muslim world as a comedy, you know, to now being a show that people just go like, yeah, yeah, this is normal because it, let's be honest, it wasn't normal like a few years ago when you decided to do this.

Speaker 6 No, and

Speaker 6 it still really shocks me. Like there are definitely moments where people are talking about the show a lot.
It's getting a lot of recognition. People are excited about it.
And I'm like, really?

Speaker 6 Guys, this is a show about like an Arab Muslim dude that watches too much porn. Like, I can't believe that this many people are looking at it.

Speaker 6 The thing that's probably most overwhelming is the international love because I think like here, it's like awesome, you know, whatever. We got publicists and all this.

Speaker 6 But for me, when my aunt calls me and she's like. Egypt's watching the show.
And I'm like, have you seen it? And she's like, not yet. And I'm like, thank God.

Speaker 6 But

Speaker 6 she's like, I hear the kids are watching it. I'm like, good, it's just let them watch it.
That's, that's really special.

Speaker 4 I think what I found special about the show, show, and this is probably what connects to so many people, is it's not just the story of an Arab Muslim kid growing up in New Jersey.

Speaker 4 It's also the story of a community that for so long has been seen through one lens.

Speaker 4 Man, you take us into a world where we see human beings, we see the complexities of Islam, you know, we see the complexities of different generations and how they relate to the religion and then the cultures that come.

Speaker 4 Like, that's not an easy thing to do. Was there ever a part of you that was afraid to either tell the story incorrectly to an outside audience or piss off the inside audience?

Speaker 6 Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the tightrope walk that we're constantly walking with this show because we haven't really had any chance at seeing ourselves on screen

Speaker 6 in a story that doesn't involve explosives or national security. To your question about, was I nervous? I'm really nervous because I know that Muslims are such a vast group of people.

Speaker 6 There are many communities People even say like, what does the Muslim community think about your show? And I'm like,

Speaker 6 it's not a pop band. Like, there are a lot of different Muslim communities.
Like, it's not just this one, this one thing.

Speaker 6 And so

Speaker 6 we, you know, kind of made the choice pretty early on that, like, we're not going to try and check all the boxes. You know, this isn't a census.

Speaker 6 This isn't a totality of something that can't be encompassed, really. This is just the story of this family.

Speaker 6 And we're really going to kind of humanize them by watching them deal with their problems in the way that everyone does.

Speaker 4 What makes the show successful for me is that it follows the golden rule of telling a story. And that is showing the human beings who exist within the story.

Speaker 4 What I loved was how even in your story, you know, the Rami that you play, when he went to Egypt, he himself realized that he had stereotypes and connotations.

Speaker 4 of his own family in Egypt in a way that he didn't even realize.

Speaker 4 To take it to Egypt and then have like an Egyptian Egyptian family who are fans of Donald Trump and all of America is going, Donald Trump's the worst president.

Speaker 4 And here you have Arabs somewhere in the world saying, This guy's the best guy, even though he wants to ban all Muslims. Why was that so important for you to do?

Speaker 6 I remember being in the back of a cab in Cairo in 2015 and this guy just being like, he's a strong man. And I was like, whoa, all right.

Speaker 6 I think we're just used to dictators and he just kind of matches the vibe, but he's not what we need. We know he's not.
And I think most of us feel that on a certain, you know, with a certain clarity.

Speaker 6 And I think something that I really wanted to do in making a story about a family we hadn't seen before was I wanted to be clear that I'm not trying to make something that's some sort of like PR hit to make us look good and make it seem like, hey, we deserve to be in this country.

Speaker 6 Give us a shot. Like, look how cute we are on Rami on Hulu.

Speaker 6 That's not a real portrayal.

Speaker 6 That's like propaganda in and of itself.

Speaker 6 You know, for me, it's how do I make something that is challenging my character, that is putting him in situations where he's seeing his own biases, he's seeing his flaws.

Speaker 6 And that really gets highlighted when he goes to Cairo.

Speaker 6 Because I think the show is more about someone trying to fill the gap between who they want to be and who they actually are than it is a show about Muslims.

Speaker 4 I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the breakout stars of your shows, of the show. And one of those characters has to be Steve.

Speaker 4 You know, we meet your best friend in the show who's in a wheelchair and already, you know, from TV and movies we've watched, we think we have an idea of who this person should be.

Speaker 4 But he's like a full-fledged character in that like there's times when he's an asshole, there's times when we like him, times when we don't like him, times when we feel sorry for him, times when we forget that he has a disability.

Speaker 4 Tell me a little bit about how he came to be on the show and why you felt it was so important for him to get his own show.

Speaker 6 Well, in terms of him getting his own show, that was just straight up him bullying me into it.

Speaker 6 He was like, you have the power to produce something now and this is going to be the first thing you do and so that that there's not really there's no option there for me um but i you know i've known steve since we were in third grade you know we grew up five minutes from each other um we went to school together we actually learned how to make things together in high school um and and i think what was really exciting for us in the show is so many times in sitcoms you see an ethnic best friend and in this show we're predominantly with an arab caste that's speaking arabic And we're like, all right, I guess we're going to have to have the white best friend.

Speaker 6 But it was really funny to kind of pitch him as the white best friend. And he also has muscular dystrophy, but really what he is, is he's the white best friend.

Speaker 6 And also in a show where the lead character believes in God, it's really interesting to have someone who doesn't.

Speaker 6 And his reasoning is very rooted in something where he's like, well, why would I believe that if this is how I am?

Speaker 6 And then in making something for him, what's really cool is, again, flipping this idea where, okay, now we have in my show, I think he's disserviced. I love my show.

Speaker 6 And I'm also like, we don't do enough for him. He's just the disabled best friend.
I want to make a show where what would it look like where able-bodied people are the side characters.

Speaker 6 And now we get to flip this again and we get to see a totally, wholly new perspective. And so we're putting together, we're developing the show with Apple.

Speaker 6 And so, yeah, it's a world that we're really excited to crack open.

Speaker 4 Well, I'll say I've thoroughly enjoyed your journey, man, from being a comedian that some people spoke about like in word of mouth to being a golden globe winner and now uh stepping into it once again three-time emmy nominee best director best uh acting and then obviously with mahershula alize makes it three for rami uh congratulations on everything and uh thank you so much for joining us on the show thanks man so so good to see you

Speaker 1 welcome back to the gay show My guest tonight is a comedian whose Netflix stand-up special is called The Vagabond.

Speaker 7 My first name is Muhammad. Oh, quit playing, baby.
No, really. What's your first name? I'm like, that is my first name.
She's like, oh, you ain't gonna get your citizenship, baby.

Speaker 2 Please hold.

Speaker 5 I was like, what the f just happened to me?

Speaker 7 This lady puts me on hold and the whole music was never gonna get it, never gonna get it.

Speaker 7 And then she picked up the phone real quick and goes a woo-woo woo and hangs up on the garage.

Speaker 2 Please welcome more armor.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the show. Oh, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 You know, a lot of the time they say that the best comedy comes from the biggest tragedies.

Speaker 1 And in many ways, your life could be considered by some as being a rolling series of tragedies that you have turned into comedy and you've turned into success.

Speaker 1 A little bit of your story would shock most people out there.

Speaker 2 You are

Speaker 1 someone who came to America as a refugee.

Speaker 2 Correct.

Speaker 1 From Kuwait, correct?

Speaker 7 I was born in Kuwait. I left Kuwait after the first Gulf War.
Right. So I had to call the prequel.

Speaker 7 I went to a really nice private British English school in Kuwait and then we migrated to Houston, Texas.

Speaker 1 And it's a culture shock.

Speaker 7 It's a culture shock. And they put me in ESL class, which is English as a second language class.
And I was the first only guy that spoke English in the class.

Speaker 7 I walk in, all the kids are like, hola, tu era thing.

Speaker 7 At a hint of a British accent, I'm like, sorry, what language are you speaking?

Speaker 7 All of a sudden, this other dude just rolls up out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 He's like, you're weird, dude.

Speaker 9 Why do you talk like that?

Speaker 7 And that was my teacher. You know, it was a very very good

Speaker 7 situation

Speaker 1 This is like here's the thing a lot of the time when you know when we have these conversations in America about like immigrant refugee etc It's always like like a sad story It's always like you know these people who need this place as refuge but but you you really have an interesting story about how your mom was the driving force behind getting your family to the US and starting up a new life.

Speaker 1 Just from your perspective, like

Speaker 1 how would you try to explain to somebody what it is like to be a refugee and how hard it is to come into the United States?

Speaker 7 It's really difficult to explain or put into words the excruciating process of getting your citizenship.

Speaker 7 It took me 20 years

Speaker 7 to get my citizenship. I traveled all over the world doing stand-up comedy without a passport.

Speaker 1 Wait, how do you travel without a passport?

Speaker 7 They give you a United States travel document that is only good for like a year and then you have to, you know, most countries need more of a year validity on your passport to even enter the country.

Speaker 7 It's incredibly complicated. In most cases, I'm not even allowed to go, but I just would go and see what would happen anyway.

Speaker 7 I would get questioned in a lot of different countries.

Speaker 1 So let me understand this.

Speaker 2 You are a

Speaker 1 Palestinian, Kuwaiti Muslim. traveling the world with no passport and you were like, yeah, I want to try to do this in more countries.
Yeah.

Speaker 7 Well, the thing, I'm born in the world.

Speaker 1 How many times did you get stopped? Like, how many times did you get it? Every time.

Speaker 7 No, it was every time. To the point to when I became a citizen and I was re-entering America and he was like, okay, go ahead.
And I was like, no, are you sure? I think there's another.

Speaker 7 There's something else that needs to happen here.

Speaker 2 I feel awkward. Can we just talk for a little while?

Speaker 2 I'm serious, it did.

Speaker 2 I was like, what's going on?

Speaker 7 I was like, no.

Speaker 7 I was like, no, we need to chat a little bit. Like, Japan was my favorite interrogation I ever had.
It was just an hour of them trying to figure out what I did for a living.

Speaker 7 The entire hour, for real, consisted of, so what is your occupation? I was like, oh, I'm a comedian. He's like, comedian? I'm like, yeah, yeah.
I do stand-up comedy.

Speaker 8 I'm like, yeah,

Speaker 7 I do comedy.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I do. I'm a comedian.
Comedian. I'm like, am I being roasted right now?

Speaker 2 What's happening?

Speaker 7 Finally, his buddy walks in, his partner. He's like,

Speaker 7 and he goes, oh, yeah, he's like a Bill Cosby.

Speaker 9 And that's what got me off was Bill Cosby.

Speaker 2 I mean, not literally, not literally.

Speaker 2 So, now

Speaker 1 you, you, you have this really interesting journey growing up in America. It takes 20 years to become a resident.

Speaker 1 Citizen, a citizen, citizen, yeah, sorry, citizen, right? And

Speaker 1 here's the thing that I've always wondered from your perspective.

Speaker 1 You know, do you ever find yourself in a space where because you speak about things that are happening in the U.S., people are like, hey, you should just be grateful to be in the U.S.

Speaker 1 Don't talk about anything that might be going wrong in the U.S. because the U.S.
has welcomed you in?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 7 nah.

Speaker 7 I mean, look, as an Arab-American, Muslim, Palestinian on top of it, you know, someone who's fled war. I was nine years old, so I didn't really know much.

Speaker 7 It's not like, hey, mom, are you sure about Houston? You just had to go.

Speaker 7 And I'm very proud Houstonian, and I grew up in Ailey, which is a really multicultural neighborhood.

Speaker 7 But the thing is, is that growing up that way, I was always, you know, told to not talk about politics, not say anything, because they're going to send us back.

Speaker 2 Wow. That was the whole thing.

Speaker 7 Shh, don't say anything. They're going to send you back.

Speaker 7 Make sure you don't talk about it. I was like, you know, all this stuff that's been festering inside for so many years.
That's why when I started stand-up comedy, it was the perfect outlet for me.

Speaker 7 to allow me to express everything that was happening to me.

Speaker 7 And also, you know, releasing the special and seeing the reaction from so many different people that can relate to the same story that have refugee, that are refugees, that went through a similar process, that are, you know, dealing with the immigration system right now.

Speaker 7 They talk about extreme vetting. I mean, my God, it took us 20 years.
How much more extreme can it be?

Speaker 1 Well, you want it to take forever.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 7 that's the point. And so it's very, very frustrating.
But at this point in time, I'm an American citizen.

Speaker 9 So in your face, bitch, I say whatever I want.

Speaker 7 You become really confident once you get that passport.

Speaker 7 Once I have the passport, like, what you gonna do now?

Speaker 1 They can take it away from you.

Speaker 2 Can they? Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 That was one of the things that people were talking about with Trump. They said, like, oh, you never know what he's going to do.
You never know.

Speaker 1 You know, Trump was floating ideas like, our citizenship's real. Have people lied about them, et cetera, et cetera.
And a lot of people who are refugees or maybe came to the U.S.

Speaker 1 as immigrants had this connection with Trump where they were worried. You had a different connection with Trump, which is one of the reasons you came into prominence.

Speaker 1 Really insane story where you found yourself on a plane seated next to Eric Trump.

Speaker 2 That's, yeah.

Speaker 7 You know, being a frequent flyer helps sometimes.

Speaker 10 I didn't know this was going to happen.

Speaker 7 Like I was upgrading to first class and I ended up sitting next to Eric Trump. I didn't even know I was going to get upgraded.
Because I put my name on the list way too late.

Speaker 7 You know, comedians are, you know, the best procrastinators in the best. Yep.

Speaker 2 Yep, Yep, yep.

Speaker 7 And I didn't know I was going to get upgraded, much less sit next to Eric. But I do know one thing: the lady that upgraded me is probably a Clinton supporter, you know, let's be real.

Speaker 7 She was probably sitting there like, oh, Eric Trump is on my flight. Okay.

Speaker 2 Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.

Speaker 8 I don't know why she has a mustache, but okay.

Speaker 7 Oh, there's an empty seat next to Eric. Let me take a look at this upgrade list, see who's standing by patiently here.

Speaker 2 Oh, Mohamed Mustafa Emma. Upgrade.

Speaker 2 Oh, dude.

Speaker 1 Can I tell you, man, I've seen your stand-up on the road, your amazing opening for Dave Chappelle. The special is truly phenomenal.
I tell everyone to go out and watch it.

Speaker 1 Thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you so much for watching.
I hope to see you again.

Speaker 1 The Vega Bond is currently available on Netflix. Please go and watch it.
Mohammed, everybody. We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 My guest tonight is a Grammy nominated hip-hop artist whose new album is called Jungle Rules.

Speaker 2 Please welcome French Montana.

Speaker 2 Welcome to the show.

Speaker 10 How are you doing and I?

Speaker 1 We're doing good man.

Speaker 2 We're doing real good.

Speaker 1 We're doing real good, but not as good as you are doing. Congratulations.
Your single unforgettable. Currently number five on the billboard charts.
It's going up.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 Congratulations on that. Thank you.

Speaker 10 We just got that news today.

Speaker 1 You have a story that's more interesting than most, not just because of what you do and how successful you become, but because of where you came from. You were born and raised in Morocco, right?

Speaker 1 You moved to the U.S. when you were 13 years old.
Yes. And then got into hip-hop.
Like, how?

Speaker 1 Like, is it just a universal language?

Speaker 8 No, honestly.

Speaker 10 Honestly, I tell everybody this, you know, I feel like music is the only language that people speak in the whole world.

Speaker 10 Not even knowing English before I came here. Just loving music,

Speaker 10 loving the rush I get when I hear it. It's totally different from

Speaker 10 making it if I just knew English and knew like, you know.

Speaker 1 I hear what you're saying. What were you listening to when you were a kid before you could speak English?

Speaker 10 I was listening to Shep Husni. And I was listening to Moroccan music.

Speaker 8 Right.

Speaker 1 Was there any American hip-hop you were listening to? Because I know like my cousin.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I was.

Speaker 1 Of course. Like, my cousin was a

Speaker 1 huge Tupac fan, but he couldn't speak English.

Speaker 1 So then my cousin would walk around in one of the places in South Africa, a place called Zanin, right? And he was like, he was a gangster in his mind.

Speaker 1 And so we'd be like pushing a wheelbarrow going to the river. This is no joke.
So we'd be pushing a wheelbarrow to the river, and the whole way he'd be walking, he'd be like,

Speaker 1 and then I would say to him and be like, wow, your English got really good, Norman. And he'd be like,

Speaker 2 and it's the weirdest thing.

Speaker 1 Do you, like, was there like an American artist that you listened to even though you didn't understand?

Speaker 10 Tupac had a gift of speaking to Africans. I swear he spoke to everybody that was like, let them speak English.

Speaker 1 Tupac had a gift of speaking to Africans.

Speaker 2 I don't think anyone has ever said that in the history of language.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about what you've been doing with this album. You know, we saw you performing at the BET Awards, and you had on stage with you a trooper dante.
Troop

Speaker 10 Triplet

Speaker 10 kids, right?

Speaker 1 From Uganda.

Speaker 1 Now, you went out to Uganda, but I still struggle to understand the full story. How on earth do you end up on stage performing with Ugandan kids in the United States?

Speaker 10 It goes back to African music. When I was like, you know, I usually just go and like, listen, keep up to date.
Right. I just saw this video of these kids, you know, and when I seen it,

Speaker 2 I just fell in love with it.

Speaker 10 I never seen nobody dance like that. You know, so when I'm watching it, I'm like, why are these kids dancing like this? Then I found out they don't have no TVs.

Speaker 1 That's amazing.

Speaker 10 So all their moves was original. Like they created their moves and they all lived together.
There's 20 of them. They all lost their parents.
So let me tell you something.

Speaker 10 I don't know why I did it, but I did it.

Speaker 1 And you went on to fall in love with Uganda.

Speaker 2 Like, you didn't just.

Speaker 10 That was the best decision I've ever made in my career.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because I know many people will go to Africa and be like, oh, I loved it so much. And then it's done.
But you have now stayed in touch with Uganda, with the people.

Speaker 1 You're involved in a project now with Mama Hope, I think. Yeah, Mama Hope.

Speaker 8 Shout out to Mama Hope.

Speaker 2 Yeah, what is Mama Hope about?

Speaker 10 Nonprofit organization. Shout out to Global Citizen.
These are people that help people around the world

Speaker 10 to

Speaker 10 make a better place for children and mothers. I feel like every mother and every child

Speaker 2 should have.

Speaker 10 you know, the right care, you know.

Speaker 10 And ever since I've been involved with it, man, it feels really great. So when I got there, I saw a bunch of beautiful kids just standing outside smiling in that clinic.

Speaker 10 You know, so when I came out, I said, I got to come back here and just do something, you know.

Speaker 10 But honestly, me building that with, and shout out to the, I can't take all the credit, shout out to the weekend, he helped.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, yeah, because this is, this is honestly,

Speaker 1 this is honestly one of my favorite stories because you said, I'm going to help build up this medical facility, get more people to be treated.

Speaker 1 I I think it went up from treating, having the capacity to treat 50s, now going to 20,000.

Speaker 2 It's like 300,000.

Speaker 10 It's like 300,000 mothers, yeah.

Speaker 1 And what I found amazing was you were like, I'm going to donate the money. And then the weekend was like, oh, I'm also going to drop a hundred grand on this.

Speaker 1 And I was like, is this going to be like the new like thing in hip-hop? Yes, where it's like guys, guys, are going to be bragging. Instead of bottles in the club,

Speaker 2 I got a hospital in Africa, a hospital in Africa.

Speaker 11 I got it.

Speaker 2 You could make it a thing.

Speaker 2 You could make it a thing.

Speaker 10 Yeah, I hope so.

Speaker 10 I hope so. Yeah, definitely.
Definitely shot it for the weekend. And ever since then, you know, we almost, it went from two rooms, now it's almost 50 rooms.
Wow.

Speaker 8 Wow. Thank God for it.
Yo, man.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you so much for what you're doing.

Speaker 1 Congratulations on the music.

Speaker 2 We wish you the best.

Speaker 1 Mama Hope, check it out. Jungle Rules is available now.
And for more information about the unforgettable movement, go to mamahope.org. French Montana, everybody.
We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 My guest tonight, a scholar of religions and author. His latest book is the bestseller Zealot, The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.
Please welcome back to the program. Reza Aslan.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 Reza, I just want to be clear. You're a Muslim.

Speaker 2 Why would you write a book on the founder of Christianity?

Speaker 11 This is my secret Muslim plan to destroy Christianity.

Speaker 2 I was just reading that. Do you remember? I don't know if you remember this.
You went on Fox and that lady was asking you those questions, and I was just watching that, like, oh my God!

Speaker 2 Press is going to strangle. There's probably a lot.

Speaker 11 I did okay.

Speaker 2 You did wonderful.

Speaker 2 It was incredible. And the book is so good.

Speaker 11 Thank you. Yeah, the perfect Christmas gift for your Jewish friends.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 There's nothing we like better around this time of year.

Speaker 2 Nice picture of him looking judgmentally at us. Yeah.
Yeah, right, right. Yeah, nice menorah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Hey, enjoy your patana latkes.

Speaker 2 How are you doing otherwise?

Speaker 2 These are very exciting times for Iran.

Speaker 11 Absolutely. I mean, this nuclear deal has really changed the atmosphere in Iran.

Speaker 11 So much excitement over it. Frankly, a little too much excitement over it, because it's not really that big of a deal insofar as sanctions relief or helping the economy.

Speaker 11 But whereas here in the United States, nobody talks about this deal as possibly laying the groundwork for some kind of future normalization. That's all they talk about in Iran.

Speaker 11 In fact, it's created these two camps, like a reconciliation camp and an isolationist camp. And right now, the reconciliation camp has all the momentum.

Speaker 11 The isolationists, particularly in the military, are still there. They're a little bit muted.
They're waiting for this thing to collapse so that they can attack the Rouhani administration.

Speaker 11 And listen, frankly, the Congress might give them that opportunity.

Speaker 2 How much

Speaker 2 power does Rouhani, you know, we saw the eight years of Ahmed Dinejad. We saw the Green Revolution where Mousavi appeared to have defeated Ahmed Dinejad electorally.

Speaker 2 It seemed like there was shenanigans, that's a Yiddish word for

Speaker 2 manipulated election.

Speaker 2 There were were tremendous protests in the streets, tremendous violence. This movement is sort of driven underground.
Rouhani is considered in that sort of Musabi camp, yes?

Speaker 2 More of a reformist.

Speaker 11 Yeah, he's a bit of a moderate. He's got some reformist tendencies.

Speaker 2 But does he have any real power or does it all still rest with the supreme leader? And if Ibhamenei says that he's in the isolationist camp, are they in the isolationist camp? Yes.

Speaker 11 I mean, the simple answer is that all the power and the only voice that really matters is the supreme leader's voice. But it's much more more complex than that.

Speaker 11 There's a very robust civic infrastructure in Iran, and the president has the opportunity to actually make some fundamental changes.

Speaker 11 What Rouhani has going for him is that so far, Khamenei, the supreme leader, is supporting this.

Speaker 11 I think that's why the reconciliation camp has this great momentum on its side and why the isolationists are keeping, for the most part, quiet, because if you disagree with this deal, then you're disagreeing with the supreme leader.

Speaker 11 But really, the issue, again,

Speaker 11 and I hate to just bring this up, rests with the U.S. Congress.

Speaker 2 Oh, I thought you were going to go to Jews again. I thought that.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I thought that's where we were going here, and then I was going to have to again, once again, say, we're actually quite pleasant when you get to know us.

Speaker 11 No, what I was going to say was, this is the problem, is that, you know, everybody in the U.S. keeps talking about how, well, well, can we trust Iran to hold up its end of the bargain?

Speaker 2 That's not the problem. Well, because in this country we have an isolationist camp, and we have a camp.
I mean, it's similar. You're playing to a very particular,

Speaker 2 much more rigid base here that won't allow, you know, you saw

Speaker 2 the kerfuffle that occurred when Obama just shook Raul Castro's hand, let alone trying to forge some kind of way forward with Iran.

Speaker 11 Look, far be it from me to suggest that Congress is full of petty children presiding over a cesspool of wasted space.

Speaker 2 So you do watch our show. Yeah.
You do watch.

Speaker 2 But yes.

Speaker 11 You can't help but feel that they are actively trying to scuttle this deal. I mean the negotiation is pretty clear.

Speaker 11 In exchange for Iran freezing and rolling back its nuclear program, which they've done, we will release a little bit of their frozen assets and also promise not to engage in any new sanctions.

Speaker 11 This bill that Congress is trying to pass to create new sanctions is a violation of the agreement.

Speaker 11 In fact, the foreign minister of Iran, a pretty Western-friendly, you know, moderate guy, has said, if this thing passes, that's the end of the deal. It's a deal breaker.

Speaker 11 And it just, you can't help but feel that this Congress is full of people who are less interested in sort of the good of the country than in their own political good.

Speaker 11 They want to go back to Missoula, Montana, and

Speaker 11 tell the 3,000 people who voted them into office that they were tough on Iran and a friend to Israel.

Speaker 11 And it might, you know, it's a good, it'll get them re-elected for two more years of a fairly cushy job. I mean, you get paid to do nothing.

Speaker 2 Yes. You know.

Speaker 11 But it's a danger to the country.

Speaker 2 No, and I think, but when you look at it, there are

Speaker 2 certain

Speaker 2 absolute boogeymen that are out there, the United Nations, Iran, and not for no reason.

Speaker 2 There are certain things that Iran is doing. They are bad actors in certain fields of play and all that.
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 But if we don't engage these countries and try and build more productive relationships, I think we're beginning to learn that

Speaker 2 pure sanctions-driven consequences or invading them and trying to hold the territory until a government arises that likes us is not maybe the answer.

Speaker 11 No, and in fact, what cracks me up is that the entire purpose of these sanctions was to get Iran to the negotiating table. Well, guess what? It worked.
They're at the negotiating table.

Speaker 11 So, what are we doing now? Sanctioning them as a punishment for coming to the negotiating table? And in any case, these sanctions work because they were international sanctions.

Speaker 11 They worked because we got the Europeans and Russia and even China to go along with them.

Speaker 11 If this sanctions law passes in Congress, then it is as clear a message to our allies that this is all a joke for us, that we're not really serious about this, and the entire sanctions regime will fall apart.

Speaker 11 And guess what? Iran will continue to enrich uranium to its heart's content.

Speaker 2 And they will erode it anyway. Yeah, absolutely.
Unbelievable. Stick around for a little bit.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I want to talk about a couple other things. Zella is on the bookshelves now.
Reza Aslan, ladies and gentlemen.

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