Sultans and Sneakers

Those of us who are South Asian certainly know about the matchmaker auntie or "Rishta Auntie" as is known in some circles.  Netflix's recent show "Indian Matchmaking" gave us a glimpse into this world and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Vyasar Ganesan who was one of the main characters from the series.  Vyasar is a college counselor and writer based out of Austin, Texas who engages the help of master matchmaker Sima Taparia from Mumbai to find him a spouse.  I chop it up with Vyasar about relationships, various angles on matchmaking, some insights on the show, and the stigma of being a 6 foot 7 inch brown guy.   You can check out Vyasar's work at https://vyasarwrites.com/ and follow him on Twitter at @NotVyasarG  "Indian Matchmaking" is currently airing on Netflix and you can view the trailer at https://youtu.be/aZS2KbLAy5Y Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on my various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  I have a website now as well and you can access that at:  https://sultansandsneakers.com/ You can also follow the show on our respective social media: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

The recent killing of George Floyd and the tension of race in America has brought to light many difficult conversations.  Colorism is an issue that plagues both the African-American and South Asian communities.  To discuss this issue, I brought on Sabria Mills from "The Dope Muslim Woman Podcast" and Rumana Sultana, a former makeup artist who has worked in marketing for some major global beauty brands.   You can check out "The Dope Muslim Woman Podcast" wherever you listen to podcasts and engage with Sabria on IG at https://www.instagram.com/thedopemuslimwoman_podcast/ Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  I have a website now as well and you can access that at:  https://sultansandsneakers.com/ You can also follow the show on our respective social media: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

Dropping a special bonus episode on the podcast apps with my co-host from "The Mad Mamluks", Shaykh Amir Saeed. This show discusses the importance of networking and how it connected Shaykh Amir with an old friend after almost 20 years.   Note:  Please excuse some audio clipping near the end; tried to edit as much out as I could.   Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  I have a website now as well and you can access that at:  https://sultansandsneakers.com/ You can also follow the show on our respective social media: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

For Episode 22 of the podcast, I sat down with Maarten Van Elst.  Maarten is a vitality coach and personal trainer and the founder of Muslim Fit. Maarten helps professionals create balance and build up their mental, physical and spiritual strength and resilience. He resides in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In this episode we discuss what it means to be Dutch, how he learned about and embraced Islam and his outlook on discipline, health and wellness. You can follow Maarten on Instagram (@muslim.fit), Twitter (@muslimfit) and Facebook at www.facebook.com/muslimfit. His website is www.muslim-fit.nl/  Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  I have a website now as well and you can access that at:  https://sultansandsneakers.com/ You can also follow the show on our respective social media: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

For Episode 21, I sit down with an old friend, Omar Usman.  In my personal circle of friends, he is the guy that probably has the best reading habits.  Omar is a normal person like most of us; he has a day job, family, household responsibilities, hobbies, distractions, etc.  However he is always managing to get through books while also absorbing the material in the books.  I hope this episode is fruitful for anyone looking to start a reading habit.  As this channel is all about exploring the "why" behind people's beliefs, reading is a great tool for people to build their own world views and explore other world views.   You can learn more about Omar at https://www.ibnabeeomar.com/ Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  I have a website now as well and you can access that at:  https://sultansandsneakers.com/ You can also follow the show on our respective social media: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

In Episode 20 of the podcast, I wanted to get an insight on Dr. Jonathan Brown's back story and we ended up having an interesting discussion about his family history, his personal challenges growing up, and how his parents let him watch the most explicit movies as a child. Dr. Jonathan Brown is the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He received his BA in History from Georgetown University in 2000 and his doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2006. Dr. Brown has studied and conducted research in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Iran. His book publications include The Canonization of al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon (Brill, 2007); Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oneworld, 2009; expanded edition 2017); Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2011), which was selected for the National Endowment for the Humanities' Bridging Cultures Muslim Journeys Bookshelf; Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenges and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy (Oneworld, 2014), which was named one of the top books on religion in 2014 by the Independent; and Slavery and Islam (Oneworld, 2019). He has published articles in the fields of Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Sufism, Arabic lexical theory and Pre-Islamic poetry and is the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law. Dr. Brown’s current research interests include Islamic legal reform and a translation of Sahih al-Bukhari. He is also the Director of Research at the Yaqeen Institute. You can learn more about him on his website www.drjonathanbrown.com Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  Sultans and Sneakers social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

Wrapping up our quick 2 part series on the downfall of Nini's Deli with Christian Rangel(Twitter: @crangel).  Christian wrote the excellent piece highlighting the timeline of Nini's demise (linked below).  He has known Nini's owner Juan-Elias Riesco since 2013 and offers a unique perspective on the situation.   Link to Christian's article on Nini's:  https://medium.com/@crangel7/on-ninis-deli-537b5ee7023a Link to Christian's blog:  www.rangeldoesnotexist.com  Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  Sultans and Sneakers social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

On May 30, 2020 Nini's Deli had its highest revenue day in all of 2020.  The famous restaurant had not only survived the COVID-19 pandemic but actually grew their business.  Less than a week later, they closed their doors for the last time on June 5.  This is an analysis of how the most popular restaurant in the state of Illinois (according to Yelp) and the No. 33 overall in the USA completely collapsed due to a combination of their political and religious positions and a botched Public Relations effort.  To join me in speaking about this are two local Chicago guys, Nabeel Khan (IG: @deceptikhan) and Adil Rahman (IG:  @Bearded_Servant).   A story that is both fascinating and sad at the same time.  This is Part 1 of a 2 part series covering the situation.   Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  Sultans and Sneakers social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

Episode 17 of the podcast is a discussion around the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.  I bring in AbdulRahim and Dallas Wright for this episode.  AbdulRahim is a Palestinian from the Bay Area.  He is a graduate of the University of Oxford and has a background in theatre an linguistics.  Currently working in the tech industry, he has many years of on the ground experience with social justice activism.  Dallas is a Chicago native who has a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.A. from DePaul University in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.  He has over 6 years of experience in the city's non profit sector.  He spent several years working at Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) to support the health needs of South Side families.  He is currently in a senior research position at Northwestern University.  In this podcast we discussed issues related to ally-ship, antiBlackness in non-white minorities, Critical Race Theory, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the effects of colonialism.   Some resources that are recommended by AbdulRahim and Dallas to understand race relations are as follows: "Black Skin, White Masks" - Frantz Fanon "Invisible Man" - Ralph Ellison "Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering" - Dr. Sherman Jackson " How to be an AntiRacist" - Ibrahim X. Kendi "New Jim Crow" - Michelle Alexander Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  Sultans and Sneakers social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr

Another bonus episode lined up for the Internets..that's 2 in 3 days if you're keeping track.  For this show I sat down with my good friend Sufyan Al-Andalusi to chat about our favorite Turkish drama, Diriliş: Ertuğrul.  We also touched on a few other topics centered around family and how it's like for him navigating faith while being a religious minority in his own family.  We recorded this episode the day before Eid-ul Adha in 2019.   To learn more about Sufyan, please check out "The Mad Mamluks" episode with him.  You can access that show at https://themadmamluks.com/ep-144-under-the-spell-of-the-crescent-moon-shaykh-sufyan-al-andalusi/ Please continue to support Sultans and Sneakers by following me on our various social media channels, leaving a 5 star review and letting your friends know about the show.  Sultans and Sneakers social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/SultansandSneakers Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SultansandSneakers Twitter:  @SultansNSnkrs TikTok:  @sultans_and_sneakers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC8nN9RSnLs08M87yEZppwaA Mahin's personal social media links: IG:  www.instagram.com/mahinthepodcaster Twitter:  @MahinDaPodcastr