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Welcome to The Diverse Bookshelf. I’m Samia Aziz, celebrating the power of literature and the voices of authors and change makers from the global majority. Join me as we explore the stories that inspire, connect, and transform our world. Each week I interview an inspiring guest about a whole host of themes and issues while focusing on diverse literature.
Let’s uncover the stories that truly matter—together.
Episode | Date |
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Ramadan Reflections: Yasmin Stannard on faith, grief and Amani's legacy
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Mar 14, 2025 |
Preethi Nair on carving your own path, aging and unravelling
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Mar 11, 2025 |
Ramadan Reflections: Lianne on faith, fitness & body image
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Mar 07, 2025 |
Omar El Akkad on Gaza, genocide, privilege, and historical amnesia
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Mar 03, 2025 |
Huda Fahmy on growing up, divorce, mental health & friendship
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Feb 25, 2025 |
Salma Ibrahim on the lives we could have lived, friendship, and identity
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Feb 18, 2025 |
Salena Godden on love, grief, memory and identity
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Feb 10, 2025 |
Azeem Rafiq on racism in cricket, grief and mental health
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Feb 03, 2025 |
Aube Rey Lescure on Shanghai's privileged expat world, language and identity
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Jan 27, 2025 |
Fatin Abbas on Sudan, objectivity & unrecognised history
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Jan 20, 2025 |
Ep92: Wiz Wharton on untold stories, sisters, belonging and feelings of shame & guilt
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Oct 28, 2024 |
Ep91: Mahvish Ahmed on home, authenticity, mental health & identity
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Oct 21, 2024 |
Ep90: Mahmoud Muna on stories from Gaza, hope & the future
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Oct 07, 2024 |
Ep89: Pragya Agarwal on motherhood, infertility & being a woman
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Sep 30, 2024 |
Ep88: Payzee Mahmod on finding her purpose, child marriage & loss
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Sep 23, 2024 |
Ep87: Jamaica Kincaid on her life, writing & our Earth
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Sep 16, 2024 |
Ep86: Tasneem Abdur-Rashid on writing romance, female friendships & family dynamics
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Sep 09, 2024 |
Ep85: Ilan Pappé on the 1948 Nakba, speaking out & the future of Palestine
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Sep 02, 2024 |
Ep84: Safia Elhillo on poetry, language, friendship & Sudan
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Jun 25, 2024 |
Ep83: Taiba Bajar on rewiring the brain and unlocking autism
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Jun 18, 2024 |
Ep82: Saima Mir on strong women, crime, vengeance & morality
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Jun 11, 2024 |
Ep81: Susan Muaddi Darraj on loss of home, belonging & Palestinian Christian communities
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Jun 04, 2024 |
Ep80: Vanessa Chan on the Japanese occupation of Malaysia, big families & characters with agency
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May 28, 2024 |
Ep79: Ishi Robinson on Jamaica, colonial legacies, race & class
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May 21, 2024 |
Ep78: Jassa Ahluwalia on mixed heritage & embracing who you are
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May 14, 2024 |
Ep77: Reem Gaafar on Sudan, motherhood & loss
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May 07, 2024 |
Ep76: Shaimaa Abulebda on life in Gaza
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Apr 30, 2024 |
Ep75: Nigar Alam on Partition, childhood friendships and displacement
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Apr 23, 2024 |
Ep74: Ela Lee on privilege, children of immigrants & identity
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Apr 16, 2024 |
Ep73: Dana Dajani on poetry, Palestine & storytelling
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Apr 09, 2024 |
Ep72: Sofia Rehman on translation, dialogue & Aisha (ra)
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Apr 02, 2024 |
Ep71: Matthew Robinson on storytelling, film-making and the charity sector
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Mar 26, 2024 |
Ep70: Sarah Joseph on justice, slowing down & hope
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Mar 19, 2024 |
Ep69: Aliyah Umm Raiyaan on the power of du'a
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Mar 12, 2024 |
Ep68: Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan on shedding external gazes and turning to God
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Mar 05, 2024 |
Ep67: Sairish Hussain on grandparents, Partition & understanding the past
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Feb 27, 2024 |
Ep66: Nadeine Asbali on being visibly Muslim in Britain
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Feb 20, 2024 |
Ep65: Rowan Hisayo Buchanan on sleep-watching, family & mixed race identity
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Feb 13, 2024 |
Ep64: Aamina Ahmad on Pakistani literature, class & society
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Feb 06, 2024 |
Ep63: Sim Kern on anti-zionsim, anti-semitism, Palestinian literature & climate change
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Jan 30, 2024 |
Ep62: Sheela Banerjee on the history, power, meaning & importance of our names
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Jan 23, 2024 |
Ep61: Azad Essa on India & Israel; Kashmir & Palestine
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Jan 16, 2024 |
Ep60: Celina Baljeet Basra: on migrant workers, food & talking to imaginary audiences
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Jan 09, 2024 |
Ep59: Isabella Hammad on Palestinian identity, art and the power of words
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Jan 02, 2024 |
Ep58: End of 2023 Q & A - Samia & Wasim
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Dec 26, 2023 |
Ep57: Assia Belgacem on Algerian & Muslim identity in France
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Dec 19, 2023 |
Ep56: Rashid Khalidi on the hundred years' war on Palestine
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Dec 12, 2023 |
Ep55: Etaf Rum on literary empathy, performative reading & Palestine
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Dec 05, 2023 |
Ep54: Huma Qureshi on sisters, representation & borrowing from real life
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Nov 28, 2023 |
Ep53: Sahar Mustafah on Palestine, representation & privilege
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Nov 23, 2023 |
Ep52: Dina Nayeri on the truth & who gets believed
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Nov 14, 2023 |
Ep51: Ola Abou & Ilham Essalih on exploring Palestinian & Syrian freedom struggles through literature
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Oct 24, 2023 |
Ep50: Etaf Rum on Palestinian stories, intergeneration trauma & representation
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Oct 11, 2023 |
Ep49: Lucy Fulford on understanding the Ugandan Asian expulsion
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Oct 03, 2023 |
Ep48: Kevin Jared Hosein on morally ambiguous characters & 1940's Trinidad
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Sep 26, 2023 |
Ep47: Laila Woozeer on mixed identity, belonging and community
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Sep 19, 2023 |
Ep46: Jaspreet Kaur on being brown girls
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Sep 12, 2023 |
Ep45: Samia Aziz reflecting on one year of the show
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Aug 29, 2023 |
Ep44: Faiza Shaheen on the myth of social mobility & the future
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Aug 22, 2023 |
Ep43: Christy Lefteri on the environment, family and hope
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Aug 15, 2023 |
Ep42: Hafsa Lodi on modesty & the modest fashion movement
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Aug 08, 2023 |
Ep41: Chika Unigwe on rage-inducing characters and systems of oppression
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Aug 01, 2023 |
Ep40: Parini Shroff on rage, justice and patriarchy
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Jul 25, 2023 |
Ep39: Huda Fahmy on humour, family and everyday life
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Jul 18, 2023 |
Ep38: Hiba Noor Khan on stories for children and forgotten histories
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Jul 11, 2023 |
Ep37: Sara Nisha Adams on hope, uplifting stories and our names
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Jul 04, 2023 |
Ep36: Krystle Zara Appiah on whether love is enough
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Jun 27, 2023 |
Ep35: Eleanor Shearer on freedom, the end of slavery and storytelling
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Jun 20, 2023 |
Ep34: Marjan Kamali on Iran, love and representation
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Jun 13, 2023 |
Ep33: Mai Al-Nakib on unlasting homes
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Jun 06, 2023 |
Ep32: Mona Hajjar Halaby on returning home to Palestine
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May 30, 2023 |
Ep31: Farah Karim-Cooper on Shakespeare, race and the future
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May 23, 2023 |
Ep30: Priscilla Morris on the Siege of Sarajevo
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May 16, 2023 |
Ep29: Layla AlAmmar on memory, trauma and how stories are told
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May 09, 2023 |
Ep28: Fatima Manji on discovering Britain's hidden heritage
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May 02, 2023 |
Ep27: Cecile Pin on Wandering Souls, Vietnamese history and telling stories
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Apr 25, 2023 |
Ep26 - Taher Adel on poetry, creativity and the names of Allah
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Apr 18, 2023 |
Ep25: Suma Din on the soul, the experiences of women and gratitude
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Apr 11, 2023 |
Ep24: Aliyah Umm Raiyaan on forgiveness, being present & knowing Allah
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Apr 04, 2023 |
Ep23: Sofia Rehman on the mother of believers, justice and prophetic love & guidance
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Mar 28, 2023 |
Ep22: Ruzina Ahad on having the courage to dream big & the power of prayer
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Mar 21, 2023 |
Ep21: Sophia Thakur on stories that came before us, love and the seasons of life
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Mar 14, 2023 |
Ep20: Leila Aboulela on historical fiction, recentering women and River Spirit
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Mar 08, 2023 |
Ep19: Aiwanose Odafen on complicated relationships, love and being a woman
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Feb 28, 2023 |
Ep18: Mikki Kendall on Hood Feminism
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Feb 21, 2023 |
Ep17: Abi Daré on what it means to have a louding voice & the power of education
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Feb 14, 2023 |
Ep16: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ on power, love, loss, politics and womanhood
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Feb 07, 2023 |
Ep15: Sukh Ojla on feeling left behind, mental health, identity & speaking your truth
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Jan 31, 2023 |
Ep14: Louise Hare on the Windrush generation, passing and murder mysteries
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Jan 24, 2023 |
Ep13: Jyoti Patel on family, language, mental health and where we're from
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Jan 17, 2023 |
Ep12: Melissa Fu on finding our own peach blossom spring
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Dec 28, 2022 |
Ep11: Tasneem Abdur-Rashid on finding love, debut novels and the stories we wish we had while growing up
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Dec 14, 2022 |
Ep10: Jendella Benson on gentrification, family, and all things South London
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Nov 16, 2022 |
Ep9: Sabba Khan on art, words and who we truly are
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Oct 19, 2022 |
Ep8: Shahd Alshammari on reframing the narrative of chronic illness and disability
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Oct 05, 2022 |
Ep7: Zoulfa Katouh on stories from Syria
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Sep 21, 2022 |
Ep6: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on retelling history
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Sep 14, 2022 |
Ep5: Noreen Nasim on the Asian expulsion from Uganda
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Aug 31, 2022 |
Ep4: Soraya Chemaly on reclaiming women's anger
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Aug 17, 2022 |
Ep3: Sairish Hussain on the importance of good representation
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Aug 03, 2022 |
Ep1: Christy Lefteri on the Power of Storytelling
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Jul 18, 2022 |
Ep2: Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan on Uprooting Islamaphobia
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Jul 18, 2022 |