Heretics | Andrew Gold - TopPodcast.com

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42: Free Speech - Andrew Doyle (Titania McGrath / Jonathan Pie) Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

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_ok http://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.

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41: Joshua Baker: I'm Not a Monster (BBC/PBS) Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

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/1540251892 https://www.instagram.com/joshbakerfilm https://www.twitter.com/joshbakerfilm
Andrew Links

http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://patreon.com/andrewgold http://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.

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40: Wrongly Convicted: Justin Brooks & California Innocence Project Feb 15, 2021

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://andrewgoldpodcast.com

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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39: The Pastor Who Strips: Nikole Mitchell Feb 08, 2021

Show notes

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://nikolemitchell.com/

OnlyFans.com/nikolemitchell

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://andrewgoldpodcast.com

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.

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38: Nimko Ali: Surviving Female Genital Mutilation Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

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:
Patreon.com/andrewgold

twitter.com/andrewgold_ok

instagram.com/andrewgold_ok

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.

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37: Professor Dame Sue Black: Forensic Anthropologist Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

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.

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36: Dr. Stuart Farrimond: How to Live your Best Life Jan 18, 2021

Show notes

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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35: Ex-Muslim Yasmine Mohammed - #FreeFromHijab and why liberals treat Islam differently Jan 11, 2021

Show notes

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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34: How we can cure ageing and live forever: Dr. Andrew Steele Jan 04, 2021

Show notes

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.c o.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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33: Stephen Knight: Woke culture, atheism and Ricky Gervais Dec 28, 2020

Show notes

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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