The Many Questions of Ramy Youssef

Religion says, “you’ve got questions, and I’ve got answers. Art says, “you’ve got answers, and I’ve got questions.” 

At the intersection of those two statements, we get the show Ramy from the comedian Ramy Youssef. His work brings to life a new landscape in American comedy: being your spiritual self in public. To be one’s spiritual self in public is to grapple with all questions that exist in the space between who you are and who you want to be, and what happens when your journey to answer those questions only presents more questions and less answers. Over the course of the show, we talk to Ramy about his journey to not only asking questions close to his heart, but how he got there, and why that was so important to showcase in his work.

We also unpack some of the show's themes, what it means to be an imperfect protagonist, creating a spiritual autobiography, and much more. We discuss different elements of the show and its characters with two people who helped bring them to life: writers on the show, Azhar Usman and Amir Sulaiman. 

After listening to this episode, we hope you walk away with a better understanding of not only who Ramy is, what his show is about, and what questions he’s asking, but with a desire to interrogate your own questions, too. 

Written by Imran Ali Malik, Zahra Parekh

Assoc. Producers: Farooq Chaudhry, Adam Lotfi

Music & Engineering: Adam Lotfi and Imran Ali Malik

Special Thanks to Asma Saud, Najib Aminy, ID-PR

Artwork by Masood Tahir

 

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