Ark Radio Podcasts

Dede Fairchild Ruggles is Professor and Debra L. Mitchell Chair in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she also holds appointments in Art History, Architecture, Medieval Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Gender and Women's Studies. She is the author/editor of numerous books on Islamic gardens, architectural patronage, and heritage, has appeared in many television documentaries about Islamic art, and is current art and architecture field editor for the multi-volume third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. She will be discussing her book Tree of Pearls.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, historian and traveller, was born in 1961 and educated at Clifton College and Oxford University. His books include a travel trilogy pursuing the fourteenth-century wanderer, Ibn Battutah, around three continents. As well as being named by Newsweek as one of the twelve finest travel writers of the past hundred years, his editions and translations of early Arabic texts have further enriched cross-cultural understanding. Among other documentaries, Tim presented and co-wrote the major BBC TV series Travels with a Tangerine, which ʻhas the off-the-cuff feel of Michael Palin at his very bestʼ. He will be discussing Travels with a Tangerine at the Iqra Book Festival.

Etsko Schuitema is a renowned business consultant who has authored numerous books including 'Leadership' and 'The Millenium Discourses'. He is a senior partner in Schuitema, a transformational consultancy operating worldwide. He will be discussing his book "The Two Sandals."

Luqman specialised in the Islamic sciences and the languages (Arabic, Persian and Urdu), literature and cultures of the Middle East and the Indian Sub-continent. In 1997, Luqman co-founded Khayaal, the first English language professional theatre company dedicated to the exploration of classic Muslim literature through contemporary stagecraft as a means of fostering greater intercultural and interfaith engagement and understanding. He continues to serve as Khayaal's chief conceptualist and creative producer with his latest work being Edhi Means Love, the first digital biopic on the life of Abdul Sattar Edhi in English. He will be discussing the book "Riding a Donkey Backwards."

Sumayya Usmani is an award-winning author of two cookbooks about Pakistani cuisine; she is also a food educator. Sumayya was born and raised in Karachi and left a legal career to follow her passion for writing. She's known as the go-to expert of Pakistani cuisine as dubbed by BBC Good Food. Sumayya won the Scottish Book Trust Award in 2021 for work on her next book, a narrative non-fiction memoir which is to be published in 2023. Sumayya lives in Glasgow.

Carla Power is an author and journalist. Her first book, If the Oceans Were Ink, a memoir of studying the Quran with Sheikh Akram Nadwi, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, with years in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Egypt and Italy. She began her career as a writer and foreign correspondent for Newsweek Magazine, and since then, her reportage and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Time, The New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy, Vogue, Vanity Fair and The Guardian. She lives with her family in East Sussex. She will be discussing her new book "Home, Land, Security."

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist, and translator. He was born in 1968 in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and now divides his time between Toronto and Karachi. He will be discussing "The Adventures of Amir Hamza."

Ehsan Masood is a science journalist and the Editor of the research funding-news service, Research Professional. He teaches science and innovation policy at Imperial College and is author of several books, including The Great Invention: The Story of GDP and the Making and Unmaking of the Modern World (Pegasus, 2016) and Science and Islam: A History (Icon, 2009), a tie-in for a BBC television and radio series. He has also made a number of documentaries for BBC radio, including Science: Right or Left, which explores the reasons why centre-right politicians are turning away from the scientific consensus. Ehsan has previously worked as a writer and editor at Nature and New Scientist. He will be discussing his book "Science and Islam."

Yasser Latif Hamdani is a Human Rights Barrister and author based in Pakistan. Mr. Hamdani was completed his undergrad training at Rutgers University, US, law degrees from Punjab University and University of Management Sciences in Pakistan and was called to the bar at Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn in London. He has a keen interest in history and constitutional law. He will be discussing the book "Jinnah: A Life."

Shrabani Basu is a journalist and Sunday Times best-selling author. Her books include the critically acclaimed The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the Case of the Foreigner in the English Village, For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18, Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan, and Curry: The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish. She has always combined her skills as a journalist with her love of history and focused on the hidden stories thrown up by 200 years of British rule in India. She will be discussing her book ​Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant (now a major Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench and Ali Fazal).

Dr Sadia Mohammed is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist based in Scotland (UK). She also co-hosts the YouTube channel “Gupshup with Dr Sadia and Dr Saman,” an Urdu chat show reviewing the portrayal of mental illness/mental health issues in Pakistani dramas. She is passionate about Islamic learning and self-development. She wrote her book "Secrets to Infinite Success: 99 Life Lessons for Young Muslims," for her two daughters and other young people like them.

Jeremiah Hammerling is an Emmy award winning filmmaker and co-founder of Endless Eye. His work has been featured on CNN, ESPN, PBS, AJ+, NPR and in top festivals worldwide. He will be discussing the poet Iqbal's relevance to the modern world.

Friederike Voigt is Principal Curator at National Museums Scotland, responsible for the collections from West, South and Southeast Asia. Much of her research centres around the museum’s acquisition history and its relation to the collecting interests of Scots in the 18th and 19th centuries. She is a specialist in 19th century Iranian material culture and has published widely on the role of ceramic crafts in facilitating social change during the Qajar period. Currently, she is working on a book that explores the Iranian collection at National Museums Scotland with a focus on individual and collective ideas of home and how they are expressed in objects of art, fashion and material culture.

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 20 by RR365

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 22 by RR365

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 21 by RR365

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 23 by RR365

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 24 by RR365

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 25 by RR365

Millennium Discourses: Discourse 26 by RR365