The Sunday Edition for August 2, 2020

Listen to this week's episode with guest-host Elamin Abdelmahmoud:

Noor Naga on why mistresses should be Muslim too:  In her new novel-in-verse Washes, Prays, Noor Naga proposes there is space in CanLit between the Muslim terrorist and saint, for a Muslim mistress. Her book tells the story of a young Muslim woman in Toronto who has an affair with a married man, then faces a spiritual crisis. It's also an exploration of loneliness, longing, faith, and the role of technology in modern love.

Senator Murray Sinclair says dismantling systemic racism will be a long fight:  One of Canada's most respected Indigenous rights advocates has faced many setbacks over his decades-long career, fighting for justice for Indigenous peoples. Senator Murray Sinclair laid much of the groundwork for Canada's current reckoning with systemic racism. As the country faces calls to defund the RCMP, he warns that gaining justice for Indigenous people will be a long, drawn-out process.

Nothing else matters if we don't have a healthy planet, says Naomi Klein (reprise): Although the pandemic has caused more than 600,000 deaths worldwide and has disrupted life around the world, Mother Nature has breathed a giant sigh of relief. It is the kind of relief author and activist Naomi Klein called for in her bestselling book This Changes Everything. We present a reprise of her conversation with Michael Enright, from the fall of 2014.

Elamin Abdelmahmoud is the co-host of the CBC podcast Party Lines. He is a curation editor for BuzzFeed News and the social media editor for BuzzFeed Canada. He is a regular current affairs panelist for CBC News and his work has appeared in Maclean's magazine, the Globe and Mail and The Guardian. His debut collection of essays, Son of Elsewhere, will be available Fall 2020.