Best Elmahaba Center Podcasts (2025)

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Advocacy: The Roots of Peace 26:21

Play Pause

5y ago26:21

26:21

In this episode, Lydia talks about the development of inner peace through advocacy and vocalization. She gives the example of June Jordan’s poetry.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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The Gift of Peace 35:00

5y ago35:00

35:00

In this episode, Lydia discusses the power of peace in several Biblical passages and also in modern attributions and ideas of peace. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Holistic Care: Non-Profit, Service and Individual Strategies 40:42

5y ago40:42

40:42

Lydia discusses the importance for each individual to operate in our communities with holistic care as our aim. She defines holistic care, provides examples, and ends with what individuals can do.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Generational Trauma/Generational Healing 52:13

5y ago52:13

52:13

In this episode, Lydia defines what is generational trauma, what the implications of its importance, practicing an awareness of generational trauma in differing fields, and valuing healing through social justice work and advocacy.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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What is Acceptance? 44:15

5y ago44:15

44:15

Lydia discusses, in this episode, what acceptance could look like. Acceptance/denial are often used as community markers for inclusion/exclusion and freedom/oppression, and so it’s important to check what’s at the heart of our acceptances.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Freedom and Oppression 37:44

5y ago37:44

37:44

In this episode, Lydia discusses how to model and practice an empathetic freedom for others that is far from the oppression we see today.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Gender Roles (2) 32:27

5y ago32:27

32:27

Lydia discusses women in the Bible who did not replicate gender hierarchies, but rather deconstructed them into something stronger. We read from Luke 10:38-42 about the ultimate Biblical story about deconstructing gender roles.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Beyond Gender Roles (1) 44:25

5y ago44:25

44:25

Lydia discusses what gender roles are, their constructions, and the anti-Christian nature of enforcing gender roles on communities. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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A Tribute to Ustaaz Maged Ghaly 42:55

5y ago42:55

42:55

Trigger warning: violence, murder, guns, armed robbery. Lydia discusses the murder of Ustaaz Maged Ghaly, a Coptic storeowner, who was murdered in late August while attending his store. She discusses the details of the case and the social media reactions, while incorporating next steps to healing and stability in Nashville.--- Send in a voice messa…

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Identities: the Importance of Intersectionality 47:18

5+ y ago47:18

47:18

Lydia discusses why intersectionality brings about solidarity, which is ultimately the work of any service or social justice work. Intersectionality is a word coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the nuanced position of Black women in race and gender. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/me…

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Identities: Equity and Equality 40:50

5+ y ago40:50

40:50

Lydia discusses how identities, multiple in nature, are channeled through equality (the idea of sameness) and equity (the idea of difference), and she supports her argument for equity with Biblical passages from the New Testament Gospels.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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What is the Opposite of Community? 1:03:22

5+ y ago1:03:22

1:03:22

Triggering warning: discussion of rape/sexual assault without details Lydia discusses the opposite of community-building being violence, and she begins with a discussion of Sally’s recent bravery in outing a Coptic priest for pedophilia, rape and assault. We discuss Esther, Daniel and Exodus alongside Franz Fanon’s Towards an African Revolution.---…

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What Is Community? 51:07

5+ y ago51:07

51:07

On 4th of July, Lydia discusses how our community must be radical in realizing its history, in connecting our affinities, in creating belonging, and in offering contributions to each other. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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“You’re Being Political”: An Examination of Politics 44:28

5+ y ago44:28

44:28

Our last introduction to our series on Social Justice and Christianity, this episode follows the redefining of the term “political” or “politics,” which is often misused to fit Western democracies’ boxes of political participation and to erase our interdependency on each other. We read from 1 Corinthians 12.--- Send in a voice message: https://podc…

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Social Justice and Christianity 32:26

5+ y ago32:26

32:26

In this episode, Lydia argues that social justice is an inherent part of Christianity and actually can deepen our understanding of Christianity and what it means to be Christ-like. The two Biblical chapters she refers to are: Isaiah 1 and James chapters 1, 2, and 5.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center…

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What is Social Justice Theory? 38:36

5+ y ago38:36

38:36

Our hearts are with George Floyd, the protestors, and Black lives. We recognize that these events aren’t incidents, but patterns, and we begin Season 2 with a mindset of action and affirmation. Lydia answers the question: Why is social justice important? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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COVID-19: How Our Religious Leadership Failed Us 41:08

5+ y ago41:08

41:08

Lydia discusses the loss of life and sanctity of life in the face of COVID-19 and the push “to be faithful.” She charts how, in two months, the Coptic Orthodox churches in Nashville failed to respond effectively, share resources, be transparent about financial and material resources, and, therefore, hurt the community. She argues that faith should …

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COVID-19: How Our Governments Failed Us 31:26

5+ y ago31:26

31:26

Lydia looks into the responses of the federal, state, local and employer responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and why this has led to a crippling outbreak among Copts in Nashville. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Misunderstood Concepts in Social Justice: Allyship and Communities 27:35

5+ y ago27:35

27:35

Lydia discusses her time on a panel at Vanderbilt University in which a question of Orthodox responses to social justice was asked. We look at notions of what allyship means based on this question. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Misunderstood Concepts in Social Justice: What is an Ally? 24:00

5+ y ago24:00

24:00

Using the example of Elizabeth Warren, Lydia outlines how NOT to be an ally in order to argue that an ally has to be more than a self-seeking individual. Allyship is an action. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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What Happened at Lipscomb Academy: Diversity Politics, White Systems, and The Choice of Voice 42:41

5+ y ago42:41

42:41

Lydia discusses a very local story that happened in December and January 2020 at Lipscomb Academy, where Dean Paschall, a Black woman with a PhD, was fired after a multi-millionaire white father and country music singer, John Rich, wrote an email to the Lipscomb administration about her teaching students about white privilege. The response from the…

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How Diversity Politics Maintains White Supremacy 32:00

5+ y ago32:00

32:00

Lydia argues in this episode that, similarly, as representation politics works as a tool for white supremacists (systems and societies) to manufacture identities of color, diversity too works as a tool to include white people in spaces of color and to force people of color into white economies and white politics. She advocates for the change needed…

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The Problem with Representation 53:19

5+ y ago53:19

53:19

Lydia brings up why representation isn’t just a game that liberals play to fashion imaginations of what communities, cultures, and histories seem like, but also a game that conservatives thrive from as it collapses identities and forces the audience of choice to be white (in the United States). Tune in! If you’re interested in becoming a member and…

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Sisters Discussing: The Banking System 32:15

6y ago32:15

32:15

Erinie and Lydia discuss the pitfalls of banking and the circulation of US dollars through the banking system and ways to, first, decolonize our thinking surrounding the US dollar, and secondly, how reparations and solutions can bring a radical change. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Sisters Discussing: Money, Capitalism, and Empire 39:00

6y ago39:00

39:00

Erinie and Lydia discuss interlaced connections between money, capitalism and empire-making with a particular focus on how they change our views on human value, environmental worth, and labor value. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Solutions to Internalizing Racism 37:53

6y ago37:53

37:53

Lydia brings three introspective solutions to the table: renewal of the mind, listening/conversing stories, and understanding power/privilege beyond meaning. Internalization, though beginning from the outside, can have internal roots and internal solutions.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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What Is Internalized Racism? 53:52

6y ago53:52

53:52

With a Coptic-Nashville-centric lens, Lydia focuses on defining and identifying internalized racism as an underlying aspect of immigrant communities, how it avoids conversations of race and racism, how it is cruel to our own. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Sisters Discussing: Humanitarianism 33:07

6y ago33:07

33:07

Erinie offers her perspective on humanitarianism, good intent, and the corrupt power of the US dollar. We offer more solutions, but also another mode of thinking: instead of good intent, let’s be aware, conscientious and woke.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Humanitarianism is Colonialism 56:18

6y ago56:18

56:18

Lydia discusses, with plenty of stories, the ways in which humanitarianism, born out of the colonial era, embodies and sanctifies domination and a savior complex, and, therefore, is a form of colonialism. From the Rwandan genocide to wells in Nicaragua to midwives in Egypt, humanitarianism displaces, ignores, and worsens experiences of life. --- Se…

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Black Friday: The New Bread and Circuses 34:27

6y ago34:27

34:27

Lydia discusses capitalism’s prosperity gospel in the United States (from last week) and how that seeps into our mentality surrounding Black Friday and its necessity—and almost its sacredness as an unofficial holiday. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Why Colonialism Looks Good 47:59

6y ago47:59

47:59

Lydia looks at the reasons, rhetoric, and legacies that make colonialism look good, focusing on histories of the United States and Egypt, so that, when discussing colonialism, we don’t miss the realities and histories that shape(d) us and our ancestors. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message…

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Sisters Discussing: Fear 37:47

6y ago37:47

37:47

Lydia and Erinie, sisters, discuss fear—in their lives, as definitions, in history, as women. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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The Construction and Implementation of Fear 35:37

6y ago35:37

35:37

In this episode, Lydia discusses the colonial apparatus of white fear and its modern actions of order and imaginary safety. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Let’s Discuss Capitalism and Community 59:53

6y ago59:53

59:53

In this episode, we explore, first, the definitions of capitalism, socialism and communion, and then we focus on the determents of capitalism on immigrant/refugee societies, particularly on the Millwood community as it undergoes gentrification. Join another of our directors, Lydia, engage in the conversation our communities of color need. --- Send …

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Solidarity Forever! An intro to labor organizing 27:24

6y ago27:24

27:24

Roni here! taking over the podcast to nerd out about all things labor organizing.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elmahaba-center/message

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Radical Alternatives to Public Education: the Zapatista Model 28:40

6y ago28:40

28:40

In this episode, we look at the history and philosophy of the Zapatistas in order to understand their radical approach to education. The Zapatistas are a revolutionary group in Chiapas, Mexico, made up mostly of poor, indigenous farmers — and they declared independence from the Mexican government in 1994, after the Mexican president signed the Nort…

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“What is Wrong with the U.S Public Education System?” 25:40

6+ y ago25:40

25:40

In this episode, we investigate the liberal and the radical approach to public education. Liberals see public education as a good, democratic idea, and even as a human right; they believe the issues with education stem from certain school policies (such as funding, teacher training, and school discipline); and they believe that we can solve the iss…

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“What is Revolution?” July 2019 10:15

6+ y ago10:15

10:15

In this episode, we investigate different ways of looking at revolution, particularly the mainstream “idealist” view and the less popular “materialist” view. While both views of revolution are valuable, we conclude that we need a more materialist approach to revolution—and that the revolution begins at home. --- Send in a voice message: https://pod…