Podcast Review: ˜Remade in America’ by Bassem Youssef

I have known about Bassem Youssef for several years at this point when I started watching his youtube videos back in 2012 after a good friend of mine sent me a link through twitter. The video was from his Egyptian satire comedy program ‘Al Bernameg’(The Show) which self-consciously modeled itself directly from ‘The Daily Show’ with Bassem even embracing the title of ‘Jon Stewart of Egypt’. His show was revolutionary for that area of the world in two significant ways: the first being that it literally was spawned from a revolution, the January 25th Revolution to be exact which led to the downfall of the dictator Hosni Mubarek. Bassem Youssef started his comedy career producing popular youtube videos under the title ‘The B+ Show’ (his blood type) which were created to directly challenge the dominate State TV propaganda narrative during the January 25th revolution and due to the popularity of these videos it led directly to him getting his own show. Secondly, because of the reforms guaranteeing a freeing of the press no one was allowed to openly use satire to poke fun of the government in such blatant ways before which allowed the common Egyptian citizen to think critically about the way their government conducted itself. Did it serve only itself or did it serve all Egyptians? Also did I mention his show was popular? Very popular. In fact, according to Youssef, over 40 million people tuned into his show every week. This level of popularity carries with it a very real political weight and power, thus it was only a matter of time before the government would find any excuse to shut down the program. That time came in June 2014 — three years after the airing of the first episode.
Since then Bassem has immigrated with his family to the U.S. and started a similar career explaining to the average U.S. citizen what it means to live in the U.S. as an immigrant, a Muslim, and a Middle Eastern man in Trump’s America through one of the most powerful tools there is to break down walls — comedy. It seems like he has carved a very unique niche in the media by explaining the beauty and delicacy of democracy to citizens who take that experience for granted. His outgoing, funny and open personality helps strangers listen to him and accept his point-of-view regarding what it is like to have never lived in a fully open society.

It is here where I want to suggest the podcast ‘Remade in America’ where he takes his mission to task interviewing individuals who have historically lived on the fringe of the established narrative, carving out alternative storylines that offer a slightly more sobering account of America then what is pushed by most mainstream media outlets. Bassem, along with his guest find a beautiful balance between seeking the betterment of the society they immigrated to, a society that simultaneously feels foreign and familiar, and offering a deep skepticism of even disgust where we are as a society. In the process articulating a brutally honest futility that perhaps this country will never be home to them. It is within this intersection of deep skepticism and hope where this podcast truly thrives.
The first episode starts from him explaining his simple but unique biography, already mentioned before, but expanded to help this new American audience fully understand why his voice is singularly unique deriving from his style of humor which he utilizes to cut the tension when exploring intimate and normally divisive topics. I think the appeal and refreshing quality of this podcast is that he, like other important cultural figures in our society, has an endless curiosity about people that comes from a genuine place. This becomes the most apparent when he is just trying to gain a deeper understanding of American culture as an outsider. He is naive about America but its a childlike naivety, an innocence that probes your conscience.
As Americans we can’t understand how weird, unconventional and radical our political and cultural system is because we live within it and unless we travel outside our borders often we can never experience that ‘outsiders’ feeling. His questions are simply and probing similar to a child when they ask about the state of the world and plainly and bluntly do not understand why things seem to be fundamentally unfair. When my nephew was a child he probe like this especially when hearing from us adults trying to explain why a person was poor. He would exclaim, ˜Then why don’t we fix it?’ We would throw out familiar cliches just to shut him up; such as, ‘Well, that’s just the way it is.’ or ‘Life just isn’t fair.” — by the way, no statement has caused such extreme frustration in me as the statement, ‘Life is not fair.’ My nephew would just simple respond, ‘Well then make it fair.’ It is that childlike hope, which some label as naivety or foolishness, that probes your soul. Or should at least. This freshness of his perspective on the American experience and what we can do to improve and expand our democracy to a new generation of citizens in the 21st century. His guest are all uniquely different but share one universal trait: being outsiders carving out uniques voices on the American experience. Something they both share. Guests such as Muslim comedian and actor Maz Jobrani, Baratunde Thurston, and Maria Hinojosa which all call out to say that America is suppose to be for everyone, theoretically at least, and these guests put that burden on those listeners, like myself, who have traditionally have had access to the halls of power. This is not to say my life is easy but the burden of entitlement is to recognize it and utilize that access for others as well. To learn from these new experiences and build a better democracy in the process.

Why should my fellow Dentonites listen to it?

I feel like over the last two years many of my generation have had to rediscover what democracy looks like for ourselves. We have taken this system for granted it seems; perhaps holding subconsciously onto the enlightenment era mindset of this unbeatable current of progress? That things get bad for a minute but will always straighten out. Echoing Martin Luther King’s famous sermon, ˜The arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ All of which is perhaps true but as we discover daily it seems to be not a guarantee. This existential burden, if we are to remain a free citizenry, is to rebuild our democracy from the ground-up; re-establishing new institutions and even building from scratch new ones out of the old that can handle a 21st century vision of a democratic-republic. These conversations can be a guide to making sure our society is polyphonic, encompassing a choir of new ideas and voices which sing to a litany of hopes and dreams. Of course, I could just be overdramatic but I feel encouraged by his voice and his desire to move here during this turbulent time to cheer us on and so I wish you, fellow Dentonite, to at least give him a try.