Dr Myriam François : Speaking truth to power

Ready To Be Real by Síle Seoige

Topics covered : Palestine, people power, social justice, privilege, culture, indigenous languages, Gaeilge, patriarchy, oppression, being Muslim, Brené Brown, whiteness, female empowerment.

This week, journalist, filmmaker, podcaster, presenter and writer, the remarkable Dr. Myriam François is my guest.

Myriam is a Londoner whose mother is Irish (she's from Leitrim), and her father is French. Her award-winning, directorial debut documentary is ‘Finding Alaa’ and her podcast is ‘We need to talk about whiteness’. She’s been a Muslim since she was 21 and when she was younger she also starred in a number of films, including acting alongside Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in the Oscar winning ‘Sense and Sensibility’ when she played the role of younger sister Margaret.

In this conversation though, we talk about the recent Sky interview she did that went viral ('I'm so sorry your Amazon packages are delayed!'), the importance of indigenous languages, Palestine, Brené Brown’s recent statement on what’s happening there, and why she’s not really a fan of the word activist.

She’s a woman of integrity and intelligence and it was an absolute honour to speak to her.

Book mention : ‘Black faces, white masks’ by Frantz Fanon

And if you connected to this episode, other Ready to be Real podcast recommendations are :

'Daniel Maté : Dismantling blindspots', 19th January 2024 and 'Ruth Smith : Love and Justice', 15th December 2023.

If you’re a fan of my pod, please follow, rate and review in all the usual places. And thanks, as always, for your support of Ready to be Real.

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