Season 3, Ep. 5: The Taqwacores

Saturday School Podcast

On this week's episode of Saturday School, we revisit the 2010 feature film The Taqwacores, which follows a group of characters living together in Buffalo, New York who are part of the Islamic punk scene. We laugh about how in Hollywood movies, the "outsider" character who introduces the audience to a fascinating minority subculture is usually a white guy, but in The Taqwacores, it's an innocent first-generation Pakistani engineering student. We compare a joke Dominic Rains' character makes about a jihad on his nuts, to Taz Ahmed's best-selling Muslim Valentine's Day card that says "I have a ji-hard-on for you." Brian ties the movie's white girl romance storyline to the recent conversation being had about the lack of South Asian female perspectives in current South Asian stories like The Big Sick, Master of None, Meet the Patels etc., but Ada kinda forgives The Taqwacores for being so "testosterone-y." Good times.

Mentioned in this episode:

Listen to Inheriting from LAist & NPR

"Inheriting" is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities. In each episode, NPR’s Emily Kwong sits down with one family and facilitates deeply emotional conversations between their loved ones, exploring how their most personal, private moments are an integral part of history. Through these stories, we show how the past is personal and how to live with the legacies we’re constantly inheriting. New episodes premiere every Thursday. Subscribe to “Inheriting” on your app of choice

Listen to Inheriting now!