The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - Emily Austin - Judaism, Israel, and the Richness of the Middle East (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_902)

00:00:00.000 Hi everybody, this is Gatsad. Today I've got another fantastic guest, Emily Austin. How are

00:00:08.240 you? I'll introduce you in a second, but how are you doing? Good, I'm in Tel Aviv. Life can't be

00:00:12.560 better. So you're in the place where you're walking over the dead bodies of all those that

00:00:17.920 were genocided? That's what my comments say, yeah. That's terrible. What a disgusting Zionist you are. 0.99

00:00:24.460 Uh, but, but, but, uh, but, but easy on the eyes, if I may say, I usually refer to myself as when 0.99

00:00:30.800 people say, Oh, you're a great professor. So on. I always reply. Why did you not put that? I'm also

00:00:36.700 easy on the eye. So you're a Zionist, but you're easy on the eyes. So maybe that serves as a redeeming 0.99

00:00:41.540 quality. Could that be? I really hope so. My favorite DMS, I have to tell you, and I get them

00:00:46.520 like even five minutes ago, they write, you might be pretty on the outside, but you're ugly on the 0.98

00:00:51.920 inside. And I'm like, at least you're giving credit where it's due. There you go. There you

00:00:55.780 go. We can't have it all. Uh, okay. So you're from, uh, you studied at Hofstra. Uh, what was it

00:01:01.500 in sports broadcasting? I know that that's your main profession, but was it in that field that you

00:01:05.660 studied? So I started at Hofstra, I did pre-med, which is random and a longer story. And then I

00:01:11.660 switched to the comm school, but they actually made my life a living hell. So I transferred to

00:01:16.100 Turo university, which I graduated from there. And now I might go to law school there. So. Oh, I see. Okay.

00:01:21.840 Well, your, your Jewish parents must be deeply disappointed that they can't brag to the world 1.00

00:01:26.960 that we have a Jewish doctor in the family. Uh, but my, my, my personal link to Hofstra in 2009,

00:01:33.620 when our daughter, our first born was a very, very young, her first trip ever, she must've been

00:01:41.340 maybe three months old was I was giving a talk at Hofstra for the 150th anniversary of the release

00:01:50.260 of Charles Darwin's on, on the origin of species, which, uh, 2009 was 150 years. And as you may or

00:01:56.740 may not know, my scientific area of research is to apply evolutionary psychology to study human

00:02:01.920 behavior. So I do have a link to Hofstra. You then went on and became a sports broadcaster,

00:02:07.300 which you still are doing also segued into political commentary. Just yesterday, you, I think it was

00:02:14.180 yesterday. You started your new show, the Emily Austin show. You had Andrew Cuomo as your first guest.

00:02:18.860 I might say that I could have been offended because many of the top shows today, I've been

00:02:24.320 their inaugural guest. Dave Rubin, I was the inaugural guest. Tyrus, planet Tyrus, I'm the

00:02:30.740 inaugural guest. I could give you a whole list. And yet Emily Austin had the chutzpah and go, 1.00

00:02:36.480 they're not ask me first, but chose Andrew Cuomo. Tell us.

00:02:39.400 We'll make a deal. We'll make a deal. Season two, episode one, you will be the debut episode.

00:02:43.820 Sounds good. Sounds good. Tell us how that went. Tell us about the show and then we can take it

00:02:47.340 from there. Well, the launch was phenomenal. I interviewed Cuomo. Needless to say, I kept it

00:02:54.060 very light. You know, everybody knows where I stand. I hate mom, Donnie. Cuomo is the better

00:02:58.380 candidate. Doesn't mean he's perfect. No. But am I going to do everything I can to make him look great?

00:03:03.140 Yes. So that's what I did. Now, what wasn't scripted and I just kind of, I never, you know,

00:03:08.340 stick to the script on my podcast. My first episode, I already have like a set standard.

00:03:14.200 Anyway, I went off script and I was like, you know what? I'm starting hot girls for Cuomo because

00:03:18.000 for whatever reason, hot girls for mom, Donnie came to my head and I just like off the cuff was

00:03:23.280 like, all right, hot girls for Cuomo. Here we go. I never thought that that video would have now

00:03:28.320 18 million views. And it's just going up and up and up. And I'm like, when is this going to end?

00:03:35.760 Um, which is great for the podcast, but obviously, you know, how the liberals are having absolute

00:03:40.980 meltdowns and not just liberals. Cause Cuomo is a Democrat. I noticed everyone having a meltdown

00:03:46.540 over this has a free Palestine in their bio Palestine flag, or they're like a queer Jew, 0.92

00:03:53.100 anything that has to do with labeling themselves to not fit in. That's something that they all have

00:03:57.700 in common. So it was great. They took it out of context and tried to make it something negative.

00:04:04.160 Um, they tried to pretend I'm not hot. I mean, come on, like, come on, you can't do that. Uh,

00:04:10.240 and then you became part of hot girls for Cuomo. So, uh, it all, not me fear, Sally. I that's just,

00:04:15.920 she's a distant cousin of mine. That's not me. Excuse. She looks like you. She does look a bit 0.99

00:04:20.600 like me. Yes. And for those of you who don't know, go to Emily's, uh, hot girl thing. I, uh,

00:04:28.700 sent a picture of my alter ego, fear, Sally. Uh, so can we say what percentage of the 18 million

00:04:34.920 views were due to fear? Sally. A significant amount. I'd say most of them. So how was there

00:04:41.680 anything in the conversation that you had with Andrew Cuomo that surprised you either in the

00:04:46.780 positive sense or in the negative sense, or is it all sort of the, the typical sort of boilerplate

00:04:51.840 stuff that you might expect a politician to, to offer you? I mean, at this point, personally

00:04:57.700 speaking, I already do my homework on people. So there's not much that can surprise me in an

00:05:01.960 interview. What surprises me about this election in general is that I ask Cuomo, can you clarify,

00:05:07.880 you know, free busing, grocery control, uh, rent freezing. Can you actually explain what this means

00:05:14.260 to the average New Yorker? Because Mamdani is making it sound like it's rainbows and unicorns,

00:05:18.140 but Cuomo stated so simply, learn it young folks, nothing in life is free. And it's really that

00:05:24.160 simple sometimes. And I can't understand why that message is not penetrating because everyone's

00:05:29.940 thinking Mamdani will make everything free. No, the buses will turn into homeless shelters. Um, 0.91

00:05:34.660 he's not going to freeze your rent or he will for 20% of New Yorkers and the other 80% will have to

00:05:38.720 pay double for their, you know, rent free apartment. And it's just like, why can't people just hear the

00:05:45.860 other side out? You don't have to like Cuomo, but do you really just believe everything Mamdani says?

00:05:50.420 So when I interviewed him, I really tried to get that messaging across. Like he is lying to you.

00:05:57.260 And then he told me he's a Knicks fan. So no matter what he believes in, we have to like each other

00:06:01.040 now. Well, you know, do you know who Ariel Helwani is? Of course. He's a boxing reporter,

00:06:06.480 my fellow Jew. Uh, do you know at all of my relationship with him? No, no. And you say you do

00:06:14.680 your homework before you. You're interviewing me, God. I know, but still, but still, uh, he's my

00:06:20.580 maternal nephew. Now the reason, yes. The reason why, uh, I'm mentioning this is because since of,

00:06:29.240 since as far back as I remember him being a young child, he was a fan of the New York Knicks in the,

00:06:35.880 in the Patrick Ewing era. And he has a very unique, I don't know if it's sort of love for the underdog,

00:06:42.300 but he's always, and I'm here to, to confirm, he's always loved the New York Knicks. He's always

00:06:47.780 loved the Buffalo Bills, you know, at the time when they had lost, you know, four Super Bowls in a

00:06:53.420 row in the early nineties, he was a diehard Buffalo fan. So now he's a bit happier because

00:06:57.640 they're quite a, you know, uh, uh, an attractive team to watch. And I don't know why, but he's decided

00:07:04.540 to jump on the Nottingham forest bandwagon. So this is a team that plays in the premier league

00:07:10.500 in England, but that had been out of the top league for maybe 30 years and that's his team.

00:07:16.620 So maybe one day you'll explain to me his choices, but he supports just like you do the New York Knicks.

00:07:22.680 That's so funny. I know Ariel, I don't remember which fight we had worked on initially,

00:07:27.280 but I remember being so relieved that there was another Jew working with me. And I remember it was

00:07:35.280 my first day and he was so nice. And we were like stuck outside the parking lot for hours.

00:07:39.600 And, um, honestly, like on a serious note, sometimes being politically opinionated in sports, 0.97

00:07:46.680 first of all, it sucks. Like if nobody had an opinion, I'd keep mine to myself,

00:07:50.360 but when everyone feels that they can share theirs and we're supposed to stay silent,

00:07:54.320 I don't accept that. And to see that Ariel is also very public about where he stands and how he's

00:07:59.940 unapologetic about that, it makes it easier for myself to feel more confident doing it.

00:08:05.780 So you might, you must be, uh, I don't know if you, you know her, or maybe you've had a chat with

00:08:10.480 her. I have had her on the show a while ago. Sage Steele would be someone that you would certainly

00:08:15.160 appreciate because she sort of broke the mold of having some quote conservative positions at ESPN. 1.00

00:08:21.200 Yes. Yeah. Um, I call it the Biden regime because being a university student under Biden,

00:08:28.000 especially at Hofstra felt like living under a dictatorship of some sort, but being pro Trump

00:08:34.700 when he was the president had to be the most forget isolating. Cause I could deal with the

00:08:41.060 feeling of being isolated, but I felt like I was being punished on a daily basis, whether it was

00:08:46.700 remarks from my professors or being penalized for not conforming to their, uh, right. Why Leah Thomas

00:08:53.620 is women of the month? No, thank you. She's not even a woman. You know, I'm not going to do that 1.00

00:08:57.980 or write me why Trump is a dictator and a fascist or write why Trump is similar to Hitler in six 0.98

00:09:03.800 paragraphs or less. I didn't comply with any of that. And I faced consequences for that. And that 0.97

00:09:09.580 was just how it was under Biden. There was nobody to complain to. There was nobody to report to.

00:09:14.040 That was the standard. And then what like broke the camels back at Hofstra was the forced

00:09:18.320 vaccinations. And I get that it was a state law, their private university. So I feel like they had some

00:09:23.000 more leeway with that and the forced vaccinations. It's like they preach to us in class, my body,

00:09:28.260 my choice, but it's not my body and my choice when it came to vaccines, but they can hand out

00:09:32.460 plan B's all over campus and talk about your body being your choice. I couldn't deal with the hypocrisy.

00:09:37.240 And at some point I stopped, I got, I lost all my jobs defending president Trump. I literally got

00:09:44.120 thrown out of Hofstra and then had to get contemplate getting vaccinated to get back. It was an absolute

00:09:49.080 nightmare. So I so feel for Sage, what she went through. It was literally taboo to be MAGA.

00:09:56.220 And then when Trump won, God, everybody hopped on the bandwagon. I know people that are kissing his

00:10:03.740 ass in the Oval Office that if I show their DMs to Trump, he will never speak to them again. 1.00

00:10:09.220 How I was being attacked online for supporting him. And now they're all shaking hands with him.

00:10:14.880 It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. Do your parents or family members ever come to you as you

00:10:21.340 were facing the consequences of some of your, you know, open positions and say, Hey, Emily, can you 0.66

00:10:27.640 just be pragmatic and shut that mouth of yours? Or are they all on board? Go honey badger, do your

00:10:33.800 thing. Well, their biggest regret first and foremost was me not pursuing pre-med. That was the first

00:10:40.120 heartbreak my parents experienced when it came to me. Many more to follow, but that was the first.

00:10:44.560 Um, I saw a funny quote where it was like, this Jewish mom's daughter became the first

00:10:51.980 woman president ever. And when she gave her speech at inauguration, she goes, and my other daughter's 0.77

00:10:56.880 a doctor. I was just going to say the exact same joke to you. We have telepathy tonight. So my mom's

00:11:04.820 sister's a doctor. My mom's a lawyer. My dad's a banker. My brother studied architecture. And then Emily

00:11:09.580 wants to go into journalism. They're like, that that's not a thing. What are you talking about?

00:11:14.620 You have no connections in media. You're not an entertainment stick to the medicine. So me already

00:11:19.080 leaving that broke their heart. And then, you know, being out there publicly, as you know, it has

00:11:25.960 its pros. You get to connect with incredible people. Um, you have influence in certain areas

00:11:31.260 when you feel like it, but it also comes with being doxxed and personal attacks and attacks on your

00:11:36.020 family. And that's where the line is crossed and nobody respects that line. So when it came to

00:11:41.780 post October 7th, I debated a woman on Pierce Morgan. She thought it was a good idea to dox me

00:11:48.040 essentially and target me publicly. That was when my family is like, is this worth it? Is what you're

00:11:53.940 doing both financially and mentally worth the suffering? And my answer was yes, because a, it's

00:12:01.220 very financially worth it. And B, it's also not even about that. It's more so this was my dream my

00:12:07.840 whole life. I'm already this close. This was them. And why should I stop now? Because someone's trying

00:12:14.680 to make my life hard. So you just want to cater to them and cower and say, okay, you win because you

00:12:18.820 made my life a bit difficult. I refuse to let my enemies win. And as a parent, I can see why

00:12:25.500 they don't want that path for me. And I personally, like, I don't have kids, but I'd imagine I'd want

00:12:31.360 them to like study medicine or something and stay out of the media, but I can handle it. I'm tougher

00:12:36.000 than the rest of my siblings. I have very thick skin. And I think today, my dad's my biggest fan.

00:12:42.020 My mom is my biggest hater and my biggest fan at the same time. She's like super critical of

00:12:46.840 everything I do. But I really think that deep down, they're very, very proud.

00:12:51.540 Had you always been someone who spoke your mind went against the current didn't care about,

00:12:58.660 you know, abiding to the herd mentality? Or is this something that you discovered in you

00:13:03.700 as you faced some of the realities of the past few years?

00:13:08.380 Yeah, I think I really think and maybe you could speak on this because you're actually the science

00:13:13.360 guy here. I genuinely believe people are born with certain personalities. From birth, I remember

00:13:18.740 my parents telling me when I was a kid, like, Emily, you have to stop talking in class. Your

00:13:23.700 teachers say you talk too much. They say that you overshare. And this is from like pre-K, I remember

00:13:29.180 being told this. Now, growing up, parent-teacher conferences were always a nightmare for me because

00:13:34.560 they would always say, she's not like the rest of the class. She doesn't follow the rules. 0.99

00:13:38.920 She's not a great listener. And I had an older brother one class above. He's a straight boy,

00:13:44.460 straight A's, you know, just not a sheep, God forbid, but like kind of a sheep. So he, and he's,

00:13:51.840 you know, special in his own way. And all the teachers would always say, Joey's phenomenal. He's

00:13:56.860 great. And Emily, well, she's not Joey. Like he was a star child. I was always making noise in the

00:14:04.540 house. I keep things interesting. That's how I frame it. So being that personality doesn't really

00:14:11.760 have a direction, right? If there's no purpose, you're just a rebel without a cause. And I never

00:14:17.840 had any passions really, other than sports, like nothing of significance. My whole life was I played

00:14:25.280 tennis growing up. That's all I knew. I studied pre-med and then politics. It just happened.

00:14:31.920 It wasn't something I was caring for. In fact, I was so apolitical. I couldn't stand the thought of

00:14:36.840 watching Fox news growing up. And then when I got to college, it's like, I got thrown into the real

00:14:42.140 world. And I started hearing other perspectives. I had never met, honestly, I'd never met liberals

00:14:47.780 until I got to college. I grew up in a tiny bubble in Long Island, full of mostly conservatives. And if

00:14:53.780 they weren't, they were moderate, mostly Jews. And if they weren't everyone's friends and allies, 0.94

00:14:58.620 and then in college, I get called a kike. And I'm like, well, this is new. Suddenly my purposeless

00:15:05.420 life of let's do sports journalism found my purpose, which is, whoa, Jews are not liked. 1.00

00:15:13.360 And that's fine. You're entitled to your opinion, but how can I help it? And then October 7th

00:15:18.700 happened. And it went from, okay, I'm not only a Jew now, I need to remind everyone what Zionism is 0.88

00:15:23.920 and why it's justified, even though we'll get into it. I don't justify it anymore. I stopped explaining

00:15:29.480 myself. It doesn't matter. Nobody gets it anyway. But back in college is when I realized

00:15:34.380 being a Jew was way more important to me than I ever knew growing up. Being a Zionist was a huge

00:15:40.740 priority to me. And then most importantly was defending American values that I saw liberals

00:15:46.500 were trying to defer from. Those became my values in college that I had never thought of prior.

00:15:53.880 Were you taken aback by the amount? I mean, I'm older than you, obviously, and I have my own

00:15:59.840 history and growing up in the Middle East. So my exposure to Jew hatred is very different from

00:16:05.680 yours. But even in my case, when I saw the very open orgiastic Jew hatred post-October 7th,

00:16:13.300 it took me by surprise. And there are very little, there are few things that can surprise me at this

00:16:18.600 point in my life. So in your case, yes, okay, you heard kike maybe at college campuses, but were you 1.00

00:16:25.440 surprised by the amount of Jew hatred? Because I'm sure you received tons of Jew hatred today.

00:16:30.540 Yeah. I'll be very vulnerable right now. After October 7th, I mean, pre-October 7th, I was at the

00:16:37.900 peak of my career, peak, you know, relationships, friendships, confidence in myself. And then after

00:16:43.460 October 7th, we all got into defense mode. Like we all got super defensive. And then part of being

00:16:50.280 defensive is also attacking back. So I became literally, God, a warrior after October 7th.

00:16:56.700 And it's great for the cause, right? But for Emily Austin, it was very bad because what people

00:17:04.440 knew of me was debates, arguing for Israel on the news, always being combative. And let's be honest,

00:17:13.340 I'm a young woman looking to get married one day and have children. And now the narrative that's

00:17:20.240 around me is she's this fierce warrior. And it's funny because I'm not even that person.

00:17:25.440 I am the most relaxed, hard to annoy, hard to piss off. But the perception of me throughout this time

00:17:33.560 is that I'm like this debater and love to fight with people and constantly being attacked. So always

00:17:39.420 needing to defend myself. And it mentally put me in such a bad place. Not only was the war going on,

00:17:45.220 it consumed my life. And I don't know how it didn't consume every Jew's life, but that's another 1.00

00:17:50.880 issue I have entirely. But it kind of put my personal life at a stop, a complete halt. My personal

00:17:58.480 life breaks. Relationships breaks. Friendships breaks. Even my sports career took hits. I mean,

00:18:04.360 Miss Universe dropped me entirely. I got blackballed for convincing them, trying to convince them to make

00:18:09.880 a statement, hey, rape is wrong. So I was miserable. I was just this angry, walking ball of rage, 0.97

00:18:17.340 snappy, pissy. And that's not who I am. So this all was very frustrating to deal with.

00:18:24.460 Yeah. You know, what you're saying resonates with me in the following sense. If someone meets me in

00:18:30.340 person, but even if you really watch the entirety of my social media, I'm someone who's very, you know,

00:18:36.220 I'm jocular. I have fun. I'm very warm. I'm affectionate. But people only remember the spicy

00:18:42.800 parts, the sarcasm, the punchiness, the combativeness. And so I'll often get people who

00:18:49.400 meet me in person and say, oh, can I tell you something? Yes. I'm very surprised how much warmer

00:18:56.200 you seem to be. I was very intimidated to come up to talk to you. I said, why? Well, because you have

00:19:01.240 this persona on social media. Well, it's not a persona. It's that if you put someone in an MMA

00:19:07.100 arena, they're going to fight. That doesn't mean that I also can't have the love and nurturance to

00:19:14.380 tuck my children to bed. Both of these facets are part of the human repertoire of behaviors. And so

00:19:20.920 I understand your sort of your sense of people view me as one way, whereas in reality, I'm someone

00:19:27.760 different. Oh, wait, but I didn't answer your question. So that was prefacing, was I surprised

00:19:35.380 by the antisemitism? Oh, right. And my answer was, because I got into attack mode, as it came,

00:19:44.360 I can't say I was expecting it, because I wasn't expecting it, but I was ready for it.

00:19:49.100 Now that I've had a week, you know, the hostages are home, I feel like I could like take a break.

00:19:54.200 Now that I've had time to process the last two years, I'm looking back and I'm realizing,

00:20:00.080 like, I'm stating the obvious here. We, as in Israel, we were attacked, yet we became the

00:20:07.580 perpetrators of a genocide, even though Hamas tried to genocide Israel on October 7th. And we

00:20:13.920 became the bad guys, even though we're fighting terrorists. And I became the face of genocide.

00:20:19.260 And I'm just thinking about how all of this doesn't make sense. And it's like, while everyone's had

00:20:24.200 time to relax post-war, I'm just starting now to process how upside down the world is. I had never

00:20:31.980 in a million years expected after October 7th, so many people to be happy about Jews dying. 1.00

00:20:40.420 I hate this narrative of Jews online. And you know what, we're probably thinking of the same people

00:20:46.120 right now that are like, oh my God, this is what happened on October 7th and everyone feel bad for

00:20:51.520 us. And look, this whole family was massacred and this whole family died and they killed dogs and

00:20:55.760 they don't care. In fact, they think they're informing them. No, no, no. Let's be very clear.

00:21:02.600 Everybody's aware of what happened. They're happy it happened. So let's stop trying to paint

00:21:07.960 ourselves as these victims because no one perceives us as victims anyway. And stop defending

00:21:13.520 ourselves and just exist without justifying it to anyone. Because that anti-Semitic response post-October

00:21:21.200 7th put a switch in my brain convincing me we're not winning this fight and I'm not trying to because

00:21:28.300 it's not a fight. You don't like me? That's too bad. You don't get to kill us. We don't get to kill

00:21:33.060 you. That's what living in America is. But you live in the Islamic Jihad of Canada, so I don't know. 0.91

00:21:37.920 I do. I do. Well, I'm going back and forth. I'm actually a scholar at Ole Miss, which by the way,

00:21:45.260 and it's not as though Ole Miss asked me to say this, but for any Jews that don't wish to be going

00:21:51.340 to the Ivy Leagues, and I'm an Ivy Leaguer. I did my MS and PhD at Cornell, but I understand how woke and

00:21:58.260 sort of pro-Islam many of these universities have become. Look to the South and look to Ole Miss. One of

00:22:04.840 the things that I'm hoping to do is build a cabal of Jewish life at Ole Miss. And so, hey,

00:22:13.560 maybe you'll come down and visit us there. Gorgeous place. Men still know that they're men.

00:22:19.680 Women still know that they're women. It really, it's funny because last year when I was being courted by 1.00

00:22:24.680 several universities trying to, you know, rescue me from, as you said, Canada Stan, I went to visit

00:22:34.720 Ole Miss and it would have been, a priori, it would have been last on my list. After I came back from

00:22:41.280 the visit in February, I, you know, my wife picked me up at the airport and she goes, so how was it?

00:22:47.440 I said, I think we might be moving to Ole Miss. And she's like, really? Because I was receiving

00:22:52.700 offers that were actually, you know, more competitive, certainly from a salary perspective,

00:22:57.700 but yet it just felt right. It's as if, you know, time stood still. We were back in the 1950s,

00:23:03.800 but in the good sense of the 1950s, men are men, women are women. People celebrate, you know,

00:23:09.920 American freedoms and American values. So I really say this, and nobody asked me to say this.

00:23:14.540 Uh, if you're looking for these sort of free liberal, liberal in the true sense of the term

00:23:20.900 schools, the South is where it's happening. Have you heard similar things from other people?

00:23:27.340 Uh, my experiences, a lot of people come to me when they're having nightmares on their campuses. So

00:23:33.560 unfortunately I don't get to hear the good parts of it. A lot of people hear my Hofstra story and then

00:23:38.060 they'll approach me with their own version of their Hofstra story. So it's really nice to hear that

00:23:42.920 because like, again, I don't have kids. I'd love to have many kids one day. And I really,

00:23:47.920 really fear for their upbringing in America. Like I live in New York. I'm thinking like,

00:23:52.920 what school I send them to? Will it be a Jewish school? Cause you know what? The truth is I don't 1.00

00:23:56.620 want them growing up in a Jewish bubble because that will come from me in the home. I want them to 1.00

00:24:00.940 be in a public school, but schools aren't what they used to be. And college campuses are even worse.

00:24:06.380 And I'm not going to be the mom homeschooling her kids or not sending her kids away to school.

00:24:11.240 But then again, what are the options? So hearing that there are options makes me want to have kids

00:24:16.440 a little bit more. I love that you said that you don't want them to grow up in a Jewish bubble. 1.00

00:24:20.500 I'll share with you a story. I can't remember if I've ever said it. I think I might've said it once

00:24:25.000 or twice publicly, but here it goes. So we can assume that it's almost an exclusive. So many years ago,

00:24:29.720 I was sitting down with my dad and he sort of looked at me pensively and he goes,

00:24:34.780 you know what, God, I really regret that I didn't send you to Jewish school. And I looked at him in

00:24:42.700 my sort of inimitable style. And I said, well, that's funny that you would say that, dad,

00:24:46.480 because that which you regret is exactly what I have to thank you for. And that sort of took him

00:24:52.940 aback because exactly to your point, the fact that I didn't go to Jewish school didn't in any way

00:24:59.560 erase any of my staunch commitment to my Jewish heritage. But what it did is that it opened me up

00:25:07.100 to being able to speak to people that are not named Mordechai and Moshe. And that really helped.

00:25:13.780 So I really admire you. You are going to make one hell of a mom one day. And lucky is the husband

00:25:20.580 who is able to pin you down. I mean, pin you down in a marriage sense. Would you ever marry

00:25:27.900 a non-Jewish guy, if I may ask a personal question? I hate this question publicly, but

00:25:33.160 it's time to address it. I've never addressed it publicly. Okay. Back in college, the easiest way

00:25:40.600 to dismiss anyone asking me out was, okay, you're not Jewish. You're not Jewish. Now, 0.79

00:25:45.780 what that ended up doing was actually making a lot of people anti-Semitic because it came off

00:25:50.060 really arrogant and dismissive as if, because I'm a Jew, you're not worthy of being my partner.

00:25:55.340 And it did actually make people anti-Semitic. And I had to work very hard to undo the damage that I 0.82

00:26:00.340 did. The truth is the reason, the reason I rejected them is because I don't like them.

00:26:05.220 But a big part of it to me, for the person I choose for my future is that we need the same

00:26:10.340 values and we need the same culture. And I'm not just a normal Jewish girl where it's like, yeah,

00:26:16.040 I'm Jewish. And then I do whatever I want and not judging you guys, at least you're proudly Jewish,

00:26:21.060 but like I keep kosher. I don't work on Shabbat. We do kiddush every Friday night. I have crazy family

00:26:26.000 values. I'm not just Jewish. I'm Iraqi Sephardic. So like really strong family values. And I speak 0.61

00:26:33.640 Hebrew and I want my kids to speak Hebrew and I want them to go to Israel every summer. And if my

00:26:37.620 husband doesn't understand that, if my husband doesn't want to go to Israel or has no interest

00:26:42.380 in learning how to do kiddush, it won't work. And the reality is most non-Jews, why would they not want 1.00

00:26:51.060 shake shack and, and, and just live an easier life? And I wouldn't want that burden upon them.

00:26:56.420 So in short, marriages have problems when you're aligned. Now imagine you're misaligned and you get 0.53

00:27:03.740 married and then you try to make it work. And then you have kids and your life is crumbling.

00:27:07.260 I don't, I don't need that. Like I'm going to try to avoid all that. So I'm going to try

00:27:11.480 to get as close as I can to culturally similar, religiously similar, and the rest of the problems

00:27:18.400 will be a little bit easier to tackle. Well, you're, you're speaking in a way that's

00:27:22.740 well wiser than your age, because actually there is a lot of scientific evidence that supports what

00:27:28.800 you're saying. And I actually talk about it in my previous book and the happiness book.

00:27:32.440 In one of the early chapters in the book, I talk about, you know, arguably the most important

00:27:37.540 decision that you'll make in your life that either imparts great happiness to you or the opposite,

00:27:42.640 great unhappiness is the choice of mate that you, you, you, you make. And the research is

00:27:49.440 unequivocal that when it comes to long, that the likelihood of long-term success. So I'll,

00:27:56.300 I'll say the fancy scientific term, but then I'll explain it easily. It's called assortative mating

00:28:01.460 or more colloquially birds of a feather flock together. So your point about being with someone

00:28:06.940 who shares your values is by far the biggest predictor. So if, if I happen to be, you know,

00:28:13.600 a staunch atheist and my prospective wife organizes her entire life around her religion,

00:28:20.280 to your point, yes, it's nice to think that love conquers all, but you really are starting on the

00:28:26.100 wrong statistical ground, right? Because statistically speaking, as you said, so many things can go wrong

00:28:32.000 in a marriage. And so to increase that, marrying someone that shares your values is spot on. Now,

00:28:37.280 I didn't know that you were Iraqi. Does that, do you speak any Arabic?

00:28:41.580 Berkishwa-Libnani, but not Iraq.

00:28:44.860 Wow, wow, wow, wow.

00:28:46.780 Wow, mish ma'un, berk-arabi-Libnani. 1.00

00:28:49.880 Your accent's so much cooler than mine.

00:28:53.180 Well, I'm just overall very cool. How come you, you speak Lebanese accent? Where did you get that from?

00:28:59.780 So when I started working in Saudi, people would speak about me in front of me and it made me really

00:29:05.240 uncomfortable. And, and I'm a nosy, curious girl. I wanted to know what everyone was saying about me.

00:29:10.920 So I started learning the Saudi dialect, which was hard. It's a lot of like, 1.00

00:29:16.180 and like throating that I couldn't do, even having all the Hebrew experience. That was even a lot for 1.00

00:29:21.500 me. And by the way, Iraqi Arabic is similar. So speaking to, oh, by the way, there's a lot of Lebanese

00:29:26.940 in Saudi for work. Speaking to a lot of Lebanese Arabs, they were telling me that Lebanese is the

00:29:33.540 prettiest dialect and the easier dialect. It's like second easiest to Egyptian. So I started 1.00

00:29:40.120 studying that one, even though the Saudi slang is funnier. My favorite thing I've learned thus far, 0.68

00:29:46.380 I don't know if you know it, you know Ba'at Sabdi is?

00:29:48.560 It's literally, it's a Riyadh slang. It's not even Saudi. 0.99

00:29:58.280 No, I don't know what that means.

00:30:00.160 So Ba'at Sabdi is like, instead of saying like, uh, I love you, or it's like a crazy exaggeration

00:30:07.000 of, I love you more than I value my liver, which is so funny to me. And now that's like,

00:30:13.780 literally what I tell my friends, like Ba'at Sabdi, and they're like, what? And I'm like,

00:30:16.640 I love you more than my liver. And it's like Lebanese has a lot of those slangs too. So 1.00

00:30:20.620 like, ya'ayouni, ya'albi, ya'ruhi, like all that fun stuff.

00:30:24.240 Oh, it's funny that you said this because I just did a satirical piece where I pretend I am the

00:30:31.540 typical, you know, Muslim prospective immigrant, you know, who first begs, and I just want to come to 1.00

00:30:38.780 your country and I love you. And I started off with ya'ayouni, ya'albi, ya'ruhi, which basically

00:30:46.240 means my, my heart, my eyes, and my, my soul, uh, and my life and so on. Um, so yeah, that's

00:30:53.760 beautiful. Speaking of Saudi Arabia, I've actually recently had several very warm interactions with

00:31:02.100 people from Al-Arabiya, uh, specifically. Yeah. I appeared on, do you know who Riz Khan is?

00:31:09.740 Probably by face. I'm not good at the name. So Riz Khan used to be the, I think the top anchor of CNN

00:31:17.660 global and BBC global, whatever, this sort of very distinguished, you know, uh, gentleman.

00:31:23.360 And now he switched to Al-Arabiya. And so he flew, he came from, uh, I think he was from Dubai though.

00:31:30.200 He came, uh, to do a show in person, uh, in Montreal. And I was actually, you know, concerned.

00:31:36.660 I said, is there anything you don't want to discuss? And he said, no, just have at it. And so we had a

00:31:43.580 very frank conversation. I mean, very measured, very proper, very professorial, but there was nothing

00:31:49.700 held back. And apparently he then told me that, you know, people in Saudi Arabia loved our conversation

00:31:55.960 so much so that I then appeared on several other Al-Arabiya shows. And now we're in discussion

00:32:01.500 about other projects. So my experience has been wonderful. How has, you know, the, the outspoken,

00:32:09.280 lovely, non-hijab Jewish girl in Saudi Arabia, how has it been going for you?

00:32:14.340 Wow. Uh, I've been now over 10 times, at least the first, first time I went to Saudi,

00:32:23.460 I actually flew from Tel Aviv. So I was very scared lay over in Dubai, then flew to Riyadh

00:32:28.780 by yourself. Yes. So both my parents were born in Israel, raised in America. So their passports

00:32:34.600 are Israeli and American, but it says born in Israel. So they were afraid to come. Um, I went by myself

00:32:41.300 and I didn't really leave my room otherwise, you know, other than like having to go to work or

00:32:50.020 getting a drink from the lobby. I literally remember the first two trips to Saudi, I didn't

00:32:53.860 leave my hotel. Now, granted they gave me like a four bedroom suite. So why would I leave my hotel?

00:32:58.780 But I was afraid to like, even show my face. Most women there are niqab fully covered, but there is 0.99

00:33:08.280 no law that you have to be. So I don't trust in niqab. I actually, I go like this. I would even 1.00

00:33:13.700 go on like a t-shirt. Like nobody really cares. Um, everyone there knows who I am that in short,

00:33:21.920 they know who I am. They know I'm a Zionist. They know I'm a Jew. And my response has not only been

00:33:26.660 pleasant, it's been above and beyond. And I hate when people are like, Oh, well, they're paying you to

00:33:30.860 say that. No, they don't. I don't work for the Saudis. I work for the zone based in the UK and the 0.97

00:33:35.700 fights that I cover are in Saudi. And here's a story that I like to share because I think it

00:33:40.160 shows a nice sense of like potential unity. My Yom Kippur last year was spent in Saudi. Now I

00:33:47.220 couldn't work that day. So I took off. I couldn't use the elevator. I couldn't eat. I was basically

00:33:50.820 just in my room all day, like reflecting on my past year. And three of my Saudi friends that work

00:33:56.480 for the sports company asked me, why aren't you coming to work today? And I explained to them

00:33:59.960 Yom Kippur is. And if you saw the feast that was awaiting right after Yom Kippur had ended and water

00:34:08.400 and snacks and gummy bears, and they made me this Egyptian dessert. And it was so incredible to see

00:34:13.500 that. Now they don't know what kosher is. Like they don't know the difference between kosher and

00:34:17.620 halal. They made me like a big camel. I had to tell them I couldn't eat it because it's not kosher,

00:34:22.360 but it was a thought that counts. And the point being, they had no idea what Yom Kippur was. It's not

00:34:27.220 their religion. It's not their problem. And they went so out of their way to make sure

00:34:30.720 that I spent it as comfortably as possible. And that's something I'll never forget.

00:34:35.720 Well, that's, you know, I'm so glad that you mentioned that story because one of the things

00:34:40.100 that I say when people ask me, you know, what is your sort of future prognosis of the Middle East?

00:34:44.880 I say, you know, if we can unleash, nevermind the cultural, historical, archaeological, you know,

00:34:52.480 potential of, but just the human potential, right? Because there are cultural elements to the

00:34:58.780 Middle East. I don't care what your religion is. Hospitality, to your point, that are, I mean, 1.00

00:35:03.680 yes, you could argue there are many cultures that are hospitable, but there is really something that

00:35:07.520 is unique about the Middle East. I mean, I come from there. If you come to our house for dinner,

00:35:13.100 it is a great insult if we don't, I mean, drown you in so much food that, you know, you're going to

00:35:21.180 have to go on Weight Watchers for the next six weeks, really to make up for that one dinner you

00:35:26.020 had. It's kind of the opposite mindset from the Western mindset where, you know, there are 10 people

00:35:31.540 coming for dinner. So there are 10 pieces of chicken. No, we have 680 dishes, right? And so,

00:35:38.200 and that is not specific to Lebanese Jews. It's specific to the Middle East. So if we can get rid of 1.00

00:35:44.880 all of the, you know, doctrinal hate that comes with, you know, religious dogma and so on,

00:35:50.440 the potential in that region is like no other. And so that's great. Are there other incredible

00:35:56.020 stories, uplifting stories that you could share from the Middle East that you've experienced?

00:36:00.840 Yeah. I mean, the respect goes both ways. So we really try for multiple reasons to avoid having

00:36:08.400 these debates in Saudi about Israel or Islam or Judaism. But I have one friend who we always go to

00:36:15.760 this really authentic Saudi spot and everyone's in niqab and I'm there. Don't get me wrong. I don't

00:36:20.740 dress around. I never dress immodest to begin with, our version of immodest. So I try to respect them

00:36:26.900 as well. I don't cover my hair because that's not something I would ever do right now. But one time

00:36:33.380 we got into the Judaism-Islam conversation and it wasn't a hostile conversation. It was more like,

00:36:38.380 let's point out the similarities and the differences. And obviously, Muhammad came up. And while

00:36:43.080 they're very well aware that we have no recognition of him whatsoever, it didn't really matter. It was

00:36:48.440 just like, I'm going to teach you. And then vice versa, I was teaching him. One conversation we had

00:36:53.880 was I was talking about Abraham sacrificing Isaac. And then they're like, no, he sacrificed Ishmael.

00:37:03.340 And I'm like, I'm pretty sure it was Isaac. And then we had to Google it. And then his version of

00:37:07.860 Google said Ishmael and mine said Isaac. And I'm like, do we kill each other now? No. 0.86

00:37:13.220 It was so nice because it's crazy. God, I can agree to disagree with people in Saudi, 1.00

00:37:20.640 but not in the United States. And it's like, how far have we lost our freedom of free thinking in

00:37:27.980 the United States? But I can have that so respectfully in Saudi, in a country that people

00:37:33.000 criticize for a dictatorship, that's the country I have the most thought provoking conversations.

00:37:38.460 It's like, you can't make it up.

00:37:40.760 Isn't that amazing? I mean, have you seen, I'm sure you've probably seen though, I don't, I don't,

00:37:44.400 I can't remember the names of this, these particular individuals, but there are several sort of viral

00:37:49.960 clips of men from the Gulf region, where they're saying, are you going to teach? I mean, we're,

00:37:58.540 we're Muslim, and we think the Muslim Brotherhood is so dangerous, and so on. And yet you imbeciles in 1.00

00:38:05.800 the West are completely hoodwinked. So it really is amazing that because those folks understand the 1.00

00:38:13.600 dynamics of some of those, you know, radical ideologies, they're able to put a doorstop to it,

00:38:19.060 whereas in the West, we're so kind and tolerant and empathetic.

00:38:22.460 Like, it's really, it's so true. I mean, this is something that only like people who are well

00:38:28.280 traveled, and my biggest advice to people is travel far and wide, try not to get taken hostage,

00:38:33.160 but travel very far and wide, because you learn so much, and it actually shifts your perspective in

00:38:38.440 a way that you'll never get from, definitely not from these little iPhones. The problem is not,

00:38:44.380 and I'll be honest, and a lot of like people get mad at me, it's not any religion. In fact,

00:38:48.980 atheists are a problem, but let's just say Islam, Judaism, Christianity is in the discussion.

00:38:54.820 Extremism is the problem, because if you really, you know, break down the true meaning of the Quran 0.96

00:39:01.720 that's exaggerated, and it's like, kill every person, it's not a Muslim, yeah, then you're a 0.99

00:39:05.680 fanatic. But you can do that in every single religion. Every religion, let's be honest, preaches 0.99

00:39:10.260 superiority. Every single one. Some respect other religions more than the other, but I genuinely

00:39:16.780 believe that no matter what religion you are, I'm like stating something so stupidly obvious,

00:39:21.120 if you're a good person, and you respect others, there's no problem. Like, I have never once in my 0.61

00:39:27.920 life cared that somebody's not Jewish. In fact, their religion is the last thing I care about them. 1.00

00:39:34.380 The only reason I'm excluding atheists from this conversation is I have an intrinsic problem with 1.00

00:39:39.920 atheism, that if you don't believe some power is greater than yourself, and you can't believe in

00:39:46.060 God, because either you're too arrogant, or I don't know, I think it's arrogance, genuinely.

00:39:51.900 If you don't think something's above you, you scare me as a person, because you don't have anyone

00:39:56.080 to report to. A lot of the times, we can all understand this, a lot of things that we do

00:40:01.780 or don't do is not because we're such a great person. It's because we have a fear of God. It's

00:40:06.260 because we have a fear of consequence. And I feel that atheists don't have that fear. So they're not

00:40:12.360 part of this conversation. But extremism at any regard, and this is politically too,

00:40:17.400 that's the real issue. And the extremism in the Middle East, and I'm talking Saudi, not like Syria,

00:40:22.520 Afghanistan, Libya, they're trying to become, I don't want to say more Western, because what Western 0.96

00:40:27.180 is becoming is not good. But they're just becoming more rational. They're understanding religious

00:40:32.820 diversity. They're understanding more dialogue and doing more business with people. Like, you can buy

00:40:39.200 real estate now in Saudi Arabia. As of January, you couldn't do that the last however many years.

00:40:44.680 And I feel like that's what more people need to strive to do not I'm right, you're wrong. Let's

00:40:49.200 say, hey, you know, it doesn't really matter. Let's respect one another.

00:40:52.380 Have you had a chance to meet any of the members, not necessarily the crown prince, but

00:40:57.020 any members of the royal family and had, you know, substantive conversations with them?

00:41:01.680 Yeah, I won't name names for his sake. But I met someone who is part of the Al Sauds. And he is an

00:41:11.240 incredible person. And he'll probably watch this. He follows me. He called me one day. And he said,

00:41:19.440 I understand why Israel just bombed Hezbollah. Justifiable. In fact, we thank you for that. We hate 1.00

00:41:24.680 Hezbollah. But what the hell did Gaza do to Israel? Yikes. And I was just like, I know he's not being

00:41:32.580 malicious because we're beyond that point. But does he really not know? So anyway, we get into like an

00:41:39.360 hour long FaceTime. I sent him the most graphic, horrific thing straight out of Hamas's telegram 0.88

00:41:45.040 group to his WhatsApp. He is white in the face, sick to his stomach. I'm surprised he hadn't seen

00:41:51.840 that prior to our conversation. And in our conversation, I was like, he said something

00:41:57.740 like, why does the IDF exist? And I said, to prevent another Holocaust. We have Israel. There's 0.95

00:42:01.780 no more, you know, fear of a Holocaust happening because we have a safe space, which is Israel. 0.50

00:42:06.820 And he said, what's that word? And I'm like, what word? Is it hologram? I'm like, Holocaust?

00:42:13.740 Right.

00:42:14.060 And I promise God, he wasn't being rude. He just genuinely, they don't have a Holocaust education, 0.99

00:42:19.500 you know? And, and I couldn't process the fact that he had never heard of it because something

00:42:25.320 that was so not important to my life, but something that I carried with me like so deeply is something

00:42:33.180 he hadn't even been aware existed. And when I told him what it was, you could see his whole mindset

00:42:38.800 changed. So he was a member of the Royal family. He was still very young to his credit. Like he had a

00:42:44.740 lot to learn. He just finished, I think his military service, but these conversations,

00:42:49.720 I think is what moves the needle in a more positive direction. Like I had Saudi friends

00:42:53.720 in the government telling me, I can't wait to go to Tel Aviv and I can't wait for them to come to

00:42:58.080 Saudi. You know, I wish more people could see what we're doing here and what they're doing there,

00:43:02.920 because I feel like I'm the vessel sometimes. And it really is something so beautiful that I wish

00:43:07.580 the world could see. And I'm talking, by the way, exclusively to Saudi. There's a lot of

00:43:11.480 countries I would not see the same. You know, this is about maybe five or six years ago. Do you know

00:43:17.620 who Hamid Abd al-Samad is? Do you know, does that ring a bell? No. He's Egyptian and his dad

00:43:27.160 was a, you know, hardcore, you know, imam in Egypt. And then Hamid left Islam, moved to Germany,

00:43:36.500 was pursuing a PhD, became an author, wrote several, you know, bestselling books in German,

00:43:42.920 criticizing Islam. And we became friends and he came on my show a few times. I went on his show. 0.88

00:43:49.320 His show is called in Arabic, Sandu al-Islam, which means the box of Islam. So he had come to 0.75

00:43:56.200 Montreal and said, hey, would you do a show with me in person? And so I said, sure. And so I went

00:44:02.220 to this hotel sort of area. And there must have been, I don't know, 20, 25 Muslim guys. It looked

00:44:10.280 as if, like, if you just look at it by judging the book by its cover, you think they're about to,

00:44:16.340 you know, behead me because it looks like a collection of guys, you know, straight out of

00:44:21.200 ISIS to stereotype. Meanwhile, they're all super fans. We're hugging it out. We're taking selfies. 0.98

00:44:29.320 And so, you know, meeting people, sharing a drink with them, having a meal with them tends to

00:44:36.020 demystify the other. I know it sounds like a cliche, but really it does amount to that.

00:44:40.560 Now, I have...

00:44:41.600 It's cliche, but no one's trying it.

00:44:43.000 Exactly.

00:44:43.620 It's too cliche.

00:44:44.760 Well, exactly. And because Arabic is my mother tongue, I've experienced this on endless occasions

00:44:52.300 in my life because suddenly, to them, I'm not really Jewish because how could a Jewish guy 0.97

00:44:59.680 act the way that I do and speak in the way that I do? And suddenly, I become like, wait a minute,

00:45:05.840 there are sort of cool Jews around like this guy. And so, yeah, that's the secret. All right,

00:45:11.460 let's set one or two more questions before I let you go. What are some... If I asked you,

00:45:16.220 maybe you don't do a five-year plan, but if I asked you, what does the horizon look like for

00:45:22.180 Emily Austin other than finding the incredibly lucky future husband and having a million Jewish 0.88

00:45:29.500 babies with him, what are some professional goals or personal goals that you have over the next...

00:45:35.640 What should we expect from Emily?

00:45:38.000 I hope to have another year full of sports broadcasting while simultaneously pursuing the

00:45:44.640 Emily Austin show. And what I want to come about from that is similar to what you have going here,

00:45:49.020 which is like a space for open dialogue, but I don't want to limit it to politics or sports.

00:45:54.420 I really want it to be a current events space. So my first episode was Cuomo. My second episode

00:45:59.640 has no guests. My third one might have Ryan Garcia, the boxer, or Michael Porter Jr., the Brooklyn

00:46:04.540 Nets player to talk about... I know Ryan wants to talk about Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria, 1.00

00:46:08.920 and Michael wants to talk about sports gambling. So I just want it to be a space that everyone

00:46:13.880 has something to care about. And I hope that that really serves me long-term. I'm strongly

00:46:20.300 contemplating if I want to go into American politics, meaning like Congress or Senate,

00:46:25.040 given that I'm 24, I have time to think about it because I can't run right now, even if I wanted to.

00:46:31.260 And that's going to depend on... Honestly, it's going to depend on what the future of the Republican

00:46:37.480 party looks like. Because if we're going to trend towards the Marjorie Taylor Greene's and Tucker

00:46:42.940 Carlson's, that's not a space worth entering. It's not worth the pain and agony I'm going to go

00:46:48.280 through. But if somehow we can get back to the middle, which is wishful thinking, because if

00:46:53.320 we're not doing it under Trump, we're not doing it under anyone else, that's a place I definitely

00:46:57.820 want to enter, political landscape.

00:46:59.900 Wow. Well, best of luck. I recently had the representative fine out of Florida on my show.

00:47:06.300 Do you know who that is?

00:47:07.680 Of course. I met him when he was running.

00:47:09.360 Ah, okay, great. So yeah, so we had a great conversation. So best of luck there. And now

00:47:14.440 you're born in the United States?

00:47:16.220 Mm-hmm.

00:47:16.740 Oh, maybe one day the first Jewish woman president. Emily, is that possible?

00:47:23.460 You see that post on my Instagram?

00:47:25.260 No, I haven't. What is that? What is it?

00:47:26.860 This is going to be a bit of a scroll, but it's worth it. We're going to find this. I posted

00:47:31.800 this years ago.

00:47:33.600 I can't see this. Hold on.

00:47:35.400 I'm finding it anyway. Look how far back this is. Hang on. Wait, oops, that's not it. Huh?

00:47:45.280 Read the caption.

00:47:47.500 Wait a minute. Wait. Your first woman Jewish president. When was this? Look at that. 0.56

00:47:55.020 2022.

00:47:57.760 Well, from your lips to God's ear. Emily, such a pleasure having you. Stay on the line so

00:48:03.300 we can say goodbye offline. Come back anytime. Best of luck on your new show. You're a delight.

00:48:08.080 Cheers. Take care.

00:48:08.840 Thank you.

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - October 22, 2025

Emily Austin - Judaism, Israel, and the Richness of the Middle East (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_902)

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript