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Book Club Meets: I could have been radicalised! ISIS brides and teen angst, with Nussaibah Younis

Book Club Meets: I could have been radicalised! ISIS brides and teen angst, with Nussaibah Younis

Happy Place
Jan 2, 2026 40 min
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About this episode

<p>Fundamentally tells the story of Nadia, an academic who's been disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, so she decides to get away by accepting a UN job in Iraq.</p><br><p>Meanwhile, Sara is a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen, and Nadia is astounded at how similar they both are: they’re feisty and opinionated, they’re from a Muslim background, and they both love a Dairy Milk and rude pick-up lines...</p><br><p>In this Book Club chat with Fearne, author Nussaibah Younis explains how she managed to write an incredibly funny book based on her own experience of creating a de-radicalisation programme... Satire and comedy, she says, is vital in examining tough topics.</p><br><p>They also natter about how you’d react if you had to hang out with your teenage self, and why doing the job you love can sometimes mean giving up a little bit of yourself.</p><br><p>Thank you to Weidenfeld &amp; Nicolson for the use of the Fundamentally audiobook, narrated by Sarah Slimani.</p><br><p>If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:</p><br><p><a href="https://pod.fo/e/360665" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Book Club Meets: Elizabeth Day</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://pod.fo/e/351b04" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Book Club Meets: Elizabeth Gilbert</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://pod.fo/e/33608a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Book Club Meets: Aisha Muharrar</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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