Friend’s death inspires student to ‘Think Allowed’ in his own podcast

By Anna Hovet
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

Mahmoud Elansary, a senior at the Universty of Maryland, Baltimore, is celebrating one year of his podcast, “Thinking Allowed.”

In the podcast, Elansary, 21, discusses topics ranging from his own personal experiences as a Muslim to the model-minority myth to mental health struggles in his and his guests’ identities as Muslim-Americans.

“I would say like my overall life kind of inspired it,” Elansary said. “But what triggered it to the point where I was really motivated to do it, I would probably say was my friend’s death over the summer.”

Elansary said his friend struggled greatly with his identity as a Muslim Arab-American. He committed suicide in July 2020, at the age of 22.

“That really triggered something in me where I was like, ‘Okay, I myself have had difficulty with who I am,’ ” Elansary said. “Am I Arab, am I American, am I Muslim? Am I all of them? Are those three things mutually exclusive? Or can they all be together?”

Elansary said he felt like he couldn’t be Muslim and American at the same time. He recalled an incident that took place last summer when he was recorded riding a motorbike with an American flag attached to the back and someone commented how it’s funny because he’s Muslim.

“One of the biggest messages that I do want to get across is mental health and it’s okay to be emotional,” Elansary said. “I think that’s a huge one. I would love to show both men and women that it’s okay to portray how you feel to others, whether positively or negatively.”

One guest Elansary invited on his podcast was his long-time friend Qadir Ahmed, a University of Maryland senior. Ahmed said his guest appearance started as a favor, but turned into a bigger conversation.

“I had some ideas that I think could contribute to somebody’s aid in their struggle with being a Muslim or someone who’s interested in Islam or talking about God,” Ahmed said. “It’s fun to get your ideas out there and bounce your ideas off other people and I always think two minds are greater than one.”

After being friends for so long, Ahmed said he was surprised to see Elansary with a different lens while recording the episode.

“Mahmoud’s trying to do something and make something positive and doing it in his free time,” Ahmed said. “He’s organically just trying to start conversations, make connections with different people, and spread positive information with an open conversations about subjects that people are usually close-minded about.”

Adnan Aziz is a startup entrepreneur for consumer technology and was also featured as a guest on “Thinking Allowed.” Aziz said he was impressed by how Elansary approached him for an interview.

“He came to me with really great intentions,” Aziz said. “He had a simple request and was super respectful. Throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate to have been helped out by older people and this is the way it goes.”

Aziz said the conversations were fueled by Elansary’s curious mind. Elansary asked about Elon Musk, Mars, and AI projects and let Aziz decide where the conversations would go from there. Aziz said the casual conversations were just like talking to a friend.

“I was a startup guy out of college and my first internship the first week I was in school, I was writing the student newspaper, and there was a venture capital firm that was starting up with the college,” Aziz said. “So newspaper in hand, like I just showed up from classes, like, Hey, I’ll work for free.”

Aziz said he recognized that the company saw him as a student with good intentions and was willing to work hard, not unlike Elansary. Aziz said it’d be hard to find someone who wouldn’t want to take on that kind of student.

Elansary records and produces “Thinking Allowed” at Helping Hand for Relief and Development, a non-profit located in Woodlawn. It is available to watch or listen to on all streaming platforms.