EP19: International Men's Day Special

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It's International Men's Day! The theme this year is "Better Health for Men and Boys". To help raise awareness, I made a special episode featuring the achievements of one of the fictional men in my high fantasy series, Qays, and introducing you to some real-life great men from the Golden Age of Islam that influenced his character!

How are you celebrating this special day? Did you learn something new today?

Leave me your thoughts, comments, and suggestions at my blog, via my website, or on my Twitter, IG, or Tumblr. Hope to hear from you soon!

TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT:

"It is the 19th episode and it is November 19th, 2020, and I do not think this is a coincidence to take lightly because today is also International Men's Day! In honor of this lovely day, I'm baking something special for the wonderful men in my life as a small thank you for everything they have done for me, and I'm recording this episode featuring one of the men in my fantasy series, Qays! For those of you who don't know yet, Qays is one of the main characters in my book, The Fall of the Black Masks. He is Mila's father - Mila is another protagonist - and the man responsible for saving Ragnar - who is the third and final protagonist of that book.

Some of you might not know this - I certainly didn't until today when I looked up what this day specifically celebrates - but International Men's Day is a time when we focus on the contributions of men in six areas of life: nation, society, community, marriage, family, and childcare. The theme for this year is "Better Health for Men and Boys". If you haven't already searched it up and learned more today about not only men's contributions but also the challenges to their health, today is a good day to do that.

The reason that I chose Qays for this day is because I feel he embodies a good male figure and role model. He isn't perfect - none of us are - and he has made his own mistakes in the past. But Qays is an important character to me nonetheless, and I wanted to share a bit more about him with you today, especially as it concerns his contributions to the society, community, and nation of Belvatria, and his contributions to his family and daughter, Mila. So let's talk about Qays!"

"...You might listen to all of this and roll your eyes and think, Sure, he can do that because he's a fictional character and he's perfect! He's got plot armor! He's not realistic! But there have been many people like Qays throughout the annals of history, many of whom have influenced the character concept of Qays tremendously.

I might point you to the well-known Muslim physician, Ibn Sina, whose works were revolutionary at the time of the Golden Age of Islam. He is known today as the father of early modern medicine, but he wasn't only a physician - he was a philosopher, a writer, an astronomer, a mathematician, a chemist, and so much more.

Or I might point you to Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi al-Ansari, another Muslim physician who was considered as the best surgeon in the Middle Ages and whose works would go on to influence the medical field for almost five-hundred years..."

Read the full transcript at my blog. It should be up soon - I'm working very hard to release all the transcripts for all the episodes leading up to this one.