There are moments in our lives that can change the way we see the world in an instant. In this episode, Yasmeen re-lives her experience of the day everything in her life changed in a Chicago suburb at the age of 8, on the day the first gulf war began in 1991.

Yasmeen learns how to create a dual reality to cope with the discomfort of feeling misunderstood as a child of Iraqi immigrants.

Never let another person’s opinion of you change the way you see yourself.

Yasmeen speaks with Sinan Al Mokhtar, who was born and raised in Iraq, and came of age in Iraq during the first gulf war. He shares what he and his family had to endure, including the bombing of the hospital that his mother gave birth in to his twin siblings. He later immigrated to the United States, and talks to us about his experience of becoming a hyphenated American.

What’s in a name? Can a name change your life trajectory?

Have we done everything we could to avoid war? Everything? Is there another possibility that could exist without the need to go to war?