Culture and Life with Dr. Shabnam Sarshar
Christina: Welcome to another episode of I am Christina the DiArcangelo!
Today we have an international episode which I so much love with having my guest on today with meDr. Shabnam, thank you so much for joining us why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself
Dr. Shabnam: Hi first of all thank you so much for having me I mean I'm so excited for having this conversation with you so yeah uh My name is Shabnam, I was born and raised in Iran and I came to Germany spring of 2013. I love plants, I love ethnopharmacology and that's why I started my whole life and that that's what I do as a job and that's passion!
Christina: I love that whoa I love the Persian culture, as you know I'm Italian you know so I'm not Persian but I always talk about my adopted Persian family because we were talking over email I think about some of this because when I moved to California in 2005 I met a Persian gentleman out in one of the biotech companies I was working at and he was amazing and he invited me because I had no friends when I moved out there I just moved for work. I had a dog that was it and so I move out to California and he says you know DiArc because everybody calls me DiArc in that biotech space you should come to dinner to my family's home and you know I'm an East coaster so it was like I don't know and he was like no please come so I said okay and I go and I meet his wife and his daughter and they lived on the bay so right on the water it was beautiful their home and we had Persian food and that was my first time ever eating Persian food and then learning about the Baha'i culture I got to tap my toe a little bit into the pond there and you know let's look like let's go forward now it's 2022.
I converted to a Baha'i I have Iranian art in my home that they've given to me over the years I have embraced the culture like you know I always say my adopted Persian family because I appreciate it so much and so when I met you through Linkedin and I saw that you work in the cannabinoid space you're a woman you're a scientist you're researcher you're a Persian I was like oh my gosh!
I have to bring her on because you know in CD fashion we always try to bring people on that we can demonstrate that we're the same and so looking at me no one would think oh well what does she know about I even understand Farsi I help them put their Library together swear to God so I just appreciate your culture and everything you know that I've learned and I continue to learn from you guys.
I've been watching everything that's been happening with Iran obviously because it's just horrendous what's happening over there and you know we need to do better you know with letting people be who they are
Dr. Shabnam: yes, yes I mean exactly it's very sad, a story what happens to these kids but also at the same time it's a heroic story it's like a female divine power that rippers softly ripples to genders generations and geographical border and ignite change and Revolution I'm sure that the revolution is coming soon and it's a woman's revolution in Iran I'm so sure about it
Christina: I love it! I love it because watching how condemned the women of Iran have been their entire life, talking to other Persians like yourself about their struggles men and women who have had to defect for various reasons I mean I told you about my Persian family they had to leave because they were Baha’i they were prosecuted because of religion which I mean in itself is crazy to me because I mean as long as you're believing in something and you're acting in a proper way meaning you're not committing crimes you're just loving people the way you love them in your way and you believe in a higher power whatever that is what's the problem I don't understand what the problem is I've noticed like when I tell people I'm Baha'i people hear on the East Coast they don't know what it is so they look at me like I'm a weirdo right like I was something wrong and I'm like really it's one of the most universal religions in the world I studied all these different religions like RIP Roman Catholic hello my name tells you that I must have been Catholic at one point in my life right and I studied all these different things over the years and I never found a religion that accepted me holy I felt this is my opinion other people can disagree with me but this is how I felt in my opinion is important because it's my choice on what I do just like we were talking about with Iran and women it should be their choice what they do
Dr. Shabnam: Exactly true! I mean um a couple of days ago I was talking with my best friend I mean she lives still in Iran I haven't seen her for six years it's like very sad I mean although at the moment economic situation is very bad very bad her voice was full of Hope full of Hope is that chairman you have no idea every time I go out I see these Brave young ladies without hijab here and there for me it's like something it's a light end of the tunnel
I can regain those years that I couldn't leave so it's a hope for me that I can live again and that that's for me was so happy to hear because you have no idea that the last couple of years the economic situation, the politics situation everything goes really down and get worse and worse every day so that was so nice to hear her voice again so happy and so hopeful and yeah I mean we can all pray and I don't know send our positive energies that good days come soon for Iranian people especially Iranian Brave girls and women
Christina: because it's been years and years of abuse and it's time you know it's really time for us to step up and come to the plate and it's not just people in Iran I'm not Iranian as you know but I'm behind it because it's the right thing to do you know so it's like we've got to come together and show Humanity that we're one instead of being in a divide all the time before we got on here today we were taught talking about that a little bit I was like darn it we should have been shooting because it was you know we were talking about this like why can't we all just get along like why can't you know like you gave a great story about being in a I think it was a cafe right with exactly multiple cultures and they're at odds with each other but you found commonality
Dr. Shabnam: it was so beautiful the beautiful evening we were all laughing we were so that that was one of the most beautiful nights of my life and all the time I was thinking okay why in Iran since we are a small uh school children they say I say into our ears down with U.S down with Israel so really these crazy stories that they want to brainwash us I mean I was lucky to grow up in an open-minded family but there are lots of families that they believe the bullshit so sorry for my language a couple of days ago they said one of the protesters they he get the that that sentence because of an Unity to God like did you did they consider themselves as God and that's just disgusting and horrible
Christina: it is, you know even being in odds in your own family it happens at times I know when I decided I was going to convert to uh Baha'i it was while I was still in California and I was hanging out with all the Baha'is I was going to the firesides I was really watching and learning and loving people you know and so when I decided that that was it I was transitioning to a Baha'i
I did and when I had my son I told my ex-husband that he our son even though his name is Christian because he's named after me uh I was effective in winning that battle um Christian is going to be raised Baha’i because that is what I believe in and that is how this child is going to be raised because my ex-husband didn't practice as a Baptist and we're not gonna fake you know we do that a lot where we're like Oh I'm a Baptist but they don't go to church they don't practice anything they don't observe holidays you don't hang out with other Baptists that are good people or whatever I'm not picking on baptism just saying in general right it's like every religion but so I wanted to make sure that was what we were going to do and so luckily that that I won that one too
Christian is a Baha'i and so everybody thought he was a Christian though I when I had him the hit my ex-husband's family would send uh like they sense Bears that's talk about I love Jesus now being Baha’i you know we learn about every religion we accept everybody we observe other things and other religions we're very you know kind and embracing and like but Christian is a Baha'i and he was little at the time and I don't want to confuse him that we love Jesus but we forgot about being Baha'i because we love bahala too!
The Bob and everybody so like that was kind of annoying for me like I was like what so like I gave the bear away to one of my other friends who was really Christian I was like listen share this with your sister who's having a baby she can have this bear because you guys are very Christian and you're going to love this Jesus Loves Me better because I don't want this in my house because it's going to cause confusion right now because he's in a formative age you can't you're trying to entice him that's not how this works like leave me alone I think I've demonstrated I'm a pretty good bomb
Dr. Shabnam: Do you know? that the confusing or the crazy thing is that almost all of the religion in the world they are saying the same thing act good be good there is some superpower that have the uh it can protect you gonna go back to it and why all these religion most of them they are fighting each other to prove which one is better or I don't know it's um yeah it's a brainless battle I think
Christina: I agree with you I mean like I said I uh my journey of trying to figure out what religion I fit well with because I felt like in my mind I needed to have something that I belong to okay and Catholics I mean Francis wasn't in charge back in the day when I was exploring this right and if he had been maybe I would have stayed Catholic right we did not have a progressive Pope back then he was not a nice man and was after John Paul died the third and then you know what happened so then you know this is where we were!
I'm like I can't even speak up as a woman you know in the Catholic religion we have no place where we had to take a vow of poverty the nuns you know and I'm like well wait a minute I'm a leader when it comes to work I don't understand why I need to be pushed down in my religion
I can't live like this this is a hypocritical thing for me so that's when I started my journey and so I learned about all different areas of Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism I'm telling you I was doing it and I found all these special characteristics and all of these religions and I'm like wow look at these beautiful things why can't we Embrace this as a nation a world!
Dr. Shabnam: yeah it's more like it's less, have less to do with beliefs but more to do with power is nothing about like really because if it was about a divine power or a divine power inside us or is spirituality uh that wasn't so much confusion or how do you call it um confusions Wars and these crazy things around that I mean look at the name of Islam they are doing the most brutal crimes in Iran I mean in the name of Islam for God's sake never ever got one want this
Christina: no we're not supposed to kill people in the name of religion we should be able to express ourselves yes we might not always agree you and I might not always agree but we respect each other right as humans as women as whatever you want to call us you know, like why can't we just be respectful I don't know I grew up that way I'm sure you've grown up that way like where you're teaching your parents taught you to be respectful
Dr. Shabnam: Yes! Yeah, but hopefully little by little I'm very much I have a lot of Hope in our Young Generation because they grew up the internet their mindset is different they don't let other people tell them what to do because they how do you grew up with finding new stuffs on internet they had like this access to this huge amount of information so they are very much uh think they think differently
Christina: I really respect that, yep I love it I'm smiling this widely because you know I have a my kid's gonna be 10 in February things grow ears and he's a biracial kid too so you know he's a little different um and he's kind of in his parents do polar opposite careers you know his dad is Blue Collar his mom has a white collar job but I grew up blue collars so I work more like a blue collar person but I'm a white collar person yes so the kid you know he questions things and asks for opinion like can you talk to me about this like I heard this or so and so said this and what do you think about this and like I love that like that he conversates with me which was not something we did as kids growing up like it was like oh you didn't ask questions it was what it was and that's what it was and that's it good bad and different that's just the way it was so you know I love that they question I love that they want to explore I love how Universal kids are nowadays that you know a kid could be doing sports but also be a painter also play the trombone or the piano or sing or whatever it is that they find helps them
Dr. Shabnam: Express themselves to some forms and that that's that that's super nice we can be because now they have the opportunity that they have the different uh resources to do that to learn it to hear it to explore it I'm so happy with them I'm so so happy for them and I have faith in them yes they're gonna shape the future worlds so something different that that we experience
Christina: I agree with you wholeheartedly I mean this is this is where we're going and like seeing this kind of stuff for kids What's Happening Now teaches them that it's okay to speak out about their beliefs it's okay to stand on your own it doesn't matter if you're the only one standing there but you are saying what you feel and you're not keeping it here down push down it's projecting and that's important because we were suppressed as children I think.
I don't think we had you know and like even when as I got older and I would speak out about things to my parents and I would see them you know on here I am in my 20s and they're getting mad at me and I'm like listen this is I'm an adult I mean this is what I believe I don't care if this isn't what you know like living in San Francisco, my parents were not happy about that okay they're East Coast people and here I am living on the west coast and at the time our governor was Schwarzenegger and my dad was very political so my dad's like an actor is your Governor what no that's not normal where are you going and I'm like Dad.
I have to do this for my career this is where I need to be to get where I need to be with my clinical research it was a preferala of clinical research companies it was like lily pads you're like a frog you could go from one to the next to the next to the next and I'll tell you it was the best decision I made in my career I was right on my assessment but I went up against my parents
Dr. Shabnam: yeah but it is so sometimes the decision should be made in this way I mean yeah
Christina: I just I you know I and we're almost up on 20 minutes already and we didn't even get to talk about your job um I'm so sorry um so I'm gonna have to bring you back on if you don't mind and we could talk about cannabinoid research and the female bodies um just so it's a little teaser but I'll bring you back on again in January if that's okay with you so we could talk about that because I want that's so important and I didn't expect to go like this but
Dr. Shabnam: No! it's no it's totally fine it's totally fine that I would be more than happy to do that actually I'm planning to have because I mean you know that Germany is like going toward legalization hopefully cannabis also gets legalized in 2024 and as it's so important to understand what uh what is the central role of endocannabinoid system female body and how cannabis affect that for good and for bad I'm organizing like a bi-weekly uh webinars is Unfortunately they are offline so they are not are Elias physical store but hopefully soon we can find and find a way to make it hybrid so yeah I think January would be amazing because I can already report you something on this bi-weekly that would be awesome
Christina: I might have some ideas for you by the way on how to do this so that you can get it out you know because you know I own a tech company that's what spectral is so we can talk about it again um you know we could talk before we record the next podcast so that way you know I can give you some ideas of what I
think you could try to do so that way you can kind of circumvent this stuff because I get Shadow banned all the time so I know what you're talking about and you didn't want to but it's okay we can say it it's my podcast Channel who's gonna cut us off I own it I'm not being cocky but you know like so I get it happens to me all the time so yes we've I've got to have you back on so we can talk about the female endocannabinoid system
I think it would be a great way to kick off the New Year honestly so that people are more mindful because you know how they put their goals down and everything in January so I would love it you know I mean so that way people are kind of like Oh yay this kind of fits into what my they're focused on being better right and like we were talking about before about long-hauler syndrome and covid and like how that happens for us women it's different hormonally than men
Dr. Shabnam: okay thank you have you read that report that after Kobe actually the dysmenorrhea raised by a 4.6% so it's directly affect how uh the directly affect the menstrual cycle maybe yeah 4.6%
Christina: yes I just read that this weekend actually I'm not lying to you because you know this weekend I went down with the long-hauler stuff and I started researching more because the problem is that we go like we think we're going crazy because we're scientists in nature we're clinical researchers in nature we understand the body we understand auto-immunes and all these other components and viral structures and all these things so people like us were in our heads like is this really happening is it not happening do I think it's happening
I just read that report because I'm like what I I this isn't going away and I'm sick and tired of it and I need to figure out if it's anxiety thing because I have a lot of stress or really is this long-hauler and it's long-hauler so I would it's so ironic that you brought this up because I literally just read it and I was like oh my God we need to do better with this there needs to be clinics and things like this is nonsense that these patients don't have any way to feel better and when you talk to your doctors they go I don't know what do you mean you don't know what to do I feel like garbage
Dr. Shabnam: it makes me so sad then when I see that most of the doctors cannot answer the fundamental question of female bodies knee that they really don't know because they never learn it we were for such a long time we were never uh we were not a part of pre-clinical or clinical studies because of our hormones that yep extra burden so yeah that that's it now we have this huge data Gap in our clinical studies
Christina: yep, so we need to talk about this in January I am so I feel so blessed to have you on I know it's night time over there thank you for coming on my show today to just talk about just being a human I think it's important for people to see us as people rather than just for our skills right
so I'm glad that we were able to talk about these things because I think it's important that people see you as to who you are and what drives you and why you do what you do is because of your heart right and so I hope that people that are watching our show later or listening they gather that from us so that they see these two women coming together across the pond if you will you know come together and talk about things that are important that tie us together as humans
Dr. Shabnam: totally, well thank you for having me!
Christina: Thank you again so much, We will connect soon again this for sure I promise you, because your word is all you have and as I always say in every episode remember, #wearethesame I am Christina DiArcangelo!