Barbara left Poland alone at 18 — no family in the U.S., barely speaking English, and no real plan beyond a plane ticket she'd saved up for through high school. In this conversation, she walks through what that actually looked like: surviving her first Chicago winter working multiple jobs, a police stop that turned into an unlikely lesson, learning English by drawing pictures at the grocery store, and eventually building a career in drug discovery — all while raising two sons and starting an MBA years into a career most people would already call successful.
It's a conversation about what ambition actually costs, and why she still wouldn't trade the hardest parts of it. Come to think of it.
Reasoning with Mustapha is a conversation-driven show exploring history, faith, culture, and personal experience — not to win an argument, but to understand a little more fully.
What is Reasoning with Mustapha?
Reasoning with Mustapha is a space for honest conversations about the things that actually matter — history, faith, culture, science, and the personal experiences that don't always make it into the mainstream conversation. Hosted by Mustapha, who grew up in Morocco and has spent years in the Bay Area — a journey between cultures that sparked a deep curiosity about people and the questions that don't have clear-cut answers. No claims to having it all figured out. Just genuine curiosity, one conversation at a time.