For our third guest of Behind the SEOs,
She’s a technical SEO wizard and gives so much back to the SEO community. She is the founder of Women in Tech SEO, an avid fan of The Great British Baking show, like myself. And she has excellent taste in music. So today we are talking to Areej AbuAli!
Episode transcription
Mordy Oberstien:
Stripping away the facade of the Twitter handle, welcome to Behind the SEOs, where we get into the real lives of your favorite search marketers. My name is Mordy Oberstien: and I am the search liaison at Wix, and I am joined by the very talented:
Yosef Silver:
Yosef Silver: and I am the founder and CEO of Fusion Inbound.
Mordy Oberstien:
So this is episode number three of Behind the SEOs. If you don’t know how this works, this is how it goes. So we interview your favorite search marketers about anything and everything but actual SEO. So we get into their lives, their passions, that have absolutely nothing to do or relatively nothing to do with actual SEOs. So you will not get SEO tips. You’ll get juicy tidbits of gossip about SEOs lives. The way this goes is that every month we release a new episode. The first Thursday of every month, you can find a great new episode of Behind The SEOs on behindtheseos.com.
Mordy Oberstien:
You can check us out on Twitter, follow us on Twitter at behindSEOs. We’re on Facebook, on Instagram. And I don’t think anywhere else, right, Yosef? That’s where we’re at.
Yosef Silver:
That is it. Maybe Linked In. We should set that up.
Mordy Oberstien:
We should probably do something. Yeah. So possibly on LinkedIn if we got our act together, but probably not. So we have a wonderful guest. Yosef, I’m going to let you introduce her because you introduced me to her. So it only makes sense that you would introduce her. Does that make sense?
Yosef Silver:
Awesome. So our next guest I met a MozCon probably two years ago, and then during 2020’s virtual MozCon, we spent most of the time hanging out on Twitter.
Yosef Silver:
She’s a technical SEO wizard and gives so much back to the SEO community. She is the founder of Women in Tech SEO, an avid fan of The Great British Baking show, like myself. And she has excellent taste in music. So today we are talking to Areej. Areej, welcome to the show.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, thanks for having me. I mean, I got really excited when you told me I don’t need to talk about SEO, so I was like, yes, please sign me up.
Mordy Oberstien:
Right. It’s much better to talk about the dirty details of your life.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, there’s not too much of that.
Mordy Oberstien:
OK, so we have to do a big plug for tech women in SEO.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes, please do that.
Yosef Silver:
I will say one of my team signed up for your mentorship program, the four week mentorship program, and she got so much value out of it. And her mentor and her, I think, maintain friends. But you know, she’s on my team and I love the work she’s always done. But the confidence and ability it gave her are amazing. I’m so grateful to you for putting that together for the community.
Areej AbuAli:
Oh, that’s so good to hear. And yeah, I loved working on the mentorship program, and it was amazing just to see all the feedback come through and all the mentors and mentees kind of celebrate one another at the end of the two month cohort. So looking forward to definitely do it again next year for sure.
Yosef Silver:
That was my next question. I was going to ask if it was going to happen again.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes, definitely. I mean, initially I was like, yeah, I can kick this off like every month. But then I was like, no, this was a lot of work. So I need to kind of give myself some breathing room. But definitely the plan is to go ahead and kick off a new one in the new year.
Yosef Silver:
And if someone wants to be involved in the next cohort or if they want more information about Women In Tech SEO , where should they follow you or find you?
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, so they just need to join our community. And, you know, it’s open for anyone who identifies as a woman. So we’re on Facebook, we’re on Slack. They just need to visit us on womenintechseo.com and they’ll find all the links there on how to join us.
Yosef Silver:
That’s awesome. Thank you.
Mordy Oberstien:
It really is, it’s an amazing initiative and it’s I mean, I spend way too much time on Twitter or SEO Twitter at my own detriment and the amount of publicity that I see that I see that it gets and the amount of impact that I see that it has. It’s absolutely amazing. And I think everybody in the industry owes you a big, big thank you for this.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah. I mean, honestly, it wouldn’t have been possible without all of our members. It’s always growing and they’re always shouting out about us, which makes me really happy. Like, you get all these random mentions in articles here and there where people are recommending other people to join. So it’s word of mouth and that’s what we fully rely on. So I’m really happy to see how much it grew in just a little bit over a year.
Mordy Oberstien:
So let’s get into this, because there’s a lot to get to. I’m very excited about your musical tastes, which we’ll definitely talk about. But I have to ask both of you, what the heck is this Great British Baking Show thing?
Areej AbuAli:
It’s the best show in the world, the Great British Bake Off, as we call it here. I don’t know why in the US they have to change the name somehow.
Mordy Oberstien:
Because we’re arrogant jerks.
Areej AbuAli:
So it’s Bake Off here, but then it’s like Baking Off in the US?
Yosef Silver:
I think there was a licensing issue with, like one of the companies, like one of the big brands owned Bake Off. So if you actually, I looked into this because we were talking about this on Twitter and there’s a great spin article about how like Bake Off was too aggressive for America and it’s so nice and simple. And really. It’s a licensing issue. It was trademarked or something.
Mordy Oberstien:
Something was too aggressive for Americans and not too aggressive for English people?
Yosef Silver:
Well no, it was felt the term Bake Off was like super aggressive, but really like it’s you have to watch it a little because it’s just a very quaint English. Everyone’s baking cakes in a tent. It’s very relaxing.
Areej AbuAli:
And everyone is so nice to each other. Like it’s a competition where people genuinely help each other. It’s like you oh you have 30 minutes left and then this person would go help the other person with their baking. And it’s like you never see this in actual in normal competitions.
Mordy Oberstien:
So I have to ask as a New Yorker, like, what’s enticing about that? No one’s mean and everyone’s nice. I don’t understand.
Areej AbuAli:
It’s a feel good show and it’s much needed in this world that we live in. And there’s actually an episode tonight which I can’t wait for, but I’m not going to say any spoilers because I know that we’re a bit ahead of the US. So, Yosef, you probably haven’t seen that yet.
Yosef Silver:
You are right. I’m a week or two behind. My Netflix is basically set to reruns of either the Bake Off or The West Wing, but I don’t really watch much else.
Mordy Oberstien:
You’re really straddling both sides of the pond there buddy.
Yosef Silver:
There you go. That’s why I am a citizen of both.
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh speaking of which, I’m glad you brought up citizenship. So Areej, I saw on your intake form that we send you, a very complex, very official intake form, that you recently got English citizenship.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes. I’m so happy about that. This is over eight years in the making. Well, I just got my application approved a few weeks ago and yes, cause of celebration and many, many happy tears.
Yosef Silver:
Congratulations
Mordy Oberstien:
Congrats. That’s awesome.
Yosef Silver:
Did you bake to celebrate?
Areej AbuAli:
I have not yet, but my plan. So basically I got my application approved. But then because of covid, it’s going to take a few months delay until I can actually go through the ceremony. And then in the ceremony, you get your certificate and you get a picture. You get to have a picture with a frame of the queen, and that makes everything like super official. So my plan is to definitely have like a proper, like, afternoon tea type of thing right afterwards.
Yosef Silver:
I love that.
Mordy Oberstien:
That’s very English.
Areej AbuAli:
I love afternoon tea. I don’t know if you’ve had it Mordy, but it’s like the best thing in the world.
Mordy Oberstien:
No, no. Yosef and I talk about this tea thing. I don’t understand it. To me, tea is like Lipton tea bag thing or ice tea.
No
I know it’s like heresy. I know, again, I’ll bash myself, stupid American doesn’t know anything. I get it, but I don’t get it. Someone please explain this to me.
Yosef Silver:
Next time you and I are in the same country, we will have afternoon tea.
Mordy Oberstien:
OK. Is there whiskey in the tea?
Yosef Silver:
There can be. If you’re at my grandmother’s.
Areej AbuAli:
You could if you want.
Mordy Oberstien:
You could. Ok, that’s not against the rules. Are there rules?
Areej AbuAli:
I don’t think so, I think you just, like there’s no limit to how much tea you can drink. I would say that’s the rule probably.
Yosef Silver:
You cut the crusts off your cucumber sandwiches and cut them into small triangles.
Areej AbuAli:
No, I don’t cut them.
Yosef Silver:
No, you don’t?
Mordy Oberstien:
Wait, wait. Slow down people. There’s cucumber sandwiches?
Areej AbuAli:
Yes
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh, even better. I thought the tea was boring.
Areej AbuAli:
No, it’s like a full meal, really. I think if you have a proper afternoon tea, you’re usually not able to have lunch or dinner or anything else.
Yosef Silver:
Right. One hundred percent. Afternoon tea is like, it’s a meal. You have little scones and you have little cakes and what you would call a cookie and we would call biscuits.
Mordy Oberstien:
Right. So is this what they make on the Great British Bake Off?
Areej AbuAli:
No
Yosef Silver:
They make all sorts on Bake Off.
Mordy Oberstien:
What do they make?
Areej AbuAli:
So on Bake Off every week for example, you can have bread week or chocolate week or pastry week. So it’s like different themes. And then according to that, there’s like three different challenges.
Mordy Oberstien:
This is why they don’t have it in America, because it would be doughnut week every week.
Yosef Silver:
They did doughnuts once. Areej, do you have a favorite week?
Areej AbuAli:
Um, difficult. I mean, I love chocolate, so yeah I love chocolate week. But yeah, bread week also. I like the signature challenge they wind up doing on that. Yeah. It’s difficult. I just love it and I’m so happy because I get to see it in two hours from now so I’m looking forward to that.
Yosef Silver:
I think my favorite challenges are always when they do either hand raised pies with hot water crust pastry or anything with like a proper good old school pie. I think we lost Mordy.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, I think we can all agree on that. Pie is good. The best pie quickly, the best pie.
Areej AbuAli:
Apple Pie
Mordy Oberstien:
Apple Pie
Yosef Silver:
Absolutely
Mordy Oberstien:
Cherry pie
Yosef Silver:
No
Areej AbuAli:
Apple pie that’s smothered in custard
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh custard is good. I like custard. OK, so we can all agree on pie and custard and tv watching.
Yosef Silver:
I don’t know if we’re talking about the same thing when we say custard. Are you thinking of, like, the ice creamy thing that they serve in the States?
Mordy Oberstien:
No, no, no, no, I’m not thinking that. I’m thinking like you buy some Bavarian cream doughnut. You know, vanilla kind of pudding thing, yeah, yeah, OK. So we don’t know how to say garage the same way, car park, park car or whatever it’s called in England, but custard, we’re all on the same page.
Yosef Silver:
We found the unifier.
Mordy Oberstien:
Right, we found the great unifier of our great society is custard.
Mordy Oberstien:
Wait so how hard is it to get British citizenship? That’s a tongue twister.
Areej AbuAli:
It’s difficult if you’re an Egyptian. But then if you’re an Egyptian, a lot of things are difficult. Yeah, including that. But yeah it took so long. So I moved to the UK in 2013, initially on a student visa. Then I switched that to a work visa. And then you have to be on a work visa for five years in order to apply for permanent residency, which is a bit like a green card in the US. And then once you have that, then you get to be on that for a year before you can apply for citizenship. So, yeah, that was a really long process.
Mordy Oberstien:
That sounds incredibly tedious. It must be so frustrating.
Areej AbuAli:
It was frustrating and it was stressful and it was so expensive.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah they love that. They love charging you for this kind of stuff in America also.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah. I’m just so glad it’s done now. I cannot believe. It’s like a massive achievement.
Mordy Oberstien:
So is it more like you’re like super excited about it or is it like a weight off your shoulder? I completed this like incredibly crazy process.
Areej AbuAli:
Weight, definitely weight off my shoulder. I just can’t believe now it’s like, oh, you know, that’s it. I’m done. I don’t need to think about all the paperwork that I need to…Every single time I had to do a piece of paperwork, I was constantly asked to name every single place I’ve traveled and how long I was there for, like the last five or ten years oh it just took. And also, as Egyptians, we need to get like a travel visa anywhere we need to go. But now, whenever it is, I finally get through the ceremony and so forth, I can just travel to a lot of places without travel visas, which is going to be amazing.
Mordy Oberstien:
That’s nice. As soon as we can travel again.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, that’s true.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, right. I know traveling to the grocery store is a big deal.
Yosef Silver:
I like that they give you a framed picture of the queen. When I got my American citizenship, I think they gave me a tiny little flag of America. Like the size that can go in a cake. And then they gave me like a Xerox copy of the Constitution. And that was it.
Mordy Oberstien:
Hey they should give that to Trump. Oh, sorry, I had to go there. Sorry. Sorry, folks. I went political.
Mordy Oberstien:
Wait, so ok. You get a picture of the queen and that’s how you get citizenship. When you officially get the picture, that’s when you’re a citizen. That is so…
Areej AbuAli:
You take a picture with a picture of the queen.
Mordy Oberstien:
Let’s say you took a picture with a picture of Paul McCartney. Would that work?
Areej AbuAli:
No, I don’t think that counts.
Mordy Oberstien:
It counts for me.
Yosef Silver:
He’s not a monarch.
Mordy Oberstien:
In my mind, he is. He’s the king of rock.
Areej AbuAli:
I do love the Beatles, they’re one of my favorite bands. They’re actually one of the reasons I wanted to move to the UK in the first place.
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh, really?
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, yeah, yes.
Mordy Oberstien:
Wait so are you a Paul person or a John person?
Areej AbuAli:
John one hundred percent.
Mordy Oberstien:
Thank you
Areej AbuAli:
Actually, I’m a George person.
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh yes. George is the best Beatle and the best songs are George songs.
Areej AbuAli:
The best songwriter. I am definitely a George person, yes, one hundred percent. I love George.
Mordy Oberstien:
So my brother bought.. George Harrison has an album..I don’t know what it’s called, but it came out like right after he got diagnosed with brain cancer.
Areej AbuAli:
Throat cancer
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh throat. I’m sorry, right, my mistake. It’s one of the darkest, strangest, but really good albums I’ve heard in a long time. That was like years ago and we were like, wow, I have not enjoyed an album like that in a long time. So definitely a music recommendation. And check that out if you haven’t (to anybody listening). But I forgot where I was going with this. Oh, by the way, just a random point, one of the strangest things I’ve ever been to was, John Lennon was killed in early December, like December 3rd or something like that. And every year in Central Park, in New York City, people gather around to pay homage to him. That is one of the weirdest and coolest things I’ve ever been to, was like thousands of people playing guitar and stoned out of their minds.
Areej AbuAli:
Oh, yeah, it’s nice that they still kind of do that type of stuff. Yeah, it’s really, really sad by the time I got into them, everyone was dead other than Ringo. Oh wait Paul is still alive. But have you ever..
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah. He’s not really still alive but, yeah.
Areej AbuAli:
Have you seen that theory? They have that theory about how he’s actually dead and there’s this whole thing about it.
Mordy Oberstien:
Well he’s more plastic than person at this point, so
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah. I don’t like his solo music very much. Like I’m not really a big fan of that.
Mordy Oberstien:
No, not at all.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yosef. Ok so all three of us at some point on Twitter have communicated about music.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes
Yosef Silver:
Yes. In fact, I added the Garden State playlists to my Spotify mix as a result of one of those conversations.
Mordy Oberstien:
Right. Oh, that’s a great playlist. That’s one of my favorite albums.
Yosef Silver:
Yeah
Mordy Oberstien:
It’s a great album. Definitely check that out. So let’s talk about music since we are here. Areej, what kind of music do you like? I know the answer already, I’m just waiting for it.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes. So I love grunge and alternative rock music. It makes me so happy. I’ve been into it since I was like eight or nine years old. And I, yeah, I randomly started like listening to CDs that my brother had without him knowing that I’m listening to them.
Areej AbuAli:
And I just I still listen to the same music I used to listen to when I was nine.
Areej AbuAli:
So Soundgarden, Alice in Chains. Foo Fighters. Yeah, things along those lines. I love Soundgarden and I love Chris Cornell
Mordy Oberstien:
I love Chris Cornell. Audioslave, I was a big Audioslave fan.
Areej AbuAli:
Obviously yep
Mordy Oberstien:
That was very good. Yosef, do you have any idea what we are talking about?
Yosef Silver:
No, I do. I do. I’m very…just content with music. As long as I have music on, I’m pretty easy going with what it is. Back in the day, I was a big Green Day fan. I think they were the first live show I went to at the Manchester Evening News Arena, if they haven’t renamed it by now. But I was a big Green Day fan in high school.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah we all went through a Green Day phase, definitely.
Yosef Silver:
And Blink 182, with some u2 and Oasis and Blur thrown in. I have very mixed taste in music.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah I do as well, and I’m like a big Bob Dylan fan, and I love Stone Temple Pilots. That’s my first album. No second album.
Areej AbuAli:
Stone Temple Pilots. Yes.
Mordy Oberstien:
So I bought in 1994….Their second album came out and I bought it and I put it on the stereo in my parents’ living room. And this one song, track three, is called LoungeFly and he’s cursing away and I remember my step dad going, what kind of drug music is this. I was like nine.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I saw Stone Temple Pilots live a year ago with, like, their new lead singer.
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh, right. I saw them with Scott Weiland.
Areej AbuAli:
Oh, so lucky.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, that was an awesome show. With the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Areej AbuAli:
All the music I love in one tent.
Yosef Silver:
Oh I like Chili Peppers
Mordy Oberstien:
That’s the thing. I used to go to a lot of concerts. We’re not even going to get into my concert story. That’s not rated G.
Yosef Silver:
I can’t even imagine a world in which we went to concerts. This year has been so much lockdown, stay home, can’t imagine a concert right now. That’s sad.
Mordy Oberstien:
It is sad. Areej,If you could… Any concert in the whole world you can go to. Dead or alive. Imagine everybody is alive. What would you go see?
Areej AbuAli:
Radiohead
Mordy Oberstien:
Radiohead. Oh.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes
Mordy Oberstien:
And they are alive?
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, they’re still alive. I’ve always wanted to see them live. And it’s just they don’t really tour anymore or anything. But I’d love to see them live because some of their live albums are just amazing to listen to.
Mordy Oberstien:
So I’ve always like them. I’ve never really gotten into them. They’re like a thing to get into.
Areej AbuAli:
Also, Porcupine Tree, like Steven Wilson, oh you should check them out. You would really like them. But yeah, he does a lot of solo stuff now with Stephen Wilson. He doesn’t really do stuff like as his band anymore, but yeah.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yosef, you taking notes on this? Because I know you’re like..
Yosef Silver:
Yeah, I’m just adding things to my spotify playlist as you guys talk. I’m going to educate myself later.
Mordy Oberstien:
Wait, Yosef is adding in the chat. Fun fact. I was born to Bob Dylan’s Forever Young. What does that mean? Like your mom was like listening to that as she was pushing you out.
Yosef Silver:
Yeah that was my first memory of music, I was told. I was told always. Because my mother is a massive Bob Dylan fan.
Mordy Oberstien:
Nice
Yosef Silver:
That is what I was born to. And I love Hurricane.
Mordy Oberstien:
Oh that’s a good song.
Yosef Silver:
Quality tune.
Mordy Oberstien:
That’s a great song. I saw Bob Dylan with Tom Petty and I walked out on him because he was so bad.
Areej AbuAli:
No
Yosef Silver:
Oh
Mordy Oberstien:
It was terrible. You couldn’t understand what he was saying. I don’t know what song it was. And I’m lucky Tom Petty went on first.
Yosef Silver:
That’s not how I was expecting that story to go.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, you wouldn’t. There’s a great, I don’t want to hog the mic, but there’s a story… I forgot who it was, but Ringo Starr was at a Bob Dylan concert. And Dylan sees Ringo in the audience and he starts yelling out Ringo, Ringo. Ringo is like, hey, I’m here. And Bob goes, What song do you want to hear? And he says, you know, like, I don’t know, like, you know, Mr. Tambourine Man. He goes, I already played that. And Ringo had no idea because you can’t understand what he’s saying at this point.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, that’s the thing with music. There are some artists who yeah, you can’t listen to them live. It’s just a complete… I remember Placebo. I went through like this Placebo phase. I love them. And then when you listen to them live, you’re like, oh, they sound completely different.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, it’s a problem. I mean, also, like, he’s, you know, not exactly the finest singer to begin with. And I don’t think age did him well with his vocal chords. Or the smoking.
Yosef Silver:
Yeah the smoking might do that.
Mordy Oberstien:
Right? Oh, you know Bowie. Are you guys Bowie fans at all?
Areej AbuAli:
Definitely
Mordy Oberstien:
So he used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for way up until almost the end, and he still had a great voice. That guy was a freak of nature.
Areej AbuAli:
Another person we lost.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, that’s another one we lost…A lot. You know, that’s how you know we’re getting old.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah I feel…I really worry that, like, so I’m almost 30. I’m turning 30 next year and I’m still listening to the same music I used to listen to when I was nine.
Mordy Oberstien:
And no one’s left.
Areej AbuAli:
Exactly. Yeah, but I can’t get into this new music. I just don’t get any of it. I’m not interested in any of it. It’s not as good anymore.
Mordy Oberstien:
Is that because you’re a nostalgic person and you’re just like it doesn’t sound…Like it’s missing that like warm fuzzy nostalgia.Or are you just like this music just sucks.
Areej AbuAli:
I think it sucks.
Yosef Silver:
I mean, I have reached a point, Areej, you might appreciate this more than Mordy because you have the British reference, but I listen to radio 4 and I scream it all day in my car, in my office. I’m listening to BBC Radio 4 and as a kid, my mom would always listen to radio 4, like The Archers would go on at dinnertime. I’m like, that’s what I’ve gravitated towards. It’s just background noise while I’m working, but it’s become my go to.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, but sometimes you want to, like I have one of those iPod classics and I’m trying to see where I can, like, recharge it again because I knew that I had like the best like albums and playlists and stuff on it. And I know it’s going to bring up like so many memories from before. So, yeah, I know what you mean about like nostalgia and so forth.
Mordy Oberstien:
I have it with the 80’s music, I have this guilty pleasure for 80’s music, like terrible, terrible 80’s music like Safety Dance, but it’s like my wife makes fun of me, like oh my gosh, what are you listening to?
Mordy Oberstien:
But it’s so nostalgic. I mean, I remember sitting in the back of my mom’s like 83 Buick Skylark listening to all of these, like, horrible music. I’m getting the message that our zoom is going to end. Oh no. OK, wait, so we have an awesome, I think it’s awesome, little thing that we do. They are called Rapid Fire questions and we’re just going to.. It’s an exploration of my unconscious.
Areej AbuAli:
Yep
Yosef Silver:
It’s a scary place.
Mordy Oberstien:
There are some questions here that make sense. Yosef probably added them. The ones that make absolutely no sense. Those are from me.
Areej AbuAli:
OK, come on, let’s do it.
Mordy Oberstien:
OK. So try not to think. Just go for it. OK. All right. Yosef, whose starting this off? Me or you?
Yosef Silver:
You are.
Mordy Oberstien:
Ok favorite place.
Areej AbuAli:
Oh I have to think. Ok, ok. Amalfi Coast.
Mordy Oberstien:
Great. OK, Sally sells seashells by the seashore. Or how much wood can a woodchuck chuck.
Areej AbuAli:
What?
Mordy Oberstien:
Which one? Which one do you like better? Sally sells seashells by the seashore or how much wood can a woodchuck chuck?
Areej AbuAli:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
Mordy Oberstien:
Exactly
Yosef Silver:
Tea or Coffee. This one’s from me. Tea or coffee, Areej?
Areej AbuAli:
Uh coffee
Mordy Oberstien:
Really?
Areej AbuAli:
Sorry. I just realized we’ve been talking about tea all day!
Mordy Oberstien:
I don’t understand. I feel like I’ve been lied to.
Areej AbuAli:
But I can’t live without coffee.I can’t function without it.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah that’s like me and beer.
Mordy Oberstien:
OK, who asks the next one?
Mordy Oberstien:
Yosef, you ask the next one.
Yosef Silver:
Favorite place to eat a bagel.
Areej AbuAli:
Oh bagels…I don’t know. We don’t have good bagels in this country.
Mordy Oberstien:
That was my question. I wrote that. Because I’m from New York and I miss good bagels. So we’ll skip that, because there’s only one good place to eat a bagel, and that is New York.
Areej AbuAli:
Ok
Mordy Oberstien:
Ok this is from me. Dave Grohl behind the mic or Dave Grohl behind the drums.
Areej AbuAli:
Oh Drums
Mordy Oberstien:
Yes. Thank you! They are all so much better behind the drums. Yes. The drums on that song. What’s it called? No One Knows.
Areej AbuAli:
So good.
Mordy Oberstien:
Awesome. Check that out if you have not checked that out yet. Ok, Yosef, yours.
Yosef Silver:
Scon or Scone
Areej AbuAli:
Scone, sorry
Yosef Silver:
Mordy is like. I don’t know what these people are talking about.
Mordy Oberstien:
What are you talking about? OK, best time of the day.
Areej AbuAli:
Morning. Very early in the morning.
Mordy Oberstien:
What?
Areej AbuAli:
Yes, I am a morning person. Sorry. Can I ask one?
Mordy Oberstien:
Sure
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah. Jam before cream or cream before jam.
Mordy Oberstien:
Neither?
Yosef Silver:
Cream first and then you put the jam on top.
Mordy Oberstien:
I don’t know what’s going on.
Yosef Silver:
On your scone.
Mordy Oberstien:
What’s going on?
Areej AbuAli:
Jam first or cream first?
Yosef Silver:
Cream first and then your jam on top.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes. Cream first. Thank you.
Mordy Oberstien:
Obviously. OK. Living on the Edge or living on a Prayer?
Areej AbuAli:
Living on a Prayer
Mordy Oberstien:
You went with Bon Jovi over Aerosmith?
Areej AbuAli:
No, I was literally thinking what would I do and I never live on the edge.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yosef this one is yours cause I don’t understand it.
Yosef Silver:
You don’t understand at all.
Mordy Oberstien:
No
Yosef Silver:
Marmite or marmalade?
Areej AbuAli:
Oh marmalade. I hate marmite.
Yosef Silver:
Really?
Mordy Oberstien:
What?
Yosef Silver:
I bring it back every time I’m in the UK.
Areej AbuAli:
I can’t. Marmite is like ugg
Mordy Oberstien:
Alright. Keep going, Yosef.
Yosef Silver:
Best time of day to wear pajamas.
Areej AbuAli:
Now that we’re in lockdown. It’s kind of the reason why video isn’t on right now.
Mordy Oberstien:
I will wear the same pants all week because what’s the difference at this point? TMI? It’s like no they’re clean, whatever. I’m not going out. OK, The Will to Live or Will Ferrell.
Areej AbuAli:
Will Ferrell, I guess,
Mordy Oberstien:
Yes
Areej AbuAli:
Even though he kind of sucked in The Office. Are we Office fans?
Mordy Oberstien:
I love The Office.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes
Mordy Oberstien:
I kind of liked it a little bit when he was there.
Areej AbuAli:
I don’t know how I felt about it.
Mordy Oberstien:
It was awkward.
Areej AbuAli:
I liked it at first when I watched it but then every time I watch reruns. I’m like, I don’t know if he did such a great job there.
Mordy Oberstien:
I don’t know, you know, he’s better than what’s the other guy? I don’t know his real name. Robert California. What’s his real name in real life?
Areej AbuAli:
I don’t know. It’s just Robert, California.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, that was… That was not good.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, that was weird.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah, that was very weird. OK, we gotta keep going, we’re running out of time. Yosef.
Yosef Silver:
Daylight Savings Time. Keep it or kill it.
Areej AbuAli:
Kill it. It’s weird. It’s going to happen next week and it’s going to be so dark so soon. I hate it.
Mordy Oberstien:
Don’t understand it. Just leave it the way the world was naturally to be. I don’t know why we have to mess with the clock.
Areej AbuAli:
We canceled it in Egypt. It used to be a thing in Egypt and we canceled it
Mordy Oberstien:
Really. That’s smart.
Areej AbuAli:
We canceled it to work with Ramadan. So like we did it for a specific reason, which feels a little bit like cheating.
Mordy Oberstien:
Yeah. Whatever it works.
Areej AbuAli:
Yep
Mordy Oberstien:
You get to eat earlier,no?
Areej AbuAli:
mmhmm
Mordy Oberstien:
Perfect. OK, your best and worst habit.
Areej AbuAli:
I don’t know my best habit is I get things done all the time, consistently smash it. My worst habit is that I overstress, overthink of every possible worst case scenario and every single circumstance that I’m in, is that a habit?
Mordy Oberstien:
That’s a bad habit. I know that one. Rumination. Not a good habit, but we’re stuck with it. I get it. I totally get that one. OK, this was my question but I’ll let Yosef ask it.
Yosef Silver:
The Queen or Prince Charles?
Areej AbuAli:
The Queen
Mordy Oberstien:
My answer is neither because I don’t understand this but
Yosef Silver:
I think it’s treasonous to not say the queen. I think you are obligated. Like she wants to get her citizenship.
Areej AbuAli:
Exactly
Mordy Oberstien:
Right. That’s true.
Areej AbuAli:
I haven’t gotten through the ceremony yet.
Mordy Oberstien:
But poor Prince Charles. I mean, clearly, a brick already hit him in the face when he was a kid and no one loves him.
Areej AbuAli:
I love The Crown by the way, I love the Crown.
Mordy Oberstien:
Great show, also great show. I love that show.
Yosef Silver:
Yeah, that’s coming out in November. Actually, by the time this airs it might be out.
Areej AbuAli:
Yes
Mordy Oberstien:
Ah I love that. I’m a big history buff, so that’s like right up my alley.
Mordy Oberstien:
Ok, last one. Comb Over or Mohawk?
Areej AbuAli:
What? I don’t know what either one means?
Mordy Oberstien:
OK, a comb over is like, you know, like a bald guy and then he pulls his hair over his bald spot to cover it up or a mohawk where you just have like that one line of hair down the middle. You shave the rest off.
Areej AbuAli:
Comb over, I think. This is weird. I think I’m going to let Yosef ask the questions if that’s ok.
Mordy Oberstien:
OK. So we have to, unfortunately, wrap this up because that’s how, I purposely don’t upgrade to pro on Zoom. So I will keep this short and not ramble on too long because I will just ramble on. This has been both informative because I learned a lot about England that I did not know before, as if to say, I don’t know anything about England. And this was just a joy to talk to you.
Areej AbuAli:
Yeah, this was really fun and thank you for not talking about SEO.
Yosef Silver:
It’s our pleasure. Areej, one final question I’ve been asking people at the end of every show. Is there anyone you would suggest we reach out to or that you’d like to nominate to be a guest on the show in the future?
Areej AbuAli:
Oh so many people… Can I send you like a massive list of all the people I love?
Yosef Silver:
Sure. Send me a list of people you love. That sounds great.
Areej AbuAli:
Definitely. Jamie, Jamie Alberico. It was her birthday today. Definitely do that.
Mordy Oberstien:
Awesome. Thanks Areej.
Areej AbuAli:
Awesome. Thank you so much.