A Host’s Joy: Celebrating Andrea B. Mohammad’s Memoir And The Power Of True Stories

A small book with a big heartbeat can rearrange how you think about storytelling. We sat down with author Andrea B. Mohammad to explore a memoir that’s barely sixty pages yet feels larger than many epics—tight, tender, and impossible to put down after the first dedication. The conversation stayed true to our blueprint: no rehearsal, no scripts, just space for a guest to speak the story only she can tell. That openness changed the energy in the room and, judging by the surge in downloads, it traveled straight through your headphones.

Across the hour, we unpack why brevity can sharpen emotion, how a focused narrative clears out noise, and what it means to honor family and loss without flattening complexity. Andrea shares the moments that shaped her voice, and we talk about reading the book more than once because each pass reveals a new angle—an image, a choice, a prayer that reframes the whole. If long biographies invite you to visit in pieces, this memoir invites you to sit and stay. It’s a different kind of depth: concentrated, luminous, and memorable.

We also pull back the curtain on our format. By letting guests lead, we trade polish for presence and watch authentic stories find the audiences who need them most—often beyond our social media circles. That’s why past episodes keep growing long after release; truth doesn’t age out. If you’re drawn to real voices, faith-infused resilience, and the craft of telling your own story, you’ll feel at home here. Give the episode a listen, pick up Andrea B. Mohammad’s book, and let us know the line that stayed with you.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves true stories, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find these voices. Your words help the next story find its people.

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Chapters

• 3:28 Thanking Guest And Listeners
• 4:19 Why The Memoir Hits So Hard
• 6:05 Download Milestone And Season Eight Joy
• 6:50 No-Rehearsal Format And Guest-Centered Stories
• 7:58 Family, Future Reads, And More Stories Ahead
• 10:03 Authentic Audiences Beyond Social Media
• 11:47 Evergreen Episodes And Last Thanks

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 2:19

Hey there, I'm Regina Soren. I want to take a moment to thank my guests from this past weekend, Andrea B. Mohammed, for coming on my podcast, sharing her memoir. I lost my voice. What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful show. Ah, and thank you for those who are currently downloading the show. Thank you. Um I would love for you to go over and and and show some love to uh Andrea Muhammad. Show her some love, you know, by um giving a review and you can only give a review though if you get the book and and read it and and purchase the book and read and give those five stars and it's such a great book. And I don't say that lightly, I really mean it. I mean I read the book three times and now it's three times and a half, because it's almost four times, is that good of a book. The only other book, and I'm not gonna include the Bible because I'm always reading the Bible, but as far as books goes and novels and memoirs, um I remember reading this unauthorized book uh about Marilyn Monroe life, and it's it was called Legend. I remember reading that back about ten years ago. I loved it. So I enjoyed reading it, but it was one of those types of books that y you read a little bit now, you read a little bit later, and a little bit later, and then later, later, later, because it was hundreds of pages. Hundreds. But in Andrea Mohammed's book, there's not a hundred pages, you know. You got roughly 50, 60 pages, I think, somewhere in that era, if that, and it's such a great book. It's such a great book, and she packs so much into that small novel, not very long. So I'm really truly excited. I wanted to make this podcast to come on here and say that uh I appreciate all of you who are downloading it today. I looked at the downloads and I was saying, woo! You know, I felt like hitting one of those Michael Jackson notes like whoo! But um I'm really happy. It makes me feel good when I when I do a show and I see the downloads and I and so far it's been so wonderful. My season eight has been off the chain watching and and and listening to and and looking at how many many people really tune in. And on the flip side, how do I know you tune in when you go back and you download the podcast? And so thank you so much for enjoying that show because she really um we didn't rehearse anything, we did that podcast, there was no rehearsal. My podcasts are not rehearsed. I always tell my guests, I want you to tell your story, and I think that's why my show differ a lot from most people, because I let the guests come on and I let them just kind of do their thing, you know, like you know, within boundaries, of course, but they can come on and feel at ease and and relax to be able to tell their story because nobody, and I'm gonna always say this no one can ever tell your story or your testimony or or your prayer, no one can ever do that better than you can. So that's why my show is always bent around the person telling their own story. So I'm so overjoyed right now. I feel so good because I'm so happy the way everything turned out over the weekend. I really thank my guest, Andrea B. Mohammed. Great job, great job, young lady, great job. So, and a great book, you know, and I'm so thankful to her, her family, her sons, her late beautiful daughter, Brianna, um, her twin sister, uh Andrea, who has a book also. I'm going to, I'm going to, I just um got around to getting ready to purchase her book so I could read her book so I can um have a conversation with Andrea as well. So I'm looking forward to this. This is getting to be so much fun for me, you know, to let people come on and tell their story because the podcast is uh my show is bringing you stories from people of all walks of life. All walks of life. Everyone has a different story to tell. And I love those authentic stories because when it's a true story, I don't care if it's somebody coming on want to make up stuff or anything like that. But everybody that comes on and um it's always a true story, and and that and and my audience can tell when it's a true story. So I'm so happy. Sorry guys, so carried away, but I'm so happy. So again, I want to thank my guests from this week past weekend, Andrea B. Mohammed. I truly thank her so much for coming on, sharing our story. It was a great, great story. Oh my god. Just everything I read in that book, it it it it it was such a gripping story that when I started out reading the first page of the dedications, uh, and then once I started reading reading the first page, it was no looking back. It was like read one page, okay, go to the next, and go to the next, and go to the next. And it's just absolutely great, great. So I'm thankful. I'm truly, truly thankful that the Lord has blessed my podcast over at iHeartRadio and has blessed it to the people who tune in, I put it to you this way, the people who tune into my podcast are the people who the Lord wants to tune in because every single guest has a target audience that that like their particular type of stuff that they're talking about. So one once um guests might have a certain audience here, another guest may have a certain audience over here, another guest may have might have a certain audience right here, but it's always a targeted audience that's waiting for that material. And so, and I don't mean in like it exceeds your friends at Facebook, it exceeds your friends at TikTok, it exceeds your friends at m Instagram, it exceeds your friends on any of the social media sites. These are people who are downloading are people that don't know you or know me, but they do know the podcast and they hear the story and they hear your story, and I'm always so grateful because that's why I like to get the story, get it done, get it out there, because once I know it's out there, then I know that people are listening, downloading, and enjoying. And so, yeah. So thanks again to um to all who uh listen to the show, who are still listening, because once I put a podcast out, it it's fresh and everybody's listening. Trust me, even a month later, um uh Eldre Davis podcast, they're still listening, they're still downloading, they're still talking about what he was talking about. So honestly, there is no old podcast. I mean, people really like what they like, and it's just it's just the way it is. So, thank you to those who listen, and um, on that note, I guess I better be going. Yeah, I guess I better be going. And Regina's warning, thank you so much. Goodbye.