Love Lessons From Ramy Youssef’s Dog

Modern Love

The New York Times

Storytelling, Nytimes, Nyt, Redemption, New York Times, Society & Culture, Loss, Essay, Love

4.3 • 9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When people stop Ramy Youssef on the street, it's usually not because they're mega-fans of his comedy. Instead, they mostly just want to pet his dog. It's not until they walk away, he says, that they recognize him from his semiautobiographical sitcom, "Ramy," or his latest special, "Ramy Youssef: In Love." In fact, Youssef’s dog, Basha, is a big part of the special and has become a major part of his life, even if he does sometimes steal the spotlight. On this episode of “Modern Love,” Youssef tells Anna Martin, our host, what he has learned about unconditional love from Basha. He reads a Modern Love essay from the archive, in which the writer describes working at an animal rescue and how watching humans in the midst of the adoption process redeemed them a little in her eyes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love now and...
0:03.4	Love, but stronger than anything...
0:07.0	For the love love.
0:08.0	And I love you more than anything.
0:10.0	What is love?
0:11.0	Love!
0:12.0	Love!
0:13.0	From the New York Times, I'm Anna Martin.
0:19.0	This is Modern Love, and today I'm talking to comedian Rami Yousif.
0:23.9	I first learned about Rami by watching Rami, the sitcom he wrote and starred in.
0:29.3	The show was inspired by his own life, growing up as a first-generation Egyptian-American Muslim guy in New Jersey.
0:36.5	The show was funny and heartfelt, and I remember thinking,
0:40.0	this Rami guy seems like the rare comedian who actually is kind of a sweetie,
0:44.1	like he was edgy, but he also just seemed very kind.
0:48.2	Now he's got a new special out.
0:50.2	It's called Rami Yusuf In Love.
0:52.9	And when I heard that title, I was like, that sweet side of him is going to come out even more. Maybe he'll talk about his wife. I know he got married a few years ago. And in the special, he does talk about his wife. But he also talks about his dog. Like a lot. He really talks about his dog. So today, we're leaning in, and we are doing a dog episode.
1:13.8	Rami and I talk about the kind of unconditional love that you really can only get from a dog.
1:18.5	Because dogs, they don't judge you.
1:21.1	They can't ghost you.
1:22.2	They can't gossip about you.
1:23.5	They can't them or request you for half the drinks at the bar that they suggested at the date that they plant.
	...

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