logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2018
27m 52s

Secrets 3 – Broken Dreams

Radiotopia
About this episode

Secrets is a show about the secrets we all carry inside of us. What happens when you’re too ashamed to face the truth? 

Mohamed’s parents both worked as cleaners, trying to earn enough money to feed six children. When Mohamed was just a year old, his father left his mother in Sweden and travelled back to Morocco, leaving her alone to raise their children. She continued to work day and night to make ends meet. 

Since Mohamed’s childhood, thousands more immigrants have arrived in Sweden with dreams of a different life. In episode three we meet Zakaria Hersi, who was too ashamed to tell his father, who was living with him, that he was unemployed. Instead he spent months in the public library, pretending every morning to commute to a job that didn’t exist. 

Secrets is produced and hosted by Mohamed El Abed and Martin Johnson, with additional reporting by Åsa Secher, from the Swedish production company, Soundtelling. Executive producer is Julie Shapiro. Artwork is by Sepidar Hosseini, and music is by Min stora sorg.

Secrets is a production of Showcase, from PRX’s Radiotopia. Find out more and listen to the previous series, Ways of Hearing and The Polybius Conspiracy, at radiotopia.fm/showcase.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Up next
Jul 29
Introducing: Forever is a Long Time
When Ian Coss decided to get married, every living member of his family who had ever been married had also gotten divorced: parents, grandparents, and all his aunts and uncles on both sides — some of them twice. Today, he has questions: What is the value of a lifetime commitment? ... Show More
32m 57s
Jul 8
We're Doing The Wiz 4 - Pass the Squeeze
It's opening night. Will PVPA pull it off? And almost 20 years later, the cast reflects on the impact doing The Wiz had on their lives.The series is made possible in part by a grant from Mass Humanities, which provided funding through the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Learn mor ... Show More
40m 12s
Jul 1
We're Doing The Wiz 3 - You Don’t Hit White Girls
Rehearsals are in full swing. But while most students are focused on their songs and dance steps, a tense backstage drama threatens the entire production.The series is made possible in part by a grant from Mass Humanities, which provided funding through the Massachusetts Cultural ... Show More
34m 30s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2022
The Sleeping Children
In 2012, a Yazidi family fled to Sweden in the hope of a better life, far from persecution. After nearly six troubled years struggling to seek asylum without proper paperwork, their traumatised daughter “fell asleep” - and didn't wake up again for another five years. For half a d ... Show More
47m 57s
Jul 2020
Ugly Truth
This is the ugly truth: racism and anti-Blackness in the Arab world is a common practice and a subject so taboo that many have convinced themselves that it doesn't even exist. But for those of us who live in these societies, and who are caught at the intersection of Black and Ara ... Show More
22m 25s
Oct 2019
A Tale of Two Inventors
His whole life, Walid Waked had been told that his great grandfather invented the Arabic typewriter. And then, one day, he learned that another family - the Haddads - believed they invented it. This week on Kerning Cultures: the contested history of the Arabic typewriter.Thank yo ... Show More
29m 45s
Apr 2024
S4 EP7 | The Forgotten People - Part 1
There’s no doubt that faith is a journey and fighting to protect one’s faith is an honorable struggle. But what happens when you embark on a journey without a guide - or even worse, a guide who has gone astray? This week’s episode sheds light on the grim reality of what happens w ... Show More
56m 33s
Sep 2022
Three Secret Scandals From The Don’t Worry Darling Premiere
On the show today… Married At First Sight stars Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli have announced they are expecting a baby. During the announcement, Martha also shared the health diagnosis that has kept her off social media for months. And Brendan Fraser was brought to tear ... Show More
17m 55s
Jul 2022
The Secret Somali Tapes
It’s 1988, and Somalis are fleeing the city of Hargeisa. People are trying to get out, trying to save their families. But in the city’s radio station, staff are packing cassettes and reel to reel recordings into a secret underground bunker. On them: A slice of their country’s mus ... Show More
29m 44s
Apr 2021
Found Sound
Two stories of music getting lost… and then found again. A record producer unearths a Moroccan masterpiece in the back of a dusty electronics shop in Casablanca, sending him on a long and complicated mission to find out what happened to the artist. And, a song that was never mean ... Show More
47m 19s
Jan 2019
أسيرات محررات: ضجيج الشهرة
لينا خطاب وعهد التميمي ٬أسيرتان محررتان٬ ترويان لنا ظروف التحقيق والاعتقال القاسية٬ كما تحكيان لنا عن معاناة تجاوزت حدود السجن Lina Khattab and Ahed Tamimi were arrested as teenagers. Their stories are years apart, but at the time of their imprisonment, people around the world st ... Show More
25m 58s
May 2024
S4 EP8 | The Forgotten People - Part 2
Sometimes to fight for your faith is truly a fight of survival in systems that were not designed to welcome you. In part 2 of this story, our guest Sara recounts her painful experiences of being incarcerated as a teenager in France and her reflections on what it truly means to ex ... Show More
41 m