Raphael Cormack, visiting researcher at Columbia University, discusses his book, Midnight in Cairo; profiles the amazing women who shaped and dominated Egypt’s music, theater, film, and cabaret scene in the early 20th century against the backdrop of dramatic political and social change; describes the rivalry between Mounira al-Mahdiyya and Oum Kalthoum, the ... Show More
Jan 12
As violent protests continue to rock Iran, survival of country's long-reigning clerical regime has never looked as vulnerable
UK historian Christopher de Bellaige says Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will fight till the bitter end as will the formidable Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp. But their success is no longer guaranteed amid threats of US intervention and a new generation of young ... Show More
27m 2s
Nov 2021
Raphael Cormack, "Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring 20s" (Norton, 2021)
One of the world’s most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and ’30s, a vibrant music, theater, film, and cabaret scene flourished, defining what it meant to be a “modern” Egyptian. Women came to dominate the ... Show More
54m 50s
Feb 2024
The Fake Sheikh | Interview - Reporter Christine Hart on playing the Fake Sheikh’s wife | 4
<p>Christine Hart watched Mazher Mahmood at close range. As a fellow investigative reporter at News of the World in the 90s and 00s, she played roles including the sheikh’s wife, an arms dealer and a stripper. Christine tells Alice Levine what Mahmood was really like, and what he ... Show More
26m 38s
Jun 2021
Caroline Seymour-Jorn, "Creating Spaces of Hope: Young Artists and the New Imagination in Egypt" (AU in Cairo Press, 2021)
It is now just over a decade since protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square started Egypt's chapter in the events of the Arab Spring. Much has been made in western criticism of art and culture's role in the revolution, but the everyday cultural production of studio artists, graffiti art ... Show More
59m 29s