In the late 2000s, halfway across the world from the premiere event in the pop culture scene—the San Diego Comic Con—a young man couldn’t understand why the Middle East didn’t have one of these mega events for the aficionados of comic books & pop culture. Pull up a chair & join our conversation with Arafaat Ali Khan, co-founder of the Middle East Fil ... Show More
Nov 2024
“The thing that makes podcasting great is that it’s audio first.” James Cridland on the state of the podcast industry
On a special bonus episode, James talks to me about the state of the podcast industry, the audio versus video conversation, and his thoughts on its future. Links: The Vergecast: They’re called “Podcasts” Podnews: Why is all the podcasting money in the US by Will Page The decentra ... Show More
38m 53s
Nov 2024
Trailer: James Cridland on building the platform that powers podcast industry reporting
On a special episode coming this week, I’m sitting down with James Cridland, founder & editor of Podnews.net, *the* place to get all your podcast news, and then some. Over two episodes, we’ll get into the genesis of the platform and get James’ insights on the latest shifts in the ... Show More
1m 25s
Feb 2024
Decolonizing & Decentering Theater in the Arab World | Laila Soliman
A captivating conversation with theater director and playwright Laila Soliman about theater, cultural discourse and decolonization across the Arab world. Using three of her major works – Zigzag, La Grande Maison and her first opera Woman at Point Zero – as reference, we discuss w ... Show More
59m 39s
Jul 2022
Clash of titans in the Middle East
The leaders of the two most powerful countries, the US and Russia, were in the Middle East. Of course, each of them is trying to pursue their interests. President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin didn’t meet with each other, but why were these two leaders there? A ... Show More
21m 9s
Jun 2022
A new era in Middle Eastern politics?
Just two years ago, the idea of having Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Emir of Qatar visiting Turkey and Egypt, would have been a crazy fantasy. Now, it became a reality. In this episode: Jamal Elshayyal (@JamalsNews), Senior Correspondent, Al Jazeera English Credi ... Show More
21m 12s
Oct 2022
Ep 2 - Netflix, Boundaries and Film in the Arab world
In this episode I explore the world of film in the Arab world and talk to directors and producers who are pushing the boundaries. I speak to Jordan’s Tima Shomali, director of an Arabic language original Netflix series Al Rawabi School for Girls, a huge hit about teenage girls an ... Show More
46m 20s
Oct 2020
Recording tradition with Derya Yildirim, Yousra Mansour, Hasan Nakhleh and Merve Erdem
A very exciting show this week, featuring the best artists from west Asia and north Africa. Turkish singer and saz player Derya Yildirim from Grup Simsek chats to Yousra Mansour, Hasan Nakhleh and Merve Erdem about how they work in the studio, what their songs tell us about tradi ... Show More
33m 32s
<p>This is a conversation with <a href="https://twitter.com/anajibakhti">Naji Bakhti</a>, author of the novel <a href="https://www.influxpress.com/between-beirut-and-the-moon" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><em>Between Beirut and the Moon</em></a> (2020), published by ... Show More
