Conversations with Ricardo Karam

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Dr. Antoine Hakime, Head of the Interventional Radiology Unit at the American Hospital of Paris, for a conversation about medicine, family, and ambition. A French doctor of Lebanese origins, Antoine reflects on his childhood between Paris and Lebanon, leaving during the war, and the influence of his parents on his journey. He shares ho...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Nicole Salem Ackaouy for a conversation about education, family legacy, independence, and a life that does not always unfold as planned. From Bshamoun, a town associated with education, culture, and public service, to Ras Beirut, where she grew up in a diverse environment, Nicole reflects on the influence of her family and upbringing i...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Joumana Chahal Timery for a dialogue about Tripoli, memory, heritage, identity, and the deep connection between people and the places they call home. After years in France, where she studied French literature, built a family, and created a life of her own, Joumana returned to Tripoli a city she had never truly left behind. Her ret...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Kinda Adra for a dialogue about migration, identity, motherhood, mental health, and the journey of finding oneself in a new place. From Lebanon to Canada, Kinda’s journey was not simply a move from one country to another, but a transformative experience through which she rediscovered herself and reshaped both her professional and...

Send us Fan Mail Ricardo Karam sits down with Fady Michel AbouChalache for a conversation about investment, entrepreneurship, leadership, and the building of lasting institutions. From Beirut to Wharton and Harvard, and later New York, Boston, and London, AbouChalache has spent more than three decades in finance and investment. His journey took him from investment banking to entrepreneurship and l...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Dr. Tarick Smiley for a dialogue about beauty, identity, medicine, and the delicate relationship between how we look and how we see ourselves. From his beginnings in Ohio to Beverly Hills, California, Dr. Smiley has built an international career in plastic and reconstructive surgery, combining medical expertise, scientific researc...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Richard Kouyoumjian for a dialogue about war, politics, exile, faith, Lebanon, and the human being behind the political figure. Richard Kouyoumjian entered public life at a young age, shaped by a Lebanon marked by conflict, political divisions, fear, and loss. He experienced the war firsthand, lost friends, left Lebanon in 1994, a...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Charles Arbid for a dialogue about entrepreneurship, ambition, Lebanon, and the responsibility that comes with success. From the world of business to the leadership of economic and social institutions, Charles Arbid has spent decades building companies, supporting Lebanese industry, helping local brands expand beyond Lebanon, and...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Professor Philip Salem for a dialogue about medicine, cancer, hope, and the human being behind every diagnosis. From Lebanon to the United States, Philip Salem carried with him a passion for science and devoted more than five decades of his life to understanding and confronting cancer, not only as a physician and researcher, but a...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Nijad Fares for a dialogue about entrepreneurship, leadership, Lebanon, philanthropy, and the responsibility that comes with success. Born into a Lebanese family and raised with a strong sense of belonging and service, Nijad Fares built an international career in business and investment while remaining deeply connected to Lebanon...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Sarah Trad in a conversation about memory, hospitality, reinvention, and the art of transforming a personal story into a place of meaning. Raised between worlds, from Jeddah to Lebanon and beyond, Sarah grew up in a home open to people, encounters, and conversation. That early sense of generosity would later shape many chapters of her...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Lebanese actor and playwright Joe Kodeih in a dialogue that moves beyond theatre into the deeper terrain of identity, fragility, and what remains when life itself becomes an unpredictable stage. From his early beginnings in theatre, Joe reflects on the stage as both a mirror of society and a space of confrontation where language i...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Ghida Rabbat in a deeply human conversation about motherhood, difference, inclusion, and the long journey of turning a personal challenge into a collective mission. As a mother of a child with special needs and the cofounder of OpenMinds, Ghida reflects on the years that shaped her understanding of autism, care, education, and dignity....

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Rindala Beydoun in a conversation about roots, leadership, belonging, and the meaning of responsibility in a changing region. Born from a journey shaped between Bint Jbeil, Tyre, Saida, the United States, Dubai, and Beirut, Rindala reflects on the experiences that formed her understanding of citizenship, identity, and public engagement...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam meets Amal Azhari in a deeply personal conversation that goes beyond fashion into memory, identity, and resilience, where design becomes a reflection of lived experience and inner strength. The conversation traces her journey from a career in communications and public relations to the founding of her own couture house, exploring the courage it takes...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Mariana Wehbe in a profound conversation that explores a remarkable personal and professional journey shaped by displacement, reinvention, and the continuous redefinition of identity and belonging. The dialogue begins with formative chapters of her life, moving from Abu Dhabi to the United States before a pivotal relocation to Lebanon...

Send us Fan Mail The conversation begins with a reflection on human nature after decades spent covering wars, revolutions, genocides, and political upheavals, opening broader questions about truth, leadership, and the state of the world today. The discussion explores Amanpour’s journey as one of the most respected international journalists of her generation, her experiences interviewing presidents...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Abed Al Kadiri in a conversation that goes beyond art as an aesthetic space, where color becomes testimony, the canvas a space of survival, and art an act of confronting human pain. The dialogue begins with the image of a displaced child, scattered paper and colors, opening questions about art as it moves from galleries into a fracture...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Farid Chedid in a conversation that goes beyond insurance and business, exploring the journey of a man who built, from Lebanon, a network of trust that expanded across the region and the world, in an industry fundamentally built around uncertainty and risk. The discussion begins with the meaning of insurance in times of war and collaps...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Diala El Fil in a deeply human conversation that goes beyond personal grief to explore the journey of a mother who faced profound loss and searched for a new meaning to life through pain. From the moment everything changed, Diala reflects on a journey that cannot truly be explained in words, but lived through everyday moments, where lo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ricardo Karam sits down with Antonio Vincenti in a conversation that goes beyond advertising to explore a journey that reshaped public space across Arab cities, turning the street from chaos into a visual language that shapes urban memory. From Lebanon to Amman, Baghdad, Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, Africa, and Europe, Antonio reflects on how “Picasso” began as an out...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Lebanese doctor, thinker, and humanitarian Dr. Kamel Mohanna in a dialogue that goes beyond biography to explore a life shaped by commitment, witness, and action in times of collapse. From his early beginnings to his college years in France, during moments of conflict in Lebanon, Dr. Mohanna reflects on what it means to choose pro...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Lebanese entrepreneur Assaad Raphael in a dialogue that goes beyond automobiles to explore passion as a form of resistance, and the meaning of building something meaningful in a country defined by uncertainty. From an early fascination with cars that gradually became a defining part of his identity, Assaad reflects on how passion...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Lebanese Olympian Samer Tawk in a dialogue that goes far beyond sport, tracing a journey shaped not only by achievement, but by rupture, resilience, and the quiet reconstruction of the self. From choosing an unlikely path in a country where winter sports are rare, to representing Lebanon on the Olympic stage in PyeongChang, Samer...

Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Ricardo Karam sits down with Nabil “Billy” Karam, eight-time Lebanese rally and hill climb champion, entrepreneur, extraordinary collector, and holder of six Guinness World Records titles. In a discussion that goes beyond speed, we explore how passion becomes identity, collecting becomes responsibility, and sports transform into a cultural legacy. From his ea...