Kerning Cultures

Nagi Daifallah was a young farm worker from Yemen who moved to California in the early 1970s, when he was just 20 years old. He went on to become one of the organisers of the influential 1973 grape strike in California, led by Cesar Chavez. But one night, after a day of striking, he was beaten to death by a local county sheriff outside a restaurant in Lamont, California. Although the sheriff who k...

Over the last half century, as many nations around our region have gained independence or been through regime change, they've have had to ask themselves big questions. Like, what makes our country, our country? What are the symbols that define us? And, who gets to decide the answer to those questions? In our episode today, two stories about the complicated paths two countries took to arrive at tho...

The graceful courtyards of Mexico and Puerto Rico aren't the first places you'd go looking for a secret Islamic history. But a closer look at the tiles and teacups reveals a bloody, beautiful and largely forgotten past. This episode was produced by Alice Fordham and edited by Dana Ballout, with additional support from Alex Atack. Fact checking by Percia Verlin, and sound design and mixing by Moham...

What happens when somebody dies in a country that's not their home? In the UAE, the answer to that is complicated. This week on Kerning Cultures, stories about the families who've had to go through the experience, and the group of volunteers who help repatriate the bodies of foreigners after they've died in the UAE. This episode originally aired in September 2019. Special thanks to Zaki, Max, Ashr...

In 2015, our producer Nadeen Shaker visited the Cairo Genizah in one of Egypt's oldest synagogues. It was the place where, thousands of years ago, the Jews of Egypt literally stored any papers with God's name on them instead of throwing them away. After a prominent Egyptian Jew, Jack Mosseri, discovered the Genizah manuscripts almost a century ago, and his untimely death afterwards, the manuscript...

On August 2nd 1990, the Iraqi military invaded Kuwait City overnight, and its residents woke up to a city under occupation. The only airport was put on lockdown, and the Iraqi military set up checkpoints on the city's streets. The US, UK and Russia condemned the invasion, and some British and American citizens were taken as hostages. But the Indian government had no stake in the conflict, and arou...

Ahmed Twaij explores an often-overlooked issue in the Arab world; racism towards Black Arabs. In this episode, he looks at racism in his own community, taking us from his Iraqi roots, through to modern day slurs still commonly used in many Arab communities around the world. This episode was produced by Ahmed Twaij, with editorial support from Dana Ballout, Nadeen Shaker, Zeina Dowidar and Alex Ata...

As 2020 brought us countless examples of injustice and pain, it brought remembrances that we live in a world in need of more - well, work. And that means scrutinising the cities we live in, the homes we rest in, and… the streets we live on.  Today on Kerning Cultures, we're bringing you two stories about two streets - and the justices and injustices hidden in their names. Follow us to...

After the Armenian Genocide, in which over 1.5 million Christians from the Ottoman Empire were killed by the Ottoman government, the main group of Ottoman leaders behind the atrocities were never made to face justice. They escaped Constantinople in the middle of the night and began new lives undercover in Europe. So, a small group of regular Armenians decided to take justice into their own ha...

Since 2012, Korean pop culture has captured the imagination of people across the Middle East: from K-pop and K-dramas to Korean language classes and even to Korean fried chicken. It's everywhere! But how did we become so obsessed with a culture so different from our own? And how much do we actually know about how it spread to our region? This week on Kerning Cultures, we dive into the highly calcu...

We're excited to announce that season 2 of Kerning Cultures starts next week. Each Thursday, we'll be bringing you new stories from around the Middle East and North Africa. Here's a taste of what's to come... Episode 1 drops on January 28th. Be sure to subscribe to this feed so that you never miss an episode. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month. Hosted o...

While we're gearing up for our next season, we wanted to share a behind the scenes look at what goes into making our episodes. Hear Trancing with the Zars here , and Zabelle here . This behind the scenes episode was produced by Alex Atack with Zeina Dowidar and Nadeen Shaker. Editing by Dana Ballout, and mixing by Mohamad Khreizat. Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support...

For his entire life, Maysam has lived in Dubai. His parents are from Syria, a place he hasn't visited since he was a young child. If you ask him, the UAE is his home. But on paper it isn't, and likely never will be. So what do you do when your home can't be your home forever? This episode was originally broadcast in March 2018, and last week we called Maysam up to hear what's changed for him since...

The Palestine Broadcasting Service started airing in 1936, from a brand new transmitter tower in Ramallah. It was a British station in three languages, aimed at promoting the message of the mandate government throughout the region. But over the following decades, as Palestine saw political upheavals, bloody conflicts and power shifts, the radio station found itself in the middle of it all... and b...

In our day-to-day lives, it's a drink. But for some people, it is not as simple as that. It's a Sufi's spiritual companion, an Emirati's keeper of tradition, and a Yemeni's connection to his homeland. Today, we dive into three stories about coffee, exploring the tradition, culture, and spirituality of this simple bean. This episode was produced by Noon Salih, with editorial support from Alex...

The lower west side of Manhattan used to be home to the biggest population of Arab immigrants in the US. In the early 20th century, streets were full of people speaking Arabic, with street vendors selling ka'ak, storefront baklava displays; this was New York's “Little Syria”. Today though, it's all gone. This week on Kerning Cultures, America's first Arab neighbourhood, and the final a...

In 1979, Iftah Ya Simsim - the Arabic version of Sesame Street - aired for the first time. Over the next ten years, the show was loved by children across the Arab world, until 1990, when the show was pulled off the air as a result of the Gulf War. But Ammar Al Sabban, a young boy growing up watching the show in Jeddah, never forgot the impact his favourite characters had on him. This week, a littl...

Faysal Bibi and his team of palaeontologists have been captivated by this one particular moment that took place in the Abu Dhabi desert seven million years ago. This week, a journey back to a time before the desert was the desert... when elephants, crocodiles and monkeys reigned supreme in the UAE. This episode was produced by Alex Atack, with editorial support from Dana Ballout, Nadeen Shaker, Ta...

In 1968, a trio of Palestinian filmmakers began making films about life under Israeli occupation. Almost 15 years and over 90 films later, their film unit became a dominant force in the Arab film industry. But in 1982, their film reels disappeared. Overnight, decades of footage and thousands of hours of archives were gone. Today on Kerning Cultures, the search for the Palestinian Film Unit's lost...

This week, a special collaboration with one of our all time favourite podcasts: Radiolab . We produced the episode - Lebanon USA - last year, and Radiolab have taken that original story and elevated it to a whole new level. This is a story of a road trip. After a particularly traumatic Valentine's Day, Fadi Boukaram was surfing google maps and noticed that there was a town called Lebanon... in Ore...

We're heartbroken by what happened in Beirut on Tuesday, August 4. Many of us at the Kerning Cultures team are Lebanese, or have close ties to Beirut. So we're taking a break from publishing our episode this week. Instead, we'd like to use this platform to ask you to consider donating what you can to relief efforts like the Lebanese Red Cross . You can find a more thorough list of resources on our...

In the 1960s, a college professor and his group of students were determined to build and launch rockets into space. And so, they did. This week, on Kerning Cultures, a story about the first-ever rocket launched from the Arab world into space. This episode was produced by Tamara Rasamny with editorial support from Dana Ballout, Zeina Dowidar, Alex Atack, Nadeen Shaker, and Hebah Fisher. Sound desig...

In 1917, a musical prodigy called Zabelle Panosian recorded a song that captured the heartbreak of a generation of Armenian Americans in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide. She toured the world, selling thousands of records. And then, she was almost completely forgotten. This is her story.  This episode was produced by Alex Atack with editorial support from Dana Ballout, Tamara Rasamny, N...

For centuries in Egypt, Zar was a music and dance ritual believed to heal women from unwanted spirits that possessed their bodies.  But as time went on and ideologies changed, the practice became controversial and deeply feared. And now, it's mostly gone. Today on Kerning Cultures, join producer Zeina Dowidar on a journey of music, spirits, and trance.  This episode was produced by Zeina...

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 Arab identities, it is undeniable. Today on Kerning Cultures, producer Sara Elhassan on racism in the Arab world. This epis...