Stories of Our City

The kingdom of Jordan has a long, storied history and tradition. But the collective understanding of the nation’s heritage in the eyes of its millions of residents can be anything but cohesive. This is where Firas Khlaifat and his company, Jordan Heritage, come in. Jordan Heritage exists to help give Jordanians a common understanding of their past and a shared ambition for their future through the...

As one of the world’s most populous cities, Istanbul boasts more than its share of human residents. But this famed historic city also boasts its share of another kind of resident: the fluffy, furry kind. The many cats and dogs of Istanbul’s streets have nuzzled their way into the hearts of many of the city’s residents, who at large have welcomed their fellow city-dwellers, who serve as one of the...

In our previous episode, we shared the story of Sonya Iverson, a slacklining and highlining enthusiast who shared how these related sports have helped her succeed in life beyond the line. In part two of this two-part story, Sonya shares how her passion for slacklining has compelled her to start an organization that she believes can change the world by helping refugees and connecting and empowering...

To some, slacklining, along with its cousin highlining, is nothing more than an extreme and dangerous sport. But to Sonya Iverson, a geneticist by training, slacklining is a passion and a path to overcoming more than just a fear of heights. In part one of this two-part story, hear Sonya explain the sport of slacklining and how it has helped her succeed in life beyond the strip of webbing.

After graduating college, Gaith Jann became a successful insurance risk analyst in his native Jordan. But after only a few years he became jaded by the business world, which left him hungering for a more meaningful life. Enter a love for books. Follow Gaith’s journey from a twenty something businessman to an unorthodox street librarian who sells books from his 1974 Mercedes.

In our previous episode, we shared the story of Cathy Rude and Connie Blokkum, two midwives who collectively started a birthing center in west Houston, Texas, six years ago. This week, hear Connie share more about the privileges of being a midwife, particularly in being able to encourage women in all aspects of their lives, both medically and spiritually.

In a labor of love, three Texas midwives collectively started and are running a birthing center in the west Houston city of Katy six years ago. Hear from two of these women, Cathy Rude and Connie Blokkum, as they share pieces of their journey and how they are loving and serving their community by following their passion for giving other mothers a safe, non-medicated and natural birthing option.

Nasser Shorbaji, aka Chyno, is a bit of an anomaly. The son of a Syrian-Filipino couple from Damascus, Chyno—whose mother tongue is English— works as a hip-hop artist based out of Beirut, Lebanon. His feeling as a sort of outlier in the various environments he has found himself in throughout life is what originally drew him to hip-hop. Hear Chyno share about the genre’s rich diversity, its power t...

For some, cross-stitch may conjure up images of sewing circles in the olden days or of simple patterns stitched using five shades of the same color. Elif ( pronounced "a-leaf" ), a native of Turkey, is seeking to challenge that traditional image of stitching by creating pieces that appeal to younger generations. While comfortable being a self-proclaimed 'old-soul', through her artwork Elif is serv...

Life can be very dangerous for Iraqis who have worked with the United States Army during the Iraq War. Even for those who leave their Iraqi homeland, in many cases, their families and relatives left behind still remain vulnerable. Such is the case of Noor, who has since immigrated to the United States, leaving her family behind in her motherland. Now in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen, Noor...

For Issa Dababneh of Jolly Man Beef Jerky in Amman, Jordan, making beef jerky is more than a business—it’s a passion. Raised as the son of an owner of a grocery store chain in Chicago, a young Issa was given an ultimatum by his father about his habit of consuming the stores’ stock of beef jerky: Buy it, stop eating it, or make it yourself.

When Eddie, a young native of Seville, Spain, got tired of his homeland and caught the travel bug he decided to move to Paris on a whim. Without a job awaiting upon arrival, the obvious question haunted him: ‘Will I find a job before I run out of money?’ 

Introducing our first video podcast! Last month, we shared the story of Syrian artist Omar Ibrahim. In this week's video podcast we pick up with part two of Omar’s story, in which he expresses the ongoing struggle he faces as a refugee in Paris, seeking to succeed in his life and art for the sake of his family far away.

For Omar Ibrahim, art is an extension of existence and self. As a Syrian, he cannot escape the imprint of the ongoing Syrian war upon his life, his family, and his mind ... and, therefore, ultimately on his art. It is a reality he reluctantly embraces, while at the same time bravely seeks to change through his artwork and life.

American sitcoms first turned Meriç, a Turkish college graduate, on to life in the United States when he was a teenager. A trip to New York a couple summers ago further piqued his interest in the American Dream shared by many worldwide. Even given the current political climate in the U.S., Meriç keeps hope that he will one day be able to live out his dream on American soil.

Like rock n’ roll before it, hip-hop started mainly as a cultural movement decades ago that spread worldwide, affecting even the far reaches of the earth. The Middle East is no exception. In this week’s podcast hear two members of Lebanon’s live hip-hop band Fareeq El Atrash share about their beginnings as a musical group and about their contribution to the still fairly nascent, but highly promisi...

Miral is an Algerian native studying in Jordan who is seeking to be a catalyst for changing the lingua franca of her homeland from the long-standing French language. Learn the motivation behind this young woman’s dream and how she seeks to help fulfill it.

Middle Easterners are some of the biggest football fans in the world—football as in soccer. But Hussam Al-Yaseen, a pre-med student who founded the Jordanian American Football League (JAFL), hopes to see American football become just as popular in his Arab homeland. Learn how he came to discover and fall in love with the sport and how he is helping to spread football culture in Jordan.

Musician couple Martin Watkinson and Cherita Meadows met at a party in Portland, Oregon, years ago and now play music together as part of the group Gaea, the namesake of the Greek goddess. Hear how a tragic house fire pushed them back out on the road to share their music with the world and how music has helped in the healing process.

Moroccan culture, generally speaking, is a high-context culture with a rich tradition and age-old customs. Listen as Mariam shares about why she loves being a Moroccan and how Moroccans really love to celebrate and practice hospitality through weddings.

Peggy is a native of Iran attending business school at the University of Texas and helping to run her family business. Listen as she shares the story of her family’s move to America from Turkey and about the adjustments and people that made their mark in her memories.

Ivo is an avid lover of life and nature from the majestic mountains of Switzerland. Learn how he succeeded as a bar owner in his small village’s nightlife scene and what eventually brought him out of the party lifestyle.

Jeffrey Zie, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, was down on his luck after getting fired from his job and owing court fees while on probation. Desperate for quick money to avoid a foreboding jail sentence, he resorted to his old game of selling weed, which landed him six months in prison—28 days of which he spent in solitary confinement. What happened in that eight by eleven foot cell changed...

“If I die today, what impact have I made on this earth?” Listen as Thread Life founder Efua Mensah-Brown shares how her journey to find purpose led her to discover the world of unethical fashion, and ultimately to the creation of a company that is impacting lives around the world.

Have you ever had to do something that seemed impossible to achieve? Learn how Maryam creatively managed to overcome a challenging school assignment … and how she helped others do the same in the process.