The afikra Podcast

Nadir Nahdi talks about his exploration of the world's cultures through their different cuisines. He discusses his revelations in Morocco, Yemen, and Palestine through Bastilla, coffee steaks, and Jaffa cakes. Nadir Nahdi is a presenter, film-maker and producer from London with Yemeni, Indonesian, Pakistani and Kenyan heritage. Nadir was recently voted by the Evening Standard as one of 'the most i...

Maysoon Pachachi talks about her film "Our River... Our Sky," an Arabic language narrative feature film. The film is a web of intersecting stories that describes a collective drama happening in this time and place... in 2006 Baghdad. Maysoon Pachachi is a London-based filmmaker of Iraqi origin. As a director, she largely works through her production company, Oxymoron Films ( www.oxymoronfilms.com...

يتحدث الشيف محمد كمال عن أساليبه في الطهي النوبي في مصر وكيف يحافظ عليه بين الذاكرة والابداع. محمد كامل هو شيف نوبي متخصص في المأكولات النوبية الحديثة، يمزج تقاليد الماضي مع الأذواق والأساليب الحديثة. نظرًا لأن المطبخ النوبي غير معروف كثيرًا خارج المنطقة النوبية، يطمح كمال إلى الحفاظ على الثقافة حية من خلال تطوره في الأطباق التقليدية. كان أيضًا جزءًا من المنتخب الوطني للشيفات المصريين الذي حصل على...

Malika Zarra takes us on a musical journey to discover Moroccan music. She tells about her newest album "RWA (The Essence)" and about who inspires her the most, from Moroccan Hajja Hamdaouia to Lebanese Farid Al-Atrash and Algerian Warda. Malika is a singer and composer who was born in Southern Morocco and raised in a suburb of Paris. Her musical background is a blend of French and Moroccan influe...

Rula Alami talks about her work at INAASH and her private work as a collector and artistic curator. She talks about Palestinian embroidery "Tatreez" and how its empowers Arab identity and culture. Rula Alami is an art collector, assistant curator and art dealer based in Lebanon. She is the vice president of INAASH Association. She has been engaged in Middle East art market for over 15 years. Her a...

What happens when you take a lawyer turned pastry chef trained in France and mix in Egyptian flavors and heritage? Listen to find out. Beware: don't listen while hungry!  After 10 years of experience in law (studying and working), El Charkawy first discovered her love of cooking while pursuing a Master’s degree in Law in France. Prior to her move, she had hardly ever stepped foot in the kitchen. C...

Iconic Palestinian Artist Sliman Mansour has spent a lifetime inspiring people all over the world with the power of his art. You don't want to miss this conversation. ⁠ Sliman Mansour is one of the most distinguished and renowned artists in Palestine. His style embodies steadfastness in the face of a relentless military occupation. His work — which has come to symbolize the Palestinian national id...

From Shankaboot to Brando Al Sharek, we talk with innovative Emmy-winning filmmaker Amin Dora about cinema, advertising, working with George Khabbaz, Shankaboot, Beirut, and where we are today in TV and Film in Lebanon.⁠ Amin Dora is an Emmy-Winning Film Director and Visual Artist, born and raised in Zahle, Lebanon. Dora won "International Emmy Award" in 2011 for Shankaboot, the world's first Arab...

Talking to the Khatt Chronicles team, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, Yasmine Taan, Yara Khoury Nammour & Fawzi Rahal, about the new season of the Khatt Chronicles. We talk about the history of graphic design in the region and what people can expect from season 2 of Khatt Chronicles. Khatt Chronicles podcast features remarkable designers, illustrators and researchers from the Arab World. We host engag...

Helping facilitate positive impact and growth in disaster struck communities, Theresa Chahine talks about the importance of social entrepreneurship and enabling sustainable businesses and organizations. Teresa Chahine is the inaugural Sheila and Ron '92 Marcelo Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship at the Yale School of Management. She is the author of "Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship," a tw...

Bringing Iraqi food into the English food scene, Chef Philip Juma is keeping the essence of the Iraqi home alive with his Kubba, Quozi, and Dolma at Juma Kitchen. Philip Juma studied Economics for Business and started his career in finance. Throughout his time in finance, he always loved cooking – he would speak about food, restaurants, hospitality with such enthusiasm but it was just a ‘passion’...

We're delighted to revisit the history of the Ottoman empire with Dina Rizk Khoury in this episode of the Afikra podcast. We learn about the exchanges and interactions between the Ottoman Empire, the British, and the French and the systems they relied on in order to maintain control of their populations. This includes different garments for classifying their internal rankings as well as nationalit...

Welcome to this episode of the Afikra Book Club with the engaging Joumana Haddad who takes us on a journey through her past and upbringing in Bourj Hammoud to uncover family sorrows and share the stories of those left scathed by the Armenian genocide. Joumana Haddad is an award-winning Lebanese writer, journalist, university professor and human rights advocate. She’s worked for Lebanon’s An Nahar...

On this episode of afikra, Walid Siti shares with us the origins and the stories behind his solemn pieces, from his life in Duhok and Ljubljana, Slovenia, to his start in printmaking, to the creation of works such as the "Seven Towers", "Climbing To Nowhere", and "The Black Tower." We touch upon the themes of large culminating structures, the recurrent climbing in a life, the return to memory, and...

Khaled Barakeh talked about his art work on reframing moments of dissonance, and often outright injustice, in political, and social structures. Khaled Barakeh is a conceptual artist and cultural activist. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 2005 and received his MFA from Funen Art Academy in Odense, Denmark, in 2010. In 2013, he completed a Meisterschuler study at the Städels...

On this episode of Quartertones we're talking with Nubian-rooted Egyptian singer Nesma Herky who takes us to the origins of her interest in singing. We then listen to her work starting with Amary, continuing with Ne3eesh Be3eed, and end with her rendition of Mohamed Mounir's Ya Marakby. Nesma Herky is a marvelous Nubian rooted Egyptian singer and a skillful music composer, who is taking steady ste...

Justin K. Stearns talked about his work as professor of Arab Crossroads Studies at NYUAD and his research in contagion and diseases in Al-Andalus and North Africa. Justin Stearns received his BA in English and History from Dartmouth College in 1998 and his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 2007. He is a Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. H...

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige talked about their multidisciplinary work as artists, photographers, and filmmakers. They discussed their art work and installations, as well as their movies, notably Memory Box. Filmmakers and artists, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige question the fabrication of images and representations, the construction of imaginaries, and the writing of history. Their...

Reem Assil talked about her culinary approach at her restaurant 'Reem's California,' in addition to her chosen single ingredient that can be used in different dishes and desserts: Ashta. Reem Assil is a Palestinian-Syrian chef based in Oakland, CA. She is the owner of Reem’s California, a nationally acclaimed restaurant, inspired by her passion for Arab street corner bakeries and the vibrant commu...

Amir Nizar Zuabi and Samar Haddad King talk about the inception and process behind Yaa Samar!'s dance theatre performance: Last Ward which follows one man’s journey towards death in a hospital room. They also share with us how they met and began collaborating and discuss how far identity extends into their work. This episode is in collaboration with the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. Amir Nizar Zua...

Manal Al Dowayan talked about her interrogation of the gender-biased customs in Saudi Arabia and its metamorphosis through her art work and installations. Manal Al Dowayan’s practice navigates a territory where the personal and the political overlap. Her works spring from lived experiences—these intimate encounters with social injustice, the pangs of memory and forgetting. Yet her pieces are consi...

Vanessa Paloma Elbaz talked about her research in Jewish music. We listened to Chant Juif pour la Naissance by Mme. Azeroual, Habibi Lawel by Habiba Messika, and La Llorona by Chavela Vargas. Vanessa Paloma Duncan-Elbaz has a Ph. D. from the Sorbonne’s CERMOM research group of the INALCO (Center for Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Studies of the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civil...

Amal Ghandour talked about her book 'This Arab Life,' where she explores common cultural and societal issues that most generations in the Arab world face. Amal Ghandour is a Lebanese-Jordanian author and blogger (Thinking Fits), with a career that spans more than three decades in the fields of research, communication, and community development. Her book, About This Man Called Ali (2009), was named...

Rami Yasin talked about his movie "Bloodline", “the first Arab vampire film.” Rami Yasin is a filmmaker and the founder of Breakout Films in Dubai. He was introduced to the world of cinema by his father who worked in film and television. After directing and producing television commercials for almost a decade, Rami seized an opportunity to work as a casting director and first assistant director in...

Ashraf Fagih talked about science fiction in the Arab world; a topic yet to be explored. Through his writings, Fagih talked about historical fantasy and mainstream culture. Ashraf Fagih (Saudi Arabia) is a writer born in 1977. He obtained a PhD in Computing from Queen’s University in Canada and is an assistant Professor at the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. He began writing fiction...