Kerning Cultures

It’s 1988, and Somalis are fleeing the city of Hargeisa. People are trying to get out, trying to save their families. But in the city’s radio station, staff are packing cassettes and reel to reel recordings into a secret underground bunker. On them: A slice of their country’s musical heritage, to remain for years in an underground room—until now. This episode was produced in collaboration with Far Flung with Saleem Reshamwala, from the TED Audio Collective. To listen to other episodes that travel all over the world to explore ideas, follow Far Flung with Saleem Reshamwala wherever you're listening to this. This episode was produced by Sawsan Abdillahi, Hiwote Getaneh, Alex Atack and Saleem Reshamwala. Production support in Hargeisa by Ismaaciil C. Ubax. Fact checking by Nicole Bode and Paul Durban, and sound design by Kristin Mueller. The executive producer was Eric Nuzum. Special thanks to Vik Sahonie at Ostinato Records for letting us use the music from the Sweet As Broken Dates album. You can hear songs from the buried tapes on this Spotify playlist. Find a transcript for this episode on our website: kerningcultures.com/kerningcultures. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $2 a month.

We’re excited to share another podcast from the Kerning Cultures Network with you. Masafat is Kerning Cultures’ soul sister. It’s a series of Arabic audio documentaries driven by curiosity. Exploring unfamiliar dimensions from the past or the present. In this episode, we introduce a music genre surrounded by a lot of controversy: Mahragant music in Egypt. Why do we only listen to Mahraganat by men? Why haven’t women broken into Mahraganat yet? Masafat is a Kerning Cultures Network production. This episode was produced by Lobna Monieb, and edited by Shahd Bani Odeh and Alma Intabli. Editorial support by Heba Afify, Rand Khdair, Nadeen Shaker, Dina Salem and Nima Salha. Fact-checking by Tamara Jaburi. Sound design by Mohamad Khreizat. Listen to Masafat wherever you get your podcasts.

A blind oud player from humble beginnings, Sheikh Imam’s destiny changed drastically when he met a dissident poet called Ahmed Fouad Negm, and they formed a duo. Together, they would go on start a new era in Egyptian popular music. Their songs would shake regimes, travel the world on cassette tapes, and transcend their own time to become part of the soundtrack to Egypt’s revolution decades later. Today, the story of Sheikh Imam: the Egyptian singer who became an icon of dissent. This episode was produced by Nadeen Shaker, Heba El-Sherif and Alex Atack, and edited by Dana Ballout. Fact checking was by Deena Sabry and sound design, music and mixing by Monzer El Hachem. Voice over by Eihab Seoudi, and translation help from Maha El Kady. Cover art by Ahmad Salhab. The songs you heard on this episode were composed and performed by Sheikh Imam and written by Ahmed Fouad Negm and Zein Alabidin Fouad. Lyric translations were by Ahmed Hassan and Elliott Colla. Fill out our listener survey here (it’ll only take 5 minutes!) Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $2 a month. You can find a transcript for this episode at our website, kerningcultures.com/kerningcultures.

Stuck in his Palestinian hometown of Jenin during lockdown, Mo’min Swaitat walked into an old music shop where thousands of dusty cassettes lined the walls. They contained decades of Palestinian music and field recordings once confiscated by the Israeli army, long since forgotten, and never meant to make it out of Palestine. This is the story of what was on those cassettes, and Mo’min’s mission to give them a second life. This episode was produced by Nadeen Shaker and edited by Dana Ballout. Fact checking by Deena Sabry, sound design and mixing by Nadeen Shaker, Alex Atack and Monzer El Hachem. Our team also includes Zeina Dowidar. You can listen to the Intifada album on Bandcamp. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $2 a month.

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 first aired in 2020 and was produced by Tamara Rasamny with editorial support from Dana Ballout, Zeina Dowidar, Alex Atack, Nadeen Shaker, and Hebah Fisher. Sound design by Mohamad Khreizat, and fact-checking by Zeina Dowidar. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month.

Azzam Alwash remembers the marshlands of southern Iraq as a magical place, where he would spend long days gliding through the thick reeds by boat with his father. But for decades now, the area has been under threat, so Azzam has become part of the effort to save the natural wonder before it's too late. This episode was produced by Dana Ballout, Alex Atack and Tamara Juburi with fact checking by Deena Sabry. Sound design and mixing by Alex Atack and Mohamad Khreizat. A special thanks to Azzam Alwash for speaking to us. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $2 a month. Find a transcript for this episode at our website, kerningcultures.com/kerningcultures.

In the 1930s, the architect Nasri Khattar had an idea to singlehandedly overhaul the Arabic script. For the next 47 years, he worked day and night to get the world to adopt his writing system, Unified Arabic. Ultimately, he failed. This is his story. This episode was produced by Jahd Khalil and edited by Dana Ballout with Alex Atack and Hebah Fisher. Sound design and mixing was by Alex Atack and Mohamad Khreizat. You can find Yara Khoury's book - Nasri Khattar, a Modernist Typotect - here. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $2 a month. Find a transcript for this episode at our website.

In 2012, a Yazidi family fled to Sweden in the hope of a better life, far from persecution. After nearly six troubled years struggling to seek asylum without proper paperwork, their traumatised daughter “fell asleep” - and didn’t wake up again for another five years. For half a decade she has been in a coma-like state, a condition called resignation syndrome that afflicts thousands of other asylum-seeking children in Sweden. Producers Zeina Dowidar and Andrei Popoviciu travel to Sweden and meet the families, doctors and social workers who are trying to figure out what this mysterious illness is, and how to treat it. This episode was produced by Zeina Dowidar and Andrei Popoviciu. It was edited by Dana Ballout with support from Alex Atack and Nadeen Shaker. Fact checking on this episode was by Deena Sabry, audio editing by Youssef Douazou, and sound design and mixing by Mohamed Khreizat. Translation by Amina Khalil. A special thanks to all of the families we spoke to, as well as D...

A warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and assault. As Egyptian women celebrated the arrest of serial predator and rapist Ahmed Bassam Zaki in the summer of 2020, another case came to light: An alleged gang rape in the upscale Fairmont Hotel. If the men involved were convicted, this case would be another big success for the #MeToo movement in Egypt. But instead, it took nasty turns; evidence would be buried, case witnesses would be arrested and campaigners for the victim would face threats and intimidation. Many began to ask: was this the end of the #MeToo movement in Egypt? This week, the second in a two-part series: the rise and fall of #MeToo in Egypt. This episode was written and produced by Nadeen Shaker and Zeina Dowidar, with editing by Dana Ballout and Alex Atack. Fact checking by Deena Sabry and sound design and mixing by Mohamad Khreizat and Paul Alouf. Special thanks to everyone who made this story happen: Sabah Khodir, Noor Gohary, Nadine AbdelH...

A warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and assault. In the summer of 2020, a 22-year-old Egyptian woman made the difficult decision to publicly call out her harasser on social media. In a moment of rage, she picked up her phone and typed out a post that would end up travelling much further than she expected - far beyond her social circle. Over the next few weeks, in a whirlwind of Tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram stories, it became clear that she wasn’t the only person this man had assaulted: over 50 other women stepped forward with a laundry list of accusations against him. It was the first step towards a major reckoning for Egypt; one that inspired big changes in how the country - and the law - deals with sexual assault cases. But for the activists driving that change, it would turn out to be exhausting, and even dangerous. This week, the first in a two-part series: the rise and fall of Egypt’s #MeToo movement. This episode was written and produced ...