The afikra Podcast
- Episodios
- 508
- Se publica
- cada semana
- Último episodio
- 9 Nov 2026
Sobre el podcast
The afikra Podcast is our flagship series featuring experts from academia, art, media, urban planning and beyond, who are helping document and shape the histories and cultures of the Arab world through their work. Our hope is that by having the guest share their expertise and story, the community walks away with a newfound curiosity, and recommendations about new nerdy rabbit holes to dive into head first.
Episodios 508
The Gulf’s Forgotten Trade Routes to India & Africa | Fahad Bishara, “Monsoon Voyagers”
Pre-oil Gulf history didn't vanish when oil was discovered. It survived in places few people thought to look. Fahad Bishara, associate professor at the University of Virginia and the Doha Institute, discusses …
Notas del episodio
Pre-oil Gulf history didn't vanish when oil was discovered. It survived in places few people thought to look. Fahad Bishara, associate professor at the University of Virginia and the Doha Institute, discusses his books A Sea of Debt and Monsoon Voyages. He explains how 19th-century merchants kept long-distance trade going through extended credit, how Kuwaiti dhow captains read literature and used celestial navigation, and how he came across his grandfather's dhow logbooks in a friend's family trunk.
00:00 Introduction
01:36 A Family Link to the Sea
07:21 Memories of Indian Ocean Trade
13:58 Port Cities and Merchants
20:23 Credit, Debt, and Law
25:54 Routes and Commodities
32:03 The Voyage of “the Crooked”
40:45 Navigation and Life at Sea
43:23 Gulf History Beyond Oil
49:43 Further Reading
Fahad Ahmad Bishara specializes in the economic and legal history of the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the Islamic world. He is Associate Professor of History and Rouhollah Ramazani Professor of Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies at the University of Virginia, currently on leave and teaching at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is the author of A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780–1950 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), which received the J. Willard Hurst Prize (Law and Society Association), the Jerry Bentley Prize (World History Association), and the Peter Gonville Stein Award (American Society for Legal History), and Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History (University of California Press, 2025), which follows a single Kuwaiti dhow on a 1924 trading journey around the Persian Gulf and Western Indian Ocean, drawing on the private archives of Kuwaiti merchant and dhow captain families. He holds a BA from the University of Southern California (2004), an MA in Arab Gulf Studies from the University of Exeter (2006), and a PhD in History from Duke University (2012).Connect with Fahad Bishara 👉 https://history.virginia.edu/people/fahad-ahmad-bishara
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
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» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
How Locust Swarms Reshaped Empire & Human Movement | Prof. Samuel Dolbee
Ottoman agricultural officials once warned that local locust invasions posed a greater threat to the empire than the Allied powers during World War I. Dr. Samuel Dolbee, Assistant Professor of History at …
Notas del episodio
Ottoman agricultural officials once warned that local locust invasions posed a greater threat to the empire than the Allied powers during World War I. Dr. Samuel Dolbee, Assistant Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, talks about his book Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East. He explores how shifting environmental dynamics reshaped human history across the Jazira borderlands, from the bizarre Ottoman reliance on Sufi-blessed water to attract locust-eating starlings to the conscription of hundreds of thousands of women and children for pest control. The conversation also delves into how agricultural expansion eliminated native habitats to alter pest ecology.
00:00 Introduction
01:25 Environmental History Disconnection
07:38 The Setting of Locust of Power
16:46 Impact of the Moroccan Locust
26:49 Ottoman State Control and Borders
31:09 Uncovering Personal Histories
36:22 Historical Context and Control Efforts
40:24 Agriculture, Plant Diseases and Movement
51:12 Reflecting on History and Storytelling
Samuel Dolbee is an environmental historian of the late Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. He is Assistant Professor of History and D Family Dean's Faculty Fellow in Studies of the Middle East at Vanderbilt University. His book Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2023) sheds new light on borders and state formation by following locusts across the late Ottoman Empire to the Second World War, revealing how they shaped both the environment and people's imaginations. Drawing on archival research in multiple languages, Dolbee traces environmental, political, and spatial transformations in the Jazira — the borderlands of today's Iraq, Syria, and Turkey — by following locusts and their relationship to people in motion: Arab and Kurdish nomads, Armenian deportees, Assyrian refugees. The book co-won the 2024 Ottoman and Turkish Studies Book Prize. He completed his PhD at New York University and MA at Georgetown, and is editor-in-chief of the Ottoman History Podcast.Connect with Samuel Dolbee 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-dolbee-9a44834/?isSelfProfile=false
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Ottoman Environmental History, Sultan Selim's Ambition, & NYC's First "Muslim" | Prof. Alan Mikhail
We know about Islam in America, but what about America in Islam? Yale historian Alan Mikhail unpacks Sultan Selim I, the thuggish sultan who wrote bad poetry yet conquered the Arab world in 1516–17 and, Mikhail …
Notas del episodio
We know about Islam in America, but what about America in Islam? Yale historian Alan Mikhail unpacks Sultan Selim I, the thuggish sultan who wrote bad poetry yet conquered the Arab world in 1516–17 and, Mikhail argues, changed the course of world history. From the water buffalo that powered Ottoman Egypt’s rural economy to Muhammad Ali’s deadly Mahmudiyya Canal, they explore how environmental history reveals the lives of the farmers who made up most of the Middle East’s past. Then the conversation crosses the Atlantic to meet Anthony the Turk, often called New York’s first Muslim, whose mysterious origins and life in the Dutch colony are at the heart of Mikhail’s new book Newcomers.
00:00 Introduction
01:08 Growing up between America and Egypt
04:16 Why the Ottoman Centuries Matter
07:00 What is environmental history?
10:41 Rethinking Muhammad Ali's Egypt
14:40 Animals, land, and the Life of an Empire
23:09 Selim, the Overlooked Sultan
27:21 What Does it Actually Mean to Conquer an Empire?
33:23 How Ottoman was Ottoman Egypt?
38:00 Anthony the Turk and Islam in Early America
47:53 Did the Ottomans Care About the New World?
Alan Mikhail is the Chace Family Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of six books that have garnered numerous distinctions and been translated into ten languages. His most recent book is Newcomers: The Story of Anthony and Grietje and the Founding of New York. In addition to his current work on the intertwined histories of Islam and early America, he has written about the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. His book My Egypt Archive received the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology. Before that, God’s Shadow won the Gold Medal in World History from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award, was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, and was named a book of the year by the Times Literary Supplement, History Today, Publishers Weekly, and Glamour. Mikhail has written dozens of scholarly articles as well as for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.Connect with Alan Mikhail 👉 https://www.alanmikhail.org
Hosted by Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu
Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns
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» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubXHosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Architecture & Identity in the Gulf | Sumaya Dabbagh, Award Winning Architect
Shaping space goes far beyond physical structures, it deeply impacts people's lives and connects to the human spirit. Renowned, award-winning Saudi architect Sumaya Dabbagh shares her journey navigating the …
Notas del episodio
Shaping space goes far beyond physical structures, it deeply impacts people's lives and connects to the human spirit. Renowned, award-winning Saudi architect Sumaya Dabbagh shares her journey navigating the evolving architectural landscape of the Gulf, shifting away from commercial real estate focus to cultivate authentic, contextual architecture. She delves into her unique design philosophy of creating continuity by blending modern elements with historical fabric, as seen in landmark projects like the Mleiha Archaeological Centre and the Al Ain Museum. The conversation also highlights the intangible elements of design, exploring how thoughtful materials and sensory details bring a sacred sense of space to life.
00:00 Introduction
01:38 Returning to the Gulf in the Early '90s
06:22 Real Estate vs. Architecture
11:34 Turning Points in Gulf Building Standards
14:52 Establishing a Practice & Contextual Architecture
19:11 Understanding the Architectural Fabric of Cities
25:15 Looking Beyond Soulless Towers to the Human Spirit
29:53 Redefining Al Ain Museum
36:03 Showcasing History at Mleiha Archaeological Centre
40:51 Materiality & Setting
42:26 Designing Places of Worship & Sacred Spaces
44:56 A Broader Movement Towards Cultural Identity
46:31 Recommended Reading for Aspiring Architects
Sumaya Dabbagh is the founder and principal architect of Dabbagh Architects in Dubai. Born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, she studied architecture at the University of Bath under the guidance of the late Peter Smithson and Sir Ted Happold. She began her career in London and Paris before returning to the Gulf region in 1993. In 2008, she founded Dabbagh Architects, one of the first women-led architectural practices in the UAE and one of the first in the Gulf region to be registered as a RIBA Chartered Practice (2015). Her multi-award-winning projects include the Mleiha Archaeological Centre in Sharjah (2016), nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and the Gargash Mosque in Dubai (2021), making her one of the first women architects to design a mosque in the UAE. The Al Ain Museum in Abu Dhabi is currently under construction. She was a founding member of the RIBA Gulf Chapter (2009) and served as its Chair from 2015 to 2019. Her work is driven by the notions of memory, identity, and belonging, and she has been shortlisted for the Tamayouz Excellence Award for Woman of Outstanding Achievement (2019 and 2024) and named Principal of the Year at the Middle East Architects Awards (2019).Connect with Sumaya Dabbagh 👉 https://instagram.com/dabbagharchitects_
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Marie al-Khazen: Pioneer Lebanese Photographer, 1899 to 1983 | Art Historian, Dr. Yasmine Nachabe Taan
A collection of black-and-white photographs from 1920s mandate Lebanon completely flips traditional regional history on its head. Dr. Yasmine Nachabe Taan takes us on a fascinating journey behind her PhD …
Notas del episodio
A collection of black-and-white photographs from 1920s mandate Lebanon completely flips traditional regional history on its head. Dr. Yasmine Nachabe Taan takes us on a fascinating journey behind her PhD research into the life and legacy of Marie al-Khazen, a pioneer Lebanese photographer. Dr. Taan, a professor and director at LAU, utilizes a gender-focused lens to decode al-Khazen's meticulously staged compositions of active, unconventional women driving cars, smoking cigarettes, and going on armed hunting trips. This engaging discussion explores agency, cultural cross-dressing, and the striking parallels with other early female Arab photographers like Karimeh Abbud, demonstrating how these archival treasures continue to challenge established regional histories.
00:00 Introduction
02:03 The Discovery in Canada and an Unconventional Re-entry
09:11 Aristocracy, Feudal Backdrops, and Staged Patriarchs
17:39 Anecdotes of a Village Outcast
21:22 Viewfinders from Above and Interrupted Legacies
31:12 The Stone Under the Steering Wheel
34:15 Trends of Fluidity and Cultural Cross-Dressing
37:33 The Working Woman vs. The Documentarian
41:58 The True Landscape of Palestine
43:01 Self-Orientalizing and the Trend of the Bowl
48:43 Scratched Faces and Pre-Photoshop Erasure
53:06 White Eggs and the Mysterious Wife of Bonfils
Dr. Yasmine Nachabe Taan is Associate professor of Design and Design History at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut.
She holds a PhD in Art History and Communications Studies from McGill University. Her research focus is on design writing and research, visual culture and gender representation, design, media, photography and visual culture in the Middle East and North Africa. She publishes articles on visual culture in a number of international journals. She has illustrated more than twenty children’s books and has participated in a number of residencies in Berlin, Cairo, Beirut and Bratislava. Her artwork has been exhibited in New York, Berlin and Beirut.Connect with Yasmine Nachabe Taan 👉 https://instagram.com/yastaan
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Human Rights & Accountability in the Arab World: 15 Years After the Uprisings | Mai El-Sadany, TIMEP Executive Director
Reimagining the future of policy and human rights across the Middle East and North Africa requires moving past broken international systems and broadening our collective imagination. Executive Director of the …
Notas del episodio
Reimagining the future of policy and human rights across the Middle East and North Africa requires moving past broken international systems and broadening our collective imagination. Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), Mai El-Sadany, explores how centering those most impacted can drive meaningful legal advocacy, creative accountability, and systemic change. Grounded in the enduring legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings, the discussion addresses the evolution of civil society organizations, navigating global funding crises, and overcoming systemic inertia.
00:00 Introduction
01:55 Decentering the Old Guard in Policy Advocacy
08:44 Finding Your Strategic Space
13:30 15 Years of Tectonic Shifts
17:46 Operationalizing Ethical Policy and Community Building
21:40 Navigating Systemic Inertia and Regional Realignment
28:44 Bending the Arc: Mobilization Beyond Complacency
33:37 Pluralistic Justice and Strategic Legal Alliances
38:14 Strategic Resilience Amid Non-Profit Funding Shifts
44:13 Differentiating Core Values from Institutional Decay
50:10 Constructing Alternate Frameworks
54:58 Investing in Grassroots Alliances and Independent Media
Mai El-Sadany is the Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). She is a human rights lawyer with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Throughout her career, she has worked to expand creative pathways to accountability, to leverage international and regional mechanisms to advance human rights, and to publish accessible analysis and scholarship on legal, judicial, and constitutional issues. She was previously TIMEP's Managing Director and Legal and Judicial Director. Prior to that, she worked at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other organizations. She is a Steering Committee member of the World Movement for Democracy, a member of the Working Group on Egypt, and a Board Member of HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement. Mai holds a J.D. and certificate in refugees and humanitarian emergencies from the Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. in political science from Stanford University.Connect with Mai El-Sadany 👉 https://x.com/maitelsadany?lang=en
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Lebanon's Electricity Crisis is Not New - It Started in 1952! | Prof. Ziad Abu-Rish
The history of electricity in Lebanon serves as a vibrant arena for struggles over political economy, foreign corporate ownership, and the very definition of national sovereignty. Associate Professor Ziad …
Notas del episodio
The history of electricity in Lebanon serves as a vibrant arena for struggles over political economy, foreign corporate ownership, and the very definition of national sovereignty. Associate Professor Ziad Abu-Rish unpacks this evolution, tracking public utilities from early regional monopolies to the eventual creation of Électricité du Liban (EDL). Rather than viewing popular protests and boycotted utility bills as signs of state disintegration, this conversation explores how these collective actions actively built and legitimized Lebanese state institutions. This deep dive ultimately reframes daily encounters with state infrastructure as fundamental practices of modern politics and national identity.
00:00 Introduction
04:00 Monopolies and Regional Boundaries
12:07 The Myth of Free Market Competition
17:30 Decolonizing Public Infrastructure
23:26 The Spark of the Boycott Movement
27:31 Redefining State Legitimacy through Protests
32:34 Concrete Boundaries and Popular Sovereignty
38:01 Tracing State Growth and Formations
46:44 The Persistence of Institutions
51:57 Invisible Walls and Controlled Movement
54:49 History on Stage
Ziad Abu-Rish is Associate Professor of Human Rights and Middle East Studies at Bard College, where he also directs the MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts. A scholar of the modern Middle East and North Africa, his research centers around state formation, economic development, and popular mobilizations, particularly in Lebanon and Jordan. He earned his PhD in History from UCLA and his MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. Abu-Rish is the author of The State of Lebanon: Popular Politics and Institution Building in the Wake of Independence (Stanford University Press, forthcoming), and co-editor of The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of an Old Order? (2012). He is the co-creator (with Tania El Khoury) of The Search for Power, an interactive installation and lecture performance on the history of electricity in Lebanon. He serves as Co-Editor of Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya, as well as Co-Director of the Lebanon Dissertation Summer Institute.Connect with Ziad Abu-Rish 👉 https://instagram.com/ziadaburish
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Islam Became a Racial Category in French Colonial Algeria | Prof. Muriam Haleh Davis
Algeria's complex colonial landscape serves as the backdrop for a deep dive into the intersection of race, Islam, and capitalism. Dr. Muriam Haleh Davis unravels how the French colonial state weaponized Islam …
Notas del episodio
Algeria's complex colonial landscape serves as the backdrop for a deep dive into the intersection of race, Islam, and capitalism. Dr. Muriam Haleh Davis unravels how the French colonial state weaponized Islam as a racial category to structure economic inequalities. The conversation expands into the enduring legacy of Frantz Fanon, exploring the complex dynamics of national liberation and third-world revolutionary aspirations. Uncovering a rich, often-overlooked intellectual history, the discussion highlights the Algerian scholars and philosophers who actively fought to define their own nationhood.
00:00 Introduction
01:43 An Intellectual Journey to Algeria
04:40 Connecting Religion and Capitalism
06:50 Defining Racial Capitalism
10:59 Ideological Threats in the Cold War
12:50 Citizenship and the Colonial Status of Islam
17:22 Economic Policies of Settler Colonialism
23:05 Early Strains of Algerian Nationalism
28:36 Beyond the Mythology of Frantz Fanon
39:05 An Accident of History
43:31 Theory Production from the Global South
45:35 The Circuits of Intellectual Production
48:54 Highlighting Overlooked Algerian Scholars
Muriam Haleh Davis is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she directs the Center for the Middle East and North Africa. She is the author of Markets of Civilization: Islam and Racial Capitalism in Algeria (Duke University Press, 2022) and the co-editor of North Africa and the Making of Europe: Governance, Institutions, and Culture (Bloomsbury Press, 2018). She is currently working on a second book, Decolonizing Sociology: State-Building and Knowledge Production in the Maghreb, which examines how intellectuals in North Africa appropriated and transformed the discipline of sociology after independence. She is co-chair of the editorial committee for MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project) and co-editor of the Maghreb Page for Jadaliyya. She holds an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown, an MA in Culture and Theory from UC Irvine, and a PhD in History from NYU (2015). She has been a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and a fellow at IMéRA in Marseille.Connect with Muriam Haleh Davis 👉 https://instagram.com/muriamhaleh
Hosted by:
Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
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Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
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🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
US Destruction of Iraq's Healthcare System | Omar Dewachi
Iraq experienced one of the most comprehensive sanctions regimes ever imposed on a country in the 20th century. Dr. Omar Dewachi explores the concept of medical anthropology and traces the history of the Iraqi …
Notas del episodio
Iraq experienced one of the most comprehensive sanctions regimes ever imposed on a country in the 20th century. Dr. Omar Dewachi explores the concept of medical anthropology and traces the history of the Iraqi healthcare system from the British mandate to the post-2003 era. This exploration highlights how political interventions and conflicts disrupted medical infrastructure and population health. Ultimately, the conversation examines the profound breakdown of the political, medical, and social systems that led to the death of the clinic and a collapse of trust.
00:00 Introduction
01:21 The Concept of Medical Anthropology
04:52 Dual Trajectories in Health and Social Contexts
06:31 A Career Shift Rooted in Wartime Experience
10:19 The True Toll of the Comprehensive Sanctions Regime
12:56 Infrastructure and the Early Construction of the State
17:53 Systemic Vulnerabilities and the Scales of Destruction
22:25 Healthcare Expansion as an Instrument of Statecraft
28:21 The Rhetoric of Progress and the Framing of Pathologies
31:47 Moving Beyond Conventional Battlefields
37:13 Bearing Witness to Systemic Ruination and Personal Loss
43:09 Challenging Michel Foucault's Framework
49:44 Unequal Knowledge and Visibility on the Global Stage
51:57 The Erosion of Sacred Alliances and the Shift to Commerce
53:41 The Geography of Regional Wounds
Omar Dewachi is an Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology and Global Health at Rutgers University. His work examines the social, medical, and environmental fallouts of decades of war and violence in Iraq and the broader Middle East. Before joining Rutgers in 2018, Dewachi co-founded the Conflict Medicine Program at the American University of Beirut, where he taught social medicine and global health. His award-winning book Ungovernable Life: Mandatory Medicine and Statecraft in Iraq (Stanford University Press, 2017) documents the untold history of the rise and fall of Iraq's healthcare system under decades of US-led interventions. His ongoing project 'When Wounds Travel' weaves almost two decades of ethnographic research with his personal experience of displacement and his medical and public health practice across Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. He holds an MD from Baghdad University, an MPH from the American University of Beirut, and a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University.Connect with Omar Dewachi 👉 https://instagram.com/omar_dewachi
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
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France's Nuclear Toxicity in the Algerian Sahara | Samia Henni
Algeria's pivotal role as a historic center for revolutionary and independence movements is frequently overlooked, leaving a gap in public understanding of its complex history. Architectural historian Samia …
Notas del episodio
Algeria's pivotal role as a historic center for revolutionary and independence movements is frequently overlooked, leaving a gap in public understanding of its complex history. Architectural historian Samia Henni unpacks how the French army utilized architecture and urban planning as tools of counterinsurgency and control. The discussion exposes the shocking and lasting realities of colonial toxicity, detailing how France conducted underground and atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the Algerian Sahara. By challenging the harmful myth that deserts are empty, this episode confronts enduring colonial legacies and the protocols of history writing.
00:00 Introduction
01:51 Addressing the Historical Knowledge Gap Around Algeria
03:51 Growing Up with the Mythology of the Revolution
05:45 Unpacking the Complexities & Duality of Scholarly Narratives
08:30 Language as a Weapon: Architecture of Counterrevolution
14:19 The Reality Behind Centers of Regroupment and Mass Relocation
19:21 From Secret Camps to Satellite Towns
25:51 Direct Contact & the Deliberate Intent to Pacify
28:46 The Design Philosophy of Colonial Housing Projects
34:34 Unmasking the Haunting Realities of Colonial Toxicity
41:17 The Epistemic Violence of Restricted Archives
45:12 Deserts Are Not Empty
49:27 Agitation, Political Space & Transnational Solidarity
She is a historian and an exhibition maker of the built, destroyed, and imagined environments. Her work addresses questions of colonization, wars, resource extraction, deserts, forced displacement, and gender dynamics. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (gta Verlag 2017, EN; Editions B42, 2019, FR), which received the 2020 Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, and Colonial Toxicity: Rehearsing French Radioactive Architecture and Landscape in the Sahara (2024). She is also the editor of Deserts Are Not Empty (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2022) and War Zones (gta Verlag, 2018), and the maker of exhibitions including Performing Colonial Toxicity (2023–), Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria (2017–2022), Archives: Secret-Défense? (2021), and Housing Pharmacology (2020). She received her PhD (with distinction, ETH Medal) in the history and theory of architecture from ETH Zurich and has taught at Princeton University, Cornell University, ETH Zurich, and Geneva University of Art and Design. In August 2024, she joined the faculty of McGill University's Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture. She was born and raised in Algiers.
Connect with Samia Henni 👉 https://instagram.com/samia.henni
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
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🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Syrian Diaspora's Role in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 | Reem Bailony
Hidden dynamics of anti-colonialism come to light when exploring the Syrian revolt of 1925 through a transnational lens. Associate Professor & Author Reem Bailony shares insights from her book, examining how …
Notas del episodio
Hidden dynamics of anti-colonialism come to light when exploring the Syrian revolt of 1925 through a transnational lens. Associate Professor & Author Reem Bailony shares insights from her book, examining how the diaspora politics of the Syrian migrant community in the US connected to homeland politics and redefined identity during the French mandate. By centering on the often-overlooked diasporic story and the role of the Arabic press, the conversation unpacks the intense debate around the rebellion's virtues, goals, and shifting meanings. Ultimately, this episode reveals how exiled and migrant figures significantly shaped the international discourse surrounding the modern Middle East.
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Formative Academic Encounters with a Milestone Year
04:36 From Imperial Collapse to the Partitioning of a Region
07:30 Fragmented Visions & the Contested Landscape of Identity
10:08 Archival Discoveries & Cross-Generational Reflections
12:34 The Global Power of a Dispersed Press
16:13 The Mechanics of Petitioning an International Order
20:12 Ideological Divides in the Early Arabic Press
22:26 Mapping the Global Hubs of the Transnational Story
24:28 Borderland Crises & the Politics of Transnational Aid
28:32 The Realities of Local Support
33:35 De Facto Diplomacy & the Pen of an Exile
36:34 Petitions, Surveillance, & the Struggle to Define a Diaspora
46:44 Recommended Readings for Closer Investigation
Reem Bailony is an Associate Professor of History at Agnes Scott College. She is a historian of the modern Middle East with a focus on Middle East migrations and transnationalism. Her book, Syria's Transnational Rebellion: Diaspora Politics and the Revolt of 1925-1927 (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) explores the diasporic and transnational dimensions of the Syrian Revolt of 1925-1927, a watershed moment in anti-colonialism during the French Mandate era. Professor Bailony is also interested in the history of Syrian-Lebanese transnational family dynamics after World War I, and how migrant families parented their children in the diaspora. She holds a BA from UC San Diego and MA and PhD from UCLA.
Connect with Reem Bailony 👉 https://www.agnesscott.edu/directory/faculty/bailony-reem.html
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
1001 Nights, the Arab Novel & the Age of Decay That Never Was | Prof. Muhsin al-Musawi
Arabic culture and literature hold a vastly rich classical history that continues to captivate scholars and readers worldwide. Renowned literary critic and Columbia University professor, Dr. Muhsin Al-Musawi …
Notas del episodio
Arabic culture and literature hold a vastly rich classical history that continues to captivate scholars and readers worldwide. Renowned literary critic and Columbia University professor, Dr. Muhsin Al-Musawi, explores the depths of this heritage, from the global allure of the Arabian Nights to the historical dynamic of Baghdad's intellectual hubs. The discussion delves into how translation served as a window between cultures, the contested notion of an age of decay, and the brilliant prose of modern artists like Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. Reflecting on his own career of writing out of love and devotion rather than mere scholarship, Dr. Al-Musawi critiques how literary prizes can drive trendy imitation instead of a genuinely creative mind.
00:00 Introduction
01:57 The Roots of Passionate Scholarship
05:19 Baghdad's Layered Intellectual Landscapes
09:51 Cultural Solace & the Ambition of Translation
12:26 Confronting the Global Legacy of the Arabian Nights
14:55 Literary Taste & the Metamorphosis of Translation
19:40 The Romantic Search for Spaces Without Borders
26:27 The Vastness of Classical Traditions & the True Renaissance
28:53 Intellectual Intersections & the Republic of Letters
33:15 Challenging the Conventional Notion of an Age of Decay
39:45 Jabra Ibrahim Jabra & the Topography of an Artist
44:58 Curating a Diverse Core Arabic Fiction Curriculum
49:33 Trendy Prizes & the Necessity of the Creative Mind
Muhsin Jassim al-Musawi is Professor of Classical and Modern Arabic Literature, Comparative and Cultural Studies at Columbia University. A renowned scholar and literary critic, his teaching and research interests span several periods and genres. He is the author of 39 books (including 6 novels) and over 60 scholarly articles. He has been editor of the Journal of Arabic Literature since 2000. His publications cover theory, postcolonial discourse, the Arabic novel, poetry, Orientalism, the Arabian Nights, medieval Islamic knowledge and modern Arabic poetics. He taught for over two decades at universities in the Arab world before moving to Columbia University. He is the recipient of the Owais Award in Literary Criticism (2002), the Kuwait Prize in Arabic Language and Literature (2018), the King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Literature in English (2022), and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2022).
Connect with Muhsin al-Musawi 👉 https://mesaas.columbia.edu/faculty-directory/muhsin-al-musawi/
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
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🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
East & East: Arab Craft Meets Japanese Minimalism | Nada Debs: Founder, Studio Nada Debs
A unique personal journey spanning from a third-generation textile merchant family in Japan to a thriving design studio in Beirut serves as the foundation for iconic designer Nada Debs’ universal message of …
Notas del episodio
A unique personal journey spanning from a third-generation textile merchant family in Japan to a thriving design studio in Beirut serves as the foundation for iconic designer Nada Debs’ universal message of collaboration. The intricate world of Levantine woodwork, the philosophy of repetitive geometry, and the complex balance between handmade craft and modern scaling highlight the depth of her artistic vision. This narrative of personal heritage and local production illustrates how design can become a powerful tool to restore civic pride and challenge traditional mindsets.
00:00 Introduction
01:35 A Message of Oneness & Overcoming Conflict
04:01 Roots Across the Silk Road
10:39 Post-War Devastation & the Surge of Homegrown Pride
18:25 Dismantling the Western Complex & Embracing Equality
20:05 Finding Acceptance in the Search for Personal Identity
24:33 Embracing the Warmth of Beirut & the Value of Antiques
29:21 The Path to Design
33:17 Shifting the Mindset on Local Production
38:24 The Genesis of "East and East" & Establishing a Studio
44:48 Reclaiming Pride in Lebanese Craft
46:46 Deciphering the Levantine Vernacular
53:13 Hand Craftsmanship vs. Modern Scaling
01:02:04 Expanding the Language of Harmony
Nada Debs is a Lebanese designer living and working in Beirut. Her work spans scale and discipline: from product and furniture design to one-off commissions across craft, art, fashion and interiors. What ties her work together is her ability to distil culture and craftsmanship to create pieces of emotional resonance. Nada grew up in Japan, studied design at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States and has spent significant periods of time living and travelling the world, finding connections between different cultures. She calls her approach: handmade and heartmade. Her grandfather travelled the Silk Route to Japan; her own personal Silk Route led her back to Lebanon, where she founded her studio in 2002. Her 'East & East' philosophy fuses Islamic geometry with Far Eastern minimalism.
Connect with Nada Debs 👉 https://instagram.com/nadadebs
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Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
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🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
What Does China Actually Want from the Arab World? | Mohammed Alsudairi
The modern experience of China is often viewed through a western lens, but its complex history and relationship with the Arab world reveal a much deeper story. Dr. Mohammed Alsudairi challenges the dominant …
Notas del episodio
The modern experience of China is often viewed through a western lens, but its complex history and relationship with the Arab world reveal a much deeper story. Dr. Mohammed Alsudairi challenges the dominant narrative of a growing security footprint and intense US-China competition over the Middle East. Instead, the conversation explores the evolving diplomatic recognition, transactional dynamics, and economic connections that define Sino-Middle Eastern relations. This discussion unpacks why the Chinese experience is often neglected in the Arab intellectual tradition and how the modalities of empire are shifting in the 21st century.
00:00 Introduction
04:33 Escaping the Post 9/11 Paradigm Shift
07:23 Alternative Journeys & Transformative Intellectual Paths
14:22 Dismantling Dominant Narratives on Regional Footprints
17:13 Contextualizing China's Strategic Priorities
26:41 Historical Dimensions & Evolving Diplomatic Ties
34:34 Financial Synergy, Alternatives & Global concessions
37:48 Deconstructing Frameworks & the Myth of the Silk Road
44:40 Projecting Arab Anxieties onto a Cultural Other
52:52 Technological Realities & the Changing Modalities of Power
Mohammed Alsudairi is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations of the Arabic Speaking World at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University.
Senior Nonresident Fellow, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies
He holds a PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), an MA in International Relations and International History from the London School of Economics and Peking University, and a BSc in International Politics from Georgetown University. Prior to his appointment at CAIS, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at HKU, working on a project examining the intersections between religion and infrastructure in the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Since 2015, he oversaw the development of the Asian Studies Program at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2022, he was awarded a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to work on his upcoming book manuscript. He is also a Senior Nonresident Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.
Connect with Mohammed Alsudairi 👉 https://cais.cass.anu.edu.au/people/dr-mohammed-alsudairi
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Seeing the Earth's Water Crisis from Space | Dr. Raha Hakimdavar
Global water systems are facing an unprecedented challenge as climate change, resource depletion, and globalization place staggering pressure on our natural resources. Dr. Raha Hakimdavar, Senior Advisor to the …
Notas del episodio
Global water systems are facing an unprecedented challenge as climate change, resource depletion, and globalization place staggering pressure on our natural resources. Dr. Raha Hakimdavar, Senior Advisor to the Deans of Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) and the Earth Commons & Founder & CEO - Zyon Space, unpacks the critical intersections of hydrology, space science, and environmental security. From analyzing how agricultural water waste and food imports impact the Arab world to detailing the vulnerabilities of desalination infrastructure, she offers a profound look at the cascading threats facing urban centers. By leveraging advanced satellite data collected from space, she reveals how tracking global groundwater levels can transform these invisible vulnerabilities into vital opportunities for international cooperation and policy reform.
00:00 Introduction
04:36 Energy, Oceans & the Cost of Innovation
06:22 Supermarket Aisles & Disconnected Systems
10:09 A Fifty-Year View from the Cosmos
14:09 Urban Budgets & Changing Taps
26:02 The Changing Anatomy of Regional Diets
30:47 Invisible Pipelines & Cascading Points
34:58 Distorting the Baseline of National Security
36:14 The Enabling Elements of Uprisings
38:06 A Landscape of Treaties
Dr. Raha Hakimdavar is a hydrologist, science policy expert, and space science leader with a proven record of innovation across government, academia, and industry. She is currently a Research Professor at the Earth Commons and Senior Advisor to the Deans at Georgetown University in Qatar and the Earth Commons, leading strategy and programs focused on environmental security, climate action, and sustainability research and education. She has active research projects in Greece (water scarcity), the Middle East (water and food security), and Indonesia (flood risk and nature based solutions), with a special focus on small islands. Dr. Hakimdavar has served as a technical consultant for UN Environment, the World Bank, and USAID on disaster risk reduction, water, and forestry projects for over a decade. Dr. Hakimdavar is also the Founder and CEO of Zyon Space, which supports emerging space agencies and organizations in the Global South in leveraging Earth observation technologies for climate and environmental resilience.
Connect with Raha Hakimdavar 👉 https://www.instagram.com/rahazhina/
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Lessons from Innovators Across the Arab World | Hala Hanna, MIT Solve
Global challenges require useful intelligence rather than singular futures driven by tech hype. Executive Director Hala Hanna joins the podcast to share how MIT Solve acts as a marketplace for social impact …
Notas del episodio
Global challenges require useful intelligence rather than singular futures driven by tech hype. Executive Director Hala Hanna joins the podcast to share how MIT Solve acts as a marketplace for social impact, connecting early-stage ventures with critical funding and partners. This conversation highlights inspiring innovators and solvers who are transforming constrained design prompts into sustainable, sovereign systems across healthcare and education. Empowering communities through true open innovation proves that proximity to the problem is the ultimate tool for scalable, long-term change.
00:00 Introduction
03:56 The Flawed Metric of Monopolized Tech
07:41 Aligning Targets with Global Realities
10:08 The Select Few and the Select Best Seat
16:05 The False Solace of Parallel Systems
26:58 Reclaiming Data Ownership from Extractors
29:15 Transforming Government into a Platform
36:13 A Grumpy Contrast to Blind Optimism
24:52 Cultivating Agency Through Local Frugality
50:03 Leveraging Proximity as an Unfair Advantage
Hala Hanna is the Executive Director of MIT Solve, an MIT initiative that finds and scales tech-based solutions to global challenges. Hala's global career is about advancing equity and sustainability for all. She grew up in Lebanon, where conditions of conflict and constraint shaped her understanding of resilience as a design principle. She is a member of the Fast Company Impact Council and a contributor to the World Economic Forum. Her recent writing includes 'AI Has a Single Story Problem' (Fast Company, June 2026) and 'When Resilience Creates Innovation: Lessons for Entrepreneurs' (Entrepreneur MENA, April 2025). Previously she served as Managing Director of MIT Solve.
Connect with Hala Hanna 👉 https://solve.mit.edu
Hosted by Mikey Muhanna
Connect directly with Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu
Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
HopeCore, HopeRot & Life in the After Timeline | Shumon Basar
The pervasive exhaustion resulting from witnessing modern global atrocities often creates a paralyzing "hopeRot," yet the cultivation of an radical "HopeCore" remains an essential engine for systemic …
Notas del episodio
The pervasive exhaustion resulting from witnessing modern global atrocities often creates a paralyzing "hopeRot," yet the cultivation of an radical "HopeCore" remains an essential engine for systemic transformation. Writer and curator, Shumon Basar, analyzes the rewiring of the global psyche through the rise of Gulf Futurism and the eventual arrival of a post-Western reality. His critique centers on the provincialization of the West, a phenomenon where a minority population disproportionately dictates universal narratives and conceptual models. The discussion further traverses the evolution of Dubai from a startup city to a global urban paradigm, alongside a sobering exploration of the war on amnesia", as Basar describes it, through alternative institutions and magical historical thinking. Ultimately, the conversation confronts the unmasking of power and the abandonment of institutional shame, reinforcing the vital necessity of counter-histories in an increasingly ahistorical digital age.
00:00 Introduction
04:36 The Rewiring of the Global Psyche
07:30 Spectral Enemies and the Geography of Time
10:08 Provincializing the West and Cognitive Mapping
16:13 The Foundational Myths of Unification
27:31 The Paradox of HopeRot and HopeCore
34:39 Absolute Impunity and the Narrative Battle
44:02 The Reckoning of Liberal Fascism
53:48 Alternative Institutions and the War on Amnesia
01:00:10 Magical Historical Thinking in the Extreme Present
Shumon Basar is a British-Bangladeshi writer, editor, and curator born in 1974. He attended Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University (1993–1996) and studied at the AA School, London (1998–2000). In 2005 he joined Goldsmiths, University of London's doctoral program in Visual Cultures. He is co-author with Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist of The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present (Penguin, 2015) and The Extreme Self: Age of You (Walther & Franz König, 2021), and co-curated the large-scale exhibition Age of You at MOCA Toronto and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. Since 2010, Basar has been Commissioner of the Global Art Forum, Art Dubai's annual transdisciplinary summit. He became a founding member of Fondazione Prada's Thought Council in 2015. He is Adjunct Curator at Art Jameel and holds editorial and advisory positions at Tank, Bidoun, 032c, and Flash Art. He has lived in Dubai, Vancouver, Berlin, Beirut, and Istanbul.
Connect with Shumon Basar 👉 https://www.instagram.com/shumonbasar/
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
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Celebrating the Heritage of Arabic & Islamic Science | Dr. Hüseyin Şen
The scientific achievements of the medieval Islamic world provided the forgotten foundations for much of the modern world's mathematics and physics. Dr. Huseyin Sen, historical map specialist at The Heritage …
Notas del episodio
The scientific achievements of the medieval Islamic world provided the forgotten foundations for much of the modern world's mathematics and physics. Dr. Huseyin Sen, historical map specialist at The Heritage Library, Qatar National Library, explores the critical necessity of reclaiming this heritage to combat cultural prejudice and build self-esteem in new generations. This discussion highlights the monumental contributions of scholars like Al-Khwarizmi and Ibn al-Haytham, whose work on algebra and optics remains foundational to global scientific knowledge. The conversation reveals the urgent need for digitizing, translating, and integrating these historical texts into modern education to bridge the gap between past innovations and current understanding. From the intricate chemistry of medieval perfumery to the advanced engineering behind historical maps, these insights showcase a sophisticated intellectual tradition that once spanned the globe.
00:00 Introduction
01:10 The Legacy of Arabic Sciences
01:48 Modern Efforts in Manuscript Digitization
03:26 The Multidisciplinary Skills of a Science Historian
05:54 Reconnecting with a Forgotten Heritage
08:37 Integrating History into Modern Science Education
10:50 Cultural Role Models and Global Contributions
15:25 Reconstructing Original Texts from Manuscripts
19:40 The Sophisticated Chemistry of Medieval Perfumery
27:24 Tracing the Evolution of Personal Care Products
34:30 Algebraic Roots and Algorithmic Foundations
35:44 Paradigm Shifts in the Science of Optics
42:04 Cartographic Rarities and Engineering Marvels
Dr. Huseyin Sen is an aerospace engineer and a historian of science, specializing in the history of medieval Arabic science & technology. His engineering background has enabled him to engage with the history of science and technology in a profound way (numerical and hands-on) and at the same time has allowed him to build bridges between the education of history of science on one hand and education of science on the other. He is particularly interested in combining history of science with STEM/STEAM education, and in introducing and engaging students with technologies of the future such as 3D printing via history of science like by developing working replicas of ancient inventions by 3d printing.
الدكتور حسين شِن هو مهندس طيران ومؤرخ علمي متخصص في تاريخ العلوم والتكنولوجيا العربية في العصور الوسطى. وقد مكنته خلفيته الهندسية من التعمق أكثر في تاريخ العلوم والتكنولوجيا، كما أتاحت له الربط بين تعليم تاريخ العلوم من جهة وتعليم العلوم من جهة أخرى. يركز د. شِن على الدمج بين تاريخ العلوم وتعليم العلوم والتكنولوجيا والهندسة والرياضيات، مع تعريف الطلاب بتقنيات المستقبل، مثل الطباعة ثلاثية الأبعاد، من خلال تاريخ العلوم، وذلك عبر تطوير نسخ مطابقة من الاختراعات القديمة باستخدام الطباعة ثلاثية الأبعاد. من أحدث مشاريعه لمكتبة الرئاسة التركية معرض بعنوان "تاريخ العلوم الإسلامية في 100 قطعة"، والذي يضم 100 قطعة، منها 87 نسخة طبق الأصل و13 مخطوطة علمية أصلية من العصور الوسطى. افتتح المعرض في أبريل 2021، وهو مستمر كمعرض متنقل منذ ذلك الحين. يتلقى د. شِن طلبات منتظمة لتحليل ووصف وتقييم الأدوات والمخطوطات العلمية العربية/الإسلامية من العصور الوسطى
Connect with Professor Hüseyin Şen 👉 https://instagram.com/takiyuddinrasid
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
How Technology Is Changing the Arabic Language Forever | Prof. Nizar Habash
Language serves as the vital intersection of cultural identity and technological innovation, yet the rapid rise of AI reveals a significant representation gap for the nearly many million ways the Arab world …
Notas del episodio
Language serves as the vital intersection of cultural identity and technological innovation, yet the rapid rise of AI reveals a significant representation gap for the nearly many million ways the Arab world communicates. Professor Nizar Habash, a computer science professor and director of the CAMEL Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, explores the historical anxieties surrounding technological shifts, drawing a direct parallel between the 150-year delay of the Arabic printing press and contemporary concerns regarding data bias in large language models. The conversation navigates the inherent challenges of modeling a language characterized by immense dialectal variety and non-standardized orthography, shifting the focus from perceived linguistic complexity to the practical need for bespoke, regional data sets. As the field transitions from rigid, rule-based systems to sophisticated neural models capable of abstract meaning through embeddings, the dialogue underscores the urgency of building localized, open-source tools like JAIS and FAMAR to ensure the Arab world's history and diverse voices are accurately represented in the digital age.
00:00 Introduction
02:15 How AI Models Understand Diverse Arabic Dialects
05:48 Debunking Myths About Arabic’s Linguistic Complexity
08:21 The Historical Construction of Modern Standard Arabic
11:00 Impact of Technology on Arabic Script and Printing
15:19 The Journey into Computational Linguistics
17:35 The Evolution of Machine Translation and LLMs
23:51 Explaining Hallucinations in Statistical Language Models
31:14 Cultural Representation and Bias in Image Generation
38:13 Dialect Support and Limitations in Translation Tools
50:02 Camel Lab's Mission for Open-Source Arabic NLP
01:03:42 Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Views of Arabic
Nizar Habash is a Professor of Computer Science at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), and the director of the Computational Approaches to Modeling Language (CAMeL) Lab. Professor Habash specializes in natural language processing and computational linguistics. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland College Park in 2003. He has two bachelors degrees, one in Computer Engineering and one in Linguistics and Languages from Old Dominion University. His research includes extensive work on machine translation, morphological analysis, and computational modeling of Arabic and its dialects. Professor Habash has been a principal investigator or co-investigator on over 25 research grants. And he has over 250 publications including a book entitled "Introduction to Arabic Natural Language Processing". Professor Habash is one of the recipients of the King Salman Academy for Arabic Language Award (2022); and he is the recipient of the Antonio Zampolli Prize (2024). His website is www.nizarhabash.com.
Connect with Nizar Habash 👉 https://www.instagram.com/nizarhabash/
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
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History of the British Raj in the Arabian Gulf | Prof. James Onley
Imperialism was a masterclass in maintaining the fiction of autonomy while quietly acquiring the assets of an empire. Professor James Onley, chair of Gulf and Arab Studies at the American University of Sharjah …
Notas del episodio
Imperialism was a masterclass in maintaining the fiction of autonomy while quietly acquiring the assets of an empire. Professor James Onley, chair of Gulf and Arab Studies at the American University of Sharjah, dissects the sophisticated loopholes used by colonial powers to exert influence without the liabilities of formal control. This conversation highlights the deep-seated socioeconomic connections between India and the Gulf, a relationship far older than the modern state system. Dr. Onley provides a nuanced look at the collaborative nature of empire on the cheap, where local elites often navigated British protection to secure their own regional interests. From the arrival of Arab nationalism to the digital preservation of over two million archival pages in the Qatar Digital Library, this dialogue reveals the shifting layers of identity and power that have shaped the Arabian Peninsula.
0:00 Introduction
5:11 Distinctive Traits of British Presence in the Gulf
9:05 Millennia of Deep-seated Indo-Gulf Ties
13:17 Divergent Theories on Imperial Motivations
15:40 Indigenous Collaboration and the Native Agent Network
18:49 Transitioning from Formal Control to Security Guarantees
19:57 The Enduring Economic Gravity of India
23:01 Navigating the Administrative Hierarchies of Empire
24:45 Legal Fictions and the Optics ofinfluence
28:04 Shared sovereignty and empire on the Cheap
32:55 Friction and Resistance Across the Regional Map
36:40 Shifting Layers of Identity Before Nationalism
41:40 Reorienting from the Indian Ocean to the Arab World
54:36 Digital Preservation and the Democratizing of Archives
James Onley is the Ahmed Seddiqi Chair in Gulf & Arab Studies and Professor of History. He specializes in the history and heritage of the Gulf region, the Gulf's historical connections with South Asia, archives and archival digitization, and digital humanities. He is Founding Editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies (est. 2011). Before joining AUS, he was Director of Historical Research at Qatar National Library, responsible for digitizing historical records for the Qatar Digital Library (www.QDL.qa), and Director of the Centre for Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter.
Connect with James Onley 👉 https://instagram.com/@james_onley
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
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How Egypt Used Theater to Fight British Occupation | Prof. Carmen Gitre
Theatrical stages often mirror the intricate evolution of the societies that build them. Professor Carmen Gitre explores the burgeoning performance culture of Cairo between 1867 and 1930. This era witnessed a …
Notas del episodio
Theatrical stages often mirror the intricate evolution of the societies that build them. Professor Carmen Gitre explores the burgeoning performance culture of Cairo between 1867 and 1930. This era witnessed a shift from street storytelling and shadow plays to formal theater houses designed for an emerging class of Western-educated intellectuals. The discussion traverses the grand spectacle of the Suez Canal’s opening to the subversive nationalist songs of performers like Mounira al-Mahdiyya. Through this historical lens, the stage appears as a critical site for negotiating modernity, colonial influence, and Egyptian identity.
00:00 Introduction
01:28 The Evolution of Performance
03:56 Commissioning an Operatic Staple for a Global Stage
07:35 Street Storytelling & the Shadows of Earlier Traditions
12:02 Urban Redesign Mirroring a Parisian Vision of Modernity
18:46 Defensive Developmentalism & the Weight of Sovereign Debt
27:21 Syrian Practitioners & the Burgeoning Role of the Press
32:31 Efendi vs. Basha
39:01 Vernacular Choices for an Elevated Public Education
44:31 Satirical Observations through a Modernist Lens
51:14 The nuances of the women's movement
57:04 Disembodied Voices in the Era of Early Recording
58:00 Performances Spilling into the Nationalist Fervor of 1919
01:03:02 Cinematic Transitions and Legacies for the Everyman
Carmen Gitre is an Associate Professor of Middle East History and Associate Chair of History at Virginia Tech University. She earned her Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 2011. From 2011 to 2014, she taught in the International Studies and History Departments at Seattle University. Her academic interests include cultural history, imperialism, and the relationship between performance, identity, and modernity in Egypt. Her book, Acting Egyptian: Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1867-1930, was published by the University of Texas Press in 2019. Other publications include 'The Dramatic Middle East: Performance as History in Egypt and Beyond,' and 'Nonsense and Morality: Comedy in Interwar Egypt.' Her current work delves more deeply into interwar art, performance, and cultural influence in Egypt.
Connect with Carmen Gitre 👉 https://liberalarts.vt.edu/departments-and-schools/department-of-history/faculty/carmen-gitre.html
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Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
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🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Legacy of Science & Faith in the Arab Muslim World | Prof. Nidhal Guessoum
For centuries, the Arab and Muslim worlds led humanity in scientific discovery, establishing a culture where faith served as an inspiration rather than an obstacle to empirical research. The conversation with …
Notas del episodio
For centuries, the Arab and Muslim worlds led humanity in scientific discovery, establishing a culture where faith served as an inspiration rather than an obstacle to empirical research. The conversation with astrophysicist Dr. Nidhal Guessoum explores that profound intellectual legacy, from the systematization of algebra and breakthroughs in optics to the creation of the world's first dedicated astronomical observatories. Dr. Guessoum bridges the gap between this historical Golden Age and the challenges facing modern science education in the region. He addresses the perceived friction between contemporary scientific theories, such as evolution and cosmology, and religious tradition, advocating for a complementary framework that distinguishes the how of the physical world from the why of human meaning. By befriending modern science and returning it to a central place in culture, the discussion outlines a path for a qualitative new renaissance in Arab and Muslim scientific production.
0:00 Introduction1:39 Diagnosing Science Education in the Arab World
4:07 Quantitative Growth vs Qualitative Challenges
8:41 The Importance of the Scientific Process
10:20 Reconciling Islam and Science
11:59 Understanding the Nature of Science and Religion
13:17 Inspiration from Historical Figures
15:22 Navigating Friction in Evolution and Cosmology
20:51 The Harmonization of Reason and Revelation
22:24 Distinguishing the How from the Why
23:58 The Role of the Human Subject in Science and Faith
25:58 Secular Ethics and the Islamic Intellectual Tradition
29:21 The Peak and Decline of Arab Muslim Scientific Production
30:33 Major Contributions: Algebra, Optics, and Medicine
34:55 History of Astronomical Observatories
38:38 Stagnation vs the European Scientific Revolution
45:51 Prospect of a New Arab Scientific Renaissance
49:30 Measuring Scientific Productivity
52:15 Befriending Modern Science for the Youth
57:31 Recommendations for Life-Long Learning
Nidhal Guessoum is an Algerian astrophysicist and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at San Diego, and spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. His research spans gamma-ray astrophysics, positron-electron annihilation, gamma-ray bursts, and crescent visibility and the Islamic calendar. He has published many articles and several books on science, education, and Islam, including Islam's Quantum Question (IB Tauris, 2011) and The Young Muslim's Guide to Modern Science. He has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, Cornell, and Wisconsin-Madison, and has appeared on Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, France 2, and Le Monde. In 2020, he was named among the Top 100 most influential leaders in space exploration by Richtopia, and in 2018 was ranked 22nd among top Arab thought leaders by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.
Connect with Nidhal Guessoum 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@NidhalG
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Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Masculine Aesthetics & Sports in the Ottoman Empire | Professor Murat Yildiz
Modern sports did not just change how people played; they fundamentally rewired how they lived, looked, and identified within a rapidly transforming world. The conversation with Murat Yildiz, an assosciate …
Notas del episodio
Modern sports did not just change how people played; they fundamentally rewired how they lived, looked, and identified within a rapidly transforming world. The conversation with Murat Yildiz, an assosciate professor of history at Skidmore College, explores the high-stakes intersection of physical culture, social status, and the 19th-century quest for a new global aesthetic. Elite educational and military institutions utilized gymnastics and disciplined exercise to mold an upwardly mobile generation, using sports to reconfigure traditional social hierarchies. Meanwhile, the rise of photography helped normalize and spread a uniform corporal aesthetic, allowing young men from diverse backgrounds to adopt a standardized look of proper modern masculinity. Tracing a vibrant athletic awakening, the discussion follows how sporting culture rippled across urban centers, from Istanbul to Cairo, Beirut, and Jerusalem, signaling a deeper transformation in community, selfhood, and the shift from indigenous traditions to professionalized international play.
0:00 Introduction
1:39 Misconceptions of Athletics and Modernity
4:07 Professionalism vs. Amateurism in Regional Sporting Culture
8:41 Sports as a Tool for Capturing Urban Diversity
9:17 Educational Reformers and the Significance of Gymnastics
12:47 Sports as a New Modern Technology
18:53 Photography and the Global Corporal Aesthetic
21:56 Visual Normalization of Ethnic and Religious Identities
23:14 Sports and the Creation of New Militaries
26:13 Reconfiguring Class Hierarchies in Elite Schools
30:41 Spreading Western Sports: From Baseball to Soccer
32:21 Tension with Indigenous Traditions: The Case of Wrestling
36:40 Gendering the Ottoman World of Sports
41:04 Tracing the Regional Sports Nahda beyond the Capital
48:07 History as a Creative Conversation with the Past
52:02 Al Abtal Magazine and the Egyptian Physical Culture
56:53 Further Recommendations: Football, Books, and Film
1:01:56 Future Directions for Archival Research
Murat C. Yildiz is Associate Professor of History at Skidmore College. He specializes in the cultural and social history of the modern Middle East. In particular, his research examines the intersections of sports, identity, the body, gender, and intercommunality in the late Ottoman Empire. His book, "The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul" (The University of Texas Press), examines how Istanbul's Muslim, Christian, and Jewish denizens created a shared sports culture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is an assistant editor for the Arab Studies Journal and serves as an editorial board member of the International Journal of the History of Sport. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles and served as a Manoogian Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Michigan.
Connect with Murat C. Yildiz 👉 https://instagram.com/abu.sami.ali
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afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
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Tobacco, Soap, Beer & Cars: 100 Years of Egyptian Print Advertising | Professor Bahia Shehab
Egyptian print media has historically functioned as a cultural barometer, shifting from the early official bulletins of the 20th century into a relentless and aggressive form of capitalism on steroids …
Notas del episodio
Egyptian print media has historically functioned as a cultural barometer, shifting from the early official bulletins of the 20th century into a relentless and aggressive form of capitalism on steroids. Professor Bahia Shehab discusses her book, "A Trade in Dreams: A Century of Egyptian Print Advertising", unpacking how visual culture has been both a witness to and a victim of political upheaval. Her research illuminates a century where advertising functioned as legalized psychological operations, deeply embedded in the daily life of Cairo. By dissecting the visual language of the past, she provides a necessary framework for understanding the mono-culture and flattening of aesthetic diversity in the modern era.
00:00 Introduction
01:32 Invention of the Egyptian Press
04:00 The Business Model of Early Advertising
05:50 Motivations for Researching Advertising History
08:20 Discoveries in Beauty Standards and Race
09:55 Sequential Chronology and Political Tectonic Shifts
12:13 Napoleon, Egyptomania, and Early Visual Communication
17:14 1920s–1940s: Agriculture and the Tobacco Export Industry
20:00 Professionalization and Multinational Ad Agencies
22:31 Hybrid Aesthetics: International vs. Local Design
27:21 The Nasser Era: Socialism and Nationalized Media
30:57 The Sadat Era: Peace Treaties and the Open Door Policy
32:33 Influential Figures and the Silencing of Female Voices
37:01 Domination of the Soap Industry
48:58 The 1940s: The Golden Age of Egyptian Advertising
57:04 Egypt’s Leading Role in Regional Advertising
59:08 Book Tour and Future Perspectives
Bahia Shehab is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, political activist and historian whose work focuses on the interaction and intersection of modern identity and ancient cultural heritage. Her imaginative combination of calligraphy and Islamic art history produced cutting edge, beautiful, impactful street art during the Arab Spring and continues to inform her work as an educator and designer. Having always been concerned with identity and preserving cultural heritage, she investigates art history to reinterpret contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues. Her culturally oriented work enables her to use history as a means to better understand the present and find solutions for the future. She believes that art may be employed for the purposes of social change and has explored this phenomenon through her artwork, which focuses on socially charged themes such as the Arab identity and women's rights. Her research is largely concerned with understanding the Arabic letters and has been preoccupied with Arabic calligraphy in much of her work. Her work has been displayed in exhibitions around the world and she has received several awards and recognition for her achievements.
Connect with Bahia Shehab 👉 https://instagram.com/bahiashehab
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afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
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Memory & the Systematic Mending of Heritage | Dima Srouji
Palestinian architect and artist Dima Srouji explores the systematic displacement of Palestinian material culture and the liberation lab working to bring it home. For over a century, archaeology in Palestine …
Notas del episodio
Palestinian architect and artist Dima Srouji explores the systematic displacement of Palestinian material culture and the liberation lab working to bring it home. For over a century, archaeology in Palestine has been weaponized, used as a tool for land grabs and the erasure of contemporary identity. From ancient glass vessels held in Western museums to human remains stored in university basements, the physical history of Palestine has been excavated, categorized, and displaced. Dima discusses her work in restitching these archives through art and collaboration. By working with multi-generational artisans like the Twam family, who still possess the ancient know-how of glassblowing, she creates ghost objects that challenge the colonial narrative of a dead past.
00:00 Introduction
01:32 Architectural Education & the Spiritual Connection to the Land
07:30 The Liberation Lab
09:47 Ghost Objects: Restitching Material Heritage Through Palestinian Glass
12:28 The History of Colonial Archaeological Excavations
15:44 Challenging Museum Narratives
18:03 The Twam Family Workshop: Four Generations of Glassblowing in Jaba
21:28 Ancient History of Levantine Glass Fabrication
25:50 The Weaponization of Archaeology
29:47 Sebastia vs. the City of David
32:32 Saving Sebastia: Experimental Film as an Exercise in Creative Diplomacy
36:01 Reclaiming the Displaced Material Culture of Gaza
39:34 Excavated Human Remains
42:36 Rituals of Return
44:01 The Restorative Power of Broken Glass
48:43 Rememberment: A Form of Restitution
50:24 The Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund
56:00 Future Projects and the Cosmic Mediterranean
Dima is an architect, artist, and researcher interested in the ground, objects, displacement, restitution, forgeries, and living archives. Dima leads the MA City Design studio focused on archaeological sites in Palestine as sites of urban struggle. Her practice explores the power of the ground, its strata, and its artefacts in revealing silenced narratives and embedded intergenerational memories. Dima holds an M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture and a B. Arch (Hons) from Kingston School of Art. She founded Hollow Forms, a glass blowing project with the Twam family in Jaba’, Palestine in 2016. She will be Jameel Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2022.
Connect with Dima Srouji 👉 https://instagram.com/dimasrouji
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
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The Weirdest Items in the Library of Congress | Muhannad Salhi
Rare artifacts within the vast archives of the Library of Congress (LOC) represent a shift in how our region's history is fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, Arab World …
Notas del episodio
Rare artifacts within the vast archives of the Library of Congress (LOC) represent a shift in how our region's history is fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, Arab World specialist in the African and Middle East division at the LOC, Dr. Muhannad Salhi, explores the transition of diverse items in the library's "Near East" collection, from 3000-year-old economic receipts to unique cultural fragments, into autonomous objects of study that define a global narrative. Reclaiming these stories serves as a resistance against regional erasure and the invisibility often felt in the global cultural landscape.
0:00 Introduction
1:52 The "Near East" Section: Geographic and Linguistic Scope
3:02 The Library's Path
4:46 Overview of the Arabic Collection
5:20 The Library's Oldest Items
7:06 Digitization Efforts and Copyright Restrictions
9:10 The Purpose of the Library of Congress
13:24 Regional Context and Cultural Insight
16:00 A Public Resource and Supporting Global Scholarship
18:36 Overseas Offices and Book Dealers
19:17 A Typical Week with Rare Materials and Scholarly Research
22:11 The Oldest Piece of Islamic object in the Americas
25:00 Calligraphy Styles: From Kufi to South Asian and Persian Aesthetics
27:03 The Chinese Quran: A Unique Intersection of Cultures
28:03 The Dalail al-Khayrat and Mantle of the Prophet
31:55 Manuscripts from Gambia
33:24 Arabic Translations of Greek Medicine
35:45 A Unique Work on Petroleum
36:54 Astronomy and Astrology
39:53 Mapping the Region
44:42 Archiving Historic Newspapers and Pop Culture
48:42 Early Arabic Printing
52:10 The Jefferson Quran: Myth vs. Reality in Pop Culture
57:00 Arab-American Literature: Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid
58:20 Iraq's Most Wanted Deck of Cards
01:00:22 A Lost Letter from West Africa
01:02:15 Photography Archives
01:03:33 The Items That Got Away
01:06:08 What Policymakers Should Understand About the Region
Muhannad Salhi is the Arab World Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress, where he covers the Arab world, North Africa, and Islam. He received his doctorate in history and his MAs in history and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Palestine in the Evolution of Syrian Nationalism (1918-1920) as well as other book chapters, book reviews, and blogs. His interests include the Ancient Near East, Classical Islam, the Modern Middle East, and Islamic studies. Prior to coming to the Library of Congress, he taught courses on the Arab World and Islam at various colleges and universities in the Chicago area, including the University of Chicago and Governors State University.
Connect with Muhannad Salhi 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/muhannad-salhi-09b20549/
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afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
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Invention of the Maghreb: Beyond the Native Colonial Gaze | Majid Hannoum
Beyond the Orientalist myth of being seductive, mysterious, and dangerous, what is the reality of Tangier? Professor of anthropology Majid Hannoum deconstructs the invention of the Maghreb and delves into the …
Notas del episodio
Beyond the Orientalist myth of being seductive, mysterious, and dangerous, what is the reality of Tangier? Professor of anthropology Majid Hannoum deconstructs the invention of the Maghreb and delves into the complex socioeconomic and racial fabric of contemporary Moroccan cities. He explores how colonial legacies continue to shape identity, from the very term "Maghreb" – which he argues did not exist in pre-colonial Arabic historiography in its current sense – to the phenomenology of color that influences modern social hierarchies in Tangier.
00:00 Introduction
01:50 The Colonial and Post-Colonial Invention of the Maghreb
03:31 Neighborhood Politics and Class Dynamics in Meknes, Morocco
06:12 Historical Evolution of Maghreb in Arabic Historiography
09:17 Deconstructing Orientalist Myths and the Seductive Image of Tangier
12:47 Historical European Gazes
18:03 Tangier in Pre-Colonial Times
19:41 Tangier in Fiction, Songs, and Folktales
23:41 Exploring Migration, Sexuality, and the City’s Unseen Sides
25:59 Socioeconomic Realities
30:23 Migration Patterns and the Phenomenology of Color in Moroccan Urbanism
32:59 The Native Colonial Gaze and Socioeconomic Racialization
39:46 Decolonizing Ibn Khaldun & Challenging the Myth of European Discovery
43:24 Translation Ideology
50:43 Discourse Analysis and the Radical Critique of Academic Categories
53:40 Scholarly Recommendations for Unlearning and Decolonizing Knowledge
Majid Hannoum is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas whose extensive research focuses on North Africa. Growing up in Meknes, Morocco, his personal history is rooted in the very urban and socioeconomic dynamics he explores in his academic work, such as the internal class and neighborhood hierarchies within Moroccan cities. His scholarship is deeply concerned with deconstructing colonial narratives and unlearning entrenched mindsets.Connect with Majid Hannoum 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/majid-hannoum-04661ab/
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afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
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Modern Egyptian Art & Post-Colonial Cultural Politics | Clare Davies
Modern Egyptian art was not simply an institutional byproduct of the 20th century, but rather a profound ontological shift in how the nature of the art object was fundamentally understood. Moving beyond …
Notas del episodio
Modern Egyptian art was not simply an institutional byproduct of the 20th century, but rather a profound ontological shift in how the nature of the art object was fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, this transformation was deeply intertwined with the physical dismantling of historic Cairo, where stripped architectural fragments were repurposed into autonomous art objects for a new elite. Today, reclaiming these narratives serves as an urgent resistance against the regional erasure and invisibility often felt in the global cultural landscape.
00:00 Introduction: Defining the Autonomous Art Object
02:28 Challenging the "East Meets West" Trope
05:28 The Ontological Shift
10:20 The Nahda Influence
13:31 Memories of Gaza and the Weight of Regional Crisis
18:03 The Urgency of Representation and Invisibility
22:22 Huda Sha'arawi: Feminist Icon and Anti-Colonial Art Patron
25:32 Disrupting Colonial Markets
30:14 Mahmoud Mukhtar & Publicly Funded Neoperonism
34:02 The Rise of Surrealist Criticism
37:06 Connectivity Across Lebanon, Syria, and the Cairo Salon
41:44 The National Salon vs. the European Cairo Salon
46:13 Confronting Pseudomorphism
51:39 Scholarly Recommendations for Re-centering Arab Art History
54:03 The Art and Liberty Group’s Interruption of Futurism
56:11 Marxism, Feminism, and the Social Unconscious
Clare Davies is an associate curator at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She has contributed to a wide range of research, programming, and archival projects related to art and photography in the Middle East since serving as associate curator of the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo between 2004 and 2006. She completed her doctoral dissertation at New York University Institute of Fine Arts and was subsequently awarded the inaugural Irmgard Coninx Prize Fellowship at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. She is the coauthor of "Robert Morris: Object Sculpture, 1960–65" and has published regularly on contemporary art from the Arab world.
Connect with Clare Davies 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-davies-a49a9b143/
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
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Shar & the Forgotten Genocide of Libya | Ali Abdullatif Ahmida
Unveiling the suppressed history of "Shar," Professor Ali Abdellatif Ahmida details the forgotten genocide of the Libyan people under Italian settler colonialism in 1911. As a distinguished political scientist …
Notas del episodio
Unveiling the suppressed history of "Shar," Professor Ali Abdellatif Ahmida details the forgotten genocide of the Libyan people under Italian settler colonialism in 1911. As a distinguished political scientist and historian at the University of New England, Professor Ahmida dedicated 15 years to investigating why this mass tragedy was systematically erased from global scholarship and collective memory. Through meticulous research and rare oral testimonies from survivors, he reconstructs the horrors of forced displacement and concentration camps that claimed the lives of tens of thousands. He offers a nuanced critique of the "collective amnesia" in Western academia and the strategic silence of post-war Italy, challenging myths of "moderate" Italian fascism.
00:00 Introduction: An Extensive Scholarly Void
02:28 Beyond the Stereotypical Image
05:28 Navigating the Colonial Transition in 1911
10:20 Perspectives From the Southern Frontier
13:31 The Slow Dismantling of an Empire
18:03 The Ideological Weight of the Roman Myth
22:22 Artificial Lines and the Unified Movement
25:32 The Roots of Organized Resistance
30:14 Negotiating the Terms of Independence
34:02 Contradictions of the Post-War Client State
37:06 The Logic of the Fourth Shore
41:44 The Mechanics of Mass Displacement
46:13 Global Complicity and the Politics of Amnesia
51:39 Reclaiming a Seat in Historical Memory
54:03 The Ethics of the Freedom Fighter
56:11 Shar: The Survivors’ Conceptualization of Death
Professor Ali Abdellatif Ahmida is the founding chair and a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of New England in Maine. Born in Waddan, Libya, and educated at Cairo University and the University of Washington, his scholarship focuses on historical sociology, political theory, and anti-colonial resistance in North Africa. A prolific author, his major works include "The Making of Modern Libya" and his most recent investigative research into "Shar," the forgotten colonial genocide in Libya.
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
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A Love Letter to Tunisian Artisans | Kenza Fourati
Model and entrepreneur Kenza Fourati discusses her origins, growing up 1990s in Tunisia to becoming a trailblazing figure in the international fashion industry. She reflects on how she initially viewed beauty …
Notas del episodio
Model and entrepreneur Kenza Fourati discusses her origins, growing up 1990s in Tunisia to becoming a trailblazing figure in the international fashion industry. She reflects on how she initially viewed beauty through a French lens and the subsequent realization of how limiting that perspective was to the beauty of her immediate surroundings. The conversation delves into her brand, Osay (Our Stories Are Yours), which seeks to challenge the traditional fashion hierarchy by making Tunisian artisans the central designers and protagonists of their own craft. Through Osay, Fourati emphasizes the importance of supply chain accountability and human connection, moving away from a model of nameless, faceless hands toward one that celebrates the ingenuity and heritage of the Global South.
0:00 Introduction
2:06 Reclaiming Arab Aesthetics
3:01 Growing Up in Tunisia and Early Notions of Beauty
5:42 Navigating the Modeling Industry
7:52 Lack of Arab Role Models in Global Fashion
9:18 Choosing Creative Freedom
11:04 Finding Power in a Discardable Industry
12:59 Osay: Elevating Tunisian Artisans
14:16 Challenging the Fashion Supply Chain
16:06 Reversing the Design Hierarchy: Artisans as Protagonists
18:05 Modeling as a Blank Canvas vs. Projecting a Story
19:57 A Love Letter to Tunisian Heritage
23:14 Reflections on the Sports Illustrated Milestone
25:52 Amplifying the Tunisian Revolution
27:21 Stereotypes and the Western Gaze
30:23 Finding Your Tribe
35:08 Local Critique and Patriotism
38:06 The Influence of Producer Dora Bouchoucha and Life on Film Sets
42:10 Creative Production in Hollywood and the Middle East
43:24 The Shift Toward Individualism
46:30 Celebrating Tunisian Brands
49:08 Remembering Master Artisan Mansour and the Preservation of Craft
Kenza Fourati is a Tunisian model and entrepreneur whose career is defined by a commitment to bridging global fashion with authentic cultural heritage. After gaining international recognition as the first Arab Muslim woman featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition in 2011, she leveraged her platform to advocate for social and labor rights, even sharing personal letters regarding the Tunisian revolution through major media outlets. Fourati co-founded the brand Osay (Our Stories Are Yours), which centers on elevating the visibility of artisans from the global south by making them the primary designers of modern textile and leather goods. Currently based in New York, she continues to challenge traditional industry hierarchies by advocating for transparency, ethical labor practices, and the preservation of ancestral craftsmanship.
Connect with Kenza Fourati 👉 https://instagram.com/kenzafourati
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Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
FOLLOW & RATE THE AFIKRA PODCAST:
» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lb/podcast/the-afikra-podcast/id1529437743
» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nafoF1Zs7F48mGZjlhrze
» Anghami: https://play.anghami.com/podcast/1014643869
THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
Explore all episodes in this series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfYG40bwRKl5xaTkBDrUKLCulvoCE8ubX&feature=shared
ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
📍 Local events in 40+ locations worldwide http://afikra.com/chapters
🎧 New podcasts + videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts
⚡ Become a member: https://www.afikra.com/membership
🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_
🔗 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afikra.official
🔗 Twitter: https://twitter.com/afikraHosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Aquí están los 40 episodios más recientes de 508. Los anteriores están en el feed del podcast.
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