A new podcast show hosted from Beirut by NYT best selling author, Kim Ghattas, connecting the dots between today’s Middle East and the world, how it works and why it matters to you, wherever you are. From Dubai to Kyiv, from Amman to Las Vegas, every episode brings you conversations with great people doing great things in the region and beyond, breaking barriers, connecting people around pressing themes and defining issues of the moment for people everywhere, from impunity in war to reproductive rights, censorship and protest movements around the globe.

Get in touch on Twitter and Instagram on @peoplelikeuspod

People Like Us is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus and get ad-free listening across our network and early access to new podcasts. 

For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works.

In the first episode of People like Us, I bring you to the heart of the show’s purpose and genesis of its concept, connecting the dots between far away places that have been on my mind. Even before Putin invaded Ukraine, the global world order was imploding with stunning rapidity as Xi Jinping’s China strangled Hong Kong, Lebanon’s economy crashed and Afghanistan fell to Taliban rule. What does it mean for people there, and people like us everywhere? I speak to Muqadessa Yourish, a former deputy minister of commerce of Afghanistan who had to flee Kabul in August 2021, Lina Mounzer in Beirut, writer and translator who captured the mood in Beirut in her essays for the NYT and Shawn Yuan, an award-winning journalist who covered the protests in Beirut and Hong Kong protests and had hoped China’s future would look like Hong Kong.

Follow People like Us on Instagram and Twitter @peoplelikeuspod

And for more on our guests…

Muqaddesa Yourish was a deputy minister of commerce and industry in Afghanistan until she had to flee Kabul when Taliban took over in August 2021. She is now living in the U.S. and a visiting professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Muqaddesa grew up a refugee in Pakistan and returned home to Afghanistan in 2002, after the Taliban were ousted. She was politically active to rebuild her country until she had to leave. Twitter @YourishM

Lina Mounzer is a Lebanese writer and translator based in Beirut whose work has appeared in The New York Times, LitHub, New Lines Magazine, and L’Orient Today One of her notable essays is “War in Translation and Giving Voice to the Women of Syria” published on LitHub. Twitter: @warghetti

Shawn Yuan is an award-winning, American-Chinese journalist and photographer who has covered Hong Kong and the Middle East. His work has been published in a number of renowned outlets such as Vice, Al Jazeera English, BBC, and Bloomberg, among many others. His most recent articles are published on his website. Twitter: @shawnxyny Instagram: @shawnxyny

People Like Us is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus and get ad-free listening across our network and early access to new podcasts.

For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works.

www.peoplelikeuspod.com

In this episode I explore the world of film in the Arab world and talk to directors and producers who are pushing the boundaries. I speak to Jordan’s Tima Shomali, director of an Arabic language original Netflix series Al Rawabi School for Girls, a huge hit about teenage girls and bullying, which is now going into its second season, and Lebanon’s Wissam Smayra, director of the first Arab Netflix original film, Perfect Strangers a remake of an Italian film about a dinner party that goes awry. We discuss their effort to make content that tells local stories but with universal resonance and the pushback they faced from conservative segments of society for tackling issues like bullying, same-sex relations and infedility as well as censorship on streaming platforms. I discuss the world of independent film houses with Butheina Kazim, founder of Cinema Akil in Dubai and explore with her the challenge of keeping a movie culture going in the region, the past and future of the region’s movie industry.

And for more on our guests…

Wissam Smayra is a Lebanese director, producer and scriptwriter. He recently directed Netflix’s first Arabic language original film, an adaptation of the 2016 Italian film Perfetti sconosciuti- Perfect Strangers. In 2018, he produced Capernaum, directed by Lebanon’s beloved actress and film director Nadine Labaki. Capernaum  was nominated for a BAFTA and an Oscar and won the Jury award at the Cannes film festival. @wissamsmayra

Tima Shomali is a Jordanian filmmaker and producer, and the first Jordanian to have her own comedy show on Youtube, FemaleShow which got over a million views. She is often described as the Tina Fey of the Arab world. Her hit series Al Rawabi School for Girls  was a Netflix original series and a second season is currently under production @timashomali

Butheina Kazim is the founder of Cinema Akil, the only independent arthouse cinema in the Gulf region programming repertory cinema programs at their flagship home in Alserkal Avenue in Dubai and through the nomadic cinema across the UAE. Kazim is a member of the Steering Committee of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens where Cinema Akil is a member. Kazim lives and works in Dubai. @butheinahk

People Like Us is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus and get ad-free listening across our network and early access to new podcasts. 

For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works.

www.peoplelikeuspod.com