_October–December 2019. 10 episodes. All recorded in London except EP 10 (Berlin)._
Guest: Tariq Elmeri (solo) | Date: 15 Oct 2019 | Language: Bilingual (Arabic/English)
Tariq interviews himself. Approaching 40, he sets a goal to be in the best shape possible — mentally, physically, psychologically. Topics: his father as model of success, quiet leadership over charisma, daily routine, filmmaking influences.
Stories: The Billboard Question
Themes: #fatherhood, #identity, #sport
Guest: Nasr Elhadi | Date: 22 Oct 2019 | Language: Libyan Arabic (90%+)
Nasr tells the story of Intaj — a media company born from revolutionary energy, collapsed from structural failure — and the apology that repaired the friendship years later. He describes the dinar collapse that destroyed his fashion empire overnight, his journey into Bitcoin, and how fatherhood recalibrated everything.
Stories: The Intaj Media Company, The Dinar Collapse
Themes: #apology, #entrepreneurship, #economic-collapse, #fatherhood
Guest: Sirage Saudi | Date: Oct 2019 | Language: English (~85%)
Sirage grew up in Marbella — too Spanish to be Arabic, too Arabic to be Spanish. He trained as an architect under Richard Rogers' studio, ran a half marathon on four days' notice as an intern replacement, and was nearly told to leave his degree before becoming one of the best in his year.
Stories: The Half Marathon on Four Days Notice, Nearly Kicked Out
Themes: #identity, #belonging, #sport
Guest: Emad Badi | Date: 5 Nov 2019 | Language: English with Arabic phrases
Emad argues that PTSD in Libya is not individual but societal — a collective distortion of the moral compass. He describes friends who only developed symptoms after reaching safety in London, the Tebu citizenship crisis, how his nuanced article was weaponised by Libyan media, and April 2019 as the most intense month of his life.
Stories: April 2019, The Weaponised Article
Themes: #ptsd, #libyan-politics, #media, #diaspora
Guest: Ghazi Gheblawi | Date: 2019 | Language: Mixed Arabic/English
Ghazi — doctor turned writer, senior editor at Darf Publishers, judge of the Caine Prize — discusses writing between Arabic and English, radio as escape from Gaddafi's information control, the exile of writer Ahmed al-Bukhari, masculinity in Arab societies, and the discipline of writing every day.
Stories: Ahmed al-Bukharis Exile, Radio as Liberation
Themes: #writing, #freedom-of-speech, #masculinity, #language
Guest: Suleiman al-Tih (Manni) | Date: Nov 2019 | Language: Libyan Arabic (~85%)
Recorded in a car on the way to Paris to deliver seven rescue cats. Manni — former semi-professional basketball player for Al-Ittihad — describes the gap between being called professional and being treated as one in Libyan sport, leaving Libya for the first time at 16 for a basketball camp in Serbia, building a personal training business, and his plant-based diet experiment.
Stories: Serbia at Sixteen, The Paris Cat Run
Themes: #sport, #creative-career, #diaspora
Guest: Abdulaziz Lamlum | Date: 2019 | Language: English
Abd was 16 when the revolution started. He helped rebel TV stations, discovered that Gaddafi's low-quality state TV was deliberately bad (they found state-of-the-art equipment inside), wrote a letter to the Queen requesting tea, co-built the Sotosura media platform with Tariq, and explains the Kuleshov effect as the mechanics of propaganda.
Stories: The Propaganda Machine, Letter to the Queen
Themes: #media, #revolution, #gaddafi, #entrepreneurship
Guest: Eslam Gazelle | Date: 10 Dec 2019 | Language: Libyan Arabic
Eslam — 23, based in Newcastle, first blogger in her community to monetise fashion content — tells the story of the kaftan: from an Instagram comment to a garment worn on live Egyptian TV in nine months, having never sewn anything. She challenges conformity, discusses social media as a real business, and talks honestly about mental health and being different.
Stories: The Kaftan, The Billboard Question
Themes: #identity, #conformity, #creative-career, #women-in-libya, #mental-health
Guest: Osama Alfitory | Date: 2019 | Language: Libyan Arabic | Recorded in: Berlin
Season finale. ~2h47m — the longest episode. Osama accidentally became a fixer when his brother connected him to a New York Times journalist in Benghazi. He was at Sirte for Gaddafi's capture, interviewed Mansour Dhao about Gaddafi's final days, made a documentary about elderly landmine clearers in Benghazi (one died during filming), and describes how a photograph he forgot returned nightly in his dreams four years later — the moment that led him to therapy. Expecting his first child, he decided never to return to the level of risk he once accepted.
Stories: Becoming a Fixer, Gaddafis Capture at Sirte, The Landmine Clearers of Benghazi, The Corpse on the Hard Drive
Themes: #eyewitness, #war-journalism, #ptsd, #oral-history, #fatherhood