Episode: 31 — "How to Make an Impact in a New Country" · Full Episode #31
Season: 4
Language: Arabic, with English cultural references
Hassan Akkad (حسان عقاد) is a Syrian filmmaker, activist and former English teacher. Born in 1988 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he was raised in Damascus and now lives in East London. He gained international recognition for a video filmed from his car in 2020, addressing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the exclusion of NHS cleaners from the government's bereavement scheme. The video went viral. The government reversed the decision.
Before arriving in the United Kingdom, Akkad worked as an English teacher in Damascus. He was detained during the Syrian revolution, beaten, and later confronted President Bashar al-Assad directly at a public meeting. He crossed from Syria to Europe and documented his journey, which formed the basis of his BAFTA-winning BBC documentary Exodus: Our Journey to Europe.
Akkad grew up across the street from an American school in Damascus. The contrast was immediate and daily: military uniforms on one side, shorts and T-shirts on the other. He described the disorientation of occupying both worlds — consuming American music and culture while living under a Ba'athist state apparatus. He became obsessed with Eminem, which informed his later teaching style and his instinct for direct, confrontational speech.
Before the revolution, Akkad taught English in Damascus using unconventional methods. He wore Converse and jeans. He made more money than his father's pizza restaurant generated. The teaching was not a placeholder — he was good at it, and the income represented a kind of generational overtaking that he described without triumph.
Akkad was detained during the Syrian revolution. He was beaten with iron pipes for twenty to thirty minutes. His wrists, ribs and one leg were broken. He signed blank papers — standard practice in Syrian intelligence detention. The cell he was placed in had dates scratched into the walls by previous detainees, ranging from 1994 to 1999. He registered this detail: the walls were a record of how long the system had been doing the same thing to different people.
At a public meeting, Akkad addressed Assad directly. He told him: "No ruler in history who fought his own people stayed in power." An aide circled his name on a list. Akkad told the story without editorialising. The fact that he said it, and the fact that someone wrote his name down, were presented as two events of equal weight.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Akkad worked as a hospital cleaner in the NHS. When the UK government announced a bereavement scheme for healthcare workers but excluded cleaners, porters and other support staff, he filmed a video from his car addressing Boris Johnson. The video was widely shared. The government reversed its position and extended the scheme to include all NHS workers. He did not describe the video as activism. He described it as the only option available.
See: The NHS Video
Akkad described having nightmares roughly every two weeks. He became visibly emotional during the podcast. The guilt is not about what he did or failed to do — it is about having survived when others did not. He did not frame this as something he had resolved.
"No ruler in history who fought his own people stayed in power." (EP 31)
"The walls had dates. 1994. 1995. 1999. The system had been doing this for years before me." (EP 31)