This might be the most important conversation we have had on Inside Saudi.

We sit down with Sajid Khan, a child safeguarding and education expert who moved from Birmingham to Riyadh at 24 and has spent over a decade protecting children in schools across the Kingdom. We get into what safeguarding really means, why Saudi can feel safer than the UK, the neglect cases that changed how he sees parenting, how AI is creating a whole new risk for kids, why the teacher matters more than the school, and the exact questions every parent should ask before choosing one.

Whether you are raising kids in Saudi, moving here soon, or you just care about keeping children safe, this episode is essential listening.

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, hosted by Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic in Riyadh.

New episodes every Monday. with @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx, featuring @sajidkhanfcct

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Guest, Sajid Khan: @sajidkhanfcct

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💬 Parents, what would you add? Tell us in the comments.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Teaser

0:45 Intro

2:10 Meet Sajid Khan

2:40 From Birmingham to Riyadh, finance to education

4:46 Why he moved to Saudi at 24

6:03 Arriving at 2am to a cold, empty building

9:42 Becoming a lecturer, then building schools

11:08 What child safeguarding actually means

13:22 The coffee shop test, nobody had heard of it

15:02 Why Saudi feels safer than the UK

15:44 The gap in background checks

18:50 Affluent neglect, the Oreos case

20:46 How harm starts at school, and AI

23:58 Nannies, drivers and basic needs

25:26 The CCTV driver dilemma

29:08 When emotions are high, intelligence is low

32:49 Get a criminal record check for anyone you hire

35:47 Saudi is not a ski in, ski out resort

36:43 Investing in the Kingdom, hiring locals

37:16 The teacher is everything

38:06 Kids can feel if you care

41:29 Growing up online, the new dangers

42:32 The London school trip lesson

44:23 Saudi has its own child protection policy

46:53 The biggest gap he sees in schools

49:28 Teacher training and career pathways

54:49 Advice for parents, 10 minutes a day

56:35 Put the phones away at dinner

58:14 Friend versus friendly, boundaries

1:00:42 Discipline, respect and the good cop bad cop trap

1:03:57 Guilt syndrome and screen time

1:06:25 The questions every parent should ask a school

1:09:00 The grooming red flag nobody spotted

1:10:42 Why he would rather be extra

1:13:59 The UAE horror story that changed the law

1:15:13 Thank you and close

We went to our first Saudi weddings, and nothing could have prepared us.

This week Carly and Vesna break down everything they have learned about Saudi weddings and gatherings, from a total newbie point of view. Dinner served at 2:30 in the morning, glam that rivals the Met Gala, and the unspoken rules of what to wear.

We get into the real flow of a Saudi wedding, why you can never overdress, the coffee and chocolate before the 2:30am dinner, how the women only celebrations actually go, the gatherings that run until 3am, what to bring as a gift, and the best advice for anyone new here: say yes and be open.

If you are moving to Saudi, planning a visit, or just curious about the culture, this one is for you.

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, hosted by Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic in Riyadh. New episodes every Monday.

with @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx

FOLLOW

Inside Saudi: instagram.com/insidesaudiarabia

Carly: instagram.com/caroverman

Vesna: instagram.com/vesnapetrovicx

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💬 Going to a Saudi wedding soon? Ask us anything in the comments.

CHAPTERS

0:00  Teaser

0:54  Cold open, why we made this episode

2:28  Dinner at 2:30 in the morning

3:24  Saudi is a night culture

4:20  Walking in, it felt like the Met Gala

5:16  Weddings here are women only

6:44  What we wore, and underdressing the first time

8:54  The compliment: you look like Saudi girls

10:29  The second wedding, leveling up

12:09  The flow, coffee, chocolate, tea and dinner at 2:30

15:17  Perfume stations and flowers

16:00  You cannot be on time, arrive fashionably late

16:54  People watching and the perfect night

17:44  Dancing at a Saudi wedding

20:29  Saudi ladies gatherings

22:27  What to bring as a gift

23:38  Gatherings that run until 3am

24:16  Doing life with the locals

25:12  Tips if you get invited

26:00  Say yes to the DM, how we get invited

26:54  Wrap up

From night classes in Cairo to a runway at Paris Fashion Week. This week Carly and Vesna sit down with Pacinthe, the Egyptian couture designer behind two Vogue Arabia covers, a Paris Fashion Week show, and a client list full of Arab stars and red carpet moments.

We get into how she built her fashion house from the ground up, her signature draped corsets and sustainable line, dressing for weddings across cultures, and why she does her best creative work at 2am. We also go somewhere real: the burnout that led to an autoimmune diagnosis, the mum guilt, and why she believes you were never meant to do it all.

She finishes with honest advice for anyone dreaming of a career in fashion. Whether you love fashion, run a business, or just need to hear that slowing down is allowed, this one is for you.

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, hosted by Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic in Riyadh.

New episodes every Monday.

with @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx

Find Pacinthe here: https://www.instagram.com/pacinthe_badran/

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Inside Saudi: https://www.instagram.com/insidesaudiarabia

Carly: https://www.instagram.com/caroverman

Vesna: https://www.instagram.com/vesnapetrovicx

🎧 Follow so you never miss an episode 💬

What is your dream career, and what is stopping you?

Tell us in the comments.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Teaser

1:22 Cold open, meet Pacinthe

1:47 How the hosts met Pacinthe

2:27 Shopping local and Egypt's design scene

5:23 How she got into fashion

7:19 Quitting her job to launch her own label

10:11 Three lines and the signature draped corsets

12:41 Getting to Paris Fashion Week

13:48 Vogue Arabia covers and red carpets

15:36 Expanding into Saudi

15:48 Wedding fashion, too fancy for a Western wedding

17:32 Saudi's booming fashion scene

19:22 Jeddah versus Riyadh

21:13 Cairo, chaos, and where creativity comes from

23:22 Why she creates at 2am

26:07 Burnout and an autoimmune wake up call

29:28 Mum guilt and making space for yourself

31:31 You were never meant to do it all

35:15 How men and women recharge differently

38:39 The Serenity collection and celebrating wins

41:19 Advice for anyone starting in fashion

43:29 Wrap up

One year in Saudi, and we finally figured a few things out. In this episode, Carly and Vesna swap the ten lessons they learned after their first year living in Riyadh, going back and forth without knowing each other's list.

We get into being kind to yourself through the move, whether you really need the big compound, why making Saudi friends changes everything, the truth about getting help at home, what drivers and nannies actually cost, what to pack and what to buy once you land, road tripping across the country, and the real cost of living in Riyadh. We finish on the honest part: the peaks, the valleys, and why everything here takes time.

If you are moving to Saudi, thinking about it, or already here and nodding along, this one is for you.

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, hosted by Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic in Riyadh. New episodes every Monday.

with @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx

FOLLOW US:

instagram.com/insidesaudiarabia

instagram.com/caroverman

instagram.com/vesnapetrovicx

🎧 Follow so you never miss an episode

💬 What was your biggest lesson from your first year abroad? Drop it in the comments.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Cold open

We've never done a two-parter, but there was too much to cover. In Part 2, Victor Barrero is back to talk about the next chapter: Vision 2030, Expo 2030, and what it actually takes to build a country at the speed Saudi is moving.

Victor helped launch Flow in Riyadh, close to 1,000 households across four communities, stood up in a matter of months after landing. In this conversation he pulls back to the bigger picture: the wave of development sweeping the kingdom, why capital from around the world suddenly wants in, how the compound model has changed since the Aramco era, and what separates a project that sells from one that struggles. We get into the airport that now greets you with "welcome to my country," opening a company through WhatsApp, the hidden cost of moving senior talent halfway across the world, and why Saudi "rewards patient, not fast" even in a race to 2030.

If you're trying to make sense of the Gulf right now, as a resident, a professional weighing a move, or just someone watching from afar, this is a wide-angle view from someone who's been in and out since 2009.

New here? Go back and listen to Part 1 first for Victor's story of how he got to Saudi.

with @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx

FOLLOW VICTOR HERE: https://www.instagram.com/victorinriyadh/

and follow us for more:

https://www.instagram.com/insidesaudiarabia/

https://www.instagram.com/caroverman/

https://www.instagram.com/vesnapetrovicx/

00:00 Cold open

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, hosted by Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic in Riyadh. New episodes every Monday.

🎧 Follow so you never miss an episode 💬 Questions for a future episode? Drop them in the comments

One of us has had a live-in nanny since September. The other has a cleaner for three hours a week and a robot vacuum called Robbie, who has just broken down.

A year into life in Riyadh, Carly and Vesna compare notes on help: how to find it, how to manage it, and what it costs you when you refuse it.

Carly walks through the two routes to finding a nanny in Riyadh, why she asks to see an iqama live in Absher rather than a screenshot, and why the one week trial she recommends should probably be a month. She is also honest about what she got wrong from day one, which was never setting expectations out loud.

Vesna has never had help. She grew up watching her mother do everything and did the same in Australia, until a back injury and a growing podcast made that untenable. Her teenagers, for the record, do not want a nanny anywhere near their rooms.

They close on mum guilt, the guilt of having help, and the boundaries they now actually hold.

If you've been here longer than us, tell us what we're still getting wrong in the comments please. 

Listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, co-hosted by two moms in Riyadh, made for Saudis, residents, and anyone trying to make sense of the Gulf during Vision 2030.

With @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx

Follow us for more:

Chapters: 

In the summer of 2009, Victor Barrero typed "life in Saudi Arabia" into Google and got scared. He came anyway, on an eight-week flynas internship, a 25-year-old from Mexico who packed a camera and a checklist: camel market, old Diriyah, the grand bazaar. None of it looked like the photos. Diriyah was boarded up. He got into Kingdom Tower only because a guard mistook him for a diplomat.

Then a friend in Mexico sent one Facebook message introducing him to a Saudi named Sultan. Sultan took him to lunch. Three weeks later Victor was at an istraha an hour outside the city with thirty Saudi men, dates and Arabic coffee, getting mistaken for an Egyptian who wouldn't come pray. That single introduction turned the whole summer around.

In Part 1, Victor tells Carly and Vesna how Riyadh went from a place Google warned him about to the place that felt like home, why he taught himself to read Arabic in three weeks, what revenue management at an airline actually is, and the family decision that brought him back in 2024.

Part 2 is next Monday. Listen: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi

FOLLOW VICTOR HERE: https://www.instagram.com/victorinriyadh/

and follow us for more:

https://www.instagram.com/insidesaudiarabia/

https://www.instagram.com/caroverman/ 

https://www.instagram.com/vesnapetrovicx/ 

Chapters:

A year in, Carly and Vesna re-priced their whole life in Riyadh: what's gone up, what surprised them, and what they'd tell someone running the numbers before a move.

This is the granular version of the cost conversation, from the two biggest line items down to the ones nobody warns you about. They walk through compounds across four tiers, from the common 300 to 350K range to the half-million luxe end, plus what an off-compound option like Sedra actually trades away. International school fees land near 100K per child once trips, uniforms and deposits are counted, and they're honest about the math that forces real choices: cheaper school or more travel, space or community, save or spend.

They get into the Chinese cars they both bought outright, fuel so cheap it changes how you move around the city, a four-tier map of where to grocery shop, and the beauty, abaya and travel spend that adds up quietly underneath everything.

No invented numbers, just what a year of living it has actually cost them.

Follow Inside Saudi so you never miss a Monday episode.

New here? Start with our cost of living and relocation episodes.

Follow us:

Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi

Got a question we didn't cover? Drop it in the comments and we'll get to it in a future episode.

Listen wherever you get podcasts

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open

Your neck pain and your gut might be the same problem. This week we sit down with Peter from Tonic The Method on what wellness actually looks like in Riyadh right now.

Peter is a physical therapist and Chinese-medicine specialist who moved here from Lebanon expecting wellness to rank near the bottom of people's priorities. He was wrong. We get into the nerve that connects your neck to your stomach, the breathing fix he reaches for before any machine, which everyday foods are quietly acidic, the exact contrast-therapy order he recommends, and why he reads teeth grinding as a clue to something bigger. Plus the colon-massage story Vesna will never live down.

Hosted by Carly and Vesna.

Listen and follow wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi

Chapters:

After a run of guest episodes, we did something different.. a live summer Q&A on TikTok, answering your questions in real time, and turned it into this week's episode. No guest, just us catching up before the summer break.

We get into what a Saudi wedding at the Ritz-Carlton is actually like, the malls worth your time in Riyadh, the Saudi and Gulf abaya designers we actually buy from, learning Arabic from scratch, and the question that started this whole show: why Saudi, and would we choose Riyadh again.

Inside Saudi is the English-language podcast about daily life in Saudi Arabia today, co-hosted by two moms living in Riyadh, made for Saudis, residents, and anyone trying to make sense of the Gulf during Vision 2030.

Listen wherever you get podcasts: https://linktr.ee/insidesaudi

CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open

01:42 Welcome — summer catch-up, live on TikTok

02:47 Summer plans: UK, Greece, Macedonia

05:24 The Saudi wedding at the Ritz-Carlton

09:08 Why we chose Saudi

13:44 Our Saudi road trip — Taif, Jeddah, AlUla, the Eastern Province

18:05 Learning Arabic

21:55 What weddings here are really like

26:14 The malls we love in Riyadh

28:45 Abayas and Saudi designers

31:48 Beauty and salons

35:48 Saudi schools

38:10 Riyadh or Jeddah — would we choose it again

38:51 What surprised us most: the hospitality

45:20 What is the podcast about