Inside Saudi Arabia

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:

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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

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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

Saudi Arabia had no sunscreen of its own, in one of the hottest climates on earth. Ghadi Alshehri spent three years fixing that.

Ghadi is the founder of Borderline Beauty, the first homegrown Saudi sunscreen. She sat down with Carly and Vesna in Riyadh to talk about the gap she found, the science most of us were never taught, and what it takes to build something Saudi-made right now.

In this episode:

- How she found the gap on an ordinary Tuesday at work

- Chemical vs mineral sunscreen, and why it actually matters

- Why UV passes through glass, clothes, and cloudy skies

- Three years of formulation in Korea, and the "impossible" brief

- Growing up between Manchester and Riyadh

- Vision 2030, being seen, and building something local

- Her advice for the next Saudi founder

Listen anywhere you get your podcasts: pod.link/insidesaudi

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Hosts: @caroverman and @vesnapetrovicx

Guest: Borderline Beauty @borderlinebeautysa

Chapters

00:00 The country with no sunscreen

00:35 Meet Ghadi and Raghad

02:00 The Tuesday she found the gap

05:00 Chemical vs mineral, explained

09:00 The myths: glass, clothes, cloudy days

13:00 Three years, Korea, and a formula that didn't exist

18:00 Manchester to Riyadh, and coming back

24:00 Vision 2030 and building something Saudi-made

30:00 Advice for the next founder

#SaudiArabia #Vision2030 #MadeInSaudi #SaudiBeauty #Riyadh

There are seven routes to Saudi Premium Residency. Most people only know about one or two of them, and almost everyone thinks Vesna got hers because of Instagram. This week, Carly and Vesna walk through all seven, what each costs, what each unlocks, and what they wish they'd understood before they started navigating it themselves.

Vesna holds Premium Residency as a secondary, sponsored by her husband, and she's open about what that actually means in practice: full benefits for him, partial for her, and a learning curve for the whole family. Carly doesn't have it. Together they break down limited-duration, unlimited-duration, special talent, gifted, investor, entrepreneur, and real-estate routes, with the actual SAR figures and the catch on each one.

A few things to know up front: this isn't legal advice, the Premium Residency website is the only source you should trust to apply, and the math fact-check halfway through is worth staying for. Part two, on starting a business once you have residency, is coming.

Listen wherever you get 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.

Follow Inside Saudi: Instagram: @insidesaudiarabia TikTok: @insidesaudiarabia

Carly: @caroverman (Instagram) @carlyoverman (TikTok)

Vesna: @vesnapetrovicx

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open

00:53 Welcome + why this episode

03:00 Seven routes, overview

07:20 Route 1: Limited duration (100,000 SAR/year)

08:45 Route 2: Unlimited duration (800,000 SAR)

10:39 Route 3: Special talent residency

13:13 Route 4: Gifted residency (culture & sports)

16:10 Route 5: Investor residency (7M SAR + 10 jobs)

16:45 Route 6: Entrepreneur residency (two tiers)

21:02 Route 7: Real estate residency (4M SAR unmortgaged)

22:04 Process, timeline, background checks

24:58 Myths people get wrong

27:31 The big summary

Cedric Dahmoun said no to Saudi three times before he came. He stayed five years.

He's a Belgian-Algerian content creator with 600,000 followers, most of whom found him through TikToks showing what life in Saudi actually looks like. He came during COVID from Dubai, with no Arabic, no plan, and a feeling that he'd run out of versions of himself to try in Europe.

In this episode he tells us about the night a stranger followed him through the dark in the south of Saudi and what happened next. He talks about leaving his phone on the coffee table for five years and what that says about the city he chose. He explains what he calls "the imam of TikTok," and why he doesn't argue with them. And he tells us about his next thing: walking from Riyadh to Mecca by camel, one month, the old way, because he wants to feel how the pilgrimage used to be done.

Carly and Vesna hosted from the studio in Riyadh. Cedric was in Saudi dress and a Shure mic.

Episode 28. Listen wherever you get podcasts.

With Carly Overman and Vesna Petrovic.

00:00 Cold open

Alex Tashbaeva stopped going to school at twelve. She'd already been on a tennis court eight hours a day since she was five, and her Uzbek-Soviet parents had decided she was going to be a champion. By sixteen she'd left home; by nineteen she was the only girl on a ten-person coaching team flying to Riyadh to build out the Saudi national tennis programme.

She said yes on a phone call. She knew nothing about the country.

This week we talk to Alex about what those first years actually looked like — coaching the under-14 boys' national team, building the women's programme alone over the summers when her colleagues went home to Europe, and how the Jeddah Yacht Club years pulled her sideways into hospitality and events. She tells us why she resisted calling herself a content creator long after her TikToks were working, and what she sees in Saudi now that she didn't five years ago.

She and Cedric are in Riyadh now and heading back to Jeddah. There's a marketing agency, a YouTube studio, and plans we get into.

Listen wherever you get podcasts: pod.link/insidesaudi

00:00:00 Cold open