In 1979, Iftah Ya Simsim - the Arabic version of Sesame Street - aired for the first time. Over the next ten years, the show was loved by children across the Arab world, until 1990, when the show was pulled off the air as a result of the Gulf War.

But Ammar Al Sabban, a young boy growing up watching the show in Jeddah, never forgot the impact his favourite characters had on him.

In this episode, a little boy's dream to become his favourite Muppet, and the making of a show that revolutionised children's television.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

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“I still believe this is the scariest moment of my entire life. My face is white, I'm shaking and I'm terrified. I'm frozen––I can't do anything.”

In July 2016, Toufic Abou Nader set off on a journey to the bottom of the Krubera cave––the deepest cave in the world.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

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Ronnie Chatah started giving his walking tours of Beirut in 2008, during a period of stability for the city. He would guide tourists through the city, telling stories of Phoenician ruins, French architecture and Ottoman houses. He'd also talk about Lebanon's civil war, and the political unrest that came to follow it. But these were stories about other people, other eras and other lives. Until December of 2013, when Ronnie's personal life was sucked into the tapestry of Beirut's history.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been two years since our story about Rami and Marinka, the Dutch-Lebanese couple who fell in love over MSN Messenger during the Lebanon-Israel war. Not once, but twice, chance brought them together online, sparking an epic modern love story. Since we last spoke, a lot has changed for them. In this episode, we check back in to see where their lives are now.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ghada and Ranyah don't know each other, but their stories have a lot in common. When they each married their husbands, everybody around them assumed they'd live happily ever after. But it didn't turn out that way, for either of them. They were both left to rebuild new identities as single women in the Middle East as they raised their families alone. In this episode, we hear their stories of divorce, and what came next.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year, the Egyptian national football team ended a 28-year streak of bad luck when they qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But their road to the tournament wasn't an easy one. It's a story of heroism, revolution and disappointment. This week on Kerning Cultures, how the Pharaohs ended their curse.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month.

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Every 10 years, the United States Census counts and categorises every person living in America. But for Middle Easterners in America, there has never been a category option. And now, for the first time, there might be.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on patreon.com/kerningcultures for as little as $1 a month.

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Elie was a journalist looking for her next story when she met Ziad at a party in Istanbul. Ziad was a Syrian refugee hoping to travel to Europe and apply for asylum. Elie asked Ziad if she could follow him to Norway, his final destination, and document the journey. He said yes. So commences their odyssey together... and the beginning of a journey neither could have anticipated.

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Iraq to Texas: a doctor's chronicle of rebuilding life from the ground up as a refugee. (English, dubbed version) 

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Iraq to Texas: a doctor's chronicle of rebuilding life from the ground up as a refugee. (Original, Arabic). 

Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production. Support this podcast on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.