Stories of Our City

Like rock n’ roll before it, hip-hop started mainly as a cultural movement decades ago that spread worldwide, affecting even the far reaches of the earth. The Middle East is no exception. In this week’s podcast hear two members of Lebanon’s live hip-hop band Fareeq El Atrash share about their beginnings as a musical group and about their contribution to the still fairly nascent, but highly promising, Middle Eastern hip-hop scene. All the music featured in this episode comes from the band’s second full-length album.

Miral is an Algerian native studying in Jordan who is seeking to be a catalyst for changing the lingua franca of her homeland from the long-standing French language. Learn the motivation behind this young woman’s dream and how she seeks to help fulfill it.

Miral is an Algerian native studying in Jordan who is seeking to be a catalyst for changing the lingua franca of her homeland from the long-standing French language. Learn the motivation behind this young woman’s dream and how she seeks to help fulfill it.

Miral is an Algerian native studying in Jordan who is seeking to be a catalyst for changing the lingua franca of her homeland from the long-standing French language. Learn the motivation behind this young woman’s dream and how she seeks to help fulfill it.

Middle Easterners are some of the biggest football fans in the world—football as in soccer. But Hussam Al-Yaseen, a pre-med student who founded the Jordanian American Football League (JAFL), hopes to see American football become just as popular in his Arab homeland. Learn how he came to discover and fall in love with the sport and how he is helping to spread football culture in Jordan.

Middle Easterners are some of the biggest football fans in the world—football as in soccer. But Hussam Al-Yaseen, a pre-med student who founded the Jordanian American Football League (JAFL), hopes to see American football become just as popular in his Arab homeland. Learn how he came to discover and fall in love with the sport and how he is helping to spread football culture in Jordan.

Middle Easterners are some of the biggest football fans in the world—football as in soccer. But Hussam Al-Yaseen, a pre-med student who founded the Jordanian American Football League (JAFL), hopes to see American football become just as popular in his Arab homeland. Learn how he came to discover and fall in love with the sport and how he is helping to spread football culture in Jordan.

Musician couple Martin Watkinson and Cherita Meadows met at a party in Portland, Oregon, years ago and now play music together as part of the group Gaea, the namesake of the Greek goddess. Hear how a tragic house fire pushed them back out on the road to share their music with the world and how music has helped in the healing process.

Musician couple Martin Watkinson and Cherita Meadows met at a party in Portland, Oregon, years ago and now play music together as part of the group Gaea, the namesake of the Greek goddess. Hear how a tragic house fire pushed them back out on the road to share their music with the world and how music has helped in the healing process.

Musician couple Martin Watkinson and Cherita Meadows met at a party in Portland, Oregon, years ago and now play music together as part of the group Gaea, the namesake of the Greek goddess. Hear how a tragic house fire pushed them back out on the road to share their music with the world and how music has helped in the healing process.