The podcast scene in Cairo and a letter from lockdown in New York
Hi there,
What a grey rainy hell-week it’s been in London! And it’s not quite over yet! Hope this missive is a little ray of sunshine for you.
The latest guest on the podcast is journalism professor at The American University of Cairo, Kim Fox.
Kim left the US, where she grew up, for Egypt in 2009. Two years later, a revolution happened. In this episode, she draws parallels behind the 2-million-strong protests in Tahrir Square back then, and the worldwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing now. We also talk about how the next generation use social media, being multimedia in the 1980s and Cairo getting its own podcast festival.
Global Letters from Lockdown
This week’s global letter from lockdown comes from New York, USA
Jordan Gass-Poore’ is an audio producer and news reporter based in NYC, who guested on the second episode of Freelance Pod!
In between covering COVID-19 and its effects for news orgs like Bloomberg, The Atlantic and I Heart Radio, Jordan has managed to launch her own horror-comedy podcast out of lockdown.
Lockdown in New York - Jordan Gass-Poore’
The stay-at-home order has raised my anxiety level. I pace up-and-down my block, smoking more cigarettes than I think I ever have before, which is unfortunate, not just for my health, but for my wallet: the price of cigarettes have gone up by fifty cents in the past week.
I thought I would make it through New York City’s stay-at-home order unscathed, but I’ve spent more mornings crying in the bathroom for no real reason. So, to ease my mind, I got back to my roots.
I’ve been a horror fan and writer since I was a small child. Name pretty much any horror movie, TV show, or book and I’ve probably watched it, read it, Wikipedia-searched it, and can give numerous factoids about it.
I love discussing horror and tying the genre to everyday events. There’s a lot of horrific events going on in the world today – and there’s a lot to learn from the horror genre. To help make sense of it all, I created a horror-comedy, interview-style podcast called Pod of Madness.
The show aims to provide opportunities for Womxn across the horror genre; make the genre more accessible; and tie the genre to the events of everyday life. Pod of Madness is what’s saving my sanity right now and I hope it can do the same for you.
Links links links
I was on BBC radio to talk podcasts: film history ones, nominated ones and new ones including the brilliant Oh Hello: the P’dcast
I was invited onto Mariella Frostrup’s Times Radio show to talk about unpronounceable names and the new LinkedIn feature that can help
A flashback to the last time I did live radio, back in 2014 (I would like to do more, please)
After Michaela Coel and Thandie Newton, who is Vulture writer extraordinaire E. Alex Jung going to perfectly profile next?? Love seeing Thandie and Michaela being so much more candid than we’re used to from interviews with famous TV / film figures. Great reads.
This is amazing news, and Micha’s first column on what to do with cop shows now is chef’s kiss
Speaking of cop shows, here’s a good GQ profile (by Sam Schube) of Andy Samberg, aka Jake Peralta on Brooklyn Nine-Nine aka how’s their next season going to work?! I do love the image of his daughter playing a tiny harp to be like her mom.
I got a new phone that would let me download it, then watched exactly one (1) show on Quibi, this one:
A week of working and avoiding the rain, fun! Definitely need to take some holiday soon… that’s all from me, byeeeee x