Top MENA-based podcasters of 2021
Podcast: The Dukkan Show
Nationality: Sudanese, Lebanese, Iraqi-Filipino, respectively
The Dukkan Show was among the first podcasts to be launched in the MENA region. The term “dukkan” means shop in Arabic, and it was indeed the friendly conversations often held at local shops that inspired the name of the podcast.
Discussing everything from the latest movies and shows to covering local events like the Arab Media Forum, the show recently reached a new milestone of 200 episodes.
It celebrated this milestone through a special episode featuring UAE Minister of Culture and Youth Noura Al-Kaabi.
It was the first podcast show globally to host a talk at Today at Apple, a creative initiative offered online and in Apple’s retail stores around the world.
The podcast is presented by three hosts: Omar Tom, Mohammed Akkaoui and Reem Hameed.
Tom is a Sudanese who grew up in Dubai, had a short stint in the US, but is now back in the UAE. Akkaoui is Lebanese by origin but was born and spent most of his life in Abu Dhabi and, later, Dubai. Hameed’s background is perhaps the most complex: Her father is Iraqi, and her mother is Filipino. She spent her childhood between Iraq and the Philippines and moved to Canada when she was 16. Hameed lives in Dubai today.
Self-proclaimed “third-culture kids,” the trio’s varied backgrounds inspire some of the show’s topics focusing on identity, growing up outside one’s “passport” country, and displacement.
Other topics include everything from entrepreneurship and single motherhood to hip-hop and the internet, all hosted exclusively in English.