In this episode of Culture Bites, Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews shine a light on the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, which has turned public spaces in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain into al fresco galleries. The event features more than 70 UAE and international artists whose installations in culturally significant sites represent the past and present. This includes the corniche and public parks in Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain Oasis. The hosts discuss the importance of accessible public art, where visitors can...

In this episode of Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal explore the flourishing art scene across the UAE, starting with Abu Dhabi Art which kicked off earlier this week. This year marks the biggest iteration of the event to date, featuring more than 100 galleries. The hosts share their favourite pieces from the fair and highlight some of the most compelling exhibits to experience, including the Arab Presences: Modern Art and Decolonisation exhibition which features...

This week on the show, Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal reflect on the recently announced 2025 Grammy nominations. Beyonce leads with 11, becoming the most-nominated artist of all time, bringing her career total to 99 nominations. The hosts discuss the diversity of genres being recognised by the recording academy and the artists – both new and established – in the race for the most coveted categories. They also share the success stories of rising artists like Raye, who has been...

In this week’s episode, Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal start the show on a celebratory note after Culture Bites won a bronze prize for best co-hosts at this year’s Signal Awards. The annual awards honour the world’s most impactful podcasts in several categories, with winners selected either by a jury or by public votes. Only weeks after Love is Blind Habibi started streaming, the show’s cast gathered for a highly anticipated reunion, in which fans finally found out which pairs...

This week on Culture Bites, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal step back to a prehistoric era of the UAE’s story. The Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will recreate models of landscapes and wildlife as they once existed millions of years ago. Visitors will be able to discover a natural world that’s unique to the country and the Arab region at large. This includes galleries that showcase the topography of Abu Dhabi before there was an Arabian Gulf, with its winding rivers, crocodiles and...

On Culture Bites this week, Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews round up their favourite Halloween films to binge before October 31. From the classically frightening to the unsettling and gory, they share suggestions across several horror genres. From Jordan Peele’s chilling alien mystery Nope to the grotesque body horror The Substance starring Demi Moore, there’s something for everyone. The hosts also compare the remakes of family-friendly spooky classics like Beetlejuice and Roald Dahl’s The...

In this episode of Culture Bites, chef Salam Dakkak joins Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews to talk about her award-winning Levantine cuisine and the "nafas", or soul, that she shares through her cooking. The Palestinian-Jordanian owner of Bait Maryam and Sufret Maryam, named in honour of her mother, revives the tastes and traditions of home in her kitchen, inviting guests from all over the world to discover her culture through the universal language of food. Dakkak, who has been lauded with a...

In this episode of Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal start the show with exciting news: the podcast has been shortlisted for a Signal Award in the Best Co-host Team category. Fans of the show have until October 17 to cast their votes here. Please get voting! Maan got the chance to visit NYU Abu Dhabi this week and explore new exhibition Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial, which captures key moments in the Gulf’s arts scene over the past five years. Artists...

This week on Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews cover the collective struggle of Coldplay fans who tried to buy tickets for the band’s concerts in Abu Dhabi in January.   People queued online for hours hoping to be among the lucky ones to get their hands on a ticket but many found tens or hundreds of thousands already ahead of them. Demand was so high that the concert's organisers decided on not two, but three additional shows, all set to take place in the same week at the...

Culture Bites turns one this week! To celebrate the anniversary, hosts Farah Andrews, Enas Refaei and Maan Jalal look back on their favourite moments, and Farah gives the team a podcast present in the form of a big concert announcement in Abu Dhabi. Listen to catch the exciting news. Also coming to the UAE is the much-debated Donald Trump biopic, The Apprentice, screening in cinemas from October 16. It tells the story of the former US president’s rise as a businessman in 1980s New York. The...

This week on Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei and Maan Jalal break down the appeal of Netflix’s new show, The Perfect Couple. The murder mystery follows the lives of the wealthy Winbury family on the day of their son’s wedding, when one of the guests is found dead on the beach. The Perfect Couple has become Netflix's most popular show in the UAE since its release last week. The Culture Bites hosts dissect binge-worthy shows that centre around seemingly picture-perfect families that are not...

What can the evolution of languages tell us about a place and time in history? In this week’s Culture Bites podcast, hosts Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal draw inspiration from the multi-volume Arabic-Latin dictionary project led by Sharjah Ruler Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, and discuss common root words across languages. They draw links between Arabic and Latin languages, like Spanish, and reflect on the role of etymology in enriching cross-cultural exchange. As we...

In this week's episode of Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal imagine what it would be like if art were appreciated not just visually, but also through scent. Inspired by a project at the National Museum in Krakow, The National speaks to curators at Louvre Abu Dhabi to decipher the smell of selected pieces in their collection. Considering the era, materials used, the content and the artists' environments, the hosts discuss how art appreciation could become a...

In this week's episode of the Culture Bites podcast, hosts Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal break down the press tour drama surrounding new film It Ends with Us. Beyond reported rifts on set between lead actress Blake Lively and co-star and director Justin Baldoni, critics are unimpressed with Lively’s movie marketing approach. Farah points out the problematic disparity between the film’s serious subject matter, which includes domestic abuse, and the actress’s interviews and...

Enas Refaei is back for this episode of Culture Bites, joining Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal to preview the popular 1990s and 2000s music artists coming to the UAE this season. The Backstreet Boys are returning to Abu Dhabi this October, a little more than a year since their last performance in the capital. But they are not the only act bringing nostalgia to town this autumn. The hosts look ahead to performances by artists from various genres, including Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix...

This week on Culture Bites podcast, hosts Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal give a roundup of House of the Dragon as season two ends. With eight episodes, it was already short, but the finale also left the hosts feeling short changed. They review the show and discuss the challenges of adapting fantasy novels into TV series. With the Olympics almost coming to a close, Farah and Maan uncover a lesser known aspect of the sporting event’s history. In staying true to the values of the original ancient...

It’s a special summer edition of Culture Bites this week. To mark the halfway point of the year, hosts Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal take the opportunity to look back at their favourite cultural experiences so far. From books and movies to art exhibitions and music concerts, the hosts share their top picks in a moment to celebrate all the year has had to offer. They discuss some of the biggest pop culture hits, including The Bear and House of the Dragon, and all things Taylor Swift. They also...

In this week's episode of Culture Bites, hosts Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal highlight some of their top picks from this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. With Shogun and The Bear leading the race, the hype has officially begun ahead of the awards ceremony taking place on September 15. To mark the tragic passing of Iranian contemporary artist Farhad Moshiri, Maan and Farah pay tribute to the creative often dubbed the “Middle East's Andy Warhol”. They reflect on his artist philosophy of...

In this week’s episode of Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei and Maan Jalal discuss the up-and-coming true crime genre in the Arab world with the release of the docuseries, Dark Minds. The show details some of the most heinous murders from across the region, featuring interviews and dramatic re-enactments. Enas shares a glimpse of the episode she started watching and Maan steers the conversation towards criticism of the over-sensationalist true crime genre. In the wake of actress Shannen...

In this week’s episode of Culture Bites podcast, hosts Enas Refaei, Farah Andrews and Maan Jalal share highlights from this year's Amman International Film Festival, where a an impressive roster of documentaries and dramas from Arab filmmakers are being screened, and have already got global conversation going. The hosts share some of the titles worth watching including My Sweet Land and Bye, Bye Tiberias. The new Palestinian production and distribution house Watermelon Pictures is led by...

In this week’s episode of the Culture Bites podcast, hosts Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews talk about all the moments when the Palestinian cause was front and centre at Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK, from the flags to the references from Coldplay, Damin Albarn, Charlotte Church and Arab region’s 47Soul. Farah then covers the recent controversy in Switzerland around a 2012 artwork created by South African artist Tracey Rose, and why a “Stop the Muslim Holocaust” sentence stirred...

In this week’s episode of the Culture Bites podcast, host Farah Andrews is back, joining Enas Refaei and Maan Jalal. Farah has a lot to say about Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, having attended an Edinburgh concert. The hosts chat about the intense energy of Swifties, which registered seismic activity recorded up to 6km away, and highlights from the night. The hosts list of the notable theatre shows and performances scheduled in the UAE this summer, including Fleabag, Aida and Life of Pi, including...

In this week’s episode of Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei and Maan Jalal sit down with rising Bollywood star Taha Shah Badussha to discuss his starring role in one of the biggest shows of the year – Netflix's Heermandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Badussha’s journey has been shaped by the UAE in many ways. He was born and grew up in Abu Dhabi, then studied entrepreneurship at the American University of Sharjah, before attending the New York Film Academy in the Emirati capital. The actor delves into...

In this week’s episode of Culture Bites, hosts Enas Refaei and Maan Jalal talk about the rise and function of opera houses in Dubai, Sharjah, Riyadh and across Middle East.What significance do these cultural centres in the region hold? And how do they change the fabric of a city's cultural identity? Enas discusses the excitement surrounding the coming release of the sequel to the animated film Inside Out, reflecting on the magical impact of the first movie on her children. Maan then discusses...