What I Did Next

This week, I'm sitting down with my producer Chirag Desai to reflect on a whirlwind first half of the year—from interviewing iconic figures and taking the show international to the importance of reclaiming our narrative. 

We talk about what drives the show, the magic of the MENA region, and what it truly means to create space for our own stories.


This episode is brought to you by:

Chapters:
0:00 Coming up...
1:44 WIDN goes international
4:30 Reclaiming our narrative
13:25 An updated lightning round
18:12 What's next for Malak

Music ID: 5ROQ12DERYHSUUVQ

Creators and Guests

Host
Malak Fouad
Founder, A&T Media and Host, What I Did Next

What is What I Did Next?

Connecting the dots across the Middle East through storytelling. Join host Malak Fouad, as she brings you the most inspiring people and unpacks their life journeys — successes, failures and everything in between!

Malak Fouad: I think of our region, you know, as a mosaic. We are a multitude of different things.

Malak Fouad: And I think we need to start looking at that as a positive. I wrote a lot of

Malak Fouad: these new lightning round questions in light of the fact that I'm now firmly

Malak Fouad: middle-aged, which is something I'm embracing and I'm not ignoring.

Chirag Desai: Hi, Malak. Welcome to our 2026. Well, the first catch-up of 2026,

Chirag Desai: basically. I don't know if there are enough words to describe how this year

Chirag Desai: has gone really quite...

Malak Fouad: Well, especially that you're sitting in Dubai and you've gone through a lot of changes.

Chirag Desai: We want to take this opportunity as well to catch up on what's going on since

Chirag Desai: the start of the year for the show. Do you have any special highlights from the start of the year?

Malak Fouad: I think what for me was a real joy was, as usual, the breadth of our guests.

Malak Fouad: I mean, the variety of conversations that I was able to have this year,

Malak Fouad: the depth of the conversation.

Malak Fouad: If I just do a quick roundup, we had the icon that is Abdel Wahed El Wakil,

Malak Fouad: who is just such a star and such an important figure in our region,

Malak Fouad: reclaiming identity, reclaiming our heritage from the point of view of architecture.

Malak Fouad: And I have a personal connection to him because he's a family friend and I was

Malak Fouad: really so happy to get his story.

Chirag Desai: It was just really fun to listen to, by the way. Just listening to your grandfather

Chirag Desai: just telling you stories about his childhood and his adulthood.

Chirag Desai: I think that resonated really well.

Malak Fouad: And his body of work speaks for itself. I mean, he's a recognizable name across the region.

Malak Fouad: So I was really, really happy to do that. And to do it in his hometown,

Malak Fouad: he lives in Doha. So I recorded that with him last December.

Chirag Desai: You know, linked to that also was sort of almost this what I did next going

Chirag Desai: international theme that happened, right? So you have filmed outside of Egypt

Chirag Desai: before. We filmed in Dubai.

Chirag Desai: But this time you also filmed in Doha, which you just mentioned with Abdel Wahed.

Chirag Desai: But you also filmed in London. And so we had Nabila [Abdel Nabi],

Chirag Desai: who incidentally was our first video episode on Apple Podcasts.

Chirag Desai: So that was also fun. I mean, one of the new launches this year,

Chirag Desai: Apple adding video as a thing.

Chirag Desai: And then we've got another one coming out next month that was also filmed in London.

Malak Fouad: There's another one coming up in September that I'm going to be filming in San

Malak Fouad: Francisco in person as well. So that's very exciting.

Malak Fouad: So yeah, I mean, the show is...like

Malak Fouad: a lot of businesses around the world now, there's no geographical frame

Malak Fouad: for anything anymore. You can either be doing things online or in person anywhere.

Chirag Desai: Yeah, and I think we've always said, right, that there's sort of as much as

Chirag Desai: we will obviously still do, and we are currently doing a conversation that's remote.

Chirag Desai: Those in-person conversations just tend to be a little bit more meaty.

Chirag Desai: There's more, you know, there's just room for more chemistry,

Chirag Desai: both before and after and all of that. And so this was a nice opportunity for

Chirag Desai: you to do it with them in person.

Malak Fouad: I think it was just like a lot of the other things that happen in life.

Malak Fouad: It was just good timing. It was luck. And it just came together nicely.

Malak Fouad: I'm not sure I'll be able to do interviews in, you know, in Australia or in

Malak Fouad: more of, you know, further afield.

Malak Fouad: But these just came together nicely. And then a big revelation for me was Thuraya

Malak Fouad: Ismail, who I just really adored speaking to.

Malak Fouad: She really is such a great rep representative for our region and she's really

Malak Fouad: personifies what's amazing about women from the region who are multicultural and who

Malak Fouad: are giving back and I was very impressed by her and very inspired by her. And

Malak Fouad: then you know there are so many all the other guests were amazing but I will

Malak Fouad: highlight one more person

Malak Fouad: and it's more about the way the interview came about, which is Tim Marshall.

Malak Fouad: I've been chasing him for about two years on email to try and get him on the show.

Malak Fouad: And finally, he accepted. And I actually met him end of last year at a talk

Malak Fouad: he was giving in London. His episode came out in April. It was right in the middle of the Iran war.

Malak Fouad: And so his insights were even more pertinent and important. And that was pure serendipity. And so now

Chirag Desai: We are in the foothills of designing a new system.

Chirag Desai: And it's very uncomfortable when we're going through these formative years because

Chirag Desai: it's not what we're used to.

Chirag Desai: And I don't know how it's going to settle down. I suspect it settles down into

Chirag Desai: another bipolar world. Yeah. And I kind of also wanted to connect that to something

Chirag Desai: else, right, which is sort of this, you know, the show has always been regional oriented, right?

Malak Fouad: Absolutely. So the MENA region was a very conscious choice for me when I created the podcast.

Malak Fouad: It wasn't Egypt focused. It wasn't coming from one particular place.

Malak Fouad: But I really wanted to look at the region as a whole.

Malak Fouad: You know, I think we've had such a bad rap over the last decades from a more

Malak Fouad: further or a field, specifically after 9/11.

Malak Fouad: I mean, the entire perception of the region was very warped by that.

Malak Fouad: And I think, you know, we need to be reclaiming our stories.

Malak Fouad: We need to be reclaiming our narratives.

Malak Fouad: We are so past the colonial era, but we're still very much influenced by that

Malak Fouad: and feeling the effects of that.

Malak Fouad: And I think enough is enough. I think it's time that we stand up,

Malak Fouad: we create our own stories, we tell our own stories.

Malak Fouad: We are unbelievably educated people across the region, speaking languages in

Malak Fouad: so many different industries.

Malak Fouad: And it's time that we celebrate that. It's time that we highlight that.

Malak Fouad: And that was a really conscious element of my show.

Malak Fouad: I wanted to cheer that on. I wanted to put a spotlight on that.

Chirag Desai: This is something that also, you know, constantly comes up on the show as well.

Chirag Desai: And we came up as recently as last month's episode with Dina, right? Dina H. Sherif.

Malak Fouad: There's a lot to say for...

Malak Fouad: I think people being fed up with histories being written for them from a Western lens.

Malak Fouad: So as someone who was, you know, born in the West and was very much influenced

Malak Fouad: by Western thought and philosophy and so on,

Malak Fouad: the Gaza war for me was a real turning point, as it was for a lot of my friends.

Malak Fouad: And I was lucky enough to get on the show last summer, Omar El Akkad,

Malak Fouad: who, as some of you might know, wrote this unbelievable book called One Day

Malak Fouad: Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.

Malak Fouad: And he is really lambasting Western democracies for the hypocrisy and the two-faced

Malak Fouad: approach to the Middle East.

Malak Fouad: And although on an intellectual level, I had known that for decades, somehow emotionally

Malak Fouad: his work really really touched me and

Malak Fouad: the horrors that we were seeing in front of us on a daily basis just reinforced that

Malak Fouad: and, you know, it kind of underpinned even more

Malak Fouad: Why I'm doing this show. And at the beginning, when we started,

Malak Fouad: and we've talked about this many times, it's

Malak Fouad: not the origin story of the show.

Malak Fouad: You know, it wasn't, that wasn't the focus, but it's really become its own calling

Malak Fouad: card. And it's something I'm unbelievably proud of.

Malak Fouad: And it's attributable to the magic of MENA,

Malak Fouad: the magic of the region where we have all these stories, we have all these cultures,

Malak Fouad: these nationalities, these languages, we're all the same, but we're all different.

Malak Fouad: We're all having similar experiences, but we're all having different experiences.

Malak Fouad: And if I can just shed a small light on that through the guests we bring on, then all the better.

Chirag Desai: There's also just, in terms of just ourselves, right, we're always,

Chirag Desai: you know, we also need that sort of sense of inspiration, maybe that sense of

Chirag Desai: positivity that, look, there's so much happening here from the small to the big, right?

Chirag Desai: It's not only sort of A headline and B headline, or there's so many things that happen.

Chirag Desai: I mean, you know, through the show, we've met, heard from incredible guests

Chirag Desai: who are impacting their own little circles, right? Even if it's not entire countries and the region.

Chirag Desai: And I think that that's incredibly powerful.

Malak Fouad: Absolutely. And I think of our region, you know, as a mosaic,

Malak Fouad: we are a multitude of different things.

Malak Fouad: And I think we need to start looking at that as a positive. You know,

Malak Fouad: we've been told for decades, it's a negative, it's a negative.

Malak Fouad: Your region is nothing but problems. You're the source of so many global issues.

Malak Fouad: But I think we need to start flipping that round and looking at ourselves in the positive.

Malak Fouad: And the stories on What I Did Next attest to that.

Malak Fouad: People have surmounted a lot of challenges. And of course, the show brings that

Malak Fouad: to the fore. We talk a lot about failure.

Malak Fouad: We talk a lot about pivot points that are not on paper a positive,

Malak Fouad: but somehow they do yield in the end a positive result for the person.

Malak Fouad: And people learn from so much in their own lives.

Malak Fouad: And so I found that something that we had from the very beginning of the show,

Malak Fouad: it continues to be the bedrock of the theme.

Malak Fouad: And I think it's very valuable.

Chirag Desai: A link to this also, I mean, let's talk a little bit about language,

Chirag Desai: right? So I know this is a question that we get asked a lot.

Chirag Desai: I know this is something we spoke about actually way back in 2020 where we were

Chirag Desai: kind of just mapping things up.

Malak Fouad: Yeah. So for me, What I Did Next when we started thinking about how this show

Malak Fouad: would be, for me, it was a no-brainer that it would be in English.

Malak Fouad: English is my first language. I'm trilingual.

Malak Fouad: I'm fluent in English, fluent in French. But Arabic is my third language.

Malak Fouad: And unfortunately, it's my weakest link.

Malak Fouad: So I wasn't confident enough to do a show in Arabic. And that's very much the

Malak Fouad: reason why it's an English first show.

Malak Fouad: Of course, the show is subtitled, which we craft and add on to YouTube, for example.

Chirag Desai: Also our social media clips, right? So anything that we share from the episode

Chirag Desai: comes in both languages. I mean, it's subtitled in both languages.

Malak Fouad: So the other thing I'm very conscious of and was very conscious of when we were

Malak Fouad: formulating the show was that English as a language opens doors for the MENA

Malak Fouad: region on a global level.

Malak Fouad: And the intention was always to have a global spotlight on the show in

Malak Fouad: order to highlight the stories from the region. The other important fact

Malak Fouad: that I think subconsciously I probably thought about and then got reinforced when we were able to

Malak Fouad: look back on some of our numbers, our demographics, was that there is an absolutely

Malak Fouad: massive Arab diaspora around the world.

Malak Fouad: There is a huge Arab population in North America, whether it's the U.S.

Malak Fouad: or Canada, in Europe, as well as in Australia and elsewhere.

Malak Fouad: And a lot of this diaspora are second, third generation Arabs.

Malak Fouad: So having a show from the region that can be a link to their countries of origin,

Malak Fouad: their region of origin, highlighting positive stories is a really big benefit.

Malak Fouad: And we've received messages from people around the world saying how much they

Malak Fouad: love that and how much they feel connected to the region because of the show.

Malak Fouad: So that's an important element as well. And so English, of course, is a benefit for that.

Chirag Desai: I would also say that like when we talk about diaspora, it's not only necessarily,

Chirag Desai: Arabs who migrated or whatever, but it's just people who grew up here,

Chirag Desai: grew up in the region, may have moved out.

Chirag Desai: I mean, as in I'm not Arab, for example, and I have come back.

Chirag Desai: But a lot of my friends, a lot of obviously people that, you know,

Chirag Desai: called Dubai their home when they grew up or Saudi, as you mentioned,

Chirag Desai: and then have gone on to live in other parts of the world.

Chirag Desai: Right. So I think there is also that sort of tier of people that when we talk

Chirag Desai: about sort of this global perspective of people who have interest in the region

Chirag Desai: for many reasons, who want to hear from the people that are building in the

Chirag Desai: region, living in the region, etc.

Chirag Desai: And I think it kind of caters to all of that.

Malak Fouad: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And it reflects in so many people we've spoken

Malak Fouad: to on the show who are, you know, I think of someone like Fares Akkad,

Malak Fouad: who is the head of Meta in the Middle East.

Malak Fouad: He's of Syrian origin, living in Dubai. He's just one of many people I can think of.

Malak Fouad: Thuraya, who was on our show this year, also of Syrian origin,

Malak Fouad: living in Lebanon, but grew up in Riyadh. So like, and myself,

Malak Fouad: Egyptian, grew up in Saudi, moved out of the region completely at one point, and now I'm back.

Malak Fouad: So, you know, like our stories, there are millions and millions.

Malak Fouad: And that mix of nationality, that mix of culture is what makes our region so

Malak Fouad: strong and so unique. And we're truly a melting pot.

Malak Fouad: And it's our biggest strength, I think. Absolutely.

Chirag Desai: All right. Well, so, I mean, as always, I mean, as is the tradition of the show,

Chirag Desai: we've got to do a bit of a lightning round before we leave. Let's start with,

Chirag Desai: like a little bit of a fun one is what fictional character do you most relate to?

Malak Fouad: So it's a lovely question And it's a question that I think Like with a lot of

Malak Fouad: the lightning round questions You have to think of the first one that comes

Malak Fouad: to mind Yes So one of the books I absolutely loved reading when I was a child Was Little Women

Malak Fouad: by Mary Louise Alcott. And the

Malak Fouad: fictional character from that book that I absolutely adored is Jo March.

Malak Fouad: And Jo March is the eldest daughter. And I love her because she's absolutely

Malak Fouad: doing things her own way.

Malak Fouad: She doesn't follow the crowd. This

Malak Fouad: was a time, of course, when women were expected to be in the home doing,

Malak Fouad: you know, home-related activities, not at all going out into the workplace and

Malak Fouad: get married and have children and obey your elders and all of this kind of thing.

Malak Fouad: And from a very early age, because it was in the civil war, because it was set

Malak Fouad: in the civil war, a lot of traditions had to be put aside.

Malak Fouad: And so women had to go out to work and so on. But I love her because she is

Malak Fouad: completely authentic. She is completely

Malak Fouad: following her own dream, her own path. She doesn't care who she offends.

Malak Fouad: She just goes out and does her thing. And she carves out a life for herself

Malak Fouad: that is exactly the life she wants. She becomes a writer in the book.

Malak Fouad: She lives alone for a lot of the time away from her family.

Malak Fouad: And eventually she does fall in love and she falls in love with someone completely

Malak Fouad: different to anyone that is within the pages of the book

Malak Fouad: and just love her uh her fearlessness and her ability to just go out and do

Malak Fouad: what she wants um and she just comes across as such a real character because she's very flawed um

Malak Fouad: she is uh tempestuous she's moody, she's just such a real person i mean

Malak Fouad: I just found her really captivating and she's one of my favorite fictional characters.

Chirag Desai: What matters much less than you thought it would?

Malak Fouad: I wrote a lot of these new lightning round questions in light of the fact that

Malak Fouad: I'm now firmly middle-aged, which is something I'm embracing and I'm not ignoring.

Malak Fouad: What matters much less to me now is really people's opinions and what people

Malak Fouad: think. And I'm much more concerned with what makes me happy,

Malak Fouad: what makes me peaceful and calm.

Malak Fouad: I'm much more likely to turn something down than accept it because I'm obliged to.

Chirag Desai: So in contrast, like what matters much more than you thought it would?

Malak Fouad: I think what matters much more to me, and this is something I've discussed so

Malak Fouad: many times with my close girlfriends, is my close girlfriends.

Malak Fouad: So people that I can really hang out with, be myself with, we're all,

Malak Fouad: you know, I can speak about maybe a handful of girls.

Malak Fouad: And they are girls. I don't know why they're girls, but they are girls who,

Malak Fouad: for me, I relate to completely. You know, as an only child,

Malak Fouad: my friends are really important to me.

Malak Fouad: And we're all going through the same phase of life.

Malak Fouad: And we're all relating to the same things. We're all finding the same things annoying.

Malak Fouad: But we're also finding the same things attractive and wanting to be

Malak Fouad: more peaceful, wanting to have more experiences that are fulfilling and not

Malak Fouad: be, you know, the concept of FOMO is completely foreign to us now. Let me put it that way.

Chirag Desai: What is it that calms you down?

Malak Fouad: Sports, especially swimming. For me, swimming is a real escape.

Malak Fouad: It's like a, it feels like a meditation because you're completely cocooned into another environment.

Malak Fouad: And I think the The repetitiveness of swimming allows the mind to just calm

Malak Fouad: down and wander on its own. The other thing that calms me is my dog.

Malak Fouad: So as some of you know, I used to have two dogs.

Malak Fouad: One passed away earlier this year, and it was a really big trauma for us as a family.

Malak Fouad: And it's allowed me in a way to discover my second dog, who's much younger and

Malak Fouad: was kind of hidden away or hidden behind the older dog.

Malak Fouad: But he's now coming into his own in the home and he's absolutely adorable and

Malak Fouad: he's just really cute to have around so he calms me down as well

Chirag Desai: We have a nice memory of of your older dog on one of our episodes which is great,

Chirag Desai: yeah. And then finally what's what's next for.

Malak Fouad: you? So what's next for me is something quite personal so in September my husband

Malak Fouad: and I are taking our youngest son to

Malak Fouad: He's going to be on the other side of the world. He's going to be in California for his first year.

Malak Fouad: And I'm actually having a really hard time coming to grips with that.

Malak Fouad: First, you are going to be empty nesters, which is a really a big turning point,

Malak Fouad: I think, in many families.

Malak Fouad: And just, you know, his character is just so joyful. He's filled the house with

Malak Fouad: so much laughter and his friends.

Malak Fouad: And I'm just concerned about the, you know, what's coming next for me personally

Malak Fouad: on that front. And I didn't expect for it to be this hard. When my eldest son

Malak Fouad: went to college, it was cushioned by the fact that we still had a child at home.

Chirag Desai: You weren't going all emptiness suddenly, right? Exactly. You were just missing him, yeah.

Malak Fouad: So there's been a big change. And then plus with the, you know,

Malak Fouad: our dog passing away earlier this year, it feels like the end of an era a little

Malak Fouad: bit. And so it's a mental adjustment.

Malak Fouad: And I thank God for the show because it's keeping me really busy.

Chirag Desai: All right. Well, I mean, that's that for this catch up. I mean,

Chirag Desai: I've always, you know, we always want to say a big thank you to you who are

Chirag Desai: listening to us at the moment or watching us now since,

Chirag Desai: you know, we're on video everywhere to, you know, for coming along with the

Chirag Desai: ride, for listening in, for commenting, for sending us feedback and just for being part of the show.

Malak Fouad: I also want to say a big thank you to our sponsors, EFG Holding and to Azza

Malak Fouad: Fahmy, who have joined us this year.

Malak Fouad: Thank you so much for supporting the show and believing in the show.

Malak Fouad: We have an amazing lineup coming your way, a mix of all the industries as usual

Malak Fouad: and really great stories. So stay tuned for that.