WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:04.540 I think of our region, you know, as a mosaic. We are a multitude of different things. 00:00:05.020 --> 00:00:09.140 And I think we need to start looking at that as a positive. I wrote a lot of 00:00:09.140 --> 00:00:12.700 these new lightning round questions in light of the fact that I'm now firmly 00:00:12.700 --> 00:00:18.170 middle-aged, which is something I'm embracing and I'm not ignoring. 00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:24.890 Hi, Malak. Welcome to our 2026. Well, the first catch-up of 2026, 00:00:24.890 --> 00:00:28.320 basically. I don't know if there are enough words to describe how this year 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:29.220 has gone really quite... 00:00:29.220 --> 00:00:34.180 Well, especially that you're sitting in Dubai and you've gone through a lot of changes. 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:38.910 We want to take this opportunity as well to catch up on what's going on since 00:00:38.910 --> 00:00:43.270 the start of the year for the show. Do you have any special highlights from the start of the year? 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:48.860 I think what for me was a real joy was, as usual, the breadth of our guests. 00:00:48.860 --> 00:00:52.750 I mean, the variety of conversations that I was able to have this year, 00:00:52.750 --> 00:00:54.600 the depth of the conversation. 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:59.180 If I just do a quick roundup, we had the icon that is Abdel Wahed El Wakil, 00:00:59.180 --> 00:01:04.230 who is just such a star and such an important figure in our region, 00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:12.160 reclaiming identity, reclaiming our heritage from the point of view of architecture. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.140 And I have a personal connection to him because he's a family friend and I was 00:01:17.140 --> 00:01:19.530 really so happy to get his story. 00:01:19.530 --> 00:01:24.390 It was just really fun to listen to, by the way. Just listening to your grandfather 00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:28.200 just telling you stories about his childhood and his adulthood. 00:01:28.610 --> 00:01:31.710 I think that resonated really well. 00:01:31.710 --> 00:01:36.560 And his body of work speaks for itself. I mean, he's a recognizable name across the region. 00:01:37.010 --> 00:01:40.980 So I was really, really happy to do that. And to do it in his hometown, 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:45.080 he lives in Doha. So I recorded that with him last December. 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:49.130 You know, linked to that also was sort of almost this what I did next going 00:01:49.130 --> 00:01:53.250 international theme that happened, right? So you have filmed outside of Egypt 00:01:53.250 --> 00:01:54.690 before. We filmed in Dubai. 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:58.820 But this time you also filmed in Doha, which you just mentioned with Abdel Wahed. 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:01.210 But you also filmed in London. And so we had Nabila [Abdel Nabi], 00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:05.560 who incidentally was our first video episode on Apple Podcasts. 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:08.850 So that was also fun. I mean, one of the new launches this year, 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:11.240 Apple adding video as a thing. 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:16.430 And then we've got another one coming out next month that was also filmed in London. 00:02:16.430 --> 00:02:20.510 There's another one coming up in September that I'm going to be filming in San 00:02:20.510 --> 00:02:23.780 Francisco in person as well. So that's very exciting. 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:27.670 So yeah, I mean, the show is...like 00:02:27.670 --> 00:02:31.970 a lot of businesses around the world now, there's no geographical frame 00:02:31.970 --> 00:02:36.140 for anything anymore. You can either be doing things online or in person anywhere. 00:02:36.140 --> 00:02:39.120 Yeah, and I think we've always said, right, that there's sort of as much as 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:42.690 we will obviously still do, and we are currently doing a conversation that's remote. 00:02:43.620 --> 00:02:46.410 Those in-person conversations just tend to be a little bit more meaty. 00:02:46.410 --> 00:02:49.350 There's more, you know, there's just room for more chemistry, 00:02:49.350 --> 00:02:52.820 both before and after and all of that. And so this was a nice opportunity for 00:02:52.820 --> 00:02:54.900 you to do it with them in person. 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:58.080 I think it was just like a lot of the other things that happen in life. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:02.460 It was just good timing. It was luck. And it just came together nicely. 00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:08.690 I'm not sure I'll be able to do interviews in, you know, in Australia or in 00:03:08.690 --> 00:03:10.600 more of, you know, further afield. 00:03:10.730 --> 00:03:15.450 But these just came together nicely. And then a big revelation for me was Thuraya 00:03:15.450 --> 00:03:20.050 Ismail, who I just really adored speaking to. 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:27.520 She really is such a great rep representative for our region and she's really 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:34.240 personifies what's amazing about women from the region who are multicultural and who 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:40.750 are giving back and I was very impressed by her and very inspired by her. And 00:03:40.750 --> 00:03:44.880 then you know there are so many all the other guests were amazing but I will 00:03:44.880 --> 00:03:46.440 highlight one more person 00:03:47.390 --> 00:03:51.820 and it's more about the way the interview came about, which is Tim Marshall. 00:03:51.820 --> 00:03:57.240 I've been chasing him for about two years on email to try and get him on the show. 00:03:57.580 --> 00:04:04.100 And finally, he accepted. And I actually met him end of last year at a talk 00:04:04.100 --> 00:04:11.380 he was giving in London. His episode came out in April. It was right in the middle of the Iran war. 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:19.410 And so his insights were even more pertinent and important. And that was pure serendipity. And so now 00:04:19.410 --> 00:04:24.340 We are in the foothills of designing a new system. 00:04:24.490 --> 00:04:29.450 And it's very uncomfortable when we're going through these formative years because 00:04:29.450 --> 00:04:30.520 it's not what we're used to. 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:34.980 And I don't know how it's going to settle down. I suspect it settles down into 00:04:34.980 --> 00:04:39.030 another bipolar world. Yeah. And I kind of also wanted to connect that to something 00:04:39.030 --> 00:04:45.380 else, right, which is sort of this, you know, the show has always been regional oriented, right? 00:04:45.380 --> 00:04:51.370 Absolutely. So the MENA region was a very conscious choice for me when I created the podcast. 00:04:51.370 --> 00:04:57.520 It wasn't Egypt focused. It wasn't coming from one particular place. 00:04:57.520 --> 00:05:00.780 But I really wanted to look at the region as a whole. 00:05:00.780 --> 00:05:06.510 You know, I think we've had such a bad rap over the last decades from a more 00:05:06.830 --> 00:05:10.370 further or a field, specifically after 9/11. 00:05:10.370 --> 00:05:15.960 I mean, the entire perception of the region was very warped by that. 00:05:17.330 --> 00:05:22.340 And I think, you know, we need to be reclaiming our stories. 00:05:22.340 --> 00:05:24.280 We need to be reclaiming our narratives. 00:05:25.890 --> 00:05:33.010 We are so past the colonial era, but we're still very much influenced by that 00:05:33.010 --> 00:05:34.740 and feeling the effects of that. 00:05:35.260 --> 00:05:38.820 And I think enough is enough. I think it's time that we stand up, 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:44.030 we create our own stories, we tell our own stories. 00:05:45.170 --> 00:05:52.050 We are unbelievably educated people across the region, speaking languages in 00:05:52.490 --> 00:05:53.900 so many different industries. 00:05:54.330 --> 00:05:58.580 And it's time that we celebrate that. It's time that we highlight that. 00:05:59.050 --> 00:06:01.790 And that was a really conscious element of my show. 00:06:02.550 --> 00:06:07.580 I wanted to cheer that on. I wanted to put a spotlight on that. 00:06:07.580 --> 00:06:11.240 This is something that also, you know, constantly comes up on the show as well. 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:15.520 And we came up as recently as last month's episode with Dina, right? Dina H. Sherif. 00:06:15.530 --> 00:06:17.810 There's a lot to say for... 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:26.680 I think people being fed up with histories being written for them from a Western lens. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:32.080 So as someone who was, you know, born in the West and was very much influenced 00:06:32.080 --> 00:06:36.490 by Western thought and philosophy and so on, 00:06:38.280 --> 00:06:42.520 the Gaza war for me was a real turning point, as it was for a lot of my friends. 00:06:42.520 --> 00:06:46.820 And I was lucky enough to get on the show last summer, Omar El Akkad, 00:06:47.450 --> 00:06:52.710 who, as some of you might know, wrote this unbelievable book called One Day 00:06:52.710 --> 00:06:54.860 Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. 00:06:55.590 --> 00:07:04.540 And he is really lambasting Western democracies for the hypocrisy and the two-faced 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:06.000 approach to the Middle East. 00:07:06.760 --> 00:07:13.830 And although on an intellectual level, I had known that for decades, somehow emotionally 00:07:14.450 --> 00:07:17.280 his work really really touched me and 00:07:17.950 --> 00:07:22.310 the horrors that we were seeing in front of us on a daily basis just reinforced that 00:07:23.010 --> 00:07:27.930 and, you know, it kind of underpinned even more 00:07:29.150 --> 00:07:32.370 Why I'm doing this show. And at the beginning, when we started, 00:07:32.370 --> 00:07:36.720 and we've talked about this many times, it's 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:38.590 not the origin story of the show. 00:07:38.590 --> 00:07:42.890 You know, it wasn't, that wasn't the focus, but it's really become its own calling 00:07:42.890 --> 00:07:45.820 card. And it's something I'm unbelievably proud of. 00:07:46.310 --> 00:07:51.250 And it's attributable to the magic of MENA, 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:56.120 the magic of the region where we have all these stories, we have all these cultures, 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:01.060 these nationalities, these languages, we're all the same, but we're all different. 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:05.100 We're all having similar experiences, but we're all having different experiences. 00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:10.500 And if I can just shed a small light on that through the guests we bring on, then all the better. 00:08:10.630 --> 00:08:14.940 There's also just, in terms of just ourselves, right, we're always, 00:08:15.760 --> 00:08:18.980 you know, we also need that sort of sense of inspiration, maybe that sense of 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:23.390 positivity that, look, there's so much happening here from the small to the big, right? 00:08:23.390 --> 00:08:27.460 It's not only sort of A headline and B headline, or there's so many things that happen. 00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:32.130 I mean, you know, through the show, we've met, heard from incredible guests 00:08:32.550 --> 00:08:37.870 who are impacting their own little circles, right? Even if it's not entire countries and the region. 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:40.280 And I think that that's incredibly powerful. 00:08:40.950 --> 00:08:43.950 Absolutely. And I think of our region, you know, as a mosaic, 00:08:43.950 --> 00:08:46.240 we are a multitude of different things. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.710 And I think we need to start looking at that as a positive. You know, 00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:53.960 we've been told for decades, it's a negative, it's a negative. 00:08:54.260 --> 00:08:57.890 Your region is nothing but problems. You're the source of so many global issues. 00:08:58.430 --> 00:09:03.580 But I think we need to start flipping that round and looking at ourselves in the positive. 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:07.470 And the stories on What I Did Next attest to that. 00:09:08.790 --> 00:09:13.700 People have surmounted a lot of challenges. And of course, the show brings that 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:15.720 to the fore. We talk a lot about failure. 00:09:16.400 --> 00:09:19.450 We talk a lot about pivot points that are not on paper a positive, 00:09:19.730 --> 00:09:26.180 but somehow they do yield in the end a positive result for the person. 00:09:27.300 --> 00:09:30.980 And people learn from so much in their own lives. 00:09:31.620 --> 00:09:35.760 And so I found that something that we had from the very beginning of the show, 00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:38.120 it continues to be the bedrock of the theme. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:41.390 And I think it's very valuable. 00:09:41.540 --> 00:09:43.860 A link to this also, I mean, let's talk a little bit about language, 00:09:43.860 --> 00:09:46.640 right? So I know this is a question that we get asked a lot. 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:50.960 I know this is something we spoke about actually way back in 2020 where we were 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.290 kind of just mapping things up. 00:09:52.290 --> 00:09:57.590 Yeah. So for me, What I Did Next when we started thinking about how this show 00:09:57.590 --> 00:10:01.580 would be, for me, it was a no-brainer that it would be in English. 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:04.230 English is my first language. I'm trilingual. 00:10:05.400 --> 00:10:09.670 I'm fluent in English, fluent in French. But Arabic is my third language. 00:10:09.670 --> 00:10:12.510 And unfortunately, it's my weakest link. 00:10:13.020 --> 00:10:17.780 So I wasn't confident enough to do a show in Arabic. And that's very much the 00:10:17.780 --> 00:10:20.630 reason why it's an English first show. 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:30.030 Of course, the show is subtitled, which we craft and add on to YouTube, for example. 00:10:30.030 --> 00:10:33.710 Also our social media clips, right? So anything that we share from the episode 00:10:33.710 --> 00:10:36.860 comes in both languages. I mean, it's subtitled in both languages. 00:10:36.860 --> 00:10:41.450 So the other thing I'm very conscious of and was very conscious of when we were 00:10:41.450 --> 00:10:46.910 formulating the show was that English as a language opens doors for the MENA 00:10:46.910 --> 00:10:48.510 region on a global level. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:56.080 And the intention was always to have a global spotlight on the show in 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:00.200 order to highlight the stories from the region. The other important fact 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:06.590 that I think subconsciously I probably thought about and then got reinforced when we were able to 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.370 look back on some of our numbers, our demographics, was that there is an absolutely 00:11:11.370 --> 00:11:13.820 massive Arab diaspora around the world. 00:11:15.060 --> 00:11:18.920 There is a huge Arab population in North America, whether it's the U.S. 00:11:18.920 --> 00:11:24.100 or Canada, in Europe, as well as in Australia and elsewhere. 00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:28.690 And a lot of this diaspora are second, third generation Arabs. 00:11:28.690 --> 00:11:33.270 So having a show from the region that can be a link to their countries of origin, 00:11:33.270 --> 00:11:39.210 their region of origin, highlighting positive stories is a really big benefit. 00:11:39.210 --> 00:11:44.060 And we've received messages from people around the world saying how much they 00:11:44.060 --> 00:11:48.200 love that and how much they feel connected to the region because of the show. 00:11:48.670 --> 00:11:53.340 So that's an important element as well. And so English, of course, is a benefit for that. 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:58.240 I would also say that like when we talk about diaspora, it's not only necessarily, 00:11:58.780 --> 00:12:01.680 Arabs who migrated or whatever, but it's just people who grew up here, 00:12:01.680 --> 00:12:03.640 grew up in the region, may have moved out. 00:12:03.640 --> 00:12:07.430 I mean, as in I'm not Arab, for example, and I have come back. 00:12:07.430 --> 00:12:11.710 But a lot of my friends, a lot of obviously people that, you know, 00:12:12.060 --> 00:12:16.580 called Dubai their home when they grew up or Saudi, as you mentioned, 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:19.610 and then have gone on to live in other parts of the world. 00:12:19.610 --> 00:12:24.500 Right. So I think there is also that sort of tier of people that when we talk 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:27.240 about sort of this global perspective of people who have interest in the region 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:32.020 for many reasons, who want to hear from the people that are building in the 00:12:32.020 --> 00:12:33.140 region, living in the region, etc. 00:12:34.260 --> 00:12:36.610 And I think it kind of caters to all of that. 00:12:36.830 --> 00:12:41.600 Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And it reflects in so many people we've spoken 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:45.900 to on the show who are, you know, I think of someone like Fares Akkad, 00:12:45.900 --> 00:12:48.140 who is the head of Meta in the Middle East. 00:12:48.670 --> 00:12:54.980 He's of Syrian origin, living in Dubai. He's just one of many people I can think of. 00:12:55.460 --> 00:12:58.960 Thuraya, who was on our show this year, also of Syrian origin, 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:03.000 living in Lebanon, but grew up in Riyadh. So like, and myself, 00:13:03.820 --> 00:13:09.070 Egyptian, grew up in Saudi, moved out of the region completely at one point, and now I'm back. 00:13:09.560 --> 00:13:14.240 So, you know, like our stories, there are millions and millions. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:19.940 And that mix of nationality, that mix of culture is what makes our region so 00:13:19.940 --> 00:13:23.510 strong and so unique. And we're truly a melting pot. 00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:26.370 And it's our biggest strength, I think. Absolutely. 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:29.520 All right. Well, so, I mean, as always, I mean, as is the tradition of the show, 00:13:29.520 --> 00:13:32.660 we've got to do a bit of a lightning round before we leave. Let's start with, 00:13:33.220 --> 00:13:37.100 like a little bit of a fun one is what fictional character do you most relate to? 00:13:37.830 --> 00:13:43.510 So it's a lovely question And it's a question that I think Like with a lot of 00:13:43.510 --> 00:13:47.000 the lightning round questions You have to think of the first one that comes 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:52.800 to mind Yes So one of the books I absolutely loved reading when I was a child Was Little Women 00:13:53.710 --> 00:13:56.380 by Mary Louise Alcott. And the 00:13:56.380 --> 00:14:01.920 fictional character from that book that I absolutely adored is Jo March. 00:14:02.350 --> 00:14:07.210 And Jo March is the eldest daughter. And I love her because she's absolutely 00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:08.600 doing things her own way. 00:14:08.970 --> 00:14:11.400 She doesn't follow the crowd. This 00:14:11.400 --> 00:14:15.610 was a time, of course, when women were expected to be in the home doing, 00:14:16.430 --> 00:14:21.940 you know, home-related activities, not at all going out into the workplace and 00:14:21.940 --> 00:14:26.070 get married and have children and obey your elders and all of this kind of thing. 00:14:26.070 --> 00:14:31.670 And from a very early age, because it was in the civil war, because it was set 00:14:31.670 --> 00:14:34.620 in the civil war, a lot of traditions had to be put aside. 00:14:35.030 --> 00:14:38.950 And so women had to go out to work and so on. But I love her because she is 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.610 completely authentic. She is completely 00:14:44.990 --> 00:14:49.220 following her own dream, her own path. She doesn't care who she offends. 00:14:49.590 --> 00:14:53.990 She just goes out and does her thing. And she carves out a life for herself 00:14:53.990 --> 00:14:57.800 that is exactly the life she wants. She becomes a writer in the book. 00:14:58.270 --> 00:15:01.770 She lives alone for a lot of the time away from her family. 00:15:02.110 --> 00:15:06.580 And eventually she does fall in love and she falls in love with someone completely 00:15:06.580 --> 00:15:10.320 different to anyone that is within the pages of the book 00:15:12.190 --> 00:15:19.110 and just love her uh her fearlessness and her ability to just go out and do 00:15:19.110 --> 00:15:25.960 what she wants um and she just comes across as such a real character because she's very flawed um 00:15:26.730 --> 00:15:34.410 she is uh tempestuous she's moody, she's just such a real person i mean 00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:40.200 I just found her really captivating and she's one of my favorite fictional characters. 00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:42.650 What matters much less than you thought it would? 00:15:42.650 --> 00:15:46.040 I wrote a lot of these new lightning round questions in light of the fact that 00:15:46.040 --> 00:15:52.390 I'm now firmly middle-aged, which is something I'm embracing and I'm not ignoring. 00:15:52.390 --> 00:15:57.010 What matters much less to me now is really people's opinions and what people 00:15:57.010 --> 00:16:02.200 think. And I'm much more concerned with what makes me happy, 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:04.660 what makes me peaceful and calm. 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:09.960 I'm much more likely to turn something down than accept it because I'm obliged to. 00:16:10.140 --> 00:16:13.480 So in contrast, like what matters much more than you thought it would? 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.880 I think what matters much more to me, and this is something I've discussed so 00:16:16.880 --> 00:16:20.490 many times with my close girlfriends, is my close girlfriends. 00:16:21.020 --> 00:16:26.980 So people that I can really hang out with, be myself with, we're all, 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:30.280 you know, I can speak about maybe a handful of girls. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:36.640 And they are girls. I don't know why they're girls, but they are girls who, 00:16:36.640 --> 00:16:41.420 for me, I relate to completely. You know, as an only child, 00:16:41.420 --> 00:16:42.870 my friends are really important to me. 00:16:44.040 --> 00:16:47.320 And we're all going through the same phase of life. 00:16:47.780 --> 00:16:52.590 And we're all relating to the same things. We're all finding the same things annoying. 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:59.410 But we're also finding the same things attractive and wanting to be 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:07.440 more peaceful, wanting to have more experiences that are fulfilling and not 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:12.850 be, you know, the concept of FOMO is completely foreign to us now. Let me put it that way. 00:17:14.260 --> 00:17:15.440 What is it that calms you down? 00:17:15.780 --> 00:17:20.590 Sports, especially swimming. For me, swimming is a real escape. 00:17:21.090 --> 00:17:26.190 It's like a, it feels like a meditation because you're completely cocooned into another environment. 00:17:26.810 --> 00:17:31.630 And I think the The repetitiveness of swimming allows the mind to just calm 00:17:31.630 --> 00:17:36.170 down and wander on its own. The other thing that calms me is my dog. 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:39.000 So as some of you know, I used to have two dogs. 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:45.060 One passed away earlier this year, and it was a really big trauma for us as a family. 00:17:46.380 --> 00:17:52.580 And it's allowed me in a way to discover my second dog, who's much younger and 00:17:52.580 --> 00:17:56.210 was kind of hidden away or hidden behind the older dog. 00:17:57.320 --> 00:18:02.360 But he's now coming into his own in the home and he's absolutely adorable and 00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:05.490 he's just really cute to have around so he calms me down as well 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:09.490 We have a nice memory of of your older dog on one of our episodes which is great, 00:18:10.080 --> 00:18:12.990 yeah. And then finally what's what's next for. 00:18:12.990 --> 00:18:18.790 you? So what's next for me is something quite personal so in September my husband 00:18:18.790 --> 00:18:20.880 and I are taking our youngest son to 00:18:21.570 --> 00:18:26.780 He's going to be on the other side of the world. He's going to be in California for his first year. 00:18:27.350 --> 00:18:30.500 And I'm actually having a really hard time coming to grips with that. 00:18:31.810 --> 00:18:36.760 First, you are going to be empty nesters, which is a really a big turning point, 00:18:36.760 --> 00:18:38.150 I think, in many families. 00:18:38.700 --> 00:18:44.860 And just, you know, his character is just so joyful. He's filled the house with 00:18:44.860 --> 00:18:47.370 so much laughter and his friends. 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:52.270 And I'm just concerned about the, you know, what's coming next for me personally 00:18:52.270 --> 00:18:56.290 on that front. And I didn't expect for it to be this hard. When my eldest son 00:18:56.290 --> 00:19:01.660 went to college, it was cushioned by the fact that we still had a child at home. 00:19:02.140 --> 00:19:05.680 You weren't going all emptiness suddenly, right? Exactly. You were just missing him, yeah. 00:19:06.110 --> 00:19:08.720 So there's been a big change. And then plus with the, you know, 00:19:09.120 --> 00:19:12.540 our dog passing away earlier this year, it feels like the end of an era a little 00:19:12.540 --> 00:19:15.340 bit. And so it's a mental adjustment. 00:19:15.980 --> 00:19:19.020 And I thank God for the show because it's keeping me really busy. 00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:21.810 All right. Well, I mean, that's that for this catch up. I mean, 00:19:21.810 --> 00:19:25.250 I've always, you know, we always want to say a big thank you to you who are 00:19:25.250 --> 00:19:27.640 listening to us at the moment or watching us now since, 00:19:28.220 --> 00:19:32.360 you know, we're on video everywhere to, you know, for coming along with the 00:19:32.360 --> 00:19:38.870 ride, for listening in, for commenting, for sending us feedback and just for being part of the show. 00:19:38.870 --> 00:19:44.070 I also want to say a big thank you to our sponsors, EFG Holding and to Azza 00:19:44.070 --> 00:19:45.890 Fahmy, who have joined us this year. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:49.720 Thank you so much for supporting the show and believing in the show. 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:55.920 We have an amazing lineup coming your way, a mix of all the industries as usual 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:58.580 and really great stories. So stay tuned for that.