Five podcasts to listen to while under lockdown
From combating Ebola in the DRC to a family suing Khalifa Haftar in the US – things to listen to in lockdown.
From the banning of mahraganat music in Egypt to a family suing Libya’s renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar in American courts to an investigation into the corrupt trade of diplomatic passports, here are five podcast episodes to listen to while under lockdown.
1) How one song got Egypt’s hottest music genre banned
Egypt’s low-tech, high-energy mahraganat music blasted out of the shantytowns to top the global charts on Soundcloud and rack up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. But one slip-up at a massive concert in Cairo threw the entire genre’s future into question.
Listen to the story here.
2) An American strongman, a Libyan colonel and a suburban family
Two teenage girls in the United States received a phone call that they never hoped to hear. Their favourite uncle had been killed in Libya, where their family lives. More than 150,000 have been forced to flee their homes in Libya since Khalifa Haftar started his offensive in Tripoli. We hear from the family in Virginia using the American court system to sue General Haftar.
Listen to their story here.
3) An outbreak nearing its end
As coronavirus cases are on the rise, we turned our attention to a different outbreak – one that is winding down. Doctors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have discharged the last Ebola patient, and if there are no new cases, this will signal an end to the deadly epidemic that began in August 2018.
Learn how the DRC and its community leaders are bringing Ebola to an end, here.
4) How a multinational company scarred a small Brazilian mining town
In the small town of Brumadinho in southern Brazil, residents are complaining of skin diseases, depression and odd illnesses they had never seen before. It all started just over a year ago after the local dam collapsed, spreading toxic mud and destroying everything in its path.
Listen to the story here.
5) Diplomats for Sale
Ever wanted a second citizenship? You can buy that – and it is totally legal. But unsurprisingly, the market for passports is rife with corruption. Al Jazeera’s investigative team dug into the practice, and discovered more than they had bargained for.
Dive into the first of this four-part series from our new podcast featuring the network’s biggest and most explosive investigations here.