This episode is all about how Haitian French Chilean Singer-songwriter-performer, AYIITI, tackles issues such as having different audiences, belonging to different cultures as well as musical evolution that is in tune to all the facets of her and her audience's identity. In this episode we do a deep-dive on the creative process of an international performer, how creative pivots are made (while staying authentic), how social media can affect one's career and how one can cater to his/her evolving audience.
Follow AYIITI on Instagram, AYIITI Music on YouTube and pretty much on all other social media platforms as AYIITI!
AYIITI's song: Más by AYIITI (coming out soon!) & check her out on Spotify here!
This episode is with PhD candidate, Intimacy and Sex Expert (and High-School friend), Tugce Balik. She talks to me about all things intimacy, pleasure, self love (and how those things look different to everybody), chemistry vs. compatibility, erotic communication and more. Listen to how Tugce tackles the taboos surrounding sexuality, how she normalizes them, and how she's on a mission to help people to feel their best.
Tugce's song: Boo Thang (feat. Devin Morrison) by VanJess
Follow her on IG @TugceBalik
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Listen to my chat with New Zealand's very own singer songwriter, Alayna. We discuss songwriting, how it works, the artist- songwriter dynamic, the business behind it, and the mechanisms that are in place to write a hit song! She also tells me about how murky the waters get when it comes to music rights and one can draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism/infringement.
Alayna's song: Tender by Alayna
Note: I’ll be Seeing You is my fav!
Follow her on Instagram @alaynamusic_ and check out her music on your fav streaming platform here!
Follow @smartbutdumbpod on Instagram for all podcast updates and hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform!
Today's episode is all about how shopping small and shopping locally can help preserve tradition and heritage around a common love we all share: food! To help break down this phenomena is Entrepreneur, Consultant, Engineer and Co-Founder of a specialized "mouneh" épicerie fine, Feryal, in Beirut (Lebanon), Kamel Taha. We discuss the importance of reviving food traceability in Lebanon and in the region, how an extensive excel file and detailed Google Maps got him to opening the boutique of his foodie dreams, how preserving local heritage through food works, and how his business model generates value for both local food producers and keen food loving consumers alike.
Order your mouneh from Feryal's website (they have worldwide shipping!) : www.feryalboutique.com
Follow @feryal.boutique & Kamel on his personal IG @ktaha
Kamel's song: No Man No Cry by Jimmy Sax
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Smart But Dumb is back! Kicking off season 2 with my friend, Dahlia Dandashi! Dahlia is a Lebanese/Syrian-American creative content producer who was born in Houston, Texas but grew up in Dubai, UAE. Though she began her career as a writer and editor, she transitioned to freelance content production focusing on photography, creative direction, copywriting and social media management. She now works full-time as a social content producer at a creative/media agency in New York City. Her nostalgia for the 90’s is both evident from her Instagram profile as well as her music taste that you’ll get to discover in this episode as we discuss all things content creation. Hear all about why "content is king" and what the content creation process actually looks like. And to add more to her portfolio, Dahlia's personal poetry, photography and projects also often explore themes of identity, womanhood and the Arab culture.
Find her (and feel free to DM her your q's) on Instagram @dahliadandashi & check out her website!
Dahlia's song of choice: "That's What You Get" by Paramore
Some of Dahlia's fav bands: All Time Low, My Chemical Romance, Busted, Taking Back Sunday
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I chat with a high school friend now illustrator, Adem Kaan, who breaks down the business and BTS of illustrating. He tells me all about what his job actually entails, how he gets it done, famous illustrators that I should know about and how social media can help an illustrator's career.
Adem's industry references & inspirations:
Shepherd Ferry
Marjane Satrapi
Christian Patchell @monster_comics
Adem's song: It Might be Time by Tame Impala
Find @ademkaanillustration on Instagram & check out his website theakstudio.com to see more of his amazing work!
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Part II of my conversation with hospitality professional, Karim Agha, where we talk about how restaurants can play a huge role in returning-citizen employment in the United States. He tells me about the staggering unemployment in the returning citizens' community, recidivism, and how COVID 19 is making the unemployment process even more disadvantageous to these communities. Listen to Karim's insights to see how a welcoming industry should surpass reluctance to hire to embrace a largely segregated segment of society.
Karim's tips & resources:
Tips: check out the recidivism stats in your community and see what you can do to help!
DC area: DC Central Kitchen , Urban Institute , Council for Court Excellence
Some restaurant businesses that promote this hiring practice: Edwin's in Cleveland, Cala in San Francisco
Ben & Jerry’s partnership with Greyston
Karim's song: Wishing Well by Terence Trent D'Arby
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In Part I of my chat with Karim Agha, we talk restaurants in a COVID/post-COVID world. Karim is a hospitality professional with highly diverse experience leading or overseeing multinational projects involving restaurant openings, operations management, training & development, and systems optimization and is committed to continuously examining and facilitating the intersection of food service innovation, technology and social empowerment. In this conversation, Karim breaks down how slim the margins for survival are in the restaurant industry are, how COVID make a weak system a lot weaker, what pivots are going to have to be made and the trends that coming along with them.
Stay tuned for Part II of my chat with Karim on Friday June 26th, 2020 episode.
Make sure to follow all podcast updates on Instagram @smartbutdumbpod!
Nicolas Sabet, Associate Attorney at K&L Gates in Washington D.C., where he is a member of the Sports Law and Corporate/M&A practice group, breaks down a world very much unknown to me: the world of esports. He tells me about the sudden growth of this branch of the video gaming industry and how companies are identifying interesting marketing plays to viewership of all ages. Listen to his episode to see how this attorney leaned into his passion and is deep into the business, tells me about the biggest games, titles, what all of the different roles in the biz are, and how some of these games are addressing the social climate in the United States right now.
Nicolas' artists: Frank Sinatra & A Boogie Wit da Hoodie
Find Nicolas Sabet on LinkedIn
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I chat with Licensed Associated Real Estate Broker at Compass and Harvard grad, Ravi Manglani, who tells me all about how COVID impacted one of the world's biggest and hottest real estate markets: New York City. We talk about how the recoveries will differ for the residential and commercial markets and what tech niche is now looking to be filled in the real estate industry as well his top tips for renters, buyers and sellers looking to navigate real estate in New York City right now.
Ravi's mentioned tech company for 3D tech: Matterport
Ravi's song: Celebration by Maffio, Farruko & Akon
Find Ravi on Instagram for insightful and hilarious content @rmanglani
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CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE! In this episode I learn all about making arguably one of the most loved food items, with an engineer and management consultant turned chocolatier: Noor! She is NO Chocolate's Founder but also chocolatier, packer, shipper, marketing, social media, sales, ops, and everything in between! Noor tells me about how she uses her career shift to her creative and business advantage, and how she sole handedly built a brand around making chocolate that is healthy, decadent, and most importantly: happy! (in the notoriously competitive F&B space).
Find NO Chocolate on Instagram @_no_chocolate
Shop NO Chocolate on www.no-chocolate.com/shop & on shop.miramikati.com
Noor's NO Chocolate Spotify Playlist
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This episode is all about how airline travel, one of the first industries to be hit the fastest since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Professional airline pilot (and another super international guest), Cailean, shares his insights as to how he thinks people (and whom) will go about airline travel, how his job as a pilot will shift, how airlines will handle safety, cleanliness, country limitations and profitability during this strange time.
Find Cailean on Instagram @avcstiles
Cailean's song: If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know) by The 1975
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This episode is all about sex ed for adults, i.e. what we really need to know, no middle school stuff here. I chat with Sara, Georgetown University International Politics & Premed and American University of Beirut med school grad, with research stints in Switzerland and in the U.S., who is now currently in her second year at Baylor College of Medicine in Obstetrics & Gynecology. We talk emergency contraception, long-acting reversible contraceptions (larcs), what to do if you want to get pregnant, STD's, PCOS, and why it's so important to be safe, get tested and understand our anatomies!
Sara's Tips
-Chicas: Go see your gyno!
-Check the CDC's website for more info on Sexual Health, Reproductive Health, Pregnancy, Cancers & more
-Submit any q's you have for her on @smartbutdumbpod on IG!
Sara's song: death bed (coffee for your head) feat beabadoobee by Powfu
Follow @smartbutdumbpod on Instagram for all podcast updates!
In this episode, I chat with my childhood friend and my real life Dr. Ross Geller , Columbia University and University of Cambridge PHD grad, Dr. Karim Mukaddem about solar energy. He tells me about what our current energy consumption looks like and its sometimes problematic implications- and breaks down solar energy: where it’s at, where it’s headed, why it's valuable and most importantly: how it works! Karim emphasizes the importance of us doing more individual scientific research to understand the real data behind media headlines and tells me that he discovered his must-know song (hint: think Eurovision song contest) on TikTok!
Karim's Resources:
Annual energy usage and breakdown by source
Energy consumption breakdown by type of consumer
Potential of solar energy and harvestability
Karim's published research on Google Scholar
Karim's song: Think About Things by Daōi Freyr (Iceland's 2020 Eurovision song)
Laura Ayoub, also referred to as "Loly" or "Loly Pole" reminds me of what JLO famously said: life’s a party make it hot! Laura left a 10+year career in the hospitality industry after falling in love with pole dancing on a bachelorette trip in the south of France. Listen to how she has since not only taken up the sport but has become a pole ambassador not only in Lebanon where she is based, but throughout the MENA region. She tells me about how pole is a discipline that is not only extremely addictive, but how it has this great than power to connect you to your sensuality-and empowers you to be your most confident and badass self! And if this PSA is even necessary: Pole dancing ≠ stripping!
Find @lolypole and her dance academy @polefitlebanon on IG
Laura's song: Strange Birds by Birdy
Today, Jai Shah, NYU Stern grad & co-founder at Nu Hotels based in Dubai, an owner-operator hotel company with projects in East and West Africa, talks to me about what he thinks the world of hotels will look like as travel is slowly but surely starting back up again. He tells me about what hotels have to their advantage over home rentals, and how customers (at least for the near future) will interact with both accommodation options. Also how we'll be taking proximity and cleanliness more seriously than ever before!
Jai's song: Roses - Imanbek Remix by SAINt JHN & Imanbek
This episode tackles two of my favorite topics: pop culture & NBC's "The Office". To help me break down why the American remake of the British cringe-worthy comedy TV show is so good and is key to American pop culture as we know it, is my friend, Pierre. He tackles the different aspects of the show that are not easy to replicate and are just so goddamn comforting! See how a show about a paper branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania, is in fact not just about an office and was able to tap into America's societal problems through a (very!) comedic lens, and how season after season (long after its end in 2013), was the most watched show on Netflix in 2019 and why people are still nostalgically rushing towards it! In Pierre's words, just watch the show in order to "not be lame".
