Lebanon, lend us your ears

ENAR

The exciting world of audio storytelling remains relatively unexplored in the Middle East today, despite the region’s reputation for masterful storytellers. While podcasting as a medium is rapidly growing in the US and Europe, many radio stations in Lebanon and across the Arab world have yet to join this trend and produce innovative content. Two problems exist: Firstly, there is a dearth of high-quality podcasts produced in Lebanon, and secondly, for those that do exist, it is hard for the podcast and the audience to find each other. Reaching a critical mass is incredibly difficult. The podcasting industry as we know it began in the mid-2000s, but it was not until Serial—a US long-form investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig—struck gold in 2015 that podcasts became prominent in the media landscape. In 2017, the US podcast market was valued at around $313.9 million, a rise of 86 percent from